What Lorraine Thinks: You know, I expected to outright hate this, but it wasn’t all that bad. It was mediocre for me in the ways that sitcoms usually are: an over-active laugh track, heavy handed set-ups and predictability. The cast has charm enough between them, however, to sell this if it’s your cup of tea. Of all the characters, Allison Janney’s schtick got the oldest the quickest, as she is a super negligent mom who won’t own up to her past actions. Anna Farris was much more likable than I originally predicted. I’m finding it hard to say anything very good or very bad about this pilot.
Grade: C
What Sweeney Thinks: To be clear, I’m about 99% certain that this was filmed in front of a studio audience, so it’s less a laugh track than a giant light that commands the audience to laugh far too often. As a general rule, CBS comedies seem to be loved well beyond the point that I can understand. (I do watch/love HIMYM, but I can’t sit here and tell you that the last few seasons have possessed any sort of comedic genius.) I watched this show partially because Allison Janney is amazing and also because I took a picture in front of a poster for it in the subway a few weeks ago. I’m an easy sell.
I like the basic premise of this show, taking pretty heavy material and making it lighthearted. It just got a little repetitive in places. Agreed on Allison Janney’s schtick — it’s a sitcom so it’s totally legitimate to tidy things up in the end, and I was annoyed by the conversation they had at the kitchen table. I was cool with playing the history of shitty parenting for laughs, but it was a lot less funny when we were joking about how terrible she still is. All that aside, I will probably keep watching this.
Grade: B-
Overall Grade: C+
The Blacklist on NBC (Mondays at 10/9c)
In a nutshell: James Spader is a creepy fugitive who turns himself into the FBI and offers to help them catch people creepier than he is, on the condition that he only works with rookie agent Elizabeth Keene, played by Megan Boone.
What Sweeney Thinks: This is, so far, my favorite pilot of the season. It had it’s occasional weak moments — there were a couple scenes that were a bit heavy-handed, but those moments were few. I loved this. It introduced some strong, interesting characters. I was expecting a big reveal on the agent and the fugitive in this episode — they made me expect one thing, which I still don’t think is off the table — but in a pilot season that seems so rife with played out, expected stories, I appreciated that they got me with that little bit of misdirection. This show is well-acted, I cared about the major players, and the whole story was genuinely intriguing.
Grade: A
What Lorraine Thinks: I’m with Sweeney. This is my favorite pilot of the season so far. I’m pretty sure the last thing I saw James Spader in was Pretty in Pink, so I have no real feelings about him as an actor. I had feelings about him in this pilot, however, as he absolutely owns the role of criminal turned FBI informant. I was wary of the whole newbie FBI agent concept but was pleasantly surprised to find Megan Boone’s character. She’s capable, she’s worked her way to a new position, and she does her best in the face of some extreme circumstances.
I also agree that it appeared the episode was leading us in a specific direction. I love that it ended on another reveal. I’ve liked a lot of the pilots I’ve seen so far, but this is the only one that left me feeling like I must come back next week.
Grade: A
Overall Grade: A
Hostages on CBS (Mondays at 10/9c)
In a nutshell: Toni Collette is a doctor selected to perform surgery on the POTUS, which is probably stressful enough without the whole “blackmailers invading your home and telling you to kill the president or your family dies” angle. So, it sucks to be Toni Collette.
What Sweeney Thinks: If you’ve chatted about shows with Lor in the comments, you may have heard about how she starts literally every show ever and seldom finishes. I have the exact opposite problem. It’s really hard for me to quit a thing once I’ve begun. I either (a) have to get really busy — in which case I’ll resume eventually -or- (b) recognize that the show has reached a low at which even I must abandon ship. All of that is my way of saying that I probably will keep watching this show, and I’ll probably resent myself for it.
I wanted so badly to like this show, because it’s got a fun cast. Toni Collette! And Jimmy Cooper, y’all! But it was just so silly and overdone. Dylan McDermott’s introduction had the formulaic, over-the-top feel of every shitty EXPLOSIONS! movie my dudebro brothers made us see when I was growing up. (OK, yeah, fine, I still occasionally see those movies on purpose. Not the point.)
Our star FBI agent’s introduction (and all subsequent iterations of his dramatic closeups and complicated action star soundtrack) was where the show first lost me, and it just never really picked back up. I had really high hopes for this show, because of its cast, and the pilot did not live up to those hopes. They tried so hard to set up the extremely! high! stakes! but in such a way that felt canned and I couldn’t actually take any of it seriously.
I do have slim hope (and perhaps this is why I refuse to quit any show ever) that my persistence may pay off and this will turn around, but I did not enjoy this pilot and can’t, at present, recommend this to anybody else.
Grade: D
What Lorraine Thinks: Yeah, so I have no compulsion to finish TV. I may want to fool myself into thinking that I will one day finish all of things! but I’m generally unsuccessful. I don’t think I’ll be back next week, regardless of how talented I think Toni Collette is. For a show about a tense hostages situations, it was incredibly slow. I think that’s the pratfall of introducing such a high concept. We all know these people are going to end up hostages, right? So that first half of the episode spent getting us to the hostage situation felt very expository.
