GO ON and THE NEW NORMAL: Fall TV 2012 [Worth Watching?]

Despite getting rid of cable as of October 1st, I am still totally committed to reviewing all of the new scripted fall TV shows (as long as they’re on broadcast). However, there was a mix up or I got confused, and somehow I ended up missing the pilots of both GO ON and THE NEW NORMAL and therefore had to watch their second episodes.

I”ll keep this short. While both shows feature diverse casts (yay!), both were only slightly funnier than their many obnoxious NBC promos, which is to say, not very funny at all (boo!).

GO ON is overly cloying, overly pat, and overly sentimental, as if some exec said, “MODERN FAMILY, Matthew Perry, group therapy — go!” I was actually sad to see the wonderful John Cho (HAROLD & KUMAR) and Tyler James Williams (EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS) in this.

And while THE NEW NORMAL has some very funny bon mots and situations, it’s overly sentimental, over-the-top, and overly stereotypical (the gays are uber-bitchy, the black woman is uber sassy, and blond single mom is uber sweet, the nerdy daughter is uber strange, and the interfering grandma is uber racist and homophobic), as if some exec said, “MODERN FAMILY, a bunch of caricatures, the creator of GLEE– go!”

It all made for an entire hour of “Don’t bother.”

But let me know what you thought of the two shows in the comments.