House Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I hate to admit it, but I wasn't all that psyched (heh, no pun intended) to watch the season premiere of House. After last season doled out disappointment after disappointment and overall just kind of bored me, I didn't have high hopes at all for the aging series. I've already spoken at length about how underwhelming and dull the new ducklings are, so I won't belabor the point, but sadly, they were only one component of last season's nose dive. I just stopped caring and was on the brink of breaking up with the show. The end of last season raised some interesting questions, however, and I'm a loyalist at the end of the day, so I was willing to hang in there.

The previews for this season's premiere only moderately piqued my interest, which is sadly, a marked increase, but I still didn't have high hopes. I DVR'd the premiere and then finally got around the watching it a couple of days later. Much to my pleasant surprise, not only did the premiere hold my attention for the entire two hours (an aspect I wasn't exactly looking forward to) but even managed to buoy my confidence in the show a bit.

In spite of the overall depressing tone of the premiere (a fact inherent in life on a psych ward), it was nice to see something different for once. I've seen House solve the same kind of mysteries in the same format year in and year out for entirely too long for it to be fresh or enthralling anymore. Seeing House in a new atmosphere (one he doesn't control) reinvigorated my interest in him as a character. The fact that he left the facility at the end of the episode genuinely bummed me out... I was really hoping House would stay in the mental hospital for longer than two episode's worth of time, but hey, we have to get back to Princeton Plainsboro so 13 can make us want to throw out our TVs, don't ya know...

Not every aspect of the premiere worked perfectly, but it was a much better outing than the show has had in a long time. Watching House face his own demons (as opposed to calling out everyone else's) made for a nice change of pace and brought out a different side to the character (but still managed to be House). In essence, House was forced to be his own patient and diagnose and treat his own issues. The staff at the hospital may have facilitated the process, but it was House himself who had to finally let go of his hang-ups and embrace humanity. House has always related to patients with mental problems or deficits, so it makes sense that he would finally open up to people in this kind of atmosphere.

I also quite enjoyed watching House get schooled by the doctors. House is generally accustomed to being the quickest and cleverest around, but in an atmosphere where the doctors have seen it all, House was out of his depth. As much as I enjoy watching House screw with people's heads, seeing him get bested was pretty satisfying. That and his disastrous trip to the carnival with the guy who thought he could fly were the tipping points, methinks. House actually doesn't always know what the best course of action is and had to own up to the consequences. He's been allowed to do as he pleases for so long that I really don't think he knew how to handle it. In the end, he acquiesced.

I'm not sure how (or if) the new and improved (?) House will reintegrate to his old surroundings, but I'm interested enough to want to find out. House may have made progress at the loony bin, but it'll be a sight to see if he manages to show his new side to his old friends and colleagues. It's one thing to let your guard down with a bunch of people you don't know or care about and who are (for the most part) insane, it's quite another to behave differently around people you've known for years. I'm less than confident that he'll be able to keep up his progress, but at least in intrigued enough to find out. I'm still not over the moon about the show starting up again (it has felt like a chore to watch for nearly two seasons), but I'm hopeful House's new mental state will enliven the show and curb the boredom. In the end, I think the only thing that could really and truly fix the show would be to cut the dead weight and bring in some genuinely interesting new blood. Word is, Dr. Cameron is being written out of the show, but she's not the dead weight I was talking about. I never knew just how much I loved her character until she was replaced. I'm hearing it was a creative decision on the part of the writers/producers, so in essence, Jennifer Morrison is being fired mid-season, which is always a bit of a shame. Story-wise it may be for the best, but it's always sad to see.

Adding to my apprehension/more than usual excitement for the new season, the House and Cuddy situation took a turn for the worse? better? weirder? last season and it seems House may have worked out some of his issues. I've always been a Huddy fan, but last season totally deflated my investment in them as a potential couple. Once a couple actually gets together, the dynamic changes and I'm not sure that's a good thing. I'm always a little wary of the pay off, but sometimes that's just the road that has to be taken (especially after 5 years of toying with the idea). I'd be more reluctant for things to take that turn, but with a flagging series, I'm pretty much open to anything. It can't possibly make things worse than last season, right? In the end, at least I'm not so overly invested in the show that I couldn't cut ties in the event that it actually is worse. With some shows, I'm so thoroughly engrossed that the thought of breaking up is unfathomable. It's at times like these that bad storyline decisions hurt the most. With House, I'm at the point of take it or leave it, which in a way, is incredibly freeing.

I was intrigued by the premiere, but I'm really not all that excited for House's return to Princeton Plainsboro tonight. I'm invested enough to keep up, but something pretty striking will need to happen for the show to ever regain a top tier position again. At present, it's at the bottom of the second tier and if the next few episodes don't reel me in, I'll have to banish the show to the third tier... a position I couldn't have imagined for this show just a few short seasons ago...

Sigh.

I miss Amber...

What Did You See?

In what ABC hopes will be a solid high concept replacement for Lost, it's latest drama FlashForward premiered yesterday and might just fit the bill. It's one of the most highly anticipated shows of the fall and I was very pleased to find that it deserves the hype to large degree. In a fall pilot season that has been pretty lackluster, FlashForward delivers a gripping mystery on a global scale.

The concept for the show is laid out in the pilot after the entire planet blacks out for exactly 2 minutes and 17 seconds. No one knows how or why, but seemingly everyone on earth not only fell unconscious at the same time (with often catastrophic results--planes crashed, surgeries failed, cars piled up, etc), but everyone seems to have "flashed forward" to April 29, 2010 during the blackout, and were allowed a glimpse of their presumed future.

The pilot starts off in medias res with the scene of a gnarled, horrific car crash. After dwelling on the scene for a couple of minutes and illuminating Joseph Fiennes as the obvious lead, the show then flashes back to "four hours earlier." It a directorial technique that's use frequently to get the audience interested in the exciting events to come so that they're willing to sit through the set up. For a show like FlashForward, it's a lot more meaningful in concept, but could have been stronger in execution. In essence, the audience itself was given a "flash forward" of their own. They were allowed a glimpse of things to come four hours later in the narrative, in much the same fashion as the entire cast is about to experience. The only problem was that the flash forward we were given was fairly unexceptional. Car crashes are always unsettling, but there was little about the scene that confused or dismayed me. The times when this technique is the most effective is when the audience is presented with a scene that they can't fathom how it will come to be. Take for example the opener for the CSI premiere. If a very stylized freeze frame of events, the viewer sees Nick and Sara shooting at mysterious men in suits who are ostensibly stealing a body, the lab is in a shambles, Laurence Fishburne is kicking a guy through a window, and the entire rest of the cast is ducking for cover. Aside from the overall craziness of such a scene, the audience member who might not be as well informed as I am, would have to wonder where the hell Sara came from (having left the show previously). It was a scene the I genuinely wasn't sure how we'd get to once we flashed back 48 hours, but that all made sense when we caught up to the future. Extremely effective and managed to pique my interest in a show that I had kind of lost excitement for ages ago.

