The top 10 new shows of the fall (in my humble opinion)

Of all the show's that have premiered this fall, these are the ten that I like the most:

1. Heartland (It's a rural drama set on a horse ranch, taking place in the Canadian prairies with a good cast and good storylines so I love it.)
2. Life (Damian Lewis who plays the lead in this show is phenomenal and so is the character he plays, excellant supporting cast and storylines as well)
3. Cane (I love this show because of the ongoing storylines and family dynamics, it's becoming more and more of an addictive show for me. The complex characters and the cast who play them are awesome.)
4. Waterloo Road (This British drama is pheomenal. It's such high quality with moving storylines and characters. I urge people who get the chance to watch it to do so.)
5. Dirty Sexy Money (A really entertaining show. Donald Sutherland and Peter Krause are awesome in this.)
6. Blood Ties (While it doesn't have a big American budget for expensive sets, I find the characters in this show about a private eye and a 400-year-old vampire intriging. I was surprised how much I liked it because before I watched it I thought it would be cliche but it isn't.)
7. Samantha Who? (It only debuted a couple days ago, but it started off really strongly. Christina Applegate sure proved herself as a talented actress.)
8. Kyle XY (Even though it debuted in the States a couple years ago, it only began airing in Canada this year, and I really like it so far.)
9. Bionic Woman (While I think there are plenty of flaws with this show, I have become a regular watcher)
10. K-Ville (While it started off great, it's fading. I was hoping for more in the way of ongoing storylines but the show is seeming to go in more of a procedural direction.)

Show Review - Heartland

[aired Oct. 14, 2007 on CBC]

Well, this show just went down as my favourite new show of the year. I love almost everything about it. The sibling dynamics, the horses, the drama and the prairies all work to together to make Heartland the best show CBC has had in years.

Not all shows have to be dark and edgy to be good. Nor do they have to have gratuitous violence and sex to be entertaining. I miss good wholesome family dramas. Give me the early 90s with shows like Dr. Quinn and Road to Avonlea any day.

The characters are well-written and the actors who play them are incredibly well-cast. Sure, there were a few awkward scenes, but that's to be expected with a new series (I've watched enough pilot episodes in my time to know that).

Heartland takes place on a ranch at the edge of the prairies, right near the Alberta foothills and revolves around two sisters, Lou (Michelle Morgan) and Amy (Amber Marshall) and their grandpa Jack (Shaun Johnston), after the death of the girls' mother and Jack's daughter. Lou is in her 20s and has lived in the big city for years, but she returns home for her mother's funeral. Amy, only 16, still lives on Heartland and is left badly injured in the same accident that killed her mother. Both girls don't get along at all and Jack is left to act as the peacemaker. Lou eventually decides to stay after realizing the ranch needs her in order to bring it out of debt. Also starring in the show are Nathaniel Arcand, Graham Wardle, Aedan Tomney, Jessica Amlee, Chris Potter, Wanda Cannon and Cindy Busby. This large ensemble cast gives the show plenty of complexly intriguing characters well worth tuning into the show for.

My thoughts on CBC's upcoming season

This fall season, in my humble opinion, looks to be the most promising one for the CBC in over a decade. Last year I got the sense that things were turning around with our pubcaster and this year I'm getting fairly confident in them.

I am happy to see a big influx in original dramatic series for this upcoming season. Apparently, CBC is moving away from its miniseries which I think is a good move. Though I watched a few of them last year (ie. the Rene Levesque one) I think the CBC would do much better to gradually grow an audience over time via a scripted series, rather than a short-term project such as a miniseries.

This fall there have been two Canuck dramas sceduled so far--Heartland and Intelligence--both of which I'm incredibly excited about. Heartland is a rural family drama which takes place on a horse ranch in Alberta. It's actually my top pick (and I'm counting both American and Canadian series) for this season--I'm a sucker for these kind of shows. And Intelligence, a very well-written series, at least when looking back to last year when its first season aired, had one of the best cliffhanger finales last season so I'm eager to see just how the main character, Jimmy Reardon, gets out of the life-threatening situation he ended up in...

On a sadder note, I'm a bit sad to see Jozi H, last year's other drama, cancelled, as I found the characters and storylines intriguing and wanted to see the characters live on. Oh well, there's always those shows I mourn every year for their seemingly-abrupt cancellations...I guess it's something I'll never get used to.

As for sitcoms, Little Mosque On the Prairie, which I intend to watch this year as I enjoyed it last year, will be coming back with 20 new episodes, plus sometime later in the season a new sitcom called Sophie will debute, and that one sounds like it's worth checking out as well.

Sometime in the midseason CBC will roll out a number of new drama series and sitcoms though details are still vague. MVP. Jpod and The Border are three new dramas we will for sure see this season but it's not yet known when. And there are many shows in the works, but so far all I have are the titles to go on which include 314 Broadview, Welcome to Happy Valley, Valhalla, Tumble & Spin, Call, Citizen Nutt, Cowgirls, Clearsky & Chang, CTU, Dark Room, Duty Free, Easton Meets West, Father of the Year, Going Postal, Greed, Left Coast, Obitz, Parking Lot Guy, Pathfinder, Peeple's Choice and Port Hope.

Now let's talk about reality shows set to hit CBC--I'm not a reality show lover so I'll likely only check out the first episodes of No Opportunity Wasted and Triple Sensation. I'll skip Dragon's Den altogether. There's also a show set to air sometime midseason called The Week the Women Went, in which all the women of a small Alberta town leave their husbands and children to fend for themselves a week while they take a holiday elsewhere. It's a show I'm slightly curious about.

Other shows for the fall I'm definitely going to check out are The Rick Mercer Report and Who Do You Think You Are? I've always been a fan of Rick Mercer's rants and raves and this season I'll continue to be one. As for the second show I mentioned, Who Do You Think You Are?, I'm also excitedly anticipating as geneaology is a great hobby of mine and I'm always interested in seeing other people tracing their roots as well--it will be particularily interesting seeing well-known Canadians such as Don Cherry, Shaun Majumder and Mary Walsh trace theirs. I'll also probably tune in occasionally to This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air Farce as well. And let's not forget our nation's official show Hockey Night In Canada--I can't wait to see the Canucks and Oilers in action again!

Oh, and I neglected to mention the British shows set to air on CBC this season. Coronation Street will be back as always (I don't watch it) and new shows called The Tudors (which already aired on Showtime down in the States) and Torchwood, a Dr. Who spinoff. I won't even bother checking out the latter but The Tudors appears to be worth at least one viewing by me. I'm a history buff though not a fan of some of the more "edgy" shows so I may or may not like it when it comes out.

With all the above being said, CBC appears to be gaining ground this year on the other networks and hopefully some of its shows will make it onto the Top 20 in the ratings charts.