Red Randal
09-24-2007, 02:51 PM
I recently recieved the NBC Fall Preview DVD from Blockbuster and I thought I'd share my findings with the I-Cot community, unless some of you were on the fence about which new shows to check out.
When the mail arrived the other day, I recieved a package that I forgot I had coming: the NBC Fall Pilot Preview DVD. For some reason I stuck this in my Blockbuster queue and now was faced with the prospects of actually watching shows from NBC's upcoming fall schedule...kind of like a penance I had to put myself through before I getting to see the first season of Dexter.
Journeyman
The first of the shows I decided to check out was Journeyman. The show focuses on a guy who can mysteriously travel through time and how he deals with various things like his wife, job, and ex-fiancee. It seemed like a good enough bet, scheduled to come on after Heroes, a show that I have recently come to love through the magic of DVD (not to mention NBC's most successful show of 2006-07 and one that they certainly would not allow to lead into a stinker.) I want to keep these reviews as spoiler free as possible so I won't give too much away. I will say that Journeyman is probably going to suffer from the exact same premiere woe as Studio 60: losing a ton of Heroes' lead in audience. While it happened to Studio 60 because the first 5 minutes were awesome drama and then the audience was bored to tears for the next 55 and just changed the channel to catch the end of CSI: Miami, it is likely to happen to Journeyman because the audience is going to be completely confused by the first half of the episode. By the time they get a chance to figure out what is going on, the plot picks up and becomes somewhat promising. By that time, however, the show is too likely to have been written off by too many people already.
Grade: C+
Chance of Success: 35%
Airs: NBC, Monday at 10pm
Chuck
Next up was Chuck, a quirky dramedy that aims more for the comedy side of that portmanteau. The show centers around a computer nerd who comes upon some important CIA intelligence stuff and ends up getting involved with secret agents. The pilot was entertaining throughout and had plenty of laughs coming from its quirky characters like Chuck's best friend, creepy uber-nerd Morgan, and Chuck's brother-in-law Major John. While shows with this kind of quirky humor are all the rage in Hollywood right now ("The Office" and "My Name is Earl" come to mind) and might even be a favorite genre of new NBC president Ben Silverman, I don't see the general public sitting through too much Chuck without getting turned off by it's crazy humor or feeling mislead by advertising that will no-doubt portray the show as being more action oriented than it really is. I enjoyed it quite thoroughly, however, and will continue for the next few weeks until it is inevitibly cancelled.
Grade: A-
Chance of Success: 10%
Airs: NBC, Monday at 8pm
Life
Finally, I checked out the pilot for Life. The show centers around a cop, Charlie Crews, who was framed for murder and served 10 years in prison before being exonerated. He then returns to the force as a detective and must deal with the stigma of being the "murdering cop" as well as the changes in the World over the last 10 years and the psychological effects of a brutal decade in prison. Despite the interesting backstory for the main character and the bizarre gimmick of occasionally throwing in Office-style documentary clips, the show is at heart a traditional crime drama. I would equate it to Crossing Jordan's first season. Every week there is a crime du'jour to deal with while also following the continuing "who framed Crews" story-arc and using a gimmick (like the "who killed Jordan's mom" arc and the gimmick of "Jordan recreates crimes.") While I love Law & Order SVU, I'm really not one to watch every single serial crime drama on TV (like CSI, Without a Trace, Cold Case, etc.) This is basically just another one of those, so you can count me out for subsequent episodes. If you like that kind of thing, however, it's good enough from a crime drama standpoint and has some really interesting characters (a highlight being Adam Arkin as a former white collar criminal and Crews' financial advisor/room above the garage tenant Ted.)
Grade: B
Chance of Success: 75%
Airs: NBC, Wednesday at 10pm
Bionic Woman
Also on the DVD was a 2 minute trailer for the Bionic Woman remake, which I thought was going to be the complete pilot when I ordered it. The trailer was interesting, if nothing else, and I will probably be checking out the pilot on NBC when it airs if for no other reason than catching Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff as "the first bionic woman."
