Fall pilots are tricky things. It's the network's chance to make a strong impression, so the pilot of a show is rarely telling of what a show will become. More often than not what you have to look for is potential. Unfortunately, even potential is rather low this year. However, that's not to say that the entire pack is crap. This seasons sees perhaps the most expensive television pilot of all time in Terra Nova. John Wells, producer of The West Wing, is back on TV with Pan Am, and two new comedies have gotten significantly less critical drubbing than the rest of the bunch of sad, sickly shows. So grab your sugar-free Red Bull and let's dive into four shows I could stomach enough to sample!
Terra Nova was supposed to premiere last Spring, and it has been teased at so many conventions that I propose future ambitious sci-fi projects be placed on the Terra Nova Memorial panel at all future Comic-Cons. They reworked exposition, made plot changes, and constantly re-engineered the endless special effects shots needed for the dinosaurs and prehistoric environments. Oddly, the show was picked up not as a pilot, but as a whole thirteen episodes due to the price of the sets and effects. So what's the result?
Well, it's kind of a mess. The show starts out in a very bleak Blade Runner-esque future in which humanity has really screwed up the environment. Like, a lot. The air is actually poison, and there is literally NO green in those first ten minutes of the show. This is so when the Shannon family (led by network-television-handsome Jason O'Mara) leaps through the portal, the shock at entering prehistoric Earth is as much a visual punch for the audience as it is for the oddly multicultural family. From there, the pilot continually switches tones between family drama, cop show, political thriller, and high-concept science fiction adventure.
Putting all my cards on the table here, I did not go into this pilot with a lot of hope. So I was ready to be bored by the family drama, and boy howdy, was I! These are all very pretty people, and Jason O'Mara is not without charm as the leading man. However, the rest of the family not only fails to pop, they are at turns both baffling and downright annoying. The teenage son (named Josh, ugh) combines every annoying teenager stereotype you've ever seen, and with little-to-no justifiable motivation for this senseless rebelliousness beyond LAWL, he's a teenager. The rest of the family is staffed by very pretty people who are, nevertheless, quite bland.
The extended cast is similarly bland with only a couple exceptions. Thankfully, those exceptions are VERY fun. Allison Miller plays Josh's love interest. I liked her in other things (the short-lived but similarly CG-heavy and high-concept Kings) and she's a very pretty person who also manages to play layers of emotions. The script often discards subtlety for impact and exposition, but Miller gives it her all. However, the real headline in the cast is Stephen Lang. The militaristic villain of best-selling-movie-ever Avatar returns to the lush jungle setting with more potential for a layered, complicated character than ever. I'm fairly sure he's destined to become the show's big bad (since creators have tried to tone down expectations of the very expensive dinosaurs appearing every episode), but that surety actually improves the chances I will check back in on this show more often. Lang is an excellent actor, and if he can get served better scripts than the plot-hole filled drivel Trek-bane Brannon Braga often spits out, I could see more potential out of this show.
For now, the family drama is boring, and I have little sense what a weekly show will look like from this concept. I have little trust in the actors or the creator (Braga) beyond O'Mara, Miller, and Lang. If the rest of the writers can manage to tone down Braga's worst instincts and the cast can rise to the occasion, perhaps this show can become more than just the sum of its many jarring tones.
Oh, and yes, the dinosaurs were cool.
RATINGS? Disappointing. FOX advertised this as a blockbuster event, then delayed it lots, then aired it against Monday Night Football. Not smart, FOX.
VERDICT: Giving it a week or two more, but very cautious.
This is escapism done right. Much like Terra Nova above, this show experiments with a lot of different tones. Gleeful nostalgia, soap opera, and spy thriller all combine... but here's the thing: they combine. The show is far from perfect, and perhaps it says a lot that I actually have very little to say about this show compared to my screed above with Terra Nova. The cinematography and wardrobe is fantastic, the cast is very attractive and I felt oddly fond of Michael Mosley's co-pilot cad Ted. Dean, the pilot played rather over-earnestly by Mike Vogel, serves his purpose, but he remains the weakest link in what is otherwise a fun show.
