Tag Archives: NBC

Spring 2012 Review: Bent

22 Apr

If only the theme was Bent by Matchbox 20

Another review for a show no one has seen, or will see, making us wonder why NBC even bothers putting the show on air without even trying to get people to watch it.

Amanda Peet is Alex, a newly single mom with a high-powered job struggling to cope.

In an explanation that lets you know this show is in tune with current events, Alex’s husband was arrested for embezzlement, is now in jail, and gave the proceeds from the illicit activity to his mistress.  Peet is struggling, hanging out with her loosey-goosey best friend (sister, apparently – I couldn’t tell that from the episode) Screwsie, which I can only assume can not be her real name.  She decides she needs a change, in the form of a complete remodeling of her kitchen and living room.  In comes our second main character, surfer dude and all around laid back contractor Pete, who, having lost his contracting business after gambling all his money away, is looking for a fresh start.  Pete convinces his whole crew to get behind him and sells Alex on his proposal, possibly influenced by Alex’s sister, who remarks several times on how attractive he is; The sister and Pete have a tet a tet of questions for each other like “Did you work at bar x” and “Have you ever been to club y” to convince themselves that they haven’t had sex with one another.

Although Pete shows up late, he does some good work, and is on his game until he runs into Alex’s daughter’s babysistter at a bar, sleeps with her, and drops her off at Alex’s house the next day, late for her babysitting gig.  Alex fires Pete (end of show?) and Pete, despondent, decides to act a little crazy, stealing some supplies from the rival contractor who got the gig after him.  Pete runs into Alex’s daughter, and they bond.  She’s nervous about a concert performance she has to give, a fact Alex can’t see because she, high-powered woman, has too much on her plate.  Pete brings the daughter to where his dad, who plays a piano at a department store, works, has her play on the piano there, she feels better about herself, and Alex, feeling sympathetic and vaguely grateful eventually decides to relent and put Pete back on the job.

Wacky side character alert:  The seriously wacky character in this program is Pete’s dad, played by sitcom veteran Jeffrey Tambor.  He hangs out with the guys and is employed playing piano at a local department store, while his true passion is singing Fleetwood Mac, though apparently he’s been specifically warned about singing while he’s working.

I’ve always liked Amanda Peet.  I don’t have a great reason for that.  I’m just laying it out there so you know my biases.  I’m not the world’s best examiner of mythical romantic chemistry, but I do think Peet and Walton have a pretty good repartee.  Of course, they’re not together at the beginning of the show, as Alex has a boyfriend, and well, Pete just slept with the babysitter, but if this show went more than the six episodes it will go, there would clearly be some sort of on-again, off-again relationship.  Otherwise, I’m not sure how many seasons Pete could keep merely being the contractor at her house is, unless he does a really, really terrible job.

It wasn’t a super funny show, but the dialogue was reasonably smart.  It’s definitely in the second class of sitcoms, above the truly terrible (here’s a quick nearly fool proof way to avoid a truly terrible sitcom – if you turn it on and it’s multi-camera and has a laugh track, turn it off immediately.  IMMEDIATELY).

I honestly don’t know why they even bother putting this show on the air though.  It started in March, there was virtually no promotion; it never stood a chance.  It’s almost cruel to get this rare opportunity to have your show actually air on a major network, but with virtually no chance to actually succeed.

Also, the theme song is not Bent by Matchbox Twenty.  I know, a wasted opportunity.

Will I watch it again?  Again, probably not.  There’s just too much to do, and while this show does seem like it could have potentially grown into something, there’s absolutely no way it will get the chance to do that.

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Spring 2012 Review: Best Friends Forever

17 Apr

So I’m going to belatedly review a bunch of shows that if they’re still on the air, won’t be for very long, and which most of you will never watch.  If a show airs and no one watches it, was it ever on?  Still, somebody must do the thankless jobs; attention must be paid and all that.

