So here we here are in midseason, and although many of last Fall’s shows didn’t get cancelled because of their decent ratings, I can’t help but think the new crop of youngsters looks more promising (The River, Touch, Awake). After taking a step back, I can honestly say that none of the Fall’s new shows have really lived up to their potential and now I’d like to go into exactly why that is for some of the Fall’s biggest ratings and critical hits. [All of the shows received a B or higher from me when I reviewed just their first episodes last October.]
Grimm: Probably the most obvious example of a show that is going nowhere fast. I really enjoyed the premise of Grimm and thought the show had promise, but now it’s become obvious that the show is ONLY a good premise but not really building on it week-to-week. Biggest problems: It’s great that Silas Weir Mitchell’s wolf-man has a personality but not so great that he’s the only one who does. Also, the show is just too much of a damn procedural, a routine cop show pretending to be something else. The show would improve immediately if it advanced its mythology at once and stopped its boring case-of-the-week monotony.
Once Upon a Time: This show is really tough because, on the one hand, I want to support a serialized drama that’s become a ratings hit in a TV landscape where only generic sitcoms and cop procedurals seem to be sticking. On the other hand, it’s reallllllly stretching it to call this show a drama. It’s basically for children and makes the same mistakes Terra Nova (remember that show?) did in trying to capture a “family friendly” audience: it forgot about the adults. O.U.a.T. (and I’m sure Disney resents the OUT acronym considering their desire to forget gay people exist to appease a radically conservative fan kingdom) is just too cheesy, childish, and clean to really be considered a quality drama, but in that way it fits in well with 99 percent of shows on broadcast TV. Biggest problems: Only half this show works at all and that’s the half set in the fantasy flashbacks. All of the small town scenes and subplots where the characters are trapped actually makes me feel trapped watching an inferior show. So basically, every time Jennifer Morrison is on screen or the evilllllllll Lana Parilla makes that stupid face to let you know she’s evil, I take a quick nap.
Person of Interest: Alright, so I still like this show more than it’s really giving me a reason to, and it has to be graded on a CBS-curve that only allows shows to be boring and monotonous. Still, this one has got to, got to, got to get more interesting and shake off its doldrums. Jim Caviezel makes for a cool badass and Michael Emerson is appropriately crafty as a computer whiz but what this show really needs is an awesome villain to make both of them sweat a bit harder. Because right now the “thrills” feel about as dangerous as an old episode of The Rockford Files. This show would do well to embrace 24’s intensity or Homeland’s complexity. Biggest Problems: Utterly wasting Taraji P. Henson and should set her free from the “sassy black female cop” role. No real villains or intensity. Too predictable and monotonous. Much like Grimm, needs to set itself free from being a cop procedural and embrace its original premise.
Up All Night: I was a pretty big fan of this show’s first couple episodes but the longer it keeps going it’s become obvious that this show needs some work. For one thing, I’m just not sure the premise of new parenthood is really enough to build an entire show around. Biggest Problems: Maya Rudolph has gone from scene stealer to making it feel like she’s in an entirely different show, and one that is bored with the original show about raising a baby. And Christina Applegate needs to find a way to make her character remotely likable because there are just way too many scenes where she’s obnoxious or hyper-competitive or shallow but not in a funny way. Plus, too many weeks Will Arnett just seems like he’s hanging out playing the first regular guy character of his career, and it would be nice if he’d tap into just a little more of the manic energy that made him the scene stealer of Arrested Development.
Revenge: Although this show is doing just-fine in the ratings, even better according to critics, and I will admit that it’s got more narrative momentum than any other show on this list, I still think it has room for improvement. For one thing, there’s no real danger on this show. Oh sure, there are five times an episode where it looks like someone could die or the stakes could be raised in some exciting way, but it never actually happens. Too much of the time, it feels like we’re watching a procedural where every episode will be roughly the same as the list and the characters aren’t really going to be moved forward by the end of the episode. And even though we’re supposed to be satisfied watching rich crooks finally get what’s coming to them, we are still watching nothing but rich people. So it just feels like another, more self-aware way to build a show where poor people don’t exist. Biggest Problems: Repetitive plots (not good for a first season show), no real sense of danger, and although Emily Van Camp is terrific as the cold-blooded schemer, the supporting cast isn’t stacked wit many memorable characters or performers. Plus, I’m a little tired of seeing things always work out so neatly for Emily and would welcome her finally having to get her hands dirty in the quest for her vengeance (another way of saying people who are causing too many problems shouldn’t be conveniently killed by someone else, SHE needs to get in the blood too).