From there, the hostage situation fell into a repetitive mess. There are really only so many ways to say, “cooperate or else,” and yet, we dedicated the middle chunk of the episode to just that.
The weakest part of the cast was Dylan McDermott. Despite a hard try at giving his character depth, his solid jaw, gravelly voice delivery of every single line only added to the feeling that I was watching the same scene over and over again. I didn’t enjoy watching.
Grade: D
Overall Grade: D
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC (Tuesdays at 8/7c)
In a nutshell: Agent Coulson rounds up a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to investigate super-hero-y related items.
What Lorraine Thinks: I’ll preface by saying that because this project is attached to Joss Whedon, I had high expectations. Plus, I love much of the Marvel universe, in that “the movies are awesome but I’ve never read a comic,” sort of way. I was stoked. Secondly, I will say that this was a good pilot. Anything I say after this will not take away that this pilot gets pretty high marks from me. OKAY, SO: I was underwhelmed. It may have been a combination of those high expectations, and the fact that I was overly familiar with all of the pilot trailer moments. The dialogue wasn’t as crisp as I expected to be, and there were moments I felt were straight up cheesy. (I’m looking at you, final monologue and flying car.) The pacing was also a bit off, as the middle of the episode slowed considerably.
I will also say that I hated Skye right off the bat. I hope they don’t try and shove that girl down our throats because I will vomit. Sara and I talked a little about her issue, and I mean, just looking at that promotional photo above, I can tell I don’t like her. Her schtick is forced and lacks charm. I was not a fan.
Will I be watching the rest of the season? You betcha. As I said, it was still a good pilot and, regardless of everything else, there was enough there to interest me in where the story is going.
Grade: B+
What Sweeney Thinks: I think my Whedon glasses were a little rosier, because I enjoyed even some of the cheesier moments that Lor and others complained about. It’s a comic book show! I dig the occasional helping of cheese. That said, I also agree with Lor’s overall, “I enjoyed it, but…” sentiment. I am in full agreement on Skye. She can be killed off soon, please and thank you! The show also seemed like it wasn’t prepared to make a commitment to being a superhero thing or an FBI detective show. I am hoping that was pilot episode clunkiness, as they introduce everything. These gripes are all minor, and I enjoyed it a lot. (Though I would have been happier with 100% more J. August Richards screen time. I haven’t worked out whether that’s possible, but I’m sure I would have been happier regardless.)
Grade: B+
Overall Grade: B+
Trophy Wife on ABC (Tuesdays at 9:30/8:30c)
In a nutshell: Malin Ackerman is a one-time party girl who quite literally falls into the lap of a well-to-do older gentleman. Marrying him, though, came with three step kids and two ex-wives, one who is zany and one who is Marcia Gay Haden.
What Lorraine Thinks: I feel about this show how I felt about Mom– pleasant enough, with a cast that sells the ordinary plot. Malin Ackerman is gorgeous. That has nothing to do with anything, because she was also pretty fun in her role of new wife and step-mom. My favorite of the cast, however, has to be Michaela Watkins. Her comedic timing was lovely and the show would do well to highlight that in the future.
That all said, this is again, not up my alley. If you are a sitcom-a-holic, you may want to give it a go, and this one doesn’t even have a laugh track!
Overall Grade: C+
The Crazy Ones on CBS (Thursdays at 9/8c)
In a nutshell: Robin Williams is an aging ad executive, filled with kooky ideas because CREATIVITY and his organized daughter Sarah Michelle Gellar is a partner in his agency. Obviously when they balance their respective strengths, magic happens and they win the day.
What Sweeney Thinks: It’s cute. I can’t say anything much stronger than that, good or bad. It’s fun to see Robin Williams doing his thing again, and the moments where I felt uncomfortable because his thing is less appealing to me than it was 10 years ago sort of worked with the show. SMG as the uptight-worries-too-much-should-probably-be-COOL-like-‘errbody-else chick was a little less pleasant to watch, more because of the trope than anything she did. Her little speech at the end of the episode made me smile because I’ve heard classmates of mine say things like that. It’s got a similarly formulaic thing going on to what bothered me about Hostages, but that wears a lot better in a 30 minute sitcom starring Robin Williams. Cute and fun, but wholly unremarkable.
Grade: B-
What Lorraine Thinks: I think the best thing this pilot had going for it was that it was 20 minutes. It kept everything condensed and fast moving. This isn’t just Robin Williams, but Robin Williams in a small dose. Yeah, that worked. There were no laugh out loud moments for me, but that was more a consequence of having seen all the funniest bits already on the trailer. So it goes with pilots.
Cute is the right word for it, and the feelsy father/daughter bits were well played between Williams and SMG. I’ll be watching this show, but perhaps I’ll binge watch groups of episodes online. It’s 20 minutes, as I said, and a few of these peppered throughout the working day doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
Grade: B-
Overall Grade: B-