First Impressions: Hawaii Five-O

So, I finally got around to watching the pilot episode of the reimagining of the classic tv series Hawaii Five-O, I know it’s been around for almost two weeks, but I’ve been really busy and to be honest, it was near the bottom of my list of new shows to watch, the only one lower than it being Undercovers.

Anyway, to cut a long blog post short, I enjoyed it. I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting going in, probably a police procedural drama I guess. I’ve never seen the original, but my assumption was that it would be like CSI: Miami, but probably with better scripts. Instead the episode opens with a fire fight, a metric ton of explosions and a helicopter gunship. Throw in James Marsters as a recurring bad guy and I was already sold.

When the opening action is over and done with Anton Hesse (James Marsters’ brother) lies dead, alongside Jack McGarrett, the father of the show’s main character Steve. Fast forward a day or so and Steve is back in Hawaii looking to bury his father when the Governor approaches him with an offer. She wants him to lead a special division of police officers to seek out the corrupt and nefarious citizens of Hawaii.

Obviously Steve turns her down, that is, until he realises there is more to his father’s murder than simple revenge. Steve quickly takes over the task force, appointing “Hawaii Hating” Danny Williams as his second in command, mainly so he can wind him up I’m guessing. Not long after  that he ropes in his childhood friend and ex-cop Chin (Daniel Dae Kim) who was kicked off the force after supposedly taking a bribe and his kid cousin, Kono, fresh out of the academy and played by the stunning Grace Park.

With him team assembled they set off after Marsters (Victor Hesse), after a quick but well executed rumble in the shipyard, James’ body is in the drink and presumed dead… Really, is he…? I doubt it. Although with Caprica and his rumoured lead role in an upcoming superhero show, he could well be.

Anyway, whatever the case, it was a fun and exciting first episode and it holds a lot of promise. I found the characters believable enough that they were engaging to watch, but also fun and stereotypical enough that the show was not too heavy. I was certainly surprised by how much I enjoyed the pilot,  a lot more than I did the Chase, which I was much more excited about.

Whether I will stick with the show, I don’t know, it’s certainly a good show and I love the cast, but I think it really depends on what kinds of episodes they choose to do and whether or not there will be an engaging season subplot. But for now it’s definitely on my ever increasing watch list. And for those who have been dying to know, yes it still has the classic theme tune!

First Impressions: Raising Hope

When I first turned this show on to see a hillbilly family attempting to be funny I nearly turned it off again, it was only the short running time I had to endure that stopped me.However, I quickly realised that someone over at FOX knew what they were doing.

Over the last couple of years, indie-style movies like Juno, have been making big bucks. Raising Hope is is in the same vein. Jimmy Chance is a 25 year old, emo-ish looking kid, not overly intelligent and a general under achiever. Through a series of bad choices and even worse luck he is lumbered with a baby girl, whose mother has been executed for murder.

Already the show is off to an ambitious start. Quickly Jimmy learns that he isn’t cut out to be a father, but he is also not willing to give up on his daughter. He soon meets the cute but ultimately quirky shop assistant who thinks he’s “weird” and from that point on we know this is going to be an oddball of a romantic comedy.

Overall, the show’s set up turned me off, I have always found shows that try to dredge up humour by laughing at those less fortunate (i.e. the poor hillbilly family that can’t afford to raise a baby girl) to be dull. But Raising Hope is not focused on what this family can’t do, but instead on what it can. The show is about perseverance in the face of adversity and with that slant I found myself warming to it. The show is definitely piggybacking on the success of movies like Juno, trading the canned laughter of guaranteed success for something a little more edgy, a little more “of the now”. Will that pay off? It wouldn’t the first time that FOX has taken a step forward only to find that the audience stood still. Either way, I enjoyed the pilot of Raising Hope and I applaud FOX for their great choices in half hour comedies, in offering us two (Running Wilde) new shows that are very different to what the other networks have to offer.