With FlashForward, by contrast, I saw a car accident involving a bunch of people I didn't know and didn't really think too much about. Had the scene been more bizarre, unsettling, and confusing, I think it would have made the build up more more effective and exciting and would have lent itself better as an analogy for the flash forward to come. Although it didn't quite hit the mark in as impacting a way as I would have hoped, it still set up the concept of a flash forward in a way that the audience could internalize. From the flash forward where we see Joseph Fiennes' character crawling out from an upturned car, we flash back to earlier in the day where he is going about business as usual, as --wait for it-- an FBI agent, conveniently enough.

Fiennes' Mark Benford, who say in his flash forward that he would be investigating the global event that has just crippled the entire planet. It seemed convenient at first, but given the scope of what happened, it really just makes sense that he's the kind of character who would be at the center of things. He, his friends and family, his colleagues, and everyone else on the planet are trying to figure out what happened and how, but much more importantly, why.

The writers did a very good job of thinking out the scenario at hand and dealing with it in a logical way. I didn't spend the pilot thinking, "Well, why don't they look at security cameras to find out what happened? Why don't they set up a global network to share experiences and try to figure out what happened?" etc, because the writers had already put themselves in the shoes of the characters and settled on obvious courses of action. They clearly evaluated this situation from every angle and then put the logical reactions on the screen. There's nothing I hate more than when half the cast are carrying the idiot ball and no one comes up with the obvious for the sake of more drama, or whatever. I also appreciated that there was very little blow black or skepticism from people. There was no agent Scully trying to rationalize everything and boil it down into understandable bits. The entire planet just experienced the mother of all WTF moments, they all know it, and they're all immediately ready to try to figure out what happened, how, by whom, and why.

I really enjoyed the fact that this wasn't an isolated incident. Setting things up on a global scale is kind of daunting, but the show really makes it work. It could have felt like a bad Independence Day knock-off, but aside from scenes of the Eiffel Tower, definitely didn't. With everyone having experienced a glimpse of the future, everyone could be a clue to unraveling the mystery. If Benford saw clues to what happened because he's investigating this phenomenon in the future, who knows what other people may have seen. At the same time, no one knows for sure if what they saw is what will actually happen. Will she cheat on her husband? Will she be pregnant? Will he be killed? If it is what should happen, given no interference, is there anyway to change it? To ensure it? Some characters are afraid their futures will come true, others are afraid they won't. It has personal ramifications as well as societal. The concept for the show raises a lot of questions regarding certainty and uncertainty and manages to highlight the fact that both are terrifying in their own ways. It's a situation you don't see often and I'm really digging it so far.

Everyone is so rocked by what has happened and how it happened that for now, the why it happened is secondary. Until one of the FBI agents investigates camera footage and finds that at least one person did not black out, they're at a loss for who may have done this and still haven't the faintest idea what the agenda could be. The "why" of it all is the key to the longevity of the series, as far as I'm concerned. The pilot had a "next time on" segment at the end that highlighted various points in the episodes to come and quite frankly, I can't wait. I'm only somewhat invested in the actual characters at this point, what with it being the pilot and all, but the concept has me riveted. The reasons behind doing something like this are kind of unfathomable and I'm excited to see where the writers take it. Even after we catch up to the future in April, the people behind this and their reasons could take ages to uncover.

I can see where this kind of show might not appeal to all audiences, but I'm definitely sucked in. There's a niggling hesitancy at the back of my mind that this might be one of those instances of a great pilot, bad series, but I'm confident that's not the case. The writers have a hell of a lot going for them and it shouldn't be too hard making a gripping series out of it. Indeed, I think the only way in which this could really falter is that the show might have too much going for it. They can't really spend every minute of every episode trying to figure out what happened, but at the same time, it's hard to imagine everyday minutia going on in light of what happened.

The show has a slick, high budget production style and the directing was solid and convincing, even in spite of such a difficult concept. The cast is excellent (including John Cho and Dominic Monaghan), and while Fiennes' American accent could use some work, he's a consistent player who can certainly anchor a series. Overall I was more impressed with this pilot than any other so far this fall (I'm hoping V ultimately steals the show, but so far, FlashForward is taking the cake at this point). So long as the writers keep themselves grounded and don't loose focus (Heroes, I'm looking in your direction), I don't see why this show shouldn't have a long, successful life.

The pilot is available on Hulu and had me sucked in from beginning to end. It wasn't perfect, but has a lot going for it and I'm digging it so far. It's definitely worth your time and assuming it finds the right audience, should be around for a long time to come (assuming it doesn't fall apart like other shows that started off strong and fizzled soon after (The Nine has become the benchmark--it was one of the strongest pilots of its season, but tanked soon after). The actors all seemed to still be employed in their flash forwards, so I guess that's a good sign?

Pilot Grade: B+

About last night...

After suffering through Mercy last night, I barely had the strength to power through the rest of Wednesday's new fodder. I simply haven't the strength to give them all their due, but at least one new show has made it onto my regular schedule.

