I think its just the way I’m wired, or the fact my mum is a teacher, but September still feels like the beginning of a new year.

It always was when you were at school, college and then university. Now, even though I am *regretfully* not at any of these institutions anymore, my brain still works in school years.

It also helps that in the television world September is the beginning of new pilots and returning shows after the summer hiatus. Even though in this hiatus we were very gratefully given two of the best continuing television shows ever - Pretty Little Liars (PLL) and Teen Wolf (TW).

Tyler Hoechlin as Derek in Teen Wolf. Check out the hilarious recaps from Price Peterson over at TV.com

I will miss these shows until 2013, although the highly-anticipated PLL Halloween episode is just around the corner, and in their place comes some of my favourite returning shows and those new pilots that the American television channels hope will capture the right audience and keep those all important ratings.

Last year I listed my shows in an ingenious way and of course I’ll do that again with an update of those shows that failed to make my grade (or got cancelled)…

Wouldn’t miss if my life depended on it:

• Fringe – sadly this is the fifth and final season for my favourite show. Pacey will rise again.
• Revenge – this show has been bumped from ‘Could fall at the first hurdle’ to an absolute must-watch. Last year I felt that this might not do well because it had no big names, I couldn’t have been more wrong. This show ranks in my top five shows throughout the year. Solid storylines, fantastic acting from Madeleine Stowe as Emily VanCamp’s arch nemesis Victoria Grayson, top fashion in the form of Brit actress and my new style/life crush Ashley Madekwe, the boys and scandal. (Currently airing in the UK on E4)
• Awkward – coming to its summer season finale soon this is just a funny funny show. #TeamMatty all the way.
• Teen Wolf  - as mentioned above it is one of the best television shows MTV has come out with seriously worth a watch if not for all the abs and nakedness… Returns in summer 2013
• Pretty Little Liars – Just had its mid-season finale which was mind-blowing, jaw-drop to the floor, oh my god so good. Please watch from the beginning. (Airs on UK Really channel on Freeview, not sure when its returning)

Must-watch:

• Supernatural – This show has been downgraded I’m afraid. I do love the show and have been a faithful Jared/Jensen fan for many years now, but this show is coming into its 8th season and it lost its juice way back in season five. I still watch it and every now and again there is a really good episode but I think it needs to be let go, gently.
• The Vampire Diaries (TVD) – Towards the end of the last season I was seriously lacking in love for this show. I mean I still liked it but there were way too many filler episodes and not enough action episodes. There were poignant episodes that worked with the overall arc, but it fell flat until that finale. I’ve seen the season four promo trailer and with Elena *SPOILER* now nearing the undead kind of life there is hope yet! Will she or won’t she? Of course she will! Drink the blood Elena, drink it!

• Dexter - I gave up on this show not so long ago, got back into it and the season six finale had my jaw firmly on the floor. Going into season seven Dexter’s dark passenger is possibly in danger of been uncovered by his sister. What will he do?
• New Girl – I love this show, it’s so laugh out loud funny that I can’t get enough. I don’t watch many comedy/sitcom shows so this more than fills my quota. I love Zooey Deschanel. Jess and Nick need to be together.
• Homeland – Woah. Double woah. Argh *hair pulling*. I’m looking forward to seeing how this show moves forward as the end of the first season saw Carrie possibly losing a vital piece of information.
• Once Upon a Time – This show is a way of escape, and with a little wish that the fairy tale world really does exist. The introduction of Hook, Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, Jack (of Beanstalk) and a possible new prince in the form of  Julian Morris hopping over from PLL has me yearning for its return.
• The Newsroom – I’ll add this onto my list even though it’s on hiatus now until next summer. It took me until episode four to like this, the first few episodes were horribly shouty and a bit jumbled. The turning point was that episode and it defined what the show was about and how each episode was going to work, episode five was brilliant and gave our very own Brit actor Dev Patel the chance to shine because lets face it I DO NOT LIKE MAC. Emily Mortimer’s charcter is annoying to say the least, and don’t even get me started on Maggie (shouty, SHOUTY, and weak). The love quadrangle between Maggie/Don/Jim/Sloane is irritating and sometimes distracts from the news element that is at the forefront of the show and it wasn’t until the season finale that I even noticed Sloane liked Don(!) she doesn’t need a man she is too smart. Aaron Sorkin deserved GQ’s Writer of the Year!

Olivia Munn was on hand to award Aaron Sorkin with GQ Writer of the Year.

