Yes, it’s that time of the year again when us antipodeans are hit with a yearly dilemma, unique to Springtime on our dumb far away island continent. The weather is getting incrementally nicer by the day, encouraging us to exit the winter filth holes we’ve hibernated in for months and explore the sunny outdoor world, yet the options for lengthy TV watching, due to the fact it’s prime Fall season in the Northern Hemo, is suddenly up 5000%.
Ugh, what to do! Jokes, it’s obviously ‘ignore the increasing splendour of the natural world and lock yourself to your nearest television for the foreseeable future’ and if you’re thinking otherwise, you may as well stop reading this and go do a sport of something, you weirdo.
Despite the explosion of TV offerings via your best friend and mine, the internet, the idiot box sitting in your lounge room is still bringing the goods this time of year, with fast-tracked shows straight from the States making September and October an ace time for extensive couch spooning, and we’ve put together this list of the best new and returning shows on Aussie TV in the coming weeks.
CHECK OUT PART TWO OF WHAT TO WATCH THIS SPRING HERE
Heroes Reborn
Landing on the tail-end of the pre-internet streaming era, Heroes was one of the last uber successful network TV hits which was lauded commercially and critically (until it went all weird and shitty after the writers strike of 2007) and is now getting a long-awaited reboot of sorts. Headed by old mate HRG (Jack Coleman) the sequel series brings in some new mysterious figures dealing with newfound super powers alongside promises of appearances from original cast members such as The Haitian, Angela Petrilli and the time-travelling Hiro.
Heroes Reborn premieres on Channel 7 with a double episode, Wednesday September 30th.
Scream Queens
Ryan Murphy has carved out a particular niche in the contemporary television landscape, with his breakout hits Glee and American Horror Story now practically interwoven into noughties culture whereas his other show The New Normal failed to make an impact and drifted off into cancelled obscurity. New glossy horror-comedy Scream Queens borrows equally from his three most recent shows and offers some truly scintillating comedy dialogue alongside over the top gore and… well besides pretty people, that’s about it. Regardless it looks like the kind of mindless fun Murphy revels in and is already garnering it’s fair few “YAAAAAAS QUEEN”s online.
Scream Queens airs on Eleven, Wednesday nights.
Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance
Forget your mind-numbingly banal and hideously edited garbage shows that seem to be the par for the course for Australian reality at the moment, and revisit the singular greatest TV show of the genre with the 31st (Yes. Thirty. One.) edition of Survivor. Having stuck respectfully close to its core model over the past 15 years, Survivor continues to be one of the only reality shows that treats its audience as intelligent beings able to process story and character without repetitive too-camera breakdowns and post-ad-break memory montages. This seasons set in Cambodia sees it’s third go at the All Stars version, with the cast of 20 returning players voted in at the end of last season via popular vote. Survivors ready? Go!
Survivor Cambodia premieres tonight on GEM and airs every Thursday night.
The Player
Action movie hero and portrayer of mother-fucking Blade, Wesley Snipes is now turning his gaze to tearing up TV as well and stars in new action-drama The Player as Mr. Johnson, the head of an organisation that takes bets on whether new recruit Alex Kane (Phillip Winchester) can stop elaborate crimes. Sounds kind of complex, but the premiere cleans up the premise quite tidily and is looking to be a smart, unique take on the whole ‘white sexy dude solves crimes’ dealio.
The Player airs on Channel 7, starting next week.
Empire
Exploring the seedy underbelly (man, everything has a seedy underbelly these days right?) of the hip-hop and entertainment world, Empire was a huge hit with its first season last year. Season 2 kicks off with the deliciously unstable Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) doing time for the murder of Bunkie with his son Jamal now his successor at Empire Entertainment. Plus Mariah freakin’ Carey is going to join the cast at some point this season, which is already setting of my ICONIC MOMENTS IN TV HISTORY alarm.
Empire airs on Eleven, starting next Tuesday September 29th.
Stay tuned for part two of our Aussie Spring TV guide next week!
