30 Days of Posting: Day Eight (let's pretend I didn't miss a day)
So many of the new fall shows sound like satire to me. Also, repetitive. Have a popular show? Remake it, spin off it, do it AGAIN! Originality is for losers.
Back in the Game:
Batter up! Psych's Maggie Lawson stars as a divorced single mother and former all-star softball player who moves in with her estranged father, Terry "The Cannon" Gannon Sr. (James Caan), a beer-swilling ex-baseball player. Father and daughter reconnect when they start coaching a Little League team together. The comedy comes from Las Vegas' Mark and Robb Cullen, and also stars Ben Koldyke and Lenora Crichlow.
Bonus: LENORA CRICHLOW (UK Being Human). Love her AND Maggie Lawson. However, it just smells of stale beer and schmaltz.
Betrayal
Sara (Hannah Ware), an unhappily married photographer, starts a torrid affair with Jack (Stuart Townsend), a lawyer for a powerful family. The catch: Jack is defending a murder suspect who is being prosecuted by Sara's husband, Drew (Chris J. Johnson), kick-starting a series of calamitous consequences. Talk about an affair to remember.
Bonus: it will be cancelled really fast.
Dads
From Seth MacFarlane, the comedy stars Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi as two video game developers whose lives are disrupted when their fathers (Peter Riegert and Martin Mull) move in with them. And what's a MacFarlane show without some controversy? Dads has already drawn the ire of critics for its crass, sexist and racially insensitive jokes.
Bonus: SETH GREEN and Giovanni Ribisi. But I'mma skip this all-male wankfest, mmmkay?
Dracula
Why create new vampires when you can just revisit the most famous one of all? A reimagining of Bram Stoker's Dracula, the horror thriller, from Carnivale's Daniel Knauf, stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the classic vamp who comes to London posing as an American entrepreneur who wants to introduce Victorian society to modern science (how steampunk!). Of course, Drac is just there to seek revenge on those who've wronged him. Along the way, he falls in love with Mina Murray (Jessica De Gouw), who seems to be a reincarnation of his dead wife. The show was ordered straight-to-series for 10 episodes.
Bonus: THE LULZ!!! I am actually going to watch this one. FOR THE LULZ.
Hello Ladies
Here's your new cringe comedy, fittingly from The Office co-creator Stephen Merchant and Office writer-producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. Merchant plays Stuart, a tall, gawky English web designer who moves to Los Angeles and who has absolutely no game with the ladies. Paging Barney Stinson! Someone needs a wingman.
Bonus: Stephan Merchant. But do we really really really need another "oh poor nerd can't get wiv da ladies," sitcom/dark comedy? I honesty do not know any of these guys in real life, and it's such a tired, tired, tired, cliche, in TV and in film. Nerdy anti-hero, go away. Bring on the Felicia Day!
Quick note: Oh noes, they are remaking another British show, this time The Syndicate. I only watched the first season and it was okay. Not great, but a really good cast. The US version is called Lucky 7 and has no one I've ever heard of.
Masterchef Junior
Will Gordon Ramsay watch his tongue around the kiddies? This Masterchef spin-off features aspiring chefs between the ages of 8 and 13 who get the chance to show off their skills for Ramsay, Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliot. So yes, temper tantrums and outbursts will finally be justified.
Bonus: the world is going to hell in a handbasket? I have no words.
The Millers
In his third show on a third network in four years, Will Arnett plays Nathan Miller, a news reporter who makes the mistake of telling his parents Tom (Beau Bridges) and Carol (Margo Martindale) that he just got divorced. Why? Tom then decides to leave Carol, who moves in Nathan. If you like fart jokes, this is the show for you!
Bonus: Um. Margo Martindale? But seriously, ugh.
We Are Men
Get ready for lots of testosterone. After Carter (Chris Smith) is left at the altar, he moves to a short-term apartment complex, where he's befriended by three fellow bachelors: Stuart (Jerry O'Connell), an OB/GYN in the middle of his second divorce who apparently doesn't own shirts, Frank (Tony Shalhoub), a four-time divorcee and ladies' man, and Gil (Kal Penn), who's desperately trying to win his wife back after he got caught in an affair.
Bonus: Kal Penn. Non-bonus: more testosterone and Tony Shalhoub as a ladies man!
But seriously, this is, I swear, not remotely all the shows that are quite literally, The Same Old Thing. That would actually make a great sitcom -- TV creators who sit around trying to come up with hits and making new twists on old shit. Then there will be the straightman (played by a woman, obviously), who comes up with really creative, awesome ideas that everybody pans. HILARIOUS.