Each of the women highlighted in the cast steps up to the plate and make you believe that they think this job is progressive, even as we in the present find the 60s idea of stewardess eye candy to be a prime example of sexism. The time period and the geography-hopping nature of the show opens it to all kinds of possible stories, and if the writers can mix the tones as well as (or better than) they did this episode, I see a bold future.
What am I most excited about? Beyond the pure escapist nature of the show, I had heard of the espionage twist going in and was ready to be disappointed. Instead, Kelli Garner's character Kate sold her novice attempts at spying well, and the episode's final twist gave me a glimpse at an enigmatic character I very much want to see more of. All in all, this is easily the strongest pilot of the four I've seen, and I'm already looking forward to the next episode.
RATINGS? America likes the 60s, and America likes pretty women in uniforms. Win-win.
VERDICT: If you want to just sit down and enjoy yourself for an hour, this is the show. Barring a massive fall-off in quality, I'm in it for the Fall at the least.
This show is about Zooey Deschanel and only the adorkable Zooey Deschanel, and that is equally good and bad. A little Zooey is charming, cute, and funny at turns. TOO MUCH Zooey starts to border on annoying. The plot of the show revolves around Deschanel's Jess moving in with three guys in a TV-show-sized apartment, and the hilarity her dorky tweeness then creates. Unfortunately, the best non-Zooey part of the pilot was Damon Wayons, Jr.'s Coach, and his last show Happy Endings was unexpectedly NOT canceled last Spring, leaving him unavailable to retain his rather funny role as an aggressively macho man-child. Rather than re-shoot the pilot, the powers that be decided to simply keep it as-is and substitute in Black Guy #2 instead. Unfortunately, Lamorne Morris' Winston hasn't made much impression in the second episode.
The other two guys are resident douchebag Schmidt and sad sack sarcastic sidekick Nick. I like Nick, and I liked Schmidt more in the pilot when the other guys made him put money in a "Douchebag Jar" every time he said something well... douchey. Unfortunately, the jar seems to be gone along with Coach, and the guys just aren't funny enough to properly balance against Miss Deschanel. There's potential here, and I laughed at both episodes I've seen so far, but the second far less than the first. That's usually not a great sign.
RATINGS? Officially the first show to be picked up for a full season. New Girl is the clear winner of the Fall.
VERDICT: This is going to be a week at a time. It could turn into a new favorite if the cast balances out, or it could get an early axe from me.
Created and written by a former Parks and Rec writer, this show has a lot of things I should love. Alan Tudyk (a leaf on the wind...), Jeremy Sisto (the creepy brother from Six Feet Under), and a sarcastic and very cute female lead in relative newcomer Jane Levy. Unlike everything else on this list, I have a better feeling for how this show might shake out on a weekly basis. The concept is amusing, but many of the stereotypes of suburban life compared to the city basically only applies to the suburbs of Los Angeles, and seems to rip more plotlines from Mean Girls than is really necessary.
There are some good laughs, and an excellent comedic supporting cast in Alan Tudyk, Cheryl Hines, and SNL veteran Ana Gasteyer looks to be a recurring busybody as the mother of Levy's only friend. The relationship and chemistry between understated straight man Sisto and sarcastic reactive Levy is strong, and there's plenty to build on. The concept isn't original, but with the cast and writers, I have some faith the creative team can rise above a so-so pilot and deliver a truly funny, warm comedy week in and week out. It's just not there yet.
RATINGS? It built on its lead-in from The Middle and had nearly triple the viewers that watched Community last week, so you tell me.
VERDICT: ABC doesn't really push the boundaries much with comedies, but I have hope for this show.
That about wraps up my newbie reviews. Depending on what time allows, I may check back in on these shows around Christmas to see whether I'm still interested or even if they're still around. Look for a new Mad Men post in the near future, along with the weekly comedy roundup on Monday!
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