The major broadcast schedule presentations, or “upfronts,” ended yesterday. I’ve given some impressions of the 2011–12 shows we saw previewed this week, but it’s worth repeating that those are nothing more than impressions, based on trailers, which can give nothing more than a thumbnail idea of a show and often a misleading one. Over the next few weeks and into the summer I’ll be watching the pilots. Those will give us a better idea of the strength of the new series, but they too are incomplete pictures; they may be reshot before they air, and the subsequent episodes may be much better or much worse.
Still, the upfronts give us a sense of how the upcoming season is shaping up, so here are the trends we saw emerge this week, and the shows I’m (for now) most eager to see more of:
