I felt like I was going to hate this show. Or more like I wanted to hate the show. When I did my prediction, I said this:
The Big Leap on CBS is a show about making a dance reality show where they select contestants to star in Swan Lake. I know, I wasn’t looking for a fictional reality show either. But it’s basically Glee, or maybe Fame, for adults. I am curious enough to see an episode or two, mostly because I like the woman playing the main character (a large black woman who thinks she’s too big to be the star), but it also has some others like Piper Perabo who I like. I am not a giant fan of Scott Foley, and as they up the angst factor, everything I hate about reality shows is likely to turn me off. Teri Polo plays a housewife who drinks too much and has no support from her family for her interest in being part of the show, and well, that’s the cringe factor for me. So yes to Ep 1, but I’m predicting no renewal if only as there is no place for it to go without dumping all the characters you love and recasting next year. I know, I know, it doesn’t stop reality shows from thriving. But I’m still saying 1 season and done.
Then I watched EP1, and a lot of the “cringe” factor went away. As predicted, the lead woman, Simone Recasner, had really good presence. Yes, she can dance, but more importantly, she has some range for acting too. Sweet.
Scott Foley is playing almost a caricature of a producer who will feel bad, but not too bad, at exploiting everyone because they need to in order to make the show work. Some good lines and not too cheesy except when he’s supposed to be.
Piper Perabo has one big dance scene with another character, and not over the top. Sweet.
Did I mention it all comes across as sweet? Because the drunk wife wasn’t a cringe factor, it was almost funny seeing her go to the Genius Bar to have them restore her husband’s laptop so she could see what porn sites he’s visiting. There’s mild cringe in it all, but mostly she’s feeling uplifted with the new area of her life.
There’s some other stuff going on that is relatively stupid for a premise. One of the characters is a dancing meter maid/traffic cop? Another is a porn star / stripper. Another is a friend of the main star, was her boyfriend in high school, and she apparently needs him to have the confidence to go and do the audition. Which then leads to him making it to the next round, but other than having good moves, having no real purpose in the story.
Now, don’t get me wrong. The show is generally crap. There’s almost no redeeming value anywhere in it, and I can’t even guarantee it will make it to the end of the season, let alone season 2. But I am going to watch anyway.
NBC has been hyping the heck out of their new show…it’s new! it’s different! it’s a rip-off of the movie Sliding Doors! Oh, wait, they didn’t say that last part.
When I read the description and saw the ads, I wrote this in my prediction:
Ordinary Joe on NBC has a This Is Us feel to it, crossed with the movie Sliding Doors. The basic premise is a guy named Joe who has to make a choice the night of his graduation as to what he’s going to do next and he has three choices in front of him…ask out a pretty girl he just met, go with his best gal pal to the beach as she has something important to tell him, or go for dinner with his parents and family. The story then branches and shows what would happen if he picks each of the three choices, with some of the characters and events crossing back and forth between the storylines. The story lives and dies by the main character, played by James Wolk, and he has an awesome presence. I’ll give it a go and I predict renewal.
Now that I’ve seen the pilot, I’m going to change both of those predictions. First of all, I have to say it is very different from what I was expecting in the storytelling. Whereas Sliding Doors was more nuanced and soft about the choices, in Ordinary Joe, you actually see the big “moment” AND it clearly shows you in the show “these are my choices” in case you were too stupid to get it. Sure, the narration has more of a strong A Million Little Things feel to it than This Is Us, but the biggest element that was different for me was that I thought the story would start right after that big moment.
Just to be clear, he has the three choices I mentioned above. But then, the story jumps forward ten years and shows his current life, depending on which of those three choices he made. Most of the same characters show up in all three storylines — the new girl, the best gal pal, the best friend, and his extended family.
I don’t want to spoil things, but in one of the storylines he’s single, in the second he is married and stressed trying to have kids, and in the third, he’s married with kids but his marriage is imploding. One storyline has him working as a cop, another as a rock star, and finally one as a nurse. The hook for EP1 is it is his 10-year reunion from graduation and he’s unsure about his life at the moment.
