NBC aka The Biggest Loser

Now that the fall slaughter is basically complete, it's time to run down the networks and see how everyone fared. Oh, NBC... Seems they just didn't get rid of Zucker in time to save this fall development schedule. At this point, I'm honestly not sure how they're going to recover. They spent an obscene amount of money trying to revitalize the network with an unheard of number of high-profile, expensive new shows and what do they have to show for it? Chuck is one of their highest-rated scripted shows. Quite frankly, when titling this post, I had a hard time deciding between NBC shows The Biggest Loser or ER in terms of aptonyms. I thought about Lost, but that's another network that's currently in trouble.

Here's how the chips fell for the peacock this fall... (We'll start with the bad news--brace yourselves, there's a lot of it.) It's hard to know just where to begin when even the "successes" are failures, but here we go. Worst of the worst.

(When talking about TV success and failure, you're usually talking ratings. For a primer on TV ratings, go here. It'll probably make most of the ratings talk later on make a lot more sense.)

THE CANCELEDS

Outlaw
While it wasn't the very first fall show to get the axe, that has more to do with NBC's ever-lowering standards than with the ratings themselves. Even for a Friday show, the ratings were abyssal. At last glance, they were getting their asses handed to them by the CW in terms of key demo ratings. On any other network, Outlaw would have been toast even sooner than it was. Deservedly so, as luck would have it. This was a truly terrible show that should never have seen the light of day. This sucker was about dead right out of the gate with debut numbers that were embarrassing by nearly any standards. Jimmie, you made for the worst season of Dexter ever, and for that, I'm glad to see your career taking a hit. Let this be a word of warning to other shows... don't cast him! Boy, I don't remember hating him before Dexter, but seriously, if I never hear the name Miguel Prado again, it'll be too soon. Smits is forever tainted... as is the third season of Dexter, thank you very much.

Undercovers
Although this show was only recently given the passive-aggressive axe (rather than being flat out canceled, they simply opted to not pick up anymore episodes), I think it's probably the most devastating, most expensive blunder NBC has endured this year. Good lord, when a flashy, high-budget JJ Abrams production can't survive on your network, what can? Once again, however, this show was quite deservedly canceled. Its debut numbers were lower than expected and just kept falling from there. At last count, it scored a 1.3 in the key demo. For comparison's sake, that's only slightly better than Nikita's numbers. The Vampire Diaries most recently scored a 1.6. When you're getting trounced by the CW, you're in trouble, even if it's abundantly clear that their shows are awesome. Serious trouble. Fans of Undercovers might cry foul that that's an unfair comparison because the CW slate airs on a different night than Undercovers does. Yeah, they air on a much more competitive night. And they're still holding their own. NBC promoted the hell out of Undercovers, and scheduled it in one of the least daunting timeslots on the air. At the end of the day, it's just a terrible show. It's a shame to lose on of the few shows around to be helmed by faces of color, but as one commenter noted on a gossip blog, poor quality transcends race (or something like that). At the root of the problem for me was the lack of gravity. I realize the writers were aiming for a lighter farce, but they shot themselves in the foot. Hell, Psych has more suspense and more at stake and it's even more of a farce. Undercovers was just plain dull. when there's nothing to lose, there's little to gain. The espionage was about as suspenseful as the lame-ass catering B-plots. This show won't be missed by viewers, but I think NBC is about ready to cry. This was their ace in the hole going into this fall and it has proven to be one of their costliest misfires. Ouch.