The titular best friends are Jessica Black (played by Jessica St. Clair) and Lennon White (Lennon Parham).  Jessica is talking to Lennon via video chat as the show opens, Jessica in San Francisco, where she is awaiting the return of her husband, with whom she has apparently been having problems, and Lennon in New York.  When, instead of her husband, divorce papers show up, she’s so despondent that she hops on a plane to New York and visits Lennon, who attempts to comfort her as she slips back into her old pre-marriage New York routine (apparently they lived in what is now Lennon’s apartment together).  But, wait, there’s a problem!  Getting in the way of the best friend Steel Magnolia viewing sessions is Lennon’s new-ish live-in boyfriend, Joe, who feels like he’s getting the squeeze now that Jessica has come to stay.  He doesn’t like the way they want to spoil his chili Sundays, or move his blow up Michigan chair.  Jessica doesn’t trust Joe either; upon the hilarious miscommunication plot device of finding a ring and thinking Joe is going to propose, she innately suspects that Joe is not up to the caliber of man Lennon deserves, and makes it her mission to ensure Lennon won’t be marrying this guy she simply doesn’t know enough about.

Luckily for the BFFs, crisis is averted when it turns out that the ring is not an engagement ring at all, but rather a super-sweet memento of Lennon and Joe’s first date at Medieval times, which Joe bought to remember the occasion.  Jessica realizes Joe makes Lennon very happy, and that he’s a legit good guy, while Joe realizes that he needs to make room in his life for Jessica, since Jessica is so important to Lennon, and there’s a big hug at the end (I am absolutely not lying about the hug).

Oh, and in town is also a mutual friend of the crew’s named Rav, who Jessica seems to have maybe a romantic past with, which she seemingly ended.  Rebound, anyone?

Wacky side character alert (I’m tempted to add this to my reviews from now on as a regular feature):  The fifth main cast member is precoicious African-American 9-year old Queenetta, a neighbor who constantly hangs outside their building and apparently verbally spars with the two women.  In the pilot, she criticizes Jessica’s choices of dress, particularly her khaki pants.

It’s not a terrible sitcom.  We’re not in Whitney, or Last Man Standing, or 2 Broke Girls, or Are You There Chelsea territory, by any means.  It’s merely the more common brand of forgettable sitcom.  I hold no animus towards any of these characters, and they seem like perfectly nice people on the whole, but nor was there a whole lot to make me sad when this show inevitably dies off after five episodes of a terrible NBC time slot (trick question! All NBC time slots are terrible!).  It’s worthy of a big ol’ meh.

Will I watch it again?  I’m not going to.  If watching it again would help get Whitney or Are You There Chelsea get cancelled, I would watch it 18 more times, but as it is, there’s just miles and miles of sitcoms to go before I sleep, and mediocrity, while not terrible, but without a spark of promise that it will develop into something really good, isn’t worth spending time on.

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Power Rankings: Night Court, part 2

7 Feb

Night Court Power Rankings, part 2.  The top three.  On we go.

3.  Markie Post – (as Christine Sullivan) – She was first in TV movies Beyond Suspicion and Someone She Knows, and then had her most notable post-Night Court role in three season sitcom Hearts Afire, starring aside John Ritter.  She made her money after that as a TV movie regular for a couple of years, appearing in Visitors of the Night, Chasing the Dragon, Dog’s Best Friend (as the voice of Horse), Survival on the Mountain, and I’ve Been Waiting for You.  She also appeared in an episode of Harry Anderson’s Dave’s World, and as Mary’s mom in There’s Something About Mary.  She was in one season TGIF sitcom Odd Man Out in 1999, and appeared in the ‘00s in TV movies Late Bloomers, Till Dad Do Us Part,Holidayin Handcuffs, and Backyard Wedding.  She was in two episodes of The District, three of Scrubs, and one of Man Up and Ghost Whisperer, and in eight episodes in a voice role in Transformers: Prime.

