Pilot Review: Community

NBC. Thursdays at 930.
Starring: Joel McHale, Chevy Chase, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Yvette Nicole Brown, John Oliver, and Donald Glover

Community seems to suffer from the same problem that caused me to abandon Parks and Recreation, just not to the same degree. That problem is, well, what is enthralling enough about this group of people that I should watch it? This then gets branched into the two real problems with communities pilot: Who actually are these people and how do they (and the show) exist outside the classroom/college?

That first paragraph makes it seem like I didn’t like Community. Which is not really the case. It was enjoyable. There were definitely a few moments where I was solidly laughing. Joel McHale is actually really good, on his game and sharp as Jeff, the lead character, a suspended lawyer who ahs to go back to school. McHale has always shown a really quick wit and a knack for snarky delivery, so this isn’t really a surprise. I expected Joel McHale to be good, he was.

But, and this gets back to the earlier part of this review, he is the ONLY character to be developed beyond personality tics. We get like two lines of exposition for everyone else and then these “quirks” or, as I call them, “Chances for fun or extreme annoyance” (it’s a mixed bag, in this group). A character is more than a background summary and a tic, and pretty much no one in the pilot is a full-fledged character. As I said, some of them show promise. The show deserves another shot if only for the fact that pilots are always a little shaky on fleshing everything out; I mean, you have to intro the whole show, you can’t be expected to intro every element of it. Currently, Community is a weaker element of NBC’s comedy stable, hopefully with more time it irons out who these characters are and lets us actually experience them. For now, with the better Modern Family, I might have to say ABC has the better overall comedy lineup. But Community is good enough to get…

Rating: I’ll Give It Another Shot

Pilot Review: Modern Family

ABC. Wednesdays at 9.
Starring: Ariel Winter, Ed O’Neill, Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Julie Bowen, Nolan Gould, Rico Rodriguez, Sarah Hyland, Sofia Vergara, and Ty Burrell

I really hope ABC is not duping me into saying this but: ABC’s comedies might be close to rivaling NBC’s lineup. Because between ABC’s acquisition of Scrubs (which, darn it, I still have hopes for), the immensely under-rated and quickly-rising-up-my-list-of-favorite-shows Better Off Ted, and now Modern Family, they might actually have a comedy lineup to challenge NBC’s current quality level.

If you didn’t pick it up from that first paragraph, I really liked Modern Family. I was all set to groan my little blogging heart out over the tired ABC family comedy clichés I was expecting, only to be surprised by a large number of genuinely funny moments, executed by a cast that works well together and has pretty darn good comedic timing. I found myself genuinely liking all three storylines pretty much evenly, and there wasn’t even a single character that got to me, as most shows, even the ones I like, tend to have. Simply put, Modern Family is no According To Jim (aka: It’s actually really good). In fact, I almost want to give it more credit, because a number of the actors in it have grated on me from other projects, but Sofia Vergara had great timing, and Ty Burrell actually maybe even being my favorite character. Even the kid actors, who can tend towards the ever-so-grating end of the spectrum, were solidly funny.

Back to that ABC vs. NBC challenge I was talking about earlier, I’m holding off on crowning a winner in that battle until I watch “Community”, but with me stopping with Parks and Recreation after the second episode and my dwindling interest in “The Office”, ABC’s line-up seems to be a serious threat to their comedy throne. 30 Rock will hopefully be as strong as always, but Modern Family and Better Off Ted just may take the throne.

Rating: Definitely Worth Another Viewing

Pilot Review: The Cleveland Show

The Cleveland Show
FOX. Sundays at 8:30


So, I’d say I’m a fan of Family Guy. It’s nowhere near must see TV for me, but it still is mostly amusing, and can on occasion be very funny. However, moreso than any other comedy on TV, it completely misses the mark and ends up in wildly unfunny/disgusting territory.

I’m not sure what I was entirely expecting The Cleveland Show to be then, other than, you know, a second version of Family Guy. There are still random absurd cutaways, pop culture jokes that hit, pop culture jokes that miss, and various other stock characters. Which is to say that The Cleveland Show is about just as watchable as Family Guy, could be good for a laugh but not TV you need to go out of your way to see.

To be fair, there are some very funny things in the pilot. Cleveland’s new neighbor, a Christian Conservative bear (literally, a talking bear, I wonder how long until a shit in the woods joke occurs) with a pseudo-European accent, is probably the best character in the show, and brings some comedic energy to the scenes he’s in. And in one either very clever or entirely preposterous moment, there’s a jab at black sitcoms made by white people based on stereotypes. Which is kind of what The Cleveland Show is, making Seth McFarlane either an idiot or a hypocrite, I’m not sure which. But it’s the most interesting moment of the whole pilot.

That being said, this is much more like late era Family Guy than pre-cancellation. The tone of the show is still uneven, and, save Cleveland, none of the main family members are particularly funny. There are moments, but overall, it’s just not a laugh riot. I’d be interested whether to see if they balance out the tone, figure out a way to be more than just Family Guy 2.0, or take the show down a different road altogether, maybe something more along the lines of the now-much-funnier-than-Family-Guy American Dad. So, basically, this gets a rating that falls somewhere between…

RATING: If Nothing Else Is On/I’ll Give It Another Episode

Pilot Review: Lie To Me

Lie To Me
FOX. Wednesdays at 9.
Cast: Tim Roth, Kelli Williams, Monica Raymund, and Brendan Hines

So, I kind of really wanted to dig Lie To Me. Going into watching the pilot, I was kind of excited. I had previewed it with the first few minutes, which were all fun. I thought the premise was interesting. I really liked at least half the actors involved. So I really wanted to like Lie to Me. I really did. Unfortunately, after having watched the pilot, I really don’t.

There are, sadly, a bunch of problems with this pilot. Surprisingly, pacing and exposition are not one of them. Lie to Me manages to avoid the two biggest problems a pilot can face really well, actually, making it seem like we know the characters and not seeming to drag in trying to fit all that exposition in. Which is why Lie To Me’s lackluster-ness (shut up, I know that’s not a word) is all the more disappointing, because it falls onto all the things above that had jazzed me for the pilot.

