Yea, season 1 was a bit of a pacing problem , they did not quite have a proper villain or an overarching plot for the season and way too much time was spent on various characters' back stories when it's not yet their time to shine (i.e. the amount of time they spent on teenager bruce wayne and selena kyle when you know -nothing- is going to happen in this arc, dragged things down for me).
This is why i think the Penguin arc was probably the most interesting story as you can see this is actually going to become reality within the actual series..this is clearly what is happening now in Season 2.
Season 2 did start off with alot more potential, between Penguin, the Riddler who are now both moving from "wannabes" , to actual Villains and the group that resembles The Suicide Squad (right down to a young Joker and Harley Quinn), it seems like the series might have some direction. I'm still not liking the time they are spending on Bruce Wayne, since again, no matter what discoveries he makes about his parents, he is still way too young to become batman (unless they do a timejump, which i doubt)...so i feel this arc still remains a bit of "useless filler" to me and i think they are abusing it to draw in crowds because batman-before-he-is-batman is in it.
I do enjoy the Det/Commission Gordon angle, as the main "good guy" in this series, i just think the bad guys in season 1 was a bit over the place and it kinda devolved into a bit of a Mob-drama with these odd teasers into villians-in-the-making lives' as opposed to having serious villains.
I also didn't like how they added a no-name villain who wasn't even in the comics anywhere, as the main villain in S1 (Fish Mooney), i felt she overstayed her welcome and they could've spent more time on characters that were actually in the comics...i.e Falcone vs Maroni.
Simply put, The Flash has had a backstory + villain the entire time , even Arrow got something every season so far. Gotham S1 i felt was all over the place, hoping S2 get things together.
Doctor Who and Gotham are on my list. Both first episodes were awesome. Haven't had time to see Dr Who s09e02 yet, but looking forward to it. As a fan of the classic series, the first episode blew my mind.
Also watching the new seasons of Big Bang Theory and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
I actually really agree with everything you said here, I really enjoyed season 1 but you are right it was a bit scattered... The whole fish money thing was an interesting plot with that "hotel on the island" and all, but again was pretty confusing as it didn't go anywhere?
Season 2 started off really well for me, I especially enjoyed how it picked up from season 1 and almost just continued... Its a bit like season 2 is "season 1 part 2"
As for other shows, I watched Limitless, I loved the movie... But the series seems like it could fall very flat... If they try turn this into a "crime drama" where the good guy is basically going to figure shit out 100% of the time its going to be incredibly lame...
Love the fact that Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory are back! Really enjoy those 2 even if they are a little mindless...
Still really enjoying The Strain, season 2 has been really good for me... Didnt expect it to keep going as strong as it has to be honest...
The Walking dead - Fear The Walking Dead is starting out really slow... But its got potential... Im enjoying the immediate effect of the apocalypse... The druggy story is pissing me off a bit...
Edit - OMG AND HEROES!!!! The first episode was awesome! It feels like they went back to season 1 and are now picking up there, like they just ignoring season 3 and 4 which is fine by me and many others im sure...
Oh as for the other series i watched over the weekend.
Limitless , i enjoyed the pilot, not sure where this will end up, as people mentioned, if it turns out to be a formulaic CSI crime drama , it can very easily fall flat....that said, since there are no more Mentalist or CSI or Perception , there probably is a gap for a new crime drama in there. Although, this premise reminds me of Intelligence (the series with that guy from Lost with some chip implanted in his head making him this walking-google-search CIA agent) which i felt was horrible...this might end up the same way.
Blindspot , felt like a mix of Alias/Nikita ,Bourne Identity and Blacklist , i enjoyed the pilot, i like a good mystery plot. I assume this series will probably be a bit of formula like Alias was while trying to solve the riddles tattooed on the girls back (i.e. a new "lead" every episode as they get closer to who the girl might be) . The fact that the girl is bad-ass-ex-navy-seal-assassin type makes for interesting watching, since she can clearly take care of herself.
Heroes Reborn , i liked most of it, i am just afraid the "formula" might catch up to them, since they are repeating Heroes S1 again, right down to having a weird japanese person and sidekick with even weirder powers (exactly like the japanese guy in Heroes S1). I might lose interest if this is going to be 6 or so "heroes" again and them being chased by some government/black ops agency while the plot gets totally convoluted by multiple backstabbing between pro-evos, black-ops, anti-evos and evos .... deja vu ?