2.  Charles Robinson (as Mac Robinson)  – I’ll be honest – I expected all of these actors to have done absolutely nothing because I was only familiar with two or three of them.  He was a main cast member on three season and utterly forgotten CBS series Love & War.  He was in episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Ink, cast mate John Laroquette’s eponymous John Larroquette Show, In The House, Malcolm and Eddie, and Touched by an Angel.  He was in nine of Home Improvement as Bud Harper and was in episodes of The Trouble of Normal, Soul Food (if you couldn’t figure out Robinson’s race, you probably have a good guess by now), Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place, My Wife and Kids, Abby, Yes, Dear, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Carinvale, The Bernie Mac Show, Charmed, House M.D., Cold Case (I know this list keeps going, bear with me), The Riches, My Name is Earl, Big Love, The Game, Hank, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, $#*! My Dad Says, and Harry’s Law.  That may well be the longest list I’ve ever gone through in one of these, and that’s saying something, so congratulate yourself if you made it through.  He was also in films Antoine Fisher and The House Bunny.

1.  John Laroquette (as Dan Fielding) – The clear breakout star of Night Court, Laroquette was one of three actors, along with Anderson and Richard Moll, to appear in every episode of the series.  He won four straight emmies for Best Supporting Actor, in every year from 1984-88, and asked not to be considered in 1989.  He declined a shot at a spin off starring his character, and instead ventured off into his own sitcom, The John Laroquette Show, which was critically well-liked, but commercially less so.  Still it lasted for four seasons.  Otherwise, in the ‘90s, he was in Richie Rich, an episode of Night Court cast member Harry Anderson’s Dave’s World, and starred in a short-lived CBS midseason replacement series Payne, based on the UK’s far more successful FawlyTowers.  He played recurring psychopathic murderer Joey Heric on six episodes of The Practice and he co-starred in epic fantasy five-part miniseries The 10th Kingdom on NBC in 2000.  He was in a The West Wing and starred in one-season NBC sitcom Happy Family with Christine Baranski.  He was in ten Hallmark TV movies as defense lawyer McBride and narrated the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake.  He was in two episodes of Joey and one of Kitchen Confidential, House M.D., Parks and Recreation, and White Collar.  He played lawyer Carl Sack on the last two seasons of Boston Legal.  He was in two episodes of Chuck and three of CSI:New York.  He was also in films Wedding Daze and Southland Tales.

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Power Rankings: Night Court, part 1

6 Feb

Okay, it’s been a lot of reviews and some commercials recently, but it’s time to get back into the ranking business.  Since we’ve been doing so much new, let’s do some old in the form of a return to the ‘80s with Night Court.  I never really watched the show, but was reminded of it by that weird 30 Rock episode where Kenneth’s dream is a recreation of Night Court.  It lasted a crazy nine seasons, and although I fully admitted the cast, who I knew almost nothing about, to be largely unsuccessful, I was surprised.  There aren’t a lot of stars, but almost everybody’s had at least a fair amount of work.

6.  Marsha Warfield (as Roz Russell) – Warfield is the obvious sixth, and then the rankings get muddled, but her career really isn’t bad at all.  She followed up Night Court with appearances in episodes of Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, The Addams Family, The John Larroquette Show, and her biggest role outside of Night Court as Dr. Maxine Nightengale in two seasons of Empty Next.  She was in episodes of Dave’s World, Smart Guy, Mad About You, Moesha (if you couldn’t figure out Warfield’s race, you probably have a good guess by now), two of Living Single, and singles of Clueless, the series, Love Boat: The Next Wave, and Veronica’s Closet.  She hasn’t acted in this millennium.

5.  Richard Moll (as Bull Shannon) – Shannon proves that you can do a lot of work acting and still have nobody notice.  Between voice acting, cameos in TV episodes, and low budget films, Moll has kept shockingly busy.  Voice acting:  As Two Face in stone cold classic Batman: The Animated Series, Norman in Mighty Max, episodes of Superman, Freakazoid, Aaaahh!!! Real Monsters (had to check three times to get the “Aaahh!!!” spelling correct), The Incredible Hulk, Spider-man, as Scorpion, The New Batman Adventures, Justice League, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.  TV:  He was in episodes of Martin and Highlander, five episodes of two-season forgotten TGIF show Getting By, episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Babylon 5, Baywatch, Weird Science, Married with Children, 7th Heaven, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Smallville, and Cold Case.  He appeared in 17 episodes of Nick show 100 Deeds for Eddie Dowd.  Movies, real, and seemingly made up:  He was in Beanstalk, The Elevator, Galaxis, The Lawyer, The Secret Agent Club, Jingle All The Way, Snide and Prejudice, But I’m A Cheerleader, Monkey Business, Route 66, The Biggest Fan, Angel Blade, Dumb Luck, Lake Effects, and then, well you get the idea.  The man must really need some paychecks.  His ranking here by the way is not obvious at all.  The reason he got stuck in fifth is the simple lack of being a main cast member in an at least three season sitcom, which everyone else coming up has.

4.  Harry Anderson (as Harry Stone) –  He was in episodes of Hearts Afire, Night Stand, his Night Court co-worker’s The John Larroquette Show, and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.  His most notable post-Night Court work was starring in four season sitcom Dave’s World based on the life of columnist Dave Barry (Anderson was Dave).  After that, he’s only been in episodes of Noddy and Son of the Beach, which was in 2002.  I thought I’d put him higher for starring in a four season sitcom, but everyone left was a main cast member in something and showed up in more shows.

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Spring 2012 Review: Smash

1 Feb

So NBC, you win.  I watched Smash.  Are you happy now?  My favorite game during the Super Bowl was counting the Smash commercials.  NBC has been bombarding the three viewers of the network with Smash ads for a full half year, and I was concerned that the network might literally implode from within if the show was a failure.  Anyway, it did well enough, and though putting one’s faith in Smash as a network savior may or may not be a sound strategy depending on the type of demographic you hope to gain, I’m glad to say that it was a pretty solid episode of TV.

Smash is the story all the steps and pieces that go into putting on a Broadway musical.  It begins with the conception of an idea by a man and woman songwriting team, and over the course of the first episode they record a quick demo of a song they come up with which leaks onto the internet, leading to interest from producers.  The musical is about Marilyn Monroe (which you’d know if you’ve seen one of the thousands of commercials) and the episode gets through two rounds of auditions at which point it looks like the casting of Marilyn is between two actresses, a veteran chorus girl and an up and coming youngster from Iowa.  The show appears to be a true ensemble piece, focusing on the songwriting team, the two women auditioning for the part, the producer, and the director.

Overall, I really enjoyed the show.  The cast was excellent, and I enjoyed the show for a number of reasons, but I do want to point out the fact that I appreciate the covering of a subject matter that hasn’t been done a hundred times.  I love The Wire and Law & Order but it’s nice when every show on TV is not about cops, or lawyers, or doctors.  More that that, it makes it easier on the show as well, because there are many fewer clichés already out there for the show to just walk into.  Sure, maybe there are archetypes associated with musicals in general, but not nearly as many in terms of characters as there are for cops, who, for example, care too much about every case or doctors who, for example, are jerks but really care on the inside.  The characters in general seem well-built.  There were no caricatures and no one I couldn’t believe, and aside from the director propositioning the young starlet, just about no clichés.  The potential conflicts on the show so far, between the male half of the songwriting team and the director, and between the two candidates for the role of Marilyn have potential and more that, don’t have an obvious villain or hero, which I appreciate.

I remember having heard Smash billed as an adult Glee, but that’s really inaccurate.  There’s absolutely nothing alike between the two shows except that they both feature musical sequences.  They’re different in that regard as well, as Glee’s numbers are much more elaborate and outside of the direct story, while Smash features fewer songs per episode and more original songs.  Where the Glee songs often seem to be totally unnecessary and sometimes disjointed from the rest of the show (I mean, they’re necessary in so much as that’s what Glee is, but my friend watches the show without the songs and can follow along just as well), the Smash songs make a lot more sense so far in the context of the show, as about a production of a musical.  I think there will be fewer originals per episode in the future, and more covers, and the very small amount of musical sequence which felt outside of the plot was probably my least favorite part of the show, but I’ll willing to give some leeway for now.

I have mixed feelings regarding musicals.  Growing up, my parents would take my brothers and I to musicals fairly frequently, and I enjoyed them, but I have kind of stopped going in the past few years.  This is less a complete indictment of musicals, than a realization of the fact that musicals generally fall below other things I’m interested in doing.  Still, I appreciate the art form.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you hate musicals, you probably won’t like this, but you don’t need to love musicals to enjoy it.  I do wonder what kind of appeal this will have in the fly-over states, but maybe NBC should just give up on CBS demographics and try and aim for the educated, high-income viewers that are already the only ones who watch its programs.

Will I watch it again?  Yes.  Smash didn’t excite me in the way Homeland did or have the distinctive voice of Luck or even the trashy fun of Revenge but it appears at least so far to be just a solid, well-executed show.  It’s nothing flashy and there’s nothing instantly compelling enough to vault it into my top shows but the people connected to it seem to really know what they’re doing, behind and in front of the cameras.  Right now it looks like a Matt Holliday – a player who got a big contract which generated a lot of hype, but doesn’t do anything flashy other than produce day in and day out and live up to the contract’s terms.  Of course, this could all go sour in a half season like Glee did, but it’s earned more of a chance from its first episode than a vast majority of shows do.

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Spring 2012 Review: Are You There Chelsea?

20 Jan

I run out of things to say about these generically terrible comedies.  Distinguishing between them is difficult and sometimes feels like splitting absolutely pointless hairs.  Grouping them is also an alternatively interesting and useless experience.  Are You There Chelsea? belongs firmly to one of this year’s hot categories, series about bawdy women that show that women can get right down in the gutter with guys along with  Whitney went there, as did 2 Broke Girls (Unsurprisingly Whitney Cummings, behind Whitney and 2 Broke Girls, made several appearances on Chelsea lately).

Are You There Chelsea? stars That 70’s Show’s Laura Prepon as Chelsea, a veiled Chelsea Handler-based character. Chelsea is an unrepentant sinner, getting drunk and having sex as she pleases.  When at the beginning of the first episode, she gets a DUI, she has a moment when she decides she needs to reevaluate her life.  The hook is that, if this was an traditional, classic show she’d realize she needs to get her life together, but here what it means is that she needs to get an apartment that’s walking distance from the bar where she works.  That’s good, in theory, in that it’s modern thinking.  I’d certainly rather that outcome than her life suddenly changing drastically.  The problem is that the show acts as if that unrepentant party girl attitude is just enough in and of itself to sustain a good show.  I’m not sure whether it’s supposed to shock the conscience or just be genuinely funny, but it’s not either.  Comedy has moved past the point where the  non-traditional sitcom arc of Chelsea’s life is novel.

The show is multi-camera and has a laugh track.  If there was any sense of comic timing present in the show at all, the laugh track murders it.  It’s also complete with the usually unhelpful crutch of narration.  Entries and books could be written about the use of narration, and at its best, it’s pointed and helps us get in touch with the mental state of a character or keeps us up to date with the story so events can happen without being shown.  At its worst it points out things we can figure out on our own or adds unnecessary sentiment.  Sentiment should be earned by events that happen in the show rather than said.  At the end of the first episode, Chelsea is right beside her sister who has just given birth.  This is supposed to be a touching moment, but in case you couldn’t figure that out,Chelsea reinforces the fact with some unnecessary narration.  Are You There Chelsea? tries to be unconventional in its subject matter (the whole drunk, bawdy woman thing) but traditional in its approach with the filming method and the healthy doses of sentiment and none of it works.

The show was originally called Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea, but that title was changed due to some regulations about using the word vodka in a network show title.  Still in the script though is the use of that original title as a line within the first three minutes of the show, as Chelsea asks that question when she is in jail for her DUI.  The new title Are You There Chelsea? makes absolutely no sense but it doesn’t use the name of an alcohol product, for whatever that’s worth.  It’s also slightly confusing that Chelsea Handler plays character Chelsea’s older sister.

It’s a shame all these shows are so bad because there’s absolutely no reason there shouldn’t be a funny show led by a late 20-something dirty girl.  There just isn’t.

