The Player Is Still Playing... For Now #ThePlayer #NBC
All pictures courtesy of NBC
The latest episode of the as yet not officially canceled The Player
(#ThePlayer) started with a boom. So how is the show whose episode
order was cut down to nine doing? It's moving along.
Still in search of his wife, this week Kane and the big guy took a
trip to Chicago where a bank bombing occurred. Not just a normal
bombing, Kane detects that the explosion was lateral enough to take
out only the floor with the bank lawyers on it and not the entire
building. While all other governmental and reporting organizations
think it is a terrorist attack, Kane and Cassandra don't find enough
clues that add up to say as much. Instead, they follow a different
theory.
The bomb had been made with syntex meaning the bomber knew how to
make professional explosives, however, it also meant that the bomber
had to have an illegal supplier as syntex is not sold at your local
Target. They track down the buyer which produces a list of how much
of the dangerous chemical was bought.
The illegal dealer also happens to have cameras outside of his legit
place of business which Cassandra hacks into and searches for the
license plates of the potential buyer. The one clue the seller gave
them was that the man had an authentic construction worker city badge
given for government demolition jobs like bridges and whatnot. A
little cross-referencing and they find the name and bio of the man
who built the bomb. Alex makes a trip to the man's house to find a
foreclosure sign up outside. As it turns out, the bank that currently
owns his house was the same bank that months earlier told him they'd
be able to modify his mortgage so he and his family could keep the
house after he lost his job--budget cuts. But the lawyers screwed him
out of the money by filing the foreclosure paperwork months earlier
and milking the family for their last few cents before taking the
home. They were going to flip it for a profit.
Not a terrorist but a vigilante, he has a list of people who he
thinks should suffer because of what they did to his family. Finding
his wife and children living in a cheap motel on the outskirts of
Chicago, Alex learns that they tried telling their story to an
award-winning blogger. A black woman fully down with this Latino
family's struggle, she changes colors when the bank asks her to
squash her story in exchange for a lump-sum payment to clear her
student loan debt. That just made her the second target on the
bomber's list.
Strapping a vest to her chest in an elevator, he shows his face to
the elevator cam and sets the bomb to blow a few seconds after he
exits into the lobby. So shocked most of the waiting lift passengers
were to see the bomb vest that no one dared stop him as he coolly
strolled into the crowd and out of the building undetected. Alex
arrives just in time and removes the non-booby-trapped vest seconds
before it explodes. Pushing aside the fact that it was stated that
there was enough syntex to take out the entire lobby of the building,
he manages to get up and carry the journalist out to safety. A hero,
he has to escape from bloodthirsty reporters as The Player can't be
captured or otherwise he no longer is the player. A brief aside
revealed that Wesley Snipes used to be a player; in fact, he was the
highest rated most favored player in game history. Apparently all pit
bosses were at one point players themselves--something for Alex to
look forward to and an interesting twist if this franchise ever takes
off or is rebooted or something magically allows it to gain more
fans.
Back to his pursuit of the bomber, the last name on the list is the
CEO of the bank. While the man doesn't set any of the policies and
wasn't directly responsible for the predatory and dastardly business
practices, just him being a figurehead was more than enough to be
blown up in his own house. Alex shows up just in time there too, and
talks the bomber out of blowing the man up as the CEO undoes the
ropes and tape and escapes out to call the police. The game won
without another casualty after the lawyers, Alex gets the guy to go
to the police with him, but not without Wesley first blowing up the
CEO's house as retribution.
The side story for the night dealt with Snipes' character's past as
we learned he grew up in the streets of Chicago but made a name for
himself. After visiting an old friend who is also involved with the
game thing, his trust for Cassandra is called into question as he is
currently keeping secrets from her. When he goes to meet with the man
again, he finds him with a slit throat inside of a burial house. Who
this man was, who killed him, and who really controls the game are
all called into question.
The pursuit for Kane's non-dead dead wife continued too as her mother
came into town to settle up what to do with her house. She tells Kane
that her daughter was a big liar who kept secrets and he doesn't know
what to think of that but grabs a set of keys with her name on them.
Meanwhile, Cassandra thought she discovered where Ginnie was but when
she arrived at what looked like a safe house, all she found were
appliances still left to run as someone had recently left.
At this point, I think the bigger mystery lies within whether this
will continue to stay on the air or has any chance of being picked up
for another season. With the episode order so short, and the word
canceled all but written all over it, I am struggling to keep my
interest in a show I think will soon be gone forever. Why they
haven't tried moving this show to Tuesday night where it clearly
belongs, I will never know, but since they insist on keeping it right
where it is, I am already saying my adieus and goodbyes.
What do you think? Have you given up on the show too? Were you ever a
fan? Did the show ever sound like a good concept to you? Let me know
in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see
no comments).
If
you’re looking for a scare
check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or
#ThePowerOfTen.
For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check
out #TheWriter.
The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you
like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow.
The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on
Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my
blog with that Google+ button to the right side.
Until next time, "it's like they
say, don't hate the player, hate the game."
P.S. In this case I think you could hate the NBC scheduling team to
put this show on an already packed night. Could the show use some
improvements? A lot of them, yes, but not being able to see that it
is clearly in the wrong time slot on the wrong day is what is killing
this show. Oh well. I'll come up with a better sign-off next time.
NBC's The Player (#ThePlayer) starring
Wesley Snipes and Philip Winchester is the latest show to tackle the
crime drama procedural and give it a twist. But before we dive into
what the show is about and my review/recap of the first three
episodes, I will again remind you of why I first found interest in
this show and would point you to the #Premiere Week button up top if
you want a more in-depth look at my reasoning--just scroll down to
the NBC section, it's the second to last section.
