Glen here...
...with a set of Fall Season pilot reviews from DEAD POET.
I'm not sure how long Dead Poet has actually been...well...dead, but his lifelessness may well account for the inexplicable stench I've noted around the house for the past few days. Said stench is either Dead Poet's putrid corpse, or the pilot episode tape of Time of Your Life - which I'll review in the very near future.
Anyway, here's what Dead Poet had to say about some of this Fall's programming onslaught. Enjoy...
Dead Poet wrote:
Harsh Realm is the new show from X-Files creator Chris Carter, and is replacing Millennium in the Friday night time slot that launched Mulder and Scully.
This pilot is nowhere near as engaging or impressive as the pilots for either of Carter's previous shows. Although the production values are beyond reproach, the show itself left me pretty cold. The premise is WAY old sci-fi (a man is trapped in a VR world), and the writing is often silly.
For example, the main character is devastated when the Bad Guy in the VR world kills his virtual wife... except it's not his real wife! It's just a hologram! Why does he care?! Little bits like that keep popping up.
It's not a BAD show, and hopefully it'll progress well and find itself in the first thirteen episodes, but the pilot wasn't very impressive.
Action is a new sitcom starring Jay Mohr as a sonofabitch Hollywood producer allegedly based on Joel Silver.
The pilot is funny as hell, although pretty risque. Imagine Robert Altman's The Player without the nice people!
There is ample (bleeped) profanity, a prostitute principal (Ileana Douglas), and a good amount of potty humor. Not for everyone, I'm sure, and I wonder how many people outside Hollywood will care about this fairly honest (if exaggerated) view behind the Great and Mighty Establishment that is the Hollywood studio.
Having said that, I laughed like crazy...
Malcolm in the Middle is a quirky Wonder-Years-without-the-cheese half hour that premieres midseason.
This pilot is okay... not great... but the premise of the show has potential. It's about a pre-teen kid who happens to be brilliant, but who just wants to be a normal kid in a household full of VERY strange people.
My favorite character is Malcolm's little brother, who provides one laugh after another. And there's a scene where a kid in a wheelchair gets involved in a schoolyard fight that will make you laugh hard.
I just wish they'd avoided some of the sillier stuff... there's a handful of moments that fall on their face and I think detract from the show's strengths.
The other problem is that the couple of dramatic moments just don't work. If the show sticks with the quirky, offbeat humor brought to the table by Malcolm and his weird menagerie of acquaintances, the show could be great.
Freaks and Geeks is the show that's already great.
Usually when the critics line up to laud a show, that's when I run for the hills. But this time I have to agree with Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide and Rolling Stone, who call this one the most promising show of the Fall season.
Freaks and Geeks is a high school show for people who went to high school and remember it as it was: sometimes awesome, sometimes horrible... but most of all REAL.
This isn't Dawson's Creek or Party of Five or Beverly Hills 90210 or any of that pablum. It's about real kids with real high school concerns... simple things like wanting to ask a girl to a dance or getting picked-on by bullies. And the tone is the thing that really makes the show so great... although it's very real (and therefore sometimes kind of upsetting), the pilot has A LOT of humor.
Whereas My So-Called Life -- probably the best high school show of the last ten years -- sometimes suffered by taking itself too seriously, I don't think Freaks will ever have that problem. This is really the show to watch in the 99-00 season. It has a crappy timeslot -- Saturdays at 8:00, leading into The Pretender and Profiler -- but is worth finding.
And, speaking of My So-Called Life... one of that show's best writers is the man behind Roswell, the new aliens-in-high-school show on The WB.
Unfortunately, this is another case of the show having a lot of potential and the pilot only turning out so-so.
The lead actors are great, but some of the supporting cast is weak (notable exception: William Sadler as the town's sheriff.)
My biggest problem with the show is that it feels like a cheap ploy to capitalize on the recent success of teen shows and supernatural shows. It doesn't bring anything new to the table, and even the kickass direction by X-Files master David Nutter can't distract from that fact.
I've heard from contacts on the show that they're going to concentrate more on the metaphor of the show -- the idea that, to some degree, we ALL feel like aliens in high school -- and shy away from the cheesier alien stuff. I hope they do. It could be a really cool show, but only if it grows beyond what the pilot shows.
