Pilot Review: Cane

Cane
CBS. Tuesdays at 10.
Cast: Jimmy Smits, Hector Elizondo, Nestor Carbonell, Rita Moreno, Paola Turbay, Eddie Matos, Michael Trevino, Lina Esco, Sam Carman, Alona Tal, and Polly Walker.

Hmm. I’m a little confused by Cane. Not in that sort of “What the hell is going on?” Journeyman sort of way. More in a “Haven’t I kind of seen this already?” kind of way. Because, to me at least, the majority of the episode seems like a Latin riff on Brothers and Sisters with a little bit more of soapy drama thrown in. I mean, you’ve got the son going off to war, the family business being handed down to the next generation, and the possibly nefarious business practices. The only thing that Cane has that Brothers and Sisters doesn’t is kinda big plot holes and less believable performances.

That’s not to say that I didn’t like the show. The first hour was a nice little pilot that showed some decent potential and had enough likeable people in it. But there’s a decent amount of cleanup that the show has to do before it becomes really good TV. And I’m going to address those in list form.

1) If you’re gonna have a character with a college age kid, don’t cast an actress who likes a few hairs over thirty. I mean, no offense to Paola Turbay. She looks gorgeous and she’s not a bad actress. But it really strains credulity if the mother of an 18 year old looks like she discovered the fountain of youth between changing diapers.

2) With any ensemble show, you really have to watch out for having too many characters. Not to keep making references to it, but Brothers and Sisters had the same problem when it first started. There are simply too many bodies on the screen. I feel like there are three or four leads whom I simply know nothing about because they were only on screen for about 40 seconds.

3) If you are going to try to do something very similar to a show that started last year, try to liven it up by using plots that aren’t wildly similar to that show or other recent shows. I’m not going to suggest that you create your own plots, because that’s something that Hollywood seems incapable of doing nowadays, but it really just felt like a complete retread of a bunch of other shows.

4) Watch out for those plot holes over there. Someone could fall in them and hurt themselves. I mean, I understand that a show has to have a few plot holes; nothing can be fully explained without getting boring. But do you really expect me to believe that the head of a rival company could waltz on to someone’s property completely unannounced, especially when the somebody who’s property is being waltzed on to is supposed to be in a coma and close to death, but is secretly not? Really, people. Come on.

Despite all of these though, I’m not going to tell you to avoid the show. It’s not that terrible. It’s definitely got some very watchable aspects, especially if they do a better job with the writing and plot directions. But, likewise, I’m not gonna tell you to watch it either. The show’s got some strong performances working for it from Smits and Elizando, but besides that there’s not a whole lot to give credit to. If you wanted to watch it, watch it. It’s not worth not watching if you wanted to. But if you’re on the fence, well, I’m not so sure. So that’s why this gets a rating:

Rating: Meh. If There’s Nothing Else On…