For starters, the show has Wesley
Snipes in it. You remember, he's the guy from Too Wong Foo. No, you
don't remember that movie? What about Demolition Man? Drop Zone? The
Art of War? The Art of War 2? Come on, you can't remember the guy
from any of those movies? Wow! I doubt you'd know him from some of
his smaller stuff like Passenger 57 or the Blade Trilogy so there's
no use in me even mentioning them. Anyway, he was half the draw of
the series for me. The other half consisted of the idea. Let's dive
into the first three episodes.
The previous game has ended in death
and Wesley Snipes' character calls back to his worker bee instructing
her to find them a new player within the opening minute of the show.
What is the game? You'll understand in a minute. For now, what you
need to know is that they choose Philip Winchester's character Alex
Kane as their next potential player. Ex-black ops, Alex lives in Las
Vegas as somewhat of a security consultant. During the only official
job we ever see him on in the show, he was hired by a rich,
high-ranking middle eastern man on a trip with his family to Viva Las
Vegas. His job was simply to pinpoint weaknesses in the man's room
security. Not only did he manage to get into the room, sit down and
wait for the man and his crew to enter, he also identifies an open
window as a security risk even though they are on the highest floor
of the hotel. He later proves just how correct he was when he has to
leap onto a crane attached to the roof of the building just over the
man's room, slide down it, and Tarzan his way through the open window
and into the rich man's room to stop an assassination attempt. And
there is where the story complicates and where we get the beginning
strands of the connective mystery throughout the show.
Again, this is a procedural
case-of-the-week format, so each week you have a new mystery and
crime; however, like most of these shows in the last few years since
The Blacklist came out, they try to have an even larger mystery to
connect everything and keep you tuned in week after week. Well,
Alex's thwarting of the assassination attempt ticks off the group of
men who want the rich guy dead or in their back pocket. So, they find
out who he is, track him down to his ex's house and supposedly shoot
and kill her in the middle of the night. Two facts here. For one, he
and his ex have a complicated relationship. Technically still
married, they also fall into each other's bed frequently and have
little tension and animosity between them. About the only real sign
to show that there's trouble in their relationship is the fact that
they don't live together. She too served overseas as a medic--this
was how they met as she worked to patch him up physically and
mentally after a battle.
The second thing of note in their
relationship is how I said "supposedly shoot and kill her."
Not only does Alex's non-ex, ex still wear her wedding ring but she
also has a wedding band tattoo (is that still popular with couples? I
know it was big four, five years ago but do people still do that a
lot). On the night she is shot, he comes into the bedroom to find her
dead already, no gasping for air or final words breathlessly spoken.
Then in the morgue when he goes to identify her body, the person has
the same face but no ring finger tattoo. Hmm? He notices this because
he had her wedding ring and wanted to bury her with that on
(complicated relationship, remember). What, then, does this mean?
Either someone at some point between the time he got up to go to the
kitchen to get a glass of water after he and his wife had sex took
the time to not only kill her but laser off the tattoo on her ring
finger, or that woman is not his real wife, regardless of how she
looks in the face. Yeah, dead people not being the actual dead people
you think they are. And we haven't even gotten to the crux of the
show yet.
Through a series of coincidences and a
rather ridiculous car chase/show of power, Alex encounters a woman
named Cassandra King who works for Wesley Snipes' character. On a
parking garage rooftop, all three of them meet and explain to Alex
what is going on. As I stated earlier, the guys whose assassination
attempt he stopped supposedly came and killed his wife. Not done,
they wanted to kill him too or at least scare him off. This time,
they were going to kidnap the man's daughter. How does this involve
the three of them? Well, Cassandra and Wesley want Alex to be their
new Player. The game? A group of unidentified super wealthy men and
women around the world have grown so bored with their riches that
they now gamble on crime. He, as the player, will be who they bet
on--for or against--to see if he can successfully stop a particular
crime in a particular time frame as set by the house. The house
consists of Wesley as the boss or bet setter, Cassandra as the dealer
(she helps the player however he needs her to) and the Player who
works to stop the crimes. They chose him because he is a man who has
acquired a set of very special skills Liam Neeson-style. He jumps at
the chance to get revenge on the people who killed his wife and stop
the kidnapping. And so the game begins.
Learning of the technology and
everything available to the house, Alex starts to put up a wall of
moral resistance. While he knows he's going to be doing good, he
can't help but think that all the gadgetry and Big Brother-esque
surveillance at the house's disposal could be helping the police to
solve or stop far more crimes. Finally the viewer gets the moral
objection and dilemma that we wanted from Minority Report. They have
access to every camera, know every single dollar counted in the
casinos as evidenced by the second episode, know flight plans and
people entering and exiting the city, and have a an unlimited amount
of access to weaponry, money and vehicles including a jet. Finally,
they have the rudimentary skills to impersonate any law enforcement
agency at will and erase or create identities when needed. They are
essentially their own little government. In dealing with criminals,
they have large case files or access to the already established CIA,
FBI, DEA, and etc. files of these people. This is how they know all
about the group trying to kill the rich guy. They know all about Alex
too.
Well, using their skills and Alex's
skills, they manage to rescue the girl in a wild shootout between
lone man Alex and the group of terrorists. Killing most of the men,
he exacts his revenge for his wife, but doesn't feel good about it
and then the morgue/ring thing happens and he becomes super
suspicious.
