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Approaching the TV renewal bubble…

March 4 2016

Over at TVGrimReaper.com, the e-ink is dripping with new announcements coming regularly:

Cancelled	Wicked City Blood & Oil The Good Wife Angel From Hell Mike & Molly Truth Be Told The Player Heroes Reborn Minority Report	Wicked City, Blood & Oil, Angel from Hell, Truth be Told are no surprise. Mike and Molly and The Good Wife are ends of long runs (arguable in some cases that it was TOO long a run). And while I was watching Heroes Reborn, it wasn’t gelling; The Player wasn’t that compelling; and The Minority Report was too diffuse in its focus.
On fumes	CSI: Cyber Code: Black Person of Interest Mysteries of Laura The Grinder Second Chance Crazy Ex-GF iZombie	This is an oddly satisfying category — I tried 6 / 8 of them, and passed on all of them except 1 in the first episode, and the one that I’m still watching (Second Chance) has no redeeming value other than the one actor I like. A friend watches iZombie and likes it, and I thought I would try it on binge, but maybe not now.
Likely to be cancelled	Galavant The Muppets Agent Carter Nashville Undateable Telenovela Sleepy Hollow Bordertown Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life Last Man On Earth	I gave almost all of these a pass early on, with exception of 4, and only 1 am I still watching (Sleepy Hollow) but don’t disagree with plan to cancel, it has really deteriorated.
Toss-up	American Crime Castle Quantico You, Me and the Apocalypse Grimm Grandfathered The Vampire Diaries The 100	This is where the pain starts, but not that much. Castle should have died last season, and based on what they have had left in the tank, it did die, just nobody told them. Quantico started out strong, but it’s been slipping in quality steadily for me. Grimm is a show I really like, but the plot with the Black Claw this season has been slow and monotonous. Finally they have gotten to the keys and the map and Eve, and if they did that in Episode 2 or 3, it could have been rocking.
Likely to be renewed – no idea why	Dr. Ken Fresh off the Boat Last Man Standing Grey’s Anatomy Once Upon A Time Hawaii Five-O Madam Secretary 2 Broke Girls Mom Criminal Minds Brooklyn Nine-Nine New Girl Reign Jane the Virgin	Fourteen shows in this category, and basically I can say “I don’t understand the attraction of these shows”, or more pointedly, “I don’t get them.” Sure, some of them are not for my demographic, sure. I only ever had even basic attraction to Once Upon A Time, Hawaii Five-O, Madam Secretary, and Mom, and that interest left REALLY quick for the last two.
Likely to be renewed	Elementary Limitless Blue Bloods NCIS: LA Lucifer X-Files DCs Legends of Tomorrow	I separated these ones out as I am watching them. I am shocked though that Lucifer is in this category, as I see almost no redeeming quality to it at all. I love the premise, but the acting is questionable, the writing needs a lot of work, the visuals and plots aren’t compelling. Happy to keep watching for now, but surprised. Also, same for Limitless and Blue Bloods — I like them, but not sure why they are ranked this high. Rest have obvious fandoms.
Waiting for notification of renewal	How To Get Away With Murder Black-ish Scandal The Middle The Goldbergs Modern Family Life in Pieces Family Guy The Originals Supernatural Ones I watch Agents of SHIELD Supergirl Scorpion NCIS: NO Gotham Rosewood Arrow The Flash	There’s nothing particularly surprising to me in the first group. I don’t “get” these ones, but I see the attraction. For me, the WTF moment came for the shows I do watch…why is Scorpion consistenly ranked so high? Incredibly cheesy and makes MacGyver seem realistic. NCIS: NO is also this high? And Rosewood? Who is watching these crappy shows besides me?
Renewed	Shades of Blue Superstore Chicago Med Chicago Fire Chicago P.D. Law & Order: SVU Scream Queens Bob’s Burgers The Simpsons Bones Empire Blacklist NCIS Big Bang Theory Blindspot	Hard to believe SoB is renewed already — it just premiered, I haven’t even tried to catch up on it yet. And reviews aren’t that solid. Somebody has a good contract. Superstore has buzz, maybe that’s enough these days. Chicago x 3 is a good budget decision. SVU is still on? I guess if you rip from the headlines, there are always more headlines. Bones? I have never gotten the appeal of this show. I like both the main actors, love forensics, hate the show. They even did a cross-over to Sleepy Hollow and I thought they pulled that mediocre show down further. Blacklist is uneven, but renewal makes sense. NCIS is the cash cow, okay. Big Bang Theory is the same. But Blindspot has been popular yet so uneven, I hope they gave a really good pitch for where the storyline goes from here.

