Fall TV Preview: CBS
Ah, CBS. It’s a network full of hit shows that no one particularly cares about. For “the eye” the name of the game this fall is to develop a crop of shows that people will actually talk about, not just watch in a semi-comatose state. To do this the network has picked up five new series they hope to be the text book definition of buzzworthy (actually, I’d love to see a text book that had a definition of ‘buzzworthy.’ Maybe I could develop a show around that premise!). Unfortunately, of those five only three were provided in their entirety and none of the three were particularly show-stopping (well, maybe one) or worthy of buzz. The full scoop after the jump…
Big Bang Theory (8:30pm Mondays)
What is it? A traditional 3-camera sitcom about two awkward geniuses (Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons) whose “lives are tuned upside down” when an attractive screenwriter/waitress from the midwest (Omaha!) moves in across the hall (Kaley Cuoco).
How’s the pilot? Honestly, how are these shows still being produced. At this stage of the game it isn’t even a debate about having a laugh track or whether it should be single-camera — someone, somewhere in an office towering high over the littles, has got to be watching these “comedies” and saying out loud “Hey, this shit ain’t funny.” First of all, the American appetite for television comedy has never been lower, so why would they think a by-the-numbers sitcom with obvious jokes is what will make the audiences of America buckle over with laughter? Let’s think about this, at its core laughter is based on a reaction to the unexpected, right? So perhaps it would behoove the creators to use jokes we hadn’t seen scores of times before. It’s like watching everything that’s ever been on TV Land at three in the morning and putting it all into one series.
Is there a bright spot? No. But there is a spot that is less shady: Simon Helberg plays one of the geeks geeky friends Howard. He’s the “Casanova of Cal Tech” and he’s slightly amusing if for no other reason than Helberg seems to be the one actor in the series that actually has a personality (you might remember him as the guy who did the Tom Cruise impression on Studio 60 or as the guy David Duchovny wanted to play the lead in his new TV series in the recent film The TV Set — which sounds way more meta than I wanted it to be).
How many episodes am I willing to give this show? ZERO.
Viva Laughlin (Sundays 8:00pm)
What is it? Laughlin is small town in Nevada where our hero, businessman Ripley Holden (Lloyd Own), wants to build and operate his own casino. The problem is one of his investors just pulled out a million dollars and wealthy casino owner Nicky Fontana (Hugh Jackman) is poised to swoop in and take over the whole thing for his own empire. To make matters worse for Ripley, that investor I mentioned two lines ago?… well he’s turned up dead and Ripley is the key suspect! Lies, intrigue, gambling, singing — oh, did I forget to mention that characters spontaneously break into song (not original songs, mind you — pop songs)? Well that happens from time to time as well. Man, Laughlin is one crazy town!
How’s the pilot? Actually, it’s a pretty good pilot except for the singing. It’s laser focused and by the time the episode comes to a close you know exactly what kind of a series you’ll to be tuning in for each week. Unfortunately, there’s still that little matter of the singin. The first song comes about five minutes into the episode when Ripley starts singing and dancing to “Viva Las Vegas” and its so weirdly shocking all I could think about were the millions of television sets that will inevitably be flipped off by the first chorus. It’s not just the singing. Singing is fine. For me the problem was that the characters aren’t just bursting into song, but actually singing along with the original recording. When Hugh Jackman enters the series to “Sympathy for the Devil” he’s singing along with Michael Philip Jagger. It’s odd.
Is there a bright spot? Yes. Hugh Jackman is a perfect executive producer for the series. He’s a natural performer and was the only one who could make the singing seem like something other than a completely bizarre and detached series of hallucinations. The problem is I suspect his role in the series will be something akin to Salma Hayek’s role with Ugly Betty — being a recognizable face to get the show off the ground before drifting away. Unfortunately for Viva Laughlin, I honestly don’t see it lasting long enough for Mr. Jackman to fade into the neon scenery.
How many episodes am I willing to give this show? THREE (if it makes it that far).
Cane (Tuesdays 10:00pm)
What is it? Cane has the aspirations to be a television family epic like The Sopranos or Dallas. It centers on a Cuban-American family in South Florida running a very successful rum and sugar business. With the family patriarch slowly dying the future of the family must be put in the hands of either his biological son Frank (Nestor Carbonell) or his adopt son, Alex (Jimmy Smits). This decision is at the heart of the series, with plenty of love, betrayal, power struggles, secrets, lies and all the rest of it thrown in for good measure.
How’s the pilot? Solidly uneven. I liked a lot of the characters and felt there was plenty of interesting ground to cover, unfortunately things couldn’t have been packaged in a more confusing and unappealing way. There are several hokey flashbacks to some sort of mysterious event that we’re ultimately told about before the episode comes to a close rendering them more or less pointless. There’s also a lot of exposition scenes where characters might as well be saying, “This is what’s happening right now.” I hope the pilot is slightly retooled and refocused as I really want Cane to succeed — not just because I think it has the groundwork for good drama but because it might be the only place you’ll find any minorities on the three major networks this fall (sadly, they couldn’t have cast a more white-looking Latin family had the series filmed in Iceland).
Is there a bright spot? Smits is good and carries with him enough emotion weight to be both scary and sympathetic. Also, it’s beautifully shot with bright colors popping off the screen. I’m sure it’ll look great in HD.
How many episodes am I willing to give this show? FOUR.
The last two series Kid Nation and Moonlight were not made available for preview. This is a damn shame as they are the two shows on CBS (aside from midseason’s Swingtown) that look and sound the most promising. Moonlight is about a vampire private-detective who uses his un-dead powers to solve crimes. Kid Nation is the new reality show that puts 40 children in a ghost town and let’s them set up their own system of governance. The previews for Moonlight make it look cool and engaging if not particularly groundbreaking and maybe a little silly. The previews for Kid Nation make it look like the greatest reality show since Survivor. Feel free to see for yourself…
Tags: Fall TV Preview