MODERN FAMILY: Easily one of the best pilots of the fall. It has a mockumentary format (sans laugh track, thankfully), but felt more like Best In Show or A Mighty Wind than The Office, like I had expected. The lack of a laugh track always make shows easier to watch, but Modern Family had enough laughs that I probably wouldn't have noticed it. The show is quirky and light but definitely has an inappropriateness to it that I definitely enjoyed. It could have been your standard, tacky, cheesy, family sit-com, but the writers took it in a very different, and superior direction. I'm not sure what kind of long term potential it has at this point, but I'm confident the writers will make it work. It's not often that new comedies make it onto my rotation (what with them generally sucking and all), but I'm happily adding Modern Family and Community to my list. Both are definitely worth your time. I'm not married and I don't have kids (nor do I generally enjoy watching sit coms about either), but Modern Family totally makes it work. Pilot Grade: B+

COUGAR TOWN: I have to admit, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I expected. I know, I know, I'm as shocked as you are. I'm not saying it was good, but I went in expecting it to be eye-gougingly painful and it was actually kind of watchable. I probably won't be tuning in again next week, but the pilot wasn't as train wrecky as it could have been, especially given the premise. Although I found Courtney Cox's portrayal of a recently divorced 40 something woman to be forced, over-eager, and desperate, she actually kinda sorta made it work. By all accounts, I should have hated every minute, but leave it to Courtney to make an annoying, whiny, neurotic nut-bag kind of likable. Overall, it was definitely heavy-handed and isn't the kind of show I'd be eager to see week-to-week, but no where near as off-putting as expected. I'm not sure exactly what demographic they're aiming for, but somehow the show pulled huge ratings with its premiere. It didn't suck me in, and I have little desire to watch Cox make an idiot of herself every week, but at the same time, I don't think it would appeal to an older demographic either. I expect the week two ratings will be considerably lower, and for as "not as awful as expected, though still not very good" as it was, I won't be sad to see it slip. If you happen to be a huge Courtney Cox fan or if you have figured out what demographic this show appeals to and happen to be a part of it, I guess you could give this one a shot... At least the clothes were cute? Pilot Grade: C

EASTWICK: I'm not even sure where to start with this one. It's kind of like Desperate Housewives meets Charmed. Bear in mind, I was never a big fan of either of those shows. The writers were clearly aiming for a quirky, light-hearted, magical romp, but it didn't strike a chord with me at all. I spent the better part of the pilot wishing it would just hurry and end. The writing was cheesy and uninspired, the acting was iffy, and the whole concept just kind of fell flat for me. I can see where there might be an audience out there that would totally love this show, but I was bored, bored, bored from minute one. The pilot just didn't really seem to have a whole lot of focus or drive and while a whole lot of things happened, it just didn't feel like they were really getting anywhere. Add to that the lingering instances of painful, painful, painful and you can see where this one won't be making it into my rotation. I'm generally quite a fan of the supernatural and the sudsy, but Eastwick sucked the life out of both. I can't even really quantify how and why exactly, but this pilot that should have been fanciful and fun managed to bore from beginning to end. It certainly didn't do it for me, but I can see where there might be some lonely, unicorn-loving people out there that might enjoy this... Pilot Grade: D+

Show No Mercy

There were a lot of titles I could have chosen from for a show called Mercy and eventually just had to pick one. It's overall crappiness led to such contenders as "Lord Have Mercy" and "Like, Gag Me With a Scalpel," but "Show No Mercy" most aptly described the approach I'll be taking to this review.

While NBC's latest drama Mercy may not be the worst pilot I've ever scene, it's easily one of the ones I've hated the most. I was annoyed and even kind of appalled by this self-righteous mess from minute one. So in spite of a decent production value and cast, I found Mercy to be about the most off-putting pilot of the season so far. It's real shame it filled Parenthood's fall slot because I'm certain it's of inferior quality... (Parenthood was supposed to premiere instead, but Maura Tierney had to drop out of the show to pursue treatment for breast cancer. It's a shame on many, many levels.)


Mercy tries desperately to be Grey's Anatomy, but with nurses, but generally falls apart. The primary issue with the show is that is can't decide what it wants to be. One minute it wants to be a sudsy soap opera, the next it wants to be a hard hitting drama. It succeeds at neither and leaves the viewer with an uneven mess. The show centers around Veronica, a nurse who has recently returned from Iraq and who is having difficulty adjusting to her civilian life again. Now, first and foremost, storylines about veterans aren't generally my cup of tea. I'm not saying they can't work (much like religion isn't real high on my list, if handled in the right way, it can be awesome--see Nurse Jackie for an example), but more often than not, the writers just don't really know what to do with that kind of a situation, so they slap together every cliche you can think of and hope it makes the character deep and conflicted. Rather than being a subtle, searing portrayal of a woman dealing with post-traumatic stress, for Veronica, it seems to be nothing more than a gimmick or affectation--an unwaveringly self-serving, holier-than-thou, annoying affectation at that.

I have to give the writers a little credit for trying something a bit different, but where they earn points for stepping ever so slightly out of the box, they lose them all upon execution. Veronica is instantly unlikable in the most arrogant, dismissive, and snide of possible ways. After a shift at the hospital where doe-eyed new girl Chloe (played by Michelle Trachtenberg (aka Dawn, Georgina)--who would do herself a favor by sticking with Gossip Girl) laments the fact the fact that she watched and old man finally succumb to cancer on her first day. Upon saying how sad it was to watch him die alone, Veronica hijacks the conversation and actually says, "That's not sad. That's a trip to Club Med compared to Iraq." Or something like that, in which case the people at Club Med really might want to revise their brochure... She then rattles off a few horror stories from the front lines and I'm not saying those stories are any less sad, because they're aren't, but Veronica seems to think that a slow, agonizing death from cancer is a walk in the park compared to war. That might be the case in her opinion, but who the hell is she to belittle and devalue the importance of someone else's experience?! Just because it's a different experience than your own does not make it irrelevant and certainly doesn't make it a trip to "club med." I know the writers were trying to make her seem all badass or whatever, but it just made her seem like a complete and total bitch. Not only does it dismiss the agony of that man's experience, but it slaps Chloe in the face and disregards her own emotional response. I would understand if the writers were trying to make her out to be a cold-hearted bitch because of her tough experiences, but I don't think that's the angle they were aiming for at all.

It's fine for a character to have a chip on her shoulder and to have flaws, but Veronica just seems all over the place and has no where near enough redemptive qualities to make up for any of it. In the hands of a better actress, Veronica's unbalanced state could be compelling, but in the hands of its current owner, it just seems unintentionally flighty and uneven. One minute she's screaming bloody murder at a doc who didn't heparinize a patient, the next she's a simpering idiot drooling over the hot guy at the bar. She has issues with authority, but can't stop talking about her time in the military. She's guarded about her life, but talks about her experiences in the war constantly. The show is trying to make her too many things all at once and it's making even her best of qualities fall flat.

