Tag Archives: 2016-17

Series premiere: Notorious – 2016/17

The PolyBlog
September 26 2016

Notorious premiered last week to mediocre numbers, and already there are fans crying for “SaveNotorious” on Twitter. The show is relatively straightforward — a high profile lawyer is friends with a high profile news producer. They have a deal — they never lie to each other, or at least, not outright. Sometimes they don’t share whole truths, but they don’t lie. They do flirt however.

In the opening episode, Jake is the lawyer for a young tech mogul accused of a hit-and-run that killed a 15-year-old kid. He says he wasn’t out driving that night, and he’s been sober for 5 years. However, Julia is the news producer and she breaks the news while Jake is on air for another story. They trade developments, it’s high energy, lots of quick little developments over the course of a few days, all about how they can work with each other — she gets exclusives, he gets to control the narrative for his clients. Most of the story is told through the breaking developments, with some ad hoc comments after the fact to show the producer or the lawyer actually weren’t surprised, they knew all along. For example, as the client leaves a police station, he is stopped by reporters, has a small heartfelt moment and expresses prayers for the family of the kid. Then, as they pull away, Jake says, “Perfect, exactly as we rehearsed it.”

The show had energy, but while I was expecting the story to wrap up this week, it left a big gap at the end, so maybe it continues over several episodes. It was good, it wasn’t great. I originally thought I would sign on for the full season, and I think I’ll give it another episode or two to decide. I also predicted no renewal, but I think I could safely trim that to early cancellation.

Series premiere: Falling Water – 2016/17

The PolyBlog
September 25 2016

Another show not pulling much in the way of press is the upcoming Falling Water. Premiering in October on USA, the show was released online for advance screening. And it is downright awesome.

Burton, a security service within an investment firm, has some weird dreams. He seems to be dreaming about a girl who doesn’t exist, or maybe she does. He’s not sure.

Tess has some weird dreams too. Plus she has the uncanny ability to see mega trends that everyone will want to buy for fashion. But the dreams are weird. She keeps dreaming about a son she gave birth to. Except her medical records show no such birth and she doesn’t have a son. Or does she?

Take is a little simpler in his dreams. He sees his mother, or someone close to his mother, in a chair in the middle of a street and her head is all covered up, like a mummy with grey bandages. Since his mother is in a catatonic state, the dream isn’t surprising, but all the things he sees for work are indeed weird. Including a kid that reappears to him during his investigations. The same kid from Tess’ dream.

They don’t know each other, but they have interacted — Tess lives in Burton’s building, for example.

But forces for good and evil are amassing. The dreams are connected, part of a shared larger dream. They just don’t know it yet, but those who do, they want to control it, shape it, use it. Something big is going on, you just don’t know what yet.

I’m going all in, but I know I’m going to regret it. Jericho, Revolution. I liked the shows, and I liked the mystery elements going on in the background. Heck, one of the main actors from Revolution, Zak Orth, is even along for the ride here too. Not quite as crazy this time though.

Maybe with it being on USA, instead of the big five, it has a chance to go somewhere. It’s pretty cool.

Series premiere: Van Helsing – 2016/17

The PolyBlog
September 22 2016

I knew nothing of this show other than its name. Mainly because it is a sci-fi show that isn’t on the big five network rosters, so it didn’t get the standard pre-launch coverage by the media. But I saw it listed, the first Ep is leaked online ahead of the premiere, why not check it out?

It was a lot gorier than I expected, and I confess I am not a fan of the gore. I skipped True Blood because the first episode was blood everywhere, people were practically marinating in it. The Walking Dead never really attracted me. But a vampire slayer that isn’t named Buffy? Sure, I’m willing to give it a go.

