Fall TV Update

My daughter has always been one who was willing to try new foods. When she was six or seven she would take a bite of something and exclaim how good it was. She would proceed to tell her older brothers that they should try it too. She would keep eating and almost always by the mid point of her serving one noticed her starting to pick at it. Eventually at the end of the meal a good portion of the new food she had treated like the greatest thing since sliced bread would still be on her plate.

When I asked her about this the answer was inevitably a variation on " It was good Daddy, I just got full."

I think that in a sentence sums up not just what I find with most new shows that I originally like and have high hopes for but how the great proportion of people end up when it comes to new shows. What starts out as exciting and promising soon just turns into another vegetable dressed up to look more new and different than it really is.

In the fall I felt that The Last Resort, Vegas and Revolution were well on their way to success. Interestingly the show that I had the least hope for seems to be the only one I am still with, the only show whose ratings are successful.

The Last Resort was the show that started out with the biggest bang. It's original episode was explosive but eventually it became soon apparent that the series just could not maintain the bar it had set. When the show had to develop a plausible plot line about the crew of a nuclear submarine forming their own nuclear armed nation entity it just could not be done. Soon enough ABC was preempting the show and the shows ratings faltered even more. Being placed against the X Factor and The Big Bang Theory it was felt that an audience, a different audience could be carved out. It just did not work. With low ratings and high expenses per episode ABC has cancelled the show and the three episodes sitting on my DVR have been erased. There is no need to invest in a show that is doomed.

Vegas the CBS entry seemed like a sure thing and in fact it is doing well in the ratings and with Dennis Quaid and Michael Chilkis there is no reason to think the show will not be around well after this season. The show with all its promise however has lost this viewer. The payoff of a slight advance of the long term storyline that one receives each week while sifting through a tedious murder mystery is just not worth it. The series might well have been a different show on a cable network. It is not that one needs to extra blood, violence, sex and gore of the cable version, it is just that the weekly story-lines might not have to be so prevalent in a cable series. For that reason this show has lost this viewer.

Revolution continues moving strongly toward it's mid season break. This weeks episode was a little contrived, coming through a Philadelphia subway tunnel suffering from a lack of oxygen the main characters experienced hallucinations but the payoff at the end of the episode was well worth it. A great choice this week too with the featuring of some Led Zeppelin music as well. The ratings have slipped a little recently and one wonders if the show will continue to maintain if not expand it's audience, NBC needs to be sure to not have the upcoming break go too long as viewers have short memories but this series still offers something worth watching each week. As show after show falls off my radar as the season digs in Revolution remains strong with The Walking Dead as the only two series that are must see each week.

The experience of these three shows does however explain in a nutshell why it is so difficult to launch a series and have it be successful on network television. It is a terribly divergent culture, incredibly competitive and with viewers with more options and shorter attention spans than ever before. Instead of bemoaning the number of series that fail perhaps we should stare with wonder that any ever succeed at all in gaining a loyal viewership.

Vegas Update

The new CBS series has become must see television on my calender. The series is a very solid show with a cast with stars such as Dennis Quaid and Michael Chilkis. What has become clear in the series is that this well shot series with it's both weekly plots as well as it's long term serial plot.

This is a hard mix and it is telling on the plots. We know as we watch the show that eventually the mobster Savino and Sherrif Lamb are going to have to come to blows. Each week however the flotsam and jetsam of characters that have found their way to Las Vegas offers up a murderer or victim that needs to be dealt with.

The problem the show has shown thus far is that in order to keep much of the show available for it's long developing simmer between the main characters the weekly crimes to be solved are formula at best. Crime is committed, easy suspect is brought forward, seems too easy so more research is done, and soon the real suspect with a hidden motive is found. Soon after that the suspect confesses to Lamb's interrogation technique which calls for goading and agreeing with the suspect that something " had to be done."

In short what is wrong with this show is what is wrong with any network drama. With the need for weekly self enclosed plots to justify the long term serial arcs most of those weekly crimes are the worst part of the show.

I love the actors and will continue to watch this show, it is however on notice from me, it is no longer a given that I will continue to watch.

Revolution, Vegas, and The Last Resort: Prognosis

In the last couple of days I have watched week two or The Last Resort and Vegas as well as Weeks two and three of Revolution.

