Best
Glee- Sept 9th on FOX.
This quirky musical comedy about a group of high school outcasts who band together to form a glee club already has legions of fans, as it did a sneak preview episode after juggernaut American Idol last May. I'm already hopelessly devoted to this show with its talented cast, hooky pop songs and offbeat sense of humor. Each little preview released only heightens my excitement and with Ryan Murphy (the man who created both Popular and Nip/Tuck) behind it, my hopes are pretty high. Having said that- this show's unnecessary amount of praise after just one airing is a little ridiculous.
The Beautiful Life- Sept 16th on The CW
Despite the off-screen problems with star Mischa Barton, (rehab, piche photos) this new CW show is shaping up to be one of my new addictive favorites of the fall. It's paired with Top Model on Wednesdays and offers up a fictionalized backstage look at the sleazy world of modeling. The pilot has some interesting twists and turns and even though High School Musical star Corbin Bleu is one of the male leads, he's far less irritating when his hair is toned completely down. At any rate, it's more fascinating and cleverly crafted than re-tread Melrose Place or 90210.
Community- Sept 17th on NBC
Joel McHale (that guy from The Soup) plays a rich, smarmy lawyer who is sent back to community college to get a degree after the powers that be find out he weaseled his way into his job. Of course, he thinks the whole thing is a joke and immediately starts hitting on the only girl there and offends everyone else along the way with his slacker ways and entitled attitude. Big surprise, he comes around eventually (somewhat) and picks up a slew of oddball pals (including Chevy Chase!). It's 30 well-paced minutes and the supporting cast makes this show a fully enjoyable new offering. And get this...it actually looks funny.
The Good Wife- September 22nd on CBS
While the premiere episode of this is a little bit on the dry side, so I've heard, this show has oodles of potential with its ripped-from-the-headlines premise involving a corrupt politician getting caught with his pants down. Julianna Margulies means business here -- she's super bitter about her husband (played by the perfectly smarmy Chris Noth) being an ass and about having to go back to work in order to support her entire family. Strong acting, good concept and a decent script give this show our seal of approval, as long as they pick up the pacing as they go along.
Cougar Town- September 23rd on ABC
I didn't want to like this show on principle alone. Look at the name: Cougar Town? Annoying. Yet, the preview actually made me laugh several times. Maybe it's because Bill Lawrence (the guy who created Scrubs) came up with it, or maybe it's the fact that Courteney Cox will do pretty much anything for a laugh, or maybe it's the solid supporting cast (Christa Miller, Busy Phillips, Dan Byrd, Ian Gomez and Josh Hopkins) that makes it somehow work. Or maybe it's just that despite her pratfalls, Cox's truly desperate ex-wife is a more realistic and humorous portrayal of a divorcee trying to get on with her life than Desperate Housewives ever has been.
Modern Family- September 23rd on ABC
A "family" comedy that doesn't have an obnoxious laugh track or Kelsey Grammer? Sign me up. Especially since this show has some unique twists on the popular genre, with Jesse Tyler Ferguson (The Class) as part of a gay couple adopting a baby from Vietnam, his sister (Julie Bowen, Ed/Lost) as a working mom with two kids and their father (Ed O'Neill, Married With Children) who has remarried a much younger woman (Sofia Veraga, Dirty Sexy Money). It's got a lot going on, but the writers have successfully managed to balance this big ensemble and filled it with laugh-out-loud moments. Go check out the preview on Youtube...it's hilarious.
FlashForward- September 24th on ABC
This show seems like a desperate attempt to recreate the Lost phenomenon, with lots of intricate details that should keep fans guessing and rewatching episodes. But aside from that, it has an interesting premise: the entire human race suffers a blackout for two simultaneous minutes, during which each person gets a glimpse of their future. Will that future happen? Can they stop it? The cast has a good mix of big- and small-screen star power with Joseph Fiennes as the lead, supported by John Cho and the newly announced Dominic Monaghan. Plus Penny from Lost is on it, who I love.
V- November 3rd on ABC
This is a remake of the '80s miniseries about lizard-like aliens in disguise with nefarious agendas, with Scott Wolf as a TV reporter, Elizabeth Mitchell as part of the human resistance and Morena Baccarin from Firefly as the alien leader. High-end special effects give it a modern look, and with some interesting parallels to current politics, it could be a welcome new take on older material.
WORST
Melrose Place
The remake nobody wanted is upon us, and it is indeed terrible. First of all, aside from the awful, junior-league writing and community theater-level acting (Ashlee Simpson plays a secret villain!), it has one of those "hip" soundtracks that The CW loves to slap on its shows, turning them into jukebox power hours with Top 40 hit after Top 40 hit after slightly popular indie gem swapping over the actors speaking literally every 90 seconds. And as far as the pilot is concerned, the songs in it (all 60 of 'em!) were cleared early this year, so be prepared to be bombarded with the stalest assault of "hits" courtesy of Now! That's What I Call Music.