Will I watch it again?  No.  I feel bad when I judge shows before watching them.  I feel slightly less bad when I judge them within one minute of their starting.  It’s definitely not completely fair, but 90% of the time you can tell whether there’s a chance of a show not being terrible.  Of course, I still stuck around for the whole episode, but I suppose my mind could have been made up by then.  That said, I’m no less confident that the show was terrible.

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The Top Ten Strangest Saturday Night Live Musical Guests, Part 2

18 Jan

Time for part 2 of our countdown of the ten, but really eleven, strangest Saturday Night Live musical guests.  You can find part 1 here which contains the first five and the criteria for appearing on the list.

6.  Ray LaMontagne – Super hot critically acclaimed but not singles charting indie rock bands have become a bit of a minor mainstay on SNL.  TV on the Radio and the Fleet Foxes have appeared, and Bon Iver is slated to shortly. Even though Ray LaMontagne actually charted, albeit barely with a #90 hit on the Hot 100 and a #34 Rock hit, his appearance seems much stranger to me due to the type of music he plays.  At least TV on the Radio and Fleet Foxes are probably big hits with the type of audience which Saturday Night Live is most likely to draw.  LaMontagne is certainly more popular than a couple of the artists on this list overall in the US, but just seems like an odd fit for the program.  This is especially true considering that I would wager that LaMontagne’s music is  best known for his song “Trouble” being used in a Traveler’s Insurance commercial with a cute dog.

5. Johnny Clegg and Savuka – Clegg and his backing band Savuka are apparently important pop music artists in South African music history.  In 1988, when Clegg and Savuka performed, I suppose America was only two years removed from Graceland making all things South African music hip and with apartheid still in place, political music with songs on such topics as advocating the release of Nelson Mandela was very relevant.  The most prominent song by Clegg may have been “Scatterlings of Africa” which appeared on the Rain Man soundtrack.  Still, this is a stretch, even in a year when SNL was clearly into world music; the Gipsy Kings appeared later in the season.

4.Lana del Rey – in a year or two, or even a month or two, this choice of musical guest might seem rote and hip, but this is Saturday Night Live taking its role as cultural curator more seriously than it ever has.  Usually an artist appearing on Saturday Night Live has some semblance of mainstream popularity (exactly what mainstream is of course needs to be defined) but also more than two songs.  The bands mentioned in the Ray LaMontagne section were certainly independent but had all released super critically acclaimed albums, and all of them sold enough albums to chart fairly high on the Billboard 200 (all relative of course since no one buys albums anymore).  Lana del Rey’s album doesn’t even come out until after her SNL appearance, and her appearance is basically coming on the heels of the success of her song “Video Games,” which has made critical waves (she was one of the most polarizing figures in the indie community in 2011) but not broken through to the mainstream.

3.  The Tragically Hip – if this was Canadian Saturday Night Live, I’d expect them to have appeared a dozen times.  I started counting how many top forty hits they had in Canada and then lost count and stopped.  It’s not Canadian though, and the closest to chart success The Tragically Hip have had in the US is three appearance on the mainstream rock chart, the highest of which was #16.  The highest album chart appearance was #134 for 1996’s Trouble At The Henhouse.  Haven’t heard of it?  Not surprising.  I can’t imagine that most people south of Buffalo, New York had heard a Tragically Hip song in 1995 when they were the musical guest.  Allegedly fellow Canuck Dan Aykroyd played in influential role in getting them onto the show.

2.  Ms. Dynamite – maybe there’s a parallel universe in which this appearance looks prescient instead of strange, and heralds the coming of a new star female British rapper, like, well, there haven’t really been any in the US, but Lady Sovereign at least kind of had a hit.  It’s true that Dynamite was having a huge rookie year in the UK, with two top 10 singles and a third in the top 20 from her debut album A Little Deeper, but she hadn’t even scratched or sniffed or anything else the slightest bit in the Western Hemisphere.  Sure, the album hit the Billboard 200, at the ripe spot of 179.  Basically nobody in America knows who she is now, and nobody ever knew who she was.

