Tag Archives: 2017-18

Series premiere: Young Sheldon

The PolyBlog
September 30 2017

I have a very low tolerance for sitcoms…far too many of them are simplistic stereotypes, and the jokes seem almost mean-spirited. Cheers, Seinfeld, Mash, Friends I can live with. Most of the modern ones? Not so much.

Except for the Big Bang Theory. I love the revenge of the nerds vibe of the early seasons, and the interplay between Sheldon and Leonard. Plus the fish out of water reality check perspective of Penny. Throw in the other characters, stir in some science stuff for plot points, and I find it quite enjoyable.

Yet when I saw they were doing Young Sheldon as a premise, I confess I had doubts. First, Jim Parsons rocks the old Sheldon character…Sheldon isn’t an amazing character on his own, Parsons populates him. Second, Sheldon can be annoying over time without the interplay with Leonard, Penny, and Amy. As a kid? Not feeling the vibe.

But I gave it a chance. And found out the kid is no Jim Parsons, and brother/sister/Dad/Mom are no Penny/Leonard/Amy. They didn’t even cast the same Mom, who would have been a hoot.

The episode is about Sheldon starting high school, and the adjustments it means for everyone involved. And it’s watchable, but not compelling.

Not that lack of compulsion will affect its renewal chances. I think that is a basic lock.

Series premiere: The Orville

The PolyBlog
September 30 2017

While the big news for the purists amongst Star Trek fans was the release of the new series, Star Trek: Discovery, the news for the rest of the ST universe was the release of The Orville. Seth McFarlane is a huge ST fan, and the show rips off just about 90% of its approach from the Old Series, the movies, The Next Generation and Voyager.

Originally billed as a spoof, most of the reviews that I saw of the show were noting that it was way less of a spoof than Galaxy Quest had been. GQ had people acting crazy, but it was because it was so far out of their normal wheelhouse i.e. science fiction brought to life for actors who had been on the show. For the Orville, you’re a lot closer to Space Balls than to Galaxy Quest, without the outrageous side. It is more like a like sitcom set in the ST universe.

But the weird part is the show actually still works as a sci-fi show. The series premiere focuses on a remote science post with a new discovery, alien invaders, and a new ship sent to investigate with a new captain at the helm.

Seth McFarlane of course plays the Captain, Ed Mercer, of the U.S.S. Orville. Success with The Family Guy and American Dad could have easily made this a natural fit as an animated series but apparently, he just wanted his own ship. The first officer character is a woman (a la the original Star Trek pilot), and his ex-wife, played by Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights, Agents of SHIELD). By the end of the episode, they’re working well together, and if that dynamic holds, could be fun to watch. If not, it’ll be like watching your parents fight.

The secondary characters — Penny Johnson Jerald as the medical officer, Scott Grimes as the helmsman, Peter Macon as a science officer, Halston Sage as security officer, and J. Lee as the navigator — are all more or less third or fourth-level characters. I’m sure they’ll grow in importance, but mostly they are just comic relief. And not very good comic relief. Across the board, and particularly the first two, I have pretty much never liked them in anything they’ve been in.

It’ll be interesting to see if they keep it going as Star Trek-lite or up the spoof factor.

Series premiere: The Brave

The PolyBlog
September 29 2017

The new series The Brave premiered this past week, and when I read the premise ahead of time, I gave it little chance. It was basically suggesting the show would be kind of Seal Team Six redux, i.e. elite undercover military heroes. It wasn’t entirely clear if it was supposed to be ripped from the headlines type premises, or straight up action, so I wanted to check out the pilot to see how it ran.

Surprisingly, it is kind of like Law & Order took on military ops. There is even an explanation like the SVU intro…there’s text that basically says there are two groups defending the U.S. — analysts and special ops. The only thing missing was the “These are their stories” wording plus a Kachung sound.