First Impressions: Running Wilde

My first impressions of Running Wilde? It’s funny, it very funny, but it is also silly. I mean, any show that features Peter Serafinowicz riding on a tiny horse is pushing the boundaries of ridiculous, right?

But somehow, magically, Michael Hurwitz pulls it off. I have no idea how, this show is crazy, it’s connection to reality is threadbare but, somehow, it’s funny, but it’s clever funny, not slapstick funny, despite all appearances to the contrary.

The jokes that made Arrested Development so funny are back too, along with two members of the cast. For example, Emmy (the female lead and environmental activist) has named her daughter Puddle, and like Bob Loblaw, it’s a name that gets funnier each time it comes up.

Ultimately, I have no idea where the show intends to go, the initial storyline  makes for a great opening episode, but the implied follow up, where Emmy tries to shape Steve (Will Arnett) into the ideal man kinda feels a bit too mainstream considering the bizarre way the show opens. But I trust Michael and I trust Will and I think that this show has the potential to go far.

I also think that Running Wilde is more immediately accessible to a new audience. Unlike Arrested Development where the jokes were sometimes in the things that weren’t said, in the subtleties of the characters, in knowing their quirks, in Running Wilde the jokes play to Will Arnett’s strengths. They are huge and visual, still clever, there’s still that intellectual payoff for knowing what was about to happen, but I get the feeling that while the show  is nowhere near as down to earth as it’s predecessor, it might just be more readily accepted.

Either way, it good to have Will back on our screens, Keri Russell is a beautiful fresh breath of air and Peter Serafinowicz really has the potential to be a comic genius! Overall I thought the show was very very funny, but it is walking a fine line between acceptably silly and overtly ridiculous, but the longer it can tread that line, the funnier it will be!

First Impressions: Nikita

So, we’re back. It’s been a nice long summer, with plenty to watch for a change, but now it’s time to get back into the season proper. If the 2010-2011 season should be considered special, it will be because of the intense number of brand new scripted shows hitting the airways. The first of which comes out of Warner Brothers via the CW… Nikita!

I’ve heard a fair amount about this show, even seen a couple of trailers, but I failed to get excited, even though I like Xander Berkley. However, through the dull tedium of life I found myself with nothing better to do so I sat down and I tuned into the new hotness. The first thing that struck me was the shows similarity to James Cameron’s Dark Angel. Young people, taken in by a shady arm of the government, trained as assassins, before going rogue and escaping into anonymity, vowing to return for your fellow inmates. 

Add to that bit of familiarity a small dash of Alias, as we quickly learn that Nikita had been in love with a civilian and that her involvement with “Division” had led to his death. Throw in some reverse-24-style traitor twists and you have the pilot episode of Nikita.

But, let’s face it, we’re not looking for originality in our TV anymore, if we were we’d be sorely disappointed (ala Lost?), no, what I’m looking for is fun and Nikita delivers on that. Like Piper Perabo’s Covert Affairs. I went in not expecting much and I feel like I had a good time. I particularly enjoyed Lyndsy Fonseca role as Alex, the troubled new recruit, who turns out to be Nikita’s “man on the inside”. Leading man Shane West was ok, although he reminded me a lot of Joshua Jackson, while Maggie Q who plays Nikita herself, comes across as both sexy and dangerous in equal measures.

I’ll certainly be willing to give the show a few more episodes to really impress me, but so far it’s entertaining enough for me to not turn it off, but it’s also not on the same par as my favourite CW show, Supernatural! Obviously, with only one episode down so far it’s hard to know what the show intends, however if they drag out Nikita’s attempts to destroy Division across multiple series I can see it getting old fast. Personally, I’d like to see her bring down Division HQ by the end of season 1, saving some of the recruits, while alienating others, thus changing the focus of season two.

So, that’s My Two Cents, overall a good show, some nice performances and as long as the show doesn’t stagnate it could well have a bright future.

