New CBS 2013 Pilots

This is the first installment of a series of posts that are forthcoming where I look at all the pilots that have been picked up for next season by the networks that picked them up.

I’m a little surprised at the amount of CBS pilots considering how successful they’ve been for years now.  I guess part of being at the top of the mountain is always trying to improve.  Despite CBS’s success, I can’t say I’m generally a big fan of their product.  They tend to broaden things out beyond the point that I find them interesting, but that isn’t always the case.  I thought Elementary, which was new this past season, was a quality show that fit well within the CBS format.

Comedies

Bad Teacher (This just got picked up a couple of hours ago, so no trailer yet)

The Premise

The movie about an outrageous teacher, but in TV form

Will I Be Watching?

I don’t know yet.  I didn’t watch the movie, but the premise does seem applicable to a TV format.  It may depend where it falls on the schedule.

Crazy Ones

The Premise

About a father daughter ad agency team

Will I Be Watching?

Since I’ve long ago tired of Robin Williams manic side (while still enjoying his serious acting), this seems like something I should avoid.

We Are Men

The Premise

A bunch of older divorced guys take a younger man who was left at the altar under their wing

Will I Be Watching?

I can’t imagine there is any way that this is anything but repugnant.  They could make a good show, but this reeks of the lowest common denominator.

Friends With Better Lives (No trailer available)

The Premise

Thirtysomething friends try to one up each other

Will I Be Watching?

The Beek (James Van Derk Beek) is involved, but so is Kevin Connolly.  That’s a wash, so I’m out.

Mom

The Premise

About a newly sober single mom and her family

Will I Be Watching?

CBS has a knack for getting top notch talent and them horrific material.  This may be one of those examples.  I don’t think there’s enough here for me to watch.

The Miller’s

The Premise

A recent divorcee has his parents move in

Will I Be Watching?

This seems like an awful multi-camera sitcom, but I really like the cast.  I also think Greg Garcia is pretty good, so this is a maybe.  I have pretty strong doubts about this format.

Dramas

Hostages

The Premise

A doctor’s family is taken hostage and will be killed if she doesn’t kill the president

Will I Be Watching?

There are some really interesting things here, but I’m not sure if the genre appeals to me enough to watch.

Intelligence

The Premise

Josh Holloway has a chip in his head that aids him in investigation

Will I Be Watching?

I think Josh Holloway is good enough to carry this show.  I’ll tune in and see if the material rises up to his talent.

Season in Review – How I Met Your Mother Season 8

This in some ways is the most interesting show on TV.  Not because it is funny, or because the characters or good, or because the plots are riveting.  It is fascinating to see how far a show can fall and if the transgressions of the second half of its run effect how the first half is viewed.  When HIMYM started in 2005 it was a fresh take on the young people in their 20s format.  There was the whole angle about not having met the mother and the story being told to someone kids, but that was just the gimmick.  As long as the show was funny and had insight into the current times and demographic it depicted it was fine.  The first few years weren’t a hit, but they were quality.  Eventually the success came and so did the season renewals.  While there were some trouble signs in the 4th season it was really the 5th season that started a mark of decline.  Unfortunately the increased commercial success of the show led to a string of poor decisions by the writing staff and we are left with the most current season and the plan for the season to follow.  In some ways it is to the point where I can sit down and tell the story of how a once good sitcom ended up being a complete embarrassment.  It will be a long story, one that jumps around in time excessively, one that has characters who are increasingly unlikeable, and ultimately after meandering around the point will eventually land on the diagnosis of the problem in the final sentence.  Then we will all drink the poison kool-aid and continue the discussion in eternity on the Planet Zorg.  Ok, maybe that analogy got a little away from me at the end.

They’ve finally introduced the mother, but at this point it doesn’t even matter

What Worked

Very little worked here, so this may be a brief section.  Of all the problems the show has had in recent years, one of them has been that the main character, Ted, had grown away from the character that had been introduced.  He stopped being a romantic and a dreamer and participated in some very odd and boring relationships.  This was a bit of a redemption for him.  While he did make a bad romantic decision or two, that was used to underscore how far he had fallen and that he needed to get back to his personality.  There were some funny moments and it was self aware writing for the first time in years.  He had some nice scenes that dealt with his feelings towards Robin, in which he acted true to his character and was completely noble.  That of course was undercut a bit in the season finale, but I’m trying to focus on the positive ok?

There were about 2 or 3 solid episodes sprinkled in out of the 24, so that is good to report.  I would also say it was a bounced back year for Lily, who had a few years of awful material to work with.  Sandy Rivers also made an appearance this season.  He’s by far my favorite character on the show, even though he is rarely in it.