Meanwhile, Wesley Snipes is working
diligently to make everything perfect and tie up any loose ends he
thinks Alex might pull at before Mr. Kane even thinks of doing as
much. This seems to hint that he is behind the wife's murder but in
the second episode he tells Alex that not only does he agree that he
thinks the man's wife is still alive but that he will help him find
her. And this was after Alex gave one of his hush-hush tech friends a
sample of her DNA to test against the blood of the corpse. It tested
as a match confirming her death but he doesn't believe it and neither
do I. That just means that Wesley Snipes knows what happened to the
man's wife because he has to know. Nothing goes on in the city
without him knowing as evidenced on the second episode when a group
of more ex-black ops baddies roll into town to steal some diamonds
(apparently a theme over at NBC as Blindspot had essentially the same
plot; the Provocateurs at work for you).
Things get interesting when Alex
realizes he worked with the guy but now that the man has turned big
and bad he has to kill him because this new group not only has no
value for human life, but they demonstrate as much by holding a
shootout in the middle of an intersection. But it doesn't seem like
Alex has a great appreciation for life either as he jumps from a
cargo plane mid-flight with no pilot in order to stop the baddie,
this after failing on the first bet. As with most gamblers, the house
offers a special double or nothing bet to see if he can stop this man
from escaping Vegas. In the finale--a straight out of Passenger 57
callback--Alex fights with the man mid-air as they wrestle over one
parachute. He wins and the man plummets to his death into the Nevada
desert and somewhere you could just hear Wesley Snipes saying,
"always bet on black," and that little old white lady doing
the Arsenio Hall "woo! Woo! Woo!" My feeling: what about
that big ass plane going to crash land somewhere? What if it smashed
into a highway, killing dozens? Craziness.
The third episode featured a tangle
with a cartel sniper who killed a group of scuba divers for seeing
something they shouldn't have while on vacation years prior. The
twist? It took place in LA, with Snipes saying that while the house
is in Vegas, crime is everywhere. A new wrinkle to the show, this
takes the possibilities of the show's future to new, maybe
international heights where the stakes can become astronomically big.
But will viewers go for Alex as a hero who seems to always win even
when he doesn't (yes, he stopped the sniper though it can be argued
that Cassandra sniping the sniper was actually a bending of the
game's rules)?
What's my grade? I give this show a B-
to C+. While I like this far more than Limitless and almost on the
same level as Minority Report, I also didn't feel as duped by its
advertising. I did give Minority Report a little more leeway in its
grade because of the sci-fi aspect and the complexity of the idea,
but Limitless and The Player both share fairly simple ideas.
Limitless, the guy takes a pill and becomes super smart. The Player,
a guy has people bet on if he can stop crimes. That's it. It's
nothing more than if you and your friends gathered together to watch
Criminal Minds and bet potato chips and Halloween candies on if the
Criminal Minds crew would solve the case by the end of the hour. Of
course they will. The only difference is the non-jurisdiction allure
to the show and the fact that he can use tactics police and other
badge-d good guys can't. And though he seems to be working for a
corrupt man in Snipes, there's not much that will jump out at you in
the way of "wow!" Again, I feel like this is a show where I
can skip episodes, maybe even weeks at a time and come back and have
missed very little. While that may be what some viewers want, in
comparing this to the other powerhouse on Thursday night which is How
To Get Away With Murder, I'm not sure this snatches viewers from that
and football. Honestly, even with The Blacklist as its lead-in, the
Thursday night 10pm hour on NBC which this show currently occupies
seems like it should have something even flashier. I think this show
would do better on Tuesdays in the same time slot.
Also, while I find the threading
mystery of if his wife is actually dead or not, much more compelling
than both Minority Report's and Limitless' mysteries, I find myself
nearly unfazed by whether or not he gets that answer. I think that is
mostly because of the way his character is played and written. Again,
I don't like to be critical about things really, but I will say that
I find Alex Kane to be the weakest character on the show both in
written presentation and in acting. The woman playing Cassandra draws
attention and captivates as she has mysteries just like Alex and
Snipes. Snipes is great at playing the cool, calm and conniving boss
who seems to lie every time he opens his mouth. But for the titular
character to be the least interesting, I don't think that bodes well
for the show. Just like Agent Weller on Blindspot, Kane has only one
facial expression almost exclusively (like someone just stole his
favorite pair of socks). I'll be checking the ratings for all new
shows at the end of this week to see how viewers are adapting, but I
have a pretty good idea of what I think will be canceled in the next
few weeks.
Should you be watching? This is another
take it or leave it show. I feel like ABC Thursdays are clearly
geared more toward women and CBS has football for the sports lover
which will also see TNT's NBA coverage come the end of the month.
That leaves NBC with the "rest of the crowd" so to speak.
While I highly enjoy Heroes Reborn and The Blacklist (which has
managed to do well) and both are geared more toward men though plenty
of women watch them, The Player stands out as the weakest part of the
night and it ends the night. Even flipping times with The Blacklist
would do it good. It is definitely a more masculine show as I can
literally count on hand the amount of women with speaking roles I've
seen in the first three episodes (4-5 including Cassandra). If you
like the simple, guns a-blazing cowboy style of show, then this might
be it for you. Otherwise, give it a pass.
What do you think? Am I wrong in
thinking that this show isn't as good as the rest of TV on Thursdays?
Do you think it's the best thing on TV right now? Have you even
watched the show? If so, what do you think Snipes' character has to
do with Kane's wife's death/disappearance? Let me know in the
comments below (hint: click the no comments button to comment).
As
always, check out my books on Amazon (if you’re looking for
Halloween scares
check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHomeor #ThePowerOfTen).
For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check
out #TheWriter.
The final episode of season one of The Writer is OUT NOW. Ahh! That’s
right, all 15 episodes are out now available exclusively on Amazon.
Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and
follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right side.
Until next time, “And I just watch
your show all the time. Never Miss it! Woo, woo, woo!”
