A few strange trends emerged with the network announcements of fall shows (vintage-y, fairy tales, comedies that seem hell-bent on convincing the world that men are complete morons), but none was more disconcerting than the midseason slate. For some unknown reason, the major networks seem to be holding all their most promising new shows until the dead of winter. Seriously, before I had sized up exactly what the schedules would look like for fall, and had only seen a pile of trailers, there were a number of shows I was rather intrigued by and, I daresay, excited about. Only then did I realize that the vast majority of them wouldn't have the luxury of a big, splashy, fall premiere, but would instead start filling the schedule whenever a spot opened up. On the one hand, I guess it makes sense to replace fall failures with something more promising, but more than anything, I think this sets these shows up for failure. Once in a while a midseason replacement makes a splash and hits big (Grey's Anatomy is the main one coming to mind), but in general, it's a rough go. After the winter break hiatus, even established shows tend to struggle a bit to get viewers back into the swing of things, let alone a brand new show.
Well, whatever the reason may be, I find myself a hell of a lot more excited about the midseason than the fall, which I'm pretty confident has never happened before. I guess it'll be nice to see some quality come mid winter rather than the second-tier cast-offs (as per usual), but call me crazy, I don't want to wait that long!
Alas, here are NBC's midseason dramas (well, most of them--there will be an adaptation of John Grisham's The Firm as well, but it has yet to even be cast, so there's not much to tell):
SMASH
Description: Stars Debra Messing (Will & Grace), Katharine McPhee (American Idol), Anjelica Huston (Medium), Jack Davenport (Captain Norrington), and others. Steven Spielberg is somehow behind this and Grammy and Tony winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray) will write original songs for the show.
First Impressions: You see what I mean about all the good stuff being held till midseason? Yeah, I'm extremely excited for this one. I've never gravitated toward Marilyn Monroe as a cultural icon the way many people do, but that's decidedly beside the point. I've seen this billed as a "grown up Glee" but I don't think that's it at all. To me, this looks like a tremendous story about putting on a Broadway show, which, I don't know if you've met me, but that pretty much is my wheelhouse. This isn't a show about a bunch of people singing for increasingly plot-irrelevant reasons. This is a concept about Broadway, and on Broadway, you get singing. Besides, after this season of Glee, putting anything in the same boat is kind of an insult. Moving on, the cast and creative team are pretty amazing. I'm not an American Idol fan, so my knowledge of Katharine McPhee is limited, but she seems to be holding her own in the trailer. I always have a bit of a problem with people choosing a Christina Aguilera song for their auditions though, because let's face it, good luck with that, but she pulled it off. To boot, I think she actually looks really good as the Norma Jean end of the Marilyn spectrum. The blond they have vying for the role as well doesn't look like Monroe at all, save for the hair. The fact that things like this are already on my mind means that I'm already invested in this show more than probably any other new pilot. Indeed, watching most of the trailers for these news shows a second time has seemed like a chore in most cases, but not here. I was as enthralled in the second go-round as the first. I love Jack Davenport (who looks really great as the director), Angelica Houston is a legend, and I have no positive or negative feelings toward Debra Messing in this role (and when it comes to Debra Messing, feeling neutral generally equals a win). In terms of concept, the only way this show could appeal to me more is if they were making a musical about a different person, but I realize that it kind of has to be Marilyn. In terms of old Hollywood screen legends, however, I'm more of a Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West kind of girl, but they don't have quite the same cultural zing that Marilyn does. The show appears to have just about everything I could ask for in a drama and more. Even the more familiar ground they'll be covering has me intrigued. The director-ingenue dynamic has been done and done and done, but McPhee and Davenport looked great together and I'm excited to see that explored (especially with her seemingly perfect boyfriend(?) in tow). Knowing how common it is to have to sleep with the director to get the part, I'm eager to see how they handle it. In case I've been far too subtle, I'm super-stoked for this one and kinda sorta pissed that I have to wait till midseason. Presumably, they're holding it till then so they can pair it with The Voice, but given the sinking ratings lately, I'm not sure that will be doing Smash any favors.
AWAKE
Description: Stars Jason Isaacs (Brotherhood), Laura Allen (Terriers), Cherry Jones (24), Steve Harris (The Practice), and Michaela McManus (The Vampire Diaries). The project comes from Kyle Killen, creator of Fox's short-lived Lone Star and 24's Howard Gordon.
First Impressions: I have to tip my hat to the big four for continuing to take chances with high-concept shows, even in spite of the rash of recent failures (The Event, FlashForward, The Nine, etc). I am not a casual TV viewer, so the extra effort needed for a show like this is most enjoyable to me, but often comes as a turnoff to other viewers. Networks seem to be searching for the next Lost, but so far have come up short. Awake isn't the same kind of "high concept" as those cited previously, however, so I think it has a better chance of surviving the network mill. At its core, it's a cop show (and likely a fair bit procedural--hopefully not entirely though), albeit with a sort of Inception-y vibe to it. Indeed, with him tackling different cases in each of his lives, I'm thinking NBC said to itself, "Two procedurals for the price of one?! I'll take it!" The concept raises some very interesting questions about identity and reality. At the end of the day, our entire existence is founded in our perceptions and our memories, so who's to say what is and is not reality? The show posits the theory that his mind has constructed an elaborate coping mechanism following a tragedy and asks the audience to consider what is and is not mental illness. This coping mechanism, by most accounts, means that he has officially gone insane, but by his personal measure, it's the only thing holding him together. Indeed, the stakes are so high in both of his realities that he can't really risk believing that one is real and the other isn't. What if he chooses wrong? What if both realities actually exist (from the trailer alone, it's hard to determine a supernatural element, but the overlaps in his two realities suggest that at least in his mind, some warping is occurring). It reminds me of that episode of Buffy where she's in a coma in one reality and is fighting monsters in the other. At one point, Buffy decides that she really is a woman in a coma and that all the fantastical things that have happened for the past few years were a dream and that all the dangers she and her friends are currently facing don't actually exist. She endeavors to ignore her dream reality, but on the chance that she's wrong, on the chance that it isn't all a dream, she engages and slays the demons like she has for the past few years. All in all, it simply isn't worth the risk of being wrong. I have a hopeful feeling that Awake will explore the mysteries of identity and reality in an intriguing way and that the more procedural elements will be kept to a minimum. The cast is excellent (seeing Laura Allen gives me pangs of grief for Terriers, but it's lovely to see her back on the air) and the creative team seems spot on (I loved what little I got to see of Lone Star and I'm excited to see Kyle Killen's talents in a project that will hopefully last). I'm a bit concerned that, like Lone Star, this concept may have been better suited to a movie or mini-series and I'm also afraid that the tone of the show may turn off network viewers. Where a somber exploration of grief, mental illness, and fabricated realities would work wonderfully on AMC, I'm not sure how sturdy a foothold it will find on NBC. Whatever the show's fate, I'm certainly intrigued and am looking forward to this midseason offering quite a bit more than most of the fall slate.
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