First Impressions: Castle

I wouldn’t be lying if I said that Castle is one of the best pilots I’ve seen in a while. It was a show I largely ignored despite being a big fan of Nathan Fillion because (like Bones) the theme is not something I really care about.

I’ve never been a crime kind of a guy. The closest I’ve ever come to a crime drama before discovering Bones last year, is The X-Files and I wasn’t the world’s biggest fan of that show either. So despite Nathan playing the title role I ignored the show, after all Nathan had appeared in Desperate Housewives too so I couldn’t exactly be assured of his integrity.

Then I was watching an episode of The Unit (awesome show, damn shame it was cancelled) in season 3 of the show called Binary Explosion, in which guest starred Stana Katic. Immediately I had to work out where I knew her from, turns out it might have been 24 or even Heroes but anyway, that was when I noticed she too was in Castle.

But still I ignored the show, until late one night… I was sat up at a friend’s house playing games and in the corner the Tv was set to “Dave” and in between segments of QI there would be an advertisement for Castle. Subliminally the message was implanted in my brain, over and over “Watch Castle, Watch Castle” until I could ignore it no longer.

So, what is the show about? Well, the title character Richard Castle is a crime writer, who, after killing his best selling character is looking for a new lead. Meanwhile Kate Beckett, a New York city cop, discovers a rash of killings that point to the killer being a Richard Castle fan. Hoping that he can help she turns to Castle to help her solve the mystery.

Kate gets her closure on the crime and Castle gets his new muse. Obviously there is a lot more to the pilot but as that is all part of mystery I’ll not mention it here to save any spoilers and what not. What I’m more interested in is the delivery. Castle is clever, its funny without being corny (like that dreadful CSI… urgh!), it’s pretty, it’s well written and its a nice bit of escapism.

Sure it’s unlikely that a Cop and Writer would team up and become a crimefighting duo, but who really cares…? It no less likely than two FBI agents tasked with following up on UFO sightings.

Nathan finds a happy medium in this role, he’s not quite as smarmy as his character Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (you must watch this!) and not quite as drastic as Malcolm in Firefly. In fact, if I had to compare him to another character on TV, it would be either Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) or Chuck (Zach Levy). He plays the fish out of water character, but one that is not a bumbling idiot but an intelligent, reasoning fellow, with possibly just a touch too much fame. Overall Fillion’s character is fun and believable and that’s what matters.

Stana is the John Casey to Nathan’s Chuck. She is the consummate professional obsessed with “doing the right thing” because (like Temperance Brennan in Bones) she has a history with crime. As yet we don’t know who she lost but I’m willing to bet it was a boyfriend/husband/child or possibly a sibling or a parent… have I covered all the bases there?

Stana Katic is beautiful and intelligent, she isn’t above the humour that permeates the show and that’s refreshing. She’s powerful too, which is mixed nicely with a vulnerable side. This is one thing the pilot does so well, it develops the characters in depth, showing us a kaleidoscope of each one, their likes, dislikes, strengths and weakness and even their personal failings, it’s all right there in the first episode. In fact, if this had been a simple one off episode the characters would still have been rounded out enough for me to enjoy it.

So, I doubt you need to me to say that in conclusion “I loved this show” because I’ve done nothing but rave about it. I can’t think of anything I didn’t like. I enjoyed the way that the show admits, through Castle’s need for a narrative to the crime, that it is at heart a machine for storytelling, that there will always be a twist or a mystery, that it is, in effect, a fiction. I liked the interim characters too, Castle’s goodie-twoshoed daughter who loves her daddy but frowns on his attitude to life. His mother who constantly embarrasses him… And lets not forget that in Castle’s world Homer Simpson is a county judge!

This is a fantastic show with a third season already confirmed to start in September of this year. Go, watch it, you will not be disappointed.

First Impressions: Better Off Ted

It’s time another first-look at a Tv Pilot, this time for the ABC comedy Better Off Ted. I only decided to check this show out after seeing it pop up in a list of shows in danger of being cancelled this season over on Sci-Fi Wire.

