I didn’t know much about Boomerang other than it was about someone working in advertising, and when it started, I noticed it was only sitcom length. And the opening scene was a REALLY bad commercial for some stupid soda, with ridiculous characters and ridiculous lines. I thought it must be a really unfunny comedy.
Nope, it’s a semi-drama about two young up and coming black advertising types who want to find their own way, even though both work for a big ad company that their parents built. I only say that because I watched the first episode, had almost no clue what the premise of the show was or where it was going, and had to read the IMDB description to figure it out. The dialogue was obvious, the show was short, and there was about as much content as a sitcom without the jokes.
They couldn’t even hold my interest at sitcom length. I’m not even going to bother reviewing it in more detail — my pick was originally CANCELLATION, and I see no reason to change it.
Nina Reilly gets a call from her old mentor to sit second-chair on a murder case that started with a grave robbery.
What I Liked
The story that the client tells is surprisingly plausible…he was hired to rob a grave, which he did. Except when he’s caught, the cops go back and check the grave he robbed and find out that there’s now a fresh body in it so he’s charged with murder. It’s a simple twist but there is little doubt through the case that he’s not guilty and that there is “something else” going on. And just to complicate things, her mentor is basically dumping the case on her, has done almost no prep, is showing early signs of dementia, and the PI he hired did almost no work either. Nina has her hands full just as Paul proposes.
What I Didn’t Like
There are two threads running through the story that are less than optimal. First, the premise of the mystery is that the dead body that is stolen is tied to a society of Russian conspiracy theorists who suspect he was tied to the Romanoffs (hey, he’s Russian, he must be, right?). This is about the fourth book I’ve read in the last two years that threw in a Romanoff angle, and it’s not handled that well, although most don’t anyway. Second, the marriage proposal from Paul leads to a bunch of emotional drama and angst, and detracts heavily from the story. It reads more like a bad romance novel than a mystery.
The Bottom Line
Good story with the mentor, but the other stuff detracts.
Fantasy isn’t my favorite genre, but I’ll watch it if it’s good and doesn’t stray into horror. Sometimes I’ll go for the light stuff, like Buffy; other times I’m looking for Blade or Underworld. So when I saw A Discovery of Witches was about witches and vampires, and wasn’t aimed at the teen set, I thought I would give it a try. It is really solid.
The premise is that the main character, Dr. Diana Bishop, has returned to Oxford doing research on alchemy. But she’s also a witch whose parents were killed for being witches, so she has renounced her power. She refuses to use it, although it has been manifesting on its own of late. She goes to the library and asks for a specific volume of a series of texts, v.782, a book that has been missing from the collection for some time. Except this time, it appears and she reads it. As she opens it, it unlocks some ancient powers and even transfers some of the writing to her hand. But the mere touching of the book has alerted others that she has found it. Other witches and covens, for example. And a very persistent vampire who wants to read about how vampires were first created. Apparently, they’re having trouble siring new vampires, and Professor Clairmont thinks the text will tell him how to “fix things”. The other coven thinks it will tell them how to kill all vamps.
Oh, did I also mention both the witch and vampire are attracted to each other? No? Oh, well, they are. And so romance is likely to bloom in the midst of a coming storm.
Somewhat ironic, but the female lead is Teresa Palmer, who in 2010 was the female lead in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice…guess she really likes magic! She’s pretty solid, coming across as a mature serious business woman, able to easily handle the vamp who has entered her life although she doesn’t want anything to do with him or magic. The vamp is played by Matthew Goode, and it is a LONG way back to having seen a much younger version of him in Chasing Liberty (2004). He’s dark, he’s serious, he speaks quietly and formally. Very good impression on the witch.
The rest of the characters are ho-hum, but the two main ones are solid. Almost makes me want to run out and buy the Deborah Harkness books they are based on, but I’ll settle for watching the rest of the episodes.
And I’m not only going to watch, I’m going to go out on a limb and predict RENEWAL.
Back at the start of the TV season, I read about “The Fix”, and all I got out of it was “second chance at a serial murder case”, and my gut said CANCELLATION. I watched the first episode, and I am sticking with that prediction even though I would kind of like it to continue, even though I won’t be watching it.
The premise is a prosecutor goes after a celebrity for murder, and he is found not guilty. She retreats into the hills, leaves the DA’s office, finds a boyfriend, rides horses. Eight years later and her old partner comes knocking — the celebrity has killed someone else, they think, and he wants her to come back and help out. A second chance to GET HIM. The funny thing is that you see both sides of the case, at least somewhat, and the supposed bad guy is pretty convincing acting like the aggrieved victim of a campaign of harassment. He still has a celebrity lawyer, and he’s slick as a snake. The battle is on.
It has a similar feel to the “ripped from the headlines” tabloid dramas that were tried a couple of years ago that didn’t take. False tension, angst, drama, oooh, sexy, right? Well, not really. And since you don’t meet the victim in the opening (nor the prior victims), there isn’t much hatred to tap into to see them go after the guy again.
My first surprise in the show, since I knew very little about it, is the star. Robin Tunney plays the DA who lost 8 years before, back for Round 2, and I loved her as Agent Lisbon in The Mentalist. But let’s face it, she was second fiddle to the razzle dazzle of Patrick Jane. She wasn’t asked to emote very often, and she has limited range that I’ve seen. Here? She walks around like the previous trial just ended — exhausted, muted, sleepwalking, reluctant. I didn’t give a rat’s ass about her drama, where is our fiery sword of justice for the victim? Meh.
For other cast members, it’s a mixed bag…Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje plays the presumed killer, and I saw nothing worth noticing in his performance; Scott Cohen plays the slick defense lawyer, and he does a decent job; Adam Rayner plays the DA who brought the old DA back, but it’s a bit hard to get a handle on him or his character; Breckin Meyer plays the big DA in the office, and it’s nice to see him after Designated Survivor rehabilitated his ability to do semi-serious after Franklin and Bash type-casting; and Marc Blucas plays the cowboy boyfriend that Tunney’s character lives with on a ranch. It’s been a long time since he played Riley on Buffy, and it was nice to see him again.
Yet I didn’t care about ANY of the characters, who was dead, who did it, or any of the drama.
Today seems to be the day for shows I should like, but don’t. Whiskey Cavalier has at its root the premise of an FBI agent and a CIA agent working together to take down some bad guys, although the pilot is their origin story. High-energy, lots of action, international espionage, sounds great. Almost like Alias or Covert Affairs, both of which I liked.
The FBI agent is played by Scott Foley, and that’s a hit/miss thing with me. I haven’t loved him in anything, probably all the way back to Felicity days, and when the show opens, he’s crying in a hotel room in some spoof-like scene of the dumped boyfriend. He then turns into Jason Bourne for a bit, albeit with long soulful moments to talk about love.
The CIA agent is played by Lauren Cohan, and she’s awesome to watch. Cute, funny, kick-ass, did I mention cute? The two go head-to-head for the same target and it’s pretty evenly matched.
There’s some supporting cast members, but it is the two main agents for most of the show.
Which leaves me with two problems going forward. First and foremost, the tone of the show is half-spoof. They poke fun at the genre repeatedly, while playing it straight themselves, and it grates on the nerves before the end of the FIRST EPISODE. It’s not funny enough to be spoof, it’s not serious enough to be tense.
Second, the whole fun of the first episode is them competing against each other — but at the end of the episode, they join forces and will be working together. Sure, there will be interplay, but really? You upend the ENTIRE premise of the show after the first episode?
Pass.
On my early review of the show, all I knew was that it was CIA and FBI hotshots, and my prediction was CANCELLATION. I’ll stand by that now.
