Gotham
Fox / Mondays / 60 Minutes / Drama
First episode: September 22, 2014
Cross Between: Smallville and Batman (1989)
8.5/10
Despite what you’d guess of me, I’m actually not a fan of the Batman franchise, at all. To this day I’ve never been able to sit through Batman Begins, and though I loved The Dark Knight, I thought The Dark Knight Rises was just as bad as the previous Batman movies, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. In general, I think film adaptations of any DC comic is a losing game. So no, I have absolutely zero bias toward this episode.
For non-fans of Batman: This is a prequel to everything Batman. An origin story of characters that are well known in the Batman franchise, but requires no knowledge or fandom of the Batman world to get into. It’s a cop show, but it isn’t the standard case of the week procedural. The leading character is Jim Gordon, a rookie detective played really fucking well by Ben McKenzie, whom I’ve never really paid any attention to because I never watched The OC. Though the show is accessible and meant to draw a crowd from a non-Batman-loving crowd, I’m not sure if you’re gonna like this one, unless it converts you.
For fans of Batman: I think you’ll like this. Focusing on Gordon is a smart move. Bruce Wane (a genius casting of David Mazouz) is just a kid and only has like three lines in the whole episode. Although I’m really getting sick of seeing all of these Origin Stories on comic books, they’re doing it justice here. I think this show is gonna stick around, but I do think they’ve given us too much too soon. We’ve already met Gordon, Bruce, Alfred, Penguin, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, and that’s just what I caught on to. I think that should’ve been spaced out. Doing so would’ve added longevity and interest to the show, so they might’ve shot themselves in the foot by putting it all out there at once. But… compared to everything else Batman and DC that we’ve gotten in movies and TV lately, I have to say this is their best outing. Of all the previous incarnations of Batman, this most reminds me of the first Burton outing, the 1989 Batman, down to the opening sequence.
Fox desperately needs a hit show, and though I can’t imagine Gotham drawing a huge crowd (especially considering its time slot has it up against The Voice), it seems as if Fox is aiming to make it their new flagship series, which tells me cancelation isn’t in the cards.
Stylistically, this is the coolest show I’ve seen in a while. It has a really great cast, including Jada Pinkett Smith. The characters are good, the writing is sharp, and unlike most DC comic adaptations, it’s just plain cool. Though I think it’s a bit of a flub that they’re trying to have it both ways by appealing to both fans and non-fans, I do think this is going to be a good show, I think it’s off to a great start, and I’ll actually be watching it– even as a non fan of Batman. Arguably the best new show of 2014.
Scorpion
CBS / Mondays / 60 Minutes / Drama
First episode: September 22, 2014
Cross Between: NCIS and Elementary
0/10
When I said 2014 was going to be a bad year for television…
This caught my eye as the Executive Producer credit is given to the writing team of Robert Orci and Alan Kurtzman, the guys behind the Hercules TV show, Xena, Alias, the Transformers franchise, Star Trek (2009), Sleepy Hollow (2013), etc. But they didn’t write this. If they did, maybe it would’ve been watchable, as Scorpion is arguably the worst pilot I’ve ever seen make it to the air.
This is a classic CBS cop/procedural/crisis drama filled with a team of quirky people with goofy names and distracting wardrobe. It’s one of those shows about super smart people that are non-stop talking their technobabble, throwing out statistics, percentages, insane deductions like looking at a photo of someone and knowing that they must be left handed, and silly things like “I know you’re lying because [insert ridiculous body language observation here]”. I find these shows to be incredibly annoying. The main character claims to have an IQ of 195, yet he’s not remotely likable and whoever wrote his dialog is lucky to have an IQ of 90. Worst of all is that people actually watch these shows and keep them on the air, but that’s a discussion for another time. And even among those types of shows, this is scraping the bottom of the toilet bowl.
This pilot was directed by the guy who does the Fast and the Furious movies. They dive right in to the crisis of the week. And, taking a step back, one would think they’d at least come up with a rather good plot, right? Wrong. The episode is about how Air Traffic Control at LAX had a software glitch and can’t communicate with commercial airliners, which will mean tens of thousands of people will die because the planes are going to crash and/or be shot down. No, really. That’s actually what it’s about. They didn’t think that planes do have pilots to land them, nor did they get the memo that commercial airliners have a constant open line with any Air Traffic Control at any airport in the world, (in reality, another airport would just take over traffic control duties and relay them to the airplanes, or have them land at other airports). So as to how one airport having their phone line down means hundreds of airplanes are “going to start falling out of the sky” is beyond me. (There’s literally over a dozen major airports in California alone, not counting Air Force Bases.)
But beyond the terribly conceived plot, the characters are all absolutely horrible and flat. The whole way it’s executed is mindless, unlikable, unrealistic, and the actors (including an out of place Katharine McPhee and Robert Patrick) look like they’re bored at best. It’s the kind of thing that you could only stand if you were half-watching it while cooking dinner. Scorpion is television at its absolute worst.
