Another week, more shows trotting out to slaughter…In order of increasing quality…
ABC’s Scandal…What Happened: A bunch of bullshit with Kerry Washington as some uber-slick crisis manager in Washington D.C. putting out fires…but also making plenty as she stabs her clients in the back since this is broadcast TV and they have to make everything overly moral. Review: Hated it. I was so rooting for the rare show to have a black female lead, as I pointed out last week that nearly all shows this season have treated minorities as invisible. Still, this show was an all-over-the-place mess from snarky comedy to faux-gritty thriller to ridiculous, far-fetched melodrama with detours into sappy subplots about a co-worker’s engagement and another one’s training. This is the kind of show that thinks it knows a lot about political “insiders” but overplays everything to the point of unintentional parody. I’ll just say that if I don’t like this left-leaning “political drama,” that ain’t a good sign. And I can’t say I was bowled over with a miscast Kerry Washington either. Grade: D+
NBC’s Betty White’s Off Their Rockers…What Happened: A bunch of geezers played pranks on young people, otherwise known as “NBC Presents, Not Even Trying at This Point”…Review: Didn’t care much for this show either. Some of the gags are pretty funny but I can see where this show could get O-L-D (pun intended) quick. You can pretty much get the gist of it after ten minutes, and I’m not sure how they could expand on this week-to-week. Also, NBC has to be slightly suicidal to put this on, since they have to know it won’t do well in the coveted 18-49 demo (all advertisers care about when judging the ratings), another mystifying decision from the same network that did all it could to screw up Bent’s chances of success. Grade: C
The Season Finale of Happy Endings…What Happened: The gang got up to some shenanigans at a gay wedding, and it looks like Dave/Alex (who’s NOT a guy for those that don’t watch the show) might reconcile…Review: Not the strongest episode the’ve had recently, but still worth a half dozen decent jokes. ABC somewhat botched this episode by putting it on a night with nothing but reruns (Modern Family/Revenge were reruns so no one knew this was new either), so naturally the ratings were low, but hopefully not low enough to get it cancelled. Grade: B
Bent…What Happened: Anyone else watch this show? It’s the one NBC tried to kill before it even aired its first episode. First they put it on a night and time nobody watches, and then they burned off the episodes two-at-a-time with little promotion…Review: It’s too bad because this is a very strong show with a lot of potential. Grade for the whole series: A-
Bent!!! no why is NBC doing this to me. Last year it was perfect couples, then defying gravity, so on and so on. They just don’t give there shows a chance :(