Now that Upfronts are over, the real fun begins. Below is NBC's new fall schedule and the first handful of pilots (this is going to take a few volumes to get through--you've been warned). NBC is in serious need of rebuilding the entire network (basically), so they have quite a few new shows to look at... like, 187 or so, many of which will premiere at midseason. Some look more promising than others... (and by "others," I obviously mean Jerry Bruckheimer's new crap pile Chase--see below for exciting details!).
MONDAY
7-8 p.m: Chuck
8-9 p.m: The Event (new)
9-10 p.m.: Chase (new)
TUESDAY
7-9 p.m.: The Biggest Loser
9-10 p.m.: Parenthood
WEDNESDAY
7-8 p.m.: Undercovers (new)
8-9 p.m.: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
9-10 p.m.: Law & Order: Los Angeles (new)
THURSDAY
7- 7:30 p.m.: Community
7:30-8 p.m.: 30 Rock
8-8:30 p.m.: The Office
8:30-9 p.m.: Outsourced (new)
9-10 p.m.: Love Bites (new)
FRIDAY
7-8 p.m.: Who Do You Think You Are?/School Pride (new)
8-9 p.m.: Dateline NBC
9-10 p.m.: Outlaw (new)
SUNDAY
6- 7:15 p.m.: Football Night in America
7:15-10:30 p.m.: NBC Sunday Night Football
SUNDAY (midseason)
6-7 p.m.: Dateline NBC
7-8 p.m. – Minute to Win It
8-9 p.m. – The Celebrity Apprentice
That fall schedule has a fair slate of new shows to begin with, but then there are a whole slew of other new shows that are being held till midseason. Methinks NBC has decided to hedge its bets and see what falls flat so it can be replaced by something new. What does this mean in the long run, you ask? It means Chuck's ratings had better improve or it's going to be in trouble. It was picked up for an initial 13 episode order, and if even a few of NBC's new shows catch on, I think Chuck will be a goner.
Midseason Replacements (usually airing in January, after the winter break, and after the pilots that premiered in the fall have tanked):
Comedies: Friends with Benefits, The Paul Reiser Show, and Perfect Couples
Dramas: The Cape and Harry's Law
Where's the much-rumored remake of the Rockford Files, you ask? Good question. In short, your guess is as good as mine as to why this didn't get off the ground. I haven't heard anything definitive, but it is conspicuously absent from NBC's slate, so who really knows.
And with that, on to the pilots that actually did get picked up officially...
UNDERCOVERS
Description: Stars Boris Kodjoe ("Resident Evil: Afterlife"), Gugu Mbatha-Raw, (“Bonekickers”), Jessica Parker Kennedy (“Smallville”), Carter MacIntyre ("American Heiress"), Gerald McRaney ("Deadwood"), and Ben Schwartz (NBC’s “Parks and Recreation”). J.J. co-wrote, produced, and directed the pilot. Josh Reims (“Brothers and Sisters”) also serves as a co-writer and executive producer and Bryan Burk ("Fringe," "Lost, "Alias") is an executive producer.
My Take: Well, you could hardly ask for a better pedigree behind the scenes, but I'm still not sold. This is NBC's great white hope/ace-in-the-whole, so for their sake, I hope I'm wrong about this one. I'm mostly unfamiliar with the cast (which can be a very good thing (allowing for viewers to come at the characters without any pre-conceived notions) or it can point to the reason why they're relative unknowns...) and I'm just not sure they are capable of anchoring the series as well as I would have expected. Granted, I've only seen five minutes, but the actors just didn't really grab me. I think the biggest problem with the show will be the boilerplate storyline (so, you know, no biggie). When I initially heard about the Undercovers, I thought it sounded very promising, and it still very well could be as awesome as one could ever dream, but I seriously doubt it. This show is quite obviously Mr. and Mrs. Smith meets Alias or a modern day Hart to Hart. A lot of shows are boiled down to such (one show + another show = our show!) recipes when they are initially pitched, so that's not the problem and is often quite a good thing when trying to woo viewers. It quite frankly gives you a sense of what you're in for. I guess the difference here is that the comparison doesn't stop there. With Undercovers, it doesn't just give you a sense of the tone and style of the show, but as near as I can tell, lays out the whole concept of the show and base storylines. Such comparisons should be evocative, but unspecific. Tantalizingly vague, if you will. When you hear that the pitch for Grey's Anatomy is ER meets Sex in the City, you have a notion of where you're headed, but you have no idea what it's going to look like when you get there or what's going to happen. Undercovers doesn't really pique my deepest curiosities because, well, I've seen all the shows in its recipe, and the end product is, well, exactly the same, it seems... Hell, they even have a Marshall Flinkman on the other end of their comms, for crying out loud. When a show can be summed up so easily and so completely, it's hard to see where show will bring anything truly unique to the table. I'm not saying the show will be terrible or anything. In fact, it looks like a well-made, splashy, expensive, movie-style production with one hell of a creative team behind it. From the trailer alone though, I guess it just feels a little... uninspired. It feels a bit like JJ phoned this one in and we're left with a very familiar, almost generic spin (no, wait, there is (presumably) no spin) on an old routine. It just doesn't feel special the way that Alias felt special and I'm just not sure where this show is going to go 3 or 4 seasons down the line. I'm hopeful there's a lot more to it than the trailer leads on, but so far? I'm rather underwhelmed. It just seems a bit too generic to really pique my interest, which is a real shame. Here's hoping they prove me wrong.
