Tag Archives: series

TV shows on the bubble at 25% of the way through the season

The PolyBlog
November 3 2015

I like reading the website TVByTheNumbers (zaptoit.com) as they pull together some of the hits and duds each week to see how they’re doing based on ratings and whether networks are likely to keep them. They adjust for things like demographics, whether the network owns the show or it’s produced outside the fold, etc. It’s a fun read, and their prediction rate isn’t bad. Mostly I just like to check in from time to time for my shows and see how they’re doing…

ABC:

  • Blood and Oil — The “Dallas” remake, more or less, it held no interest for me and is on fumes;
  • Wicked City — The premiere was last week, this is the 1982 serial killer show, pretty low on predictions but only just started, hard to tell;
  • Nashville — Why is this show still on?
  • Castle — I watch, but I’m not sure why anymore. They should have had a better ending for last season, bigger, badder, etc., and just ended it instead of separating Castle and Beckett this year for ridiculous reasons;
  • Last Man Standing — Haven’t watched since the beginning, let it die;
  • Muppets — I had initially hoped this would be kid-friendly, but most of the pilot was more for adults, more so than the previous version, fine to let it die;

CBS:

  • CSI: Cyber — this should have died the first week;
  • Hawaii Five-O — this should have died two years ago;
  • Code Black — St. Elsewhere with updated DRAMA! ACTION! ROMANCE!…yawn;
  • The Good Wife — has probably run its course, don’t have strong views, it never hooked me;
  • NCIS: LA — I was watching regularly, but lately, it is definitely third on my list of NCIS shows, and happy to see it go;
  • Madam Secretary — yawn, never hooked me, fine to see it die;

CW:

  • Crazy Ex-Girlfriend — I can’t figure out how this was greenlit…confused mess;
  • Reign — never watched it;
  • iZombie — haven’t watched it through an episode, but some friends like it, no real view on this one;

FOX:

  • Minority Report — I think there’s a show buried in there somewhere, not sure where, but won’t be surprised to see it die;
  • Sleepy Hollow — I would miss this one…it’s like X-Files with things actually appearing rather than just hinted at;
  • The Grinder — Rob Lowe, yes…this show, hell no;
  • Grandfathered — premise bored me before I finished reading it;
  • Bones — I should love this show, as I like procedurals, I like the stars, I like forensics…but I don’t, the chemistry was never, and I mean NEVER, there for me;
  • The Last Man on Earth — no interest;

NBC:

  • Truth Be Told — no interest in this from the beginning;
  • The Player — each week, save the victim…there have been a lot of these action shows in recent years, and if there was no secret identity, super power, or cape, they`ve all failed…this one is no better or worse then most of them, and Wesley Snipes isn’t enough to save it;
  • The Mysteries of Laura — I have no idea how this one survived the pilot;
  • Undateable — I don`t know where this show went, it started off with “let the dating guru give lessons to the nerds” and it was great, funny, watchable…then it became, let the nerd reclaim the gigolo, and the show tanked…now it’s *gasp* live (!)…or not;
  • Heroes Reborn — I hope this one grows legs (and not in the evil grow-your-own-clone way), as I’m actually enjoying it again. Save the past, save the future isn’t as compelling as save the cheerleader, but they also haven’t introduced a really bad super villain yet (honestly, Erika is a bureaucratic joke);

The rest of the big shows that I watch are likely to be renewed. And if I had the power to save a show of the 8 that I actually watch, it would be Heroes Reborn, with The Player and Sleepy Hollow fighting it out for a distant second place.

Super hero shows

The PolyBlog
November 3 2015

Anyone who reads my blog or follows me on Twitter knows I watch a lot of TV. I love serialized story-telling, sue me. But within my watching schedule are the increasing number of superhero shows. There’s actual academic research out there about storylines and market share correlating with people’s level of optimism — i.e. when things are bleak, they often look to archetype-style storylines where good triumphs over evil, and one person can make a difference — but mostly they’re just plain fun. And while lots of people think they’re all the same, far from it.

Back in the early 80s, I watched reruns of Batman (bif! pow!), for the campy fun. Plus the anti-super-hero story, Greatest American Hero…a suit with special powers given by aliens no less, but the hero couldn’t fly straight, lost the manual, etc. Not exactly a man of steel. Oh, and he was a high school teacher with The Breakfast Club set in tow occasionally. About the only thing going for him was a hot girlfriend (Connie Selleca, rar!).

Later I graduated to other shows. Lois and Clark had potential when it stayed out of the romance realm, but wasn’t a mainstay. The Superman movies were decent (well, except for the Richard Pryor one, blech). Spiderman was awesome, but again, on the big screen.

Then Smallville changed everything. When it debuted, everybody said, “What? An origin story? Who wants that?”. Turns out, a LOT of people. Hugely popular, hugely successful. And while not every storyline was a home run, most were solid singles. Some, particularly in the last season, were stand-up triples. All leading over the 7 years to him becoming Superman. The origin story of how he learned to become Superman. Lots of other franchises were thinking big screen, but not all.

Arrow is into its fourth season, probably one of the natural successors to Smallville for many viewers. With the notable exception that it starts with the Arrow’s first day on the job, the rest of the show deals with how the Scoobie team builds, Arrow goes from “the Hood” to “Arrow” to “Green Arrow”, and if you want backstory, lots of flashbacks to Oliver Queen’s missing five years. Plus, no need to worry about paying the rent when you’re a billionaire. Yet, it is very dark. More “Dark Knight” than “Smallville” (which had a lot of sunlight). The physical mood is quite different, the dark seedy underbelly of life.

Gotham started last year, and I honestly thought it was off the rails. Another origin story, like Smallville, but the focus isn’t on Bruce Wayne becoming Batman but on Jim Gordon trying to clean up the streets of Gotham. It is very dark. Oddly lit. Sometimes it looks like a 70s style cop show more so than the present day. But here’s the problem. Batman emerges because he is needed…to use the mythology, maybe not the hero the city deserves, but the one it needs. Dark. Vigilante justice. Lone wolf fighting back because the criminals are in control. Someone who will break the law because it is the only way to save the city from anarchy. This means, over about 7 seasons, Jim Gordon has to consistently lose battles. The city has to continue to descend into darkness, and conditions have to continue to get worse in order for the Batman role to be born in Bruce Wayne’s heart. Seven years of seeing Gotham sink under the weight of criminals and villainy. This season is even dubbed “Rise of the Villains”. It is way darker than Arrow, and it can only get worse. Yet, for all of that, it’s really compelling watching Gordon. He is a great character to focus on. We’re even seeing other characters like the Riddler, Penguin, Falcone, etc. become the nutbar super villains that Batman must face later on. Love the show.

Marvel Agents of SHIELD is the campy, slightly poke-in-the-ribs superhero show. The clean-up crew deals with the fights that Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, and others can’t get to, the smaller battles. Fighting the humans who want to find alien technology and dominate Earth. Very few people die, lots of bullets get fired, and there is a lot of bright light areas. Hints of darkness, but rare to actually deal with the seedy underbelly. Again, a totally different mood. They had a related “Agent Carter” series, and it didn’t interest me much.

Last year, the Flash came on the scene, courtesy of Arrow’s spinoff/kickstart. Barry Allen, the fastest man alive, is young, idealistic, and haunted by his father’s false imprisonment for the murder of Barry’s mother. Bright, happy, but realistic. Barry has seen the darkness, it’s touched his life, but he doesn’t want to live there.

This season, they released Supergirl. Forget the darkness of Gotham and Arrow. Forget the human downside of fighting evil of SHIELD. Forget even the schoolboy seriousness of hiding his secret as Clarke became Superman on Smallville.

Supergirl is brightly lit, saccharine sweet, with rainbows and unicorn-positivity. Kara is thrilled to be a superhero. She can fly, she can help people, she wants to be “strong together”, working with a team of friends and her military agent sister to bring down the bad guys while maintaining a cover as a slightly ditsy assistant to the editor of a magazine. Sure, there are big baddies lurking in the shadows, including her evil aunt, but hey, let’s take a break to pick up a car with her boss in it and carry her off to do an interview atop a hill.