Grade: n/a
Chance of Success: 50%
Airs: NBC, Wednesday at 9pm
When the mail arrived the other day, I recieved a package that I forgot I had coming: the NBC Fall Pilot Preview DVD. For some reason I stuck this in my Blockbuster queue and now was faced with the prospects of actually watching shows from NBC's upcoming fall schedule...kind of like a penance I had to put myself through before I getting to see the first season of Dexter.
Journeyman
The first of the shows I decided to check out was Journeyman. The show focuses on a guy who can mysteriously travel through time and how he deals with various things like his wife, job, and ex-fiancee. It seemed like a good enough bet, scheduled to come on after Heroes, a show that I have recently come to love through the magic of DVD (not to mention NBC's most successful show of 2006-07 and one that they certainly would not allow to lead into a stinker.) I want to keep these reviews as spoiler free as possible so I won't give too much away. I will say that Journeyman is probably going to suffer from the exact same premiere woe as Studio 60: losing a ton of Heroes' lead in audience. While it happened to Studio 60 because the first 5 minutes were awesome drama and then the audience was bored to tears for the next 55 and just changed the channel to catch the end of CSI: Miami, it is likely to happen to Journeyman because the audience is going to be completely confused by the first half of the episode. By the time they get a chance to figure out what is going on, the plot picks up and becomes somewhat promising. By that time, however, the show is too likely to have been written off by too many people already.
Grade: C+
Chance of Success: 35%
Airs: NBC, Monday at 10pm
Chuck
Next up was Chuck, a quirky dramedy that aims more for the comedy side of that portmanteau. The show centers around a computer nerd who comes upon some important CIA intelligence stuff and ends up getting involved with secret agents. The pilot was entertaining throughout and had plenty of laughs coming from its quirky characters like Chuck's best friend, creepy uber-nerd Morgan, and Chuck's brother-in-law Major John. While shows with this kind of quirky humor are all the rage in Hollywood right now ("The Office" and "My Name is Earl" come to mind) and might even be a favorite genre of new NBC president Ben Silverman, I don't see the general public sitting through too much Chuck without getting turned off by it's crazy humor or feeling mislead by advertising that will no-doubt portray the show as being more action oriented than it really is. I enjoyed it quite thoroughly, however, and will continue for the next few weeks until it is inevitibly cancelled.
Grade: A-
Chance of Success: 10%
Airs: NBC, Monday at 8pm
Life
Finally, I checked out the pilot for Life. The show centers around a cop, Charlie Crews, who was framed for murder and served 10 years in prison before being exonerated. He then returns to the force as a detective and must deal with the stigma of being the "murdering cop" as well as the changes in the World over the last 10 years and the psychological effects of a brutal decade in prison. Despite the interesting backstory for the main character and the bizarre gimmick of occasionally throwing in Office-style documentary clips, the show is at heart a traditional crime drama. I would equate it to Crossing Jordan's first season. Every week there is a crime du'jour to deal with while also following the continuing "who framed Crews" story-arc and using a gimmick (like the "who killed Jordan's mom" arc and the gimmick of "Jordan recreates crimes.") While I love Law & Order SVU, I'm really not one to watch every single serial crime drama on TV (like CSI, Without a Trace, Cold Case, etc.) This is basically just another one of those, so you can count me out for subsequent episodes. If you like that kind of thing, however, it's good enough from a crime drama standpoint and has some really interesting characters (a highlight being Adam Arkin as a former white collar criminal and Crews' financial advisor/room above the garage tenant Ted.)
Grade: B
Chance of Success: 75%
Airs: NBC, Wednesday at 10pm
Bionic Woman
Also on the DVD was a 2 minute trailer for the Bionic Woman remake, which I thought was going to be the complete pilot when I ordered it. The trailer was interesting, if nothing else, and I will probably be checking out the pilot on NBC when it airs if for no other reason than catching Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff as "the first bionic woman."
Grade: n/a
Chance of Success: 50%
Airs: NBC, Wednesday at 9pm