Archive | January, 2012

Spring 2012 Preview and Predictions: Fox

4 Jan

(In order to meld the spirit of futile sports predictions with the high stakes world of the who-will-be-cancelled-first fall (now spring!) television season, I’ve set up a very simple system of predictions for how long new shows will last.  Each day, I’ll (I’m aware I switched between we and I) lay out a network’s new shows scheduled to debut in the fall (reality shows not included – I’m already going to fail miserably on scripted shows, I don’t need to tackle a whole other animal) with my prediction of which of three categories it will fall into.

These categories are:

1.  Renewal – show gets renewed

2.  13+ – the show gets thirteen or more episodes, but not renewed

3.  12- – the show is cancelled before 13

Spring note:  It’s a lot harder to analyze midseason shows as there’s no collective marketing campaigns going on at one time, as many of the shows start dates are spread (or are even unannounced for some)  Still, we’ll take partially educated guesses.  Also, they’re a lot less likely to get partial pick ups, so maybe that trade off will make it easier)

Fox next.  While not CBS, Fox has been doing well lately, especially among the valued 18-49 demographic.  They’ll be debuting four shows this spring, including a spin-off, a movie port, and a couple of supernatural sci-fi efforts.

The Finder – 1/12

The Finder is a spin-off of Fox hit Bones, created by Bones’ creator Hart Hanson.  That’s really the most important detail here, but we’ll dig a bit further.  The spin-off will be taken from characters introduced in the sixth season of Bones specficailly for the purpose of spinning them off.  The main character, the titular Finder, is to be a House-like figure – eccentric, offensive, paranoid but brilliant and excessively competent.  His particular skill is well, finding things, anything, from people to places to things and he works out of his lawyer’s bar in Key West.

Verdict:  Renewed – I’m not sure what to think again here, but I’ll err with renewal on the Bones brand name.  It’s easy to overlook just how successful Bones has become for Fox, and if any of its magic could rub off on the spin off, Fox could really use a replacement for the likely soon to be departed House.

Alcatraz – 1/16

JJ Abrams executively produces this supernatural science fiction show about a few San Francisco detectives who realize that modern day crimes appear to be committed by people who were Alcrataz prisoners several decades ago.  The main character’s family worked in Alcatraz so she’s super interested, and comes up against a sinister government employee played by Sam Neill who tries to stymie the nascent investigation. The detectives bring in Alcatraz expert and all around nerd Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost) to help out and learn that this conspiracy goes all the way to the top.  Well, it goes somewhere anyway.

Verdict:  Renewed – I realize I’m a sucker for all of these supernatural sci-fi premises.  The shows often don’t work, crumbling under their own weight either right away, or after a couple of seasons, but at the beginning they sound so interesting, novel, and full of potential.

Touch – 1/25

Kiefer Sutherland is back on Fox, this time as father of an autistic boy who has the power to predict future events (Knowing anyone?  Mercury Rising?).  Oh, and Sutherland’s wife and the boy’s mother died (same person) in 9/11 (seriously, what’s the statute of limitations on shows/movies/books in which 9/11 is a peripheral but IMPORTANT part).  Danny Glover co-stars as an expert on children who works with the boy.  The show is from Tim Kring who I’m still angry at deep in my bones for everything associated with Heroes.

Verdict:  12-  After what happened to Heroes, I have no faith in Kring.  Kiefer’s good, but the premise doesn’t wow me.

Napoleon Dynamite – 1/15

Based on the movie, Napoleon Dynamite will follow the adventures of the title character, along with his brother, his best friend Pedro, and others, all of whom will be voiced by the actors who played them in the film.  Presumably, the show will share the same sense of humor as the film which became a surprise hit, and part of the stable of required viewing for anyone who went to college when I did (See: Donnie Darko, Requiem for a Dream).  Personally, while there were certainly funny parts, I’ve always thought the movie was highly overrated, but I appear to have been outvoted on this.

Verdict:  Renewed –  I’m definitely 50/50 here.  It’s an established property and the movie probably appealed to many of the people who are fans of the Fox animation block.  Also, it’s got the same creative team, so that helps it not be a cheap knock off.  I have my doubts, but Fox could use a non-McFarlane non-Simpsons animated success in the mix.

Tags: , , , ,

Spring 2012 Preview and Predictions: CBS and NBC

3 Jan

(In order to meld the spirit of futile sports predictions with the high stakes world of the who-will-be-cancelled-first fall (now spring!) television season, I’ve set up a very simple system of predictions for how long new shows will last.  Each day, I’ll (I’m aware I switched between we and I) lay out a network’s new shows scheduled to debut in the fall (reality shows not included – I’m already going to fail miserably on scripted shows, I don’t need to tackle a whole other animal) with my prediction of which of three categories it will fall into.