Don’t get me wrong, those first few minutes are fun. They introduce Tim Roth’s character, Cal Lightman, who is basically a human lie detector, really well and make him an interesting and dynamic figure. And then, for the rest of the hour, they proceed to rob him of everything that makes him interesting. What I mean by this is that they lay out everything, so, SO blatantly with close-ups, that it makes what he can do seem way less cool. On Psych, which is also a show about a guy with a really unique talent using it to solve crimes, they do the same thing, but in a way that still allows the viewer to play along. On Lie To Me, it’s all so laid out it robs the show of the fun. I mean, there were two big mysteries to the pilot, and yet I managed to solve both of them, plus a sub-mystery, a while before the characters did, simply because they provided all the information WAY too early.

What also robs the show of fun, sadly, is the actors. Tim Roth is, as usual, pretty fantastic. He does his best to make this really weird character an interesting guy. However, the cast of characters around him really kill the buzz. Kelli Williams, who plays Cal’s number two, seems to REALLY think she’s popping and has chemistry with Cal, which she REALLY doesn’t. Monica Raymund seems to have been brought to play the hard-edged Latina woman simply because Michelle Rodriguez has had one too many DUIs, since what she does essentially seems like a Michelle Rodriguez impression. And now we get to Brendan Hines, which is where I get really sad. See, I like this guy a lot as an actor. Tyler Ford, who he played on the far superior “The Middleman” will stand out as one of the best TV boyfriends I have ever seen. Here, he is something close to a disaster. I’m more inclined to blame this one on the character, since the show seems to have no idea of his purpose except to be weird, but all I know is that the character left a really bad impression.

So yeah, I really wanted to like Lie to Me. But I couldn’t. I tried, but unfortunately, I’m gonna have to give it:

Rating: Not Worth Your Time/Only If Nothing Else Is On

Pilot Review: The Mentalist

The Mentalist
CBS. Tuesdays at 9.
Cast: Simon Baker, Robin Tunney, Amanda Righetti, Owain Yeoman, Shaun Toub, and Tim Kang

So, as a genre/classification, I’ll admit it: I’m a fan of procedurals. Not only is it nice to have a story that wraps up neatly in 60 minutes, but, usually, they tend to be entertaining. I really like procedurals when they have an interesting twist. So I was mildly excited for The Mentalist.

Now, I know what you’re probably not saying, “Nate, what’s the interesting twist?” I’m gonna tell you. The twist is to take the basic premise of “Psych”, a guy who is really observant uses his skill to solve crimes, and make it all dramatic. Now, I love Psych, it’s one of my favorite summer shows. The Mentalist, on the other hand, kinda blows. And the reason it blows is because it took the premise of Psych instead of the tone, which is where all the fun of Psych lies.

And, in losing the tone, the premise suddenly stops being likeable. See, whereas Shawn on Psych is likeable and, despite being observant, not necessarily the brightest person in the room, Patrick Jane (the titular Mentalist) just kind of comes across like a know-it-all tool. Which, as my liking of House proves, is not necessarily a deal breaker. But add that to the fact that the entire supporting cast (and their characters) is as dull as a piece of driftwood (and not even a cool piece of driftwood). No one is sympathetic, no one is interesting and the “investigation process” isn’t fun to watch. What’s all that add up to? A pretty bad pilot.

But as if that’s bad enough, all the performances either aren’t good or feel sleepwalked through. Simon Baker seems bored as the lead Patrick and Robin Tunney, as the lead cop barely even registers when she’s on screen she’s so low energy. Amanda Righetti, as the rookie and a believer in psychics, has a storyline that the creators clearly thought would be interesting, but it’s not. And the other two aren’t even worth mentioning, because they’re so firmly middle-of-the-road.

While The Mentalist is nowhere near the weakest pilot I’ve ever seen (One Word: Cavemen), there’s really basically nothing redeeming about it. I mean, if you’re super-duper pumped up for this show (although I have no idea why you would be), I’m not gonna say that you shouldn’t watch it. But for everyone else,

Rating: Not Worth Your Time

Pilot Review: Do Not Disturb (Formerly, The Inn)

Do Not Disturb
Fox. Wednesdays at 9:30.
Starring: Jerry O'Connell, Niecy Nash, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Brando Eaton, Jolene Purdy, and Molly Stanton

So, I know I’ve only seen two pilots for next season so far, but I’m starting to seriously get worried about next years crop of new shows. Now, granted, two is a very small number. There are heaps more new shows next season. But I was majorly disappointed by Fringe, and now, with Do Not Distub, one of my reliable comedic performers has let me down. Niecy Nash, what happened here?

I should preface this by saying that I absolutely love Reno 911. I’ve never seen an episode where I’ve laughed out loud less than five times. I look forward to it each week. And Niecy Nash is so great on it. But, while she’s far and away the best thing about Do Not Distub, she is disappointing here. Her delivery is good, but the material sucks.

Which brings me to the biggest of Do Not Distub’s many problems: the material blows. I can see the actors trying to make the stereotypes and unfunny lines they’ve been giving work, but it’s hard to make gold out of a much suckier element, like boron. I’ve seen every character on this show before (many of them on shows that are still on the air), and they were all funnier before. While there’s the occasional line that registers a chuckle, overall, the lines and situations aren’t funny. The plot of the pilot, an overweight girl who works in reservations wants to work at the front desk, but she can’t because she’s fat and only rail thin model types can work the front desk, has no zip. It all just feels tired. Which is a really big problem when this is the first episode of your show.

That’s not to say that the pilot is a complete and utter trainwreck. Occasionally, the actors succeed in elevating their material. Nash, in particular, gets in a few good moments. And there’s some decent stuff from the rail-thin model type who works at the front desk. But Jerry O’Connell continues to underachieve as an actor, and everyone else just can’t sell the bad material. I really don’t blame them, I can see that they tried their hardest. But you can’t do much when what you’re given sucks. So, despite the effort that, I’ve got to suggest heeding the shows title. Sorry, Do Not Disturb, but I gotta give you:

Rating: Not Worth Your Time

Pilot Review: Fringe

Fringe
Fox. Tuesdays at 9.
Cast: Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Kirk Acevedo, Blair Brown, Lance Reddick, and Chris Britton

So, I was a little misled by the commercials for Fringe. All the promotional stuff I had seen for the show made it seem like a sci-fi “things going bump in the night” thriller type show. But it’s not really that. Yeah, there are a few things that go bump in the night, but overall, it’s more about evil corporations and science and stuff. More mythology based, I guess. Which, unfortunately, is not a good thing, since, at least in the pilot I saw, the mythology is far less convincing or interesting than the things going bump in the night.