With Veronica at the helm, I'm not sure there's much of anything that can save this show. Her colleagues are unexceptional, though nearly as uneven in their portrayals. Riding the wave of Nurses good! Doctors, baaad! that has cropped up in the latest slate of nurse-based medical dramas, Mercy holds fast to this notion and paints the doctors to be incompetent and mean, whether that's an accurate portrayal or not. Save for the requisite ruggedly handsome love interest doctor, the rest of the docs are basically useless.

Speaking of Dr. McDreamy (seriously, for all intents and purposes, we may as well use the same moniker), he and Veronica apparently hooked up during the war (even though she's married) and is now working at the same hospital with her. Wacky, right? Sadly, for as formulaic as he is and for serving such a painfully obvious role on the show, he was easily the best part. The writers didn't try very hard when putting this character into action, plain and simple. Veronica has recently reconciled with her husband, so there's supposed to be some sort of love triangle going on, but they made the husband so unerringly unappealing that the triangle just seems like a lazy contrivance to drag out the will-they-or-won't-they between Veronica and McDreamy (played by James Tupper, of Men in Trees... um... fame?). He easily made for the most likable character on the show, but he just seems like a crackerjack toy at the bottom of a bad box of cereal.

The second half of the pilot was admittedly better than the first, but by that point, I already disliked everyone so much that I had a hell of a time sitting through it. This show could have been a gripping look at a woman with PTSD trying to put her life back together, but instead it just seems like a mishmash of other medical shows, borrowing whatever gimmicks it can. The show has no subtlety whatsoever and even the aspects that could have worked wonderfully are wasted. Veronica could have been a wonderfully flawed, multi-faceted character, but the portrayal is so erratic and unlikely that I didn't buy any of it. I look at characters like Dr. House and Nurse Jackie, the most flawed and implausibly likable of characters and it makes it clear that the writers of Mercy dropped the ball. In their rush to make her a badass, a minx, a wife, a friend, an enemy, a vulnerable wreck, an emotional mess, a strong-willed ball-buster, a know-it-all, the experienced cool kid, a compassionate care-giver, etc, etc, etc, they lost all sight of who this character really is. Veronica very well could have been all those things, doled out slowly and deftly over time, but they were all crammed into 42 minutes of an unsteady, unlikeable pilot instead. Even when Veronica's friends and family point out how insane and bitchy she's being, it hardly undoes the damage and in no way redeems her. It would be one thing if the audience were supposed to dislike her, but that's clearly not the writers intent, even if that's what it became.

All told, the show could have been Grey's Anatomy for nurses, like it was clearly aiming for, but ultimately, it just couldn't decide where it wanted to go or who any of the characters were. Had the writers really figured out what they wanted out of the show and who they wanted Veronica and her colleagues to be, it could have worked, but as is? It's an unfocused, condescending, self-righteous mess. I do think I'm going to give it one more week, however, just to see if the writers somehow find their footing. It's doubtful, but it's an impending train wreck I might just need to see.

Pilot Grade: D-

Good Wife, Good Pilot

In a nice change of pace from the other pilots I've seen thus far (which ranged from just watchable to unbearable), CBS's newest drama The Good Wife actually presented a solid pilot for a show with quite a lot of potential (as opposed to its time slot competition, ABC's The Forgotten). Who'd have ever thought CBS would be the first to buck the trend of bad pilots?? If anyone had an office pool in this regard, I think you just lost.

The Good Wife stars Julianna Margulies as the wife of a disgraced politician (I want to say state's attorney) who recently uprooted their lives amid allegations of criminal misconduct and more than a few indiscretions with hookers and whatnot. With her husband in jail, Margulies' character Alicia has to re-enter the work force after 13 years off the job. It's a daunting prospect that I think a lot of people can relate to on some level, especially in this economic climate. Fortunately for her, and for viewers, she still has the chops to be an excellent lawyer, even if she feels a little out of her depth at first.

Admittedly, the "lawyer drama" ranks among the most overdone genres in television, but The Good Wife manages to bring together an excellent cast, solid writing, and a unique spin to make for a fresh, engaging outing in what could have been a banal set up. I've seen a million lawyer dramas in my day (although I don't think one has graced my regular rotation since The Practice) and it was nice to see a character that was new even if the game remained largely the same.

Margulies brings a quiet determination to a character whose life has just been completely turned upside down. She, like many others, always wondered why the wife of the philandering, potentially corrupt politician stands by his side instead of goring him with a steak knife, and she honestly doesn't have the answers. She doesn't come across as weak or complicit, but rather, quite simply, unprepared. It's easy for onlookers to rake someone over the coals for their actions, but at the end of the day, its impossible to know what it would be like until you're there. Alicia is a character in a situation that I've never quite seen before and the circumstances surrounding her return to law practice make for a more interesting approach to a classic conceit.

Along with Margulies is an excellent cast that boasts the talents of Chris Noth, Christine Baranski, Matt Czuchry, and Josh Charles. I just so happened to watch Dead Poets Society the other day, so when Josh Charles (who played Knox Overstreet) appeared onscreen as Alicia's fellow lawyer and old friend, I was delighted to see him back in action. The entire supporting cast is strong and each brings something different and interesting to what could have been your standard law drama role. Baranski plays a partner in the firm, but rather than being the raging bitch/vindictive task master, instead she tough, but fair. She's realistic and is willing to give Alicia a shot, even if she has reservations. Not a complete upturn on the usual cliche, but it was a nice change of pace from what I expected. Czuchry and Charles are both charming and thoroughly likable in their roles and while the show grants that the atmosphere at a law firm is competitive, not everyone is a cutthroat nightmare, which was nice to see. I don't think Noth is going to be a series regular, but he certainly holds his own as the cheating spouse and alleged criminal. His interactions with Margulies where quietly intense, which I think is probably a much more accurate portrayal of a couple in this situation than the standard TV shouting match would have you believe.

Rounding out the regular cast is an English actress that I don't think I've ever seen before named Archie Panjabi. She could have played the office minx or catty competition for Alicia like anyone would expect, but she was actually quite charming and had just enough of an edge to be interesting and effective. She didn't throw Alicia in the deep end or start fighting her on the ladder climb like I would have guessed, but was rather professional and engaging. Again, no one is reinventing the wheel here, but each actor brought a lot more depth to his/her role than I would have expected out of a pilot or out of your standard legal drama.