THE SHOULD-HAVE-BEEN CANCELEDS

Chase
I still can't believe that they picked this show up for a full-season. I really think they simply didn't have anything with which to fill the gap, so they had to keep it. At last count, they were averaging a 1.5 in the key demo when they received the back nine order. For yet another comparison, Fox's Lone Star was unhesitatingly canceled after two weeks of scoring a 1.3--which is the same kind of numbers that led to Undercovers being canceled. 1.3 and 1.5 aren't that far apart, even in terms of TV ratings. Why did Chase get a pass? Well, it's a tough call. Aside from having little else to fall back on, Chase airs in one of the most competitive timeslots on the air. Based on the steep competition (I can't say I'd be happy to be pitted against Castle and Hawaii Five-0 if I were a show), a 1.5 might not be looking so bad to the suits at NBC. The most recent 1.2 that the show posted last night, probably looks pretty grim. Ouch. It managed to eek out of a full season order, but it won't be picked up for a second season. Quite frankly, if this trend continues, it'll likely get yanked before the year it out. It certainly won't survive the winter break. Good god, this is the first time since I started watching the ratings that the CW actually looks almost competitive! When compared to NBC, they really aren't that far behind. Sad. Fortunately, Chase is yet another horrible show, so it deserves the axe, but for NBC's sake, this is yet another colossal failure, and it's a purported success. Ha!

The Event
Yet another show that got a full-season pick-up, and yet another show whose ratings really don't warrant such a distinction. It's the best show of NBC's fall slate, however, so I'm glad they're giving it the old college try. Its ratings started out stronger than expected, but it's been hemorrhaging viewers ever since. I myself am one of those viewers. Well, sort of. Technically, it's been piling up in my DVR for over a month... I'm going to give it one more shot, but assume I'll bite the bullet and cancel it. It's really a pretty good show (as I recall from 5 weeks ago), but I just couldn't seem to get into it initially. Anyway, it managed the back nine, but with a 1.7 key demo rating last night, the slide continues into some seriously troubled waters. Of all the new shows on the network, I think this one will have the hardest time recovering from the winter break. As with FlashForward before it, I predict it will limp its way through sweeps, go on hiatus, and basically never really come back. I can't imagine this show will get a second season, so I'm honestly not all that motivated to give it another shot. The only way this show will be back next year is if NBC doesn't have any other options or simply can't afford to promote anything new. As one of the only new shows to even kind of step out of the box this year, it's a shame, but I can't say I'm surprised.

THE UNBELIEVABLY-LOW-BAR SUCCESSES

Chuck
Okay, this cracks me up every single time. This show has been struggling since day one, has almost been canceled three years in a row, and is now one of NBC's highest-rated and most consistent scripted programs. Ha! The really funny part is that the ratings aren't any better than they've ever been. In fact, they're worse. But with a steady 1.9-2.0 in the key demo, it's one of NBC's top shows these days. I honestly haven't been all that impressed by the current season (what can I say? I'm bored. Where's Bryce Larkin when you need him? Oh wait, that would be on White Collar), but it seems to be turning a corner (it always seems to take a few episodes to really get in gear). I'm happy for the little-show-that-could and do hope that they're all laughing their asses off at the NBC brass. Unless NBC someone finds a whole lotta cash (at this point, I'm thinking alchemy is their best bet), I don't know how they're going to put together a slate this fall that might result in Chuck getting the axe, so count on Chuck sticking around for the foreseeable future. With the new president though, I'm hopeful for NBC's creative direction in the coming year. It can't possibly get worse, right?

Law & Order: Los Angeles
Hi, broken record here. This show is averaging a 1.9 in the key demo, but for NBC, that makes it one of their pinch hitters. Man, that's bleak. I've never watched the show, but I hear it's pretty awful. I've heard that Law & Order : UK is actually quite good, however, so I'd suggest tuning into BBCA if you're really in the mood for this particular franchise.

Outsourced
Ugh. I tried to watch the pilot, I really, really did, but just couldn't do it. 7 minutes was all I could take. I hear it's actually gotten considerably better since then, but I'm in no mood to give it another go. I was pretty disheartened and embarrassed to hear that it received a full season order, but given that it's a half-hour comedy with decent ratings, I'm not surprised. It most recently scored a 2.7 in the key demo, which at first blush looks fantastic for NBC, but trust me, it's really not that impressive. When you take into account that its lead-in The Office scored a 3.7, that's a serious drop off, and leaves it in fourth for the time period. Not good. But, it's an inexpensive show that's easy to produce and that has to be paired with something else, so I'd be surprised if it doesn't get a second season. While its ratings should be better, they're pretty damn good by NBC standards, and have actually been fairly consistent, so assuming it stays above a 1.5, it should be a shoe-in for another year. How sad is that? Double ugh. Of all the shows to make my safe list, did this really have to be one of them? Really? Thanks for nothing, NBC. Once again.