All of these shows have been fairly well received out of the gate and I plan to keep readers apprised on how the shows progress and build on their big starts.

Revolution, the Monday night NBC drama has started off with strong ratings. Defeating Hawaii Five-0 in each of it's first three weeks the show continues to build it's story. I will admit that about half way through week two I was close to bagging it, it just was meandering a little too much and I am notoriously quick on the trigger. By the end of episode two however I was back involved when a huge plot twist presented itself. Week Three was very strong as we are seeing more more flashbacks that give us an understanding of the people in the show and where they were and who they have been before the time frame we are seeing now. The relationship between Miles and the leaders of the Monroe republic has been most interesting. These shows do have a hard time keeping the plot moving and yet having it maintain it's excitement but it can be done. Lost is always the prime example of this, Revolution still looks to me like it has an uphill climb to sustain success but if you are waiting to see how it does before you hop on board now might be the time, NBC has signed the show for a full compliment of episodes for the season.

Andre Braugher's The Last Resort started off perhaps stronger than any show we have seen in recent years. Last nights episode continued the intrigue as the American military moved in close to the boundary that Captain Chaplin had set and we learned that the invisibility ( on radar etc ) on the ship works and that thus the sailors have a pretty effective way to hide. The show is taking a little more time to flesh out it's characters and with the time slot it has this show might have a tougher time and a shorter leash. I think the show has promise but this show, even more than Revolution seems to be a show with little space to grow without getting more and more farfetched. It also should be on at ten. Watching this show at eight instead of the fun, I do not have to keep up with the plot of The Big Bang Theory is a tough sell. If your afraid of falling in love with a show that will soon be pulled you might wait a little longer on this one as I still, unless a new time slot is found, will be hard pressed to succeed.

The clearest hit and the one with the easiest path to success is also, not surprisingly the show of the three that is most conventional. Still one should not confuse conventional with hum drum. Set in the mob town of 1960 Las Vegas and with the double barreled approach of a long range plot of the battle between a resolute upright Sheriff and a mobster named Savino, while also having weekly crimes to investigate this show lights up the screen. Dennis Quaid is good in his role but Micheal Chilkis is fantastic, Emmy worthy right away, in his role as the Chicago gangster. Don't wait on this show, it is a little beyond the normal cop show, the historic setting adds and element, and the acting is first rate. This show is a sure fire winner.

Vegas

I watched the debut of the new CBS show Vegas last night. With a cast led by Dennis Quaid and Micheal Chiklis and the full on promotion of CBS the show has a strong chance of success and after watching the first episode if that success is forthcoming it will be well deserved.

The show is based on the real life story of Ralph Lamb,a sheriff in the early sixties, during the transformation of Las Vegas from sleepy gambling town to full on neon lights and gambling mecca. In the debut episode we have learned quite a bit about the direction of the show.

Quaid as Lamb is asked by the town's mayor to solve the murder of the Governor's niece. As a rancher who is mostly concerned with airplanes flying over his cattle and spooking them he agrees to this one time favor for the mayor.

Chilkis plays mobster Vincent Savino. He has been brought in to take control of an under performing casino. What we know, but Lamb does not is that the Sheriff he is replacing has run afoul of the Mob and that the District Attorney is on the take as well.

In the first episode the murder is solved but we all see that the show is going to run parallel tracks. We might well have weekly crimes to be solved but the ever present back story is going to be the developing antagonism between Savino and Lamb. At the end of the first episode Savino, who had earlier been deferential to the Sheriff, shows his teeth when ordering Lamb out of his casino.

Quaid turns in a strong performance but his earnestness and macho swagger is perhaps a bit overdone. Seeing him stride down an airport runway in a walk not run with a rifle over his shoulder makes him a bit campy but it is always hard not to like a Dennis Quaid performance. The show's star however will be Chiklis. The man oozes personality in every scene. Those who remember him on The Shield will not be surprised at how much he dominates every scene he is in. His portrayal of a gangster who wishes to be more nuanced than the straight ahead brutality that has preceded him is as good as it gets.

This show will be on my weekly lineup for a few weeks. I would like it to stay there, the question is can they develop the long term story line in a way that will satisfy me while keeping networks viewers who tend to like fully enclosed story lines. tuning in.