A new TV season and there have been a few TV shows that have caught my eye, at least on paper. I’m incredibly more critical of TV shows than I should be because I know what it’s like to develop and get them through the maze to get them on screen. I also know ‘compromises’ that sometimes have to be made so a wider audience will tune in. I end up watching a good number of shows not because of good content but because I’m watching to see what they have gotten wrong, in my eyes, and seeing if the general public will pick up on the flaws.

To me, most American shows end up like NBC’s Revolution. The show starts off with an interesting premise with a strong list of characters, but when the show goes to air something is just a little off and it doesn’t click. For the year or so of tinkering and planning, there is an element in the mix that doesn’t work. It could be something as elusive as the chemistry of cast members, a glaring plot point or just bad writing or acting. The one rule I think American TV shows fail to do well is to have a plan of where they want to go, as a series. They are far too eager to change things as they go along, drop one plotline for another and the biggest sin is following the fickle emotions of the fans. It’s easy to make changes mid-stream in the first season if there isn’t a grounded plotline in the first place.

So my first look at the some of the new shows of the season I’m following starts with the old show Revolution. It is amazing how many ‘fans’ of the first season are happy with the changes in the new season. Honestly, the show did a cheat. Last year, the show ended with nukes heading towards Philadelphia and Atlanta and the power went on. This season opened with time jumping five months, and the power gimmick only happened for four minutes. The group is split up, with characters reassigned to one another, oh, and the United States government is trying to reunite the people.

Revolution still suffers from the same issues it had in the beginning; they set up rules as to why the power went off, very specific ones that were talked about by the creators in the press, and those rules are thrown away when needed. In season one, it was established that guns were very rare, bullets even more precious, which is why everyone reverted to swords. We had to suspend the logic of why bullets and guns couldn’t be manufactured. There was even talk by the creators about how wind and hydroelectric power couldn’t be generated. Now lots of people have guns, firing them at will and explosions are going off like fireworks.

In a twist that, to me, makes no sense other than making the stereotypical geek grin with glee, we learned last season the power went out because of nanites. We also learned that Frodo, I mean Aaron, had inadvertently designed the program that controlled the nanites. This season, first episode, Aaron was killed, only to be revived by the nanites. Three people saw this happen and word spread through the town about this, yet his death and resurrection are treated very calmly. Even his girlfriend, who almost seems evangelical Christian, doesn’t question the method of his resurrection. She just accepts that he died and has risen again, just like his friends and other people in the town.

And then there is Charlie. Our favorite whipping girl is back with doe eye stares and terrible acting. How do you solve the issue of the main female character not being a very good actress? Slut her up. This season, in the first few scenes, Charlie beds down a bartender casually just because she wants to get information on where Monroe went to. Yeah, it seems she has a revenge streak in her and she’s going after Monroe by herself. By splitting up everyone it does mean less screen time for Charlie, but no amount of having her shagging changes the fact she can’t act.

So what about some of the new shows.

Hostages – This is a fifteen part series where each episode is supposed to be the day in the life of the drama. The premise is a doctor’s family is taken hostage. She has been assigned to operate on the President and the hostage takers want her to kill the President. This is a show where the hostage takers are supposed to be the best at what they do, the family has secrets that can be used to keep them in line, and the doctor will do anything she can to protect her family. After two episodes it is apparent the plot is very thin.

The story is riddled with people knowing things they don’t talk about until later and agencies that have plots within plots. At the end of the first episode, the doctor changes medication so the President can’t get the operation that day. Even though all through the night the kidnappers said they would kill her family if she deviated from the plan, they didn’t. Somehow they are going to control the family for the next two weeks for her to try again. Why? Because these are super kidnappers with spies everywhere. Oh, and the bad kidnappers aren’t all that bad because the leader is being controlled by some secret government agency that probably did something to cause his wife to be in the hospital and his little girl is being held by her father in law who is somehow attached to the shadowy government agency.

You have to add to this heady mix the doctor’s family where her husband is having an affair, the son is a low level drug dealer who owes money to his supplier and a daughter who just found out she is pregnant. Oh, at least one of the kidnappers has a drug habit. This all came out in the first episode! Because of the limited run of the series, it might end up making sense in the end but I was through after the second episode because of the dump of information and the suspension of logic I had to do.