The core of the show is about a company called Veridian Dynamics, although it could have easily been ACME, because this really is an American Company that Makes Everything. The show opens with an advert for the company.

“Veridian Dynamics, everyday, something we make makes your life better. Power, we make that. Technology, we make that. Cows, well no, we dont make cows, but have made a sheep. And medicines and airplane engines and whatever this is and allsorts of things. Veridian Dynamics, everyday, something we make makes your life better…” *slide of a missile blowing up a bunker* “Usually”

And I really couldn’t sum up what this show is about any better than that. VD is an evil corporation that makes bombs and other nasty implements of torture, like a chair that increases productivity by being incredibly uncomfortable or creating deadly pumpkins because an newly conquered enemy has lots of pumpkins and you want to find a use for them.

But that alone, while funny, would not be enough to justify this show’s existence, enter the cast. The characters in the show are all lovely, even the R&D boss, Ted, who is in charge of creating all these products, because he has a conscience… his daughter.

The only truly evil character in the show is Veronica Palmer, the big boss lady, played by Portia de Rossi, who is probably better known as Lindsay in Arrested Development. It would be a lie to say that the roles she has played are completely different, so I wont, but that is probably why she works so well as the Ice-Queen-Bitch-of-a-Boss.

The title role of Ted is taken by Jay Harrington, the actor who played Steve in the US version of Coupling (Jack Davenport was a much better choice :P). As I said, Ted is driven by two masters, “Them” referring to upper management and his daughter Rose. The first is the evil devil sitting on one shoulder, the second is the argumentative and judgemental angel that sits opposite. Ted must walk the line between keeping them happy, while staying true to what he knows to be right.

The rest of the cast includes another familiar face, Andrea Anders who played Alex in Joey. This time she plays Linda, a potential love interest for Ted. She is beautiful and intelligent and (at the moment) understated unlike her increasing shrill and over the top character in that Friends Spin-Off. (That might have been a bit harsh… sorry Andrea.)

Finally Jonathon Slavin and Malcolm Barrett round out the cast as the two main scientists. They are a brilliant pairing. Slavin, who plays Phil, is the test subject for a flash freezing experiment in the pilot and the way he handles being selected for this task is superb.

All in all this show is a series of outrageous jokes and ideas that pile on top of one another to become funnier and funnier as the episode plays out. It’s not deep but it is possibly moralistic (it’s hard to take the show seriously enough to absorb the moral lessons though) but it is funny and that is what matters in a comedy.

I enjoyed the creative decision to not include a laugh track, in a strange way it adds more integrity to the show because it feels like it is being played straight instead of for laughs and that has to be its charm. While Ted’s continual habit of talking straight to camera gives the show a documentary feel. If anything bad is to be said about the pilot, it would be how abruptly it ended. Also with the nature of the show, the laughs come from shock and surprise so I don’t know how well they would hold up to repeat views. 

All in all I think this is great idea for a show and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the next episode.

This has been My Two Cents… Come back on Sunday for another round up of the week’s Tv.

First Impressions: The Nine

With the impending holidays I’ve not had chance this week to spotlight Caprica, however I do intend to do so early next week. Also this week’s Round Up may be a little later than usual (Monday probably) but it will go up. However until then, enjoy my ramblings on the pilot episode of the short lived ABC drama “The Nine”.

The Nine is a show I’ve been trying to watch for two years, ever since I discovered the Anthony Cooper comedy Kitchen Confidential. Why? Owain Yeoman. However, it’s early cancellation makes it particularly difficult to track down.

The Nine is one of those shows that works really well in a pitch to Tv Execs, but it doesn’t translate well to the screen. The core concept is that a Bank Robbery takes place, we see fifteen minutes prior to the robbery where each of the “Nine” characters are set up and then we flash to 52 hours later, as the robbery comes to a close and everything we thought we knew seems to have changed. Each subsequent episode, as I understand it, will show us 10-15 minutes of the Robbery before flashing forwards to the present and as the series progresses we will slowly understand what happened in the bank and how it has affected the lives of the Nine characters.