P.S. Granny from Passenger 57. Those
were the days, weren't they? When you could just mistake any black
person for any other black person and so long as they were famous it
was OK. Sigh. I'll keep thinking of a proper sign-off.
The Leaves Are About To Turn Any Day,
The Weather Is Getting Cooler And Hipsters Are Explaining Their
Thesis On Why They Cut The Cord. Brace Yourselves People, It’s Fall
Premiere Week! #PremiereWeek
Picture courtesy of the 2015 Emmys
Ahhh! I am so excited! As I said in an
earlier post, I am back after my summer hiatus to blog and chat with
you about TV with a few movies, books, cooking recipes and pop
culture chat sprinkled in, and did I mention the season 1 finale of my
episodic novella series The Writer (#TheWriter) will be releasing
this Friday? Check it out and catch up on the entire season over at
Amazon. So, with the season premiering, we have a lot to discuss on
TV concerning shows both old and new. Let’s begin, shall we.
Dang it! What should I do first,
people: the old school returnees or the new class of shows? Since
you’re already familiar with the old school, let’s go over the new class (at least the one’s I’m interested in watching).
Out of the over 100 new shows slated
for the 2015-2016 season, CBS seems to have the fewest among the
major channels. This probably stems from the fact that they rarely
seem to cancel anything and still have the blob/goo monster that is
the CSI franchise dominating their network. Speaking of which, it is
slated to have a full season of CSI: Cyber which premiered back in
March. I am not interested in that show unfortunately (or maybe it is
fortunate. Frees up time). The two CBS shows I am interested in are:
Limitless and Supergirl.
Since Supergirl won’t be premiering
until October 28th (what? First they make us wait a year
for Batman v. Superman, then they push Supergirl back to 3 days
before Halloween? Not cool, Warner Bros.), I’ll focus currently on
Limitless.
Picture courtesy of CBS and IGN
Based on the film starring Bradley Cooper, Limitless
follows Brian Sinclair, an average Joe who, like Cooper’s
character, winds up with a super pill that makes him a genius while
he’s on it (think Meth except... well, nothing like Meth. Never
mind). The question for the show, just like for the movie, will be:
what will he do with this power? Do I feel an Uncle Ben reference
coming on? Huh? Is he going to turn into Spider-man? Hey, don’t
criticize my humor and wild assumptions. If you’ve seen the trailer
for the show, you’d know that he has a little fire escape stunt
that seems very familiar to a certain web slinger.
Why I’m Interested:
A sequel of sorts to the movie, Bradley
Cooper’s character will appear in the show from time to time I
guess as a sort of Mr. Miyagi to Brian. In a dual role, he’ll also
serve as a producer to help this thing succeed. As a huge Alias fan
back in the day, I am excited to finally see his return to TV even if
it is only a pop-in every so often.
Aside from that, I find the premise
enticing in that its not your typical genius or typical everyman but
a hybrid mixture of both, whose “powers” fluctuate in and out
depending on how often he takes the pill. Also, in the movie there
was a big deal made about how he’d have to keep taking the pills or
possibly die, so... that’s always fun. And it’s got Jennifer
Carpenter in it whom I have secretly crushed on since she played
Emily Rose during that exorcism movie—not the really famous one,
but the other lesser famous one. No, not that one either, but the
other one. I ain’t got time, look it up.
Hopefully, this can take the procedural
buddy cop show love affair that TV has enjoyed since Moonlighting
(and even earlier), and add a new flair to the case of the week
premise.
Moving ON!
FOX
Speaking of TV series serving as
sequels to films, Fox has Minority Report premiering this week.
“What? But wait, what about the rest of the shows on CBS?” Sadly,
I’ve never been a big fan of most CBS shows, therefore, I’m not
interested in watching Angel From Hell, Code Black or Life In Pieces.
Check back in January for my decision on Rush Hour.
Back to Fox. With a plethora of new
shows, Minority Report looks to be an interesting sci-fi addition to
the network. After quick cancellations of shows like Almost Human,
and the horrific failure that was Utopia, along with a slew of other
bad comedies and some not oft-watched comedies (I’m lookin’ at
you Mindy Project), Fox wants to invest in some of the bigger names
this season.
Starting with Minority Report, they’ll
feed off the fact that it was a Spielberg-directed Tom Cruise-starrer
that drew enough of a fanbase to earn a 7.7 IMDb rating even 14 years
after its release. Spielberg is back, though only as an executive
producer.
Starring Meagan Good as Lara Vega and
Stark Sands as Dash, these two team together to fight crime as Dash,
a pre-cog who can see crimes before they happen seeks to fit into
society as a normal person. If you know anything from the movie,
apparently Dash is the weakest pre-cog of the three used and is now
an adult living in an era where what he used to do as a child is now
illegal. Pre-crime, or arresting someone on a crime they haven’t
yet, but will in the future commit is his everyday reality. Where as
Brian is Spider-man, Dash is Kitty Pryde or Jean Grey from X-Men. You
sneaky shows you, having superheroes without capes and cowls.
Why I’m Interested?
OK, there’s a lot here. To begin, the
movie focused a bright light on not just the imperfect system of the
pre-cogs and what they see, but also on the questionable morality of
this new way of stopping crime. Now that it’s illegal or at least
frowned upon, will that give this show an outlaw/vigilantism feel a
la Batman? Will we want to root for Dash and his female cop friend
for stopping the crimes even if people aren’t given the opportunity
to change their mind and not commit the crime? Or will the show gloss
over those things in favor of buddy cop shenanigans similar to Castle
(I love Castle)?
