There are so many unique things Modern Family has in its arsenal: a handful of great child actors (one of whom is a genius!), free range and first dibs on material about what it means to be in a gay relationship in 2012, Ty Burrell and a team of writers who are actually able to make jokes around fairly obvious product placement. I think that's why when an episode repeats the same gags we've seen before or doesn't do a storyline justice, it's so frustrating.

When thinking about all of this fall's new shows, most of them stick out in our minds either because of their quality, or sheer awfulness. But Chicago Fire falls somewhere smack in the middle -- it's one of those shows that is so generic, we almost thought that it had started airing weeks ago and had been canceled already. It isn't a truly terrible series, but it treads on so much familiar ground that it's impossible to care strongly about in any way.

Well, this show's a nightmare. And not even a fun way. Lifetime is trying to extend Abby Lee Miller's 15 minutes of fame, first by putting her on Drop Dead Diva and now by giving her another show where she can torture small children. The problem here is not really that it's like So You Think You Can Dance for babies, but that it's actually mostly appalling.

Adam Levine... actor? Sounds like a horrifying thought to us.

In case you haven't heard the news, FX President John Landgraf announced yesterday on a media call that Louie will be taking an extended hiatus and probably not return until the spring 2014. Louis CK fans will be happy to hear that this isn't some kind of Dan Harmon/Community situation where someone is getting removed against their will -- CK personally asked for time off in order to help his creative process. To explain the decision, talk about the future of Louie and reflect on the excellent third season, CK and Landgraf answered some press questions and tried their best not to rub CK's multiple Emmy wins in everyone's faces. Below are the highlights.

Fair warning: It's kind of hard to read some of the notes I wrote during "There's Something I Need to Tell You..." because I'm bad at typing while hysterically crying. I probably shouldn't have watched a bunch of Google Chrome commercials before Parenthood came on (especially not this one), so that's partly my fault, but also this episode was basically a solid 40-odd minutes of heartstrings-pulling.

This show is definitely suffering from a case of overcomSchmidting to an ensemble character. While Schmidt is definitely the scene stealer of the show, and the one guy who snagged an Emmy nomination, his character is a lovable douchebag who is best dealt with in small doses. Last night's episode, "Neighbors," was centered around him and that much focus is starting to make us forget why we liked him in the first place. While it was Jess who befriended the slackers across the hall, and Nick who did the lion's share of the pranking, Schmidt was the one who wanted in with the young people and who was also the prankee. As for poor Winston, he continued to mainly be in his own separate little radio storyline that is so poorly integrated with the rest of the show that it comes across like one of the trailers in Grindhouse. "The Secret Life of Winston," coming next fall to Fox?

In the forthcoming CW show Beauty and the Beast, Kristin Kreuk plays an NYPD homicide detective, and to say that she's unconvincing is an understatement. There's not one thing about her part as a tough cop that we buy, and whenever she doles out some police jargon, it's entirely laughable. We briefly considered that this might be the most implausible character that the former Smallville star could ever play, but then we came up with a few other roles that would be an even more of an awkward fit.

Inspector Spacetime and Constable Reggie investigate the case of the missing Community premiere.

Last night's "And the Hold-Up" was quite clearly a filler episode -- and pretty early on in the season, too. It's strange, 2 Broke Girls can be one of every three shows every week: 1) Two waitresses struggling to afford living in New York City; 2) A daughter of a Bernie Madoff-type character trying to rebuild her life with the help of a new friend; 3) Two young women trying to market their start-up cupcake business. I much prefer Number 3's type of episodes, while Number 2 is usually kind of weird but potentially sweet and Number 1 just tries way too hard... but maybe that's just because I don't like jokes about piss.