1.Fear – The early years of Saturday Night Live are strange, as the institution has changed over the years, and the rules about what kind of musical acts came on probably hadn’t hardened completely even by the 7th season in 1981, the year Fear appeared on Halloween.  Still even by the more lax early season standards, Fear was unique.  A strong statement is to be made when the most famous thing about a band is their appearance on Saturday Night Live, which is pretty much the case for Fear.  They appeared as a personal favor for fan and former cast member John Belushi, who got them the gig in exchange for breaking his arrangement to have them soundtrack his movie Neighbors, after the producers of the movie did not agree to use Fear.  They brought moshers, and caused 20 thousand dollars in damage to the studio.  They didn’t even release an album until half a year after their appearance on the show, though they had been together for five years.  I almost put them lower on the list, but the more I looked, the more I felt I’m not even sure there is a close second to Fear.  There’s no other band like them that’s ever played on SNL.  SNL was extremely eclectic in those early years, and had many acts which were not pop or rock, but nothing else even resembling the hardcore punk of Fear.

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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.

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Fall 2011 New TV Show Predictions Reviewed, Part 2

26 Dec

A couple of months ago, I made predictions about how long new shows on CBS, NBC and The CW would last.  As all the shows have aired for a few weeks, it’s time for an evaluation of my predictions, although for some shows, the final word is not in yet.  Such an evaluation follows:

CBS

2 Broke Girls

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up with high likelihood of renewal.  I knew it was likely to get renewed, but I still tried to vote with my heart by hoping it at least wouldn’t last multiple seasons.  Now, we could be looking at the next Two and a Half Men (shivers).

How To Be A Gentleman

Predicted:  12-

What happened:  Cancelled.  Fourth on my top five easiest cancellation decisions.  Sad, because there’s a few people I like in the show, but not really sad.

Person of Interest

Predicted:  Renewal

What happened:  Picked up for a full season, likely to be renewed.  I was worried when the show didn’t start as strong as expected, but it would be a surprise, albeit not a huge one, at this point if the show wasn’t brought back.

A Gifted Man

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up for three more episodes, totally 16, leaning towards cancelled, but undecided.  Probably my best 13+ pick of the year, it meets all the middle of the road commercially and critically criteria to need an extended look but ultimately be cancelled.

Unforgettable

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up for a full season.  Along with Terra Nova, the most borderline of the borderline.  No idea which way it will go, may come down to the last minute.

NBC

Up All Night

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up for a full season, still up in the air for next year.  Neither a huge success nor a bust, on ratings-strapped NBC, executives are looking to grab on to anything with a chance of success (though not Community, unfortunately).  It’s moving to Thursday, and how it fairs there will determine its fate.  I’d lean towards renewal though.

Free Agents

Predicted:  12-

What happened:  Cancelled.  Number five in my most obvious cancellations of the year.  There wasn’t much press, and though this was likely the best of the comedies cancelled quickly this year, that’s not saying a whole lot.

The Playboy Club

Predicted:  12-

What happened:  Cancelled.  I’m out of my five obvious cancellation choices, but this would be number six if I had one.  It never really had a chance and it shouldn’t have.

Whitney

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up for a full season, awaiting ratings on a new night.  It will switch time periods with Up All Night, making much more sense for both shows.  It never belonged on Thursday night, and hopefully will be put to bed by the end of the year, but it could go either way.

Prime Suspect

Predicted:  Renewal

What happened:  Probably cancelled, but not officially yet.  I was just straight out wrong about this one.  It got generally well reviewed and with NBC as ailing as it is, I thought even with middling ratings, they’d keep it around.

Grimm

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up for a full season and leaning toward a renewal.  I went back and forth on this show as more news and previews emerged and I’m still not sure how I feel.  I think it will probably get renewed, but it’s not over yet.

CW

 

Ringer

Predicted:  Renewal

What Happened:  Picked up for full season, likely to be renewed, but not assured yet by any means.  It doesn’t take too much for the WB to renew, so I think Ringer will be in.

The Secret Circle

Predicted:  Renewal

What Happened:  Picked up for a full season and seems most likely of all the WB shows to merit a renewal.  I felt good about this choice partnered up with successful The Vampire Diaries and this just confirms it.