Overall, they’re not cutting anything I want to keep, and none of them are head-scratchers to me. I get a bit more cheese than anyone needs in their diet, and we haven’t seen the new stuff yet, but overall, I can live with a high dairy content from time to time.

A few TV shows have been axed, finally, more to come

December 2 2015

Over at TVGrimReaper.com, the e-ink is dripping on all the recent updates as we start to see mid-season finales.

Euthanized: Wicked City, Blood & Oil, Truth Be Told, The Player, and Minority Report
- Well, I lost two of those (Player, Minority Report) and I was enjoying both. As mentioned earlier, I think there is a nugget to be cracked for the “one man” action type show, but in five seasons, nobody has done it yet. Into the Badlands on AMC is awesome, but it went way deep into the action, with one of the fight scenes from week 2 being the best I’ve seen on TV ever, and probably best for TV or movie in about 10 years. Minority Report was a conundrum from the beginning, and I think it was almost diluted by having all three pre-cogs involved. It was nice that they got to do some form of wrap up of the storyline in episode 10, unlike the Player which had only a very small wrap-up for week 9.
On Life Support: CSI: Cyber, Code Black, Mysteries of Laura, Crazy Ex-GF, and iZombie
- I gave CSI: Cyber, MoL and CEG a try for all of one episode and passed quickly. CB had no interest for me. So those four are no great loss for me. However, I had heard good things about iZombie from a co-worker, and had it on my list to try sometime. Maybe not now.
Critically-ill: Undateable, Sleepy Hollow, The Grinder, Bones, and Last Man on Earth
- Undateable became almost unwatchable after the first 5 episodes, and I watched awhile longer to see if some of the spark would come back. It didn’t. Grinder was good for an episode and I passed, never watched LMoE, and Bones never held any chemistry for me (I like the stars individually, just not together). I like Sleepy Hollow, but I think someone needs to take a heavier hand to the story arcs. I think the show would fly on short series orders of 10 EPs a season, and darker / grittier than regular TV allows. I watch, but I won’t mourn its passing.
Touch-and-go: Nashville, Castle, Muppets, Elementary, Good Wife, Hawaii Five-O, Heroes Reborn, Grandfathered, and Scream Queens
- This is where the pain starts for me. I’m already in pain because Castle sucks this season, but I’ll watch it to the bitter end (it should have ended last season). I really like Elementary, and hope it survives, even though they gave way too little attention to the drug crisis of last year’s cliffhanger. I still have hopes for Heroes Reborn, but I’ve been disappointed before. Good Wife is a future potential binge-watch title, the rest are more surprising in that they are still on the air.
In recovery: Last Man Standing, Dr. Ken, Quantico, Fresh Off the Boat, Once Upon A Time, Grey’s Anatomy, Blue Bloods, NCIS: LA, Madam Secretary, Limitless, Mom, 2 Broke Girls, Supergirl, Grimm, Law and Order: SVU, Chicaog Med, Vampire Diaries, Reign, and Jane the Virgin
- There are a lot of surprises in this one for me…I don’t care about LMS, DK, FotB, OUaT, GA, MS, Mom, 2BG, SVU, CM, VD, Reign or JtV. Most of them are really not my demographic, and some of them are okay shows, just not for me (others make me shudder that ANYONE is watching them). However, I have been enjoying Quantico, as I like the flashback style of telling the back story (similar to Arrow). I’m a bit surprised to see Blue Bloods / Limitless / Grimm / NCIS: LA ranked this high as they are a bit niche-y, but not surprised Supergirl is still up there. I think it will only go higher as the year progresses.
Ready for discharge: Agents of SHIELD, Black-ish, The Middle, How To Get Away With Murder, The GoldBergs, Scandal, Modern Family, Criminal Minds, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS, Scorpion, Life in Pieces, Blacklist, Rosewood, Family Guy, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Gotham, Empire, The Originals, Supernatural, Arrow, and The Flash
- I don’t watch Black-ish, Middle, HTGAWM, Goldbergs, Scandal, MF, CM, LiP, FG, B99, Empire, or the Originals, but again, I’m not the intended audience. Most of them are okay, I just don’t see the appeal. Supernatural is on my future binge-watch list, not sure I’d watch all of them though. I’m a sucker for Arrow and The Flash, so hard to be objective about those. I’m really surprised SHIELD, Scorpion and and Rosewood are ranked this high though, and NCIS: NO. While NCIS is probably a no-brainer, the cash cow that keeps on lactating, it does have to end sometime, doesn’t it? I am reassured somewhat to see Blacklist this high, as I think they are now in their third year of telling different storylines each year, or a different form of storytelling with a different feel to it, and each time, they’ve thrived. However, I’m not surprised to see Gotham this high…it’s one of the best of the genre, and watchable even if you’re not into the mythos of comics and superheroes.
Home with the family: Big Bang Theory, Chicago P.D., Chicago Fire, Blindspot, Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons
- I am not interested in any of the Chicago series, too soap-ish for me, and I’m not watching the animated ones (future bingewatch potential). Happy for BBT, although I have been off watching it this season, waiting for January to roll around to catch up on it with my wife. Last in this list is Blindspot, and I’m of two minds for renewal. First, it’s a hit, great, should be renewed. Second, by contrast, it’s got a major plot problem coming up — if the people had all the info that they did to tattoo on her body, why did they not reveal it in a far less cryptic fashion? If there was some sort of “magical/mystical” element, as in Minority Report with pre-cogs, there would be something to go on. The big reveal (CAUTION: SPOILER ALERT) was that she volunteered for the assignment, it was her plan to put it all over her body as tattoos. Maybe it will end up being an intelligence agency computer dump that was all jumbled together, but then why wipe her memory? Why not reveal the source of the info? If the payoff doesn’t match the mythology, and we need some pieces of it this year, season two will drop in the ratings pretty fast as viewers see too little reward for their investment of time.

