TV Pilots and Then Some

La forza del destino

[pilotreviews]

The Odd Couple

I owe a lot of my passion to television to Matthew Perry. My very first favorite show is FRIENDS, which should come of no surprise to you FRIENDS fans given that my photo was taken at the famous establishing shot of the FRIENDS apartment building. 

Furthermore, my love for Matthew Perry introduced me to a little known show called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Studio 60, a show written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, Sports Night, The Newsroom, The Social Network, The American President, and many more), is a show about a network-run sketch comedy show a la SNL. This show made me realize that I wanted to be behind the scenes in the ways of making TV happen. Anyway, it's brilliantly made and written and I wish it had lasted longer so from when it ended I kept track of Aaron Sorkin and of Matthew Perry.

Since Studio 60, Matthew Perry worked on 2 different comedies: Mr. Sunshine and Go On. Both I fell in love with but the rest of the world seems to have ignored. Then came The Odd Couple, a TV-take of a movie starring Walter Matthau and John Lemmon. 

I so badly wanted to love this show given Matthew Perry and the fact that it's taken from a movie I love but I am just ultimately sad to say I found it tough to enjoy. I so wished that after Matthew Perry's failed shows, I felt that this might have had enough backing to succeed. Yet - I feel that no matter what bias I have for the people involved in this, this show is a show I feel we will not be seeing on air for long. 

The script is forced. The comedy is minimal. The actors just fine but overall it was just not enough to keep me going. I did give it another chance by trying out episode 2 and all I found interesting was the fact that their staple bar is called "Langford's." Matthew Perry fans, you know why this is amusing. 

Ultimately, I wish Matthew Perry was given the chance to prolong either of his previous shows post-FRIENDS as they all had amazing potential but they gave him this cheap remake which is poorly-handled and just lacks all the things they probably hoped to achieve.

Ah it really sucks to be in this position right now. I really wish it was good but simply it is not. Well, I just want to hope for the best and I wont stop til this gets good....or til it gets cancelled. 

But - what can I say, I gotta be honest and this show really gives me no reason to continue except that I am still rooting for you, Matthew Perry! 

[pilotreviews]

The Fall

As the roster of crime shows I am currently watching is declining, I am in the market for new crime shows. Last week I checked out Mysteries of Laura and was less than excited about it. This week, I tried The Fall. 

Starring Gillian Anderson and the now famous Jamie Dornan of Fifty Shades of Grey, The Fall has a simple and unexciting synopsis. It's about super detective Gibson (I know she's more than a detective but I'm not fully familiar with the police system in British television so for now I am calling her super detective), and her hunt for a serial killer. Throughout the episode she starts to believe that the case she was tasked to review and investigate is connected to another one, but no one else seems to think so. There's no mystery to the audience as to who the killer is so (no it is not a guessing game for us as to who killed whom) as we see already the killer in question: Paul Spector (aka Christian Grey) and his creepy ways. He stalks his victims and targets professional women. After much study of his next victim, taking down creepy notes and knowing schedules, he goes in for the kill. 

Again, the synopsis and overall concept is quite a simple one and normally I wouldn't be enticed to check out this show. But I'm glad I did because it turned out to be steadily creepy good. 

I think it's the way they show the characters. We get glimpses of them even at their most basic selves, no action, no particular event. Just them being them. Instantly you just sort of become entranced at watching seemingly ordinary people act ordinary then you see the extraordinary things they do (from being good at their jobs - as superdetective or as a supercreepymurderer).

It's steady. You just watch and then boom. The episode is done and you're just sitting there waiting for Netflix to load the next one. 

If I wasn't so clear enough, what I am saying is that it's a great show. Completely just there to keep your gaze glued to the screen. Watching. It's strange and great. Safe to say I will be watching some more episodes. 

[pilotreviews]

Better Call Saul

As a fan of Breaking Bad's and Vince Gilligan's, I knew that this show would deliver. And wow did this pilot deliver.

By its first scene I could already tell that they got the directing down. The music and this montage of the makings of cinnamon rolls already got me excited for what was to come. 

The scenes that followed surely also gave us a picture of who Saul Goodman was once. Jimmy McGill is a loose cannon lawyer, unsuccessful, pitiful, sad and just plain depressing. A good man, for sure, just trying to find his way through the system. Sound familiar? This was the once Heisenberg too. 

