And so the Season Begins!

Fox's Fall season began earlier this week, which is interesting.  I had always thought of Fox as late-starters with the Fall season, but this year they're diving right in.  And so shall I:

Sleepy Hollow (FOX, new.  Supernatural Drama.)

Premise: Revolutionary War soldier Ichabod Crane awakens in modern-day Westchester County, NY.  A reluctantly sympathetic sheriff’s deputy deals with the situation.

Promise: On its face, this show has many of the same appeals and flaws as Alcatraz (which I thought was ok) or Continnum (which I really quite like).  To wit:  A smart, plucky, competent young female officer is thrown in over her head, and must rise to the challenge of an inexplicable paranormal (and time-related) situation.  Tonally and thematically, though, it’s more like Grimm—a modern-day police officer inherits the superstition-laden responsibilities of her dead elder, but has a lot to learn to deal with the paranormal conspiracies that surround, and possibly infiltrate, her department.  Also like Grimm, it resides in the space between dark and cartoonish, not quite sticking with either.  Buffy pulled that off, but it’s a lot to ask of a show, and it requires the viewer to connect closely with the characters, which hasn’t really happened for me here. 

But that’s not the real problem with this show.  The problem is the stakes.  The show sets up, quite early, that the fate of humanity hangs in the balance of what happens on this show.  And “end of the world” is a tough place to start the stakes.  Certainly, we understand that the stakes are high….but there isn’t really anywhere for them to go, either.  Fate of the Galaxy?  Even a sharknado would be a let-down after this setup.  Recall that even Buffy started with “fate of the high school” and worked its way up to “fate of the town” before it ultimately to “fate of mankind.”  In fact, the only show I can think of that started this high on the stakes-ramp is Zero Hour, and that sort of awesome-train-wreck lightning isn’t likely to strike twice.  As it is, it’s hard to imagine that the constantly apocalyptic level of the stakes won’t be so exaggerated as to become quickly irrelevant or tiresome.

Verdict: Neither good enough to be good, nor quite bad enough to be amazing in a Zero Hour way.  It’s entertaining as a diversion, but it’s hard to see it getting to a place where I’d feel passionate about it.  As it is, I may keep it around as undemanding background tv. 

Dads (FOX, new.  Sitcom.)

Premise: Two young professionals have their lives turned upside down when their respective fathers move back to live with them.

Promise: It started out fine -- Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi both have good comic delivery – and there are moments, particularly near the start of the pilot, that are really cute.  But it didn’t feel particularly clever or smart, and parts of it were aggressively unfunny.  In themselves, those traits aren’t fatal for a light half-hour, and I was willing to accept a wobbly pilot...even though I didn’t find myself particularly identifying with any of the characters, …..aaaand then came the casual racial stereotyping.  Last straw.

Verdict: I’m out.

On the DVR:  Brooklyn Nine-Nine.