Tag Archives: 2017-18

How I did predicting renewal for new TV shows for 2017-18

The PolyBlog
May 18 2018

Way back at the start of the television season, I tried to predict the success factor for all the new shows as to whether or not they were likely to get renewal for a second season. Let’s see how I did…

The first group were the ones I predicted renewal for, and there were 12.

  • ABC: The Good Doctor – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is RENEWED
  • ABC: The Mayor – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is CANCELLED — after watching one EP, it was pretty clear it would be cancelled though
  • ABC: Marvel’s Inhumans – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is CANCELLED — although watching the EPs, that’s not too surprising
  • CBS: Young Sheldon – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is RENEWED
  • CBS: S.W.A.T. – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is RENEWED
  • CW: Black Lightning – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is RENEWED
  • OX: The Gifted – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is RENEWED
  • FOX: The Orville – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is RENEWED
  • FOX: The Resident – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is RENEWED
  • NBC: Champions – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is LIKELY CANCELLED
  • NBC: Rise – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is CANCELLED
  • NBC: Will and Grace – Predicted RENEWED and outcome is RENEWED.

So I got 8/12 right. Much better than I did last year (where it was more 50/50). If I had waited to watch the first few EPs before I predicted, I would have at least went to 10/12 right…I never watched Champions or Rise.

The second group of shows were ones where I was predicting cancellation, with 16 predicted to circle the drain. Again, let’s see how I did:

  • ABC: Kevin (Probably) Saves the World (formerly The Gospel of Kevin) – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is CANCELLED
  • ABC: Ten Days in the Valley – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is CANCELLED
  • CBS: 9JKL – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is CANCELLED
  • BS: Me, Myself and I – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is CANCELLED
  • BS: Seal Team – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is RENEWED
  • CBS: Wisdom of the Crowd – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is CANCELLED
  • CW: Dynasty – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is RENEWED
  • CW: Life Sentence – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is CANCELLED
  • CW: Valor – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is CANCELLED
  • FOX: L.A. to Vegas – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is LIKELY RENEWED
  • FOX: Ghosted – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is LIKELY CANCELLED
  • NBC: The Brave – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is CANCELLED
  • NBC: A.P. Bio – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is RENEWED
  • NBC: Good Girls – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is RENEWED
  • NBC: Law & Order: True Crime – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is CANCELLED
  • NBC: Reverie – Predicted CANCELLED and outcome is unknown.

Of the 15 where the outcome is mostly known, I only got 10 right (2/3). However, for at least two more of the “wrong ones” i.e. ones that were renewed, others were surprised by those renewal notes since the ratings kind of sucked. Which means I was right about the ratings, but they got renewed anyway. Weird. That would have taken me to 12/15 or 80%.

Overall I have 8+10 = 18 out of 27, or 2/3. If I adjusted for the actual shows and ignoring surprises, I would have had closer to 22/27 or 80%.

Better than last year at least. I’m improving 🙂

Series premiere: Absentia

The PolyBlog
February 14 2018

Back in the fall, I never saw much about a series called Absentia. I saw media reports earlier that Stana Katic, fresh off of Castle, was going to be in a new show sometime, but that was about it. But I recently saw a banner blurb about the show, and I thought it was just premiering this month, with no context for what it was. I assumed it was a generic mid-season replacement.

Imagine my surprise to find out that not only is it Stana Katic’s show, but it already premiered back in September and the first ten episodes have already aired. WTF?

Okay, so I’ve watched episode one, and it is a mind mess of epic proportions. Katic plays Emily Byrne, FBI agent with a husband and child. She disappears, presumed dead at the hands of a serial killer who removes the eyelids of his victims. The killer is convicted, life eventually goes on. Hubby remarries, gets a new mother for his son, son gets bigger.

Then, out of the blue, hubby gets a call…if he wants to save his first wife, he has 60 minutes to get to her location. He rushes out, she’s saved, and the mind freak begins. While she was being held and tortured for six years, life went on without her. Her son doesn’t know her, and has come to view the new wife as his mother. The former one is just a memory. Except now she’s walking around. Hubby is with the new wife, the ex-father-in-law hates the hubby for moving on or something, and a creepy brother is around to lend moral support and give her a place to live.

Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating the cases all over the place — her original murder now abduction, who held her for the six years since the killer that was convicted is still sitting in jail (and he wants out by the way), anything that might tie her old cases to her situation. They get a clue, they zero in on a suspect, all very straightforward until you get to the last 60 seconds when they drop a small bombshell on the case.