(a few spoilers here and there)

The pilot starts out really promisingly. The highly-previewed stuff with the plane is all really cool, and the effects are really well done (particularly, one guys face melting off). But then, the show begins to focus less and less on occurrences like that and more and more on the investigating of occurrences like that. Which, don’t get me wrong, could be a really interesting show. However, the more it goes on, the less it focuses on the actual occurrence. Which, as I said earlier, is troublesome, because the plane is far more fascinating than anything else.

However, even if the show focused on investigating the plane, it would have been interesting. But it doesn’t. It focuses on Olivia Dunham (played by Anna Torv, hovering somewhere between mediocre and good), whose unconvincing boyfriend (played by Mark Valley, who has been much better) gets infected with the same thing that was on the plane, trying to save his life and find a cure. Which, with the help of a father and son science team (John Noble and Joshua Jackson, far and away the most interesting characters on the show), she manages to do (not before a completely bizarre sequence where she enters the consciousness of her dying boyfriend in order to see the face of the man who can save him). By the end of the pilot, thankfully, we don’t have to worry about their relationship (it ain’t movin’ forward), but I’m still left with the question of why, in a show steeped in sci-fi and mythology, you focus on your protagonist’s love life in the pilot.

That said, Fringe isn’t a complete bust. Like I said earlier, John Noble and Joshua Jackson are both really interesting characters, and if the focus shifts to them, the show could seriously improve. Lance Reddick, spouting mythology and orders like he was Matthew Abbadon on Lost (Oh wait, he is), also does a decent job. And some of the morsels of mythology are interesting. The show gets interesting in the last 15 minutes, but until then, the pilot, at least, is a little bit of a mess. JJ Abrams, you’re letting me down. I’m going to give it a second chance, but it’s right on the border. There’s interesting bits here and there, but there’s large chunks of the show that seem to serve no purpose. Those little bits just slightly outweigh the large chunks, which is why Fringe gets

Rating: I’ll Give It Another Shot

Pilot Review: Private Practice

Private Practice
ABC. Wednesdays at 9
Cast: Kate Walsh, Tim Daly, Taye Diggs, Audra McDonald, Paul Adelstein, Amy Brenneman, KaDee Strickland

Ok, I’ll admit it. I watch Grey’s Anatomy on a frequent basis. I wholeheartedly hate Derek and Meredith, am actively rooting against this whole George and Izzie thing, and Christina breaking down after standing up Burke at the aisle was one of the best acted moments of last year in my opinion. I’m still flummoxed as to how Katherine Heigl beat Sandra Oh this year. However, while I watch Greys, there are very few characters on the show whom I actually like and root for. Christina and George are the good interns, and I don’t get how people cannot like Bailey. But my favorite character was probably Addison. Which is why I was happy to see her get her own spin-off.

I just kind of wish it wasn’t Private Practice, which just reeks of trying to be Greys, California Style. I mean, watching shows like Greys and this it’s a wonder that the medical community actually has time to save peoples lives and stuff like that with all their relationship drama. I liked Addison because while she succumbed to it, she seemingly realized she was succumbing to it and hated herself for it. Unfortunately, that Addison seems to have been lost somewhere on the journey between Seattle Grace and sunny LA. Maybe she’ll pop up in Eureka.

Yes, the Addison I loved is gone, replaced by an Addison who does things like dance naked in front of her open windows (Co-worker related hilarity ensues), stammer about not moving to LA over a kiss (which is such a Meredith thing to do, just without the whiny voice or anorexia), and can generally be seen eating some kind of baked good/ice cream confection and dishing gossip with her sole girlfriend. That’s intern stuff Addison, you’re supposed to make witty comments to Callie and sneer at Sloan when he makes sexual advances at you. Stop turning into Meredith.

But, alas, I digress. This review is about Private Practice as its own show. And I have to say, it kind of has its moments. They may be few and somewhat far in between, but at least one of the three plots in the pilot was actually pretty darn good. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the one that Addison was involved with, which struck me as being something that could completely happen in Seattle Grace. No, the one with Amy Brenneman and Paul Adelstein was actually pretty gripping television. I’m not gonna go into the one with Audra McDonald and Taye Diggs, because, well, I don’t want to talk about extracting sperm from a dead guy.

That one strong plotline, however, is not quite enough to make up for the rest of the show. I mean, Kate Walsh is still great. While this Addison may be a severe step down from Seattle Addison, Walsh still does a good job bringing energy and charm to the character. And no one else is glaringly bad. But it just kind of feels too much like a Grey’s episode transplanted to California, starring an older group of interns and attendings. So I’m kind of hoping that Addison decides that she preferred Seattle and heads back. Callie needs her, especially with George about to go all infidelitous on her (again). So yeah, the rating:

Rating: If There’s Nothing Else On…

Pilot Review: Bionic Woman

Bionic Woman.
NBC. Wednesdays at 9.
Cast: Michelle Ryan, Miguel Ferrer, Katee Sackhoff, Will Yun Lee, Chris Bowers, Molly Price, and Lucy Hale.

For the first 30ish minutes of the pilot for the new Bionic Woman, I was sitting there wondering if maybe I had mistaken it with another show. I remembered reading only gushingly good things about the pilot. But boy, I thought, these first 30 minutes blow. Because they do. But, now having seen the whole thing, I get why everyone was gushing about this. Because those last 10-15 minutes, well, they make you forget all about that clunky first half hour.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Bionic Woman is about, well, a bionic woman. Jamie Sommers was in a car crash, and her scientist boyfriend/soon-to-be baby daddy decides that, since the choice is to either let her die or make her half-woman half-machine, to make her all bionic and what not. Oh, and there’s an evil first bionic woman out there running amok. This, my friends, is the clunky part. The show, well, it kind of blows up until Jamie actually starts BEING the bionic woman. Once she starts using her new technology, the show picks up dramatically and actually becomes really entertaining, including one hell of a catfight (In heels, no less).

