OK, here’s that surprise review I was talking about in my previous Ponderings post. It’s time to start checking out the leaked copies of the new fall season TV series pilots. As always, many of these are original pilot cuts where cast members and scenes will be recast and reshot. These original pilots aren’t always completely accurate representations of the finished product. But, I’ll check out these pilots and offer my opinions on which ones work, which ones don’t, and why. They are listed here in no particular order. Well, that’s not true. They are in the order in which I watched them. OK, that’s a lie. I moved my review of Pushing Daisies up to the top to draw more attention to it. It would have been 4th in the list otherwise.

ABC: Pushing Daisies (10/10)

GASP! I knew next to nothing about this show before I started watching it. To be more specific, I knew nothing other than the name and the fact that I had looked up what network it would be on. As I began watching it, I instantly loved it. From the dizzying dialog to the floopy pacing, it was perfect. It took me a few minutes to figure out where I knew the lead actor from – “why, that’s Lee Pace!” (from Wonderfalls, one of my all-time favorite TV shows, and one of my key reasons for despising the Fox network). The more of this delectably enchanting show I watched, the more I started to wonder what warped mind was behind it. As it dawned on me that not only did Lee Pace star in it, but the razor sharp wit of the dialog reminded me a lot of Wonderfalls. Could it be Bryan Fuller behind this show? Sure enough, when it got to the credits at the end, there was Bryan Fuller’s name. He was one of the key people behind Wonderfalls (along with the great Tim Minear & Todd Holland). Fuller has also written/produced Dead Like Me and recently Heroes (as well as working on the Trek franchise back in the day). Ladies and gentlemen, this series may already be my favorite of the new season. It’ll be hard for something to top this. I think the copy I saw was the finished thing, as the visuals seemed final and the flow of it was spot on. Everything about this show is fantastic. Lee Pace and Anna Friel are wonderful in the leads, and have an instant chemistry. Chi McBride is the fun straight man to the surreal events in the world of this series. The fairytale mannerisms and design of the show is delightfully punctuated by the twisted sense of humor that I’m sure Fuller is responsible for. The “forensic fairytale” slogan for the series is certainly and accurate and amusing descriptive. And hey, this is on ABC, not Fox! Perhaps an excellent and creative show actually stands a chance on ABC. Something this good on Fox wouldn’t have a welk’s chance in a supernova. This is closer to having Wonderfalls back again than I could have hoped for. Please, Mr. Fuller, get some of the Wonderfalls cast to do some guest roles on this show. He already snuck in a subtle little “monkey” reference that I’m sure only us die-hard Wonderfalls fans inferred. I hope he hides some of the other Wonderfalls muses in the show (heck, he snuck the wax lion into a Heroes episode, so why not?). OK, I’m rambling at this point. I’ll stop writing this and cue the pilot up again. I gotta watch this one at least another time.

OK, just watched it again. I love this show. There’s no way there’ll be a better new show this year. No way. Not a chance. BTW, I love the music score. Not sure, but I think it’s by James Dooley. You know you’re watching a final cut of a series pilot when it doesn’t have temp music tracked in.

FOX: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (9/10)

Similar to when I heard they were making a third Terminator film (without James Cameron), I kinda flinched reflexively when I heard they were doing a TV series. Skeptical if it would work or not, I decided to do my best to keep an open mind and give it a chance. When I heard they cast Summer Glau as a friendly Terminator, that was the single spark needed to get my attention and anticipation going. So, does this series work? Surprisingly, it does. I have no idea how they are going to sustain this thing on an ongoing basis, but this pilot is fast, well produced, written solidly enough with a great cast. Who knows, Fox may actually pull this one off. Then again, it’s an ambitious sci-fi series on Fox, so it’s already got about 5 billion strikes against it. I’m sure it’ll have to fight to survive coming out of the gate, because no network sucks more than Fox at treating the shows well or supporting them. Lena Headey is remarkably good in the titular role of Sarah Connor, rising to the occasion of following up Linda Hamilton’s landmark performance. She can easily pull off the caring and emotional material right alongside the tough action material, and it all works very well. Thomas Dekker is a solid enough casting choice as John Connor. While most of this movie feels more like Terminator 2 than 3, Dekker’s performance as John is the one thing that feels a bit more like Nick Stahl’s performance, which is a good thing. Summer Glau is, of course, a fantastic choice for the empathetic terminator protector for John (amusingly named Cameron). Glau is highly praised by myself and most everyone else for her brilliant performance as River Tam in the Firely/Serenity franchise. She is a trained dancer and she was featured in tons of fantastic stunt sequences in Firefly & Serenity, which makes her eminently qualified to play a terminator. Richard T. Jones does a pretty good job as the FBI agent in pursuit of the mother and son. All in all, I think this series has an excellent chance of working, and I recommend checking it out.

CW: Reaper (9/10)

As one of the small number of fan for Fox’s overlooked comedy series The Loop (which ran for 17 episodes total in 2 short seasons), I was primarily looking forward to this show for lead actor Bret Harrison. When I heard that Kevin Smith was directing the pilot, that made me even more interested. The plot of an underachiever being forced to work as a bounty hunter for the devil brought to mind some previous tv shows, and I wasn’t quite sure what this one would end up being like. Thankfully, it’s primarily a comedy, and a funny one at that. Harrison is great in the lead. The show isn’t quite as energetic or insane as The Loop, but it’s in the same ballpark. Harrison’s performance, however, is very similar to what he brought to the table in The Loop. Ray Wise is a positively inspired choice to play the devil. Tyler Labine is very funny as the amusing best friend/sidekick character. Rick Gonzalez is a fun addition as a more hapless buddy. The romantic interest character of Andi was played by Nikki Reed in the pilot, but she has been recast by Missy Peregrym. Peregrym was surprisingly great in the underrated movie Stick It. Nikki Reed was OK in the role, but didn’t have much of a chemistry with Harrison. I’m hoping there’s more of a spark with Peregrym. No idea if she was recast because of performance/chemistry or being unavailable when it was picked up by the network (a pretty common reason to have to recast a role). While the show features a grim and cruel “reaper” kind of theme similar to Dead Like Me, most of the similarities stop there. It’s far less sentimental or dramatic, always preferring to go for the joke in any given situation. One can’t completely ignore the Kevin Smith aspects of the show, either. Things like the fact that the main characters are basically slackers working in the retail industry. Clerks, if you will. All these things roll into a fun mix of a show. I definitely look forward to the series, and I think The CW has a real winner.