What are you going to be watching/not-watching? Bonus points for snark.
Back in the Game:
Batter up! Psych's Maggie Lawson stars as a divorced single mother and former all-star softball player who moves in with her estranged father, Terry "The Cannon" Gannon Sr. (James Caan), a beer-swilling ex-baseball player. Father and daughter reconnect when they start coaching a Little League team together. The comedy comes from Las Vegas' Mark and Robb Cullen, and also stars Ben Koldyke and Lenora Crichlow.
Bonus: LENORA CRICHLOW (UK Being Human). Love her AND Maggie Lawson. However, it just smells of stale beer and schmaltz.
Betrayal
Sara (Hannah Ware), an unhappily married photographer, starts a torrid affair with Jack (Stuart Townsend), a lawyer for a powerful family. The catch: Jack is defending a murder suspect who is being prosecuted by Sara's husband, Drew (Chris J. Johnson), kick-starting a series of calamitous consequences. Talk about an affair to remember.
Bonus: it will be cancelled really fast.
Dads
From Seth MacFarlane, the comedy stars Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi as two video game developers whose lives are disrupted when their fathers (Peter Riegert and Martin Mull) move in with them. And what's a MacFarlane show without some controversy? Dads has already drawn the ire of critics for its crass, sexist and racially insensitive jokes.
Bonus: SETH GREEN and Giovanni Ribisi. But I'mma skip this all-male wankfest, mmmkay?
Dracula
Why create new vampires when you can just revisit the most famous one of all? A reimagining of Bram Stoker's Dracula, the horror thriller, from Carnivale's Daniel Knauf, stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the classic vamp who comes to London posing as an American entrepreneur who wants to introduce Victorian society to modern science (how steampunk!). Of course, Drac is just there to seek revenge on those who've wronged him. Along the way, he falls in love with Mina Murray (Jessica De Gouw), who seems to be a reincarnation of his dead wife. The show was ordered straight-to-series for 10 episodes.
Bonus: THE LULZ!!! I am actually going to watch this one. FOR THE LULZ.
Hello Ladies
Here's your new cringe comedy, fittingly from The Office co-creator Stephen Merchant and Office writer-producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. Merchant plays Stuart, a tall, gawky English web designer who moves to Los Angeles and who has absolutely no game with the ladies. Paging Barney Stinson! Someone needs a wingman.
Bonus: Stephan Merchant. But do we really really really need another "oh poor nerd can't get wiv da ladies," sitcom/dark comedy? I honesty do not know any of these guys in real life, and it's such a tired, tired, tired, cliche, in TV and in film. Nerdy anti-hero, go away. Bring on the Felicia Day!
Quick note: Oh noes, they are remaking another British show, this time The Syndicate. I only watched the first season and it was okay. Not great, but a really good cast. The US version is called Lucky 7 and has no one I've ever heard of.
Masterchef Junior
Will Gordon Ramsay watch his tongue around the kiddies? This Masterchef spin-off features aspiring chefs between the ages of 8 and 13 who get the chance to show off their skills for Ramsay, Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliot. So yes, temper tantrums and outbursts will finally be justified.
Bonus: the world is going to hell in a handbasket? I have no words.
The Millers
In his third show on a third network in four years, Will Arnett plays Nathan Miller, a news reporter who makes the mistake of telling his parents Tom (Beau Bridges) and Carol (Margo Martindale) that he just got divorced. Why? Tom then decides to leave Carol, who moves in Nathan. If you like fart jokes, this is the show for you!
Bonus: Um. Margo Martindale? But seriously, ugh.
We Are Men
Get ready for lots of testosterone. After Carter (Chris Smith) is left at the altar, he moves to a short-term apartment complex, where he's befriended by three fellow bachelors: Stuart (Jerry O'Connell), an OB/GYN in the middle of his second divorce who apparently doesn't own shirts, Frank (Tony Shalhoub), a four-time divorcee and ladies' man, and Gil (Kal Penn), who's desperately trying to win his wife back after he got caught in an affair.
Bonus: Kal Penn. Non-bonus: more testosterone and Tony Shalhoub as a ladies man!
But seriously, this is, I swear, not remotely all the shows that are quite literally, The Same Old Thing. That would actually make a great sitcom -- TV creators who sit around trying to come up with hits and making new twists on old shit. Then there will be the straightman (played by a woman, obviously), who comes up with really creative, awesome ideas that everybody pans. HILARIOUS.
What are you going to be watching/not-watching? Bonus points for snark.