New mid-season shows - 2007

[maggiethecat]

I thought I'd start a new general thread for this, since I have a feeling none of the new shows will deserve their own thread . . .

Tried The Riches on FX the other night. Very engaging, very grimy, very violent, and so far -- the charms of Eddie Izzard aside -- none of the characters seem to have any redeeming values whatsoever. It's the story of a Traveler (i.e. American Gypsy) family who find themselves, through a variety of strange events, living in a posh Southern gated community and trying to "pass" as normal. Minnie Driver plays the heroin-addicted wife and she is very good indeed, but, even though the premiere was very well done, if I never see any of these people again I won't lose any sleep.

Raines premiered last night on NBC. I kind of like Jeff Goldblum (does anyone else out there remember his very smart and short-lived series Tenspeed and Brownshoe, with Ben Vereen?). Not my idea of a sexy leading man, but interesting to watch. The set-up here is that he's an LAPD homicide tec who . . . I see dead people. That's the hook. He sees the vics and talks to them, getting all sorts of unbelievably useful advice about solving their murders. Well, it is stylish, and has a high budget look. But lets start with the fact that homicide detectives, like nuns, always travel in pairs, so this guy in the car alone talking to ghosts is pretty silly. But it grows on you, this show, probably because every once in while there is a genuinely sharp or funny line, which Goldblum knows how to make the most of. So I was on his side by the end of the hour . . . and then he had a scene where he started crying. As Fanny Brice said, "If you cry, they won't." My jury is still out on this one, although I very much doubt I'll be choosing it over any new Shark episodes.

October Road debuted on ABC opposite Raines, and I was watching them both, flipping back and forth. I'd call this one a badly-written cross between that writer-in-a-small-town thing with Anne Heche (the name of which escapes me at the moment) and Gilmore Girls, in their attempt to create a small town and populate it with quirky characters. Great to see Tom Berenger and the girl from That 70s Show . . . but the male characters all seem to have come from the same catalog and the dialog is bad, to the extent that I was saying aloud to the screen, "People don't talk that way!" It had a low budget look, even though the wonderfully talented Gary Fleder directed The Pilot.

[Duchess of Lashes]

I read ona blog the other day that NBC had originally ordered 13 episodes of Raines as a mid-season replacement but had subsequently shortened the order to 8 episodes...that tells me they don't give it much of a shot of making it, even though it is airing in the stronghold ER timeslot on Thursday nights.

[inuvik]

Well, in Canada here the mid-season show I have mentioned before, Little Mosque on the Prairie, turned into a huge hit! Its season is over, only 8 episodes made, but they had over 1 milllion viewers (that's a bona fide hit here, unheard of numbers).

The only other show that draws that is Corner Gas, which has been on for 5 seasons I believe. They are on rival networks and there was a story in Friday's paper about how 2 writers have left CG for LM. We're going to have a big battle here next season!

I love both, but like in the other thread about being irked by inaccuracies, LM is getting all kinds of religions wrong. The mosque is in an Anglican church hall. It's a comedy so I guess it's a little forgivable, as comedy is often based on stereotypes and exaggerations. But they are portraying both Islam and Anglicanism in ways that can really bug you, if you are familiar with either of them. There are also side jokes about other religions, like the United Church of Canada.

But hey, probably more of an annoyance if it was a drama. I just take it with a grain of salt. In a way, any "publicity" is good--it puts religion back in people's minds at least.

[shmeep]

Thanks for the thread, Mags. Good idea.

I didn't get around to seeing The Riches and I knew October Road had painfully bad writing (according to reviews). I watch enough bad TV (Windfall last year, What About Brian...) so I decided to pass. I'll wait for Men in Trees to come back. I didn't watch that from the start, but I got into it late and have really been enjoying it.

I finally caught Raines over the weekend. I'm not quite sure how to feel about it. Mostly I just didn't care all that much. I spent most of the episode not really feeling connected with it and not really interested in where the story was going and then all of a sudden, right near the end, I suddenly kind of liked it but I don't really know why. I liked it enough to be willing to watch as long as it's in the ER time slot, but I don't know if I'll follow it to Fridays when it goes there.