As with most shows that focus on law, I suspect that each episode or short series of episodes will focus on a client-of-the-week of sorts. I think if the writers manage to blend the characters' personal lives with their professional lives in a balanced, well-paced way, this show could have a hell of a lot of potential. I'm a little concerned that one might get bogged down by the other (depending on which turns out to be the more engaging of the two), but hopefully the writers will make it work. In a perfect world, I'll be as interested in the behind the scenes struggles as I will with the case, but we'll just have to wait and see. From the pilot alone, so far so good.

Alicia's first case is a long shot that she ultimately knocks out of the park. While it was pretty predictable that she'd overcome adversity and prove her potential to her colleagues in her first case, it was done in a way that didn't feel contrived or convenient. Rather than throwing her to the lions in a bid to see her fail, her colleagues genuinely seem to want her to succeed (at least on the surface), which she does through hard work and ingenuity, rather than some magical deus ex machina that floats in from nowhere. It may have seemed convenient that there was evidence that had been "pitted" (buried by cops because they felt it was irrelevant), but I've seen far too many true crime shows to believe for even a second that that kind of thing doesn't happen all the time. The cops found gun-shot residue on the client's hands and they basically ignored all other evidence. My mother is just enough of a true crime aficionado that I've seen this kind of thing happen a million times and bought it completely.

In like form, the proceedings in the court room seemed much more authentic than the blustering, overblown shouting matches that usually fill the legal drama's basket to the brim. Alicia presented the evidence in a compelling way and the police decided to reopen the case. There was no big angry confession on the stand and the jury didn't even turn in a verdict, but it was still exciting and I think, much more realistic than I usually see. I wouldn't say that a focus on the more staid and monotonous aspects of legal work is the angle the writers should pursue, but it really felt like the show had a better grasp of how things actually work than on other shows. It may just been that I haven't had a legal show in my regular schedule for a long time, but I was really sucked in to the ins and outs of the process and didn't find it protracted or tedious at all.

In summation, The Good Wife is easily the best pilot I've seen thus far this season. Perhaps the mediocrity of the others has colored my judgment a bit, but I think this show has a lot of potential and the pilot alone managed to pique my interest considerably. It has all the bare bones you could ever want in a show, so now the writers just need to bring it all together week to week. Also, it's on opposite ABC's embarrassment The Forgotten, so if for no other reason, I hope The Good Wife trounces that piece of crap just on principle.

Even if the legal drama isn't really genre of choice, The Good Wife brings enough warmth and depth that I think you'd enjoy it. I'm not willing to give it a top tier slot just yet, but it's a solid show with a great cast and premise. The show has its flaws, but I'm hopeful the writers will take all the good things they have working for them and knock it out of the park week to week. Lord knows I certainly don't need anymore medical dramas on my plate, so a bunch of lawyers sounds just delightful at this point.

Pilot Grade: B+

Script Writing 101: The Crime Procedural

After suffering through the mediocrity that the CW had to offer, I was really hoping the real networks would have something better to offer. I watched ABC's latest outing, The Forgotten, and, well... How to put this gently... So far, so... bad...? Oh, so bad... Wow.

I knew going in that anything that had Jerry Bruckheimer's sticky fingers involved probably wouldn't be very good, but I tried to have an open mind. Even after the show was completely retooled and recast from its previous incarnation, I was willing to give it a shot... Then Christian Slater came on board... There's only so open a mind can be, people...

The Forgotten felt like I was watching a mad lib about crime procedurals. The writers filled in all the obvious blanks with run-of-the-mill answers and out came your standard crime drama filled with murder, and in this iteration, a fair amount of cheese and boredom. The pilot was uninspired, unoriginal, and eye-rollingly predictable from start to finish. Even in the areas where the writers were trying to reinvent the wheel, they seem to have created a spare tire.

The only real difference between The Forgotten and every other crime procedural you've seen a million times is that the writers filled in the "voiceover by" blank with "the victim." A group of civilian crime-solvers go through the motions of figuring out who Jane Doe is while her voice blathers on about life and death and whatnot in the dullest fashion possible. I have a sneaking suspicion that someone read The Lovely Bones and decided to appropriate the idea... only with much less successful results. It doesn't come across as raw and insightful as it does in the book, but rather pummels the viewer with gimmicky would-be insights that felt insincere and contrived. It didn't make me care more about the girl who died and didn't allow me a window into a foreign experience. Voiceovers rather often fall flat for me and this is no exception. In this instance, however, rather than offering plot exposition or the inner thoughts of one of the protagonists, its the musings of a character whom we'll never see again and who's already dead. Overall, the voiceover struck me as unnecessary and lame. The voice is talking to us the whole time, but unlike The Lovely Bones, the victim doesn't tell us anything about her death until the characters in the show have wrapped everything up in a nice, neat little bow. Then and only then does the voiceover go into the elaborate wrap-up and lays out what happened and why. Given that the audience has just spent the last 41 minutes watching people figure all this out, it's not only unnecessary, but fairly redundant. But the writers didn't stop there. Want another motif lifted from the book that didn't really work as well here? Yeah, the investigators see visions of the dead girl walking around in the various locales they search. Oy.

The team is lead by Christian Slater who's hot off his most recent failure, My Own Worst Enemy. I don't like labeling anyone a showkiller, but he certainly seems to pick some real winners. Within minutes, it became painfully obvious that he'd be filling the role of "guarded leader with a personal connection to his work." To absolutely no one's surprise, the writers filled in the "personal tragedy" blank with "disappearance of daughter." It's what drew him to this gig and is what makes him the best in the business and drives him to work harder and blah, blah, blah. As far as a protagonist is concerned, I've seen this one a million times before, only better. Slater brings nothing new or interesting to a role that the writers appear to have slapped together in 20 minutes. It's as though they were in a script writing class and had to finish a project just before class. They took the list of required elements and doled out as necessary to fulfill the quota. Soup to nuts, I'm bored.

Along with Slater, the forgotten network (groups of freelance civilians all across the nation who come together with the police to identify Jane and John Does, of course--what? You've never heard of this either? Well, just go with it! I have Biology class in 10 minutes!) includes your standard band of characters: the overly attractive woman who has also suffered personal tragedy (and who will become the obvious love interest for Slater) but hides her pain with a sad smile, the other overly attractive, but younger woman who is the positive, earnest, go-getter of the group, the overweight guy who will be providing comic relief, and lest you think the writers decided to break out of the box for the final character, we have "the new guy" filled in the blank for "vehicle for plot exposition."