The WB has picked it up for an entire season, so they've been given a nice long chance at succeeding or falling on their faces. The jury's still out on this one, but I'll be watching the first few episodes to see how well they fare.
One show I WON'T be watching is The WB's Jack and Jill, a lame attempt at twentysomething romantic comedy.
The cast is unappealing and the writing is beyond cliche. Here's the show's idea of being clever: Jack is a girl (full name: Jacqueline), and Jill is a guy (David Jillkowsky). How's that for smart? The rest of the show is about as good.
Cold Feet is the stronger entry in the twentysomething romantic comedy arena. I heard NBC is retooling the show, although I honestly don't know why. The pilot I saw was sweet and funny and very appealing.
The one thing the show has going against is is that there's nothing groundbreaking or astoundingly original about it. The simple premise: six young people (four of them paired up at the outset) cope with life and love in the late 90s. If this kind of thing is your cup of tea, you'll probably enjoy this show. If it's not, don't bother... this one won't change your mind about the genre.
Now & Again is the most recent attempt at resurrecting The Six Million Dollar Man, this time by Moonlighting creator Glenn Gordon Caron.
Unfortunately, this show has none of the zip or zing of Moonlighting. The trademark wit and snappy writing that made Bruce Willis a star is completely missing from this show, and the one feeling I was left with after watching the pilot was boredom. That's a pretty harsh indictment, I know, but this is a show that is still very much salvageable.
I don't know why the producers chose to make the pilot a two-hour show when the plot was as thin as it was, but hopefully they'll cram more bang for the buck into the series' regular one-hour installments.
I certainly hope so, because this CBS show won't bring younger viewers to the Tiffany network with its glacial pace.
Once Again is a thirtysomething drama from the creators of thirtysomething. It's not as good as it could (or should be) considering that it stars Bill Campbell and Sela Ward, but it's still pretty good.
Campbell is great in his first swagger-less role. He plays a divorced dad trying to get back in the dating saddle with Sela Ward, a divorced mom trying to get back in her own dating saddle.
The pilot does a good job of introducing us to the main characters and their personalities, but it does little beyond that. It lacks the emotional power and true-to-life sincerity of Herskowitz & Zwick's best shows... but it's also missing the whine-and-cloy that pisses so many people off about thirtysomething.
The producers' track record indicates that this show will get better, and I honestly hope it does. Without some sort of emotional core to hook us with, this thing will become BORING in a hurry.
The West Wing is probably the highest profile show of the new season. It was created by Aaron Sorkin (Sports Night, The American President) and is executive produced by John Wells (ER). It stars -- among others -- Rob Lowe and Martin Sheen, who plays the President of the United States in what is basically a weekly version of The American President.
If you liked the movie, you'll probably like the show. I found it as pontificating and self-righteous as everything that bears Sorkin's name.
The show tries to capture the hectic everyday life of the White House as well as the politicking and ass-kissing that goes with being a behind-the-scenes player in the heart of the nation. In this, it succeeds. But Sorkin's bleeding heart sucks the energy and the vitality out of what might have been a fun, smart show.
But The West Wing looks like Citizen Kane when compared to the other Life-In-Washington show, The WB's D.C.
Written by John August (Go), this is the Aaron Spelling version of West Wing. It's not produced by Spelling, but it may as well be. When its shirtless stars -- including Mark-Paul Gosselaar -- parade around a locker room without bothering to get dressed for two minutes, you know you're in trouble.
Although the show purports to be a deep, thoughtful exploration of young people trying to make a different in the nation's capital, it's as deep as your average episode of Melrose Place. The emotions are surface-level and easy, the characters are absolute cliches, and the pilot story is laughably simple and hackneyed. The show's cast makes it watchable, but it's a huge disappointment coming from producer Dick Wolf of Law & Order.
This is one to avoid.
So that's my review of a handful of high-profile/noteworthy shows. The keyword for the season is: average. There are few standouts, but at least there aren't as many stinkers as in past years. My suggestion: don't miss Freaks & Geeks or Action, skip Jack and Jill and D.C. and check out the others only if the premise behind them appeals to you.
