It's that magical, yet ultimately disappointing time of year again. Don't get me wrong, May is probably the biggest, most important, busiest time of year for the TV biz, but with all the new pilots announced in the Spring comes all the apprehension that most of them will suck come Fall. This year's slate of new pilots looks to be more promising than last year (when I was honestly starting to think that network TV had just sorta given up altogether), but I'm not counting my chickens.
Here's what the schedule will look like for NBC this fall (please bear in mind that these times are Eastern Standard Time, even though that's not where I live (hey, a girl can dream, all right?)):
New pilots are in all-caps.
MONDAY
8 pm The Sing-Off
10 pm THE PLAYBOY CLUB
TUESDAY
8 pm The Biggest Loser
10 pm Parenthood
WEDNESDAY
8 pm UP ALL NIGHT
8:30 pm FREE AGENTS
9 pm Harry’s Law (new time slot)
10 pm Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
THURSDAY
8 pm Community
8:30 pm Parks and Recreation (new time slot)
9 pm The Office
9:30 pm WHITNEY
10 pm PRIME SUSPECT
FRIDAY
8 pm Chuck (new, rather sad time slot)
9 pm GRIMM
10 pm Dateline NBC
SUNDAY
7 pm Football Night in America
8:15 pm NBC Sunday Night Football
Geez, whoever noticed that NBC has absolutely nothing on Sundays? I sure didn't. Wow, this network is even more pathetic than I thought... and that's a high bar.
Anyway, the only scheduling notes are that Chuck has been moved to Friday, so that it has plenty of time to ponder sloughing off this mortal coil, and that Grimm will be premiering on Friday, which doesn't exactly scream confidence. Dear NBC, maybe you should put some actual scripted programming on Sundays, eh? Oh, who am I kidding. Football is about the only thing on this network that anyone watches. So sad.
Even sadder? NBC actually has some pilots that look promising, but they'll be held till midseason for some unfathomable reason (maybe they really like rhyming?). More on them in a future post, but for now, here are some of the new drama pilots for this fall:
THE PLAYBOY CLUB
Description: Stars Amber Heard (Zombieland), Eddie Cibrian (CSI: Miami), David Krumholtz (Numb3rs), Jenna Dewan-Tatum (Step Up), Laura Benanti (Eli Stone) and others. Brian Grazer (24, Parenthood and Friday Night Lights) executive-produces.
First Impressions: While I salute NBC for trying to tap into the Mad Men vibe and era, I have serious reservations about this kind of show on network TV, especially with the focus being on an establishment geared toward sex and drugs. I don't know if you've met network TV, but there's a reason edgier programs wind up on cable. For as solid as the production looks in the trailer, I have a feeling the show started off one way and ended up quite another way when it got picked up by NBC. As much as I hope it can find a foothold and an audience, the necessary watering-down of the content will likely water-down the quality as well. Plus, if there's one demographic that taps into period pieces, it's people who peaked during that period. As much as NBC would jump at the chance for anyone to watch their network again, I don't think the octogenarian set is exactly what they had in mind. This show is going to skew older, I have no doubt. It looks to be well-made and stylish and the decision to cast tabloid staple Eddie Cibrian as a lothario and playboy seeks pre-ordained, but I'm already a bit iffy on the initial story arc. You're telling me her heel broke through someone's skull and all the way into his brain before it broke off the shoe? Boy, they really don't make things like they used to... apparently for safety reasons. I'm cautiously hopeful for this one. Hey, it has David Krumholtz (aka Mr. Universe) in it (even if he wasn't in the trailer at all), so it already wins a few points in my book. If they can pull off the balance between cable themes and network restrictions the way The Good Wife does, it could be a winner, but I'm willing to wager it'll just turn into a low-substance, high-cheese soap opera that likes to think its high brow, but isn't. So I don't trust NBC. Sue me.
PRIME SUSPECT
Description: Stars Mario Bello (ER), Aidan Quinn (Canterbury's Law), and Kirk Acevedo (Fringe). Sarah Aubrey and Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) will executive-produce.
