Category: Fall TV Preview (Page 18 of 27)

Old Show, New Season: “Las Vegas”

September 20, 2007 /

Well played, NBC-Universal. Well played, indeed.

You no doubt sensed I’d never seen an episode of “Las Vegas” before, since I’d never written about it before, but you knew that, as a full-fledged TV geek, I would’ve been nonetheless aware that the show was losing longtime major players like James Caan and Nikki Cox this season. You also would’ve known that, as a recipient of your daily updates, I would’ve been aware that the show was adding to its cast an actor who I’ve always found imminently watchable: Tom Selleck.

So what do you do?

You send me the previous season of “Las Vegas” – that’d be Season 4 – on DVD, then, a few days later, you send me an advance of the 5th season premiere, which features Selleck’s debut on the show. You knew I was curious enough about Selleck’s role that I’d at least want to check out the season premiere, and since any TV critic worth his salt knows that he should watch the previous season’s finale first, you knew you had me right where you wanted me.

So, yes, I admit it: last night, I watched the 4th season finale of “Las Vegas,” then followed up with the 5th season premiere, and I was hooked. Maybe it’s just that I was tantalized by all the flashing lights in The Montecito’s casino (though it’s more likely that I was tantalized by Nikki Cox, Vanessa Marcil, and Molly Sims), but whatever the case, that 4th season finale was really well constructed, moving back and forth from storyline to storyline at a frantic pace, always keeping you on your toes. The three stars of the episode were the plotlines involving Sam (Marcil) being locked in a steamer trunk by a psychopathic millionaire, Mary (Cox) wanting to go kill her abusive father who’d just been released from prison, and a Marine who’s losing his shit and is swearing to go AWOL if Danny (Josh Duhamel) doesn’t find a way to keep him from having to go on his 3rd tour of duty, and all ended in cliffhangers that, had I been watching the finale when it originally aired, would’ve made me want to throttle someone. Now that’s the sign of a good cliffhanger…and, now that I think about it, possibly the sign of a slightly unhinged mind as well. Whoops.

So how does the season premiere hold up?

Well, not to offer too much in the way of spoilers, but since it’s common knowledge that both Marcil and Sims are returning to the show for another season, we’re probably not giving away too much to say that Delinda (Sims) wasn’t killed by a bomb, and that Sam managed to get out of her predicament…and in an impressively shocking manner. In fact, the 2-hour 5th season premiere uses the framing device of having Sam talk to a therapist about recent events in both her life and the lives of her co-workers; it’s pretty clear, though, that the reason it’s two hours long is that the first hour is intended to wrap up loose ends from Season 4 and the second is to set the stage for what’s to follow in Season 5. Selleck plays A.J. Cooper, a cattle magnate who swoops in, pays off The Montecito’s 241 million in back taxes, and takes over ownership of the casino and resort; he’s an unknown commodity, so none of the employees know what to make of him…or, more importantly, if they’re going to be allowed to keep their jobs. (There’s not really much tension over that, though, since you know everyone who’s left standing by the second hour is still going to be a regular on the series.) Selleck gets the chance to use his skill at offering completely inscrutable facial expressions, which is always fun to watch, since you never know when he’s finally going to break into a smile.

So, okay, fine, I’ll keep checking in on “Las Vegas.” It’s mostly because of Selleck, admittedly, but even so, there still seem to be enough interesting events going on around The Montecito to make it worth occasionally programming it into my new TiVo.

In the meantime, enjoy this lovely montage, courtesy of NBC:

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, News, Reviews, TV, TV Dramas

Let’s talk “Back To You”

September 19, 2007 /

Did anyone catch the premiere of “Back to You” this evening, or were you all too busy trying to spot evidence of child welfare violations in “Kid Nation”?

If you saw it, I’m curious as to what you thought. There have been a lot of mixed reviews about the show floating around, some calling it the savior of the traditional multi-camera sitcom, others call it a waste of Grade-A comedic talent. Personally, I thought the pilot was just…okay. Not fantastic (except for Fred Willard), not awful, just…okay. I’ve now also had a chance to check out the second episode, “Fish Story,” and…well, I gotta tell you, I feel exactly the same way about it.