Hart of Dixie

Predicted:  13+

What Happened:  Picked up for a full season.  It’s likely to be renwed, though less likely right now than Ringer and definitely less likely than The Secret Circle.  Still, I feel good about my prediction even if it comes out wrong.

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Power Rankings: Law & Order, Law edition, Part 2

20 Dec

Law & Order Power Rankings, Law edition has been chopped into two parts for convenience – you can find the first part here.

6.  Annie Parisse (as Alexandra Borgia, seasons 15-16) – She was in Definitely, Maybe.  She appeared in two episodes of revered World War II miniseries The Pacific, as well as episodes of Fringe, The Big C and Person of Interest.  She was in seven episodes of Rubicon as a love interest for the main character played by James Badge Dale.  She appeared in two episodes of Unforgettable.  This past year she participated in Shakespeare in the Park plays All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure.  Also, strangely enough, her brother is married to Sam Waterston’s daughter.

5.  Elisabeth Rohm (as Serena Southerlyn, seasons 11-14) – She was in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous and TV movies FBI: Negotiator and Amber’s Story.  She was in three episodes of Big Shots and single episodes of 90210 and The Mentalist.  She was in eight episodes of the fourth and final seasons of Heroes, as Lauren Gilmore, who works with Noah Bennett and has a romantic relationship with him.  Recently, she was in Taylor Lautner movie Abduction.

4.  Richard Brooks (as Paul Robinette, seasons 1-3) – Brooks was in episodes of Chicago Hope, ER, Diagnosis Murder, Renegade, Nash Bridges, and Brimstone.  He was in The Substitute and The Crow: City of Angels.  He was a regular in the two season USA show G vs. E in 1999 as an agent in the afterlife who works for Heaven against a group of villains called “Morlocks” from Hell.  Afterwards, he was on episodes of NYPD Blue, Dead Last, Firefly, Skin, NCIS and Close to Home.  He played a detective in the short-lived 2007 Fox show Drive.  Afterwards, he’s been in episodes of Lie to Me, Childrens Hospital and Charlie’s Angels.

3.  Dianne Wiest (as Nora Levin, seasons 11-12) – She was a voice in Robots and in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Dan in Real Life, Synecdoche, New York, Rabbit Hole and The Big Year.  She appeared in two seasons of In Treatment as main character Paul Weston’s therapist, who he visited on Friday episodes.  Weist won an Emmy award for her work on the show.

2.  Jill Hennessy (as Claire Kincaid, seasons 4-6) –  Between the end of her Law & Order run, she appeared in Most Wanted and smaller films The Florentine and Row Your Boat.  In 2001 she got her next big role, starring as Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh in NBC drama Crossing Jordan.  She portrayed a forensic pathologist in Massachusetts who helped solve murders.  The show lasted six seasons and almost 120 episodes.  She portrayed her character on three episodes of Las Vegas.  She was in the movie Wild Hogs and will be in the new HBO horse racing David Milch series Luck.

1.  Angie Harmon (as Abby Carmichael, seasons 9-11) – After leaving Law & Order, she was in the direct-to-video Charlie Sheen-Denise Richards starrer Good Advice.  She voiced Barbara Gordon in an episode of Batman Beyond.  She appeared in Agent Cody Banks and was a main cast member in NBC series Inconceivable, about a group of people who work in fertility clinic (a groan about the title would be appropriate now), which only lasted two episodes.  She was in Fun with Dick and Jane and then co-starred in ABC series Women’s Murder Club, which lasted 13 episodes and was based on a series of James Patterson novels.  She was in single episodes of Samantha Who? And Chuck.  She currently stars as part of the cop and medical examiner partnership Rizzoli and Isles on TNT (one of the worst TV show titles in recent memory).  She’s detective Jane Rizzoli to Sasha Alexander’s Maura Isles.  The highly rated cable show finished its second season this summer and has been renewed for a third.  She gets the slight nod over Hennessey for more variety of career, and the current hit show, though if Hennessey is actually a significant part of Luck, and Luck is successful, the pendulum could swing in her direction.

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