For the analysts, we’re talking major baggage storylines. The head of the unit, the Deputy Director of the CIA is just back to work after losing her soldier son ten days before in combat. Yawn. Anne Heche is the woman in charge, and she has almost no emotion through the entire episode. She smiles near the end, briefly. I like Anne in certain shows, not sure for this one. Feels too much like they said, “Okay we have a blonde in Homeland, a blonde in Ma’am Secretary, a blonde in that other analyst show, get me another blonde for this show”. Her team is mainly made up in episode one of an ex-field agent Hannah (Sofia Pernas from Jane the Virgin and Young and the Restless) and Noah (Tate Ellington who was so good in Quantico). Or I think she’s supported by them — while the rest of the actors are listed as being in the first six episodes, they’re only listed on IMDB as being tasked for the pilot. Ellington was the only one of three I had hope for in the future.

For the action team, there is team lead Dalton (Mike Vogel from Pan Am and Under the Dome), Preacher (Demetrius Grosse from Justified and Westworld), ninja Jaz (Natacha Karam), McGuire (Noah Mills), and Amir (Hadi Tabbal). None of the five members are particularly standout characters in the first episode, although Dalton comes the closest to being interesting. Except they are all perfect. No issues. No challenges to their plans. Everything runs perfectly. Yawn.

And overall that was the problem for the episode. I just didn’t care because there was no real “risk”. For a three-act model, you kind of need some tension somewhere and I never felt any. The damsel in distress of the week was okay, but every time she went to talk, they made her shut up. Kind of hard to bond with her.

I predicted that NBC wouldn’t extend or renew it, and I see nothing in the premiere to change that prediction.

Series premiere: Me, Myself and I

The PolyBlog
September 29 2017

So the quick premise is that the main character, inventor Alex Riley, has had a bunch of significant moments in his life, and three in particular — once as a kid moving from Chicago to L.A. when his mom got remarried, once as an adult catching his wife having an affair, and once as an older man having a heart attack. In the opening episode of the series, you get to see each of the three events unfold, with some basic links between them.

For those who saw This Is Us last year, this is a similar take, except it is focused on one man. As a kid, he’s played by relative newcomer Jack Dylan Grazer and there is a very strong The Wonder Years feel to it. The kid is good, the dad is fine, Mom and the new brother are difficult to watch. And that’s going to be a problem for the series — seeing this age have the same gravitas as later-in-life segments.

The middle age version is played by Bobby Moynihan, and most people would recognize him from Saturday Night Live. I’m not an SNL watcher, maybe some highlights now and again, but oddly enough his voice sounded familiar. Cruising through his bio, I see he was the voice of Chet for Monsters University, and I think that’s why he seemed familiar to me. An odd link, I must say. And to be frank, he’s not bad here, he’s just not particularly great in Ep 1.

The old version is played by John Larroquette, and while I would love to love him, as much as I used to on say Night Court, this character seems bland to me. Perhaps in part because he has nothing much to do in the episode, he’s at loose ends. At least for the other two, you know how it turns out in part at least by seeing where the older versions are at in their life. But the oldest version of Alex is just drifting.

Which is a pretty good summary of the show too. Drifting. I’m not hopeful CBS will keep it past its initial commitment.

New TV shows for 2017-18

The PolyBlog
September 25 2017

Every year, at the start of the TV season, I try to predict the outcome of the new shows. And I post my predictions for what they’re worth, knowing sometimes I go as low as 50% right and 50% wrong! Mostly because I don’t take into account differences between networks and other factors, I just go by quality or basic delivery on a viable show premise.