As with oh-so-many pilots, crappy writers feel like they need to explain every single aspect of a world to the audience, because clearly we're too damn stupid to figure anything out for ourselves, draw any informed conclusions, or be comfortable with not knowing the minutia of a show for 10 minutes. The new guy/girl on a show assumes the role of the audience and is a means by which the writers can explain everything to us by having the other characters have to explain everything to him. It's lazy and easy and annoying to watch. Ugh. Great pilots don't need such a vehicle. Bad pilots require some sort of big ass SUV, and really bad pilots? I'm going to go with aircraft carrier... The vehicle for this pilot falls somewhere in between. I couldn't stop rolling my eyes and groaning it was so lame and embarrassingly convenient. Yeah, so not only does he play "new guy," but he also plays "rebel," and "special skills" guy as well. In order for the writers to not have to try very hard in the future, they very conveniently made "new guy" a--wait for it--med school drop out who happens to be a sculptor. Why, that's the exact skill set a group of investigators such as this would need! How fortuitous! It's a hallmark of lazy writing is what it really is, but who's splitting hairs.

To add insult to injury, the show is brimming with self-righteous aggrandizing that had me shaking my head. I couldn't unfurl my disdain brow for like a hour afterward. Team member Earnestness and Rainbows was forced to shoulder most of the platitudes and pablum. I was actually embarrassed for her as an actress and even for the character--whom I cared about not a bit. “What’s the first thing that happened when you’re brought into this world?” she asks Team member New Guy. “You get a name," is the obvious response. Well, apparently Earnest Sunshine is afraid no one is coming to her funeral because she offers the banal truism, “I’d want the world to remember that I was here, that I did things, that I affected people.” Well, kitten, I'm not sure that's the case... In her real life, she works in an office doing nothing of value, so I see where the writers were going with that, but it really fell flat for me. All I kept thinking of were those people who wish they could attend their own funerals to see just how loved they were. As though you can quantify the value of a life by how many people remember who you were. Ugh. In her defense, Slater himself gets the final tear-filled insight at the girl's funeral as the mother of the victim asks if the people who found her daughter are here. He poignantly (and predictably) responds, "They're everywhere." Oooh, that's deep! And cheesy! It's a Chicago style pizza is what it is... Heh, the show is set in Chicago... That just made my day. :)

Anyway, the rag-tag group of ordinary heroes crisscrosses the standard crime procedural landscape trying to figure out who "Highway Jane" is, working their way through three "red herring" blanks (two of which they lazily filled in with "ex-boyfriend") a "goose chase" blank they filled in with "false identity" and ambled their way to the end where, wouldn't you know it? It's the person we least expect! Huzahh! I'm SO getting an A on this assignment! Yeah, not so fast, writing staff... Turns out, the girl who ultimately turns out to be the killer is the girl who allowed the forgotten network to identify her in the first place. Okay, I know teenagers are stupid, but why exactly did she help them out in the first place? Who knows, but more importantly, who cares.

This pilot was pretty much a train wreck from minute one and never really found its footing. As far as your standard crime procedural goes, it filled in all the blanks, but made little to no effort to blaze its own trail, turn the genre on its ear, or reinvent a tired routine. The only real innovation is that apparently everyone in the world of The Forgotten is assumed to be telling the truth. Seriously, when one of the red herring ex-boyfriends is being interrogated by the police, he tells them he didn't do it and that he hasn't seen her in months and the detective just looks over her shoulder at Slater with a look of, "Well, that was a dead end... What do we do now?" Because the killer wouldn't have any reason to lie, you know. Indeed, when Slater confronts the actual killer, he rather incredulously notes that she lied to him. Well no shit, Sherlock. Of course she lied to you. Of course that goes against any sound reasoning for her coming forward in the first place, but coming up with something logical would have taken way too much effort, apparently.

At the end of the day, this was your typical crime procedural only schmaltzier. Every aspect was formulaic, thoroughly unoriginal, and predictable (I literally guessed that the victim would be from a small town in Iowa and sure enough, I was dead on). Even if you're a huge fan of crime procedurals, I'd recommend you pass on this derivative mess. It could be that I've seen this show just way too many times to be interested, but I found this pilot to be unwaveringly dull, lazy, and hackneyed from start to finish. I found myself wishing the show focused on one of the day jobs of the team members, because yes, I'd rather sit through an office staff meeting with team member Sunshine than continue to watch the same character cliches solve the same crimes over and over again. What can I say? Staff meetings are shorter and just might have cookies involved. I think we have a winner.

In short? Show FAIL.

Pilot Grade: F

Project RUNAWAY!

And here I thought drug problems, rehab, weight gain, and public ridicule would be the worst things to happen to Mischa Barton's career...
Okay, so that's being a bit dramatic, but her new pet project The Beautiful Life (sorry, The Beautiful Life: TBL (because the producers of this show actually thought it would be a big hit and warrant a hip three letter nickname--so why not build it right in?!)) isn't going to lead to the comeback I know she was hoping for. Along with brutally low ratings (even by CW standards), the quality of the show isn't enough to make it critically acclaimed (not by a long shot) and it isn't unique enough (yeah, yeah, technically "unique" is an absolute, but you know what I mean) to make it buzz worthy. As such, I don't think there's anything that could improve the ratings in the long run or create enough of a splash to get people's attention. All told, I don't see this turkey surviving very long, and quite frankly won't be too broken up inside to see it go.

I honestly wasn't even going to mention anything about this show, but what can I say? Boredom leads to poor life choices. Which, I suppose by that logic, the crew behind The Beautiful Life must have been positively overflowing with ennui...

The show follows the lives of a bunch of models who do a bunch of modeling and all live in a model house in Model York. Now, I enjoy modeling/fashion shows as much as the next person, but they aren't really a demographic known for its depth and complexity (models can't be too heavy with anything it seems, even knowledge). I think the fact that I've been known to watch Project Runway, America's Next Top Model (which, can I just say? Every time I think Tyra can't get more ridiculous, she raises that crazy ass bar another peg), Make Me a Supermodel, etc may have made me a bit harsher on this show than is really warranted. It made all the little things stand out as ridiculous that I probably wouldn't have noticed otherwise.