NBC: Bionic Woman (7/10)

I’ll be happy to revise my opinion of this series, because I think it can be improved. I’d insert a “we can make it better” kind of joke here, given the material I’m talking about, but I don’t feel like trying to be lamely clever. I had a few reasons to anticipate this new series. At first, it was the fact that it was being run by David Eick, one of the two key people responsible for Battlestar Galactica (the other being Ron Moore). Some of the other producers on the series are also an attracting factor, like Laeta Kalogridis and Jason Smilovic. Kalogridis was a creator/producer of Birds Of Prey (and co-writer of other notable projects, like Oliver Stone’s Alexander). Smilovic has worked on underappreciated shows like Karen Sisco and Kidnapped. He also wrote the fantastic movie Lucky Number Slevin. So, plenty of talent behind the scenes. Then came news that Katee Sackhoff (the amazing Starbuck from Battlestar, and good friends with producer Eick) was cast in a story arc at the beginning of the show, which made me really anxious to check out the show. Then a little while later, it was announced that Sackhoff would be featured beyond the initially intended arc, and stay on as a recurring cast member. So, another bonus. Then, news of the departure of one of the producers/director on the series, Michael Dinner, to be replaced by Glen Morgan, famous for shows like The X-Files, Space: Above & Beyond, the Final Destination films, etc. So, yet another neato change. I was really anxious to check out the show by that point. The development of the show hasn’t been without some shake-ups and controversy, like that of Dinner departing and Morgan coming on board. Also, the casting of Isaiah Washington after the overblown controversy involving his dismissal from Grey’s Anatomy fuels the fire. For the record, another change they’ve made is the role of Jamie Summers’ sister, who is being recast and no longer a deaf character. I have no opinion on that change either way, though I do hope they turn down the attitude on the sister character a bit. Overall, I think the series has the potential to work. The cut I saw was a bit rough. It had some pacing problems, a handful of unfinished effects, etc. It’s really hard to judge something before it’s had that polishing touch put on it. The final aired version may work much better, at which point I’ll bump up my opinion of it. The series has some nice action scenes. It has some overtones of Nikita tossed in for good measure. Michelle Ryan is good in the lead. Sackhoff is fantastic as the “bad bionic woman” (the first one, actually). There’s not much from the original show left in the rework, beyond stuff like the name of Jamie Summers. Then again, Eick is no stranger to reworking 70′s sci-fi (Battlestar, of course). Speaking of Battlestar, I was pleasantly surprised and amused to see Aaron Douglas make a brief guest appearance in this pilot (he plays Chief Tyrol on Battlestar). Also amusing is the casting of Mark A. Sheppard, who’s had a featured role on Battlestar as well. I also think that the location they used to film the bar scenes at is the same bar that was featured in Birds Of Prey. Surely some Kalogridis link between the shows. Anyway, like I said, this one could turn out to be surprisingly great. I hope the final version is tweaked a bit, cause it could use some smoothing out of the rough edges. I do think this show will have trouble surviving, though, even if they do get it in shape. How wrong can you go, though – Miguel Ferrer is a regular…

CW: Aliens In America (6/10)

We now move on to this CW sitcom. It’s a fairly successful mix of previous high-school comedies with a fun politically incorrect twist of using current stereotypes, specifically that of a Muslim fish-out-of-water story. The cast does a nice job, and they have pretty good comedic timing between each other. The role of the father was recently recast with Scott Patterson (Luke Danes from Gilmore Girls), which’ll be in interesting difference for me to check out in the final aired version. This show is nothing to write home about or go out of your way to keep up on, but it’ll provide an amusing enough diversion for those that connect with it’s humor.

NBC: Chuck (8/10)

I’ll wrap up this first batch of reviews with this mostly clever spy comedy including a nerd twist. Featuring a character that works in a thinly veiled version of Best Buy’s Geek Squad (in this case Nerd Herd, which is part of the Buy More chain of stores), the series has a nice cast and some fun writing. It’s ridiculous, of course, but it has a simple charm about it. Zachary Levi is a nice, amiable choice for the lead role of Chuck. He balances a nerd character and a normal guy without overplaying it. Joshua Gomez gets to play up the nerd aspects a bit more as his friend, Morgan. The highlight of the cast is the inclusion of the great Adam Baldwin as an NSA agent who’s after Chuck for the secrets he has in his head. Yvonne Strzechowski is excellent as the competing CIA agent that’s after Chuck’s secrets. Sarah Lancaster is nice as Chuck’s sister, and Ryan McPartlin is funny as her boyfriend, “Captain Awesome” (a character that amusingly brought to mind comparisons of Barney from How I Met Your Mother, played by Niel Patrick Harris). While I was watching it, the film score geek in me couldn’t help being amused by how much use they got out of Thomas Newman’s score to Jarhead and John Powell’s scores to the Bourne films (a favorite of many pilot episodes of the last couple years). I’ll be interested to see how the final music score turns out. Overall, the series is engaging and amusing enough to make me think it’ll work over the continuing run.