Actually, we don't watch a lot of new TV. Certainly not a lot of network TV. And absolutely not a lot of live TV.
Here's what's currently getting picked up as high priority on our DVR:
Castle – A comfortable favorite. The show has managed to avoid the "Moonlighting" curse, and is aging nicely. I don't know how much longer it will run, but it's pleasant, unchallenging, amusing TV, with solid stars and a nice supporting cast.
The Mentalist – Another show that's been running a while. With the resolution of the character-foundational "Red John" the changes going on in the show will be a challenge to handle properly, but I enjoy Simon Baker and his character, and the supporting cast have all become like family.
Marvel's Agents of SHIELD – I wrote about this one a few weeks back. I'm not planning on turning it off any time, soon, but I'd love to see it improve.
Face/Off – Our one regular go-to reality competition show, focused on make-up and prosthetics competition. Endlessly entertaining, rarely melodramatic, and involving real talent judged by professionals.
Atlantis – It's Hercules/Xena redux, with marginally better SFX. But, hey, it's (very) mindless fun.
Doctor Who – It's almost passe to follow the Doctor these days, but I've been there since I was watching Jon Pertwee on KCET on Saturday afternoons on a tiny little black-and-white TV. So there! Also, the modern (starting with Nine) Doctor Who stuff rocks, even the stuff that's weak.
Almost Human – High concept, high tech, high speculative SF meets a buddy cop show, with good FX and Karl Urban. It's not brilliant, but it's a lot of enjoyment.
Sleepy Hollow – Probably the best US Urban Fantasy TV show evah, complete with multi-century conspiracy theories, Biblical apolypses, fishes out of water, fundamental American historical myths turned on end, and a delightful cast. Triffic stuff.
Sherlock – Watching it with commercials on PBS is rubbish. Watching it on disc is brilliant. Witty, clever, enjoyment oozing through every pore, I just damned love this show.
With the exception of "Face Off", I'm down with every show you mentioned and totally agree with your take on Sleepy Hollow .
I'm also surprised at how much I'm liking Almost Human .
+Mark Means I have to admit, I was worried that AH was going to be stoopid speculative SF, but of the eps we've watched (and we're a few behind), most of the the technological extrapolations have been pretty darned cool.
And Karl Urban is one of my favorite undersung actors, so that's cool, too.
+Dave Hill Agreed on Urban. I thought he was great as "Bones" McCoy in the latest "Trek" films and was a big draw for me checking out AH.
I can't even conceive of Sherlock with commercials… I watched the first two seasons on Amazon Instant and the new stuff on BBC iPlayer.
+Mark Means And as the "young'un" agent in RED. Lots of fun.
+Brittany Constable I have been told, independently, that I was hallucinating regarding PBS-style commercials during "Sherlock". I'm not convinced, but it's possible I misspoke.
That said, I'll probably enjoy better via disc.
Almost Human is known to me as Mac and CHEESE as it was called on the sitcom Friends. I hated the first few episodes of Sleepy Hollow so that went away too sadly.
We watch even less. Of the ones on your list, we keep up with SHIELD, Doctor Who, Almost Human, Sleepy Hollow, and Sherlock (and I totally agree with your assessment of all of them). Castle is like a warm blanket that I curl up under every once in a while, but I don’t watch it regularly.
The only other ones that are in our Hulu/Netflix queues are Psych, Arrow, Grimm, Bones, and The Neighbors. The Missus is also hooked on Downton Abbey and The Following.
I said “less” until I looked and saw the five extra shows we do watch vs. the two we don’t from your list. Duh. And that’s not counting our morning coffee with last night’s Daily Show (and sometimes Colbert).
Almost Human manages to walk a fine line, offering a view of the future that is both fantastical and believable at the same time, and the chemistry between Karl Urban and Michael Ealy is great. Also, Urban seems to be carving out an interesting niche that started with Star Trek's McCoy. Need a grumpy but lovable guy? call Urban.
Also, have you given Elementary a try? Some people don't like it because of major changes (Sherlock in US, Watson being female), but it's a pretty good show, with this version of Holmes always making me think of Hugh Laurie's House.
+Marty Shaw We did watch the first several eps, but never got so enthralled that we felt the need to follow it along further. It was entertaining, but suffered less from the switch-ups done than from going up against two other more engaging (to me) Sherlock media items in the recent past — Cumberbach and Downey.
We watch (and record) a few that you don’t, mostly because we have HBO (True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, True Detectives, Game of Thrones, Newsroom, Bill Maher, Mr Selfridge) and we watch some comedies (Mike & Molly, Big Bang Theory, Portlandia, Maran). Also Amazing Race and King of Nerds in the non-scripted genre. Stan has convinced me to watch Top Gear (The Brit version) and it has its moments (The Robin Reliant episode is fall off the couch funny). The Spoils of Babylon has been fairly entertaining, in an over-the-top, you-can’t-belive-what-they-do-next kinda way. We fill-in with Daily Show and Colbert. We don’t do season passes to Nova and Frontline, but will record on the opinion of TV bloggers that I follow.
And we record Sherlock from the same station you do, and we watched the new opening episode last night with no commercials during the show (only at the beginning and end). You must be on crack.
@Mary – Yeah, I don’t think we’d watch much HBO, even if we had HBO. It’s not like we run short as it is.
We’re steadily grinding through “Big Bang Theory” discs from Jackie. I enjoy it, but I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way to watch it.
We do record Stewart and Colbert, but our watching of them is spotty.
Which circles back around to that “We really don’t watch that much TV” thing.
OMG! How could I forget Community! The return of Dan Harmon to the helm has been all I could have wished for.
@Solonor – We watched a season or so of “Community,” but just never got into it, to be honest.