It's that time again. 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 'em out and offer my opinions on which ones work, which ones don't, and why. I'll list this first batch starting with the good ones and work my way down to the bad ones.
FOX: Fringe (9/10) (official site)
Here's yet another fantastic sci-fi/action/drama series from J.J. Abrams and his team of talented collaborators at Bad Robot. Featuring many Alias/Lost vets like Jeff Pinkner (show runner for Fringe), Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Burk, it's hard to not assume that this'll become something great. While this pilot I saw is slightly rough around the edges, it's still a wonderfully dynamic and engaging series, and does feature some nice, final-looking on-screen title graphics.
The cast is led by Australian actress Anna Torv and ex-Dawson's Creek veteran Joshua Jackson. Torv does a very nice job with the strong FBI agent character, easily breathing life into the multiple levels of her character. She definitely feels like an excellent piece of casting. Joshua Jackson does an admirable job channeling the like of Liev Schreiber, and it works. While I'm not much of a Dawson's Creek fan, I consider most of the cast of that show to be rather talented (well, except for Dawson himself, James Van Der Beek, who couldn't act himself out of a paper bag). Jackson definitely nails the charming rogue nature of his character, and he plays very well against his co-stars. One of those co-stars is John Noble, who plays his estranged and also brilliant father. The three of them work very well together. The rest of the cast is well rounded, but don't get all too much time to get a good grasp of who'll be important in the long run of the series. Mark Cherry, of Boston Legal, is a nice bit of casting.
The story will definitely attract fans of The X-Files, because this show is RIGHT up that alley. It's got the feel of the show, the hints at big mythologies, the supernatural and experimental sciences, and, well, the FBI. This show has the potential for greatness. Let's hope FOX can, after all these years, be the one to get The X-Files lightning to strike twice. Many networks tried during the 90's, and failed. Perhaps the network that made The X-Files work can be the one to do it a second time. We can hope.
TNT: Leverage (9/10) (official site)
While we may have seen this kind of heist story done many ways over the years, I can't help but love this pilot. It has the potential to be a series I'll totally love. Executive produced by the notable Dean Devlin (who partnered with Roland Emmerich for years on the likes of Stargate & Independence Day, and went on later to vastly underrated movies like Eight Legged Freaks), who also directed this first episode, this pilot totally works.
Casting of the pilot is fantastic. I've long believed Timothy Hutton to be a undervalued actor, and he's great as the lead character of this series. His dynamic as the leader of the team, and the one of them that used to be "the good guy" tracking down the rest of them, works amazingly well. He brings the tragic past of the character to life, which will surely be a well exploited aspect to the character for the run of the series. And he plays off the more flippant characters who make up the rest of the make-shift team very well. The wonderful Christian Kane (who played the great Lindsey McDonald in Angel) is a hoot as the suave action hero of the group. Beth Riesgraf is hilarious and loads of fun as the nimble cat burglar of the team. Aldis Hodge is also lots of fun as the tech nerd hacker. Gina Bellman brings a nice elegance as the grifter of the team, and perhaps romantic co-lead. And tossed in for good measure in the pilot is Saul Rubinek, an actor who always reminds me of Elliot Gould.
The production of this pilot is excellent. It's very well paced, has a great sense of comedic timing, and pretty much works all around. Dean Devlin clearly has a fondness for the heist genre, and this series plays off the trapping of the genre very well. Does it reinvent the genre? No, not really. Most of it has been seen before in varying ways. Regardless, it's still a phenomenally entertaining pilot. I look forward to the series, which has been greenlit by TNT for at least a 13 episode run.
TNT: Raising The Bar (7/10) (official site)
While we're on the subject of Angel alumnus (not to mention TNT), we have this series which features an ensemble cast including J. August Richards (who played Gunn on Angel). Featuring a pedigree of creator Steven Bochco, one would write it off as just yet another legal drama. And they'd be somewhat right in doing so. Still, it's a pretty good legal drama, with a bit of a twist. In this one, we have the young characters from both sides as a group of friends, from the DA to the prosecuting attorney to the defending attorney, they all end up sitting at the bar at the end of the day together. It's an interesting tack on the age-old genre. And I suppose Bochco is a likely as anyone to try it.