Admittedly, fans should be leery as Fox
has a habit of quickly axing sci-fi or anything they feel will push
their budget to capacity. On the bright side, they’ve put this in a
prime spot on Mondays paired with the strong Gotham returning for its
second season. We’ll see how much of the futuristic technology they
can incorporate.
Staying on Fox, Tuesdays will be packed
with new shows to fill the slot left by the annexing of the Mindy
Project. They’ll start with Grandfathered, headlined by Uncle
Jesse—uh, I mean, John Stamos, and that fat kid that turned out to
be Hollywood heartthrob hot (so I’ve been told by women), Josh
Peck. Basically, a guy’s life is flipped upside-down when an
illegitimate son shows up and tells him that he is also a
grandfather. I am only hot and cold on this show as I haven’t seen
enough advertisements about it, but I’ll tune in for the first
three episodes when they premiere next week.
After that, they have the Grinder,
starring Ben Savage and Rob Lowe, a show I know even less about
outside of the fact that they’re lawyers in a small town. Someone
mentioned a big fish in a small pond thing and it got me thinking
about Robert Downey Jr.’s The Judge—probably not a good
comparison. I feel the same about it as I do about Grandfathered.
I’ll give it the first three episodes, but I can’t say I don’t
see my interest already fizzling.
But then we go from the “eh!”
category back to, “I’ve got to see this!” Filling out the rest
of Tuesday is Scream Queens (not to be confused with the VH1 reality
series from near a decade ago). You want young starlets? They got
Emma Roberts, Keke Palmer (#Keeks), Lea Michele and Abigail Breslin.
You want older stars? They got Jamie Lee Curtis and Niecy Nash. You
want blood, guts, mayhem and all-around bitchiness? Who-hoooo-hooa!
They got that. Scream Queens is set to follow a new year at Wallace
University’s most popular Sorority house. After an unfortunate
death rocked the campus 20 years ago, a sudden and new string of
murders has come to grip the campus again.
Why I’m Interested?
From Ryan Murphy, creator of Amerian
Horror Story (a favorite) and Glee (never quite got into it) and
Nip/Tuck (loved the first two seasons then it fizzled), comes this
little comedy horror gem (fingers crossed, here’s hopin’!) that,
from what I’ve read will be another anthology series such as AHS
but highly toned down in gore for network TV. I’m also excited to
see it because I recently released my own horror revolving around
sorority house horror entitled DARKER (#DARKER) currently out on
Amazon. Much less humor, I’d like to see what commonalities we’ll
have. And I’m always up for a good scare.
Next, we have Rosewood on Wednesdays
which will have Empire as the follow-up in its sophomore season. More
on that later. What about Rosewood? Well, I’m not really that
jazzed about this show. Starring Morris Chestnut, who I highly enjoy
in many of his movies, it’s a show about a pathologist who works
with the police a lot. The crux or draw to get you to watch: he’s
extremely close to death because of a rare birth defect with his
heart. To that, I react with this:
Yeah, it seems just like another
run-of-the-mill procedural cop show and with Minority Report and
Limitless already on my new show card, not to mention the returning
favorites, I’m not that excited about another case-of-the-week
drama. While I’d love to support more minorities in good roles, I
don’t see myself tuning into this until my mid-season slump/hunt to
see if I missed something good.
Moving on!
Fox Thursdays is pretty much old hat,
bringing back two old favorites in Bones and Sleepy Hollow. While I
completely hate the move of Sleepy to Thursdays (yes, put all the
black shows/female dominated shows on Thursdays as if Grey’s,
Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder and The Blacklist weren’t
already enough), I do thank God and the creator of DVR almost
everyday.
Fox Fridays will be a sort of shuffle
day. They will start with returning shows Master Chef and World’s
Funniest and throw whatever reruns tickle their fancy into those
slots whenever desired. And, of course, Saturday is sports and Sunday
is Animation Domination (yes, I still call it that even though Last
Man on Earth is coming back along with Brooklyn-9-9). Unfortunately,
I stopped watching most of that stuff long ago and only tune into
Bob’s Burgers occasionally because I love the awkwardness of that
family.
To sum up Fox, they seem to be playing
fairly safe with their new shows banking on the cache of certain
names or certain races of people (hint, hint every night has black
people). However, it should be of note that Fox has always skewed
both younger and/or more ethnically diverse ever since the days of In
Living Color, so not much surprise there.
CW
Speaking of younger skewing, next up is
the CW—the dreaded Marcia of the Network TV Brady Bunch. Awkward
and gawkish, the CW will continue to stay true to itself and see many
returning shows including, The Flash, iZombie, Jane the Virgin,
Arrow, Supernatural and a slew of others. Note that I only actually
watch one show on CW which is The Flash—I came into Arrow too late
for me to really enjoy it and don’t have time to catch up with it.
The good news about the CW is that just about all of its shows are
returning, so congratulations to the shows that got viewers to
believe in them. The bad news is that because of all the returns of
hour-long dramas and comedies, most of their new shows won’t
premiere until mid-season or as a replacement of something that gets
unexpectedly canceled. The even worse news is that the only show they
do have coming out new is the show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend which I will
have to do a completely separate post on. Why? Because from the
trailers and commercials I’ve seen of the show, it sounds a lot
like my new book, “Yep, I’m Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend”
slated to come out in early October. I don’t know if I’ll watch
this show yet but wait for a post maybe in a week or two talking
about it more in depth as well as my book and why it matters that
they look so similar.
As for the mid-season shows, again,
wait until January.
Pasar!
NBC
Next, we have NBC. Where to begin with
NBC? They have a slew of shows which are new and look good/are
possible rip-offs of other things, and I cannot wait to see all the
knock-off glory.
They start their Mondays with an old
stand-by, The Voice. You know, that’s the one where the people sing
and there’s the chairs and, uh... like... some other stuff.