I was surprised that they jumped forward 10 years instead of showing his changes as he went, but the bigger surprise for me was the editing. After a really ham-fisted approach to his choices — they literally show all three in side-by-side screens — the editing for the rest of the episode is likely award-winning. If anyone is looking for next year’s editing Emmy, I’d sign this show up.
Instead of pausing as you go from story to story, all three are intermeshed softly, and it is amazing editing, but also likely too confusing for most viewers. I like confusing, I like stories like this that are almost time-travel parallels, and I couldn’t follow all of it. The producers and directors did a great job of helping viewers follow the storyline by making him look like a cute boy scout in one (the cop), the scruffy heart throb in another (the rock star), and the nerd in the third (nurse).
And I confess, I love the main star, James Wolk. He’s had some success in previous shows, including Mad Men, but it wasn’t something that ever interested me so I don’t think I’ve really seen him in anything before. He is awesome in all three versions, and each one has a slightly different tone to it. He’s not Tatiana Maslany or anything, but he has definite presence.
The “new girl” choice is played by Natalie Martinez, and I confess that for most of EP1, you don’t really get much of a feeling for her in each of the three timelines. She has more presence in one than the other two, but it is the editing with her scenes that are the most confusing to me in places. Her role is not as varied in two of the timelines, and it is hard to follow in a couple of places when the jump shows her in relatively similar roles. I saw her for one EP in the Island, but didn’t stick around, and I don’t know her from her other roles.
Elizabeth Lail plays the gal pal from college, and she is a decent bright spot. I liked her in You, but I don’t really remember her from a season of Once Upon A Time or her one EP arc on The Blacklist. Still, she’s pretty solid here, and each role is quite different — one quite strong and controlled, one more desperate, etc.
With two of the main leads as solid, why am I not sticking around? Because the jump cuts and premise to the show isn’t holding me. I thought I would see him become this 10y-later version. Without it, I feel like, “Hey, what’s happened?”. I also think with the editing, the show is NOT going to make it to renewal. Maybe if it does, I’ll pick it up for binging sometime.
Let’s see. We started with J.A.G. And then spun off the current NCIS series that is still running with Mark Harmon. They added NCIS: LA and NCIS: New Orleans. Annnnnd now we have NCIS: Hawaii. I’m sure it was a toss-up between Hawaii and Florida. Magnum P.I., Hawaii Five-O, and now NCIS, I’m sure someone will want to suggest more cross-overs somewhere. Anyway, I digress.
When I did my initial prediction, I said:
NCIS: Hawaii premieres this week on CBS, another outing for the series that started way back with JAG a loooooong time ago. I generally like the premise of the different series, but I don’t watch all of them each week. One is enough for me. I’m happy to see what this one is like — a bit like Hawaii Five-O, I imagine, but I’m not sold on the main actress, Vanessa Lachey. The only thing besides the trailer that I’ve seen her in was a small part in the Fantastic Four, which isn’t making up for a terrible trailer. I’ll give it a maybe for watching, yet vote for likely renewal.
The series premiered, I watched EP01, and I’ll stick with my prediction for renewal. But I really don’t care about the characters.
Vanessa Hachey plays the leader, Jane Tennant. She’s supposed to be no-nonsense, I guess, and their “big scene” of her moment of importance was her kids soccer game being interrupted by a Navy helicopter arriving to pick her up on the soccer field. Completely and utterly ridiculous. This is Hawaii, not Kandahar. That’s not a slam against her acting, it’s a completely different slam. Add in two kids for angst, and well, I don’t care.
She has a young woman on her team, Lucy Tara, played by Yasmine Al-Bustami. Lucy is a “green” agent, not a Probie, but not that seasoned yet. The character is okay, but a bit all over the place playing at playing in a few scenes. Oh, and likely gay if that helps. I don’t know what her role in the series will be, just “young and eager”?
I suggested Lucy was gay because there is a confused scene with Tori Anderson’s character, Kate Whistler, where it’s a “will they / won’t they” romance thing, and nobody in the scene has any idea what they’re doing or where it’s going. Anderson is in two other scenes, and they’re both really annoying scenes. I confess I don’t remember Anderson from KillJoys exactly, but yes to Blindspot, where I thought she was decent. Here? It looked like panic-induced acting?