TV shows that have been dropped or are in freefall

November 19 2015

I was reading TVByTheNumbers, but switched over to reading the Grim Reaper (who has bounced around a bit and now does his own thing on his own site). A little more snark, but the analysis is a bit better.

At ABC:

Wicked City is cancelled — This “1982 serial killer” show wasn’t exactly a huge draw, but surprised it didn’t get a couple more shows in before a decision was made;
Castle and the Muppets are toss-ups to be cancelled by end of year, but I think the Muppets will leave before then and Castle is a definite lock to be the last season;
Quantico is on the list for “likely renewal”, but I think it is way too early to decide that, unless someone has a REALLY compelling storyline for Season 2 already in the works; and,
SHIELD is on the list for definite renewal, must be something I don’t see, as it’s a watch or not toss up for me.

At CBS:

Elementary is a toss-up, but again, I think way too early to decide;
NCIS: LA and Blue Bloods are likely to be renewed, but I’d put them in the same category as Elementary;
Newbies Limitless and Supergirl are also listed as likely to be renewed, but I would downgrade Limitless to a toss-up and upgrade Supergirl to “definite” as a Berlanti-diamond-that-needs-polishing; and,
NCIS, NCIS: New Orleans, Scorpion and Big Bang Theory are all expecting renewals, but I’m not sure why for any of them.

At NBC:

The Player has been cancelled, which saddens me…there is a plot line here for a weekly action show, one man with some skills against the world, and nobody has cracked it in the last five seasons, wonder who will try next year;
Undateable is likely to be cancelled, and I gave up on it some time ago;
Heroes: Reborn is rated as a toss-up, but I think they have too much chaff and not enough wheat in their lineup, so might upgrade that one, depends on what happens with the plot going forward, if it will hook people or lose them;
Grimm is down as likely to be renewed, and there may be some syndication money at play there (they’ve reached their 100th episode), but I would list that one down a bit unless they can pump up the storyline a bit; and,
The Blacklist is predicted as guaranteed to be renewed and Blindspot is already renewed, and I’d be interested to see what the writers for Blindspot have pitched for mythology creep in Season 2, as at least one of the major pieces has to drop this year or people will cry foul.

At Fox:

Minority Report is already cancelled, which is a shame, I think it had potential just needed a bit more spark outside of the police department;
Sleepy Hollow is predicted as likely to be cancelled, and can’t disagree with that, the storylines have been pretty flat this year;
Gotham is predicted as guaranteed to be renewed, which I don’t disagree with; and,
Rosewood is listed as guaranteed to be renewed, which seems like a giant odd-man-out, and worries me for recent retooling to make both Rosewood and Villa single and available for each other, leaving little tension, they’re almost happy together.