Competition! They move into their new show Blindspot at 10pm.
Starring Jaimie Alexander—the
non-Wonder Woman, who should have been Wonder Woman who, instead,
played Lady Sif in Thor—as a tatted-up Jane Doe found in a bag in
the middle of Times Squares (Fabo from D4L would be proud; it’s an
obscure rap reference. I ain’t got time, look it up!). She doesn’t
know who she is or why she’s there but the tattoos are not just
clues to crimes, but tell a story of who she is and her connection to
the FBI agent who has been put in charge of her mystery. A lady
Bourne Identity which was just a more specialized version of Dominic
Purcell’s 2002 show John Doe, this will see the lovely Ms.
Alexander as a kick-butt enigma knowing stuff but not knowing why. A
mystery wrapped in a mystery, topped with a bubbling layer of
cheese... and more mystery, this is sure to keep me guessing for at
least as long as Red’s real identity on The Blacklist did.
Why I’m interested?
Oh! I guess I already explained that,
didn’t I? Did I say that Jaimie Alexander is one of the 252
Hollywood women that I have a crush on and wouldn’t mind having
babies with? I did say that? When? Just now? Gotcha! You readers are
tricky.
Passer!
Tuesdays will see more of The Voice
followed by new shows Chicago Med and Best Time Ever with the
returning Chicago Fire coming back in November to replace the latter
show. While I am highly interested in the city of Chicago right now
(“Yep, I’m totally stalking my Ex-Boyfriend” is set there), I
haven’t watched any of the Chicago shows and am just not that
interested in another medical show. Sorry, Chicago Med, I’m
probably not going to watch you.
Best Time ever will also most likely
get the cold shoulder as variety shows of this nature seem more
YouTube clip-worthy than having me devote a full hour to view it.
Wednesdays will also be filled with
returning shows, including a second season for the Mysteries of
Laura, which I will be watching, and Law and Order SVU which I dabble
in. Chicago P.D. Will end the night.
Then on Thursday is when things get
interesting with two new shows sandwiching The Blacklist into the 9pm
time slot (still don’t like it because it’s against Scandal, but
it did alright there last year and my DVR came in handy). Up first,
they’ll start the night with Heroes Reborn.
To start, I am surprised that NBC
didn’t go for the kill ABC trifecta and switch Heroes Reborn to 9pm
on Tuesday to go against Agents of SHIELD or move it all the way to
Mondays at 10 (the first incarnations original slot) to go against
CBS’s Supergirl come late October. If they had moved it to Tuesdays
against SHIELD and moved Chicago Med to Thursdays, they could have an
almost exact copycat night with ABC.
I digress. Heroes Reborn brings a
renewed spin to the original show in which people were given
superpowers because of some moon/sun eclipse thingy. As with most
things involving superpowered people, it will be dealing with those
who have the powers and those who want to destroy them, or capture
them or do other such terrible things with them. The thing working
against it is that, unlike Marvel’s shows, CW’s superhero
universe, and even DC shows on Fox and CBS, Heroes Reborn neither has
anything to connect it to something else nor does it really have a
rich and long-standing source material. This may have been one of the
reasons it originally got canceled. With the influx of superheroes
now, it is hard to say whether this can stand above the rest of the
crowd.
Why I’m Interested?
OK, by now fans of the original Heroes
show can probably tell I wasn’t much of a fan the first time around
(moon/sun eclipse thingy? Come on, Michael, do your research). You
have to remember that the first one came out back before comic book
adaptation hysteria kicked into overdrive. If felt too much like
X-Men and I was never fully into X-Men. This time, I’m giving it a
chance simply based off the fact that there was such fan support for
it that NBC saw fit to bring it back. That doesn’t happen often,
which means (it better mean!) that there was something good I just
missed the first time around. We’ll see.
As said, The Blacklist follows that,
but then another new show entitled The Player will air. Probably my
most intriguing show of the fall, The Player looks similar to a TV
idea I had way back in the 90s (maybe one day I’ll get to make it)
entitled The Game. This rendition sees Wesley Snipes in all his
Wesley Snipes-black glory returning to someplace other than prison
for IRS and tax fraud. Ha ha ha! #TheShadeIsReal! But seriously, he
doesn’t stray too far from the criminal element as he plays a
broker/game executor who oversees a high-stakes gambling arena where
the super wealthy gamble on crime. Yeah! Crazy, right? It totally
just blew your mind and then you shrugged and said, “eh! I could
actually see that happening.” Now you’re thinkin’, “holy
crap! How is he readin’ my mind?” Hey, it’s just how I roll.
Philip Winchester will play the titular
character who will be forced to complete complex tasks and stop
crimes, while people bet on his ability to accomplish such charges.
Forget figuring out How To Get Away With Murder, he’ll have to
figure out how to save a life, who shot the sheriff, and who’s that
lady week after week. It’s... just... a lot.
Why I’m interested?
Well, I finally get to see Wesley
Snipes on TV—always been a very specific dream of mine. I also like
the concept of the show as it will surely be challenging morally and
seems to have a very Liam Neeson’s Taken kind of feel to it. If it
can keep the intensity and pace each week while building up to a
climax that would see the Player confronting this group of super
wealthy people, I’m all in.
