Category Archives: Television

Series premiere: Prodigal Son

The PolyBlog
September 28 2019

There are a lot of profiler shows that have come and gone. Some work, some don’t. They often try for a twist. A woman who grew up not knowing who her father was who suddenly is confronted with the FBI’s most wanted man saying he’ll only speak to her. An agent who investigated a series of murders until it consumed them and now they’re back. A victim who became a counsellor or an agent or an actual profiler. 

Or, in this case, the son of a serial killer who became an FBI profiler and was fired for breaching protocol. I wasn’t convinced it would work, so I predicted cancellation.

Tom Payne plays the titular son, Malcolm. I didn’t see him in The Walking Dead so he’s a fresh face for me. Decent, a little unsteady in his performance, but interesting character and watchable as an actor.

His boss is played by Lou Diamond Phillips and I think he does a great job.  I confess I’m hit or miss with LDP. I found him weak on Blue Bloods, so-so on Blindspot, watchable on Stargate: Universe, painful on Numb3rs, and okay for Young Guns. It’s not like his breakout in La Bamba. But he was okay here. Plays it straight, no curves, and it seems to fit better. Other coworkers include Aurora Perrineau, Keiko Agena, and Frank Harts. I didn’t get a fix on any of them, hard to tell.

His family consists of a sister, mother and of course the psycho father. The sister, Ainsley, is played by Halston Sage and I was struggling to place her at all. I just couldn’t figure out who she was, but she seemed so familiar. Of course, without all the alien makeup from Orville, she looks a bit different. Decent, but a bit weak of a character in the pilot.  Bellamy Young plays the mom, Jessica, and she has definite presence but not sure I care for the character much. Watching her, I also struggled to place her. Sure, I saw her in Dirty Sexy Money. But going back through her credits, I realized it was an episode of Cold Case where she played a housewife turned dance hall girl during the Depression and the subsequent War of the Worlds. She lit up the screen for that episode. Hope to see more of THAT here.

Finally, Hannibal Lecter, err, I mean Dr. Martin Whitly aka the serial killer father nicknamed The Surgeon is played by Michael Sheen. I haven’t watched Good Omens yet so hadn’t seen him there. I didn’t watch The Good Fight or Masters of Sex, so hadn’t seen him there either. Nor any of the other long list of roles. But for me, he is the weakest of the characters. There is almost zero menace or intrigue for his portrayal at all. More like milquetoast than Hannibal. He’s almost pathetic. Put differently, he shows no presence or gravitas to create a mythic figure for his son or his family.

Overall, I saw enough for me to keep watching. Unfortunately, I didn’t see enough to predict renewal.

Series premiere: Undone

The PolyBlog
September 28 2019

I have almost no idea how to review the Amazon show, Undone. I predicted cancellation, but I’m going to wait a minute to tell you why. Let’s look at the show first.

The premise of the show is a young woman, Alma, whose life is a bit disappointing to her. She lives with her boyfriend, Sam, and she wakes up every morning next to the same man, has a shower, brushes her teeth, eats the same cereal, takes the same commute, and she’s terrified this is all there is for the rest of her life. She also has a lot of complicated baggage from her past — her father died when she was young (car crash, apparently), and his mother was schizophrenic. So Alma is afraid that getting married and having kids is too big a risk in case she either dies on them or becomes like her grandmother. When her sister gets engaged, Alma is confused about why Becca would take such a risk. It ends up in some self-destructive behaviour, lots of dysfunctional family stuff, and eventually a sister fight. Driving away, Alma is in a car crash of her own and sees her father.

So here’s the issue. First, the show is sitcom-length, but definitely not a sitcom. No real jokes, more drama, or more pointedly, more dysfunctional interactions without the 22-minute “everything is resolved” ending. Second, while it isn’t described in the first episode, I’ve seen some of the descriptions of the later episodes, and there’s a weird sci-fi / fantasy element. Yep, she really saw Dad, or a ghost, or something. But the final point is the real question mark…it’s an animated show.

No, go ahead, take a minute to let that percolate in your brain. We’re not talking Family Guy or the Simpson’s, or Futurama, or pretty much any other animated show out there. This is a full-on half-hour drama show about Alma’s life spinning out of control (literally, her car crash involves a car spin!), and it just happens to be animated.