At CW:

The hybrid of CBS and WB, TV Grim Reaper suggests treating them like two “sources” of shows since they seem to be almost managed as two pools (often the top CBS shows get renewed, even though they’re worse than some of the bottom WB ones):

Crazy Ex-GF for CBS is on life support, and TV Grim Reaper thinks they already pulled the plug without telling anyone;
Arrow is guaranteed to be renewed, and like The Flash, I think it’s a no brainer, partly as I think Berlanti is achieving some economies of scale between multiple productions and makes up for it volume (Arrow, Flash, SuperGirl, DC Legends of Tomorrow, etc.).

That’s it for now, will probably recap in about a month when the first “season” ends (the networks now treat it as the “fall season” for 10-13 episodes and the “winter season” for 10-13 more, plus replacements).

Season premiere: Elementary

November 9 2015

At the end of last season, Holmes was having a horrible, no good, very bad day:

Antonio had been kidnapped and he was being forced to solve clues around the city;
the baddie of the episode was trying to seduce him into using heroin to rescue Antonio;
Holmes beat the crap out of the baddie, near killing him; and,
he went off with the drugs at the episode to presumably shoot up.

I was worried that the season would start up with a revelation that he hadn’t actually used. That, somehow, at the last minute, he thrown off his demons, and had walked the righteous path. Instead, the reality was actually worse.

I don’t mean that he used, although that did indeed happen. I mean that the show starts only a few days after the incident and Holmes is back to his regretful self. No withdrawal, no cravings, oops, I used. All better now, let’s go to meetings. No darkness. No despair. No wallowing. Not even Holmes turning his cruel observations inward to self-immolate his failure. Honestly, it’s like he made a resolution to work out every day and to eat healthy, and all he did was eat a chocolate bar and skip the gym. He is back on the wagon so fast, with no emotional or intellectual fall-out whatsoever, I have no idea what the writers were thinking. I feel ripped off. The equivalent of him saying, “oops, my bad”, and moving on.

Which isn’t to say there isn’t fall-out — the DA is deciding if they will charge him with attempted murder or not, and the NYPD has cut all ties with their consultants, including Watson. That actually registers with Holmes in the episode…not his personal failure, but that it has impacted Watson. Who last year went her own way, wants to still work with him but with distance, but also wants to do stuff on her own too, and yet when it is revealed to her that she’s out too, she’s all “well, I only work with you, so if you’re out, I’d be out anyway”. Sure she would. Like last year when he left and she kept working with them. WTF?

Their NYPD partners said goodbye, and I don’t know if that is the plan for the season that they will work with others or not. Holmes hit up the NSA who basically told them all the agencies will consider them radioactive too.

The only real upside to the episode was the end of episode twist of having Holmes’ father, Morland, arrive to “fix everything”, with his reputed harsh assessment of Holmes, etc. Very priggish. I love the actor, John Noble, who plays Morland and I loved him on both Fringe and to a slightly lesser extent on Sleepy Hollow. But the reality is that he is least enjoyable when he’s trying to play a prig, so not sure how well that will play out. Instead of seeming “nasty”, he comes off more immature / childishly evil. Draco Malfoy was more sinister, and he sucked most of the time. Sigh.

Season premiere: Grimm

November 9 2015

At the end of last season, Nick was having a horrible, no good, very bad day:

He found his dead mother’s head in a box on his dining room table;
Juliette had gone full-on Hexenbeist, burned down his trailer of Grimm artifacts, and tried to kill him, embracing the feud with all Grimms;
Trubel shot Juliette with a crossbow to save Nick; and,
Nick held Juliette in his arms as she died.

The first episode picks up from that point, and I wanted to scream foul. As Juliette lies dying, the secret wesen FBI taskforce breaks in, steals Juliet’s body / kidnaps Trubel / removes the mother’s head. Sooo, chances are that Mom isn’t actually dead. There was a twist in the last episode where it never actually showed it was indeed his mother before she died, and she didn’t fight very well for a Grimm. With the head gone, no way to be certain. Same for Juliette’s body, I’m sure she isn’t dead. As for Trubel, two episodes in and she hasn’t reappeared, but although they’re looking for her, nobody’s very worried.

If things weren’t bad enough, the FBI agent (secretly a wesen) turns out to be not so bad before she gets killed, although she does have time to warn Nick “they’re coming” and it means war. But oh, look, Nick’s a daddy with the hexenbeist that tricked him into impregnating her.

I can’t believe I’ve written the words above. It sounds so outlandish, it’s hard to believe it makes sense for the show. As I said, I’m really disappointed in the Trubel / mom’s head / Juliette’s body thing. Very cheap plot devices. But I’m hoping the battle that is coming is worth the setup and it doesn’t end up being something they resolve in a single episode after all the build-up.

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