The New Year officially starts on the 1st of January, but frankly, does it really? Perhaps the tube fares go up a little, but nothing else changes. For me, the New Year really kicks off in autumn when school, college, uni, everything starts all over again. Although my school days are over, late September still feels like the New Year. It is again this time of the year when I'm looking forward to watching television.
Now wait. Before you call me a couch potato who spends her nights watching Here comes Honey Boo Boo, I'd prefer you used a the term: TV nerd or comedy nerd. I love TV and all new seasons started again in the past two weeks. When SNL is on, it must be the time for hot chocolate, warm coats and autumn. Snuggled in my bed with my new Tesco Hudl tablet, I've been catching up with all my three favourite ladies: Leslie Knope, Jess and Mindy.
I couldn't believe that they filmed the first 2 episodes of Parks and Rec in London. Why didn't anyone tell me? I would love to become BFFs with Amy Poehler, ask her tons of UCB/SNL questions and get inspired to be silly. Next time! Anyway, Parks are back. From the first episode, we see that many characters will have all sort of new challenges ahead of them so it will be exciting to see how they cope with them and how they change. If it sounds slightly vague, it's because I don't want to give away any spoilers.
It's great to have Jess and Zoey Deschanel wearing cute outfits and being adorable as always. I'm not quite happy with the boys though. Winston is becoming freakier and weirder, Schmidt is turning to be more and more desirable by ladies and Nick is all grown up and responsible. I would like them to be more versatile, Game of Thrones style!
Mindy Lahiri is back from Haiti. But first of all, I was so glad to see James Franco in a doctor's coat. It should be rule that every sitcom has a cameo from James Franco. World would be a better place this way. Talking about cameos, the National is making appearance in The Mindy Project too. Having your own show, cameos from Hollywood and music stars, Mindy Kaling you will be my second Tina Fey.
I stopped enjoying How I Met Your Mother like I used to because I felt we were being tricked and we would never meet the mother. The narrator would eventually appear to be a tired old man in a mental institution who talks to his imaginary kids. But hey, the mother is finally here. In this season we will meet her and see how she met Ted and the rest of the gang. I'm looking forward to having this closure.
Side note, I will always be in debt with Barney as his chat up line "Haaaave you met Ted?" became an inspiration to my website, twitter and username everywhere as Have You Met Sonia.
Finally, the New Year is truly here, when the most exciting part of my weekend is Sunday morning. Breakfast in bed and last night's "Live from New York it's Saturday Night!!!" I keep up with the news, I enjoy NFL banter and regularly lock myself in my room to practice impressions. (They are bad, my flatmates say) No Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikas in the cast this year but a hell lot of new feature players. I can totally empathise with people who started watching SNL in the 70s and who say that the first cast with Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, John Belushi was the greatest. I can't help but think that the first cast I started watching the show with (season 36) was the best. What never changes is Lorne Michaels and because of that we know that it is going to be a great season.
Sadly not all of the shows are back. We still have to wait until 2014 for the Game of Thrones and Mad Men. Perhaps, the January New Year is the New Year after all.
Either way, long live television!