Alex Tarrant plays Kai, an ex-Marine who has returned home and knows all the locals, but has a complicated family life with father and sister. Kind of the Torres’ character from regular NCIS, but well, I didn’t care. I’ve seen Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park do it better in Hawaii Five-O, S01.
Noah Mills plays the new Tim McGee i.e., most senior “second in command” for the team, aka Jesse Boone. You don’t get much from him in EP1, so it’s hard to rate. He’s fine, but nothing that stands out. He’s more personable than Lachey at least. I don’t remember him from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, one of Karli’s followers, nor anything else. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
But there are two bright spots. The first might be a small spot, hard to tell yet, but Enver Gjokaj plays a local military officer and likely someone that Tennant will deal with regularly (Captain Joe Milius). I really liked Gjokaj on Emergence before it was cancelled, but I had to rely on IMDB to remind me that he was Victor way back on Dollhouse. I hope he ends up being a regular character, maybe a stand-in for Director Vance or something, for the military chain of command.
And then there’s the resident tech, Ernie Malik, played by Jason Antoon. If you watch the other NCIS series, you’ll know that the many of the techs have ongoing recurring scenes. Some are soft roles that grow (NCIS: LA), others are big roles that run out of steam (NCIS’ Abby). Antoon steals every scene he is in. I thought I had seen him in other things, but checking his rap sheet reveals nothing I would remember him from. Maybe I’m just confusing him with a character look from way back on Babylon 5, but he’s awesome. Definitely a keeper.
Which leaves me with a cold team leader (but so is Gibbs, except he inspires loyalty and supports good people without questioning their abilities), an okay team lead, two weak junior members, a weak lawyer type whose role is undefined, and two other support characters who are good.
None of it screams “watch me”. EP1 dealt with people targeting naval personnel for potential corporate espionage, and the firewalls the military puts up to protect the program are silly. If they had evidence their crews were being targeted, the people in charge would have fallen all over themselves to support the investigation to prove it was false, not stonewalled for no reason. Bad writing. Don’t get me started on the fight between Kai and his sister. The only other bright spot I saw in any of it was the dialogue between the locals. Some of it seemed pretty legit, using phrases that Haoles (pronounced Howlies) wouldn’t know. I had trouble even following some of it, and that seems like a good thing.
As I said in my prediction, renewal is almost certain. Will I be watching? Maybe a future binge, but LA and New Orleans will be ahead of those, when regular NCIS ends. Which isn’t going to happen soon as someone backed a truckload of money up to Mark Harmon’s door and said, “Please continue” for S18.
So I checked out the new Fantasy Island series, which I was caught a little off-guard by in terms of timing. I had heard a reboot was coming, but never saw anything about it premiering. But, apparently, it did back at the end of August, they’re already up to episode 8. WTH?
If you are too young to remember, or used to live under a rock, you may know that back in the day, Love Boat and Fantasy Island used to air back-to-back as shows with all the guest stars of the week. Each week, two or three guest stars would come on the show, live out a small storyline, go home happy at the end, and the crew for the boat or the island staff would continue. Captain Stubing ran the Love Boat, while Mr. Roarke welcomed guests to an unusual island. FI had a movie reboot not too long ago, and I’ve been seeing the clips on Netflix where it looks like some sort of horror episode. While the cruise ship provided setting for magic to happen on the Love Boat, the Island had special magic itself. Or Mr. Roarke did. It was never too clear.
Anyway, I caught a couple of recent episodes, and they have upped the game so that it is a lot like a Star Trek holodeck. For example, a young woman arrives on the island wanting to live a life of adventure rather than in books, and she doesn’t know how to say “yes” to life. She loves a series of old Victorian novels of adventure and romance, and she wants the same. Which is exactly what they give her — she walks through a door into her fantasy, which is her going back in time to meet her favourite author, have adventures, and fall in love, and like any good hero’s journey, she grows and has to make a decision of whether she wants to risk living the new life she creates or go back to her older but easier one.