Parenthood
It's honestly a bit difficult to decide exactly which category this one should be in. While it's been enduring a slow but steady slide in the ratings, and more than a few rumors that it's getting the axe, it still averages in NBC's safe zone, so I don't think viewers have much to worry about. It's generally in the 2.0 key demo range, which for NBC, is quite solid. Unfortunately, the show itself isn't. It has never been a favorite of mine, but it seems to be more grating than ever. The contrived drama and constant bickering is unbearable most of the time. I hang in there for Lauren Graham and Peter Krause, but it's getting tougher and tougher--especially when you take into the sheer brilliance of its main timeslot competitor, The Good Wife. Honestly, if it's one or the other for you, the decision is easy. I recently just started watching Sports Night on DVD, so my love between Peter Krause and Josh Charles should be evenly split, but overall, The Good Wife is simply superior in every possible way so even Sports Night can't level the field. As happy as I am that Lauren Graham has a steady gig (and that she and Peter Krause are reportedly dating--aww, well idn't that nice!), I wouldn't be heartbroken to see Parenthood get the axe at the end of this season. It has its moments, but it's mostly just shrill bickering. I'm sorry, but if this show is an accurate representation of family life for most people, I can't understand why anyone gets married, has children, or even speaks to other people. When there's nothing but conflict, it's unsatisfying. Who cares if one irrational fight gets resolved because you know there's another one right around the corner. Ugh. It's ratings have been in a downward trend, so it'll certainly be on the bubble come May, but if it can maintain a 2.0, it should be okay. The only other factor that might make that 2.0 not look so rosy is the cost of the show. It has a huge cast of names attached to it and it can't be cheap to produce. NBC doesn't exactly have money to burn these days, so if it comes down to Parenthood or a cheaper show with slightly worse ratings, it could easily be a toss up.

So there you have it. I didn't get into the nitty gritty of some NBC's returning shows, but odds are you're already aware of how they're performing. The Office and 30 Rock are tops, The Apprentice is a ratings disaster, The Biggest Loser keeps eating up more primetime (about 40 minutes of scales bonging a week, I'd say) and my darling Community continues to struggle a bit in a painfully tough timeslot. Creatively, it's better than ever, and NBC has even upped its season order to 24 episodes. Yay! Odds are it'll be fine come May, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. And then there's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. What an unmitigated disaster. For the first time ever, I believe, The Daily Show beat Leno (and Letterman for that matter) in the key demo the other day. Ha! A little Comedy Central fake news show is beating The Tonight Show. That has to be pretty gut-wrenching for the brass at NBC.

Speaking of the brass, as mentioned, NBC has finally, finally, FINALLY gotten rid of Jeff Zucker. I'm honestly not too familiar with his replacement, but I'm pretty sure a pet rock could do a better job, so it doesn't really matter who takes over. At least it's not Zucker. He managed to take the number one network on TV and turn it into a close competitor for the CW. Way to go, dumbass. You won't be missed.

It's hard to know really where NBC will go from here. They need to rebuild their schedule for real this time, get a few solid scripted programs on the air, and then build from there. One of the biggest problems with the fall pilots this year is that NBC doesn't have any heavy hitters to act as lead-ins for new shows. If they can manage to develop even a couple of solid performers, they can use that as a foundation to promote other new shows. Until then, they're going to struggle... more so.

Serious Adverse Events

In a riskier move than most networks were willing to make this season, NBC's The Event is a high-concept, heavily serialized thriller that's trying to be the next Lost, and hoping to hell it's not the next FlashForward. I'd say it falls somewhere in between.

I usually give a brief summary of what a show is about at the beginning of a review, but if you saw the pilot for The Event, you'll understand that that's not going to be easy... Geez, let's see... So, there's this guy played by Jason Ritter who goes on a cruise and then gets on a plane that's going to crash into the president or something, but then it gets sucked into a vortex because there's apparently this group of people who are in prison in Alaska and that's... somehow important. The Event is banking on mystery and and the unknown, so really, viewers walk away from the pilot with a hell of a lot of questions and very little tangible anything. The pilot sought to pique audience interest with a barrage of "Wait, what?" and they succeeded. I haven't a clue what's going on, but I have just enough information that I want to know more.