Through scenes, we get to see all his different qualities. He's smart, judging by the way he caught on to the skaters' ploy. He's had about enough judging by his breakdowns at the carpark and the law firm. But I think most of all - he cares about who I'm guessing is his unstable brother Chuck. He has come to a point in his life in which nothing really seems to be going his way. 

Then we see him try to finally take control. It does not go as planned but an even bigger opportunity has come and he was quick to finally take it and at that time it seems, it's at his own terms. Then things take an even bigger turn when we're suddenly introduced to this new chapter in his life via an encounter with surprise surprise, Tuco! 

And there it is. We don't know yet how this leads up to the Saul Goodman we know but once again it's exciting. 

You can probably tell by now that I'm all for this show. Most of the feedback I've gotten so far was how boring things were up until that very last reveal but for me, I think it was a perfect way to build things up. It has a hint of Breaking Bad in it to (and I am not only referring the cool cameos) in the sense that we are in for a wild character transformation. We're in for an intense journey into Saul Goodman.

We'd all be fools not to watch how things pan out.

[pilotreviews]

Reign

I got into this pilot with not so high an expectation. Given my past experience with The CW, their shows tend to be overdramatic and unrealistic. Case in point: 90210. Think of every possible form of drama from pregnancy, to alcoholism, to car accidents, to cancer, to the list goes on. Name it, 90210 has covered it. 

Upon seeing Reign's pilot, it seems to me that it will be overdramatic and it may be unrealistic. It's a CW show. The difference is, Reign has the right to be. It's a period piece and it revolves around the scandalous going-ons in the French Court. 

They've set up this show in such a way that there cannot be an overdramatization. This show will live and thrive by it actually. It's exciting, it's interesting. 

I don't know the extent to which it stays true to its historical basis but the pilot has definitely been able to establish the promise for the season. My take is that this show will be about the game. It's all a game and who will be playing it smart. It's going to be about who will be the leaders, the pawns, the masterminds. Amidst all that, how will our protagonist Mary come out of it on top? Will she even?

Maybe people more familiar with the history can answer, maybe not. I don't know. 

All I know is there's so much beautiful mess this show can do and I will definitely continue watching. Let's hope it does not disappoint.

[pilotreviews]

Mysteries of Laura

I know one of the popular opinions today is that the cop/detective show is overused.I myself watch a bunch of them: Castle, Forever, The Mentalist, Brooklyn Nine Nine. 

What I enjoy about them is that you get to see how a show can put a spin on such a typical formula. Forever has that 200-year old immortal thing going on, which gives them so much opportunities and 200 years worth of flashbacks and history to incorporate. The Mentalist incorporated a, well, mentalist. And so on. 

With the Mysteries of Laura, I feel it does not have that obvious hook or spin yet on an otherwise typical cop/detective formula. Sure, certain people might connect to the main character as a mother. Maybe some would enjoy her badassiness too. But - given that I am reviewing pilots, that's my take. It wasn't too strong a pilot. That isn't to say that I won't try to check out how the rest of this show pans out, 

All in all I think it was a weak start but given that Debra Messing's character is actually quite interesting, I might just try to keep it going til I no longer feel I can.  

...More to come .

[pilotreviews]

Of pies, crises, TV and flying.

I’ve been in some weird state lately of lack-of-TV crisis. I haven’t been as committed to watching my shows as I used to be back when my responsibilities only involved myself and my own time. Nowadays, time has been something that involves more than myself. I have to always factor in work, real life, real things. Yet the more I fail to factor in the TV, non-real time time, the less productive I think I have become. I burn myself out more, not being able to include in my life what I love most – TV. So here I am, making TV more real, more important.

I miss the days when TV was the center of my life. Reality is…it no longer can be. But – I think I should give it a bigger chunk of my time pie. And I’ve never been more excited to commit.

From now on, I will be exploring all the pilot episodes of fairly recent shows I’ve been meaning to check out. I’ll review each pilot, predict its future and if it’s any good, continue to watch of course. Not only will this activity, if you may, help me with adding some light into my burnt outness, it will help me practice my writing skills too.

So here I go. “Pilot Reviews (and then some)” is ready for take-off. I hope this ride is smooth to me and to whoever it is who ends up finding this.

This should be fun.