Tag Archives: fall

Season premiere: Lucifer 2016/17

The PolyBlog
September 20 2016

Lucifer was one of two shows last year that I really liked — the other was Blindspot. In Blindspot’s case, it was an amped up approach to a procedural with huge mystery elements behind it. With Lucifer, the producers took the standard trope of “homicide detective paired with someone unusual” (Castle for a writer, Elementary with two genius consulting detectives, Forever with an immortal, etc.) and went big — Lucifer is not just named after the devil, he IS the devil.

The premise was awesome, and the main actor is fantastic. Secondary characters (the police) are all ho hum, although the main police detective woman has potential. But the tertiary characters — a psychiatrist, an angel, a demon protector — were all spot on. Made for some light banter with serious overtones. And Lucifer’s unadulterated narcissism is plain awesome. With the vulnerability added that when he’s with the cop, he’s mortal (he finds out he’s not bulletproof all the time anymore midway through the season). Sure some of the plots were thin, and some of the “twists” were obvious a mile away. But Lucifer is an ace character, delightfully delicious to watch.

At the end of the season, Lucifer takes a bullet from a psycho brought back to life by the angel to kill Lucifer and force him back into hell (oh, did I mention the reason Lucifer is in LA is that he retired and wants to start a new life?). But just as he’s dying, knowing that his death will lead to the death of his cop partner and his daughter, he made a deal with God — he gets to stay on Earth for now while he searches for his Mom. Who had been cast out of Heaven centuries ago, kept in Hell by Lucifer in prison, tortured by the demon protector, and now, has escaped!

The new season picked up with Lucifer believing his Mom is going to show up in LA to seek revenge, and sure enough, the first case post-escape has a woman killed by embedding metal horns in her head to look like a devil. The case itself is ho hum, but little threads abound. There’s a new forensic specialist who believes in God devoutly. The angel is losing some of his powers (he was mortally wounded at the end of the season, and saved with an angel feather at the last minute). The cop doesn’t believe Lucifer is the devil (mainly because his powers don’t usually work around her) nor does she think he is crazy, but she’s holding out to find out what his deal actually is simply because they work well together and close cases. Or in TV speak, “you make me a better detective”.

But it’s still all about Lucifer. Oh, and Mom came to say hi at the end of the episode.

Series premiere: Son of Zorn 2016/17

The PolyBlog
September 18 2016

Fox has a new show, and I described it earlier in my preview (TV predictions for the new season: 44 new shows (2016-17)) as “perhaps the weirdest show of the fall, we have an animated He-man-like character trying to connect with his human son and ex-wife.” Well, I said I would give it one episode and predicted 4 eps before early cancellation. Now that I’ve watched it, that might have been WAY too generous.

Think of a single Robot Chicken skit stretched over 25 minutes. With no more humour than was in the short skit. That would give you Ep 1 where Zorn meets his vegetarian son after being apart for 10 years, along with reuniting with ex-wife and meeting her new fiancé.

The son is a quiet dweeb, living in the suburbs, and Zorn sticks around hoping to butch him up. He gets a job, finds an apartment and gets his son new transportation. No, not a car, a giant hawk to ride around on. Which Mom says no to, so Zorn reluctantly chops the bird into giant pieces in the driveway.

Four episodes before cancellation is still my bet as they are likely already in the can. I wouldn’t have approved one.

Season premiere: Blindspot 2016/17

The PolyBlog
September 18 2016

Blindspot was one of my favorite new shows from last year, partly as the premise was so solid. Jane Doe, an attractive young woman, late 20s, early 30s, is found in Times Square. In a bag. Naked. Covered in tattoos. She has no idea who she is or why she’s in the bag, but one of her tattoos is pretty easy to understand — she has the name of an FBI agent tattooed prominently on her back. Fast-forward a few plot developments and she is now on the FBI team trying to decipher her tattoos as a couple of them lead to anti-terrorist takedowns.

The rest of the season was wheels within wheels within wheels. She was contacted by an outside group who told her they put her there, and via a video recording of herself, she learns it was her idea. They’re trying to stop a corrupt government conspiracy within the U.S. and to bring to justice those who operate above the law in the name of the law. Part-Jason Bourne, part Snowden, part Tom-Clancy-style conspiracy behind every cubicle wall.