Sleepy Hollow – I was sure I was going to hate this show but it quickly became my guilty pleasure. If someone was asked to use the template of Dr. Who and design an American series that was and was not Dr. Who, this would be it. Eccentric British guy with just enough charm but a fish out of water demeanor, a companion that is a plucky female, a slightly modified history that you can possibly believe, and toss in some ancient texts, secret societies and dry humor and you have Sleepy Hollow. I will say that in the pilot it’s kind of interesting how the police kind of believe Icobod Crane’s assertion he’s from the Revolutionary period without much struggle. This is a show, like Scandal, where if you allow yourself to flow with the story you can get caught up with it silliness and all.

The Blacklist – After three episodes, this is a bubble show for me. It still hasn’t fully shaken the derivative Hannibal Lector vibe between the leads and it has a problem inherit with a show like this. One character has knowledge the other one wants. His information is so valuable that authorities allow him to run free for most of the show, even though he has proven to be dangerous. As an example, the last episode had the FBI using dogs, helicopters and other devices to track down the main target. Reddington, the main elusive character, who had most of the information the FBI had, simply called the local ASPCS (or equivalent) and asked them to activate the RFID implanted in the dog owned by the target. Ironically, Reddington has his own RFID implanted in him by the FBI, at his request. Considering this is the second time he has been one step ahead of the FBI, it is questionable why no one thought to activate his chip to follow him.

This is a show where secrets are used to keep an audience. We know the female agent’s husband is a plant, but why he is there isn’t known. She decides to stay with him even with this big secret hanging out there. Reddington knows a lot about her, but he’s giving out information in cryptic little drips. The tease is what is supposed to keep us coming back week after week. In a show like this, the list is a substitute for the creature of the week formula. Those stories are standard and so far have been boring. We are supposed to keep coming for the drip, but the drip isn’t that interesting for me. The audience is supposed to tune in for Reddington. He doesn’t sweat, he doesn’t stress and we’re supposed to take this as cool. The thing is he is the star of the show and there is an “I can’t die” demeanor about him that is working only because of James Spader. It’s not old now, but by the end of the season will it still be charming? I’m not sure.

Agents of SHIELD – This was the big daddy of the new shows for the geek set. If you loved Avengers and love comics, especially Marvel Comics, the promise was you would love this show. Oh, and this has the stamp of uber creative geek god Josh Whedon on board.

The ratings have shown this show is a hit, and has already been set for a full season of episodes. So why am I not excited about this show?

My lukewarm reaction to the show has less to do with expecting big budget action of the movies and more with the approach taken with comic book/fantasy action shows. When the current crop of TV creative people take on a show like SHIELD or ARROW, the approach is to think comic book and add some real life elements to the mix. To me, they look at the costumes, the fantastic settings and the world shattering events and try to tone those down for the general public. If you take a show like The Blacklist or Person of Interest, they set up a real world environment and add in fantastical elements. It is a subtle switch of perception but to me it explains the trouble of making a believable show like SHIELD yet having shows like NCIS or Person of Interest work with the general public.

It is true that SHIELD won’t have a world ending plot every week, which is good, but they do put out the fantastic gadgets, the expensive stunts and the big killer is constantly referencing events from the various Marvel movies. I know the geek gang loves Josh Whedon dialog but the plucky girl dialog gets old real fast for me because I have heard it too many times. I guess I was hoping for something a bit more adult. I don’t need Marvel Knights stuff, but if this is a secret spy agency can’t we have rough and tumble spies? Remember ALIAS? Think if you had SD-6 as a model for this subset of SHIELD. ALIAS was going after Rambaldi artifacts, which is kind of like SHIELD trying to make sure alien and super tech doesn’t get in the hands of the bad guys.

I think there probably is a lost potential with SHIELD because of the comic book element.

<< PREVIOUS
NEXT >>

Copyright © Chaotic Fringe LLC. All rights reserved.

New TV Season Reviews - October 15, 2013
Home | News | Entertainment | Blog | Podcast | IMVN | Everquest 2 | Links | Photos | V-Blog