Then, in a strange and unconventional
twist, NBC has decided to put two comedies on Friday after having
abandoned their Must See Thursdays TV slogan they had back since
Seinfeld first premiered, maybe longer than that. To add to the
weirdness, their first comedy will be the returning Undateable, which
I never watched but heard great stuff about. But, in a Drew Carey
late 90s early 2000s spin on things, Undateable will be live... all
season. Teh! Yeah, take that in for a moment. Not that live
television is anything new, but the insignia of “live” is usually
saved these days for award shows and reality competitions, or at the
very least variety shows where flubs and mistakes from the script can
actually endear us to an actor more (Hi, Jimmy Fallon!). Doing this
with a scripted sitcom for longer than two episodes is a big risk,
which could either pay off in massive dividends or crash and burn the
sophomore comedy. Either way, well played Undateable. I am now
intrigued to see where this is going.
The same can’t be said about the one
new show on Fridays, Truth Be Told. Starring Saved By The Bell blonde
kid not playing Saved By The Bell blonde kid (Mark Paul Gosselaar for
you lames) and black bailiff from the highly underrated and even more
under-watched Bad Judge, this show is about... uh... Well, there’s
these two married guys and they... um... I’m sorry, is this a new
age version of Seinfeld? I can’t for the life of me figure out what
the hell this show is really about. It’s not about people falling
in love. It’s not about a modern family. It’s not really about a
group of friends struggling to be single in the big city either. So
what the heck are they doing? A tee-hee, I don’t know but Vanessa
Lachey is on it, so... that’s somethin’.
NBC rounds out the night with Grimm (my
fave) and their usual Dateline which then oozes over into both
Saturday’s and Sunday’s schedule when football isn’t on. From
the list of shows, it seems like NBC is trying to at least appeal to
the current trend of superheroes, as well as inject some more
minorities into their line-up with The Player, Truth Be Told and
Chicago Med. Baby steps.
ABC
And Finally, we have ABC. Oh, ABC, my
beloved. What shows shall you enamor me with this season only to
cancel them before I’ve had time to truly enjoy the bounty of their
stories and the richness of their characters? Why do I return to you,
my love, when ill-will and scars remaining from shows taken before
their time are fated between us? What new heights shall I soar to on
the back of twisty, turning good shows? What unforeseen and
unmitigated depths shall I sink when a show I’ve long anticipated
turns out to be terrible and bland? Only time shall tell, I suppose.
We begin with Mondays slate of shows.
Two old familiars return with Dancing With The Stars #DWTS already
started and Castle (#Castle) premiering tonight. For what it’s
worth I so enjoy both shows but can see how some fans have tired on
both of them. I mean, how long can people make the life of a writer
interesting, am I right? Oh, wait...
Tuesday is where we see our first drop
of new blood, though, technically its just old blood but with a new
and tighter face. The Muppets, after making their movie return a few
years back, return to the small screen and boy is it looking to be
controversial for the first few episodes as news broke earlier this
summer about Kermit and Ms. Piggy breaking up. OK, honestly I am
probably not going to watch the show but, come on, who didn’t see
the two of them breaking up? It’s been how many years he’s been
hoppin’ on that and he hasn’t put a ring on it yet to make her a
Mrs. (that was a little dirty wasn’t it)? With all joking aside,
it’ll be in the half hour time slot right before sophomore comedy
Fresh Off The Boat. Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD is holding steady in
its third season at 9pm as mentioned before while ABC will slot a new
show at 10pm. The new show, Wicked City won’t start until October
after a few weeks of Beyond The Tank, but I’ll talk about it here
as it is supposed to start soon enough.
Admittedly, I haven’t seen or read
much about Wicked City. It doesn’t seem to be that hyped of a show
by the network which is generally a bad sign, but I’ll tune in for
the first three anyway. What’s looking like it could be an
anthology series in the vein of American Crime, it is a modern period
piece set in 1982 LA where music and hard drugs mingle into murder
and mystery. It has a few recognizable names to it if you watch
enough TV/Film like Ed Westwick and Taissa Farmiga, but other than
that it seems to be a big mystery.
Why I’m Interested?
Again, I’m not stoked to see
it but I will tune in as it promises to be a harder, darker-toned
look at crime that will break from the normal cop procedural symptoms
and look at the crimes from all sides like American Crime did. That
is not to say I was enthralled with American Crime but found it
decent for network TV.
Bewegen auf!
Wednesday stays completely the same for
now with every single sitcom coming back and the night ending with
Nashville. Of course, viewers will look forward to ABC’s click and
news-cycle baiting Black-ish premiere that will highlight the use of
the dreaded N-word. To that I say, I enjoy watching Nashville.
Onward to Thursday, which also will see
a seismic shift in absolutely none of its programming. The same
line-up of Grey’s (I wrote something up on that, concerning Ellen
Pompeo’s comments earlier this summer), Scandal (prepare thyself
#gladiators #Scandal) and How To Get Away With Murder. With the
latter going into its second season, each show has proven to be a
ratings juggernaut on Thursdays as compared against NFL numbers.
We’ll see how viewers and Grey’s core fans respond to the
aftermath of the whole Derek fiasco.
Friday also doesn’t show much new
programming as ABC is still trying to rebuild its TGIF of the 90s
with Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing starting the night. While I
thought Reba McEntire’s Malibu Country from, like, two years ago
was a worthy coupling to Tim’s zany aging white man troupe, the
network has decided to add a middle-aged Asian man and his family to
the mix.
Coming to 8:30pm ABC Fridays is Dr.
Ken, replacing last season’s Cristela which felt like it would have
gone great with CW’s Jane the Virgin if made into a one-camera
format. Dr. Ken will follow popular “that one Asian guy in that
funny movie” actor Ken Jeong as he brings a funnier, fantasized
version of his real life before fame when he was just a lowly
super-educated doctor. A “what could have been” look at his life,
it’ll be your standard family sitcom focused on upwardly mobile
Americans.
Why I’m Interested?