This pilot revolves around mysterious, unexplained events that seem to center around a few pivotal characters. Every aspect of the pilot aims at giving the viewer just enough information to know that there's a whole lot more to the story. Even the structure of the episode makes for a disjointed narrative. The story is told in a very non-linear fashion, jumping back and forth in time and place, filling in certain gaps while creating others. While I think that approach definitely worked for this kind of pilot, the constant time jumps felt a little excessive and unnecessary. Seriously, every few minutes you'd get "13 months earlier" or "23 minutes earlier" or whatever. They pulled it off, but also wasted a lot of time in the process on a convention that didn't seem entirely necessary. Jumping around this much and from character to character led to a lot of overlap. I had to watch several scenes a few times from a different character's perspective and it got a bit tedious. I realize that it was a stylistic choice, and an effective one at that, but I also appreciate economic storytelling and couldn't help but to think that moments could have been curtailed. I don't know if they just didn't trust the audience to remember where we were in the narrative or what, but the overlap was kind of annoying...

In all honesty, this show seems to trust its viewers a hell of a lot more than most (gratuitous overlap notwithstanding). I appreciated that they didn't hold the viewer's hand while telling this story and let the pieces fall into place without much exposition or explanation. To that end, however, I am a little fearful that this tendency might lead to loose ends and plot holes that simply never get resolved. This is going to be difficult show to write and produce and I certainly hope the creative team has a long-term plan worked out. If they're just making stuff up as they go along, I think they're going to lose track of things. So far, so good.

The pilot was very well-made and definitely had some network support behind it. This is an expensive show that will need to perform quite well in order to stay on the air. The cast is solid and I actually enjoyed Jason Ritter more than expected. I'm not sure how he'll handle anchoring a show, but I suspect this series will have enough going on that he won't have to shoulder the burden alone. Blair Underwood (ugh) is onboard to play his usual arrogant, self-centered man-in-charge (this time, quite literally since he plays the president) which is always off-putting, but I'm hopeful he's not as central to the narrative as others. It was nice to see some familiar faces that haven't been making the rounds lately. Laura Innes (Dr. Weaver from ER) and Scott Patterson (Luke from Gilmore Girls) round out the better part of the cast, although I suspect this is the kind of show that could start sprawling at any moment. Based on the pilot alone, it was had to tell who's going to be pivotal and who's going to get killed off next week...

This is a hard one to wrap your head around in terms of standard TV conventions which makes for a nice change of pace. It's difficult to assess the pilot alone because this is such a serialized concept. At present, the audience has only the barest of bones to work with and no one has any idea what "the event" actually is. I suspect we'll spend the entire first season, and kind of fear that they plan on spending the entire series, figuring it out. I wasn't sure how this show would be received, but it has actually gotten quite good buzz and did even better than expected in the ratings department. Unlike Hawaii Five-0, The Event's audience actually grew over the course of the hour, so not only did viewers not lose interest, the show was engaging enough to draw in additional viewers as it aired.

I enjoyed the pilot well enough and think this show certainly has potential. Will it be the cultural phenomenon that Lost was? Probably not. But it does have a solid (and yet at the same time, amorphous) foundation and has set up enough mysteries to keep the show going over the long haul. My main concern is that they'll be tempted to never answer any of the questions they've asked. If they can manage a pace that's both satisfying and tantalizing concurrently, I could see where this could turn into a real winner.

All in all, I'm definitely intrigued, but I doubt this is going to be appointment TV for me. At least not yet. I want to know more, but I don't feel like I have enough of a basis to be truly invested. Sure I'm curious about how these characters got to be in the situations they're in and want to know what the hell happened to that plane, but I'm not invested enough in these people to be bursting at the seems to find out. As the series progresses, I assume they'll all grow on me and I'll become more attached to what happens to them, but I'm also a little fearful that all the crazy will get in the way of real character development. So far, I'm hopeful, but cautious. The show's real challenge is going to be audience retention. This is a high concept serial, so if a viewer misses an episode, it's highly likely s/he will give up on the show. This isn't a show for a casual viewer, and on a night with an insane amount of programming, I'm a little afraid The Event may become an afterthought. Based on ratings for the pilot, however, it has a better chance of surviving that I anticipated.

