I imagine most people watching Michael Chiklis on TV think of his show, The Shield. For me, it is a bit softer with The Commish or The Fantastic Four. Maybe a bit of Gotham. I like him, but I prefer the lovable side, not the hard cynical side. Usually.

Here he plays a newly-retired border patrol guy who is asked by his old partner’s wife to go down to Mexico, look at a cabin he was building, and finish it up to sell it off so that the bank doesn’t foreclose on their house. It’s a crapfest of a situation, but he wants to help. He feels obligated to help. Most of his life has been spent seeing everything as black or white, or perhaps brown or white, illegal or legal. Now he’s in Mexico seeing the locals, meeting a few, getting involved in their lives, and he’s not so sure the lines are so straight.

I know very little about the long-term direction of the show. With a title like Coyote, maybe he’s going to turn into a smuggler trying to help those in rough spots get away from the bad guys. In EP1, he’s doing exactly that, even though he tries really hard at first to stay out of it.

I’m not going to rate the rest of the cast, as it’s impossible to tell from the opener who will be sticking around. Chicklis is excellent, of course, and the initial scenes are compelling. Enough for me to stick around. I know it gets darker, there are cartels involved, but for now, I’m happy just to see Chicklis. I’ll predict renewal based on him alone.

I am an idiot, apparently. I thought I knew the history of Arsène Lupin. He is, after all, a famous character in France literature.

Now, in my light defence, I have read Edgar Allan Poe’s short-story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, which is considered by many to be the first modern detective story. The main character in the story? C. Auguste Dupin. Not Arsène Lupin. Oops.

So when I saw that Netflix had a new series starting called Lupin, and it had some reference to the stories, I was expecting him to be a detective. Nope, Arsène Lupin is a gentleman burglar, a master of misdirection and disguise. He can be anybody. Anyone. Any time.

In the opening, you meet a young man who is in debt to a loan shark. He’s working as a janitor at the Louvre. His ex-wife thinks he’s broke. What nobody knows? He’s Arsène Lupin.

A spoiler alert though is needed here. Because I can’t review the story without reviewing his disguise. It’s true he has an ex-wife, a son, and owes money to a loan shark. It’s even true he’s working as a janitor. But it’s all a con so he can get the loan shark to rob the Louvre. He has the perfect plan. It just doesn’t happen to be the plan he told the loan shark and his crew. They double-cross him, but he had already double-crossed them. He steals the necklace, and walks out the loading dock door with it. One young detective is on to him, but is it enough?

The larger spoiler is that the necklace has a history. The main character, who is not really Arsène Lupin but actually Assane Diop, knew the wealthy family that used to own it, as his father was their chauffeur. When the necklace went missing, the father was arrested and charged, and overcome with shame, he apparently killed himself in his jail cell rather than let his son see him in prison. So the theft is apparent revenge for his father’s death.

I loved the show and I loved the main actor, Omar Sy (Jurassic World). He played at least 3 different characters, so to speak, in the show, shifting from one to the other with ease. He was a bit off with his performance as a tech billionaire, a little too casual and cavalier about the necklace being stolen, but otherwise excellent. I can’t wait to see where the show goes.

Netflix’s business model is different than most, but I’m still going to predict renewal. Despite the dubbing, I think people will show up to watch it.

The simple premise of the show, Call Your Mother, is that a mother in Iowa is worried about her two kids who are now living in L.A. The daughter is the oldest, and Mom isn’t really worried about her, she has a job, an apartment, a boyfriend, etc. No, Mom is worried about the younger son that she’s been calling for 4d and who isn’t calling her back. So Mom flies to L.A. to check on him, and the obvious long-term result will be her moving there. In the opener, she meets the daughter’s gay roommate, son’s girlfriend, and a hot AirBNB owner that she’s renting an apartment from…

Yes it’s a sitcom, and while it isn’t uncommon for pilots / premieres not being able to make me laugh, the complete lack of chemistry for ANYONE in the show is surprising.

Kyra Sedgwick plays the mother, and she’s often hit and miss with me. I confess, I HATED her on the Closer and lasted only an EP or 2 before bailing. But others loved her, and she went 109 EPs. I liked her way back in Something To Talk About, even though the show sucked, even compared to the song. Here? I found her more embarrassing as a character…borderline pitiful as she has her empty-nesting identity crisis. Which is only resolved with her maybe staying because her kids “still need her”. Actually? They don’t. But whatever.

The daughter and son are played by Rachel Sennott and Joey Bragg, and while they may grow into the roles, they have zero chemistry together. Yet that is the second leg of the show — that they grew apart and Mom wants them to kiss and make nice-nice. Yawn.

For supporting cast, Austin Crute plays the gay roommate, with some funny lines, but I liked him better in Daybreak. The son’s gf is played by Emma Caymares, and her role is beyond confused. Confident? Stylish? Worldly? And she’s with the kid who plays video games with no real ambition or charm. Riiiiight. Plus she is just all over the place without him, depending on who she is interacting with … superficial, deep, charming, rude. Weird.

The only real bright spot in the whole show is Patrick Brammall as the AirBnB owner. He seems solid, consistent, right up until he hits on Kyra’s character. She’s clearly a mess, he’s a THERAPIST and can see the warning signs, but he’s sucked right in. Supposedly. Too bad, her pursuing him might be an interesting plot. Not enough to stick around, but interesting.

In the end, it isn’t funny, not great acting by anyone, and there’s almost no chemistry. The third-string apt owner is the only “plus”, so I’m out, and I predict cancellation along the way.