Clarke Kent was super serious for his young age; Oliver Queen has seen the darkness and now lives there, at whatever cost it takes to save his city; Jim Gordon is worn down by the corruption and Gotham’s descent, but he’s a soldier in the battle and will keep fighting on for his principles; Coulson and his team on SHIELD are amazed at the weird crap that keeps coming their way, but are willing to face it head on, hopefully with some wry humour to help them cope; the Flash has his little band of humans to help him take on everyday criminals turned meta-humans. Kara El, of the house of El? She’s a sunshine yellow superhero and pep rally cheerleader all rolled into one.

All very different shows, but the themes are consistent. Rebirth. New beginnings. Power, responsibility. Duty. Honour. Fighting the good fight. And, if possible, looking really handsome or beautiful doing it.

More of the shows are coming, and I’ll likely tune in for most of them.

Series premiere: Wicked City

The PolyBlog
October 31 2015

I have no idea if Wicked City is a show that will catch on or not. First of all, they delayed it until way after premiere season, don’t know how many people even noticed it premiere this week. Second, it follows what was rumoured to be the original premise for when Law and Order: Criminal Intent premiered — half on the cops, half on the killer. CI apparently ditched that in production and went with standard L&O format, partly (supposedly) because some people find the show less compelling if you know who the bad guy is. More pointedly, I think, you don’t care about the bad guy because it is really hard in a one-off episode to create a truly vivid character who isn’t a cliché.

The new cop drama is set back in the summer of ’82 when L.A. was apparently the murder capital of the U.S. There’s definitely a “Almost Famous” feel to the way it is set and staged, even plotted with a naive reporter trying to break into the rock ‘n’ roll reporting scene.

Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl) is the killer, and his first kill is nicely staged. Ruthless, he could just be a cop or victim getting his jollies until the kill. One of the benefits of ’82 is you don’t have to worry too much about advanced forensics or databases. Heck, they’re having trouble just identifying his victims.

Jeremy Sisto is the lead detective…dark, brooding, scruffy. You’ve seen him before in Purgatory, Six Feet Under and The Returned, none of which I watched. I realized his other cop pedigree pretty fast as his movement, carriage, and personality all scream “Lupo”. He actually used to be on the original Law and Order back in 2007-2010. Slight change in time, and a marked difference in tolerance for bending the rule book, it’s a bit like Miami Vice brought to the street level — all the drugs, none of the glitz. He’s having a small existential crisis, both with his marriage and with his former partner having killed himself, but other than that, he’s Lupo still. Which is a good thing.

Erika Christensen is Westwick’s girlfriend, Betty Beaumontaine, and it looks like he’s going to focus on corrupting her throughout the first season i.e. you think she might bite it in episode one but she’s contracted for ten episodes, so doesn’t look like it. She also stars in Parenthood, so you may have seen her there, while oddly enough, I only remember her from an episode of Lie to Me. Her character is hard to nail down, and maybe that’s the point — single mom, overworked, underpaid, kids to look after, struggling to find some excitement in her life and she’s tagged by Westwick early as easily vulnerable. I don’t know if she becomes his partner or not, guess we’ll see, but the writers need to nail her down soon, her wishy-washy-side is hard to watch.

Taissa Farmiga plays the intrepid, young reporter, Karen McClaren (really? is she supposed to be a superhero in disguise?) and at only 21 years of age in real life, she looks in the show like she’s barely legal for the bars. Very innocent, very naive, very fragile. There’s a strong father thing with the detective, and if something romantic happens there, there is going to be a giant ick factor. Something weird happens at the end of the first episode, she seems to disappear, and there is no explanation of what happens — did the killer get her, is she dead, what? You know he isn’t leaving with her, he’s with another woman instead as he realizes the cops are on to him, but it’s a weird gap.