What Didn’t Work

Where to start?  It is well documented by myself and many others that the show has taken a tremendously ill advised path by not introducing the mother until the very end of the show.  We did get to finally view the actress that plays the mother in the last scene (a good actress even if unknown, by many accounts) the final season will focus entirely on the Barney/Robin wedding weekend.  The problem that exists before still exists and that is that the show is and has been stuck in the mud.  All of Ted’s relationships (at least this will be over) have been doomed from the outset and since the show revolves around him it has made it difficult to bring interesting new blood into the mix.  That has left the characters that have existed to stagnate and become worse versions of the ones that were well liked at the outset of the series.  This was completely silly, but it isn’t the shows biggest problem as I’m now convinced.

The show’s biggest problem is technically that it just isn’t that funny any more, and for a comedy that is the worst indictment.  That really isn’t the biggest problem either, especially when the legacy of the show is concerned.  The show set out to tell jokes for sure, but it really focused on having likeable and relatable characters.  Barney was always an outlier, his outrageous behavior was brashly played by Neil Patrick Harris and consistent enough that he could be the loveable heel.  He may not have been relatable, but he didn’t need to be as the court jester.  Their attempt to turn him into an adult capable of dating Robin, while still keeping him in the role of heel has been too much a “having your cake and eating it too” situation.  This blew up when Barney and Robin were together the first time and things have really gone south this time.

The ultimate example, as well as a low water mark for the series, was Barney’s proposal to Robin.  He essentially played a game of psychological torture as he enlisted Patrice to pretend they were dating, all as a ruse that eventually culminated in a ruse/proposal when Robin was at her most desperate.  This took place over numerous episodes and involved a lot of steps that revolved around bringing out the worst in Robin to manipulate her to a certain time and place.  At which point he proposed and she said yes?  So weird.  I suppose the writers thought they were being clever, but what happened was just mean.  Robin had never been a mean character and while Barney hadn’t exactly been noble to women he had slept with, but didn’t care about, he was never this awful to someone he cared about.  This put neither character in a great light and the season ran with the theme of them being contemptible.  In the finale the romantic scene between the couple was having them put an annoying couple in their place.  The other couple was in fact annoying, but I don’t know that they were any worse than Robin and Barney.  They seemed just is unlikeable.  A far cry from the first season where Robin seemed like a great catch, just one with some commitment issues.  Now that character is ruined.

Final Grade – F

I have to fail this show because this was one of the worst seasons of TV I’ve ever watched.  I probably should cut and run at this point, but I feel like I need to see it throw out some sense of stupid pride or something.  I really can’t explain it.  I’ve bailed on shows before and without regret.  I just have an urge to see this experience through.  It is kind of like running a marathon in which a calf muscle ruptures halfway through the race.  It would be smart to stop, but wouldn’t it be something to make it to the finish line?  I am also curious to see how the current quality of the show effects the legacy of it as a whole.  There was a time where it flirted with greatness.  No major writers or cast members left, but we are left with a show that can barely muster a couple of good episodes a season.  Amazing.

Going forward I will echo what every other reasonable person has said about the show’s final season.  This plan of having an entire season over the wedding weekend only compounds the disaster.  The show feels like is dragging, so drag it out longer?  Maybe if they just do the wedding weekend in flashbacks and move forward in the story there will be an opportunity for something decent, but all indications are the plan is as bad as it sounds.  I’m not a proponent of hate watching normally, but HIMYM may be that exception.

Saying Goodbye to The Office

From the finale – Hey we do stuff like this at my office, this whole show is a slice of life!

When I started hearing that there was this British show starring a Ricky Gervais, that was devastatingly funny, I decided to check it out.  In the ultimate example of how taste is a mostly subjective matter, I didn’t get too far with Mr. Gervais.  I found the show to be mean spirited and far too self serving for its star for me to be a fan.  I also didn’t laugh that much.  It was a tough sell to watch the pilot for the American version, but I couldn’t possibly imagine Steve Carell (the one I had known from The Daily Show) to play things the same as Gervais.  The pilot was a bit of a disaster where it was essentially was a shot for shot remake of the British version, except worse because Carell was clearly uncomfortable playing a smug jerk.  Fortunately I didn’t have much better to do at the time, and lacking Gervais’ involvement I didn’t find it completely repugnant.  So I continued to watch, and watch even more as it kept getting better.

The show ended this past week and even though I hadn’t watched any of the last couple of seasons I thought it worthy to check in on and bid adieu.  Even though I didn’t worship at the altar of Michael Scott as a character, I had concerns going forward about the show lacking Scott/Carell as the centerpiece.  It is one thing to be a fun supporting character who shows up every once in a while and gets laughs, but it is another thing to carry a show, even with a great ensemble cast.  I just cut bait and then started to hear the complaints about my very fears roll in, so I never was that motivated to pick it back up.  I did want to see how it ended though.  It isn’t like The Office is that plot heavy.  I doubted I would feel overwhelmed by all the new characters and changed circumstances, so I decided to watch.

