Ratings can be cruel, and this year low ratings brought down a few new shows that I really enjoyed—or at least I thought they had a lot of potential. The list includes Limitless, The Player, and The Family. Agent Carter was cut as well, which makes me sad. On the up side, The Catch got a somewhat surprising renewal.
In any case, before launching into
the summer season, I thought I’d do a little catching up by at least getting the
“dead” Fall shows out of the way.
This post covers a lot of shows, but I don't have a lot of thematic insight to connect them, aside from one observation: More than a few of this
Spring’s short-lived new shows were—perhaps not coincidentally—about mortality,
and what people do when they become hyper-aware that death is real. The “borrowed time” idea gave these shows
room to play with their character’s most impulsive natures, distilling them
down to the cores of themselves.
But I suppose they didn’t feel
sustainable. Or perhaps, viewers didn’t
want to face their own mortality. Whatever
it was, these shows are gone without much fanfare.
You,
Me, and the Apocalypse (NBC, new.
Dramedy.)
Watched: first three episodes
Premise: The lives of a few people slated to survive a
presumed apocalypse in the period immediately preceding that apocalypse, told
in flashbacks.
Promise: The show focuses on who is in this small
group and the disparate stories of how they ended up being chosen to survive an
extinction-level event. It’s
self-consciously quirky, and an affectionate look at very flawed humans when they
are given the opportunity to let go of day to day concerns. Some create chaos, others turn to faith,
others to vengeance, others to survival.
That seems realistic, in an odd way.
But although the show was amusing, I never found it so engaging that I craved
it; it was just light amusement based largely on caricatured characters. And although the global stakes were high—apocalypse!—that
made the stakes for these particular characters feel low.
Verdict: Had some really nice bits, but ultimately more
of a curiosity than anything else.
Second
Chance (Fox, new. Science fiction/law
enforcement drama)
Watched: whole season, on and off.
Premise: A retired sheriff brought back to life in a
superpowered body helps fight crime while connecting with those who brought him
back for their own selfish reasons.
Promise: it’s a very high concept—I gather the
inspiration was mostly Frankenstein, but the execution actually felt more like
a superhero show. Like most superheroes,
the sheriff’s super strength creates super weaknesses; and the show had a much better
reason for secret-identity-keeping than most shows. There were a lot of things I liked about this
show: the relationship between the sheriff
and his son and granddaughter; the complicated relationship between the brother
and sister who brought the sheriff back; the emotional bond that the sheriff
develops with the woman who saved him; the fact that the leads included a
highly competent woman of color, the fact that everyone made a mix of good and
bad decisions. And I was really drawn in
by the eventual themes: what lengths we
will go to to protect our loved ones, and the troublingly proprietary nature of
love. But there were also some problems
with tone, as it oscillated between humor, science fiction, drama, and gritty
cop show.
Ultimately, I was frustrated by its lost
opportunities and dependence on stereotypes.
It fell into the “genius=no social skills” trap. It fell into the “Asians believe in
superstition” trap. Just to name a
couple. And most of all, it fell into
the “rules are impediments” trap. The
story takes place in a near-future where social media facilitates complete
surveillance, and instead of highlighting how troubling that is, the show embraces
its law enforcement potential. Our
sheriff uses his super strength to beat up bad guys and his ties to tech to frame
perps and get around the need for warrants.
And it didn’t need to!
Verdict: It could have been a really
powerful show about the complicated nature of love and family. It could even have been a law enforcement
drama. Instead it felt all too normal.
Recovery
Road (Freeform, new. Teen
Drama.)
Watched: pilot
Premise: a troubled teen finds a
home among her fellow misfits in rehab.
Promise: There are a few things to
like about this show—its racial diversity, its affection for misfits, its strong
themes about the importance support in the face of temptation and
self-delusion. But there are also some
weird things. Like many Freeform shows,
this one puts young people in adult situations and portrays very immature
adults, which is a weird pattern. The
tone oscillates between preachy and soapy, when I wish it would just tell
stories. And its inciting incident
really turned me off. This teen finally
snaps toward wanting to recover from her alcoholism when she discovers she
might have been raped while she was blackout drunk. While that’s realistic in its way, it also
reinforces the rape culture idea that “rape is actually good for women” because
it builds character. I don’t think that was the intent, but it turned me
off. It wouldn’t have been fatal if I’d
felt more connected to the characters, but in the pilot there wasn’t much to
latch on to in the big ensemble cast.
Verdict: Might have enjoyed it if I
had more time, but after the pilot the preachy tone got to me and I didn’t care
enough about the people to believe the stakes mattered.
Containment
(CW, new. Thriller.)
Watched: pilot
Premise: An outbreak in Atlanta leads to forced quarantine of part of the city.