You know, like the fact that half the people playing models couldn't be actual models in a million billion years. So many of them were short, unexceptional, bad walkers that it put a real strain on my suspension of disbelief. Case in point, the new boy in town, Chris (or something) who gets spotted in a fancy restaurant by a modeling scout. Yeah, not so much... Aside from being way too short, he struck me as WAY too catalog. Not a bad looking guy, but he didn't strike me as anything worth writing home about. The girl who plays Raina, the new modeling phenom (and immediate love interest for Chris) at least has an interesting look. She can't walk worth a damn (seriously), but she was one of the few who really looked like she could be a model (you know, scarecrow thin and kind of peculiar looking--I'm not sure how society decided that was the measure of beauty, but whatever).

Chris is a country bumpkin visiting the big scary city with the cast of Green Acres (read: his family). In case you weren't sure of how very "from Iowa" they were, (and I have to echo Lindsay's comments here), the father actually said, "We'll be paying for this vacation for the next three harvests!" I had read Lindsay's review before I finally got around to seeing the pilot and I still couldn't believe he actually said that. And that he somehow wasn't joking. Get that man an Emmy award, because I was sure there was no possible way to say that with a straight face. Wow. Anyway, poor innocent little Chris gets sucked into the big bad world of modeling, blah, blah, blah, I already don't care.

The models who are already living in the modeling world don't interest me much either. Some girl named Marissa (oh yes, they did that thing where they name a character the same name as another character's old character so that you can't call her that anymore) who looks like Lindsey Price's little sister is all bitchy and flighty, and there's a drug dealer who couldn't tell that some girl was a cop even though I certainly could, and then there's that kid from High School Musical, which obviously didn't help matters... It's a mixed bag of crap, really. Squicky sidenote? The sight of Mr. High School Musical making out with Lyla from Dexter (yet another ingredient that couldn't help matters) was such a spectacularly disturbing and incomprehensible collision of horrible that I have to assume my seat in Hell would be just like this... watching that... "Bleck" doesn't quite do it justice...

Anyway, this cast of largely boring characters stomp and bounce and scurry and flounce their ways (seriously, the walks were laugh out loud funny) through a ridiculous runway show that the executive producers (read Ashton Kutcher) of TBL (a term I use out of shortness, not hipness) hope will highlight the frenetic energy and glamour and intrigue of the backstage happenings... or whatever. It was the most ludicrous runway show I think I've ever seen. Aside from none of these people being very model-y, since when is the signature look presented after all the girls have come back out in a line at the end of the show? I'm no expert, but the signature look is usually just the last dress to come down the runway and then all the girls come out with the designer at the very end. Again, maybe I'm just not as well versed in this as I should be, but I have never seen a show where the girl in the signature look just goes to the end of the runway and stands there like an idiot. Not that standing there playing with rose petals isn't... um... moving? or anything, but... yeah... Bad, bad, bad.

So we're this far into a review and I still haven't mentioned Mischa's role in the show... that should probably tell you something... She plays a model who basically threw her career away so that she could sneak off and have a baby or something. Again, I already don't care. Given as much care as she put into going off grid in order to keep the pregnancy a secret, maybe she shouldn't have a picture of herself holding her baby as the wallpaper on her cell phone! Oy... Saddest part of all? I'm pretty sure Mischa was the best part of the show. Ouch.

Overall, this was a dud (just in case the subtle tone of this post so far was too subdued for you). A bunch of boring people leading boring lives. The worst part is that the show tries so hard to convince you that these are, in fact, extremely interesting people leading fabulous lives... I'm not convinced. Some of the clothes were kind of interesting, but even then, if I want to see fabulous clothes, I'd rather they be modeled by characters that I actually care about (enter Gossip Girl, stage left--seriously, how fabulous is that white suit?). Gossip Girl is basically one big fashion show, but it's woven into the characters in a way that the clothes actually inform on the character. It makes it all a lot more interesting than pretty much anything TBL has to offer. I actually found myself feeling embarrassed for the actors who got suckered into this mess...

Long story short, I won't be giving this one even a second episode's worth of a chance. The pilot was pretty bad (although, I think I liked it better than Melrose Place... what with the lack of Ashlee Simpson and all... wow...) and it's in a mercilessly crowded timeslot on Wednesdays, so I'm cutting my losses.

Speaking of cutting losses, the second episode of Melrose Place was even worse than the first. I spent the better part of the episode alternately cringing and fast-forwarding. The only reason I gave it a second week was because I had heard episode two would be much better... It was not. Ashlee is Sydney's long lost daughter! It's only the second week and the shark? It hath been jumped... several dozen times.

Rounding out the CW trifecta of mediocrity, The Vampire Diaries isn't great, but so long as Ian Somerhalder gets more screen time, I suppose I can excuse the angsty teen relationship crap. Seriously, he's as evil as he is pretty. Don't mind if I do! Other than him, though? Meh... Best worst line from episode two? "We met, and we talked, and it was epic, but then the sun came up and reality set in.” Epic? Really? Ha! I'd be more critical, but leave it to a teenager to think that talking for a few hours falls into "epic" territory. Oy. (They keep using that word. I don'na think it means what they think it means...)

Pilot Grade: F

All Vampired Out

Tapping into the vampiric pop culture zeitgeist of the past few years, the CW unveiled it's latest new series in hopes of capitalizing on the trend. And, although The Vampire Diaries was better than expected (what with the bar being shockingly low and all), its debut arrived to this party pretty late and I think I might be a little vamped out... Apparently I'm the only one though, because the pilot premiered to record ratings for the CW. It was infinitely better than Melrose Place, however, so it's nice to see it trounce such inferior network compatriots (Melrose premiered to fairly disappointing ratings--particularly for a series premiere. Heh--take that, Ashlee Simpson. And no, I don't know exactly where the hostility comes from, but it's there... oooh, is it there.)

I began watching the pilot with a sizable helping of blasé toward the surfeit of vampire-based media that's currently on the market, but it turned out better than expected. Sure, the first three quarters of the pilot were rife with all the angsty teen stereotypes you'd expect and all the brooding vampire clichés that have proven so pervasive to the genre, but then Ian Somerhalder showed up. What I was ready and willing to write off as just another hackneyed, so-so pilot suddenly got a hell of a lot more interesting. I wouldn't say he turned the pilot to gold or anything (there's only so much alchemy one actor can perform), but he did manage to catch my attention and was just enough to commit me to a few more episodes.

