Over There

[doobrah]

kytdunne said:

I'm giving up on this one. Still looks interesting, but I haven't been drawn into it enough to make the effort to watch it each week. And what little bits I'm catching now, aren't pulling me in to find out more.

I'm with you. The last two eps have not done it for me in the least.

[shmeep]

I thought last night's episode had a decent story and I really liked Mark Paul Gossler in it, but I can understand why it's losing viewers. I plan to keep watching because I really want to know where they're going with it, but it's not a show I look forward to each week. Pity, because I had been so excited about it. Next week looks pretty good, though. I was intrigued by the preview. And we get to see Mark Paul Gossler again. Not bad. Is it just me or will he always be Zach? I didn't even watch Saved by the Bell, except to mock the episodes my friend was in, but I still think of him as Zach. But he turned out quite well, didn't he?

[shmeep]

Still watching. This week was okay. I like the characters and am still curious about what is going to happen to them so I'll keep watching for a while longer.

Bo is really grating on me. They are only showing enough of his story to make it really annoying without showing it in enough depth to make his reactions understandable. And why is he still so wobbly on his prosthesis? He has a knee so I don't get all the balance issues. Granted, I've never depended on a prosthesis of any kind so I can't claim to know what I'm talking about, but he's already done the physical therapy, right? He still walks like it's the first time out on that leg and that doesn't seem realistic to me. And that's just about the worst fake limp I've ever seen. Why do he and his wife have those accents if they live in California? But it was really nice getting to see the California coastline and Zuma Beach again. It's been a while. One more "why" and I'm done. Why is he so upset about parking in handicapped? That's when I'd go "score!" and rake up the benefits of the bad hand dealt.

See...with Dunbar, we were able to see the frustration and all the characterization unfolding as he came to accept his lot in life. And Ron Eldard can act. The little Bo glimpses seem to be trying to show us something similar, but they aren't nearly as well done and Bo is no Ron Eldard so much of it falls flat for that reason as well. Still liking the wife, though.

[maggiethecat]

admin said:

See...with Dunbar, we were able to see the frustration and all the characterization unfolding as he came to accept his lot in life. And Ron Eldard can act. The little Bo glimpses seem to be trying to show us something similar, but they aren't nearly as well done and Bo is no Ron Eldard so much of it falls flat for that reason as well. Still liking the wife, though.

Ah, Shmeep, you hit the proverbial nail on the head.

To me, the low budget aspects of this show have more to do with the young, untried, and -- let's face it -- inexpensive cast than the cheesy, narrowly focused location shoots. (The producers seem to presume that Iraq looks a lot like the desert outside Chatsworth, California, which is where I read they were shooting this thing. So much for the Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and the Euphrates we all learned about in school!). Comparisons are odious, as the saying goes, but in no way does the cast of Over There come close to the cast of Blind Justice. (You know you're in trouble when the best one is the guy you used to hate on ER!) It's not just Ron Eldard. All the major players -- Marisol Nichols, Reno Wilson, Rena Sofer, Frank Grillo -- were seasoned pros with movie and TV credits galore (saw Fisk just the other night in a Law & Order rerun, for example).

Then again, the writing in Blind Justice was sharp and meticulous and creative, and gave the actors a solid basis for their characterizations. And I just don't see that happening with Over There.

I find it interesting that when Blind Justice folded, it broke up a team that had been with Steven Bochco Productions for something like a decade. Matt Olmstead went to Fox for Prison Break and Nicholas Wooten is the new Executive Producer of Law & Order. Both had been Bochco proteges (sp?), and had worked on NYPD Blue. And the new writers, those responsible for Over There, just don't seem to have the same crisp, acerbic edginess, the kind of writing that makes you sit up in your seat and pay attention.

It feels like the end of an era . . . and it makes me sad.

[egw]

I'm not watching "Over There." I watched two episodes, and decided it wasn't for me.
I just don't like watching the meanness of war.
EGW

[shmeep]

I'm still hanging in there with this show and, while it's not my favorite thing to watch, I do like many of the characters and I'm willing to keep at it to find out what becomes of them.

I wish I liked Bo better because I know I'm supposed to, but I'm not buying his one-legged thing. He's still limping like an above-the-knee amputee and I don't understand all the falling. His wife is amazing, though.

I'm glad Dim found out about his wife's little habits, but was Mrs. B. really the place for him to turn? Uh...he may not be very good at picking women, that one. I like his character, though.

[egw]

admin said:

Still watching. This week was okay. I like the characters and am still curious about what is going to happen to them so I'll keep watching for a while longer.

