Pilot Season!
I watched some of this Fall's new pilots yesterday and I thought maybe you want to hear my opinion about them. Let's start with:
PERSON OF INTEREST
What's it about? Some uncharismatic ex-soldier meets a rich guy who invented a machine for the government to predict the next 9/11. The rich guy gets social security numbers from random people who are of interest for future events, they could be victims, villains or just witnesses. Together, they both try to save lives by spying on those random persons of interest and trying to find out which minor event will involve them. Both also have DRAMATIC BACKSTORIES we don't know yet. Basically, it probably will be a case-of-the-week series similiar to Human Target.
Who's responsible for it? Jim Caviezel is the ex-soldier, Michael Emerson is the rich guy, Taraji P. Henson is a police woman who stumbles upon them. J.J. Abrams and Dark Knight-screenwriter Jonathan Nolan wrote and produced it.
Did I like it? No. According to CBS it received the highest test ratings of any drama pilot in 15 years and even keeping in mind how boring CBS usually is, I can't understand that. It's one of the most unengaging pilots I've ever seen, competently made, but nothing grabbed me. The look is CSI New York 2004, all cold and blue, the characters are stereotypes, the case of the week is uninteresting and half of it involved Jim Caviezel just watching some female lawyer through binoculars. Then there are flashbacks to Jim Caviezel with his (now dead) ex-girlfriend in bed on 9/11 which just lead nowhere. Quite frankly I was really bored by this show, I didn't care about any of this and I didn't like the main character. This is a NO on my watch-list.
ALCATRAZ
What's it about? In 1963 all inmates and wardens of Alcatraz suddenly vanished, only to re-emerge one by one today. A female police officer and an Alcatraz expert stumble upon a secret branch in the government that tries to catch those inmates and solve the mystery behind their disappearance. Basically, it's The 4400 meets Primeval with crime instead of superpowers and dinos.
Who's responsible for it? It's another J.J. Abrams-pilot, starring Sarah Jones whom I didn't know but liked as the police officer, Robert Forster as her uncle, Hurley from Lost as the Alcatraz expert and Sam Neill as the boss of the shadow government branch.
Did I like it? Yes, though it probably helped that I watched it immediately after Person of Interest. The look is great, the case was involving and exciting and had a great guest star (I hope he'll be a regular later), the mythology of the show is interesting and there are a few twists concerning the heroine's family and the people behind the prisoners' disappearance. There's a huge possibility that it will all be a convoluted mess or canceled before anything is solved, but if the producers are smart and keep it on episodic plots involving Inmates Of The Week it could catch on. I will definitely watch a few more episodes.
ONCE UPON A TIME
What's it about? Well, it's... complicated. Magic fairytale characters are cursed to live in a normal town not knowing who they really are. Meanwhile Emma, our heroine living in New York, gets a visit from the boy she gave up for adoption ten years ago. He leads her to his home town, Storybrook, and insists every person in this town is a cursed fairytale character. Oh, and Emma is Snow White's daughter and has to fight the Evil Queen (now his adoptive mother) to lift the curse. Basically, it's ABC trying to finally have a show based on Fables without having to pay Bill Wilingham.
Who's responsible for it? The show was created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz who both worked on Lost and Tron: Legacy. Zoey from How I Met Your Mother plays Emma, Ginnifer Goodwin is Snow White and Robert Carlyle hams it up as Rumplestiltskin.
Did I like it? Kinda. It's very kids-friendly (the second most important person in the main cast is a ten-years-old boy after all) and feels like good old-fashioned family entertainment and that lack of darkness and cynicism is actually a plus in my book. Good camerawork in New York and Storybrook, on the other hand the scenes set in the fairytale kingdom giving us the backstory are cheesy as hell and look really fake, but I hope they will be gone in the regular episodes. There's a huge problem with this whole concept though, the whole pilot feels more like the first half of a movie or maybe the first episode of a mini-series, but I have no idea how the show will sustain its preise for years to come. There's a set end date already in the pilot - Emma promises to stay in town for one week - and once Emma defeats the Evil Queen, it's all over, so how will an episode in, say, season three look like? I will keep watching though, for now, it's light entertainment and I'm a sucker for fairytale tropes.
