Another week of fall premieres. Some old shows coming back, some new shows just getting started, let’s dive right in…
666 Park Avenue…This will definitely be one of those shows you should only review after a few episodes. However, last night was the premiere and I haven’t seen any others, so I have to work with what I have. Many already know this show as the one where a pair of naive building managers start running a luxurious apartment building where a large number of deaths and accidents are occurring under the knowing eyes of the building’s owners (Vanessa Williams and Terry O’Quinn). The trailers make it look like Williams and O’Quinn are equally devilish, but (so far) it looks like Williams is more O’Quinn’s subordinate, or helper Devil. I don’t know…it will take some time for the mythology of this show to unfold, but we can basically get the gist (people are promised something for their souls, deals with the devil rarely end well, etc.). I think the two good-guy leads (particularly the man) are boring as dirt, but I love O’Quinn in just about everything he does. Although the premiere was hectic and over-busy to keep all those ADHD eyeballs glued to the screen, his cool, intelligent command of all around him was the thing that really creeped me out. It’s like the evil version of John Locke that ruled season six of Lost, and I’ll watch more for that reason alone. Grade: B
Revenge…I may not be able to say the same for this other ABC “drama” that pretends to be darker and more serious than it really is. The summer hiatus has actually left me with the feeling that I never had all that strong a connection to this show (which I have seen every episode of) and now that it’s back, I found myself struggling to care. [And the opening ten minutes were disorienting, made particularly confusing since Emily’s Asian mentor has been recast.] It doesn’t help that all of the characters are paper thin, and the “dramatic tension” that is “What will Emily do for revenge?” is very boring since she’s never really done anything all that bad to the people she’s targeting. She’s a good girl pretending to be bad, a lot like the show itself is bad but pretending to be good. Grade: C
Person of Interest…I know, I know, this is a show I should quit. It’s a procedural show on CBS, and there will be two hundred episodes before they cancel it and maybe ten of them will have anything close to a serialized plot. Still, the first episode back was a lot better than most from last year. It actually DID have forward movement for the plot with sufficient backstory on the characters, and I liked seeing some of the flashbacks of Finch finding out the machine was “alive.” Sure, there was a slightly far-fetched plot shoehorned in to please the procedural diehards (would the Aryan Brotherhood really use an Asian accountant to launder their drug profits? And would they really trust him with eight million dollars of it, being gipped out of the money without sensing anything was wrong?) but even that had an atypically inventive action sequence towards the end (hearing it from outside the warehouse but not seeing anything until the guy was thrown out of the window like a rag doll). It’s jussssst about made me want to continue watching this season. Grade: B
Made in Jersey: Sucks. Really sucks. Really, really sucks. I’m just not sure I’ve made my feelings on this show clear enough. Janet Montgomery (a British actress) is spectacularly miscast as a working class girl from, you guessed it, Jersey, who goes to work at a snooty Manhattan law firm. This show is paper thin but there’s not even realism to what little there is since Montgomery is cute but in no way believable. That whole tough tawkin’ Jersey vibe is a very specific cultural thing, and they made a mistake by not getting someone from the region. As a result it plays less like a bad parody (where this show might have at least been fun) and more like a half-hearted and unconfident impersonation. Grade: D
Fringe: I know not many people still watch this show, but those that do are in for a treat this season. Gone are the slightly stale monster-of-the-week procedural elements (although Fringe does that fresher and with more variation than Grimm) and instead is a season long plot involving a human rebellion against the oppressive “observers” in the near future. I loved this episode and was particularly moved by the ending. Seeing John Noble’s weary, hunted Walter (perhaps humanity’s best hope for winning the war) find hope in the form of pop music and the image of a single, vibrant-yellow flower standing triumphant out of the dreary landscape was a touching moment. [As was Peter and Olivia’s reunion with the now grown-daughter they haven’t seen since she was a child.] Grade: A-
Like it review, like the show so far.