When it started I really liked the show. That first section setting up the characters is done really well. Everyone’s states of mind are very clearly depicted. Even if you knew nothing about the show going in, you would know within a minute or so that it was going to focus on a bank robbery. You would also know exactly what kinds of characters you were dealing with…

There is Eva Rios (played by Lourdes Benedicto, 24) she plays the girl next door, beautiful, intelligent, shy but in a sexy way and she is interested in the renegade cop Nick Cavanaugh (Tim Daly). Nick, although an excellent cop, has found himself being constantly overlooked simply because he doesn’t do what is expected of him. Eva also has a flirty (younger) sister Franny (Camille Guaty) who we expect will be a bit of a trouble causer.

On the other side of the bank we have the down to earth, family orientated Bank Manager Malcolm Jones (Chi McBride) and his daughter Naomi (Kim Staunton). We have the suicidal Egan Foote who comes across as your stereotypical trainspotter played by John Billingsley.

Lawyer Kathryn Hale (Kim Raver, 24) is a no-nonsense go getter, with an aging mother who is frankly getting to be a bit of handful. There is the young couple in love Lizzie and Jeremy (Jessica Collins & Scott Wolfe) and finally the two bad guys. The hardened criminal Randall Reese (Jeffery Pierce) and the cautious, unintentional burglar Lucas Dalton played by Owain Yeoman.

Now that information is delivered very quickly, faster even than it took me to write it all out for you. The relationships are built up and we feel we know these characters (or at least the character types) long before Randall knocks out the security guard.

However… What follows is a crazy mixed up mess. The problem with “The Nine” is that the Bank Robbery is the hook. We want to know why Lucas is no longer armed, how Eva got shot, what Jeremy did to cause Lizzie to break up with him. Therefore the Robbery is the most interesting part 0f the story. But it is also only a third of the episode. That means that the aftermath has to be as exciting, but the aftermath is based on what happened in the bank.

This leads to a lot of “You remember that thing that happened that we’re not talking about but was really important?”  “Yeah?” “Well now it has significant relevancy and I wish I could explain myself but to keep up the air of mystery I’ve been sworn to secrecy.” You get the picture. For the last half an hour of the pilot stuff was happening that made no sense, there were no prolonged scenes, everything was in bits. It was difficult to follow and I watch LOST.

The second major problem with the format is to do with just how relevant can the Bank Robbery be? After a while it will become secondary to the aftermath anyway… assuming that they didn’t find a hatch buried in the bank somewhere with a button you have to push every 108 minutes anyway.

Overall I really enjoyed the start and I’m interested to find out what happened in the bank but I can completely understand why the show failed to capture an audience. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe the format is “that” clever, but from just watching the pilot I’m afraid I just don't see it.

This has been My Let Down Two Cents… until next time.

First Impressions: Warehouse 13

Jane Espenson has been involved in a list of shows longer than my arm. As a writer and producer she has worked on Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Gilmore Girls, Tru Calling, Jake in Progress, The Inside, Battlestar Galactica and Caprica to name just a few… but now she comes to us with a show that she created… Warehouse 13.

In the interest of fairness I should probably mention that Jane is only Co-Creator with D. Brent Mote. 

Warehouse 13 is a fusion of the X-Files, Bones, Chuck, Supernatural and Eureka with a dash of Indiana Jones and some Whedonesque quick quips. I could stop right there because no doubt I’ve already got you hooked… but for the sake of completeness I’ll go on and waffle about the pilot… but if you want to skip ahead to the conclusion I’ll tell you right now it says “Go watch it…!”

So, the story… Two FBI agents get recruited by a mysterious woman called Frederic who runs the Warehouse 13 project. Pete Lattimer played by Eddie McClintock who I know as Sully from Bones is recruited for his finely tuned intuition and his open minded nature. While Myka Bering played by Joanne Kelly is recruited for her astute attention to detail and her brilliantly deductive mind.

