Tag Archives: Bull

Fall 2016 Previews and Predictions: CBS

20 Sep

CBS

(In order to meld the spirit of futile sports predictions with the high stakes world of the who-will-be-cancelled-first fall (edit: spring, now) 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 (spring, again)(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

Additional note: Since more and more series on network TV are following cable models with set orders for shorter seasons, and mid-season replacements tend to have shorter seasons in particular, I’ll note any planned limited runs in my prediction section for each show)

Kevin Can Wait – 9/19

Kevin Can Wait

Kevin Can Wait, but boy us viewers sure can’t. I end up saying “you know what this is” more than I want to in these descriptions, which feels lazy, but I’d like to think that when I say that, you, the TV viewer, can conjure up a better idea of some of these shows because they’re just so obvious than I can possibly describe in a couple of sentences. And is this ever one of these shows. Kevin James’ character, maybe he’s named Kevin, just retired and he’s full of hilarious punch lines that would be at home in any stand up comedian-led mid’90s sitcom or, for that matter, in King of Queens, which this basically just is. Fat funny white husband who doesn’t do any work around the house has a younger, more attractive wife, and a couple of kids who he has to relate with.

Prediction: Renewal Of course this shouldn’t get renewed. But it’s CBS and it’s Kevin James. I made this mistake already predicting the early demise of Last Man Standing on ABC, which believe it or not, is entering its sixth season.

Bull – 9/20

Bull

The folks at CBS have pulled off quite the coup here. They’ve created a lawyer show where the main character isn’t even a lawyer! No, Micheal Weatherly (getting his just desserts after serving as sidekick on NCIS faithfully for a decade) is a champion jury consultant who believes that trials and won and lost by the composition and messaging delivered to the jury, rather than the presentation of facts. His enemies are the lawyers who try to tell him he’s wrong, and that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Weatherly portrays a classic superman who charms everyone who comes into his presence while being amazing at his profession and delightuflly idiosyncratic. You can imagine a commercial for the show that’s just a montage of several characters saying “Bull” in different tones.

Prediction: Renewal – This is so fucking generic that there’s just as good a chance it fails. But that’s everything on CBS, right, and Weatherly has earned his shot with the network. Oh, and by the ad test, this and Kevin Can Wait are the far and away most advertised CBS shows in NYC.

MacGyver – 10/23

MacGyver

He’s baaaack. A super duper young spy (about a decade younger than Richard Dean Anderson was when he got the job) who succeeds while, you know, MacGyvering things; the trailer plays very clearly on the primary gimmick of resourcefully pulling together unlikely materials around him in any scenario to accomplish his task and being a quick wit while doing show. He’s got a couple of allies, but basically the trailer focuses on the action scenes.

Prediction: Renewal – for all the gimmicky and likely mediocrity, I’ve said before, there’s always a surprising shortage of legitimate action shows on television.

Man with a Plan – 10/24

Man With a Plan

CBS continues to just churn out the CBS-iest shows. Here’s how they do it, Man With a Plan-style. Take a 40something white male one-time TV star (Matt LeBlanc). Give him a nuclear family (two or three kids) and place him in a scenario that you would not expect from a 40-something white man in the 1980s, which in this case means that when his wife goes back to work to become the primary breadwinner, he’s got to take care of the kids, full-time. A man! As a primary caretaker! Think of all the zany misadventures! Audiences are never going to believe this one! Just the preview has me wanting to write more words about how offensive and terrible it is, but I’ll wait for an actual episode.

Prediction: 12- Please. Even by CBS standards. This trailer makes Kevin Can Wait look progressive.

The Great Indoors – 10/27

The Great Indoors

 

 

Pure Genius

 

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Show of the Day: Bull

19 Aug


To say that something is long forgotten assumes it was once remembered to begin with, which is why that phrase would not be applicable to Bull.  I’ve never met another person who remembers the existence of the show.  That said, even if you’ve never heard of the show it holds an important distinction in the annals of cable TV.  It was the first ever original series on TNT.  Now there are Leverage and Dark Blue and The Closer and Saving Grace and Rizzoli and Isles and all of them owe a little something to Bull, as the oldest child it may not have been the most successful, but it paved the way.

Bull was almost doomed from the start.  Named after the Bull market that seemed ready to last forever, the show aired as the dot-com bubble began its crash, making it look very out of place with circumstances.

Bull was a story of a group of young ambitious investment bankers who were about to break apart from the large, well established investment bank they were part of.  Making this transition even more controversial was the fact that the leader of the breakaways was the grandson of the founder of the investment they were all leaving.

I didn’t know a damn thing about investment banking when I watched the show (I don’t know all that much more now), but they managed to make it seem like a crazy, exciting, high-stakes world where the success of their young firm hinged on ten things going right every episode.  In the first episode, the rebellion from the old firm begins led by proud WASP scion Robin Roberts III, played by actor George Newborn, who might best be known for providing the voices for Superman in the Justice League series of cartoons, and Final Fantasy character Sephiroth in any English language incarnation of games that featured him.  His dad was portrayed by Ryan O’Neal, and his grandfather, known as the “Kaiser” who would become the primary antagonist of the show, was played by Donald Moffat, a British actor who might best be known for playing the evilUSpresident in Clear and Present Danger.  The show also featured Elizabeth Rohm who went on to a stint as Assistant District Attorney on Law & Order for a couple of years, and Stanley Tucci who played a more experienced negotiator who the team needs on their side to survive, but whose loyalty is in debate in nearly every episode.

Basically, in each episode they try valiantly to stay afloat, as the old firm tries to bring them down, attempting to sabotage their every deal.  There’s plenty of personal tension abreast as well.  We never got any resolution; Bull was cancelled halfway through its run, and I know of know way to get my hands on the second half of the season – though a youtube commenter on the preview above mentions that they showed the whole thing in Finland.

Did Bull make television history?  No, not really.  But I watched it, it deserves at least a rememberance that it once existed.  A marked grave, if not necessarily a yearly candle on its day of death.  I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

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