The cast is an assortment of interesting choices. The lead character is arguably the defending attorney played by none other than Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Yes, Zach Morris from Saved By The Bell. I suppose it's unfair to still be tying him down to that show, since he's been in plenty of stuff since, like Commander In Chief. I'm not entirely sure if his performance completely works. It borders a little bit too much on the emotional, but that's the type of character they're trying for, so it might be a spot-on performance. It's just a bit hard to tell at first glance. Melissa Sagemiller is a nice piece of casting, and her character gets to play that balancing act amongst the group of characters the best. J. August Richards is good as the DA, but doesn't get a whole lot to do in this pilot. Jane Kaczmarek is surprisingly slimy in her holier-than-thou role of a judge. Jonathan Scarfe comes through with a nice performance as her clerk, among other things. The rest of the cast works well enough.
The series definitely has the potential to work well. Or it could fall flat on its face. This one's hard to peg on just the pilot episode, so we'll see how further episode shape up.
FOX: Do Not Disturb (3/10) (official site)
This is an unfunny sitcom that falls into nearly every trapping a sitcom could succumb to. It has amateur, lazy writing with either stereotyped or completely unfunny punchlines. It also has cookie-cutter characters, almost none of whom should work if not for a couple good performances. And I'm not sure if they are intentionally trying to poke fun at the two-set sitcom setting by having "the upstairs" and "the downstairs" as a division of the classes of employees or not. If so, perhaps they are a bit clever. If not, it's yet another sign that this lame sitcom ain't long for this world. Still, this series is for the most part harmless. It's not Cavemen. I suppose Cavemen will be an abysmal low for the sitcom genre by which all future sitcoms will be forgiven for not being nearly as bad. At least I hope we'll never see another sitcom as bad as Cavemen again (I doubt anyone could accurately sum up how much that show sucked, beyond just showing somebody a copy of said series).
In terms of casting, Jerry O'Connell may be a bit typecast as the shallow, misogynistic hotel manager, but it works none-the-less. It's sad that that O'Connell's previous sitcom, last season's Carpoolers on ABC, didn't survive. It was a lot of fun, and criminally overlooked. Molly Stanton (who was great in the also-overlooked series Twins, a sitcom on the final year of The WB that co-starred Sara Gilbert, Melanie Griffith and Mark Linn-Baker) does another great job of playing the airhead blond. And Jesse Tyler Ferguson (who was fantastic on the also-overlooked sitcom The Class the season before last on CBS) gets in a few good jokes. Well, he makes a few bad jokes work, anyway. Niecy Nash is completely forgettable in her unbelievably stereotyped role. And then there's the surprise guest casting of Robert Wagner as the hotel owner, which works well enough.
Put simply, this is a totally skipable sitcom. If only the ones I referenced in this review could have survived rather than this one ever existing. Don't waste your time on it.
FX: Pretty/Handsome (2/10) (IMDB site)
Joseph Fiennes, Carrie-Anne Moss, Blythe Danner, Sarah Paulson and Robert Wagner. A very impressive cast. If not for that cast and their performances, this train wreck of a drama would be nigh unwatchable. FX seems to be striving to become a lame, pathetic HBO wannabe. Why anyone would want to be HBO is beyond me, but they seem to want to do so all the same. Basically speaking, this is the story of a controversial transsexual doctor in an uptight, high class community. It's "edgy" approach to the subject will surely gain it some press. It's just that "look at us, we're pushing the envelope!" nature of the show that makes me completely uninterested in it. From the cliche upper class trappings of the community to the "shocking" transsexual plotline(s), I got bored with this pilot quickly. It's such a complete waste of a fantastic cast. I did manage to get through the whole pilot, though my mind did start to wander a couple times while watching it.
Oh, and it was strange to see Robert Wagner and Niecy Nash, who were both in Do Not Disturb, together in this pilot as well (very together).
HBO: True Blood (2/10)
In yet another example of how much I despise HBO, there's this abomination of a great series idea botched in almost every possible way. I couldn't even manage to finish watching this pilot. Aside from the casting of the excellent Anna Paquin (in a fairly uneven character), and the idea itself that the series is based on, I can't say anything nice about this show. The production feels amateur (which is at least the one thing HBO could usually be relied upon to do right), the characters are all over the place and a complete mess (if not just downright annoying people that I wouldn't want anything to do with in real life). The narrative is anybody's guess. They seem to simply be taking the idea of vampires having revealed themselves to the public, and becoming second class citizens, and have dropped various characters and scenes in around the idea. If they're planning to go somewhere with this narrative, it sure escaped my viewing of the first 2/3 of the pilot.
Then there's the foul-mouthed, explicit nature of the show, which is a completely tired and annoying aspect of nearly everything HBO puts their name on. Just once, I want to see HBO make something that could even remotely have a chance at airing on a broadcast network. Or even stand a chance at a PG-13 in theaters. I became sick of their one-note reason for existing long, long ago. Look at us! We can swear! We can show nutidy! We can have bloody violence!