I just remembered why I started to like it toward the end. If you ignore some of the silliness and just think of his visions as things his subconscious is trying to tell him, it's pretty interesting. It's kind of like how Ross Tanner was hallucinating in Second Sight. Sometimes what he saw made no sense at all, but it was often something that gave him a clue about the case and something that was in his subconscious all along but that would never have come to the surface had his eyes been functioning. I always found that interesting. I guess it hit me during Raines that that was what was going on there and it made me feel more interest than I had been. It's a tricky concept and one that needs to be done brilliantly in order to work at all. So far, they throw me out of the deep place one needs to go to appreciate such a gimmick every time the hallucination reminds Raines that they only know what he knows because they are really only in his mind. That seemed to be in nearly every hallucinogenic conversation and since I got the point the first time, it bugged me. And I knew his partner was dead from the beginning, but it was a nice twist.

I heard Raines was inspired by the kinds of hallucinations Tommy sees in Rescue Me. So far, I haven't seen anything so clever, but I get the point. I hope the writing improves and that the hallucinations become more thought provoking because it's a great premise if done right.

[inuvik]

I watched Andy Barker P.I. yesterday. It was OK. It was doing a kind of spoof of Chinatown. They certainly jam-packed a lot of content during the half hour. I doubt it will last but it was fun.

Oh and I also watched The Winner. A misnamed show about a real loser. Totally boring.

[Deleted]

longlashes said:

I read ona blog the other day that NBC had originally ordered 13 episodes of Raines as a mid-season replacement but had subsequently shortened the order to 8 episodes...that tells me they don't give it much of a shot of making it, even though it is airing in the stronghold ER timeslot on Thursday nights.

13 episodes? Are you sure??? ;D LOL - sounds familiar.....

[maggiethecat]

According to the newspaper, this week Raines is ordered by the department to see a shrink . . . there is nothing new under the sun, is there?

I caught the end of a promo last night and TNT has some new shows coming up, one with Holly Hunter as what looks like a woman cop, overdoing the Southern accent like mad and with very odd beige hair.

Nothing yet that would make me go to the trouble of programming the VCR.

[Deleted]

maggiethecat said:

According to the newspaper, this week Raines is ordered by the department to see a shrink . . . there is nothing new under the sun, is there?

I caught the end of a promo last night and TNT has some new shows coming up, one with Holly Hunter as what looks like a woman cop, overdoing the Southern accent like mad and with very odd beige hair.

Nothing yet that would make me go to the trouble of programming the VCR.

Vera, dahling, get a DVR - your life will never be the same!!!!!!!! I LOVE MY DVR!

[shmeep]

inuvik said:

I watched Andy Barker P.I. yesterday. It was OK. It was doing a kind of spoof of Chinatown. They certainly jam-packed a lot of content during the half hour. I doubt it will last but it was fun.

Oh and I also watched The Winner. A misnamed show about a real loser. Totally boring.

I think Andy Barker has a lot of potential. I like the way NBC is handling their comedy line-up these days, making quirky one-camera shows rather than shows filled with canned laughter. 30 Rock continues to amuse me every week and Andy Barker fits in with the general feel. I'm thrilled to see Buster from Arrested Development back on TV again. I love that guy. He's much less creepy in his new role, but still hilarious.

I wanted to like The Winner. I'm a huge fan of Rob Corrdrey from when he was on The Daily Show, but I won't be watching The Winner again. The canned laughter was too extreme and stood out particularly when nothing funny was happening. It had a moment now and then that almost redeemed it, but I'm with you, Inuvik. Not worth the time. The show was done better back when Chris Elliot did it and it was called Get a Life. Remember that one? It wasn't on the air long, but I found it hilarious at the time (although I was barely out of high school and may have been more easily amused back then). Chris Elliot played a 30-year-old paper boy still living at home with his parents. The main thing I remember about it was when he did a play called "Zoo Animals on Wheels" and he skated around singing about being a lonely wildebeest. That was funny! I doubt if The Winner will be so creative.