By the end of the season though, everything was going to hell in a handbasket. Jane was revealed NOT to be a long-lost child (the child’s body was found), even though Jane had claimed to remember something earlier. She was arrested and taken away, but not before the head of the task team had been killed by the group behind Jane’s infiltration. Jane was trying to play both sides and it blew up for everyone.

The season reboots with Jane in a black site being interrogated aggressively by government types who turn out to be the CIA. Apparently when the FBI arrested her, the CIA snatched her and took her to the black site to be tortured for 3 months. She escapes, is on the run, and so with the CIA half out of the picture, time to enter an agent of a secret group within the NSA that knows all about Jane and the group that was running her as an operative. She wants payback for a lost partner that the group killed, but most importantly, she wants Jane back running operations with the same group as if she was never blown. It’s a weak premise — it was the FBI who arrested her after all, not the CIA — but she is supposed to claim that a renegade member of the group kidnapped her and tortured her for the three months, not the CIA or the FBI. Ignore the fact that they already have inside knowledge of what is going on most of the time anyway, Jane goes back “undercover” as a double or triple (or is it quadruple?) agent.

All of last year was around “who is Jane?”. That’s revealed this episode, although no way to know if actually true. She’s a former child of South Africa trained as an assassin and adopted by a military woman from the U.S. who raided the orphanage. Code-named Shepherd, she introduces herself as Jane’s mother, and another operative as her brother. Jane is in like Flynn. Which is good cuz she’s on the outs with the FBI team (one of whom willingly shoots her at Jane’s request to prove her cover story). The episode ends with the big reveal…the group is indeed planning something big — they have a full sized ICBM rocket stashed somewhere in the countryside.

I am not completely sold on the reboot approach. I loved last year, but the pieces came fast and furious in this episode, almost like an exposition dump. I would have thought a bit more should be teased out, but presumably the show-runner has a full schedule of reveals for the year. Let’s hope Season 2 runs as well as Season 1.

TV series bloodbath

The PolyBlog
May 18 2016

ABC

Most show decisions are now made for renewals vs. cancellation, and ABC is done. Here’s my take:

  1. Shows cancelled that I won’t miss: The Family, Galavant, Agent Carter, The Muppets, Nashville, Wicked City, Of Kings and Prophets, Blood & Oil;
  2. Shows cancelled that I watched but won’t miss: Castle;
  3. Shows renewed that I don’t care about: American Crime, Dr. Ken, Last Man Standing, Once Upon a Time, Fresh Off the Boat, How to Get Away With Murder, Scandal, black-ish, The Middle, The Goldbergs, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family;
  4. Shows renewed that I might consider: The Catch, The Real O’Neals;
  5. Shows renewed that I am sort of happy are renewed: SHIELD, Quantico;

End result: 1 show out of 25 that I sort of care about (Quantico) and 1 more that I’ll watch as binge…not a network aimed at my viewing tastes 🙂

CBS

Here’s my take:

  1. Shows cancelled that I won’t miss: CSI: Cyber, Rush Hour, The Good Wife, Mike & Molly, Angel from Hell;
  2. Shows cancelled that I watched but won’t miss: Person of Interest;
  3. Shows renewed that I don’t care about: Code Black, The Odd Couple, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Life in Pieces; Madam Secretary, Hawaii Five-O, 2 Broke Girls, Mom, Criminal Minds;
  4. Shows renewed that I might consider: none;
  5. Shows renewed that I am happy or sort of happy are renewed: Supergirl, Elementary; Blue Bloods, NCIS: LA, NCIS: NO, NCIS, Scorpion, The Big Bang Theory;

End result: 8/23 that I watch. That could go to 9/24 or 8/24, depending on what happens with Limitless. Rumour is it was being shopped around to other networks and thus cancelled, but I never saw a final “call”. Either way, thank you CBS!

CW

The CW was a basket case this year as they renewed EVERYTHING. Sounds like CBS and Warner Bros couldn’t be bothered to argue. Here’s my take:

  1. Shows cancelled that I won’t miss: Containment;
  2. Shows cancelled that I watched but won’t miss: none;
  3. Shows renewed that I don’t care about: Reign, the Originals, Jane the Virgin, Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, the 100, Crazy Ex-GF, iZombie;
  4. Shows renewed that I might consider: ;
  5. Shows renewed that I am happy are renewed: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, The Flash;

End result: 3/12 that I like, two of which are almost “must watch”…thanks CW for the superhero fix!

