The First Of Many - The Big Five, Part 1

The First Of Many is going to be an ongoing series of posts - the quick and dirty kind - where I offer up my (usually somewhat measured) opinions of the new shows premiering  this season. There was a lot in the first set of premieres for the major US networks in the early part of September. Luckily it dies down a bit until October. I'm always excited by pilot season for many reasons. Without further ado:

• Son of Zorn – This was an early premiere for the show, which might work against it if the half-cartoon/half-live action aspect doesn’t, especially since it will be about two weeks before it debuts in its regular timeslot. The Lord/Miller backing might help it if it develops the same way The Last Man on Earth did and step into more of a character show. Personally, seeing Cheryl Hines on TV again is great and I feel like she fits into her role the strongest of the cast.

• The Good Place – Not by any stretch imaginative as I can also imagine everyone having an interesting notion of the afterlife, but regardless it is populated in a very vivid and colourful way. The notions of perfection that “the good place” offers/embodies coming to clash with Eleanor’s arrival and mistaken identity provides for interesting comedy but also of pathos and nuance. I am interested to see where the series continues, as it becomes clear in the opening episodes that not everything is as happy-go-lucky as the setting appears to be.

• Kevin Can Wait – It’s a Kevin James vehicle and although I’ve never been a fan of his output, there’s no real denying he has an audience that is willing to see him play approximately the same role as he did before. There is a good energy to the premiere that will probably continue through.

• Bull – There was a larger rant but I find it incredibly baffling this show was made at all or even allowed to air. A show about a trial consultant doesn’t seem much like a show with a protagonist you could get behind, but the show doesn’t do much to engender any sympathy for the protagonists either. The show, then again, doesn’t do much to put their central law case-of-the-week in any real logical terms or providing any real stakes to anchor either the audience or the characters to.

• This is Us – This is one of those pilots that makes me stand up and want to applaud. It is one of those rare pilots I would put into the same as something like Red Band Society’s that pulled on a lot of heartstrings but were completely earned by the end of its runtime. Coming out of it though, I’m hoping the show evokes a feeling of something like Parenthood as it moves forward.

• Lethal Weapon – Having never watched the movies, I have no reference point for this adaptation to the small screen. But knowing the genre – the buddy cop dramedy – it is easy to place it and know what beats it will try to hit. The genre did not do as well last season (entries like Rush Hour which I liked to some degree) so here’s hoping there’s more success this time around. I very much enjoyed all that the pilot had to offer, but I’m also wary about how regular production will maybe affect the ambitions of the show.

• Speechless – This is a single-camera comedy that I now recall (when upfronts were shown) that the trailer had a lot of heart, and that opinion still stands. It’s hard to say even after watching the premiere exactly how the show will proceed. I assume it will just do the same thing a typical comedy of it’s ilk will do, and try to do the best to squeeze out interesting performances for it’s cast.

• Designated Survivor – An interesting premise surrounded by a strong cast is the first thing that comes to mind when this show is mentioned. There was a very strong energy in the premiere, and I’m hoping it can continue riding that energy moving away from the pilot. The political thriller angle is always interesting even when it is sandwiched inbetween some good drama (which for starters allows Sutherland more range than his previous role as Jack Bauer) and intrigue. The only thing that I fear is any subplots following the children in the show, as I cannot seem to see where they want to proceed with that.

• Notorious – There is a lot of frantic energy contained in the pilot as it tries to chew through all the plot it has to offer. Frankly, I was surprised where I was in the hour when I stopped myself to wonder how much I just took in. The pilot mostly builds on a lot of intrigue and character dynamics that just need build on more nuance and specificity further down the line, beyond the tease of a central character drama bomb at the end. Not sure if the show needed to establish a proper C-plot in the pilot, however, as it felt almost completely unneeded.

• Pitch – Even as someone who doesn’t follow baseball, I thought this was a strong outing for a show that wants to talk about bigger things than simply baseball. I have no real idea how the show wants to proceed in telling its stories but I am open to it. I am a bit wary about the characters though, as they seemed to not offer much beyond the main character having any nuance, instead leaving the rest of the cast to mostly act as well-worn and well-travelled stereotypes with not much else to offer.

• MacGyver – Although it started off really flashy, I’m not entirely sure what the show has to really offer. I had never watched any of the old MacGyver, so any opinions are completely fresh on the matter. I did not find the premise too interesting having seen similar takes on the matter (Burn Notice comes to mind) and any teases towards its future don’t really offer much to really be interesting. This was a pseudo-origin story and the news about the pilot’s storied problems and having to be reshot will have me give it another chance.

• The Exorcist – I am not a horror fan so I will leave it to someone else to laugh at my weak will when it comes to these things. But it did set up an interesting, foreboding mood to the whole series. The preview for the season provides an interesting setup since the show has to move beyond the mostly single setting that the movie was isolated to. Definitely interested to see how the show progresses.

I Can See Clearly Now – In anticipation of Blindspot Season 2

I can’t readily admit that much of the first season of NBC’s Blindspot ever really wowed me too often, but what I did discover was a show that happened to align with much of my tastes and formats that I’ve been scouring TV for, especially in the network space. I guess I should also be glad it was doing well in the ratings enough for early episode orders and a renewal last year.

In the same vein, I could never say Blindspot was anywhere close to my favourite shows in all of the 2015-16 TV season, but it has proven to be an interesting case study in the kind of television I enjoy, and hope to one day enjoy creating – a strong action-adventure series anchored by a central underlying mystery that’s driven by interesting characters (or at least dynamics), and has a somewhat interesting set of themes, theses or questions it wants to address; all in the meanwhile it takes advantage of the episodic format to tell its stories that tie back to its central mystery. Blindspot manages to hit most of those notes, as well as being generally entertaining (on the action-thriller level). It also has a few misses – in my opinion – but that gives it some room to improve, hopefully, as it heads into season two.