A to Z
NBC / Thursdays / 30 Minutes / Comedy
First episode: October 2, 2014
Cross Between: How I Met Your Mother and New Girl
7/10
Television is in need of a hit comedy on a massive scale right now. The Networks know this, and are quite desperate to find it. So, they cling to gimmicks in the absence of genius, and considering the underlying gimmick behind How I Met Your Mother, it’s not hard to figure out where A to Z comes from.
The stunt here is that the show follows a couple that meet and get together in this pilot. The voiceover says the series will chronicle the 8 months they are together, which leaves it open to the question of whether they break up or get engaged at that point. Even further as a stunt, each episode is going down the alphabet in its title– this one being “A is for Acquaintances”.
A to Z has more exposition than heart, and it steals its comedic template from the pilot of New Girl, all the way down to the 80’s movie obsession (in New Girl, it was Dirty Dancing, in A to Z it is Back to the Future: Part II). It has scattered flashbacks and embarrassing moments showing these people doing what people in their late 20’s are depicted doing in television– badly singing along to cliché songs, shouting at the TV over sports games, and everything else that New Girl has already done.
The show is funny without following the three-a-page one-liner jokes found in sitcoms, which is a relief. And A to Z actually is in touch with modernity, accurately portraying the culture of the eldest of Millennials, something that Selfie tried and failed to find. The pilot is modern, likable, cute, and good but not great.
My favorite element of it is the reversal of stereotypical gender roles– the couple, Adam and Zelda (lol I see what you did there) portrayed by Ben Feldman (Michael Ginsberg on Mad Men, and Fred on Drop Dead Diva) and Cristin Milioti (the alas-revealed mother on How I Met Your Mother) are stereotypic reversals. Adam is an optimist, romantic, heart-on-sleeve love bird, and Zelda is tough, pragmatic, and emotionally guarded. I really like Bed Feldman in general, and I like Cristin Milioti in this, but I’m not entirely convinced on either of them being star characters, nor did I find their chemistry worthy of a television series. Maybe the characters haven’t had the time to be fleshed out yet, or maybe the whole thing is a misfire. I’m not sure.
What I didn’t like about this episode was that I thought it was poorly directed, and also, the secondary characters (the friends of Adam and Zelda) are incredibly flat, and I just didn’t like them. Shows like New Girl work because Cece is just as fleshed out and fun on screen as Jes, and A to Z misses the mark on making any worthwhile characters beyond Adam and Zelda.
I really wish I liked this more. The pilot has some really good moments, and it has life, a head, and a heart. I really like the ‘world’ they’ve created in it. But the whole thing is about the relationship of this couple, and since that relationship isn’t one I really care about, I don’t expect this show to be around long, and I don’t think it’ll be missed. It’s good enough, but I don’t care enough. I predict C is for Cancelation.
NCIS: New Orleans
CBS / Tuesdays / 60 Minutes / Drama
First episode: September 23, 2014
Cross Between: NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles
7/10
All these procedural cop franchises– NCIS, CSI, Criminal Minds, etc, are the filler of television: formulaic, familiar, predictable. They employ the most actors, writers, etc, and they also happen to have the largest audience. It’s not my cup of Red Bull, and it never will. I understand why people watch them, but it’s frankly entertainment that is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.
The issue these shows face is that so many of them are being made, that certain things need to be done to keep it spiced up. At the core, NCIS: New Orleans is the same as the other NCIS shows– it’s a procedural cop show with quirky characters that isn’t particularly intelligent, it takes no risks, but it is entertaining. So when these new shows pop up, we have to examine the settings and characters of this particular series, and decide if we like them enough to watch. Does a new NCIS set in New Orleans work? Yes. It does. Yeah, it’s a total stunt, but they’ve gotta keep the franchise alive, so a fresh coat of purple and gold paint works just fine.
Scott Bakula is someone I quite like, and he plays the lead detective in this show. He’s popped up recently on your TV’s in Behind the Candelabra and Looking, but he hasn’t been a regular on the small screen since Enterprise went off the air 9 years ago, so it’s a welcomed return for him, despite his inconsistent southern accent. The rest of his team are… well, they’re there. And they’re like all the other endless sidekicks you see on NCIS and CSI. These aren’t as annoying or unrealistic as others I’ve seen, but I did roll my eyes a time or two.
The backdrop of New Orleans is actually quite cool. They utilize the setting of the city just right, without going too much in either direction of oversaturated or underused. So yes, it is a welcomed zest of cajun spice in an otherwise bland franchise, and considering its title, timeslot, and Network, this show is probably going to be on the air for a while. If you like these kind of shows, you’ll love NCIS: New Orleans. It’s not my thing, but they did a good job, all things considered.
Mid-Flight Entertainment 