Miss Guided - out of place on the network. Love Judy Greer, generally, and Brooke Burns. But the show is just another in ABC's long line of unfunny single-camera sitcoms. The odd documentary conceit ups the comedy ante, and Todd Holland's a great TV director... but this belongs on ABC Family, not the big leagues.
Nice Girls Don't Get The Corner Office - if ever there was an example of why the laugh track is a bad thing, this show is it. A typical workplace/office sitcom with not enough of the incomparable Jane Curtin in a role she's proved herself great at. The lead actress (Charlie form Hereos and Ugly Betty) is likeable, but ultimately not funny.
ABC dramas:
Dirty Sexy Money - I saw an old cut of this and I've heard the new/final one is 10x better, so I'll reserve judgment until I've been able to screen that. Wasn't a big fan of the first cut I saw.
Football Wives - as I posted elsewhere, I loved the pilot, even though none of the characters are really relateable. TV needs a new hot, juicy, mo'-money-mo'-problems soap.
Marlowe - I have absolutely nothing wrong to say about this fantastic piece other than I felt the voice-over narration too matter-of-fact. It feels like a real winner. Not quite a House-level character-based procedural, but I think the closest we'll get this season. Jason O'Mara has a strong star turn.
Perfect Gentlemen (Untitled Jon Feldman / CEO project) - how odd on ABC, with its ensemble casts bursting with diversity, that the four leads are white men. Michael Vartan and Dylan McDermott stand out, but I could do without Christopher Titus and Josh Malina. An attempt at a new Desperate Housewives, but with working men. I can see its appeal and it working on the network... but so much of DH's success can be attributed to its seemingly lost self of satire, and this isn't quite there.
Pushing Daisies - Love Lee Pace. Love the writer, Bryan Fuller. Love Kristen Chenoweth. Love Chi McBride. But I didn't love the show. It's colorful and fanciful, but it's so far out there that I don't see anyone responding to it. It's not grounded in the slightest. It's like a Roald Dahl storybook fantasy in hourlong form. I wish Tim Burton had directed it, because it's that sensibility. But I just don't know who would come back for seconds.
CBS dramas:
Demons - an exercise in futility. At least watching the 38-ish minute pilot took less time than reading the 60-page script (which took me 2 hours...). It wants to be both The X-Files and Supernatural, but utterly fails at capturing the essence of either.
Untitled Barry Schindel Project - at 35 minutes long, there's another 10 minutes that could be added to flesh the characters out. As is, it's an inextrordinary ensemble drama about public defenders with the only real highlight being Janeane Garofalo.
NBC comedies:
Lipshitz Saves the World - I was so bothered by the poor editing that I found it hard to laugh. It's amusing parody of comic book movies and stuff like Heroes... and it has the wacky, random sense of humor you're only used to seeing in animation like Family Guy. Perhaps too random. And it seems like it would be serialized. Will Leslie Nielsen be in the entire series, or was he just in the pilot (he was the best part).
... more to come, I'm sure...
Posts: 3554 | Location: Los Angeles | Registered: 21 September 2006
Untitled Barry Schindel Project - at 35 minutes long, there's another 10 minutes that could be added to flesh the characters out. As is, it's an inextrordinary ensemble drama about public defenders with the only real highlight being Janeane Garofalo.
WOW. If Janeane Garofalo is the ONLY HIGHLIGHT of the show, it must be REALLY BAD!
Untitled Barry Schindel Project - at 35 minutes long, there's another 10 minutes that could be added to flesh the characters out. As is, it's an inextrordinary ensemble drama about public defenders with the only real highlight being Janeane Garofalo.
WOW. If Janeane Garofalo is the ONLY HIGHLIGHT of the show, it must be REALLY BAD!
Hi Travis - Noticed your comment on Jason O'Mara in MARLOWE. Does he shade this character more in the direction of the hard-guy Stiles he played in the THE AGENCY, or more in the smooth gentlemanly direction he showed in a brief MIT arc? Or neither? I thought he was tentative in INJUSTICE, kind of caught between the two above personas.
Thanks, Bruce
Posts: 1589 | Location: Western Pennsylvania | Registered: 13 December 2006
Great reviews Travis..... Curious about Football Wives... Seems like any other year the show is a shoe-in for ABC but this year they are trying to get more "butch" with some shows and I heard Football Wives is VERY female friendly and that a lot of ABC guys didn't care for it... Wonder if that's what's got it looking like a non pickup or midseason????