PERSON OF INTEREST
What's it about? Some uncharismatic ex-soldier meets a rich guy who invented a machine for the government to predict the next 9/11. The rich guy gets social security numbers from random people who are of interest for future events, they could be victims, villains or just witnesses. Together, they both try to save lives by spying on those random persons of interest and trying to find out which minor event will involve them. Both also have DRAMATIC BACKSTORIES we don't know yet. Basically, it probably will be a case-of-the-week series similiar to Human Target.
Who's responsible for it? Jim Caviezel is the ex-soldier, Michael Emerson is the rich guy, Taraji P. Henson is a police woman who stumbles upon them. J.J. Abrams and Dark Knight-screenwriter Jonathan Nolan wrote and produced it.
Did I like it? No. According to CBS it received the highest test ratings of any drama pilot in 15 years and even keeping in mind how boring CBS usually is, I can't understand that. It's one of the most unengaging pilots I've ever seen, competently made, but nothing grabbed me. The look is CSI New York 2004, all cold and blue, the characters are stereotypes, the case of the week is uninteresting and half of it involved Jim Caviezel just watching some female lawyer through binoculars. Then there are flashbacks to Jim Caviezel with his (now dead) ex-girlfriend in bed on 9/11 which just lead nowhere. Quite frankly I was really bored by this show, I didn't care about any of this and I didn't like the main character. This is a NO on my watch-list.
ALCATRAZ
What's it about? In 1963 all inmates and wardens of Alcatraz suddenly vanished, only to re-emerge one by one today. A female police officer and an Alcatraz expert stumble upon a secret branch in the government that tries to catch those inmates and solve the mystery behind their disappearance. Basically, it's The 4400 meets Primeval with crime instead of superpowers and dinos.
Who's responsible for it? It's another J.J. Abrams-pilot, starring Sarah Jones whom I didn't know but liked as the police officer, Robert Forster as her uncle, Hurley from Lost as the Alcatraz expert and Sam Neill as the boss of the shadow government branch.
Did I like it? Yes, though it probably helped that I watched it immediately after Person of Interest. The look is great, the case was involving and exciting and had a great guest star (I hope he'll be a regular later), the mythology of the show is interesting and there are a few twists concerning the heroine's family and the people behind the prisoners' disappearance. There's a huge possibility that it will all be a convoluted mess or canceled before anything is solved, but if the producers are smart and keep it on episodic plots involving Inmates Of The Week it could catch on. I will definitely watch a few more episodes.
ONCE UPON A TIME
What's it about? Well, it's... complicated. Magic fairytale characters are cursed to live in a normal town not knowing who they really are. Meanwhile Emma, our heroine living in New York, gets a visit from the boy she gave up for adoption ten years ago. He leads her to his home town, Storybrook, and insists every person in this town is a cursed fairytale character. Oh, and Emma is Snow White's daughter and has to fight the Evil Queen (now his adoptive mother) to lift the curse. Basically, it's ABC trying to finally have a show based on Fables without having to pay Bill Wilingham.
Who's responsible for it? The show was created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz who both worked on Lost and Tron: Legacy. Zoey from How I Met Your Mother plays Emma, Ginnifer Goodwin is Snow White and Robert Carlyle hams it up as Rumplestiltskin.
Did I like it? Kinda. It's very kids-friendly (the second most important person in the main cast is a ten-years-old boy after all) and feels like good old-fashioned family entertainment and that lack of darkness and cynicism is actually a plus in my book. Good camerawork in New York and Storybrook, on the other hand the scenes set in the fairytale kingdom giving us the backstory are cheesy as hell and look really fake, but I hope they will be gone in the regular episodes. There's a huge problem with this whole concept though, the whole pilot feels more like the first half of a movie or maybe the first episode of a mini-series, but I have no idea how the show will sustain its preise for years to come. There's a set end date already in the pilot - Emma promises to stay in town for one week - and once Emma defeats the Evil Queen, it's all over, so how will an episode in, say, season three look like? I will keep watching though, for now, it's light entertainment and I'm a sucker for fairytale tropes.