Warehouse 13 is “America’s Attic” run by Artie Nielson played by Saul Rubinek and it is essentially a depository for every dangerous artefact known to man, including the legendary Pandora’s Box…! Lattimer and Bering are to work for the Warehouse by collecting these dangerous artefacts from around the world and bringing them back.

The show is not in the least bit serious about this last part, much in the same way that Chuck is not a serious Spy drama. Everything from the music to the comedy segments let us know that this is, at heart, a comedy drama, like Eureka and if you try and take it too seriously you will be disappointed. But by the same merit if the writers try and take the show too serious, without doing the appropriate ground work, the show will fail to deliver it’s impact. Keep it light, keep it fun, but build in the drama too.

The pilot itself is very good. Although it’s not rolling in the aisles funny (which is a good thing) it’s charming, it’s intelligent, it’s everything we’d expect from someone with a credit on every Joss Whedon series to date. The characters are well set up, we learn that both of them are flawed in one way or another, as all good heroes are. Pete lost his father and suffers from a drinking problem, while Myka believes her drive and ambition led directly to the death of her partner. Artie, who we discover has been the caretaker of Warehouse 13 for quite some time, is simply delightful. He reminds me of a cuddly version of Q or Marshall Flinkman (from Alias).

As the pilot progresses and the two agents are recruited to work for Warehouse 13, they remain sceptical about the magical artefacts they have been recruited to collect. A scepticism that will pass (mostly) before the first episode closes out. Unlike Scully in the X-Files who spent an unbelievably long time disbelieving. But, like Scully, Myka rails against the assignment, believing it to be a demotion, although by the time she is offered an out at the end of the pilot she obviously chooses to stay.

The second half of the double length pilot episode focuses on the retrieval of an artefact in the shape of a hair comb. The comb has the power to possess a person, driving them to extraordinary lengths to protect their loved ones. Both Myka and Pete flounder about, completely out of their depths with unhelpful clues and tales of death from Artie in a light hearted and fun exploration of the world of the show.

This will be the format that the series will take as it continues forward, but with each passing episode the characters will slowly learn to depend less on Artie and begin to actually understand what is going on. Of course, as soon as they do, everything will change. It isn’t a new format but it is fresh and fun and it has a lot of potential, especially going down the light hearted “mild peril” route.

If the episode had one flaw it would be the final set piece, which came across as a bit silly and stage-y But this is a flaw that many shows with a supernatural element face, just look at Reaper. I hope that as the show progresses that it will change from an “Artefact of the Week” show into something more, without losing the fun stuff, but uping the drama and the tension, maybe raising “Mild Peril” to “Intermediate Peril”

But all in all I loved the pilot and I’m really glad I decided to check it out. Warehouse 13 has already been renewed for a second season and the first series is currently being repeated after Caprica on Friday nights on SyFy. My advice, go watch it and enjoy the fun.

This has been My Two Cents… Coming Soon a Spotlight on Chuck vs. The Beard… 

First Impressions: The Legend of the Seeker

Looks like I wont be able to get the Lost post done this week, so as an apology, here is something I made earlier…

So, during some downtime last week I finally got around to     watching Terry Goodkind’s Legend of the Seeker. It’s odd, that as a fan of fantasy fiction, I managed to be completely oblivious to this show for so long. I have to be honest, I’m not familiar with Goodkind’s work or The Sword of Truth on which the show is based, so this will not be a comparison of how closely the series pilot sticks to the book or represents the authors work, this is simply my first impressions.

And my first impression from the opening segment was “At Last.” because finally we have a network producing a 22 episode series worthy of the genre. Just the first five minutes made me think, “Wow… I love America!” For the last five years I’ve been stuck with Robin Hood and Merlin as the only fantasy shows on television and with the small budgets the BBC gives these shows there is no chance that they can truly represent a fantasy world on screen. Everybody knows that Sci-Fi is the most expensive genre to shoot, except, I suspect that Fantasy is and that’s why you just don’t see it as often as we should.