I'll certainly be giving it chance and will just have to hope that the writers have an actual plan in mind... winging it simply isn't going to work...

Speaking of work (sort of), the only people who would find the title of this post ingenious are the people who work in my office, but I couldn't think of anything else.

Pilot Grade: B

NBC Pilots 2010: Volume 2

This volume should round out NBC's new dramas. Below you'll find clips and snap judgments on The Event, which will premiere this fall, as well as Harry's Law and The Cape, which are slated for midseason. Whether or not that's how things will actually pan out, however, is up for grabs. As you may have noticed on NBC's fall schedule, Wednesday nights have Law & Order: Los Angeles penciled in for a fall pairing with SVU. I say "penciled in" because as near as I can tell, they have yet to do absolutely anything with this yet (you know, aside from killing off original flavor just one season shy of the record). Beyond the title, they don't seem to have a clue in hell what this is going to be (and I suspect, if this is going to be). At any rate, the total lack of anything about this one means I don't have much to review really, so at least I can knock one pilot off my list. (The fact that LOLA got picked up without so much as a pilot makes the unceremonious death of The Rockford Files reboot all the more embarrassing. Word is, even after re-cutting the pilot extensively, it was still too dull to make it on the air--ouch.)

Anyway, without further ado, here's three more of NBC's deluge of pilots (seriously, I don't know how they are affording all these new shows and can't imagine they'll have the budget to promote them properly)...

THE EVENT

Description: Stars Jason Ritter (The Class, and most recently as Lorelai's love interest on Parenthood), Sarah Roemer (Disturbia), Blair Underwood (Dirty Sexy Money), Laura Innes, (Dr. Weaver from ER), and Scott Patterson (Gilmore Girls). Ian Anthony Dale (Daybreak) and Emmy winner Željko Ivanek (Damages) also star in the ensemble drama. Steve Stark (Medium, Facing Kate) serves as executive producer, Nick Wauters (The 4400, Eureka) is creator/co-executive producer and Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights, Trauma) is the director/executive producer; Evan Katz (24) also is an executive producer.



My Take: Well, they certainly told us a whole lot about what The Event is not, I'll give it that much. The very fact that they have titled the show with such a bald-faced plea for this show to become appointment TV is annoying enough, but then for the trailer to be all vague in a "you can't handle the truth" kind of way is bordering on obnoxious. It honestly looks like a slick, high-budget, high-concept show with some serious talent on and off the screen, so I guess I'm mainly just quibbling with how it was presented. They're quite obviously aiming for the kind of mystery and intrigue that gave Lost its luster, but the trailer for Lost had people salivating for more. When people first started watching Lost, no one really knew just how many twists and turns they were in for. With The Event's trailer, the producers are basically shouting at potential viewers, "Hey, look over here! There's going to be all sorts of mystery, and everyone loves a good mystery, right!? Okay, I'll give you a few hints... The assassination plot isn't the event. Are you glued to your TV yet?!" I, for one, am not. I'm not saying it won't be a good show, because it very well may be, but the way they're promoting it just isn't doing it for me. As with other recent high-concept serials like The Nine, Six Degrees, and FlashForward, I have a sinking feeling that unless they start presenting this to people in a more tantalizing, concrete way, the show is going to start off very strong, then falter. Off the bat, it strikes me as a good idea for a movie or miniseries than a TV show. But, once again, it's hard to really sum up the show given that the trailer basically told us a whole bunch of what the show isn't. I'm not even sure what the base conceit is, so really, we have a mystery at the core, surrounded by more mysterious mysteries. At the end of the day, really good thrillers are as solid in some areas as they are amorphous in others. They should give you an idea of what you're in for week-to-week, but hold back enough to keep you sucked in. So far? The Event gives me nothing tangible to latch onto. On the plus side, this series has some real power-players at the helm, so assuming the pilot tells viewers even 1% of what is going on, they might just be able to hit this one out of the park. The trailer was too unnecessarily disjointed to really get a feel for who's who (one minute the president knows Dr. Weaver, the next minute he doesn't? One minute Jason Ritter's fiancee is missing, the next she's running with him?), but assuming the show itself manages to define them, it could be pretty spectacular. I'm no fan of Blair Underwood, but the rest of the cast is very strong. I'm not too familiar with the behind-the-scenes production crew though, so it's a tough call. This one could really go either way. I was unimpressed and a little annoyed by the trailer, but I was able to parse out enough solid fundamentals that they might just pull it off. Again, I'm left with the feeling that I don't actually have any clue in hell what this show is going to be (seriously, who are these people?), so I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to tune it. My prediction? Well-made, engaging pilot with strong ratings, soon to be followed by people losing interest as the show meanders its way through 873 mysteries while it forsakes actual substance. For those of you hoping to break into the biz, that, my friends, is not the impression a trailer should be hoping to make. Inexplicably, I learned a hell of a lot more about the show based on this blurb about it on the web than I did from the trailer:

"The Event" is an emotional high-octane conspiracy thriller that follows Sean Walker (Jason Ritter), an Everyman who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his fiancée, Leila (Sarah Roemer), and unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history. Sean's quest will send ripples through the lives of an eclectic band of strangers, including: newly elected U.S. President Martinez (Blair Underwood); Sophia (Laura Innes), who is the leader of a mysterious group of detainees; and Sean’s shadowy father-in-law (Scott Patterson). Their futures are on a collision course in a global conspiracy that could ultimately change the fate of mankind.

Oh, so that's what this is?! Good to know! Why, that's the kind of information that should have been delivered via the trailer! Oy... Anyway, at least from the blurb it sounds like they have a plan. Probably an overly-ambitious plan, but a plan nonetheless. This show has gotten quite a lot of buzz on Twitter and elsewhere, so it looks like the trailer has sucked others in more so than myself. Here's hoping this is simply a classic case of bad trailer, awesome show, because by most accounts, this show looks to have some serious promise.


HARRY'S LAW

Description: From Emmy Award-winning creator David E. Kelley (The Practice, Boston Legal). Stars Kathy Bates (Misery, About Schmidt), Ben Chaplin, (Me and Orson Wells, The Truth About Cats and Dogs) and Aml Ameen (Kidulthood). Also stars Brittany Snow (Hairspray) and Beatrice Rosen (Dark Knight) David E. Kelley and Bill D’Elia (Boston Legal, The Practice) serve as executive producers.



My Take: Well, after several years of drought in the "legal drama" department, we seem to have an inundation on our hands. Last season, it was all about medical shows (what with ER coming to an end and all), and before that, it was nothing but crime procedurals. What sparked the resurgence of lawyer shows, you ask? It's a good question and a tough call. On NBC alone, three of their new dramas fall into this category. The legal drama has always been a mainstay of primetime television, and after a prosperous time in the 90's, hit a rough patch in the oo's. My theory? After the success of CBS's The Good Wife, and declining ratings in the "cop show" arena, networks decided it was time to resurrect the genre. Why the hell they can't design a show that doesn't revolve around one of those three professions (cops, docs, or lawyers), I'll never understand. Anyway, preamble aside, Harry's Law has its fair share of standard legal cliches (rogue voice fighting for the little guy in blustering, heart-wrenching speeches about justice, etc.), but this show is at least aiming for some originality as well. I'm honestly not too sure how the two fellas will play into the show (the English bloke appears to be some sort of teacher who decides to work for her after she saves him... I assume the other guy will do the same?), but at least it's an interpersonal dynamic that has a unique spin and seems worthy of exploring. I'm not sure what this says about the series as a whole, but the most exciting part of the trailer? Paul McCrane! (aka Dr. Romano from ER--hey, hey, they've combined two of the three to professions now). He isn't listed as a series regular, that I've found, so that's a bummer, but even as a recurring guest star, I'd be delighted. This show is slated for midseason, and while it has some original-ish elements, I'm afraid the trappings of the genre might just be its undoing. All legal shows are a lot alike, especially all legal shows by David E. Kelley, and from what I've seen, I'm not convinced Harry's Law is going to have enough going for it to really make a splash. It seems like the kind of show that will appeal to my sensibilities, but doesn't strike me as a top tier contender right off the bat. Kathy Bates is a true power player and the supporting cast is strong, so that's something. I think the show is going to have hard time finding a sizable audience with an older actress anchoring the show, however. Geez, even The Good Wife skews to an older demographic and it has about a million times the sex appeal of this show. Unfortunately, advertisers, and by extension networks, don't exactly melt into puddles of joy for shows that skew older. Hopefully the supporting cast attracts some younger viewers, but I honestly don't think your average college student is going to be twittering over this one. All in all, it seems fairly generic, but at least they're trying for a new take on things. I'll certainly be giving it a shot, but I'm not chomping at the bit for this one--except for maybe some cartoon nostalgia from my childhood... good god, I loved that woodpecker.