But yeah, those last 15 minutes really rock. I mean, Jamie starts kicking ass and taking names and it makes you forget all about her badly acted freak out upon finding her machine legs (When I say badly acted, what I mean is just that she kind of screams emotionlessly. So not really bad acting, so much as bad screaming) and the really bad writing up to that point and the somewhat incoherent and incomprehensible plot developments involving a supermax prison and a mysterious short, squat, creepy looking man. I mean, you get reminded of most of those things again at the end, when the action calms down, but for a good few minutes there, I really got where all the love for this show was coming from.

This is not to say that I’m completely endorsing this show. While it’s good for those 10ish minutes, it still is pretty bad for the rest of the episode. And the writing is just not good enough to sustain the show currently during the non-action sequences. Maybe this is why some of the performances don’t seem natural, but that also could be the actors’ fault. I’m not gonna single anyone out here because no one really stepped their game above or below the rest, they were all just kind of mediocre. Oh, and I hope they improve the effects for the show in the long run, because some of it looked really campy and cartoonish, which doesn’t work with the rest of the darker tone of the series. One blatant example is when Jamie is running in the woods and she kind of looks like Wile. E. Coyote. Unintentionally comical, but still doesn’t work with rest of the show. But, overall, I hope those were just kinks with the pilot having to build the backstory up and such, so I’m gonna give this one:

Rating: Definitely Worth Another Viewing

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…

Pilot Review: Life

Life
NBC. Wednesdays at 10.
Cast: Damien Lewis, Sarah Shahi, Adam Arkin, Robin Weigert

Huh. Life has shown me something. Namely, what it has shown me is that you can take an interesting twist to the cop show genre, namely about a Cop who was wrongly incarcerated and now has knowledge of both sides of the law, and make it as hokey, by the books, and dull as a normal procedural, if not more. And the reason I say “if not more” is because it has all of the clunky things that can bog down a procedural as well as the all-too-common “vast conspiracy that the main character must break” plot points, which are just as clunky as the bad procedural elements.

But if it were just another police procedural, I wouldn’t have so many problems with it. I like the police procedural subgenre. When it’s done well on a show like CSI, I’m a big fan. But Life is trying to be more than just that, and that’s where I have the most problems with it.

But, it’s not just that it tries to be more than it is. It’s also got one of the worst lead characters and/or actors that I’ve seen in a while. The reason that I say and/or is because I’m not sure how much of the bad is Damien Lewis’ fault and how much of the bad is the scripts fault. Is Charlie (Lewis) supposed to come off like a creepy serial killer? Aren’t we supposed to believe that he’s a good guy, not someone who could concievably kidnap you, lock you in a truck, and then keep you chained up in their basement for three years? I don’t know if it’s Lewis’ creepy presence or the characters creepy, well, characteristics, but either way, it seriously doesn’t work and makes watching him unpleasant.

The only real bright spot on the show is Sarah Shahi, playing Charlie’s new partner with a questionable backstory. The character itself is not that good. She’s an archetype of the “cop who had a problem but now has dealt with it but it still haunts her.” She’s not written in a particularly flattering way, but Shahi manages to bring enough charm and substance to the character that by the end of the pilot I was really hoping that Charlie wasn’t going to tie her up in his basement. So yeah, kudos to Shahi. Also, while I can’t comment on the actor, the backstory for Arkin’s character, a former CEO who dabbled in investor trading and now manages Charlie’s money for him, is kind of clever in a certain way. But yeah, that’s about it.

So, in closing, Life is a by-the-multiple-badly-written-books cop show that tries to be more than it is and fails. The main character may or may not kill you in a dark alley, and if I learned anything from the pilot, it’s that corrections officers love harassing convicts, but that’s a lesson that I already learned from Prison Break, which, conveniently, handles it’s mass conspiracy storyline a lot better than Life. So, yup, the rating:

Rating: Not Worth Your Time

Pilot Review: Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl
The CW. Wednesdays at 9.
Cast: Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Taylor Momsen, Ed Westwick, Kelly Rutherford, Matthew Settle, Nicole Fiscella, Nan Zhang, and the voice of my beloved Kristen Bell.

This review of Gossip Girl is gonna be a bit different than my other pilot reviews. Because I’m going to start this one with a rant, and then make some predictions, and then review the show.

So, the rant. This show really pisses me off. Because I went to one of the Upper East Side private prep schools, The Dalton School. And this show really tries to paint these schools as these bastions of elitist, too much money for their own good, no responsibility kids. Watching this show is like watching a New York magazine article about my school. That sentence doesn’t quite make sense? Let me explain. Every year or so, New York magazine would do a story about my high school and highlight one or two kids who go there and make it seem like no one at my school gave a damn about their futures and were just bad human beings. THIS IS SO FREAKING WRONG. And I feel like Gossip Girl is trying to portray the same message. That everyone who goes to one of these schools is a spoiled brat who does things like go to swanky hotel bars on weeknights downing martinis with their frenemies (I can’t believe I just typed that word). That is bullshit. Yes, in my class there were people who probably had more money than they ever should. And yes, there were people who partied in fancy dresses every weekend. But two things, that group was a severe minority and they didn’t do it in the way Gossip Girl says they do. They didn’t dress up in tuxes and six thousand dollar dresses and rent out clubs every Saturday night. The only time something like that happened is on special nights like homecoming or winter formal. So yeah, I’m calling bullshit on you Gossip Girl, because you’re just pretty wrong about most of this stuff. And I get that it’s fiction and is intended to be scandalous and juicy, but for the most part, we’re normal kids.

Okay, rant done. Now, on to some predictions:
1) Gossip Girl is going to be called “The New OC” and rightly so, because it will be wildly popular the first year, and then degrade with each successive year until it’s cancelled somewhere around season four.
2) More than half of teenage girls will have a major crush on Penn Badgley.
3) More than half of teenage guys will have a major thing for Blake Lively.
4) Gossip Girl (along with Reaper) will make the CW a Big 5 network.

