With all the new fall shows debuting now or in the near future, here are some predictions on what will last and what will be cancelled considering the premise, cast and network.
Cancelled before Christmas
Selfie - edit, cancelled
A to Z, finishing first half season but cancelled
Manhattan Love Stor, edit, cancelled basically immediately
Marry Me
There's a chance one of the four can succeed in the post-HIMYM era, trying to fill that void. A to Z appears to be to HIMYM what Flash Forward was to Lost, where it attempts to address one complaint about a hit show (lack of resolution), but fails to account for any of the elements that made successful. Selfie has a chance to become an extremely dated-I-can't-believe-2014-was-like-that in just a few years.
While romantic comedies, none of which are likely to be as good as You're the Worst, populate the 2014 landscape, noticeably absent are the Friends clones. Happy Endings, Perfect Couples, and other that haven't lasted. I guess they are giving up on those.
Bad Judge, finishing first half season but cancelled
Bad Santa was great. Bad Teacher was not good. I don't see Bad Judge bucking the trend.
State of Affairs
No.
Cancelled After Christmas, Before Season Finale
Madam Secretary, edit, given a surprising full season pick up
Commander-in-Chief without the firepower. A tall woman attains a new position in the federal government, unexpectedly, and is going to do things her way, against the grain. I see this having a following but ultimately a hiatus or a timeslot change will keep the viewership down. There's too much on cable for this to gain a following.
Finishing Season One, Cancelled Before Two
Utopia - edit whoops, cancelled only 2 months into a full year season
Reality imports are always a good bet. However on the surface this one seems to be more about collaboration than conflict. In that, I mean that collaboration is the goal for the utopian society and there will be conflict on the way, rather than making conflict/choosing a winner the ultimate goal. The success may lie in the casting because while on some reality shows the reckless or unstable or unreasonable or incompetent make for good television, it may simply be frustrating to watch a group operate at a low capacity. It would be much more interesting to watch two competent groups compete for control and influence rather than have a few competents try to stave off a few village idiots.
Bringing it back may rely on how expensive this was to produce. But they won't bring it back if it has only middling success.
Gracepoint
Fox is moving more to a cable model in terms of ordering shows. It makes sense that Fox, the youngest and most cable-y of the networks would be the first to do this, especially with a only two hour primetime schedule each night. That said, Gracepoint is a closed end ten episode series where detectives investigate a murder. It appears to be in the vein of True Detective, Twin Peaks, The Following, The Killing, etc. It's also taking a page from the FX shows Fargo and American Horror Story with what appears to be an anthology format.
This show could return, perhaps in a different form. Perhaps with a different cast. Being only ten episodes and closed ended means it will be easy to catch up on if buzz around the show let's us know it's something we should spend our time on. Regardless of quality, the series will finish its run this fall.
Returning in Fall 2015
We have two shows that speak to the CBS brand and two that speak to ABC's brand. All will succeed.
Scorpion, picked up to fill full first season (currently #2 new show)
Big Bang, Hawaii Five O, A Team, blah blah blah. I expect a lot of magical computer hacking by this crew, followed by hitting the enhance button on the computer, all with one unattainably hot girl hanging around the group. Six years on CBS for this show.
NCIS: New Orleans, picked up to fill full first season (currently #1 new show)
They wouldn't have ordered this if their research didn't show they could have success with it. CCH Pounder is a great actress, so it's only sad that she'll be on here because it means she's less likely to be on something else like The Shield or Sons of Anarchy for a while. Four seasons on CBS.
How to Get Away With Murder, picked up to fill full first season
Grey's Anatomy is still on television. Scandal is popular enough to be in the zeitgeist. Murder looks like it even has a few aspects of Damages that will appeal to some typical cable viewers. I could see this lasting a few years and then surprising a lot of those cable viewers as something they like to watch in spades when it rains.
Blackish, edit, picked up to fill full first season
ABC's current hallmark are minority casts and family sitcoms. Blackish fits easily into a night with The Middle, The Goldbergs and Modern Family meaning that even if Blackish doesn't succeed, it can fill out the line up and make Wednesday a 20 years later version of TGIF. Or as Andy Bernard would say: "Man, TGI Wednesday. Gonna go home, get my beer on, get my LOST on".
But in all sincerity it seems like a pretty funny show and you have to trust the brainchild of Larry Wilmore.