It’s great to see Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton on the small screen again, and, yes, they do seem to have a chemistry, but right now, the banter isn’t up to par with what we’ve come to expect from either of them. It’s pretty lazy stuff. I’m much more interested in seeing the rest of the ensemble cast begin to blossom; Ty Burrell’s delivery as Gary Crezyzewski is nice and dry, and, well, Fred Willard can do no wrong in my eyes, but, criminey, two episodes in, and I still feel like Josh Gad’s performance as Ryan Church is nothing more than an imitation of Chris Farley’s motivational speaker who lives in a van by the river!

Anyway, here’s a clip from the pilot, if you missed it tonight:

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, News, Pilots, Reviews, TV, TV Comedies

Pilots Revisited: “Reaper”

September 19, 2007 /

So we got our hands on a copy of the revised pilot for “Reaper,” and the DVD box now features a tagline for the show:

“Meet Satan’s biggest tools.”

Ugh. God love The CW for picking up this great series, but, wow, that’s awful. I mean, seriously, it’s pretty awful. The only thing vaguely funny about it is that it reminds us that, at one point during the pilot, The Devil (Ray Wise), sees the soul Sam’s supposed to return to Hell and says, “Oh, gag! Look at that tool! Would you capture him already?”

That moment is funny. The tagline itself is not.

Okay, back to the revised pilot.

As you may or may not have read in our previous entries about the show, the role of Andi, Sam’s co-worker who he’s been crushing hard on for quite some time, has been taken away from Nikki Reed, star and co-writer of the film “Thirteen,” and given instead to Missy Perigrym, best known to fans of “Heroes” as Candice Wilmer, the shape-shifting associate of Noah “H.R.G.” Bennet. Since I am a fan of “Heroes,” that might be why, when Perigrym first appeared on the screen in “Reaper,” I found it almost impossible to buy her as the nice, sweet, and sympathetic girl that Sam’s been falling for. Fortunately, however, as the show progresses, it gradually becomes a bit easier to accept her in the role…and, besides, however I might feel about her being in the cast, it’s clear that The CW is banking on her recognizability, since they’ve pointedly placed her visage on the cover of this promo DVD, right along with co-stars Bret Harrison and Tyler Labine. (Why Wise isn’t front and center, however, is a little inexplicable.) Otherwise, however, this revised pilot for “Reaper” looks and feels just as fantastic as it did before, packed with action, comedy, drama, and plenty of special effects. And, to be fair, it’s likely that most viewers will readily accept Perigrym in the role of Andi without question; I’m probably just partial because I really liked the clean-cut feel that Reed gave the part.

Mark your calendars: the series premiere of “Reaper” – directed by Kevin Smith, no less – airs Tuesday, September 25th, at 9:00 PM EST. You won’t want to miss it.

Here’s a teaser…

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, News, Pilots, Reaper, Reviews, TV

Pilots Revisited: “Private Practice”

September 19, 2007 /

Confession: prior to the announcement that “Grey’s Anatomy” was going to be getting a spin-off, I’d never seen a single episode of the show.

Even worse, I don’t even have a decent excuse for it. Everybody I know who’s seen the show has loved it, so, really, it just comes down to the fact that there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to check it out. One of these days, though, I’m sure I’ll take the plunge and pick up a copy of Season 1 and just jump headlong into the series…and based on how much I enjoyed the pilot for its spin-off, “Private Practice,” that day may come sooner than later.

Y’know, I’ve tagged this as a “Pilots Revisited” entry, but the truth is that this is the first time I’ve checked out this pilot; before, all I had to go on was last season’s 2-hour episode of “Grey’s,” where Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery (Kate Walsh) leaves Seattle Grace Hospital and goes to visit one of her friends, Dr. Naomi Bennett (Merrin Dungey), who’s a member of the Oceanside Wellness Center, in Santa Monica, CA. It was what the kids today call a “backdoor pilot,” which is to say that it gave the folks at the network all they needed to see to know that Addison’s adventures would make for a great series on their own…so, basically, if you saw the episode and heard about the impending spin-off, you won’t be surprised to find that the first episode of “Private Practice” – “In Which We Meet Addison, A Nice Girl From Somewhere Else” – begins with Addison tendering her official resignation to Dr. Webber (James Pickens, Jr.) and heading off to join Naomi’s practice.