The finale was fantastic.  It started with a show retrospective that I very much enjoyed.  For someone who had been out of touch with it for a couple of years it was good to see some of the funny scenes, but more importantly be reminded how this was always a sitcom that had some heady emotional moments.  Previously I had ranked the Pam/Jim relationship very high on my top ten couples list, and was reaffirmed that something special had indeed happened with the portrayal of that relationship.  Their relationship was arced very well as it covered the courtship, to the first kiss, to the proposal, to the wedding, to kids.

After the retrospective came the finale.  The finale was set a year after the events of the final season, which made watching it even easier to me, as they had to spend the episode explaining what all the characters were up to.  There was Dwight’s wedding to Angela which combined some sweet and weird moments, that were appropriate for those being wed.  A brief and satisfying cameo from Carell, who dropped his trademark, “that’s what she said” line.  Then there was the goodbyes.  Every character got to shine in their own way and it was a great reminder of all the things that the show excelled at.  I never thought it was the funniest show on TV by a long shot, but it was the rare sitcom that knew how to pull at the heart strings.  All in all it was no surprise that creative team that excelled at making emotional episodes set around milestone life events was able to pull off a great finale.

So where does The Office rank all time against its generational peers.  I thought I would make a list.  The only shows that are eligible are shows that aired episodes during the bulk of the same time as The Office.  So no Seinfeld for the list because it came before and no New Girl because it started at the end of The Office’s run.

10.  It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
9.  How I Met Your Mother
8.  The Big Bang Theory
7.  Raising Hope
6.  Cougar Town
5.  The Office
4.  30 Rock
3.  Scrubs
2.  Arrested Development
1.  Parks and Recreation

Overall I think that’s good company and a good legacy to leave.  It was never my favorite show, but it was always a very good one.  Someday I’ll rewatch all the episodes and that will be a satisfying experience.

Top Ten Most Anticipated Shows For the 2013/2014 Season

Right now it is a crazy time to be “covering” TV.  Shows are ending their seasons, new shows are getting picked up for next season, and bubble shows are being renewed/canceled.  Naturally I’ll be out of town 2 of the next 3 weeks and doing a lot less watching/writing than normal.  I’ll post reviews and analysis when I can, but it is going to be more sporadic than I prefer.  Some season reviews probably won’t be done until a month or so after their show’s finales have aired.  Just the way it goes when the day job exists.  Despite all that, there’s going to be a lot of fun content wrapping up this season and looking forward to the next.  As most of the series orders have come in for the pilots that have been picked up, I’m going to rank my most anticipated new shows.  At this point I know very little about these shows other than the pitch, creative team, and primary cast.  Many of these predictions could look awful or brilliant come the fall.

10.  The Miller’s (CBS)

I’m usually a little leery of all things CBS because they are going for a particular brand of mass appeal that seems to usually miss my tastes.  This sounds like a fairly generic sitcom premise about a divorced man living with his parents, but it stars Will Arnett and Margo Martindale.  They are pretty talented and so is Greg Garcia (Raising Hope).  Garcia has become one of the more consistently funny sitcom creators out there.

9.  Intelligence (CBS)

I’m not sure what the heck US Cyber Command is, but this stars Josh Holloway.  He was a breakaway TV star in Lost and this is his most high profile project since.  I have little doubt he has the ability to carry a show, but will he be given good material?  I tend to like sci fi shows, and this seems to smack a little of that, so I’m more willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

8.  Almost Human (FOX)

Its a buddy cop drama set in the future with a human and a robot.  This is a JJ Abrams production with some of his talented lieutenants running things day to day.  What has me especially excited about this is the casting of Karl Urban.  He’s proven he can be a monosyllabic tough guy, but also be really funny.  His role in Star Trek gave me a new appreciation of versatility.  That’s something he’ll need to star in his own show.

7.  Reign (CW)

This is a TV series telling the story of Mary Queen of Scots.  It is on a network that primarily appeals to teenage girls.  I’m just fascinated to see how this will go.  One could assume it must be an amazing pilot for a historical drama to be picked up on a network whose viewers looking for distraction from their history classes in high school.

6.  Believe (NBC)

Yet another product of the JJ Abrams production factory.  Considering JJ is busy being in charge of both the Star Trek and Star Wars film franchises it isn’t like he’ll be working directly on the project.  The show’s he’s put on TV before have been hit and miss, but I am swayed by Alfonso Cuaron’s involvement.  He’s one of the best and most underrated film directors working today, so I would imagine at least pilot of this show will be good.  I’m a little unclear on the concept.  A young girl with some type of gift, mystical perhaps is on the run from evil.  I see some potential in that premise.