So, time for the review. Gossip Girl, as much as it’s factually incorrect and aggravating, has some very good things working for it. But the reason those things may stand out as very good is because it also has some very bad things working for it. I figure it’s always better to start with the good, so I’m gonna start by saying that about half this cast is pitch perfect. You remember about 10 lines up where I was saying that teenager girls would fall in love with Penn Badgley? Well, that’s because he does a great Seth Cohen impersonation, and really, that’s what his role needs. He’s fun to watch and he has great chemistry with Blake Lively, who I really hope can use this to become a star. She’s great as Serena, the former party girl who mysteriously left (which, in my high school always meant rehab, but not here) and who’s return as a new found mostly good girl sets off the show’s events. She fits her role better than anyone else on the show. The other real standout here is Leighton Meester, who is great as Blair, Serena’s former best friend and current enemy. She hits every bitchy note right, but she also hits all of Blair’s vulnerable notes perfectly as well. Taylor Momsen is good too, but of the visible actors, those three are the real standouts. And I say visible actors, because I’m gonna talk about Kristen Bell’s narration as Gossip Girl, the blogger and our secret informer as to what’s going down. Now, I loved Bell in Veronica Mars, but if you read this blog, you most likely already know that I loved everything about that show. She sounds perfect relaying the slightly acidic banter of her blog, but this was expected as she proved herself more than able with Veronica’s witty and tart banter. Also, the show is a lot better shot than one would expect for a show aimed at teens. The particular moment that comes to mind is a ridiculously good tri-cut montage between three different sexually related scenes. It played each scene beautifully off one another. Plus, they succeed really well at making all the beautiful young people look, well, beautiful. Good job Gossip Girl.

But the bad is, well, pretty bad too. Remember how I was saying that about half the cast rocks? Well, the other half is pretty close to atrocious. Chace Crawford has all the screen presence of a rotting onion, and the charisma of one as well. He actually sucks the life out of the scenes he’s in. It’s kind of astonishing. Ed Westwick, well, he’s similar only that his onion isn’t rotting. He’s such a broad and bad caricature of the Oliver character from season one of The OC that I wonder why they didn’t just cast the same actor and say the character moved from sunny California to the Upper East Side. Also, remember when The OC first came on and people lauded it for making the parents just as fully realized as the kids? Well, apparently that was a fluke for Josh Schwartz, seeing as how the parents here do little more than act either controlling, bitchy, or wanna be hip. Or some combination. Their interactions with their respective kids are just so bad that I was wondering if we could move these young people to Kid Nation over on CBS. Also, well, the whole rant kind of goes here as well. Plus, the show doesn’t really get the whole notion of subtlety. I honestly think that the show originally was going to have a banner plan flying in the back of every scene saying, “The parents control their kids lives! They don’t really have a choice about their futures! Pity them!” but they thought that it might be distracting. Even without it though it feels like they are hitting the viewers over the head with the message. It’s so ridiculously blatant that I found myself wanting to just tell the kids to exercise some goddamn free will.

So yeah, I’ve got some major problems with Gossip Girl. But this show was made to become a pop culture phenomenon, so I can’t really blame it for pandering to it’s teenage audience and making itself seem so grandiose and overblown. Which is why, despite the rant, this gets

Rating: I’ll Give It Another Shot

It’s not definitely worth another viewing, but I’m willing to give it a few episodes to see if it grows on me.

PS: For US readers, the pilot is available as a free download on iTunes.

Pilot Review: Journeyman

Journeyman
NBC. Mondays at 10
Cast: Kevin McKidd, Moon Bloodgood, Brian Howe, Gretchen Egolf, Reed Diamond

I must say that Journeyman perplexes me. I may even be flummoxed by it. Because, you see, for the first, oh, 35 minutes or so, I was completely and totally lost. I mean, the first three quarters of this pilot are ridiculously confusing. Almost as confusing as how Cavemen got picked up for a season. But suddenly, when those final 10 minutes came on, well, I think everything kind of kicked into place. And suddenly, I thought, “Well, what do you know? This show’s actually pretty good.”

And it is. The show has a whole bunch of good working for it. First off, it’s premise, that a man jumps back and forth in time trying to manage his own life and avert catastrophes in others’ lives is nifty. I mean, I understand this is basically a variation on the idea of Quantum Leap, but I still like it. Secondly, you have the pretty awesome Kevin McKidd as your lead. I loved Rome and think it’s entirely too bad that it was cancelled after two seasons, because I could have watched many more of the exploits of Lucius Vorenus, Titus Pullo, Atia, et al. McKidd rocked on that show, especially with his turn from the good guy in season one to his absolutely awesome Son of Hades psycho in season two. And he’s pretty good here too, despite me really wishing he kept his British accent, since his American one sounds a bit off. The rest of the cast seems alright as well, but this really is McKidd’s show and he rocks. Thirdly, you have those last 10 minutes where everything comes together, and those ten minutes are pretty freaking good, because that’s when McKidd takes full grasp of what he’s doing and why he’s time jumping.

That’s not to say that this isn’t a flawed show, it most certainly is. Remember those first 35 minutes I was talking about where I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on? Well, there’s a good chance that Journeyman is gonna hemorrhage viewers during that time. Because, frankly, I was getting pretty fed up with the show and was hoping that they’d get around to explaining what the hell was going on. But the biggest problem the show has (and I guess this is tied into those first 35 minutes being bad) is the whole storyline (or lack thereof) between Dan (McKidd) and Livia (Bloodgood). We get little teases and hints as to their past, but we’re never told exactly what the case was with them, and it’s a little infuriating, especially when SPOILER ALERT she randomly pops up and may be a time jumper as well, even though we’ve been told that she’s dead, but now maybe she’s not. That whole storyline is confusing and I think confused as to what the hell its supposed to be. I mean, are we supposed to want Dan and Livia to get back together (they used to be). Doesn’t that kind of conflict with the whole Dan is trying to save his marriage and family even though he’s time jumping storyline? Lastly, I get that NBC is trying to turn their Monday night into Sci-fi ish shows (With the combo of Chuck, Heroes, and this), but man, this show seems mismatched with those two. In fact, I think all three shows are mismatched with one another. I guess this kind of works with Heroes, but this and Chuck don’t really get along. There’s a whole lot that needs to be sorted out before this show can really hit it’s full potential evidenced in those last ten minutes. Man, those ten minutes were good. I mean, not like really good, but good enough that this show, despite being utterly confusing for a majority, gets the rating

Rating: Definitely Worth Another Viewing

PS: Moon Bloodgood’s name is freakin’ awesome.