Returning shows:

• Hart of Dixie – I have to admit I’m a huge OC fan and so watch this for Rachel Bilson, oh and Wilson Bethel’s abs.
• Apartment 23 – Another comedy, with the best hook of them all James van der Beek plays an over the top version of himself. The. Best. Character. Ever. And also the possibility of a Dawson’s Creek reunion… well Busy Philips at least.
• Glee – I don’t like Glee. I don’t like the singing, and I am really not a fan of the character Rachel, and Finchel (hopefully that will be ending in the new season). I do however love Santana and Brittany S. Pearce because they are funny. I still watch it for some reason.
• Nikita – This show feels hit and miss sometimes, like it’s really good but then it’s just not. I’m not sure if it will get past season three, we’ll see as it managed to nab a renewal.
• Gossip Girl – Thank god this is the final season. If I had written this three years ago I would have this show on the ‘Wouldn’t miss if my life depended on it’ list, now it sits down in the shows I will watch just to see what happens. The last season was such a ridiculous let down that I’m hoping the 10-episode final season will go out with a big bang.
• 90210 – I’m not sure why I watch this because looking at AnnaLynne McCord’s body every episode makes me stupid jealous.
• Surburgatory – This show is another funny one, and I loved the Clueless reunion with Alicia Silverstone and Jeremy Sisto in the first season. I like it actually but it’s got a way to go before it gets bumped up a list.

Wilson Bethel as Wade in Hart of Dixie

New picks:

• 666 Park Avenue - I’m going to give this a couple of episodes, but by the sound of it the plot doesn’t sound strong enough. This could ‘fall at the first hurdle’.
• Cult - I like the meta feature of this show, and I like Alaric Matt Davis. The idea is that journalist Jeff (Davis) is on the hunt for his missing brother who just before his disappearance became obsessed with a CW show called Cult. There’s lots of mystery around the show as it is believed it sends out subliminal messages and has a huge fanbase related to this, but as it has been pointed out, the show has apparently only aired a few episodes and in this day and age television shows don’t get a massive fanbase that quickly. I can put the errors aside if the show is good though.
• The Carrie Diaries - This was going to happen in some form or another, the CW have placed an unknown fresh face as the centre of the show and are hoping for the best. AnnaSophia Robb plays a young Carrie in 1984, who when offered a internship at a law firm in New York snaps up the chance to get away from her Conneticut home life. She meets (Brit actress Freema Agyeman, Doctor Who) Larissa Loughton style editor at Interview Magazine and can’t get enough of her life and the life Carrie could have. There are plenty of issues that this show could throw up, especially the 80s dress code, and surprisingly Freema is probably one of the few mixed race actresses in a lead/supporting role on the CW…
• Beauty and the Beast (2012) – Lending my support to a Smallville alumni, Kristin Kreuk stars as the beauty in this CW show, what I’m more interested in is how ugly an gruesome they will make the beast? Of course it’s the CW so probably not so much if the promo poster is anything to go by… (See below)
• Arrow – Another CW show, and if you were a Smallville fan you’ll recognise the back story to the character of Oliver McQueen the billionaire playboy former orphan who goes missing presumed dead after a shipwreck and returns as some kind of vigilante. Green Arrow worked in Smallville as a support/sidekick/Justice Leage team member, but I do not feel ‘Arrow’ can carry a whole show by himself. Plus it’s not even the real Green Arrow, Justin Hartley has been replaced by a younger pretty brunette Stephen Amell.
• Partners – Sophia Bush (of One Tree Hill fame) returns to television in what sounds like a fun show, don’t know if I’ll stick with it though.
• The Following -Kevin Bacon on the small screen as a retired FBI profiler, tracking down a serial killer who has created his own cult of murderers. The premise sounds interesting, but some reviews of the Comic-Con screeners say there are major holes in the dialogue and that it’s basically “a Xerox of a copy of every serial killer movie, TV show, or novel of the last 20 years“.

Beauty and the Beast promo shot… I can just see a scar.

Cancelled:

• Ringer – Poor SMG, she may be preggo with another baby but her show got cancelled. I admit I stopped watching it after about 9 episodes so it’s no loss, I just hope she finds something else to keep her on the tv!
• The Secret Circle – Naaaawww I really liked this show and I really really really like Price Peterson’s recaps, as hilarious as the Teen Wolf ones. I was surprised it got cancelled, but it just didn’t get the ratings it needed to get renewed. Sad because the background story was intriguing, as well as the idea of killing off nearly all the adult characters.
• Terra Nova – This was just so bad. I feel sorry for Steven Speilberg as a producer of the show, because it was his name attached to it that made me watch it in the first place. I had this idea that it would basically be a television series of Jurassic Park because it was set 85million years in the past. Obviously not.
• Alcatraz – Gutted this got cancelled, I think the history of the show was so interesting even if the rest of the show was slightly predictable.
• Pan Am – Think I watched two episodes before I got bored, I don’t think I’m suited to period television. Hence the reason I do not watch Downton Abbey.
• Awake – I was going to give this a chance but then just forgot to watch it. I like Jason Isaacs and I would have liked to have found out which of his two worlds was the real one.
• Charlie’s Angels – Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. WWTT?!Gl

Maybe…