THE CAPE

Description: Stars David Lyons (ER), Jennifer Ferrin (Life on Mars) Ryan Wynott (Flash Forward), James Frain (The Tudors), Keith David (Death at a Funeral), Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarach Connor Chronicles, Firefly), and Dorian Missick (Six Degrees)Universal Media Studios and BermanBraun production from executive producer/creator Thomas Wheeler (Empire), executive producer/director Simon West (Con Air), the executive producing team of Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun (NBC’s Mercy), and executive producer Gene Stein (Accidentally on Purpose).



My Take: This one proving to be incredibly difficult to snap judge. On paper, it sounds horrendously god-awful (seriously, when I stumbled across an internet blurb about it, it reads like a cheesy short-story written by a middle school student). But, in its finished state, it looks like it could have some serious potential. I think it's all going to boil down to execution with this one. This is the kind of concept that needs to be handled in just the right way or it'll be laughable. It'll be a fine line to walk. From the trailer, it hard to tell if the show is taking itself too seriously, or just seriously enough. As with so many shows that sound positively ridiculous on paper (teenage girl slays vampires with her friends, high school student moonlights as a private eye, computer geek has government database downloaded into his head), this will take a skilled hand... and looking at the production team behind this one, I'm pretty skeptical about their ability to pull it off. Most of the executive producers most recently helmed terrible beyond terrible shows, so here's hoping that was more the writers' faults than their own. At least the on-air talent seems solid. It's a tough call. I'm definitely intrigued, but still cautious. I keep expecting pure horribleness (in which some aspects of this show appear to be striving for a PhD), but am usually met with better. The thought of a bad guy using his cape as his weapon still smacks of lame on more than a few levels, but the special effects are slick enough for me to suspend my mocking. The go-go gadget goblet retrieval aspect of the cape didn't really dazzle me, but the poofy disappearing act was admittedly snazzy. I'm still not sold on him learning to fight bad guys from some ragtag group of circus performers, but whatever. I guess it might be okay...? The bare bones seem workable, and the concept could turn out to be pretty stellar, but so far, the dialogue had me cringing. Good lord, there weren't even that many lines said in the trailer and I was absolutely rolling my eyes. It all sounded a little Michael Bayish in that we're-trying-a-little-too-hard-to-be-badasses kind of way. "Say hello to Dorothy, bitch!" Ugh. That's a writer who's trying too hard and succeeding too little. If a show has a solid concept and superior execution, it shouldn't have to rely on cheesy one-liners. I'm really hoping that whoever put the pilot together just happened to think those lines were hilarious and picked out the few eye-rollers of an otherwise brilliant script, but I'm not holding my breath. Bad dialogue will ruin just about any show for me and this one appears to have it in spades. When it's not trying desperately to be badass, it's striving unsuccessfully for profundity and heart. Again, I've only seen the trailer and read a few things, but so far? It's too close to call. The good and the bad seem about equally weighted at this point. Hopefully this is a case where the creative team comes up with something fairly ridiculous that turns out to be insane genius, but looking at said creative team? I'm not so hopeful...