These categories are:

1.  Renewal – show gets renewed

2.  13+ – the show gets thirteen or more episodes, but not renewed

3.  12- – the show is cancelled before 13

Spring note:  It’s a lot harder to analyze midseason shows as there’s no collective marketing campaigns going on at one time, as many of the shows start dates are spread (or are even unannounced for some)  Still, we’ll take partially educated guesses.  Also, they’re a lot less likely to get partial pick ups, so maybe that trade off will make it easier)

CBS, being the all-powerful leader in television ratings, as older people simply throw out their remotes, because it’s easier to just leave their TVs on the network, has decided that the only thing missing from their line up is a Rob Schneider sitcom.  Thus, because they have just one new show, we’ll be combining their preview with NBC’s.

CBS

Rob – 1/12

If not for the existence of Work It, this would have been a landmark moment for obviously terrible television.  Of course, it’s on CBS, so I’d be foolish to count it out so quickly.  Rob is about the comedic and charismatic Rob Schneider, who after years of bachelordom marries into a close knit Mexican-American family which happens to coincidentally conform to a number of Mexican-American stereotypes.  Cheech Marin plays his father-in-law.

Verdict: 12-  Please, please be right about this one.  I’m sure people will watch it because it’s on but at least being on CBS  means you have to beat other CBS shows to stay on, and I’m not convinced it can do that.  I’ve been wrong before about CBS though and I will be again.

NBC

Smash – 2/6

NBC’s putting so much stock into this show that they’ve tried to generate good karma by naming it aspirationally.  Postured as Glee for adults, Smash is about the production of a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.  American Idol’s Katherine McPhee stars as a naïve Midwesterner come to take boradway by storm as the favorite for the lead.  TV veteran Debra Messing portrays one of the songwriters and Anjelica Huston plays the producer.

Verdict  Renewal – the midseason show I would be most surprised by a cancellation.  NBC is all in on Smash and postponement to midseason was a strategic decision rather than a lack of faith in the pilot.

Are You There Chelsea? – 1/11

Another title change, this time from Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea?, this show is based on the life of comedian Chelsea Handler, with the original title taken from her memoir, and changed because you can’t put vodka in the title of a network show for some reason.  Real edgy, NBC.  That 70’s Show’s Laura Prepon plays Chelsea Newman, based on Handler, while confusingly, Handler will play Chelsea’s older sister.

Verdict:  12-  It could easily get renewed, because who knows, but yeah, it’s looks terrible, and slightly smarter NBC audiences have not tolerated Whitney in the past and hopefully will extend that same feeling towards Are You There Chelsea?

The Firm – 1/8

Rather than a remake of the movie, The Firm is a continuation.  Set 10 years after the events in the film, The Firm explores what happens to Mr. and Mrs. McDeere after they come out of witness protection and start their own family and firm.  Josh Lucas plays Mitch McDeere and Molly Parker plays his wife Abby.  Much of the first season’s plot involves a battle to keep his firm independent against a takeover attempt by a shady firm.

Verdict:  12-  I don’t have a whole lot of faith in this relatively gimmicky remix.  Is The Firm that popular a product still in the public’s imagination even though the film was almost 20 years ago?

Bent – unscheduled

Amanda Peet stars as a recently divorced lawyer who hires a womanzing contractor to renovate her kitchen.  For some reason that contractor is the other main character, and I don’t know how they would keep the contractor if the show went beyond one season (they’re probably as confident as I am that it won’t.)  Jeffrey Tambor co-stars.

Verfict: 12-  I feel bad because I’ve always liked Amanda Peet.  It looks pretty dead in the water even if it ever makes TV.

Awake – unsecheduled

A far more interesting unscheduled show.     Awake stars Jason Issacs as a police detective involved in a car accident, who upon regaining consciousness, moves back and forth between two parallel lives – one in which his son dies, and his wife lives, and one in which the opposite happens.  The farther the two parallel lives more forward in time, the more they separate.  It sounds like it has the potential to be the best science fiction police procedural since Life on Mars.

Verdict:  12-  This seems so likely to share the same exact fate as fellow Kyle Killen show Lonestar.  Rave critical reviews, but nary a chance to get on its feet and become at all popular.

Best Friends Forever – unscheduled

One old friend moves in with another after the first friend divorces her husband.  This is mildly problemtic though, as the second friend’s boyfriend has just moved in and taken over the first friend’s old room.  Hilarity ensues.

Verdict:  12- A fairly low premise sitcom, it’s pretty difficult just to tell from the premise how it will be.  That said, I’m going to err on the side of cancelled – it is midseason after all.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Spring 2012 Preview and Predictions: ABC

2 Jan

(In order to meld the spirit of futile sports predictions with the high stakes world of the who-will-be-cancelled-first fall (now spring!) television season, I’ve set up a very simple system of predictions for how long new shows will last.  Each day, I’ll (I’m aware I switched between we and I) lay out a network’s new shows scheduled to debut in the fall (reality shows not included – I’m already going to fail miserably on scripted shows, I don’t need to tackle a whole other animal) with my prediction of which of three categories it will fall into.