This year, I tried to improve my predictions with a bit more business model consideration:

In the end though, what I’m really interested in are the new shows. From the lineups, it’s a quirky bunch of shows. Here’s my take on what will make it:

  • ABC: The Good Doctor – Think “House” meets “Rainman”, and while I wouldn’t bet the farm on it’s renewal, it’s an in-house co-production so likely RENEWED;
  • ABC: The Mayor – rapper pulls prank to get noticed, gets elected…normally I would say cancel, but also in-house for ABC with other producers they’re already in bed with, so likely RENEWED;
  • ABC: Marvel’s Inhumans – ABC really wants to be in the superhero game, and this is what they have to work with, so RENEWED;
  • CBS: Young Sheldon – well, duh, it could die a 1000 times and it will likely get renewed just to keep tweaking it until it works, so RENEWED;
  • CBS: S.W.A.T. – With H50 and MacGyver not strong enough to continue in my view, I’m going to bet on another throwback continuing with this one, so RENEWED;
  • 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;
  • FOX: The Gifted – Fox wants to expand into the superhero world too, after their relative success with Gotham, RENEWED;
  • FOX: The Orville – I’m totally on the line with this one, but they do like pseudo comic shows, even sci fi spoofs, RENEWED;
  • FOX: The Resident – A medical show with hot actors? Yeah, they’ll try real hard to keep it, RENEWED;
  • NBC: Champions – Two and a Half Men found an audience, this should find the same one even without Charlie Sheen, RENEWED;
  • NBC: Rise – Mr. Holland’s Opus meets Glee, yep, it might find an audience, RENEWED;
  • NBC: Will and Grace – duh, RENEWED;

However, I think the following shows are unlikely to find their groove:

  • ABC: Kevin (Probably) Saves the World (formerly The Gospel of Kevin) – It has a Touched By An Angel feel, and there’s a demographic out there that might like it, but not enough to save it, and not at 10:00 at night – CANCELLED;
  • ABC: Ten Days in the Valley – Oooh, a missing child with a mystery. How many movie cliches can you pack into a new show that isn’t owned by ABC? Bye bye, don’t let the ratings guillotine hit you on the way down – CANCELLED;
  • CBS: 9JKL – I love the main star, and everyone wants their family sitcom to work, but not this one about moving to New York and living between parents and siblings – CANCELLED;
  • CBS: Me, Myself and I – The time stamp world of three different times in one’s life sounds intriguing, and I love John Larroquette, but doesn’t look like it will gel quickly – CANCELLED;
  • CBS: Seal Team – It was a toss up with S.W.A.T., but I’m not convinced David B is right for the series – CANCELLED;
  • CBS: Wisdom of the Crowd – Tech approaches to crime fighting, similar to a dozen other shows that have tried and failed to merge the two in the last five or six years – CANCELLED;
  • CW: Dynasty – while the reboot year is upon us, the CW runs young, and I don’t think they’re ready for Melrose Place without a 90210-like lead up, the various ages of the characters won’t pull them in – CANCELLED;
  • CW: Life Sentence – YOLO might be a great premise that died last year with No Tomorrow ON THE SAME NETWORK, HELLO, but living with the consequences just seems too hokey a premise for the “oops you’re not dying” basis for the show – CANCELLED;
  • CW: Valor – I would like to leave this one on the list as making it, and if it wasn’t the CW, I’d put it ahead of Black Lightning, with a serialized story about a failed copter mission in Somalia and flashbacks, could be great – CANCELLED;
  • FOX: L.A. to Vegas – Workplace comedy? Sure. Airlines to Vegas? Umm, no – CANCELLED;
  • FOX: Ghosted – Men in Black, weekly? With extra comedy? Yeah, that’s going to need a lot of work to keep it fresh – CANCELLED;
  • NBC: The Brave – Elite undercover military heroes…umm, no – CANCELLED;
  • NBC: A.P. Bio – bio teacher using nerds to attack the person who stole his dream job…umm, also no – CANCELLED;
  • NBC: Good Girls – Thelma and Louise meets Breaking Bad? … can I get a “hell, no” – CANCELLED?
  • NBC: Law & Order: True Crime – great idea, lousy premise for the case – CANCELLED;
  • NBC: Reverie – Save people from a VR game? Love the premise, hate its chances – CANCELLED;

Of the new shows, I’m predicting 12 will make it and 16 won’t. That still seems high, likely more around 8 make it and 20 won’t. But hard to tell. Guess I’ll see at the end of the season.