I would be hard-pressed to predict renewal for the show, simply based on the writing or plot. There are too many gaps in the first episode to hook the right audience (Dr. Who or Star Trek watchers perhaps). And the animation was not even the typical cartoon animation you see. It was more like Sim Life turned into a TV show.

And so I have to predict cancellation. I just don’t see how it can succeed. Yet there’s a time travel concept buried in it, so I will likely watch to see what happens. I don’t know why. But I will. I just don’t think anyone else will stick around to the end.

Series premiere: Bigger

The PolyBlog
September 27 2019

Okay, so that show happened. Well. Umm, let’s start with the basics. The show is called Bigger, and the description is about a young woman who is wondering if there is more to life than what she has. A little vague, sure, so I went with predicting cancellation. 

The show revolves around Layne, a 30-something woman with a steady boyfriend, a vintage clothing store, and five old friends she hangs out with (3 girls, 2 guys).  The steady boyfriend, Greg, has just proposed and she’s unsure of her answer. She tells him she’ll get back to him. In the meantime, while Greg is out of town, she meets Reggie, a larger than Greg one night stand. In short, Greg is a Volvo, Reggie is a Porsche. The episodes are weird length — 30 minutes without commercials. Not a hour-long show nor sitcom length, and it is definitely not really a comedy. The closest it comes to is Sex in the City except set in Atlanta with black friends, and not all girls. And like Carrie Bradshaw, Layne does narration. Except rather than it being a voice over as if Carrie is writing a blog/column, Layne turns to the camera and talks directly while the action continues around her. The first time, I thought, “WTF? Are you serious?”. But you get used to it.

Tanisha Long plays Layne, and she has presence. She’s young, vibrant, articulate. A bit of an old Lisa Bonet vibe, in a sense, but more gravitas. I haven’t seen her in anything before, and in fact, I don’t recognize hardly any of the shows even.

It’s hard to get a handle on her friends…Angell Conwell plays her sexed-up friend, Veronica; Rasheda Crockett plays a quieter, smarter friend Tracey; Tristen J Winger plays a DJ wannebe named Vince who is one of the crew, but didn’t go to college with them; and Ezekial Ajeigbe is a bit jaded when it comes to business and women. They were okay, but like Friends, hard to know who they are until they get their first extended episode.

What I really found odd was the portrayal of Greg. He’s “sold” as a Volvo — safe, reliable, security. But he is beyond annoying. He insists on cleaning menus at restaurants, he will only go to one restaurant, he is OCD for setting the mood the same way every time he wants to have sex, and he’s boring in bed. How he hasn’t ended up at the curb is a mystery. Dry toast is one of the descriptions, and they could have added stale. Meanwhile, Reggie is shown as basically the stud — okay to look at, gets her juices flowing and well-endowed with a talented appendage. How did they NOT call him Mr. Big? Oh right, it is supposed to be a different show.

The episode wasn’t funny, and the “decision” wasn’t particularly new or challenging. And she makes the wrong choice in the end, one that just about every woman would say, “Hell no!” while watching. Every guy too. Anyway. I won’t be watching, but I wasn’t exactly the demographic for the show. I think it will get renewed, and I weep for the future of television. At least the lead is a fresh face.

Series premiere: All Rise

The PolyBlog
September 27 2019

When I read about CBS’ new show, All Rise, about a new judge taking the bench, it sounded a bit like Judging Amy back in the day. Then I happened to catch a short trailer that showed her first day on the bench where she is walking to her chair and she face plants. So I was starting to wonder if it was more Night Court than a drama. Either way, I was predicting cancellation.

I’ve now watched the first episode, and I’m not sure about my prediction. Yes, it still has the basic drama premise — former prosecutor, now a judge, hoping and excited to make a difference finally in ways she couldn’t as a prosecutor. Partly as she is a black female and thus more representative of the types of people who will show up in her courtroom. But I wasn’t thrilled with the first extended scene. She accidentaly ends up going to the wrong courtroom while still a prosecutor, and while there, notices that a defendant is not wearing any pants. She was booked, arraigned, and is now in the courtroom, and nobody has given her any pants. So the judge-to-be rails at the institution that put her there, there’s a blow-up from the prisoner’s guard, someone is shot, and it’s fun in the OK corral. Two weeks later, all’s well and she’s starting work. First, the scene has nothing to do with the series, not really. Unless they plan to have gun violence regularly. Second, she is only in the scene by accident — wrong courtroom. It is completely contrived for a plot device for no real benefit. The young woman in the case ends up as the judge’s first case, separate charge.