Is the show awesome? Not really, some of it has been done before. In fact, there was even a Castle season where he disappeared and came back with no memory. But what is relatively awesome is the muted tragedy of it all. Son trying to figure out what his relationship with his old mom is going to be. New wife feeling threatened initially and trying to hold on to her husband, fighting a ghost who is no longer a ghost. Hubby who gave up, moved on, and now realizes she was alive the whole time. And the victim herself, although there is some evidence in the episode that all is not as it appears to be. Where was she for the whole six years? Was she as out of it as she claims? Or does she not remember? If she was on a hellish island for five years and has come back to take up archery, everyone would call it derivative, but watching them all deal with a very dark situation is, indeed, pretty awesome. Drama without the over-acting.

I even love the husband as the male lead. But I’m suspicious of Daddy, the new wife, the brother, and several police officers. I feel like there’s a Red John twist coming sometime. And I’ll find out when it does, as I’m in for the duration.

The hard part is I have NO idea if the show will be “renewed”. It is very dark for network television, and I’m curious to see if it “lightens” up as she investigates her own abduction, and as evidence mounts against her for some crimes that were committed while she was being held.

Series premiere: Black Lightning

The PolyBlog
February 11 2018

CW loves Greg Berlanti’s shows about superheroes, so I’m not surprised that they picked up Black Lightning. In terms of the future, my early prediction was:

CW: Black Lightning – It’s all Berlanti, all the time, it would be crazy to bet against it, even without the Arrowverse tie-ins, RENEWED;

Now that I’ve seen the episode, I’m not as convinced. Arrow, Flash, Supergirl and DC Legends of Tomorrow all have a “bigger than me” feel to them, even in their first few episodes. The Green Arrow was taking down his father’s cronies; the Flash was working for the police; Supergirl was following in her cousin’s footprints; and the Legends are SAVING TIME itself. But Black Lightning is the opposite. He just wants to be a school principal, forget his old Black Lightning ways, be a good father, and get jiggy with his ex-wife.

And that only changes through the episode when he has to save his daughters. Will it change for the future? Of course, but he is a very reluctant superhero, and like the Luke Cage theme, it gets old pretty fast. If he doesn’t want to be a superhero, why do I want to watch him try not to be one?

His daughters bop between being street-wise and being dumb as posts, and as damsels in distress, I never felt their dread. It was too “pat”, and they were in “danger” but never much at actual risk. I don’t even think they’re bruised in the end.

Cress Williams plays the principal / Black Lightning and while he has lots of different big shows under his belt, none of them were ones I watched regularly. And the principal isn’t very compelling to me. Normally superheroes have an inept alter-ego, this one is Super Principal. His daughters were okay, nothing exciting, nor was his ex-wife. Damon Gupton plays about the 10th police detective of his career, shouldn’t be a stretch.

The one bright spark I saw, no pun intended, was his white “Alfred”…James Remar was great as Gordon’s uncle on Gotham, Cephelo on the Shannara Chronicles, Harry Morgan on Dexter, Jonah on Jericho, Rayden in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, and Ganz in 48 Hours. Heck, I even loved him as the Rear-Window-esque husband/suspected killer in What Lies Beneath. I pretty much love him in anything. And with 167 acting credits going back to 1978, that’s a lot to love.

But what kind of statement does it make that the only character in Black Lightning with an interesting casting was the token white guy/mentor?

Series premiere: The Resident

The PolyBlog
February 8 2018

Back in the fall, when I saw the upcoming shows for the 2017-18 season, I read the blurbs for “The Resident” and thought, “Umm, don’t we already have that show?”. More precisely, I thought:

FOX: The Resident – A medical show with hot actors? Yeah, they’ll try real hard to keep it, RENEWED;

Grey’s Anatomy, ER, heck even St. Elsewhere back in the day have all been hits with a similar formula. Residents, turnover, sex in patient rooms and closets, drama in and out of the hospital, oh, and let’s not forget the stakes here — we’re talking about potential DEATH. Or really bad ratings.

I can confess, right up front, I have very little interest in these shows. I watched St. Elsewhere, and I love the premises of the “disease of the week”, just as I do with Law and Order, etc. What I don’t like is the “extra” drama that feels more like soap opera scripting than nighttime drama. But as I’m male and pushing 50, I’m not the demographic they’re going for anyway.