The Vampire Diaries
This probably looks the best of the worst. But part of my reasons for panning The Vampire Diaries is just vampire story fatigue, to be honest, and while it is kind of deliciously fun to watch Ian Somerhalder (Lost's Boone) play a cocky, evil vampire, this teen show doesn't really add anything new to the Twilight/True Blood table (though, to be fair, The Vampire Diaries novels predate both of those). No harm, no foul here, but I just can't get excited about another one of these so soon.
Accidentally On Purpose
Lots of cougar jokes in this sitcom about a 37-year-old film critic (Jenna Elfman) who has unprotected sex with a man in his twenties because she's subconsciously baby crazy and gets knocked up. Aside from that bang-up premise, the writing is painfully unoriginal and Elfman is goofy as ever, and though the guy who plays her much younger baby daddy actually seems to have potential, the writing isn't going to give him an opportunity to really shine. Oh, and Ugly Betty's Ashley Jensen seems to be functioning as a low rent Barney Stinson knock-off here, which works about as well as you'd imagine.
Eastwick
One of the biggest problems with adapting a movie starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer is that Paul Gross, Rebecca Romijn, Jaime Ray Newman and Lindsay Price are just going to pale in comparison. And the writing isn't what you'd call stellar either. Eastwick isn't the worst fall pilot, but it is just kind of this clumsy, forgettable combination of Desperate Housewives and Charmed, and I doubt I'll be impressed.
Mercy
More like- I dont give a fuck cause I'm a Grey's/ER ripoff. There is so much wrong with this I can't even fit it all in a brief blurb, but suffice it to say that this hour-long drama about how nurses care and doctors are callous idiots has a lead (Taylor Schilling) who isn't a strong enough actress to carry a show, Michelle Trachtenberg trying to emote (stay on Gossip Girl), a stereotypical Puerto Rican nurse who can spot a cop from a mile away and has a brother who's in a gang and the gall to actually have characters saying lines like, "If you want to blame somebody, blame the terrorists." Of all the new shows, this looks the absolutely worst.
Brothers
Despite a perfectly likeable cast -- Carl Weathers and CCH Pounder as parents to Darryl "Chill" Mitchell and NFL star Michael Strahan -- much of the humor in this multi-camera family sitcom revolves around wheelchair slapstick with real life paraplegic Mitchell, and the gap in Strahan's teeth. It's actually not that terrible (CCH Pounder in particular brings a lot to the table), but it's certainly not great by any means. Aside from the stabbing-the-paraplegic's-legs-with-a-fork and "You should introduce your two front teeth to each other" bad jokes, it's also a sappy "family" show and I mean that in every derogatory sense of the word.
The Cleveland Show
It's The Family Guy's blatantly racist spinoff! Oh no you di-in't, Seth MacFarlane! Horrible. There, I said it.
Trauma
More like- lets just explode things and act dramatic and people will watch. This is a show about the perilous lives of paramedics in San Francisco. We fucking get it already. The problem is it's all brawn and no brains, and the female lead is played by Anastasia Griffith, who you may or may not know as the only slightly less terrible actress than Rose Byrne on Damages. And there's this hackneyed loose cannon character who dominates the action played by Cliff Curtis (who is usually an awesome actor… just not when the script is terrible, as it turns out) that just made us roll our eyes every time he quipped and head-cocked his way through a medical emergency. But if explosions are your thing, this may tide you over until 24 returns in January.
Hank
t's a Kelsey Grammer sitcom, which should be reason enough to hate it, but the premise (a Wall Street executive who gets canned and has to leave New York and cope with hillbillies in Virginia) mandates that most of the humor be rooted in Kelsey-Grammer-goes-slumming-and-is-disgusted jokes. Not even a supporting cast of Melinda McGraw and David Koechner could save that.
The Middle
It's like an updated, but less funny, Malcolm in the Middle starring Patricia Heaton and The Janitor from Scrubs as parents to three unruly kids in the Midwest. Even if it weren't a shameless, inferior rehash of another show (which it is), Patricia Heaton is pretty hard to like in any role. We'll be skipping this for the rest of the season.
Three Rivers
This hospital drama starring Moonlight's Alex O'Loughlin has two main problems. First of all, it's dreadfully boring. Secondly, the entire show just feels like a PSA about the noble act of organ donation. The medical team at Three Rivers are what doctors on other medical shows refer to as "vultures" -- they hover around brain-dead people and preach at their stubborn family members until they agree to donate their loved ones' organs. Then we get a heartstring-tugging follow-up, where the family meets the organ recipient and says things like, "Can I hear my daughter's heartbeat?" and we're supposed to cry, we guess, but this show is so Hallmark movie-of-the-week manipulative we just can't take it seriously. We don't need any more hospital dramas!
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