My Take: First off, this is an American remake of a British series, so I'm already pre-disposed to throw it on the scrap heap and simply seek out the original. Secondly, the British series starred Helen Mirren in the lead where she has been replaced with Maria Bello for American audiences, in case you were wondering just what tack they were aiming for. With that out of the way, I'd say my biggest concern is that it feels like I just watched a trailer for an edgy new cop series about gender roles from... Oh, I don't know, maybe 1991. I have to seriously question the show's approach here. Does anyone really think of policework at strictly a boys' club anymore? Whether it is or it isn't in real life, the television landscape moved past this ages ago. The whole concept seems a little dated and irrelevant. Maybe it's British vs. American sensibilities? Maybe policing really is still a stodgy old boys' club in Britain? In all honestly, when I watch my British shows, there really is a much more prominent and palpable sexism than I see in American shows, so perhaps therein lies the difference. It's always unexpected and I always find it extremely strange, but portrayals of women and interactions with female characters on my British shows are surprisingly sexist from time to time. With that, I can see where Prime Suspect genuinely would have seemed like a trailblazer, featuring a tough woman who can keep up with the guys. On American TV? Been there, done that, two decades ago. Anyway... aside from all that, it honestly doesn't look like a bad show, even if it's main theme seems outdated and perhaps a bit irrelevant. It looks to have more substance than your typical CBS procedural, but more hackneyed procedure than a cable cop drama would offer. It looks like it could strike a nice balance of the two. I can definitely see myself getting sick to death of the constant, "What?! A girl?!" of it all, so hopefully that goes by the wayside sooner than later. Bello looks surprisingly at home in the role and isn't at gussied up or "Hollywood" as I had feared when I heard about the casting, so I'm hopeful. This one will boil down to the level of yammering about the boys' club and the amount of procedure in the show. The less there is of both of those, the better. Yeah, man alive, in terms of gender roles, The Chicago Code managed to explore the treatment of women on the police force only by having the woman in question be top dog of them all, be younger than any other superintendent in history, and be biracial. You really think you're going to push the envelope with a white woman working as a regular old detective? Good luck with that.
GRIMM
Description: Stars David Giuntoli (Privileged), Sasha Roiz (Caprica), Silas Weir Mitchell (Prison Break), and Kate Burton (Grey's Anatomy). The pilot was written and executive-produced by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel).
My Take: Wow, where to start... On paper, this sounds insanely awesome. In execution? I'm a little afraid. I think it was the little red riding zip hoodie that started the worries. Coming from a production team that had their hands in Buffy and Angel, it's hard not to get excited. Were Joss Whedon included on that list, you can bet I'd be over the moon. Without Joss, however, I have a feeling this show is going to fail to meet its potential. Where Buffy took the "high school is hell" notion and made it reality, this seems to be playing with the "murderers, rapists, and kidnappers are demons" concept in the same way, but without as much success. It's a lot easier to have fun with the concept of Buffy. The levity and snark make the more campy elements totally work. Trying to incorporate similar thematic elements into a crime procedural? I have my doubts. Aside from being one of my least favorite genres, the crime procedural tends to take itself too seriously a lot of the time and when you're dealing with the notion that a descendant of the Brothers Grimm is fighting big bad wolves (heh, well, they got the "big bad" part of the Whedonverse right) and saving little red riding sweatshirt, I have a sinking feeling it'll come across as lame, not inspired. The fact that Seymour from Burn Notice is ostensibly one of the scoobies warms my heart and gives me hope, but I fear viewers will tune in expecting the snap crackle wit of a Whedonverse production and be left wanting. The fact that it's airing on Fridays, after Chuck, doesn't exactly bolster confidence either. On the hopeful chance that this is as awesome as it could be, it likely doesn't stand much of a chance in that timeslot, with that lead-in. Don't get me wrong, they make for a logical pairing, but Chuck's numbers are already terrible, and will likely be abysmal come fall, which means it's not exactly the blockbuster lead-in a new pilot would hope for. This was far from a reassuring trailer, but I'm willing to wager a three minute snippet of Buffy probably looked pretty ridiculous as well. Fingers crossed on this one.
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