Pilot Review: K-Ville

K-Ville
FOX. Mondays at 9
Cast: Anthony Anderson, Cole Hauser, Tawny Cypress, Blake Shields, and John Carroll Lynch

I’ve got a serious problem with K-Ville. The big problem I have with K-Ville is the way it seemingly, well, exploits the events of Hurricane Katrina. Now, I know a lot of the show is about how the city was affected and is rebuilding but is still a place in need of a lot of aid, effort, and work. But honestly, the show feels so much more like a guilt trip than a love letter to a city that certainly needs one. It seems to use Katrina almost as a loophole. “What, the characters aren’t likeable at all? Show us in a poorly shot flashback their own traumatic experience.” “What, we haven’t expressed what a dire situation the city is in? Throw in a random and completely pointless shot of a broken down house or some graffiti about FEMA.” Not to sound like a complete and utter jackass, but we get that New Orleans is still a city in dire need of assistance. But that doesn’t give you creative license to make a crappy show.

And that’s the thing, even if the show wasn’t a guilt trip, it’s still pretty bad television. I mean, first of all, the tone is completely schizophrenic. One second, its light-hearted buddy cop show. Then, in the blink of an eye, depressing show about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. But then, just as fast, oh look, it’s a shoot first, ask questions later cop show. Pick a tone, stay with it. Don’t give the viewers tonal seizures. And another thing, in your ads, at least make it seem like the genre it most is, the depressing show about the aftermath of Katrina. Instead, we’ve got a buddy comedy shoot-'em-up action ad. That’s just incorrect, and a lot of people are gonna be confused when they turn this on. Secondly, the writing and plot are just plain awful. The first episode deals with (SPOILER ALERT) some convoluted plan to stop the ninth ward from being rebuilt, because the mean white woman has something against the hoodlums who used to populate the area. I mean, even something more like profiteering would have been better. The way it is, it plays very racistly, claiming that the rich white folks are secretly plotting against the downtrodden black residents of the ninth ward. I almost expected the bad guys to say something along the lines of “If it weren’t for you darn cops, and your dog too” (That’d be a Scooby Doo reference, for anyone who was deprived of television as a child). I was just on the FOX message boards about the show, and apparently, it’s rife with inaccuracies too. So the dialogue and things that we’re aggravating in the first place don’t even work factually. Two strikes. Strike number three comes from the performances. Anthony Anderson, stick to comedies. You can’t handle being a tough guy (I know you were supposedly awesomely amazing as a toughie on The Shield, but you wouldn’t know it watching this). Cole Hauser, learn to speak in something other than a southern drawl monotone. Not every line has to be delivered the exact same way. Other people, do something that makes you seem like something more than animated cardboard cutouts placed around these two. Three strikes, you’re out K-Ville.

Rating: Not Worth Your Time

Pilot Review: Lipstick Jungle

Lipstick Jungle
NBC. Midseason
Cast: Brooke Shields, Kim Raver, Lindsay Price

And so my pilot hot streak ends. Lipstick Jungle is actually, believe it or not, an interesting show, but not for any sort of good reason. No, it’s interesting because it’s from Candace Bushnell, one of the major forces behind Sex and the City, a show that was pretty darn good and feminist in it’s portrayal of successful woman who are in (mostly) full control of both their personal lives and their careers. Now, just being a Candace Bushnell show isn’t what makes it interesting. What’s interesting about Lipstick Jungle is the fact that it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is clearly trying to be Sex and the City-lite, and it is advertising itself as such, when, in reality, it is such a misogynistic show that I actually said aloud while watching it “This is aimed at women?”

Lipstick Jungle is about 3 women, Nico (Kim Raver), Wendy (Brooke Shields), and Victory (Lindsay Price), who are all incredibly powerful business women with vaguely preposterous names (Well, not Wendy and Nico is kind of mildly common in an Velvet Underground homage kind of way, but really, who names their child Victory? No offense to any Victorys out there). Wendy is a movie executive, Nico is a magazine publisher, and Victory (Seriously, her character’s parents must have hated her) is a fashion designer. The show is about these women being successful women. Only, and this is the funny misogynistic part, NONE OF THESE WOMEN SEEM TO BE ABLE TO BALANCE BEING POWERFUL WITH MAINTAINING A NORMAL HOME LIFE. Hell, some of these women don’t even seem to be good businesswomen (I’m looking at you person whose parents must have hated her).

But it’s not just that these women can’t seem to balance the two well. It’s that she show flaunts their failure at it. Some spoilers are coming, so watch out. Right as Wendy actually shows some business acumen and closes a necessary deal, she receives a text message from her husband saying that he wants a divorce. So, basically, right as she achieves business success, her family falls apart. Nico, who seems to be the strongest businesswoman and the most sensible about home life and is also, interestingly enough, the one who the others say is the biggest bitch of the three, basically starts an extramarital affair at her big launch party (Granted, this does show her as being in control of her own sexuality, but she breaks down crying over it later, because it shows she’s a bad wife). Oh, and when Victory botches a business deal in Japan, her new billionaire boyfriend comes to her rescue and sends her a private jet to fly her back to the US and into his arms. So basically, when these women are successful at their jobs, they botch their home lives, and when these women botch their jobs, they seem to have success in romance. Because, apparently, the show doesn’t believe women can achieve both.

The performances here seem slapdash at best, which is disappointing to me because I’ve always thought Kim Raver is a decent enough actress and I actually like Lindsay Price. But no one here shines, partially because they all seem to be caricatures of the archetypal woman who can achieve success at work or success at home but not both. This may also just be because the writing and dialogue is so poor as well. Really, there’s no element of this show that comes across as particularly good. The only compliment I have for it is that it’s better than Cavemen, which is really not saying much. All of this comes together to garner…

Rating: Not Worth Your Time

Pilot Review: Chuck

Chuck
NBC. Mondays at 8
Cast: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Joshua Gomez, and Sarah Lancaster

To be fair, watching Chuck after recently watching the Pushing Daisies pilot (again) is going to put Chuck at a disadvantage. But really, the same can be said for any show. Chuck, which is about professional nerd Chuck (Levi) and the two federal agents (Strahovski and Baldwin) sent to protect and watch over him after he downloads the joint NSA/CIA database into his head accidentally. Throw in an aggravating sidekick/best friend and a seemingly useless sister character and you’ve got the basic premise and characters of the show.

