TV Casualty: A bit late but... Edition
Oct. 26th, 2012 04:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23Elementary (CBS)- Ok, I am a sucker for a quirky detective. Take a mid-90s indie movie star give him a certain tick that makes him brilliant but impossible to live with and I won't miss an episode (It's true- I never missed Tim Roth in Lie to Me despite its several faults.
Of course, the glaring problem with this show is it sets certain expectations by invoking Sherlock Holmes' name. With the highly admired BBC's Sherlock and Robert Downey Jrs successful movie franchise, this project can't really compete.
Not that you need to worry about that. The show doesn't really try to hide that it's the next procedural show off CBS's assembly line. Nor do you need to worry that there is no chemistry between the stars Miller and Lucy Liu. Given the circumstances of the show, there shouldn't be.
Of course, this is Miller's show and he's captivating. Although, at times his antisocial behavior resembles not House or Dexter, but Dr. Sheldon Cooper. CBS doesn't encourage too much originality, and at times, this resembles too much of CSI: Big Bang Theory. Even if Sherlock's quirks are played more for light humor than dark brooding, it's not necessarily a bad thing.
There's reasons you might not like it (The viewer never really gets to solve the mysteries), but I enjoy it a lot, based on Miller's quirky, charismatic character. Aidan Quinn and Liu prove solid support. Based on the concept, I didn't have this as a show to make the cut, but based on what I have seen, I think it will catch on.
Certainly, it's become probably my favorite show of the 2012-13 season.
Last Resort (ABC)- I am getting to this one late and it sounds like it is close to the chopping block. It has writers and creators with a decent pedigree (Lost, Dead Like Me, The Shield), but I am clearly here for Andre Braugher (Homicide) in a lead role.
Braugher indeed is the reason to watch this show as he unsurprisingly gives a strong performance here. The rest of the cast is decent support with Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, X-Files) playing his charismatic regular role.
This was one of the best-reviewed shows of this new season, and at its best moments has some great potential. The plot involves a submarine that is given some questionable orders to launch nuclear missiles into Pakistan. The commander (Braugher) refuses, which leads to the US attacking its own ship, sinking the boat, and leaving the group marooned on a resort island (which makes the title). I have heard comparisons to Lost and Battlestar Gallactica and its best, it really offers a lot of possible directions to go (There is military action, ensemble group interaction, a conspiracy, and the mysterious seclusion of a desert island).
However, critics and viewers (and people I know) have started to abandon the show after episode 4 or so. I am backlogged, so I can't speak authoritatively, but there's flaws as early as that pilot episode.
While the show could pull in people who like military action and suspense fans, it sort of straddles that line, and may lose fans of either. Worst of all, the show occasionally steers into the kind of terrible emotional melodrama (and terrible sex stories) that populate ABC's most popular shows of recent years (Desperate Housewives, Gray's Anatomy).
Likely, the end will be premature, which is a shame because Braugher is amazing and marketed right, could become a bit of a cult hit. I don't know how ABC gets there. Grey's Anatomy doesn't seem like the most obvious of pairings on Thursday Night, and I don't know that audience would embrace it (though it more resembles that show than say, a military procedural show like NCIS). Although it's Political at times, it's more soapish than West Wing. Best then, probably for ABC to embrace the similarities with Lost, but unlikely that lightning will strike twice.
So many directions this could go, but it sounds like the likely destination is Cancelville.
Of course, the glaring problem with this show is it sets certain expectations by invoking Sherlock Holmes' name. With the highly admired BBC's Sherlock and Robert Downey Jrs successful movie franchise, this project can't really compete.
Not that you need to worry about that. The show doesn't really try to hide that it's the next procedural show off CBS's assembly line. Nor do you need to worry that there is no chemistry between the stars Miller and Lucy Liu. Given the circumstances of the show, there shouldn't be.
Of course, this is Miller's show and he's captivating. Although, at times his antisocial behavior resembles not House or Dexter, but Dr. Sheldon Cooper. CBS doesn't encourage too much originality, and at times, this resembles too much of CSI: Big Bang Theory. Even if Sherlock's quirks are played more for light humor than dark brooding, it's not necessarily a bad thing.
There's reasons you might not like it (The viewer never really gets to solve the mysteries), but I enjoy it a lot, based on Miller's quirky, charismatic character. Aidan Quinn and Liu prove solid support. Based on the concept, I didn't have this as a show to make the cut, but based on what I have seen, I think it will catch on.
Certainly, it's become probably my favorite show of the 2012-13 season.
Last Resort (ABC)- I am getting to this one late and it sounds like it is close to the chopping block. It has writers and creators with a decent pedigree (Lost, Dead Like Me, The Shield), but I am clearly here for Andre Braugher (Homicide) in a lead role.
Braugher indeed is the reason to watch this show as he unsurprisingly gives a strong performance here. The rest of the cast is decent support with Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, X-Files) playing his charismatic regular role.
This was one of the best-reviewed shows of this new season, and at its best moments has some great potential. The plot involves a submarine that is given some questionable orders to launch nuclear missiles into Pakistan. The commander (Braugher) refuses, which leads to the US attacking its own ship, sinking the boat, and leaving the group marooned on a resort island (which makes the title). I have heard comparisons to Lost and Battlestar Gallactica and its best, it really offers a lot of possible directions to go (There is military action, ensemble group interaction, a conspiracy, and the mysterious seclusion of a desert island).
However, critics and viewers (and people I know) have started to abandon the show after episode 4 or so. I am backlogged, so I can't speak authoritatively, but there's flaws as early as that pilot episode.
While the show could pull in people who like military action and suspense fans, it sort of straddles that line, and may lose fans of either. Worst of all, the show occasionally steers into the kind of terrible emotional melodrama (and terrible sex stories) that populate ABC's most popular shows of recent years (Desperate Housewives, Gray's Anatomy).
Likely, the end will be premature, which is a shame because Braugher is amazing and marketed right, could become a bit of a cult hit. I don't know how ABC gets there. Grey's Anatomy doesn't seem like the most obvious of pairings on Thursday Night, and I don't know that audience would embrace it (though it more resembles that show than say, a military procedural show like NCIS). Although it's Political at times, it's more soapish than West Wing. Best then, probably for ABC to embrace the similarities with Lost, but unlikely that lightning will strike twice.
So many directions this could go, but it sounds like the likely destination is Cancelville.