So, let’s take a quick run-down on the regular requirements for a show like this:

  1. New person to the group, to provide that outsider perspective, and to take the viewer along for the ride…check, we have Dr. Devon Pravash, new Harvard grad, played by Manish Dayal…and look, he used to be on the new 90210;
  2. Hot male lead…Dr. Conrad Hawkins, brilliant / rude / egotistical, but you know his heart is in the right place because he carries around a picture of the first patient he ever killed and he hates the big baddie (see below)…Matt Czuchry checks the box, and his background is Gilmore Girls and The Good Wife;
  3. Hot female lead…Nicolette Nevin, not listed as a doctor but acts like one, I’m sure they’ll figure that out over time…played by Emily VanCamp, it’s one of the few things I liked about the show, mostly as I miss the promise of the first season of Revenge; and,
  4. A baddie…Dr. Randolph Bell, who we know is bad because he kills a patient on the operating table while his surgical team is taking selfies, and then covers it up…played by Bruce Greenwood, I first “met” him when he was playing on St. Elsewhere. He can play innocent and noble, or he can play slimy, this is his slimy version.

In the end, do I care?

Not really, but as I said, it’s not my kind of show. I didn’t feel there was a lot in the pilot that screams renewal, but it’s getting marketed out the wazoo, and Fox really wants this one to work. I’m betting they’ll get enough of a bounce to keep it past this year. But they’re going to need some more young hotties to keep it going.

Series premiere: Burden of Truth

The PolyBlog
February 5 2018

The premise of the new series Burden of Proof , errr, of TRUTH, is one as old as time, at least in legal premises for TV and movies. In fact, in this case, it involves two tropes thrown together.

First, there is the big city lawyer who comes to the small town world, and stays. Sometimes it’s a comedy, sometimes it’s a drama, but when it is in a TV series, it generally lasts one or two seasons, and then disappears.

Second, there is the Erin Brockovich storyline. A big bad company is harming the simple local folk, and must be brought to heel, in the form of a well-intentioned and principled David against the corporate Goliath. Which is also only good for one season, and then you’re done.

So why would ABC greenlight an in-house studio show about a lawyer from the big city coming to the small town, immediately switch gears so they go from bad lawyer (not my client!) to good lawyer (let’s find another defendant!) in the first episode, and ask Kristin Kreuk to headline it? I have no idea. Sure she was in the TV series Beauty and the Beast, as well as Smallville, but did anyone watch either of those shows for the Beauty or Lana?

Back at the start of the season, this one wasn’t even announced, so it didn’t make my pre-season review. But I can tell you what I would have said:

Big city lawyer returns to small-town roots to fight a corporate Goliath? Dead before the end of the season, no renewal.

Now that I’ve watched the episode, it’s even worse than I expected. She’s from the small town and she wants to go back, partly as whatever happened when she left with her parents involved some sort of scandal and she wants to sort of face it. But her character is ALL over the map. I have no idea who she is or who she is supposed to be.

At the start of the episode, she’s the organized, competent lawyer — the star of the firm. Which we find out because people tell us, but the evidence is sparse except for her high-end loft-style apartment. If she’s chic, she must be good, right? Whatever. Anyway, she seems more insecure than hard-edged pro litigator, which is Kreuk’s strength — not hard edged, but softer edged. A thousand actresses could do it better, and all of them guest-starred on LA Law 20 years ago. Heck, some of them are on Suits now. But I digress.

Then she’s Daddy’s little girl at the firm, except not really, there’s very little sign of actual comfort between them. Yet apparently they work together all the time and have done so for years. Riiiight.

I don’t know who the guy in her main office is…husband, boyfriend, fiancée, wannabe something? It seems like they’re involved together, then it seems like they’re not, I’m lost. I don’t even remember what they said the relationship was, but I didn’t “see” it.

So drive to her old hometown, visit her old school, meet with someone leading a charge in favour of a vaccine that people claim is causing the problem, except it isn’t. And these two former best friends have ZERO chemistry. Not old chemistry, not new chemistry, nada. So nothing to see or bond with.

There is a local bohunk in the form of opposing counsel, but after he’s trounced in court, they can make nice nice and work together on finding a new defendant i.e. cause.  Because as he informs her, “You know you’re the bad guy, right?” in the initial scenario where she’s trouncing him in court. And while they’ll work together, and eventually there will be romance of some sort for the viewers to watch their angst, they have NO SPARK at all together.

There are only two scenes in the entire episode that have any spirit. The first is a woman in a bar who finds out Kreuk’s last name and slugs her (trite but interesting); the second is a young victim, whose life has been turned upside down because of the symptoms, calling out Kreuk’s character for who she is and what she does for a living. The big moment. And it’s NOT EVEN THE LEAD’S moment. She’s just watching it.

I don’t know which I found worse. The lameness of her character’s passivity for the whole episode or the blandness of the entire premise, where they even have to stoop to showing you the various scenes of all the victims so they can pull at your heartstrings and let you know “this is serious stuff”. Snore.

Maybe somebody from the Beauty and the Beast fan base will be following, or the conspiracy fans who hate large corporations (you know there has to be a bad guy found eventually). But it sure won’t be me. It is one of the worst shows I have seen in five years.