Promise: For any conventional
disaster movie concept—here, the devolution of quarantine into chaos—the story success
of the story depends heavily on the personalities of the characters. If we care
about them, we care about how they weather the disaster. If we don’t, meh. Here, most of the characters are easy
archetypes, but the writing is self-aware enough use our expectations for
storytelling purposes. The cast is
racially mixed—anything else for a story about Atlanta would be troubling, but
I highlight it here because I think the cast is uncommonly diverse, which is
worth praising—but the show’s rosy picture of interracial harmony leaves me
feeling like there may have been more opportunity to depict how a public health
crisis and quarantine could bring up real important, difficult issues of
race. And it didn’t seem like the show
was planning to do that. It did set up
some interesting large-scale and small-scale dramas nonetheless.
Verdict: I ended up not watching much of the show, but more
for time than anything else. It looked
like it could have transcended the ordinariness of its form.
Rush
Hour (CBS, new. Banter
procedural.)
Watched: Several episodes
Premise: A straight-laced, martial arts-expert Chinese
police officer partners with a fast-talking LAPD officer to fight crime.
Promise: the show is based on the film series of the
same name, and has much the same tone, although of course different
actors. The show is fine and the
performances are strong, but in all it feels largely uninspired, as it relies largely
on stereotypes and tropes for its material.
It’s a pretty standard “rules are impediments” procedural (bleh) with a
no-nonsense female police boss (to which I don’t object, but this is an
increasingly popular trope that really deserves its own post), damsels in
distress (sigh) and a lovable criminal sidekick (double sigh). There are some really lovely moments, many of
them belonging to actor Jon Foo as he performs great martial arts stunts and particularly
when we see the subtle undercurrents of loyalty and friendship that underlie his
character’s decisions, but the rest is pretty ordinary.
Verdict: fine background viewing, but not appointment
television.
Beowulf
(Esquire, new to US (originally produced by ITV). Fantasy.)
Watched: Season
Premise: A fantasy hero fights
monsters and navigates political power-struggles.
Promise: I have no idea what this show has to do with
Beowulf, aside from some of the names of the characters. But it was an acceptable fantasy epic, with
magical beasts and swords and big themes like pride and succession. It has a bit of the lighthearted winking tone
of other UK fantasy shows like Robin Hood and Merlin, but resides tonally somewhere
between those shows and the Last Kingdom.
But unlike Last Kingdom, it makes no pretense of historical accuracy, so
can be as fanciful as it likes. And weirdly enough, despite deeply silly
monsters and scene-chewing performances, it actually has some really cool
themes. It addresses the unfairnesses of
inequality and the challenge of family.
It’s more emotionally and thematically complex than it has any business
being: its heroes are not all good and its villains are not all bad. It’s fascinatingly multiracial and it gives
its women agency. There were actually a
few times I actually found myself cheering at its portrayal of lots of
different kinds of women.
Verdict: There were a lot of silly things about this
show. But surprisingly high number of good
things, too. I’m kind of sad there won’t
be more of it.
Game
of Silence (NBC, new. Drama.)
Watched: pilot
Premise: A group of adult friends who had been sentenced
to juvenile prison after a prank seek vengeance on those who mistreated them
when they were young.
Promise: It took a while to figure out what the show
was about, and once I did, I was very intrigued by the premise. The show is based on a Turkish series, which
pleased me. I loved that the characters
had grown apart and then came together from different walks of life to
accomplish their goal of justice, and the idea of these disparate people
banding together to right the wrongs done to them sounded fascinating to me. It could have explored the legacy of trauma
and the complicated meaning of justice. But
this show didn’t do what I was hoping it would—it very quickly turned into a
revenge fantasy, in which the characters turned to secrecy, violence, crime,
and lying to the women in their lives (ostensibly to “protect” them) rather than seeking justice through openness
or law. The show was shockingly and
explosively violent, and never gave me any reason to think that any of them
would make good decisions.
Verdict: disappointing.
Of
Kings and Prophets (ABC, new. Historical
drama.) Two SimonBakers.
Premise: Adapts the biblical Books
of Samuel for television.
Prejudice: As far as I can tell,
this show was designed to treat the Bible as if it were Game of Thrones. Which
isn’t the worst idea in the world, but is definitely not the best either, and I
suspected that it was going to be unnecessarily violent and full of women who
were either sexy temptresses or power-hungry manipulators, and nothing
else. The “queen or concubine” model of
femininity didn’t appeal to me for obvious reasons. But I would have at least watched the pilot it
if I’d had time. I didn’t.
Finally, some SimonBakers for a show
that was renewed for a second season, but I’m not going to watch it regardless,
so why wait any longer:
Vinyl
(HBO, new. Period drama.) Four
SimonBakers.
Premise: Exploits of a record
producer in the 1970s.
Prejudice: Something about the premise of this show and
the way it was promoted makes me disgusted and almost angry. As far as I can tell it uncritically
glorifies and romanticizes a culture of machismo and female objectification,
where every woman is a model or an actress or a receptionist or a groupie, and
that’s just who women are. But men are important artists who struggle. Whether that’s what the show is actually
about? I don’t know. But I’ve seen nothing that indicates to the
contrary.
On
the DVR/Unreviewed: I actually
feel like I can finally list them, at long last. Colony, Billions, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Outsiders, Hap &
Leonard, Underground, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders,
The
Girlfriend Experience, The Last Panthers, Houdini & Doyle, Preacher.
