TV: Breakin' Down the New Dramas
I know, I know. We didn’t exactly get around to reviewing all the new fall TV shows. Keeping this site up to date isn’t a real job for us or anything (unfortunately). My partners in crime may or may not do the same, but I’m going to rank the new shows and give a quick take on the ones I’ve seen. I’ve only seen one episode of a few of them, but that’s how it goes sometimes. This will be the drama edition. Comedy/reality will follow. Enjoy.
1. Prison Break: I think it’s developed well since the first episode. You can read Shoeless Joel’s review here.
2. Supernatural: Call me a nerd if you will, but I dig this one. It’s about two brothers who are searching for their dad, but the catch is that all three of them are ghost hunters. Their mother/wife was killed by a…ghost? Monster? I don’t know what you would call this particular entity, but it sure was nasty. Anyway, one of the brothers wasn’t too keen on joining the hunt for dad, but then his own girlfriend was killed in the same manner as his mother. So now these two are following the trail their father left in his diary, getting rid of all sorts of baddies along the way. It’s basically as creepy as you’ll see on network TV, and I can give it a solid 4 cents.
3. Invasion: This is another one that’s gotten a lot better since the pilot. I wasn’t sure if I’d stick with it after the first one, as much as I like the new trend of sci-fi TV shows. But I did, and I’m glad. If you haven’t yet, catch this one. You can’t miss it—it’s on after Lost.
4. Killer Instinct: You wanna see a messed up crime show? Here you go. It takes place in the FBI’s deviant crime unit, and that is indeed how the show’s crimes can best be described. I like it, but I’m a crime drama junkie. It’ll appeal to those who want to see something different and don’t mind something a little…well, deviant I suppose.
5. Threshold: I liked this show better than Invasion at first, but now I’m not so sure. I still enjoy it, but the other alien show is growing on me too, like so much ectoplasm. I really liked where the show started, but now it’s got to go somewhere. You can see my review here.
6. Reunion: This season’s guilty pleasure for me. You can read my review here.
7. Inconceivable: Ming Na goes from ER to a show about a fertility clinic. She just can’t get out of the medical field. As much as I wanted to hate this show, I didn’t. My wife watches the Discovery Health channel a lot. She enjoys her baby shows like I enjoy animal and history shows. So I didn’t need fictional baby drama to go along with the real-life stuff I sometimes stumble upon. I can confidently recommend this show, though. (Side-note: It just occurred to me that the show hasn’t been on for the last two weeks, so I looked it up and it seems that NBC has pulled it for an unspecified period…of course we all know what that means, right? Oh well.)
8. Criminal Minds: For some reason I was a little wary of this one, but I liked the pilot and it’s gotten better in the couple of episodes since then. It’s about a profiler in the Behavioral Science Unit in the FBI. The acting is good and they focus enough on the characters while solving the crimes caused by those whom they profile.
9. Surface: Started out slow, but has since become…less slow. It’s not great or anything, but the special effects are good; and as a self-professed animal show nerd, how could I skip a show about sea monsters?
10. E-Ring: The pilot was pretty good until a bad ending ruined it. It doesn’t help that it’s up against Lost and Criminal Minds either. I’ve never been a big fan of political drama, but if that’s up your alley you may want to check this one out. From what I saw, it’s political drama that doesn’t get too caught up in itself. (Pilot only)
11. Night Stalker: Interesting premise, questionable execution. I can’t remember many details, but the pilot followed a journalist whose wife had been killed in a strange way. His self-assigned mission was to look for similar deaths and try to figure out what was going on. I liked that it followed journalists instead of cops or what have you, but I could not stand the main character’s female counterpart, played by Gabrielle Union. I don’t know whether it was her or the character she played, but I just couldn’t get into it at all. They had a bit of a Superman vibe going on, with the main character as Clark Kent, Union playing the Lois Lane, and a photographer with Jimmy Olsen-like qualities. I think I’ll probably give this one another shot after I missed the second episode, but I’m not expecting much. (Pilot only)
12. Ghost Whisperer: It’s just your basic run-of-the-mill touchy-feely ghost drama. Huh? Well, Sara Michelle Gellar or Jennifer Love Hewitt or someone else who uses three names plays the title character, who does her best impression of Haley Joel Osment by seeing ghosts and helping them out. I only saw the pilot here, too. It’s harmless, but nothing to write home about. (Pilot only)
13. Bones: I only saw one episode of this one, and it wasn’t enough to keep me sticking around. As a fan of crime dramas, I think they could have done a better job with a pretty good premise. Shoeless Joel’s review is here. (Pilot only)
Dramas I didn’t see:
Just Legal: I think this was a drama, anyway. It’s cancelled, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
Commander in Chief: You couldn’t pay me to watch this one. I’m not a Geena Davis fan to begin with, and just from the promos, this show seems so full of itself as to be nauseating. And like I said before, I’m not a big fan of political dramas.
Close to Home: The lead actress bothered me just on the commercial, so I wasn’t about to tune in for a whole show. It also reeked of bad melodrama.
Sex, Love & Secrets: A show about a bunch of women talking. That sounds like Gilmore Girls. Who am I to mess with a formula? Just a guy who isn’t watching.