5.  About A Boy (NBC)

I enjoyed the movie more than I expected despite loathing Hugh Grant.  I can definitely see it being spread to TV form.  I’m mainly in because I like the guy cast in the Grant role, David Walton.  He was excellent in the short lived Bent and was good in a guest role on New Girl.  I think he has the comic chops and charisma to make this work.  Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights) is producing, which helps.

4.  Sleep Hollow (FOX)

The idea of taking Ichabod Crane and putting him in modern times sure seems like a dumb idea.  Maybe it is, but the guys from Fringe are writing this.  That’s really the bulk of my interest.  I thought Fringe was so good, that I’m very interested to see what they can come up with next.

3.  Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX)

Mike Shur created this and he’s the genius behind Parks and Recreation.  That would be enough to get me excited about any sitcom pilot.  This one happens to star Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher.  That is incredibly promising.

2.  The Originals (CW)

This is a little bit of a cheat because as a Vampire Diaries spinoff it aired a backdoor pilot a couple of weeks ago.  I wouldn’t say that episode belongs in the pantheon, but it set up some interesting things.  The most important part of all of this is I know I already enjoy the characters of Klaus and Elijah, as well as the fast pace storytelling style that is sure to carry over from Vampire Diaries.

1.  Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC)

I loved Marvel comics growing up.  I love Joss Whedon and have done so since discovering him.  He’s probably going to be less involved in the day to day of the series than I would prefer, but I am confident that he’ll be able to launch this right.  This isn’t like when he created Dollhouse and didn’t have the juice to override notes from execs.  Since The Avengers was a runaway hit, Joss gets to call the shots.  He almost always calls the best shots.  This show is going to be fun.

I didn’t put Beverly Hills Cop on the list because somehow CBS passed on it.  That has to work as a TV series right?  I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else picks it up instead.  If not it will make my list of pilots that were passed on that I would have liked to see.

Season in Review – Community Season 4

As we near next week’s upfronts (in which networks lay out the next season’s schedules) shows like Community are awaiting to hear their renewal fate.  The question, surprisingly, is not if Community will be back, but should it back?  After three years of inventive and brilliant comedy that attempted to redefine the genre the creator and voice of show, Dan Harmon, was fired.  Since I’ve written about this numerous times, I won’t spend to much delving into why, but bottom line, he was not a guy that his bosses liked working with.  The guys that took over for Harmon were fans of the show and didn’t want to change it, but nobody knew if they could credibly recapture Harmon’s style.  I think it is safe to say that it didn’t go well at first.  I got to points that I considered quitting a show, that had been one of my favorites the last few years.  It just seemed like a hollow version of itself and it was making me sad to watch it.  That’s not exactly what sitcoms shoot for.  It did seem like just as things looked incredibly bleak, that the new writing staff finally started to turn things around.  I’m hoping Community does come back, but if it doesn’t I won’t be crushed.  A few years ago it would have been devastating news if Community ended, but at least I’m not actively rooting against it.

These puppets saved the season from disaster

What Worked

When things did eventually turn around it seemed to be because the writers had begun to find their voice, while keeping the general tone that Harmon had created close enough to what it was.  Intro to Felt Surrogacy was the first episode of the season that I went from active dislike to laughing.  Playing the cast as puppets was a very Harmonesque type of idea, but it was original.  Other episodes had taken Harmon concepts and just executed them poorly.  This felt like a new direction and as I bought into the concept I found I was laughing at the jokes, not grimacing.  After that, some of the trust I had lost was regained, and the subsequent episodes seemed to hold on to the positive momentum.  Some critics panned the finale, but even though it was flawed, I was still laughing from time to time.  It never will be what it was, but it was much better at the end.  Better than Two and Half Men, so that’s good enough for me.

What Didn’t Work

I’ve covered some of this territory already, but the writing was really bad for a while there.  Going into the season my thought was even if Community isn’t going to be brilliant, I really like the cast, and they’ll be fun to spend some time with.  They just couldn’t write for any of them.  Pierce was turned into an even more one dimensional character, Abed was completely different, and there was a lot of time discussing the Troy/Britta relationship which all of a sudden lost all chemistry.  Then there was the whole Changnesia bit.  I know Chang has been a tough character to integrate into storylines, Harmon regularly struggled with that, but man was that character arc bad.  He was pretending to have amnesia to be evil, serving some unseen force, but what ever became of all that?  It just didn’t go anywhere and they spent and entire episode on it.  Ugh.  There many other things that fell flat, but the show will either be cancelled or it will be returning to a creative team that started to figure out what they were doing.

Final Grade – C+

Overall this was a bad season and I don’t grade on a curve.  The + indicates some hope on my part that we can get another solid season out of the show before it disappears into the ether.