On the old series, there was more exposition at the start of each episode. Each person arrived, had already told them well in advance what they wanted, research had been done, plans had been made, etc. They didn’t know HOW the fantasy would work, just that they would get to live an adventure. Here, each character arriving is more like, “I’m here, let me tell you my fantasy and deepest desire for the first time”, and 30s later, with no explanation of who/why/where/what/etc., they go through a door and start their fantasy. I admit that I was jumping in without having experienced all the previous episodes, and they are already 8 shows in, so maybe all the mystery is “done and dealt with”, but it comes off completely unrealistic. Nobody has ANY questions? Nobody is like, “You know, I don’t really know what my fantasy is” or has any reluctance in unburdening their deepest darkest secret to the woman who greets them, some 2m after they just meant? REALLY? I don’t need every EP to repeat the same things, but even the Alphabet mysteries by Sue Grafton threw you a bone every episode to tell you who the main character is and they role they play in the story. Even if most of it happens off-camera, as it did in the old series. We didn’t get the full background, but we knew there WAS background.
I know, I know, it’s called Fantasy Island, but shouldn’t there be some attempt at grounding the opening in reality so you can SEE the transformation from the real world to the fantasy one? Otherwise it just seems like it could be role-playing actors, not real true fantasy.
Cast
Mr. Roarke, played by Ricardo Montalban in the original, has been replaced by Elena Roarke (I assume a daughter of the original, perhaps?). Actress Roselyn Sanchez was okay on Grand Hotel, and I enjoyed her way back on Without A Trace. Here? I wasn’t that impressed. She seems so insecure for her personal life, and completely non-reassuring for the professional side. There is NO reason for anyone to take her seriously as the person who can deliver on their fantasies, nor warm enough for them to unburden their deepest desire in 30s.
Hervé Villechaize played Tattoo in the original, the aide to Mr. Roarke. In this one, there is a woman named Ruby played by Kiara Barnes. Apparently, Ruby was one of the first guests in Ep1, with a terminal illness. As long as she stays on the island, perhaps it’s cured. But by the time I got to Ep 8 and 9, she has almost no role other than to give Elena someone to do exposition with when the others aren’t around. Except it reveals that despite appearing somewhere between 40-60yo, she is supposedly well over 75 and tied to the magic of the island (see above). From IMDB, I can see she did 267 episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful, and so presumably she can do some acting. I don’t know, it’s like watching two completely different actresses — one where she’s interacting with Elena and has NOTHING to do in the scenes and one where she goes into the fantasy world to interact momentarily with the fantasy recipient. When she’s doing nothing, it is PAINFUL to see her struggle to have SOME role; when she’s in the other scenes, she’s fine.
Prediction
The shows are relatively cheap to produce, guest stars vary from desperate actors looking for SOME roles to play to newbies, or some just looking for something different. While the sets change from week to week, some of them are rather simple (last week, Eric Winter from The Rookie stopped by for an existential crisis, and his entire set of scenes were “go stand in a forest area and talk to someone”…I was thinking it was a bit odd for him to show up, considering The Rookie is still filming, until I discovered he’s married IRL to Rosalyn Sanchez aka Elena. On the other hand, Caitlyn Stasey showed up this week, who I loved all the way back to Neighbours, as she somehow exudes both sex and cuteness in any scene, separate from her ability to establish presence quickly. Or, there was Daphne Zuniga showing up, aka Alison from The Sure Thing.) It’s Flashback City!
Anyway, cheap to do the sets, guest stars in and out, I predict renewal, even though I think they need to go a bit darker in some EPs, dig a bit deeper into the psychology (not horror, per se, but something darker like a murder). And regardless, I won’t be watching. For me, it’s like short stories. Nice to nibble on between real meals, but not filling.
Spenser is hired to find a rare book stolen from a university and the first witness he talks to ends up standing over a dead body within a day, but claims she didn’t do it.
What I Liked
This is the first book in the long-running Spenser series, and it is one of my favorite series of all time. Quirk and Belson are introduced, as well as some general hoodlums, and it is classic Spenser. Keep plugging along, doing what he wants to do or thinks is right, even after the book-napping is resolved.
What I Didn’t Like
Without Silverman or Hawk, it almost feels like Spenser’s on vacation on his own, not quite a full Spenser story. As such, it runs a bit more linearly than some of his other books.