That’s not to say that Chuck is bad. In fact, there’s quite a bit to like about the show. First, the premise itself is kind of funny and could lend itself to some good television. Secondly, Zachary Levi definitely has enough charisma and charm to maintain his own series. He and Strahovski are the two compelling members of the cast, which saddens me because I’m a big Adam Baldwin fan. Alas, he seems to have nothing much to do here but grimace and try to act gruff, something he normally does well. Lancaster is given pretty much nothing to do besides acting sisterly and looking nice. And Gomez, as aggravating best friend Morgan is, well, aggravating. Who decided that the new hip trend on TV would be to have a really aggravating sidekick who’s supposed to be funny but isn’t? Because I’d really like to find that person and smack them.

Also, at least in the pilot, the action is there in just the right places and is well shot and fun to watch, particularly in the club scene between Chuck and Sarah (Strahovski’s character) where the, while dancing very sexily, takes out four NSA agents. What’s also really good about the series is that they’ve managed to keep the tone at just the right level, light but not blatantly comedic or overly dramatic. What remains to be seen is if they can continue this balance after the pilot.

Chuck, however, certainly has its weaker moments. As previously stated, Lancaster and Baldwin seem to be almost sleepwalking through their roles, and Gomez is so annoying at times that you wonder why Chuck, who is nice and relatively charismatic and attractive, is even friends with him. The character of Ellie (Lancaster)’s boyfriend ”Captain Awesome” is entirely too reminiscent of Keith Dudemeister on Scrub. Also, the hint of romantic tension at the end of the episode between Chuck and Sarah is definitely something I can do without. Can there please be two leading male and female protagonists who don’t have a romantic connection? Is that so much to ask TV? All together, though, Chuck is a fun show, with a charismatic lead, well timed action, and a well-balanced tone, which is why it garners the rating

Rating: Definitely Worth Another Viewing

Pilot Review: Pushing Daisies

Pushing Daisies
ABC. Wednesdays at 8.
Cast: Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, Kristin Chenoweth, Swoosie Kurtz, Ellen Greene, and Jim Dale.

What can I say about Pushing Daisies? Well, one thing that I know I can say is that it’s the best pilot I’ve seen so far. I’m fairly confident that, even only having seen 4 pilots for next season, I can say that this will be the best show on primetime television next year, considering that spot was just vacated by the now unfortunately cancelled Veronica Mars. One last thing I can say about this pilot is that this is the best show I’ve seen since I saw the pilot for Veronica Mars. It may even be better. You may not realize, but that means A LOT from me.

The show is at its core about a man who can bring people back from the dead. He runs a pie shop called “The Pie Hole” and he doesn’t exactly have strong social skills. See, he discovered his power when he was a child but he also learned its caveats then, when, after bringing his mother back after an aneurysm, he killed his neighbor’s, who he had a crush on dad. Apparently, he can only bring them back from the dead for a minute, or someone else in the near vicinity drops dead in their place. But, when his mom kissed him that night, she dropped dead too. Because one touch means life, a second touch means death again. Seeing as how he killed his neighbor and his mom, he was sent away and now runs a pie shop. Until an enterprising PI found out about his power and started working with him to collect rewards. His latest one is for a girl who mysteriously died on a cruise ship. It turn out that the victim is his old neighbor, Chuck (a girl, not a guy), who he keeps alive for more than a minute. He and Chuck still have feelings, but they can’t touch.

While my summary of events and the show’s premise may not have been good, the show certainly is. This is the most visually lush thing I have ever seen on a major channel. Watching this is like entering a painted world, where colors hint at everything from mood to personality. And the fantastic (as in fantasy related, all though it is fantastic to look at) backdrop is perfect because the show plays and feels like a fairy tale. Every note just hits right. Lee Pace feels perfect as Ned, and his chemistry with Anna Friel’s Chuck is endearing and feels completely true. Chuck’s two aunts (Kurtz and Greene) with matching personality disorders feel so right at home in this universe that you can’t help but find them hilarious. Chenoweth as The Pie Hole’s only employee hits every note right with her performance. Jim Dale’s narration makes it seem even more like a fairy tale. McBride is the weakest link, but he still makes you enjoy his morally ambiguous character. The dialogue is snappy, as would be expected from Bryan Fuller, who created two of my other favorite shows of the last five years (Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me). Barry Sonnenfeld’s pilot direction is superb, as is the show’s cinematography, which makes every color and set pop on screen. Honestly, there is absolutely nothing I dislike
about this pilot, which is why it gets:

Rating: You Must Watch This Show

Pilot Review: Reaper

(Note: Picture is from before recasting)

Reaper
The CW. Tuesdays at 9
Starring Bret Harrison, Tyler Labine, Ray Wise, Missy Peregrym, and Rick Gonzales

Ah, finally. A decent pilot to wash the taste of Cavemen out of my mouth. Reaper is the story of Sam (Harrison), a 21 year old slacker, who, unbeknownst to him, has had his soul sold to the devil (Wise). You see, before he was born, his dad got really sick, and the only way to get better was to sell their first born to the devil, who, upon turning 21, would have to do the dark lords bidding. Well, time’s up for Sam, who begrudgingly accepts his task as bounty hunter of escaped souls. He’s not alone though. His slacker buddy Sock (Labine) is there to help him, along with another co-worker Ben (Gonzales). Oh, and there’s the requisite crush, Andi (Peregrym) as well.

I’m going to start by talking about what’s not quite good about this pilot. I watched the original pilot, before they recast the role of Andi. And good thing. The original Andi, Nikki Reed, is the biggest flaw in this pilot. She’s unconvincing with the little bit of role she’s given and she has no chemistry with Harrison. But Ms. Peregrym has taken over the role, and I can only hope she proves better. Also, while Labine fits the role of the idiot slacker well, the character can get very grating at times. I only have minor quibbles besides that though, like the parents being a little too over the top and Sam accepting his job with the devil a little to easily.