After looking this over, it looks like the theme of shows I didn’t like so much was “actresses that got on my nerves”. Luckily there were enough good actresses in Inconceivable and Killer Instinct alone to make up for it. There’s no Lost this season; no show that’s going to be a huge breakout hit, though Prison Break is pretty solid. If there’s one show I’d recommend that you may not be watching, it’s Supernatural.
1. Prison Break: I think it’s developed well since the first episode. You can read Shoeless Joel’s review here.
2. Supernatural: Call me a nerd if you will, but I dig this one. It’s about two brothers who are searching for their dad, but the catch is that all three of them are ghost hunters. Their mother/wife was killed by a…ghost? Monster? I don’t know what you would call this particular entity, but it sure was nasty. Anyway, one of the brothers wasn’t too keen on joining the hunt for dad, but then his own girlfriend was killed in the same manner as his mother. So now these two are following the trail their father left in his diary, getting rid of all sorts of baddies along the way. It’s basically as creepy as you’ll see on network TV, and I can give it a solid 4 cents.
3. Invasion: This is another one that’s gotten a lot better since the pilot. I wasn’t sure if I’d stick with it after the first one, as much as I like the new trend of sci-fi TV shows. But I did, and I’m glad. If you haven’t yet, catch this one. You can’t miss it—it’s on after Lost.
4. Killer Instinct: You wanna see a messed up crime show? Here you go. It takes place in the FBI’s deviant crime unit, and that is indeed how the show’s crimes can best be described. I like it, but I’m a crime drama junkie. It’ll appeal to those who want to see something different and don’t mind something a little…well, deviant I suppose.
5. Threshold: I liked this show better than Invasion at first, but now I’m not so sure. I still enjoy it, but the other alien show is growing on me too, like so much ectoplasm. I really liked where the show started, but now it’s got to go somewhere. You can see my review here.
6. Reunion: This season’s guilty pleasure for me. You can read my review here.
7. Inconceivable: Ming Na goes from ER to a show about a fertility clinic. She just can’t get out of the medical field. As much as I wanted to hate this show, I didn’t. My wife watches the Discovery Health channel a lot. She enjoys her baby shows like I enjoy animal and history shows. So I didn’t need fictional baby drama to go along with the real-life stuff I sometimes stumble upon. I can confidently recommend this show, though. (Side-note: It just occurred to me that the show hasn’t been on for the last two weeks, so I looked it up and it seems that NBC has pulled it for an unspecified period…of course we all know what that means, right? Oh well.)
8. Criminal Minds: For some reason I was a little wary of this one, but I liked the pilot and it’s gotten better in the couple of episodes since then. It’s about a profiler in the Behavioral Science Unit in the FBI. The acting is good and they focus enough on the characters while solving the crimes caused by those whom they profile.
9. Surface: Started out slow, but has since become…less slow. It’s not great or anything, but the special effects are good; and as a self-professed animal show nerd, how could I skip a show about sea monsters?
10. E-Ring: The pilot was pretty good until a bad ending ruined it. It doesn’t help that it’s up against Lost and Criminal Minds either. I’ve never been a big fan of political drama, but if that’s up your alley you may want to check this one out. From what I saw, it’s political drama that doesn’t get too caught up in itself. (Pilot only)
11. Night Stalker: Interesting premise, questionable execution. I can’t remember many details, but the pilot followed a journalist whose wife had been killed in a strange way. His self-assigned mission was to look for similar deaths and try to figure out what was going on. I liked that it followed journalists instead of cops or what have you, but I could not stand the main character’s female counterpart, played by Gabrielle Union. I don’t know whether it was her or the character she played, but I just couldn’t get into it at all. They had a bit of a Superman vibe going on, with the main character as Clark Kent, Union playing the Lois Lane, and a photographer with Jimmy Olsen-like qualities. I think I’ll probably give this one another shot after I missed the second episode, but I’m not expecting much. (Pilot only)
12. Ghost Whisperer: It’s just your basic run-of-the-mill touchy-feely ghost drama. Huh? Well, Sara Michelle Gellar or Jennifer Love Hewitt or someone else who uses three names plays the title character, who does her best impression of Haley Joel Osment by seeing ghosts and helping them out. I only saw the pilot here, too. It’s harmless, but nothing to write home about. (Pilot only)
13. Bones: I only saw one episode of this one, and it wasn’t enough to keep me sticking around. As a fan of crime dramas, I think they could have done a better job with a pretty good premise. Shoeless Joel’s review is here. (Pilot only)
Dramas I didn’t see:
Just Legal: I think this was a drama, anyway. It’s cancelled, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
Commander in Chief: You couldn’t pay me to watch this one. I’m not a Geena Davis fan to begin with, and just from the promos, this show seems so full of itself as to be nauseating. And like I said before, I’m not a big fan of political dramas.
Close to Home: The lead actress bothered me just on the commercial, so I wasn’t about to tune in for a whole show. It also reeked of bad melodrama.
Sex, Love & Secrets: A show about a bunch of women talking. That sounds like Gilmore Girls. Who am I to mess with a formula? Just a guy who isn’t watching.
After looking this over, it looks like the theme of shows I didn’t like so much was “actresses that got on my nerves”. Luckily there were enough good actresses in Inconceivable and Killer Instinct alone to make up for it. There’s no Lost this season; no show that’s going to be a huge breakout hit, though Prison Break is pretty solid. If there’s one show I’d recommend that you may not be watching, it’s Supernatural.
Tha Docta's two cents. | 11:41 AM
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