In much the same vein (no pun intended) as Twilight, The Vampire Diaries follows a melancholic teenage girl as she falls for the mysterious vampire in town. The books that inspired The Vampire Diaries actually came out well before Twilight (or True Blood, for that matter) so to call it derivative wouldn't be exactly accurate, but it's an unavoidable notion. To The Vampire Diaries' credit, I could tell is was better than Twilight within minutes, although that's not saying much. (AND, with the CW holding the cards instead of Stephanie Meyer, these crazy kids might just get some sexy time before, you know... they get married at the age of 18... Ugh.) (Quick sidenote on Twilight: I got together with some friends to mock the movie as a team and while I wasn't surprised at its craptacularity, I was a bit surprised at just how BORING it was. I mean, the books were poorly conceived and even more poorly written, but they at least held my attention for more than five minutes at a time. Maybe it was Kristen Stewart's soporific acting, maybe it was the poor casting choices all around, maybe it was Stephanie Meyer's self-indulgent (and beyond tacky) cameo, maybe it was everything, but I barely made it through that turkey awake. And I am not the kind of person who falls asleep during movies. (Annie has already cornered the market in that regard, so who am I to steal her thunder?)) Back to the point, The Vampire Diaries appears to be better than Twilight in every incarnation, so it's a shame that the TV series was developed after the fact. Although, it probably wouldn't have been developed in the first place if Twilight hadn't proliferated, so The Vampire Diaries owes it a debt and a grudge all at once. So, in deference to The Vampire Diaries, I'll try to keep the comparisons to a minimum from here on out, but it ain't gonna be easy...

The show centers around Elena, a small town girl who has lost both of her parents and now lives with her little brother and aunt (whom Elena very informatively calls "Aunt" every time she talks to her--thanks, Exposition Fairy!). Trying to get her life back on track, she finds herself alienated from her friends and family and is instantly drawn to the new guy in town, a vampire named... what was his name? Holy hell, I remember that the last name was "Salvatore," (because that's important) but the first name is totally gone... Umm... Stephan! It was Stephan. (I pretend it just came to me, but no, I had to check IMDb.) Like I said, things don't get interesting till Ian Somerhalder's character Damon shows up, so I was only mostly paying attention until then. Anyway, the structural conceit of the show (which I assume was born of the novels) is that Elena and Stephan both poor their hearts into their diaries and wax poetic (cheesy teen poetic) about life and death and whatever. While it made for a fairly straightforward structure to the episode, I've grown sick of voice overs. They can be awesome and rather necessary to a series, but lately, ever show on the block has some would-be philosophizer narrating a bunch of crap that the audience is currently watching on screen. It takes all the subtlety out of a performance and generally assumes the audience is too stupid to pick up on things. It wasn't unbearable in The Vampire Diaries, and I acknowledge that it's the basis for the show, but I have to assume it worked better in the books than it does on screen.

In a refreshing turn after suffering through Twilight's ridiculous mythology, the rules applied to vampires and their behavior in The Vampire Diaries is largely traditional. While Stephanie Meyer threw the entire book out the window when creating her sparkly universe, here we have the same modern context, but all the old rules still apply. These vampires must be invited into a residence before entering (one of the best and most interesting restrictions), they can fly, they're followed around by crows/ravens, they totally butcher people (even reformed Stephan slips up now and again), and they can't go out in the sun (at least not without their magical rings in tow). Okay, that last bit sounds lame, but I come from the school of Buffy and Angel, so I just assume their rings are akin to the Gem of Amarra and am willing to let it go. It was much less tacky than it sounds, I promise. In less conventional fare, they also seem to control the fog (apparently there was a half-price sale on smoke machines or something) and have Jedi mind tricks. With all the traditional aspects in place, I was willing to be forgiving for taking liberties elsewhere. The reason that this is important is that it gives weight and gravity to character decisions and actions. In the Twilight universe, vampires are basically indestructible. As with Superman, that makes for fairly boring confrontations and inconsequential decisions. I much prefer limits and restrictions on abilities and behaviors. It makes the writers try a whole lot harder and makes the characters a lot more interesting when they have to work around their own limitations. In that sense, kudos, show.

Anyway, the show ambled along in typical teenage fashion for the better part of the pilot. The actors were alright and they did a pretty good job, but no one really stood out (for good reasons or bad--except for Somerhalder). The pilot was based pretty directly on the books (or so I've heard) and follows a fairly well-thought-out, though predictable storyline. The actress playing Elena does a decent enough job, but the vulnerable ingénue gig is seriously overdone these days, so she got on my nerves a bit by association. She didn't seem totally useless or completely ditzy though, so I think the writers could make something out of her. Stephan is equally middle-of-the-road, but I must say his Cro-Magnon brow brought back some Angelic memories for me. The supporting cast supports suitably, and the acting for the most part was competent, if not all that engaging. They were likable, however, and I could see where there might grow on me over time. The directing didn't strike me as anything terribly innovative, but the production value is solid and the setting and effects held up against the industry standard at the moment. With that kind of "meh" flying around, I was fairly ready to call it a day, but then Ian Somerhalder (who played Boone Carlyle on Lost) showed up and I was happily forced to pay attention.

Not that it comes as any great surprise that he made for the best part of the pilot, but he somehow managed to bring something fresh to an old routine. Aside from being decidedly easy to look at, he bucked the trend of mopey, brooding, humorless vampires and instead imbued the role with impish zeal and mirth. In a manner that smacked of Spike (circa Buffy season 2), Somerhalder's character Damon was lively and menacing in a delightful "I'm going to screw with your head just because I can" kind of way. He seems to take quite a lot of pleasure in pestering Stephan (who is apparently his little brother--nice) and shows up with little more agenda than to have fun raising hell. It was a nice change of pace and is the primary reason I'll be giving the show a few more weeks to really suck me in (again, pun-avoidance just isn't easy when it comes to this subject matter, so bear with me). I don't know what all he has planned, but he piqued my interest just enough to want to find out.

Clearly The Vampire Diaries isn't going to be a dramatic tour de force and it certainly can't hold a candle to forerunners like Buffy and Angel, but the pilot was watchable, if not all that original. I could see where this show could find its way into "guilty pleasure" territory and in spite of my jaded feelings toward vampires at the moment, this seems to be a pretty guilty romp that has some commitment potential (although the pilot in and of itself did little to sell me on more than an episode to episode trial run). I don't think it'll ever break into the top tier or anything, but with Somerhalder on board, I'm invested enough to give it a shot.

Pilot Grade:
without Somerhalder? D
with Somerhalder? C-