But after that initial crapfest, the episode sings. She’s going to be an activist judge, and she doesn’t care if her legal assistant thinks she should just accept plea deals. The judge even goes against the LAPD and one of their finest detectives. In the end, the case moves along fine. But that isn’t the whole show, it’s not Law and Order: The Bench.

The judge is played by Simone Missick, and I did not recognize her from the Luke Cage / Iron Fist world as Misty Knight. But she is bright, shiny, and full of energy. And when she’s doing her inspirational speeches, she is a super nova. Great to watch. She even pulls off a change in gravitas going from prosecutor to judge in the episode. Nice.

Her friend, and still prosecutor, is played by Wilson Bethel and while he looked familiar, I don’t remember him from The Astronaut Wives’ Club (I think I saw an episode) or Hart of Dixie (maybe 2 episodes). He did well in the episode, but it isn’t really clear where the friendship is going since he’s a prosecutor and she’s a judge, and normally those two don’t mix.

Various other characters are running around, but hard to tell if they’ll be involved for the future: Marg Helgenberger (CSI) as a senior judge; Jessica Camacho (Flash, Sleepy Hollow) as a public defender; Ruthie Ann Miles as a legal assistant; Lindsay Mendez as a court reporter who flirts with the prosecutor, even if he doesn’t see it; and Erin Cummings as a hot-shot detective who cut corners on the Judge’s first case.

So almost an ensemble cast, even with the Judge as the lead. There were lots of scenes with the other characters on their own though.

Will it succeed? I’m going to give it a coin flip and change my vote to RENEWAL. If it doesn’t go saccharine sweet, it might have a chance.

Series premiere: Bob ♥ Abishola

The PolyBlog
September 26 2019

I am a harsh judge when it comes to sitcoms. Very few catch my interest enough to warrant watching. Sometimes I think it is too much simple serialized joke telling with no plot; other times it is just plainly not funny. But even with my harshness, the new show Bob ♥ Abishola (Bob Hearts Abishola) was better than I expected.

The basic premise is that Bob has a heart attack and winds up as a patient in Abishola’s ward. He is intrigued by her, likes her singing, and because she is nice to him, he wants to say thank you by giving her some of his business merchandise — compression socks. He does, and then he tries to get to know her. They are from two totally different worlds, but he’s trying to get her attention.

The problem for me, and it was present even in the trailers, is I can’t see what Bob sees in Abishola. If he woke up, found her beautiful, and wanted to keep seeing her, that would be one thing. If she did something extraordinary that sparked his interest, sure. If they had some common interest, maybe. But it’s a tough sell in this episode.

Sure, he says she looks like an angel when he first wakes up, but it is so brief, there’s no meat to the item. And then they move on to him needing to pee. She sings to him while he is in the bathroom to get him to be able to pee, and he likes her voice. But he’s not blown away by it. The sole scene that resonates is that he gets her to laugh, and for a moment, her face lights up, and he likes having accomplished his goal to amuse her. But is it enough? The next day, he’s at work with his family, they’re up in his face about something, and he zones out thinking about her singing. Is it enough to spark a romance?

There are a lot of other characters running around, and interactions with them produce the funniest lines in the episode. Amusing, not laugh out loud guffaws. But he gives her the socks he makes, everyone loves them including her, and when he brings some more around, she is willing to take them. And she knows he is interested…there is a good conversation between her and another friend about how picky she can be when she’s at her current age (according to her friend, even a white man should be considered).

He’s sweet, he’s interested, he’s a bit funny, and he’s somewhat successful in business. Plus she likes the socks. I get why she might respond enough to get to know him or at least not chase him away. But there is little to the first encounter to justify the interest from him in the first place. Even if they had shown that he was lonely, all he wants is a kind face sometime, is that too much to ask, and then BAM! show her helping him. Without SOMETHING of a catalyst, I just didn’t find his interest in someone so different to be credible.

I predicted cancellation initially, and now having seen an episode that was better than I expected, I’m still sticking with the same prediction. I just don’t think there’s enough there.