Fox

Here’s my take:

  1. Shows cancelled that I won’t miss: Bordertown, The Grinder, Grandfathered, Cooper Barrett, ;
  2. Shows cancelled that I watched but won’t miss: Second Chance, Minority Report;
  3. Shows renewed that I don’t care about: Family Guy, Simpsons, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, New Girl, Scream Queens, Empire, Bob’s Burgers, Last Man on Earth, Bones;
  4. Shows renewed that I might consider: Sleepy Hollow;
  5. Shows renewed that I am happy are renewed: Rosewood, Gotham, Lucifer ;

End result: Three out of 19 are being renewed that I like, but I like two of them a lot (Gotham, Lucifer), so thank you Fox. I think X-Files is basically “done”, but they were left out of formal announcements.

NBC

Here’s my take:

  1. Shows cancelled that I won’t miss: Game of Silence, Heartbeat, Mysteries of Laura, Telenovela, Crowded, Truth Be Told, You Me and the Apocalypse;
  2. Shows cancelled that I watched but won’t miss: Undateable, The Player, Heroes Reborn, ;
  3. Shows renewed that I don’t care about: Carmichael Show, Superstore, Chicago Med / P.D. / Fire, Law & Order: SVU;
  4. Shows renewed that I might consider: Shades of Blue;
  5. Shows renewed that I am happy are renewed: Grimm, Blacklist, Blindspot;

End result: Three out of 20 renewed that I like, one that I was watching but not surprised it was cancelled (Player).

Overall, nothing cancelled that I am particularly going to miss, and almost all the shows I really like were renewed.

My show watching the past year…

The PolyBlog
May 18 2016

Let’s see how I did back at the start of the season in terms of new shows I would/might like:

  1. Full season subscriptions that panned out for me — Blindspot, DC Legends of Tomorrow, Limitless, Quantico and Supergirl;
  2. Full season subscriptions that the networks didn’t agree with — Minority Report, The Player;
  3. Full season subscriptions I switched to binge watch and the network dumped — Heroes Reborn, The X-Files;

So 5/9 survived, 4/9 had short seasons and are not coming back.

For the try one-episode batch:

  1. Ones I grabbed on to: Rosewood;
  2. Ones I binge-watch: Into the Badlands;
  3. Ones that one EP was enough: Benders, Crazy Ex-GF, Grinder, Hand of God, The Muppets, Public Morals, and Wicked City, all of which I think the networks have cancelled for the future.

Score: 2/9 worth watching and both are renewed for season 2

For the shows that I took a pass on, namely the 18 below, two or three made it to renewal, but not for me. Still passing.

For returning shows, there was a culling! I watched 12 Monkeys and it is finally “back” for season 2; American Ninja Warrior and the new Team Ninja Warrior; Arrow; The Blacklist; Blue Bloods; Dark Matter; Elementary; Gotham; Grimm; Killjoys; and The Flash. Eleven shows, all renewed for next season.

Castle was one I watched, but almost out of habit than desire. It should have ended last season, and this season had a few good EPs that would have fit nicely in season 2 or 3, but for the current arc, they just didn’t work. Glad to see they have killed it for next year.

I also gave up on Big Bang Theory, SHIELD, NCIS x 3, Person of Interest, Scorpion and Sleepy Hollow in the sense that I moved them to binge watch status only. I just don’t care enough to stay “current” on them. PoI is in its last season but I’m fine with all of them ending.

Continuum and Lost Girl are short season and I let both of their final seasons go to binge-watch status. I like them, I’d rather watch them in a batch though. I’ve let Orphan Black go there too, as well as Suits, but I might pick those back up over the summer.

However, I gave up completely on Undateable, and to be honest, I can’t believe it wasn’t yanked early in the year. Maybe they were going for syndication numbers or something, don’t know, but it was deadly to watch.

Overall, nothing major is leaving that I mind, and looking forward to a few new shows next year.