There are a bunch of other characters, and hard to know if any of them will end up being relevant. Sisto is willing to work with his new partner by the end of the episode, after the first half sets him up as the biggest opportunistic d-bag around. Add in a daughter, a wife, a frumpy detective and a hot detective, plus a Captain that Sisto leaves in the dark, there are lots of people running around. Even a next-door neighbour who has the secret killer babysit regularly.

The first episode was interesting, but we’ll see if the killer keeps it so…

Season premiere: The Flash

The PolyBlog
October 16 2015

At the end of last season, Flash managed to go back in time, see himself fighting Reverse Flash, have the other version of himself tell him not to complete the save of his mom, come back to regular time, and for Reverse Flash to get killed by Eddie. Just in time for a singularity to open above the city making it look like the world was ending. Which it would have, but then there’d be no new season.

The new season opens six months later, Flash is basically working alone, having shut out everyone else. Through flashback you find out that he ran up into the singularity, was temporarily able to contain it by — hey, no guessing — running really fast, but not able to close it. Firestorm did however, but with Ronnie disappearing in the subsequent blast. Flash opened the portal, so he feels responsible for Ronnie, Eddie and a host of other people who got killed that day, so he basically is doing everything on his own now.

Cisco works with the meta-human task force at the police station, Caitlyn is off doing regular science, everyone’s worried about the Flash’s mental state. Then a meta human shows up who looks like a corpse, is radio-active almost, and incredibly strong. Eventually, the Band gets back together, they stop Atom Smasher, and learn that somebody sent him to kill the Flash — Zoom.

The Ep is okay, but the false angst of “oh, am I responsible for all these deaths” that is resolved in 44 minutes is pretty tiresome. Berlanti does it in every one of the Berlanti empire’s shows (like Arrow), or worse, they drag it out like a whining kid. If there’s really such trauma and angst, how about showing some growth from the change? Or kick it to the curb and insert trauma cuz they didn’t learn something?

Nevertheless, the storyline was interesting, with a great last 30 seconds where they say, “Hey, nobody can get in here, all new security”, just before a new guy walks in and says hello. Oh, and he knows Zoom.

Season premiere: Arrow

The PolyBlog
October 16 2015

At the end of last season, Arrow had emerged triumphant over Ra’s Al Ghul, Merlyn took over with Arrow’s blessing, Palmer was apparently dead (giant explosion), Diggle was upset with Arrow putting his wife in danger and not trusting him, etc., and basically the band was ready for solo careers or something. The season ended with Felicity and Oliver driving off into an ocean sunset drive with Oliver saying he was happy.

The new season opens with Oliver and Felicity apparently in couple bliss, hanging out and being domestic. The scene is ridiculous as basically, you find out they’ve been travelling all over, Felicity is bored with the lack of action, and Oliver is perfectly content doing basically nothing (which he used to do before the Arrow, but hard to believe now). Regardless, there’s trouble back in Star City, Damien Dark is wreaking havoc, and Speedy+Canary want the Arrow’s help. Of course, they go back, not everyone (i.e. Diggle) is happy to see him, and oh yeah, Arrow was supposed to be Roy who supposedly died.

So they beat the bad guys, save the city, find out what Dark is really capable of (ooh, he’s into mystical stuff!) and then announce that Arrow is dead, but someone new (with a new snazzy suit) is ready to take up the mantle of Arrow’s legacy — Green Arrow.

I found the episode great for fight scenes, and really poor for the characters. Is Oliver happy in domestic bliss? Felicity has secretly been helping the Star City crew from various parts of the world without Oliver knowing? Dark is into, well, dark magic? Not a big fan of having the mystical added to the roster for Arrow, outside of the Lazarus Pit which is fine as a plot device I suppose. One of the best parts of the Batman and Arrow heritage is there is no superpower involved, it’s just a formidable fighter taking on the world with strength, agility, and really cool toys.

And honestly, I don’t care if Lance is piqued that Arrow is back, or Diggle still doesn’t trust him. Snooze-arama. Nor the drama in Ep 2 that Felicity has to be a big bad boss lady at Palmer Industries. Disappointing that Jeri Ryan’s character popped in for Ep 2 but that’s it. Oh, well, it can only go up, right?