Is it fall yet?

Everyone teases me about how much TV I watch. I admit it, I'm totally obsessed! As a former student of film and video I am so impressed by the size of the team and the effort it takes to put together a weekly installment of a show. And the writer in me loves getting invested in the stories! You can learn so much more about a character in a 13- or 22-hour season that you can in any 2-hour movie...

Every fall I wait with anticipation to check in with all my favorites and we're almost there! Here are a few of the programs I'm most looking forward to this fall. If you're not watching them, you should be!

1. Sons of Anarchy. Centered on a group of motorcycle riding gun-runners in picturesque Charming, CA, Sons of Anarchy is basically Hamlet on Harleys. And I love it!

The cast includes Katey Sagal as Gemma Teller the matriarch of the Sons. Sagal turns in an incredible performance week after week on SoA. Believe me, her days of playing Peg Bundy are way behind her! At the center of the club is Jax Teller the biker with a heart of gold. Ladies want him and men want to be him. British actor Charlie Hunnam plays Jax and he brings a perfect mix of toughness and vulnerability to the role. Where is this man's Emmy nomination, I ask you?

<------  Oh, and did I mention he's nice to look at??? 

Yeah. There's that too.








2. AMC. I could list the shows on this channel individually, but that would take up the rest of my list! Seriously, with hits like the excellent Mad Men, Breaking Bad and my latest obsession, The Walking Dead, the network has yet to go wrong with any of their original dramas (I specify drama because I am not especially fond of their new "reality" comedy, "Small Town Security." Stick to the dramas, AMC, that's your wheel house and you do it better than anybody!

The Casts of AMC's The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and Mad Men

3. American Horror Story. This. Show. Is. Creepy. And again, I love it!!!

The show's first season centered around the Harmon family. A fractured family dealing with infidelity when they move into a home known locally as "Murder House." The Harmons aren't alone in the house, and this becomes evident as strange things go on in the new home. By season's end the viewer is never sure if the character they are watching is alive, a ghost or something in between!

Maroon 5 lead singer, Adam Levine

Rather than ruin a perfectly scary and engrossing story into the ground by stretching it out season after season, American Horror Story producers have opted to make the show an anthology. Each season there will be a new cast, a new location and a new horrific story. This fall's season is set to take place in an insane asylum! And Jessica Lange and Even Peters - two season one cast members who played their parts to perfection – are returning in new roles. Soooo looking forward to it!

Oh yeah, and this guy is signed on to show up! -------->

Is it October yet???

4. Top Chef. Yep. I'm a reality show junkie. Survivor, American Idol, Big Brother. I watch 'em. But this one is my favorite! This is how a reality competition should be done. And could Padma Lakshmi please host every show? She is beautiful to look at, classy and I could listen to her talk all day. At any rate, the chefs all seem so talented and each episode leaves me HUNGRY and wishing I'd enrolled in culinary school!



5. For my last entry on the list we jump across the pond to a lovely old home known as Downton Abbey (please don't call it Downtown Abbey! LOL).

I don't normally go in for any shows found on BBC, especially anything aired by Masterpiece Theater. They all make me feel like I can feel myself growing older by the minute as I watch them.

Downton Abbey is different. It centers on the Earl and Countess of Grantham, their three daughters and their servants.

The cast is stellar. A. Maz. ing! And Dame Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess is nothing less than a hoot! As the Brits themselves would say, just spot on!

From the cook's apprentice the the Earl's valet to the family members themselves, you will care about these people and if you don't you have no soul!


So there you are. Five reasons I can't wait for fall TV. All this talk makes me want to run home and check my DVR to make sure everything is set to record! Summer Schmummer - I'm ready for new TV!