Now, on to the good. This pilot has a whole lot going for it. Firstly, Bret Harrison is really good. I loved his last show (Fox’s The Loop, cancelled too soon) and he continues to show good comedic work here as well. His timing is on, his bewilderment is convincing. He’s weaker in the dramatic scenes, but he still manages to pull them off decently. Ray Wise as the devil is also great, fluctuating between comedic devil and mean devil well. My only quibble with the character is that, at times, the devil comes off too nice. I mean, he’s the Devil. Don’t make him be nice and caring. The show moves at a good brisk pace managing to keep the energy mostly up, with the occasional down scene. It’s clever without being too smart, has a lot of great little jokes, like the use of a dirt devil in order to capture the first soul. In fact, the weekly change of Sam’s capturing aid could become something that people look forward to, like the changing couch sequence on The Simpsons.

This show is a fun way to kill an hour, and could be the breakaway hit that the CW so desperately needs. CW, I still haven’t forgiven you for canceling Veronica Mars, and I doubt I will for a while, but this makes up for it slightly. Only a little bit though. And any goodwill that this show may have created is crushed by the fact that you picked up Farmer Wants A Wife. I mean, seriously? You cancelled Veronica for that? For shame. But that’s beside the point. Reaper is fun, well acted, and could become another cult hit along the lines of something like Buffy, which is why this earns:

Rating: Definitely Worth Another Viewing

Pilot Review: Cavemen

Cavemen
ABC. Tuesdays at 8.
Starring Bill English, Nick Kroll, Sam Huntington, Kaitlin Doubleday, Stephanie Lemelin, and Julie White

You know how in my review of The Big Bang Theory I said that it could only go up from there? Well, I lied. Apparently you can go down. FAR down. I’m pretty sure I can confidently say that Cavemen WILL be the worst new show of the year. This show is so wildly offensive that I’m surprised that we haven’t heard any boycotts from groups like the NAACP. But not only is the show offensive, the show is wildly unfunny. Lets see, painfully bad topical humor? Check. Wacky outfits. Check. Groan Inducing Caveman jokes. Double Check. At least there’s no wacky montages or talking to the camera. But I’m sure those are coming.

But more on the offensive front. There is a fairly long conversation about the terms “Cro-Maggers” and its various derivatives. Do you get it, because that kind of sounds like the N-Word? Oh, and lets not forget the last scene, where it’s announced that the tip jar is stolen and everyone looks our cavemen and flames pop up behind them. Do you get it again? That it looks kind of like a lynching? What, you don’t find racism or lynchings funny? Oh, then I guess you shouldn’t watch Cavemen. Seriously, is this supposed to be a racial commentary? Because it’s not. It’s just unfunny and offensive. I swear, if there’s an episode later on involving their Uncle Tom…

Now, on to the cast. All these people should be ashamed of themselves. English, Kroll, and Huntington (Especially you, you’re reasonably well known) are all stupid caricatures of personality types. And they’re always in makeup, so if you did this for the fame, it’s not likely to come. Except as that guy who starred in that wildly offensive Cavemen sitcom. Those without makeup should equally be mortified with themselves, because their faces will be associated with this. Now, I wanna call out a few people here.

Julie White: You are a well-respected actress (you got raves on Broadway recently. For god’s sake, didn’t you win a Tony?). Why the hell are you in this dreck?

John Heard: See Above, but without the Broadway stuff.

Travis Schuldt: You are on Scrubs, so you clearly understand what a good comedy is. So why do you pop up here for 3 useless minutes. Was the paycheck really worth associating yourself with this?

Overall, I will be shocked if this makes it to air in its current form. This is one of the most wildly offensive shows I have ever seen. And it’s not even funny (with the exception of an occasional one liner from Julie White). Neither the person I was watching this with nor I laughed a single time. At the end, however, we both agreed that it was beyond offensive. Which is why this receives a:

Rating: Avoid At All Costs.

Pilot Review: The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory
CBS. Mondays at 8:30.
Starring Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, and Kaley Cuoco

This is the first pilot I watched, and watching this one first is, I believe, a good way to start watching pilots. Because I truly hope the quality can only go up from here. This painful painful half-hour sitcom from Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady deals with two nerds and their hot new girl neighbor. It has predictable jokes, like the nerds rewatch Battlestar Galactica, and insult each other’s quantum mechanics. Once the girl neighbor pops into the picture, it only gets more awkward and groan inducing. See, the nerds don’t know how to have regular social interactions. They’re awkward around girls and calculate the best spot in their apartment to sit in due to cross breezes and the direction of the TV. They have funny nerd things, like Star Wars shampoo and boards with incomprehensible equations. And, because they’re nerds, they have dietary problems, like lactose intolerance (because only nerds have that). Isn’t that funny? Oh, it’s not? Someone should tell Lorre and Prady.

The first episode deals with Sheldon and Leonard (Nerds can’t have regular names now either? No offense meant to anyone with the name Sheldon or Leonard) meeting Penny (Cuoco) and trying to get her TV back from her muscular ex-boyfriend. Pantsless hilarity ensues. Did I say hilarity? I didn’t mean it.

I think of myself as a nerd, and this show gives us a bad name. We’re not all socially inept girl-phobic people with bad hairdos. This is something the show doesn’t seem to realize. This upcoming season is supposed to be the season of the Nerd (with other shows like Chuck also being about nerds) but I really hope that this isn’t the representation that nerds are getting on television. If it is, it’s more than a little insulting.

That’s not to say that the show is a complete and utter unsalvageable trainwreck. Cuoco does bring energy and cuteness to the screen as Penny, and the two other nerd friends are so much more entertaining to watch that I wish that they were the main characters and Galecki and Parsons were the sidekick nerds. And the show does have the occasional mildly chuckle-inducing line, most of which have been already used to death in the promos. If the show focuses more on Cuoco’s character and highlights the other two nerds (meaning not Sheldon and Leonard) more, it might become something worth the occasional watch, but as it stands:

Rating: Not Worth Your Time