The premise is that a volcano erupted, something went wonky somewhere, people started turning into blood drinkers so they’re called vampires. Except there’s a woman who survived an attack and has been sleeping for a while. Maybe 3 years, maybe 3 months, not entirely sure. But the military sent a squad to guard her until relieved, but the relief never came. So one soldier and a vampire doctor are all that’s been left for some time. A bunch of vamps get into the facility, make it all the way to the sleeping girl, one bites her, and then weird shows up. The vamp starts spitting blood, bile, etc., and then dies. She goes wild-ass animal on the other two.

She doesn’t know why she’s there or what’s special about her, but the soldier is committed to keeping her there. Fast-forward through a too-obvious conspiracy, and we find out she can kick butt too, along with self-healing. Or as one of the stray guys trying to survive says, “She’s got super-powers now?”. And then the truly weird happens.

The guy who bit her and died? He isn’t dead. And he isn’t a vampire anymore. Her blood cured him. Dun dun dun. Vanessa Van Helsing has the cure for being a vampire.

Given it’s status on SyFy, it’s already got its 10 episode pickup probably so nothing to predict at this point. Let’s see how the season goes. The soldier isn’t much to listen to, but Van Helsing has some gravitas. As long as they keep the blood flow down, I’m in.

Season premiere: The Blacklist – 2016/17

The PolyBlog
September 22 2016

As Season 3 started to wind down last year, there was an episode where Elizabeth died following complications after childbirth. They had a funeral, everybody said goodbye, and Tom tried to get his life together. Then, with everything in play and starting to normalize, Tom disappeared with the baby. Running from Raymond, refusing his protection. All of which was designed to get to Cuba where, voila, Liz was waiting, very much alive. She faked her death to get away from the craziness of Raymond Reddington being anywhere near Agnes.

But the running didn’t work very well, cuz her Russian “father” found her, kidnapped her, Agnes and Tom, and as the season kicks off, everyone is running around Cuba killing each other. Raymond’s working his way through local enforcers to find out where the Russian has Liz; and a bunch of Cuban locals are dealing with Tom and Agnes. The FBI throws a hand to help, for the most part anyway, and it is business as usual. Find Liz, save Liz.

The episode was relatively okay, a little too much button, button, who’s got the (baby) button, but not bad. I have no idea what they’re doing with Tom. He’s supposed to leave mid-season to go work on the Redemption spin-off, and Liz gets rekidnapped at the end, with continued separation from her baby which MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL. The “father” who is trying to bond with her keeps separating the two of them with no real reason to do so, it’s completely ridiculous.

But it’s up and running again, wondering how long it will take to “find Liz”. I seriously hope it isn’t half the season again. Can we get back to the frickin’ blacklist again????

Series premiere: Lethal Weapon – 2016/17

The PolyBlog
September 22 2016

I know there’s a familiar wind blowing through TV land where they look at old movies, old shows, old scripts, old tropes, old everything and think, “Hmm, if we rebooted THAT, maybe we would increase our chances of a hit”. This year, Lethal Weapon is one of the reboots (Rush Hour went nowhere last year, but hey, why not try again?).

When I read the premise, which isn’t much different from the movie, I thought, “Really? Who are you going to get who could replace Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as Riggs and Murtaugh?”. They were iconic in their roles.

Now, replacing Riggs should be easy…pick someone with a flair for crazy, and you got a shot. But Murtaugh has to walk a fine line between serious detective and WTF moments. Maybe they would change the ratio, but still, it’s a hard line to nail well. Glover did it expertly.

When I saw the casting and it was DAMAN WAYANS, I thought, “Seriously? This is your best catch?”. Oddly enough, Wayans wasn’t bad. Not Glover-good, but okay. More like his role in The Last Boy Scout with Bruce Willis. Good secondary characters around him too with his wife, kids, captain, a couple of other cops, and a shrink (the Rene Russo character from the movie).

But Riggs? He is terrible. If they named him something else, and tweaked the backstory, I’d take it. But not as Riggs. Pale, pale imitation.

I gave it my one episode try, and it will be the last. I’m sticking with my original prediction — 4 episodes and gone for good.