Well, first things first: Naomi is now played by Tony Award-winning actress Audra McDonald, who you may or may not remember from a few episodes of “Kidnapped.” Otherwise, however, the gang from the Wellness Center remains intact…and, frankly, that gang – Tim Daly (“The Nine”), Taye Diggs (“Day Break”), Amy Brenneman (“Judging Amy”), Paul Adelstein (“Prison Break”), and Chris Lowell (“Veronica Mars”) – is what makes this show worth checking out whether you’re a fan of “Grey’s Anatomy” or not.

(Here’s a YouTube link to an ABC / Entertainment Weekly segment collaboration which talks about the cast.)

This first episode revolves around one key event: Naomi neglected to tell anyone else at the Center that she’d hired Addison, which annoys everyone to a certain degree, some more than others. Addison rolls with the reaction from her new co-workers and tries to indoctrinate herself into the group as best she can; meanwhile, everyone else pretty much just goes on with their normal day. The feel of the show is, I’m led to understand, pretty similar to “Grey’s”…which is to say that when I asked fellow editor David Medsker, “Does ‘Grey’s’ kind of blend humor and drama, with really snappy back-and-forth patter when the primary cast members are talking to each other?”, he responded, “I’ve only seen an episode or two, but that sounds about right.” So, y’know, take it with a grain of salt. As it stands right now, it looks like the series will blend the expected medical drama with a more leisurely pace – Addison’s told to expect an average of about one patient a day – that will no doubt lead to just as many developments in the characters’ personal lives as you’d anticipate in a nighttime soap.

Stupid ABC, making me want to watch a spin-off of a show I’ve never even seen before. Why must you create such a fantastic ensemble? You suck.

P.S. More, please.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, News, Pilots, TV, TV Dramas

Pilots Revisited: “Chuck”

September 18, 2007 /

I’m still a little uncertain about “Chuck.” There’s a whole lot to like about it, but I still can’t get a handle on what the producers are planning to do with it.

Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) is the title character, a computer geek who finds himself working simultaneously for two different government agencies as a result of his former college roommate sending him a coded E-mail which, when Chuck opens it, bombards him with an ungodly amount of classified information that’s sent straight into his subconscious mind, only emerging in bits and pieces as he spots various “triggers.” It’s an odd blend of action, comedy, and romance…and when I say “odd,” I mean that it feels like it’s trying too hard to be all three things; there are elements of “Alias,” Jim Cameron’s “True Lies,” and even “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” but it’s definitely not a seamless blend of genres.

Having now checked out the pilot as well as the subsequent pair of episodes, it’s fair to call the second episode, “Chuck versus The Helicopter,” the series’ equivalent of a “Gilligan ruins a chance for the castaways to get off the island” plot, where it looks like Chuck’s gonna get the classified government information out of his head but – rather unsurprisingly, given that it’s only the second episode – he doesn’t. Hopefully, we won’t be getting one of these every week…and, more crucially, let’s hope the show’s humor doesn’t slide into the God-awful slapstick realm that it does here. There’s a scene where Chuck brings Sarah (Yvonne Strzechowski), the government agent who’s posing as his girlfriend to stay close to the secrets he possesses, over for dinner at his sister’s house, and when it comes times to serve dessert, you’ll feel like you’re watching a bad episode of “Three’s Company.” Thankfully, the third episode, “Chuck versus The Tango” (are you seeing the pattern here?), works better than either of the two segments which preceded it, leaving us hopeful but still fearful that it could prove to be an isolated success.

My biggest concern about the show, though, is that I’m just not entirely sure how “Chuck” is gonna do in that Monday-at-8PM timeslot it’s been given by NBC.

I’m not saying it’s gonna do badly there, but, basically, I just have absolutely no feel for it at all. It’s up against one massive ratings powerhouse (“Dancing with the Stars”), but, otherwise, all of its other competition is probably more or less on even footing. “Prison Break” is coming off a lackluster season, while the other two major networks are offering up sitcoms that are really funny but have rarely been major comedic players in the ratings (CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother” and The CW’s “Everybody Hates Chris”), and they’re paired with new sitcoms that seem poised to score similar descriptions in the future (CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” and The CW’s “Aliens in America”). If it doesn’t take off right away – and, of course, provided that it maintains the standards set by that third episode – here’s hoping they at least give it a shot elsewhere on the schedule.

Here’s a teaser:

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, News, Pilots, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Premium Hollywood

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