What I'm Watching - November 2014

Sunday:
Bob's Burgers (FOX)
Simpsons (FOX)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX)
The Walking Dead (AMC)
Last Week with John Oliver (HBO)
The Newsroom (HBO)

Monday:
Star Wars Rebels (DISXD)
Sleepy Hollow (FOX)
The Daily Show (COM)

Tuesday:
New Girl (FOX)
The Mindy Project (FOX)
Flash (CW)
Agents of SHIELD (ABC)
About A Boy (NBC)
The Daily Show (COM)

Wednesday:
Arrow (CW)
Modern Family (ABC)
The League (FXX)
Top Chef (BRAVO)
Key & Peele (COM)
The Daily Show (COM)

Thursday:
A to Z (NBC)
The Daily Show (COM)

Friday:
Constantine (NBC)

Saturday:
Doctor Who (BBCA)

Sunday is usually the best night on television, but with HBO down a bit right now (waiting on the return of Game of Thrones, True Detective, Veep and Silicon Valley), my favorite night of TV during the fall is probably Tuesday. It offers up the superhero one-two punch of the much-improved Agents of SHIELD and the hit-the-ground-running (no pun intended) Flash. Fox's two comedies are losing me a touch on that night, but they both provide some laughs.

Wednesday is the second-best night, with Arrow, Top Chef and Key & Peele always getting near-live viewing.

Not that Sunday is bad. Bob's Burgers and The Simpsons are both funny, sometimes very funny, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is probably my favorite comedy on TV right now and Walking Dead, three episodes into its fifth season, seems to finally have a consistency it lacked for the first four seasons. And Last Week Tonight is always great TV.

Stacking up on the DVR right now are Sleepy Hollow (always enjoyable, but better in binges), Modern Family (losing me a little, and mostly something I watch with my daughter) and About A Boy (likely to get deleted in favor of watching Blurays/playing videogames instead). Soon to go are A to Z, which will leave a pretty empty Thursday. Not sure Constantine is going to make the cut.

Network-wise, FOX clearly has my attention with 6 shows (7 if you count FXX), while ABC and NBC are quickly canceling themselves to CBS territory... although as long as ABC has SHIELD, they'll have at least an hour this Marvel Zombie will watch.

If I were a cord-cutter, and had to choose networks, I could get by with HBO, FOX, FX, CW and Comedy Central. Including everything I watch, I'd sacrifice only Agents of SHIELD, Star Wars Rebels, Top Chef, Doctor Who, Rectify, Parks & Rec (ending this season anyway), Hannibal and Orphan Black (or, more likely, buy those episodically from Amazon Instant), Hmm. No wonder the networks are nervous. If a TV fanatic like myself could easily cut down to two broadcast networks and three cable nets, what are the casual folks watching?