Welcome to The Lyons Den..Or…The Empire Strikes Back…Or…Wednesday Night Fall TV Preview

This time last year, the Fall TV season was about to begin.  The only new shows I was interested in was Black-ish.  Most of the returning shows I watched were on my DVR and I’d watch them at my leisure.  Nothing was “event television” for me.  Wednesday was Criminal Minds, Law & Order:SVU and Black-ish nights.  I honestly don’t recall what else I watched on Wednesday.  These shows will once again hold a place on my DVR queue to watch at a later date.

Wednesday tv viewing was like Sunday tv viewing, basically watching old shows unless something better was on, or I felt like watching Cartoon network or VH1 Soul, or hell, just surfing the net to read my fav blog sites or twitter and of course Facebook-ing.  Then on January 7, 2015 with one single entry, Wednesdays became MUST WATCH LIVE tv for me 

All  it took was a cheetah skinned dress, a white fur coat and t-igh-t long ponytail perp walk from jail by one Cookie Lyons (aka Taraji P Henson).  That could have literally been all she wrote, but then the Empire took me and alot of other”Cookie Monsters” on the ride of our lives.  So to be completely honest, there is only one thing I will be looking for on Wednesday, the Lyons have me in their jaws and are not letting go anytime soon.  I won’t get into Empire too much right now, but don’t worry, I’ll be back with some more on them in a separate post just in time for the season 2 premiere Wednesday, September 23th.

So what else is there to watch other than Empire on Wednesday?  Welp, let’s get to it.

Returning Shows

First up, the afore-mentioned Empire on FOX, starring Taraji P Henson, Terrance Howard as Lucious and Cookie Lyon, with Trai Byers, Jussie Smollett, and Bryshere Gray as the Lyons boys.  If you have been under a rock, then you may not know what Empire is, but if you have been living under a rock, then Empire probably isn’t gonna interest you anyway.  Even for an Empire-fanatic like myself, the rush of an episode can be just too much…but shoot, I’m a “Cookie monster”, so I’ll be there every week.  If you can’t understand why, I can’t help ya there, but…Returning to FX at 10pm, American Horror Story, this time dubbed, AHS: Hotel.  I freely admit, I’ve never been into American Horror Story.  I’m not really much of a horror story person.  I mean I watched the “classic” horror stories from my younger days, like Halloween, Nightmare of Elm Street, Friday the 13th, etc, but the newest style of horror showcases are a bit too creepy and gory for me.  So AHS ain’t for me, usually, but then I saw some on set pics of Lady Gaga in costume (here and here)and they were all so beautifully crafted and dramatic, that I admit I’m intrigued, but even with a show that has a star studded cast including, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Michelle Pfeiffer, Wes Bently, Chloe Sevigny, Matt Bomer and others (seriously, you’ve got to check out the cast listed on IMDB here: AHS: Cast Listing), I just don’t do horror…but hey you never know?

Wednesday night also means the return of ABC’s “family block” as I call it, which includes: The Middle, The Goldbergs, Modern Family and Black-ish.  Of the entire 2 hours block, the only one that makes it to my DVR queue is Blackish.  I sincerely love this show.  It’s all at once modern, funny, and sweet, and unlike Modern Family, the young cast members are as funny if NOT funnier than the adult actors in the show (if you don’t love the young actress who plays Dianne, then you are crazy and I’m both shocked and appalled). Now that Jennifer Lewis and Lawrence Fishburne have been added as regular cast members, it can only get funnier from here.  According to what I’ve read so far, the season 2 looks to be as funny and willing to “go there” as season 1 did.  Shows on the n-word, gun control, racial and economic disparity are already on tap.  Blackish unfortunately comes on during the 2nd half hour of Empire, so I rarely watch it or plan to watch it live, but it has earned a spot on my DVR queue.

Other returning shows include: Survivor:Cambodia, The Mysteries of Laura, Nashville, Arrow and Supernatural (the one show I’ve never watched.  But the show has GIFs made from heaven. I swear, I have a folder with just Supernatural GIFs…there is literally one for every occasion).

New Shows

So, you say, what about new shows premiering on Wednesday?  Well, so far it appears that there is really only 2 new shows premiering on the broadcast nets.  I don’t know if maybe the other nets just didn’t want to get in front of the Empire juggernaut or just did want to compete against ABC’s “family block”. Whatever the reason, the new shows on Wednesday nights  is the medical drama Code Black on CBS, which basically just seems to be ER based in Los Angeles instead of Chicago, starring Marcia Gay Harden (I guess this means she won’t be on HTGAWM this season, at least not until this show is cancelled) and Rosewood on FOX starring Morris Chestnut.

Rosewood, at the very least has two things going for it, 1) it stars Morris Chesnut, who’s hawt, hot, hott! And 2) it’s the lead in to Empire, so I can see the demo for Empire giving Rosewood a chance for no reason other than it’s nice filler leading into what they are really waiting for…Empire.  If FOX is smart they includes lots of reasons from Morris Chestnut to go sans shirt for a majority of each episode…I mean cause have you seen shirtless Morris…to be honest, shirtless or not shirtless, I am always here for Morris Chestnut.  So I’ll give Rosewood a chance before I jump the ship.

So…what Wednesday night shows are you looking forward to.  Are you planning on giving either Rosewood or Code Black a chance?  Or will you be sticking returning shows like me?  Once again, check out Entertainment Weekly’s Fall TV Schedule for more information on any show I didn’t go into detail about.