Well, out of all the new shows coming
out, I am probably the most mixed about this one. From one vantage
point, I really want to see this to see if Ken Jeong’s humor not
only translates well back to TV (he’s been a little dirtier in the
films and was only a tertiary character on Community) but also to see
if he’ll be able to adequately play both the straight man and the
set-up guy as is generally required in sitcoms. On the other hand, I
feel this show doesn’t have the full network backing as it is being
placed in a black hole of a slot. See, I feel like if ABC is going to
bring back TGIF—as they already have TGIT—then go all out with
it. Move one of the successful Wednesday sitcoms to Friday after Tim,
move Fresh Off The Boat and The Muppets also so that you can then
have Shark Tank earlier in the week. By toe-dipping, they make me
think they don’t have faith in the property.
Saturdays will stay open for films,
sports and specials as usual, but Sundays will see the rise of two
new shows. Just like Last Man Standing, ABC execs have been looking
for something to compliment Once Upon A Time (#OUAT) and Revenge. Now
that Revenge has been served... its walking papers, only OUAT remains
with America’s Funniest Home Videos still in the 7pm spot for those
that watch it. While AFV will have new host Alfonso Ribeiro, he will
not be the only new, black addition.
That’s right, they’re adding black
gold, oil to be precise. At 9pm will follow probably my third most
anticipated show of the fall, Blood and Oil. Centered around a young
couple that travel to North Dakota to strike it rich in oil, and the
preying family they intersect with on their search for riches, this
is bound to be a twisty, turny, backstabbing soap drama that has been
missing since the first season of Revenge (though I enjoyed all 4
seasons). With Don Johnson attached as the baron, rich guy standing
in the way of the young couple’s hustle, I am highly intrigued.
Why I’m Interested?
For the past few years, I have been
watching Dynasty on DVD. One of the two shows to drive the 80s wild
with its opulence, high fashion and over-the-top catfights—sorry,
lady quarrels—it showed that rich people could be just as
deceptive, mean, conniving and cutthroat as the people at the bottom,
they just look better doing it. That, coupled with Dallas, ignited a
need for the nighttime soap outside of procedurals and doctor shows.
If Blood and Oil can channel even a hint of those shows or the modern
day Dynasty (Empire), I’m in for at least half a season. It’s
lily whiteness will not be a problem for me.
Speaking of the whitest show we know,
ABC made an interesting choice following Blood and Oil up with
Quantico. Let me just get my TV exec playing hat out for a second and
say that from everything I’ve seen so far of Quantico, it feels
more like a Tuesday at 10pm show to me for ABC. Listen, if you watch
enough TV and tune yourself into the mood of networks and of the
viewing people, you can tell that some shows should air on certain
days of the week. Quantico finishing off the Sunday schedule doesn’t
seem like a brilliant choice as it looks a little too involved
plot-wise for viewers winding down their weekend and looking to focus
on work the next day. Then again, AMC had Breaking Bad and HBO has
Game of Thrones and True Detectives but it should be noted that those
shows were either in the summer or had far shorter seasons than what
is expected of Quantico. The only way I see this being a good day for
it is if it brings back memories of Alias. But again, I digress.
Quantico, led by the gorgeous Priyanka
Chopra, will follow a new class of recruits to the FBI’s famed
Quantico training facility. You’ll see them grow and becoming the
agents they will be in the future. Then (and this is where a full
season of this might make some viewers weary on Sunday nights), the
show will hit us with a dual narrative as we jump forward in time to
see that one of the recruits has pulled off “the biggest terrorist
attack on US soil since 9/11.” Gasp! Yeah, I know. Similar to
HTGAWM, you’ll spend much of the season trying to figure out who it
is while also getting wrapped up in the romance drama.
Why I’m Interested?
For one, it shows that the networks are
reaching out so far into diversity now that they’ve actually put an
Indian woman as the lead on a show. For that, I applaud them,
especially knowing that at some point a great deal of viewers will
mistake her for Middle-Eastern. I am also interested in the whodunnit
aspect of the show as this will cause me to hate everybody and nobody
at the same time. Paradoxical! And if it does end up having parallels
with Alias, I’m all for that as well. The one thing I don’t want
is for it to become another FlashForward in which the action slows
down to such a crawl mid-season when things are supposed to be
getting more intense that the writers suddenly have no plans for
season two and leave everything too tidy while not solving the main
mystery. Solve the main mystery of who did it, but in doing that,
present us with a secondary mystery for next season.
Well, there it is. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. A very long post, for a very long season ahead
of us beginning later on tonight. So, what new shows are you eager to
see? What old shows are you going to tune in for? Are there some old
shows that you’ve finally given up on in favor of that new hussy?
Or are you upset that your new show isn’t listed and isn’t coming
on until later in the season? Don't be afraid to include any new cable shows you think are going to be amazing. I need to know your thoughts. I need to know them now! Questions, comments and, more comments
down below.
As always, check out my books on Amazon
(if you’re looking for Halloween scares check A Furious Wind, DARKER,
Brand New Home or The Power of TEN. For those interested in something a little more
dramatic, check out The Writer. The final episode of season one of
The Writer is coming this Friday. All other 14 episodes are out now
available exclusively on Amazon. Join us on Goodreads to talk about
books and TV, and subscribe to my blog.
Until next time, “I watched every
show! Every single episode. I’m all caught up and I feel superb! I
watched every show.”
P.S. Sure, my sign off just happened to
be lines from Andy Samberg’s Emmys opening last night. So! It still
applies to me. Come on ask me anything? Actually, don’t ask me
about The Walking Dead... or Fear The Walking Dead... or True
Detective... or what happened on Big Brother. Crap! I gotta go see if
Mr. Samberg has room in his Under The Dome/Lost dungeon hatch.