Gotham, edit, ordered episodes to fill full first season
The number one seed coming into the Fall. Most likely to top the ratings and critical success. Expectations are high. Which could be its biggest weakness
Wild Card
Mulaney could wind up running for ten years or ten episodes. I honestly have nothing to add on predicting its success, but nothing would particularly surprise me.
edit, on the brink of cancellation, reducing episodes
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014
"The Good Listener" & "What Jesus Said" - Boardwalk Empire
Episode 5-02 and 5-03
Much like Game of Thrones, there are many characters, stories and locations, which means it often takes pairs of episodes to check in with characters. This episode touched on several Sirs-Not-Appearing from last week as they are often wont to do. Game of Thrones will go so far as to use the same director for 2-3 episodes in a row, which is rare for a television drama.
Signs of the Times
So we check in on Chicago and Eli and Van Alden are not getting a ton of respect from their Capone overlords. We're starting to see a lot more fedoras on people, noticeable as the men remove their hats in the elevator.
When this series began, the country was still feeling the Great War, about to recoil into an isolationist shell with the election of Warren G. Harding and lots of drinking. World War II is still ten years away but feeling the Great Depression taking hold as well as the rise of Roosevelt makes you think about the people who live through those thirty years. Had Jimmy survived, he may have been young enough to rejoin the Army and fight in two world wars. And I highly suggest reading that obit.
Speaking of Roosevelt, we hear what would be his campaign song. This is timed perfectly with PBS' new Ken Burns series released last week, "The Roosevelts". It is worth every minute of the seven parts and fourteen hours it takes to watch.
The song plays during the call between Nucky and Sally and she can hear it over the phone in the background from his radio, so they pause and listen to it...one in Jersey and one in Cuba. To think it was late in the first season we heard the first commercial radio broadcast reporting election results. The crowd gathered in the theater to listen to a radio that was placed up by a microphone. The world has gotten a lot smaller in five seasons.
Whiskeys and Scotches
Jimmy posed the question to Nucky a lifetime ago about what he wanted to be. Nucky eventually answered by shooting him in the face. But he eventually removed himself from public office and took on more of an emeritus role, collecting residuals on the boardwalk empire he created. His self consciousness with Joe Kennedy, who comes from a similar background and carries himself with more legitimacy, is palpable. He mirrors Joe's tetotaling in an attempt to build some common trust, but eventually only finds contempt from the man who, after see the club and its patrons and getting to know Nucky a bit more, responds with "What are you?" to Nucky's "Those men are gangsters."
So Nucky wonders, has he accomplished anything? Just in time for Margaret to return. The relieved and pleased look says it all.
Much like Game of Thrones, there are many characters, stories and locations, which means it often takes pairs of episodes to check in with characters. This episode touched on several Sirs-Not-Appearing from last week as they are often wont to do. Game of Thrones will go so far as to use the same director for 2-3 episodes in a row, which is rare for a television drama.
Signs of the Times
So we check in on Chicago and Eli and Van Alden are not getting a ton of respect from their Capone overlords. We're starting to see a lot more fedoras on people, noticeable as the men remove their hats in the elevator.
When this series began, the country was still feeling the Great War, about to recoil into an isolationist shell with the election of Warren G. Harding and lots of drinking. World War II is still ten years away but feeling the Great Depression taking hold as well as the rise of Roosevelt makes you think about the people who live through those thirty years. Had Jimmy survived, he may have been young enough to rejoin the Army and fight in two world wars. And I highly suggest reading that obit.
Speaking of Roosevelt, we hear what would be his campaign song. This is timed perfectly with PBS' new Ken Burns series released last week, "The Roosevelts". It is worth every minute of the seven parts and fourteen hours it takes to watch.
The song plays during the call between Nucky and Sally and she can hear it over the phone in the background from his radio, so they pause and listen to it...one in Jersey and one in Cuba. To think it was late in the first season we heard the first commercial radio broadcast reporting election results. The crowd gathered in the theater to listen to a radio that was placed up by a microphone. The world has gotten a lot smaller in five seasons.
Whiskeys and Scotches
- Had to chuckle at the feather in Eli's face, which reminded me of people with giant backpacks on the subway
- Line of the night - "Why must there always be pandemonium?!" Van Alden delivers it in his Van Alden way. This may surpass his "Take care and God bless" telephone farewell to his wife.
- The actor playing the commodore has the timbre of his voice down perfectly for these flashbacks. I wonder if the original actor recorded the lines for the new actor, like Kathryn Joosten did for Kristen Nelson's flashback scenes in "Two Cathedrals"
- Chalky brawls with his accomplice and kills him, much like his time with Purvis
Jimmy posed the question to Nucky a lifetime ago about what he wanted to be. Nucky eventually answered by shooting him in the face. But he eventually removed himself from public office and took on more of an emeritus role, collecting residuals on the boardwalk empire he created. His self consciousness with Joe Kennedy, who comes from a similar background and carries himself with more legitimacy, is palpable. He mirrors Joe's tetotaling in an attempt to build some common trust, but eventually only finds contempt from the man who, after see the club and its patrons and getting to know Nucky a bit more, responds with "What are you?" to Nucky's "Those men are gangsters."
