We’re about a month into the TV season and I’ve had time to sample some of the new shows. Nothing has blown me away so far but there are a couple I found promising and two that disappointed.
Life on Mars (ABC, Thursdays, 10 p.m.) is the American remake of a BBC show starring Jason O’Mara, Harvey Keitel (in his TV series debut), Michael Imperioli and Gretchen Mol. It’s about NYPD detective Sam Tyler (O’Mara), who gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973. Did he time-travel or is he really in a coma and all the events we see are only in his subconscious? It’s unclear, as it was in the original British version. Sam continues to solve cases in 1973, some of which might be related to the serial killer he’s tracking back in the present. He’s seriously hampered in his job by the lack of a computer, cell phone and use of DNA science. His colleagues also seem to be renegade types who don’t necessarily play by the rules (Keitel’s character, Lt. Hunt, prepares to rough up a suspect already in custody. “Is that necessary? Tyler asks. “No, it is not,” replies Hunt, as he punches the suspect). The look of the show is gritty and sepia-toned and Imperioli sports a ’70s-porn-mustache from hell. But the fashion and soundtrack are groovy (The Who, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, whose song is the show’s title) and the cast makes it all compelling. This might be a cop show but it looks and feels different than any other currently on the air. Rating: Good
The Mentalist (CBS, Tuesdays, 9 p.m.) is a more conventional police procedural but Simon Baker keeps it interesting. So far the cases are unexceptional but Baker’s laid-back charm as Patrick Jane pulls the show along. Patrick is a man who used to pretend he was a psychic to bilk money from people, but then a serial killer slaughtered his family (the killer didn’t like the fake psychic pretending he could predict the man’s next move) and now Patrick works as a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation. He says psychic powers don’t exist; he solves cases by being very, very observant. Robin Tunney plays the agent who works with him and unfortunately, her performance is as flat as Baker’s is cool. She’s completely unconvincing as a tough investigator and has no authoritative presence whatsoever. The rest of the agents haven’t been given much to do but Owain Yeoman and Tim Kang are talented actors so hopefully their roles will be beefed up in the future. Rating: Good
CBS debuted another hour-long this season that involves a psychic but has nothing to do with crime-solving. The Ex List stars Elizabeth Reaser as a woman told by a psychic she has to marry within the year to someone she’s already dated or else she will end up alone. So Bella Bloom sets out to locate and re-date her exes (awkward much?). Reaser is very winning as Bella but the scripts so far haven’t supported her. Her friends are underused (Amir Talai is usually very funny, even in commercials, but only has about two lines per episode) and Rachel Boston is annoying, useless, and unbelievable as Bella’s sister (they look nothing alike). I really wanted to like Ex since Reaser is such a talented actress but if the show doesn’t stop being so cutesy and ridiculous (someone puts a toupee on her privates after she over-waxed!), I’ll have to put this on my Nix List. Rating: Okay
Another female-centric show is Kath & Kim (NBC, Thurdays, 8:30 p.m.), starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair. I don’t have to tell you much about this show because if you watched any of the Olympics, you’ve already seen the clips a thousand times. So what’s a whole episode like? I wouldn’t know because I couldn’t get through it. The jokes were so stale and outdated I thought I‘d traveled back to 1973. Selma Blair, whose career I’ve never understood (she does seem like a smart girl in interviews and looks cute on red carpets), rolls her eyes so furiously you’d think the eyeballs might tumble out her ears. Molly Shannon didn’t have one funny line in the 17 minutes I watched the show. And poor John Michael Higgins, so funny in the Christopher Guest movies, is completely wasted here as the straight man (he plays Kath’s suitor) to the ladies’ antics. If you’re gonna cast Higgins, you’ve got to let him run wild. Rating: Sucks Dirt
6 Comments
Eddy
October 24, 2008 at 11:14 amI agree with you except that I haven’t been tempted to watch the The Ex List. It doesn’t grab me for some reason. I had high hopes for Kath and Kim and I gave it one more episode shot than you did and erased it from the DVR half way through the second episode. I think that I didn’t like it for the same reasons that I don’t like Two and a Half Men, no likable characters. (I know, I’m the only person in the world that doesn’t like Two and a Half Men. I don’t like The Office either, so sue me.) But I am liking the Mentalist and Life on Mars so far. Also, from last season I’m still enjoying Life and (my favorite) The Big Bang Theory.
popculturenerd
October 24, 2008 at 12:14 pmYou’re NOT the only person who doesn’t like Two and a Half Men; I don’t either! And I love Life! Damian Lewis is fantastic. Been meaning to write a blog plugging this show so thank you for mentioning it!
Eddy
October 27, 2008 at 1:03 pmAnother new program that I was disappointed in is the new Knight Rider. You might wonder why I would have positive expectations to begin with, but it wasn’t my fault. In February I thought that I’d get a couple of laughs watching the new TV movie/pilot. I thought that it was surprisingly good. (In retrospect, not a difficult achievement since I went into it with low expectations.) So, when the series debuted this fall, I was looking forward to it. I watched the first episode and was let down. I think that the TV movie had a low special effects budget, so they fell back on relying on plot. Once the series got green-lighted (greenlit?) they must have given them a bigger budged, because they spent more time portraying the car as a Transformer and showing it driving 300 miles an hour while on fire. Plus they added a bunch of new characters seemingly out of nowhere. Anyway, I watched the first episode and my DVR has watched a few more for me, but I think that they may go bye-bye before I devote the time to watch them.
popculturenerd
October 27, 2008 at 1:37 pmI received a screener of the Knight Rider movie for Emmy consideration (!) so I watched it and thought it wasn’t the worst thing ever but Justin Bruening was so dull. He’s just standard pretty-boy fare with no standout qualities. Your description of the series’ cheesiness isn’t surprising.
Eddy
October 28, 2008 at 11:45 amFLASHBACK TO 1982! When you said that Justin Bruening was standard pretty-boy fare with no standout qualities I thought you said David Hasselhoff. And as much as I like Val “Would you qualify that as a launch problem or a design problem? ” Kilmer, he can’t lay on the sarcastically superior tone of William Daniels. (Besides, KITT should always and forever be a Trans Am.)
popculturenerd
October 28, 2008 at 12:10 pmWhen I saw the Ford Mustang in the TV movie, I thought, “Say what?” It seems they went backwards on the cool scale.