So, I had high hopes for the double length pilot. Certainly from a visual perspective it was far and away the best fantasy series I’d seen. However as the story progressed I found myself a little disenchanted.

Firstly, the episode plays out like the opening book of a trilogy, any fantasy trilogy, pick any one, they nearly all follow the same pattern. Book one is essentially little more than 300 pages of exposition and set up, gathering the heroes and starting the quest. The same can be said of the pilot episodes “Prophecy” and “Destiny”… I admit we need to know some stuff about the Legend, but did we need to know everything. Surely with a 22 episode season the exposition could have been a little more dragged out. As they say, show don’t tell. The old man in a hut with a legend is little clichéd, no?

Really? You don't think so? Well that brings me onto my second quibble with the show. How similar the story is to Star Wars!

There is a boy with a special destiny. Men are sent to kill him but an old man with special powers secrets him away to a far off land where he is placed with foster parents. One day a beautiful woman appears carrying with her a message. Her appearance causes drastic changes in the land and the boy discovers that his father is not his father and that he is destined to become a Seeker and to kill an evil emperor. He is given a sword by the old man who rescued him as a child, but he doesn’t believe in his destiny and he returns home to find his farmstead destroyed by fire and his father dead.

But… That doesn’t really make this a bad show. The plot may be the standard fare for a fantasy novel (or a b-movie) but this is a fantasy show, it’s allowed the clichés associated with the genre. As long as it delivers clever writing and stunning visual sequences and exceptional acting talent then it can drop as many rings into as many volcanoes as it likes.

I’ve already said that the show delivers on the visual front, it is spectacular. The actors too manage to look the part. Richard, the Seeker, is handsome and slender, which allows him to have that awkward, clumsy feel to him, while retaining a sexual presence that the ladies can enjoy. Kahlan, the Confessor, is both beautiful and intelligent, she is strong willed and enchanting, she is, in other words, everything the geek in me wants from a central fantasy character. Unlike with Sci-Fi where all women are strong willed and intelligent, the fantasy genre is open to allowing the “damsel in distress” character to exist and happily Legend avoids that stereotype completely. And finally, no mention of the cast of Legend would be complete without a nod to the fantastically characterful Bruce Spence who plays Zed. The life and youthfulness that Spence brings to the role is superb and a lot of fun.

So the actors look the part and for most of the time they do well to play the parts too. After all, it’s a pilot so the roles are as new to them as they are to us and over time the roles will mature anyway. But what about the writing…? Well… It’s better certainly than Robin or Merlin and a lot of fantasy films I could mention (the hugely popular Harry Potter series comes to mind) but it didn’t feel quite there yet. With so much story to tell I guess it is hard to judge the script because so much of it was exposition but if the pilot had a weak point, it would be the dialogue… not all of it by any means, just the odd moment here and there.

So then, in conclusion… This is a show set in a beautifully realised fantasy realm with the budget to pull it off. It’s a little clichéd but so is the genre. With time the writing and the characters will develop and I can see huge potential with the cast and crew to make this show feel spectacular. I’m itching for more and with over thirty episodes still to watch I’m going to wrap this post up and settle down to do just that.

This has been My Two Cents… Join me again soon for more First Impressions.

First Impressions: Scrubs

Welcome to a new segment I’m calling First Impressions. In this  section of the blog I will be analysing Pilot episodes, I will be starting with Scrubs but others will be added later, as will a pretty flash button for the sidebar. I will also be combing through past posts and tagging them with the First Impressions tag, so all my Pilot musings are available to you guys at the click of a button.

Ok so new Scrubs: Med School started this week on ABC, although technically not a new show, it’s a new format and that is good enough for me.

Hopefully this isn’t too old school for people to follow, but new Scrubs felt like Saved By The Bell: New Class and J.D felt somewhat l like Screech, a remnant of the past that doesn’t quite fit.