So Nucky wonders, has he accomplished anything? Just in time for Margaret to return. The relieved and pleased look says it all.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Boardwalk Empire
Episode 5-01
Eight episodes and a seven year jump. That is how Boardwalk Empire is wrapping things up after its strongest season and strongest episode. Showrunner Terrence Winter says this is simply the show wrapping up Nucky's story, which even if HBO did suggest they bring it to a close, is probably true. That said, HBO has a history of splitting the difference on shows, giving them a few final hours to close shop rather than cancel it out right, but still not ordering a full season. It leaves the reputation of HBO as a story friendly vehicle intact, as well as allowing the showrunner to save face and put together a coda. It is interesting though that the show is not continuing in the direction of Season Four which placed Nucky in an emeritus position while the real action was in Harlem.
The jump means we miss out on Arnold Rothstein, one of the more compelling characters in the show. At the end of last season it looked as though he was going to intersect with Margaret as she slowly came back into the picture, but sadly we will not get to see that.
That said, I don't see how Margaret comes back into the fold. She may simply live her own life, and it's perfectly fine if that's the context we see her in. Don Draper rarely sees his ex-wife as they move further and further away from their 1963 separation/divorce. Maybe the most accurate thing to do is to move on. Reading Difficult Men, the author makes a point about television showing the mundane:
more about life simply happening, much the way it actually does, tough truths included
first wives becomes small distant chapters of a person's life.
The events of the flashback take place a few years after Deadwood is set, with present day roughly when Mad Men flashbacks are set. We need some sort of timeline:
This doesn't seem to amount to much more than a treasure hunt at the moment, which makes it seem like they couldn't think of anything for Chalky to do. Unless this has some serious character development, which will be difficult after his story last year, or plays a major role in another story (also hard to see) this could be the biggest miss since Gyp.
The story starts off like most romantic comedies where two people who are opposites ostensibly cannot stand each other, until they are thrown into a situation where they find themselves together.
Rum and Whiskey
Historical events
Eight episodes and a seven year jump. That is how Boardwalk Empire is wrapping things up after its strongest season and strongest episode. Showrunner Terrence Winter says this is simply the show wrapping up Nucky's story, which even if HBO did suggest they bring it to a close, is probably true. That said, HBO has a history of splitting the difference on shows, giving them a few final hours to close shop rather than cancel it out right, but still not ordering a full season. It leaves the reputation of HBO as a story friendly vehicle intact, as well as allowing the showrunner to save face and put together a coda. It is interesting though that the show is not continuing in the direction of Season Four which placed Nucky in an emeritus position while the real action was in Harlem.
The jump means we miss out on Arnold Rothstein, one of the more compelling characters in the show. At the end of last season it looked as though he was going to intersect with Margaret as she slowly came back into the picture, but sadly we will not get to see that.
That said, I don't see how Margaret comes back into the fold. She may simply live her own life, and it's perfectly fine if that's the context we see her in. Don Draper rarely sees his ex-wife as they move further and further away from their 1963 separation/divorce. Maybe the most accurate thing to do is to move on. Reading Difficult Men, the author makes a point about television showing the mundane:
more about life simply happening, much the way it actually does, tough truths included
first wives becomes small distant chapters of a person's life.
The events of the flashback take place a few years after Deadwood is set, with present day roughly when Mad Men flashbacks are set. We need some sort of timeline:
- Deadwood
- Nucky's flashbacks
- Downton Abbey
- Boardwalk Empire - main
- Mad Men flashbacks
- Mad Men - main
This doesn't seem to amount to much more than a treasure hunt at the moment, which makes it seem like they couldn't think of anything for Chalky to do. Unless this has some serious character development, which will be difficult after his story last year, or plays a major role in another story (also hard to see) this could be the biggest miss since Gyp.
The story starts off like most romantic comedies where two people who are opposites ostensibly cannot stand each other, until they are thrown into a situation where they find themselves together.
Rum and Whiskey
- Nucky's father sounds a lot like Bill the Butcher, who sounds a lot like
- Meyer Landsky is hanging out in 1931 Cuba, laying ground for 1950s Hyman Roth in Godfather II.
- At several points a calm beat sets up a burst of violence including Mr. Connors suicide, Nucky's dad hitting him and the assassination attempt in Havana
Historical events
- The Crash is referenced a few times, but the full weight of it doesn't seem to be felt yet
- Joe the Boss Masseria assassination sets up the five families in New York
- Elliot Ness' crack down
- Joe Kennedy making a fortune
- Gillian
- All of Chicago
- Capone
- Eli
- Van Alden
- Narcisse
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