CHASE
Description: This is billed as a fast-paced drama from Emmy Award-winning executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer (“CSI” franchise, “The Amazing Race,” “Pirates of the Caribbean” films) and executive producer Jennifer Johnson (“Cold Case”). Stars Kelli Giddish (“Past Life”), Cole Hauser (“K-Ville”), Amaury Nolasco (“Prison Break”), Rose Rollins (“The L Word”) and Jesse Metcalfe (“Desperate Housewives”). Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman (“CSI” franchise, “The Amazing Race,” “Cold Case”) and Johnson serve as executive producers, while KristieAnne Reed is co-executive producer. David Nutter (“The Mentalist,” “Without a Trace” “The X-Files”) directed and is executive producer of the pilot that was written by Johnson.
My Take: I don't suppose I could just say "painfully generic" and leave it at that, could I? How about simply, "groan"? This is your typical cop-style piece of crap where some rag-tag crew is the best in the world at what they do blah, blah, blah, but don't worry, there's a new guy on the scene so they can explain how awesome they are to the audience by explaining how awesome they are to the straight-laced what's-his-name who just doesn't understand how things are done by the cool kids. Ugh. I hate that set-up, always have, always will. I don't need everything explained to me (especially when there's basically nothing to explain). I'll catch on, I promise. If you must use some new guy as a lazy tool for exposition, as least be subtle about it. This looks absolutely horrendous and the "talent" both behind and on the screen leave much to be desired. Kelli Giddish was awful in the awful beyond awful Past Life (use a word twice in one sentence, and the third usage is free), and yet someone saw fit to let her anchor yet another show? WTF? Not that even the awesomest lead could save this show from a big steaming pile of cliches and the total hack that is Jerry Bruckheimer. I'm not sure I'll even make it through the whole pilot. I tried to watch a couple of clips online, but fast-forwarded through them. Cheeseball, hackneyed, overwrought, unoriginal, etc. And lest you think I'm being too harsh, her name is Annie Frost? Seriously? Bad. "When Annie comes gunning. Start running." Oh, I'll be running all right... as far away from this piece of shit as possible. If you want to see a kick-ass show about US Marshals, I suggest you tune into In Plain Sight on USA. But, knowing the American viewing public and their thirst for crime procedurals, this just might be a hit. I doubt it'll make it onto my rotation, but I can see where this might have some mass appeal and long-term potential. Lord knows CBS has been milking this type of genre for years now, so why not NBC.
OUTLAW
Description: Stars Jimmy Smits (“NYPD Blue,” “The West Wing”), “Outlaw” is a new drama from executive producer John Eisendrath (“Alias,” “Felicity,” “Playmakers”). Also stars Jesse Bradford (“The West Wing”, "Bring It On"), Carly Pope (“24″, "Popular"), Ellen Woglom (“Californication”) and David Ramsey (“Dexter”). Eisendrath is executive producer along with Terry George (“Hotel Rwanda,” “Reservation Road”), Conan O’Brien, Jeff Ross and David Kissinger (“Andy Barker, P.I.”). “Outlaw” is written by Eisendrath and directed by George.
My Take: Well, when the preview started, I was actually quite intrigued, but toward the end... not so much. Off the bat, I have to hand it to the writers for being ballsy enough to take the legal genre and add something new and unexpected. As the preview started off, the prospect of a supreme court justice abdicating the thrown (as it were) to help change the broken legal system really appealed to me (even in spite of the Jimmie Smits of it all--what can I say? After an entire season of suffering through his Miguel Prado on Dexter, I was happy to see Dex, uh, take care of things...). As things wore on, however, the show seems to have a fairly cheesy, self-righteous vibe going through it that I am definitely not digging. I have no problem with emotional storylines and meaningful messages, but I don't need to be hit over the head with them, thanks. It all just seemed a little too heartwarming and saccharine to be the hard-hitting drama I initially expected... Here's hoping the trailer simply doesn't do it justice (oh good god, that was an unintentional, yet rather painful pun). The good news is that the supporting cast elicited some serious teenesque nostalgia. I had to tweak the description of the show that I pulled off the web because they left out the truly important credits. Jesse Bradford, co-star of the awesomely awesome Bring It On (which was left off his bio inexplicably) and Carly Pope, whom I hardly even recognized! I haven't seen her since Popular (which was likewise left off her bio--seriously who's writing these things?) and it was nice to see her working again (in something that I might actually watch). Seeing them back in action was a bit of a thrill and quite frankly hold a lot more appeal for me than Smits at the helm. It's not going to be the most original show on earth, but at least they've put a new spin on an overdone genre. I loves me a good legal show, but the odds of this one living up to the standard set by The Good Wife are pretty slim. I think it'll boil down to Smits' ability to anchor the show, and so far, not so good. I've never been a huge fan of his, so maybe it's just me, but I don't know that he (or his character) has enough quirk or uniqueness to really draw me in. Only time will tell. I'll definitely give this one a shot, but I have a sinking feeling they've taken an original spin and let it devolve into more of the same. To boot, it's been given the Friday night death slot, so I get the feeling NBC isn't all the confident in the show. I think it's going to have a hard time finding an audience, so for its sake, I hope NBC has lowered their expectations in terms of ratings. Even if they have, I doubt this will make it past midseason.
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