Bo is really grating on me. They are only showing enough of his story to make it really annoying without showing it in enough depth to make his reactions understandable. And why is he still so wobbly on his prosthesis? He has a knee so I don't get all the balance issues. Granted, I've never depended on a prosthesis of any kind so I can't claim to know what I'm talking about, but he's already done the physical therapy, right? He still walks like it's the first time out on that leg and that doesn't seem realistic to me. And that's just about the worst fake limp I've ever seen. Why do he and his wife have those accents if they live in California? But it was really nice getting to see the California coastline and Zuma Beach again. It's been a while. One more "why" and I'm done. Why is he so upset about parking in handicapped? That's when I'd go "score!" and rake up the benefits of the bad hand dealt.

See...with Dunbar, we were able to see the frustration and all the characterization unfolding as he came to accept his lot in life. And Ron Eldard can act. The little Bo glimpses seem to be trying to show us something similar, but they aren't nearly as well done and Bo is no Ron Eldard so much of it falls flat for that reason as well. Still liking the wife, though.

>>>>>>>>>>
I can tell you a little about Josh Henderson who plays Bo Rider.
He is a Tulsa, Oklahoma grad (though he was born in Dallas). He is also a singer, who was in Pop Stars 2, and will be releasing an album and single soon.
He hasn't been in Hollywood very long.
_____________________________
Henderson said his cousin, Clint Mabry, lost his leg in a car accident several years ago. Mabry, one of Henderson's three roommates, coaches the actor on his scenes as an amputee and acts as his body double from the waist down in the series.
EGW

[doobrah]

Reuters News Service reports "Over There" has been canceled:

"Cable television's FX channel has decided not to renew the critically praised Iraq war drama "Over There" for a second season due to weak ratings during the show's initial 13-episode run, the network said on Tuesday.

The show got off to a promising start on July 27 with 4.1 million viewers tuning in, a fairly healthy launch by cable TV standards, but the audience steadily declined from there.

Through the 13th and final episode on October 26, the program averaged a meager 2.1 million viewers overall. Only 1.35 million watched the series finale.

"It became evident to us that the American public didn't want to see a dramatization of a war that was already going on," Yemaya Royce, a spokeswoman for Bochco's production company, told Reuters.

"It made people uncomfortable to watch. I think that was the case for a lot of people," FX spokesman John Solberg added. "Clearly it was subject matter that was harsh."

Said FX president and general manager John Landgraf: "The series was arguably the most critically acclaimed new television show of the year, a fact which made the decision not to renew it all the more difficult."

Launching any new TV show is always a gamble. But for Bochco, the stakes were especially high for "Over There," his first series on basic cable following a string of misfires on network television, including the ABC crime and legal dramas "Blind Justice," "Philly" and "Total Security."

[shmeep]

I'm actually a little sad about this. I watched the entire series and they ended up doing quite a few intriguing storylines. Like Blind Justice, it ended on a positive note, but with plenty of room left for future seasons, in case of renewal.

Even so, I did have to force myself to get into the mood to watch it every week because the subject matter was heavy. And I really couldn't bring myself to care about Bo. But much of the cast was excellent and I grew attached to them.

I think the pilot itself was part of the problem. It immediately launched into mind-numbing action and stayed that way for a long time before we even had a chance to figure out who everyone was or to care about them. If they had developed the characters better right off, more of the original audience might have been retained. Oh well.

[maggiethecat]

admin said:

I'm actually a little sad about this. I watched the entire series and they ended up doing quite a few intriguing storylines. Like Blind Justice, it ended on a positive note, but with plenty of room left for future seasons, in case of renewal.

Even so, I did have to force myself to get into the mood to watch it every week because the subject matter was heavy. And I really couldn't bring myself to care about Bo. But much of the cast was excellent and I grew attached to them.

I think the pilot itself was part of the problem. It immediately launched into mind-numbing action and stayed that way for a long time before we even had a chance to figure out who everyone was or to care about them. If they had developed the characters better right off, more of the original audience might have been retained. Oh well.

And I think the problem was the writing, which was often pedestrian, and the weak cast, especially the kid playing Bo, who really is a bad actor and on whom the show spent entirely too much time. I find it interesting that the spokeswoman for Bochco's company blamed the cancellation on the American public not wanting to watch a drama about a war that was going on. Fair enough -- but would the public have embraced a show on the same topic with great writing and a terrific cast? Probably not. Sad to say but Over There . . . well . . . it just wasn't very good.

But what's really sad about this is that this makes two shows in a row for Bochco that were different, a little off the beaten track. And neither worked, and now he's back heading upCommander in Chief, which is about as trite and undaring a piece of network tripe as you can imagine. Sigh.

[bump]

[quote author=maggiethecat board=tvtalk thread=1122558688 post=1130943674
And I think the problem was the writing, which was often pedestrian, and the weak cast, especially the kid playing Bo, who really is a bad actor and on whom the show spent entirely too much time. [/quote]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. I tried watching the first two or three episodes of the show and (1) would end up turning it off about halfway and (2) was shocked at the poor acting. I really expected more, given the hype over the show.

I know some people really liked it, so I feel bad for them, but the show did nothing for me.