These categories are:

1.  Renewal – show gets renewed

2.  13+ – the show gets thirteen or more episodes, but not renewed

3.  12- – the show is cancelled before 13

Spring note:  It’s a lot harder to analyze midseason shows as there’s no collective marketing campaigns going on at one time, as many of the shows start dates are spread (or are even unannounced for some)  Still, we’ll take partially educated guesses.  Also, they’re a lot less likely to get partial pick ups, so maybe that trade off will make it easier)

ABC first up.  A network in transition, between the complete successful domination of CBS and the grueling failure of NBC, ABC is tied for the most midseason shows with NBC.  Let’s see how they look.

GCB – 3/4

Abbreviated from original titles Good Christian Bitches and Good Christian Belles, GCB promises to be a positively trashy soap about southern women decades out of high school who still act like they’re in senior year.  A woman, played by Leslie Bibb, who was the Queen Bee back in high school, comes back to her hometown, divorced, and ready to be the mocked rather than the mocking.  It’s created by Darren Star of trashy delights Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, and the less trashy but still incredibly successful Sex and the City fame.

Verdict:  Renewed – These are so much harder than their fall brethren to pick.  I have absolutely no clue.  With Desperate Housewives leaving the air, maybe there’s a place for a trashy ironic soap to fill in.  Then again, maybe not.

The River – 2/7

The River is a post-Lost supernatural serial series with a kind of interesting premise.  A popular but enigmatic nature show host/explorer goes off on a quest for something or other in the Amazon rain forest, and gets lost, disappearing.  Six months later, just as everybody is ready to accept that he’s dead (Steve Fossett-style) his emergency beacon goes off.  His wife and son, with whom he has a complicated relationship, go off to find him, meeting all manners of strangeness and danger along the way.  I’m maybe more intrigued than I should be.  A couple of years ago I read the book The Lost City of Z by David Grann all about explorers searching through this area and it was absolutely fascinating, and while that was factual and not supernatural I think the fact that The River is reminding me of that makes me interested.  On the other hand, it looks a little more horror movie-esque than I’d like, with monsters, and irritating camera angles.  I will just have to wait and find out, I suppose.

Verdict:  12- Something’s got to fail, and these supernatural shows have had a lot of trouble since Lost.

Missing – 3/15

ABC’s second show about a family searching for a missing relation, though in this case it appears to be much more of an action show than a mysterious serial.  Ashley Judd portrays retired CIA agent Rebecca Winstone whose son disappeared during a summer internship in Italy.  I was going to say it sounds like Taken meets 24, but you could really just say it sounds like Taken.  That said, if it’s anything like Taken, I’m in, but I’m not yet convinced that Ashley Judd is cut from the same cloth as Liam Neeson.

Verdict:  12-  It’s a hard world for mid-season series.  They don’t get the same push generally as their fall brethren, and while a couple make it every year, it’s a tougher road they hoe.

Apartment 23 – unscheduled

Another show with a notable name change, from the far more evocative Don’t Trust The Bitch in Apartment 23, the show stars Krysten Ritter (of Breaking Bad and Veronica Mars minor fame among others) as the old title’s bitch who moves in with a mild-mannered roommate.  They fight, at least in the beginning, and James Van Der Beek plays an exaggerated jerkier version of himself as Ritter’s best friend.

Verdict: Renewed – so, it’s kind of unfair to have to choose the fate of a show that can’t even hit the schedule, so these midseason predictions are wonkier than ever.  Having said that, why not just double down on a show that actually sounds like it could be good if it ever does air, an exception with comedies in this past year.  Most of the pick is because of James Van Der Beek playing himself.

Scandal – unscheduled

Scandal’s got the kind of ABC pedigree you want, coming from Shonda Rhimes of Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice fame.  It stars Kerry Washington as a former media relations consultant for the president who now is starting her own firm.  Henry Ian Cusack (best known as my beloved Desmond from Lost) co-stars, which is the most interesting part for me.

Verdict:  Renewed – I have absolutely no idea – ABC is putting on so many midseason shows and I can’t imagine more than a couple will likely be renewed, but I’ll vote they’ll at least give one more season to one of their favorite creators in Rhimes.  It seems like it will neither be terrible or great.

Work It – 1/3

I’m cringing as I even write the first sentence.  The fact that this show exists and was able to make it on air shows that there are startling flaws in the filters between the creation and airing of television shows on broadcast networks.  Work It is about two men who, after deciding the economic climate is more favorable to women, decide to attempt to dress up as women, and get jobs.  They then have to learn about being sensitive and all the problems women face.  An LGBT group made Bosom Buddies sound positively edgy and progressive in their smack down of Work It.

Prediction:  12- Are you kidding?  Cancellation picks this obvious come along maybe once a decade.  This is the Lebron James of cancellation picks.  This is the kind of show that you wouldn’t show critics ahead of time because you know the lambasting you would receive.  Who is the audience for this show?  Even stupid people aren’t stupid enough for this.  I can’t wait to watch, in a perverse way.

Tags: , , , , ,

Newer Entries →