As far as I was aware Med School was supposed to be a totally new show, NOT Scrubs Season 9. It isn’t. Other than four members of the full series cast plus some extras returning, the show seems to follow an identical format. There are those annoyingly, increasingly more ridiculous, day dream sequences, that worked so well during the early seasons (and yet failed drastically in the later). The same musical ding dongs undercut every moment in the same way they always did. J.D and Turk are possibly more exaggerated than ever and they completely dominate the new cast that is supposed to be replacing them. Plus, it’s still not funny…

I don’t want to blame Zach Braff for the decline of the laughs in Scrubs, but to be honest by the end of season 6, I hated his guts. J.D is incredibly selfish and the fact that he doesn’t realise it makes him almost detestable. What made Scrubs so funny and clever has been lost along the way and replaced with slapstick and increasingly ridiculous stories.

I hoped that Med School would return the show to it’s roots, but it seems I am out of luck. Instead of the characters being subtle and understated, they are outlandish caricatures. Lucy is a Zach Braff clone with a skirt, even Denise (Jo)  seems to be a reinvented version of herself.

That said, assuming J.D gets relegated to the background as promised I can see some potential. Drew is a really good character and the way Mosley and McGinley play off each other seems promising. I also have high hopes for Eliza Coupe (Denise) who was my favourite new character from last season.

But I can’t help but feel that nobody has learnt from the mistakes of the last four seasons and this new reboot is going to fall into the pits that it’s predecessor did. The problem with that is that the audience already expects the show to fail, for it to not be as good as Scrubs and the moment that happens Med School will be closed for good.

Oz to the Rescue

What… this isn’t a Tv Nibble but an actual post… gasp! Ok I just thought, while there is a mini tv break, that I’d talk about a new show I recently discovered from Australia. It has had a 12 week run so far with the thirteenth episode (season finale?) to air on the 25th and it’s called Rescue: Special Ops.

Ok, I’m going to be honest and up front, I discovered this show because of my love for one thing… Gigi Edgley.

Ok, so what is the show about? Essentially a Search and Rescue team operating in Australia. I know, this isn’t my usual fare. There are no monsters, aliens or exploding island hatches in this show. The closest thing I can attribute it to that I watch is Bones.

When I first watched Bones I did so to see what had become of David Boreanaz, but I fell in love with the show because of the dynamics between the characters and the witty and intelligent writing. The pilot for Rescue Special Ops wasn’t witty or that intelligent and the characters didn’t seem that lovable.

There were some very nice interaction moments and the cast all seem very comfortable with each other, portraying the fact that they have depended on each other for years very well, despite this being our, as an audiences, first encounter with them. The show didn’t feel dumbed down so that we would “get it” and the use of language and lingo seemed realistic and well researched without being confusing.

The show itself is presented as reasonably formulaic. There are two brothers on the team, both vying for dominance, opening up the door to those moments that can only occur with family. There is the “lead guy and lead girl like each other but pretend not to” dynamic to give the romantic in all of us something to hope for. We have the “down with the kids” incredibly upbeat girl, the boss who is more like a mate than a leader and the other boss who constantly has to worry about public relations. It’s all there, everything that is usually there, but nothing that isn’t.

But wait… There’s a twist, look away now if you don’t wish to know the result. Unlike your typical rescue/catch the baddie drama, Rescue Special Ops seems to have no qualms with letting the heroes fail. Where a drama cut from the standard mould might have waited two or three episodes, maybe even a whole series, before the heroes failed to save someone Rescue just gets right in there with the pilot.

Even more than that, they take the main plot for the episode and throw in a student teacher relationship, very brave material for a pilot.

So, it’s brave, it feels well researched, it’s filmed in one of the most beautiful locations on the planet. It certainly has the potential to go places, just within the pilot it laid down the ground work for future stories but will I tune in for them? 

Well… I’m not hooked, but I’m willing to keep watching because I think I this show has the potential to be very rewarding indeed.     

And what of Gigi…? Well… she’s just not grey…    

Flash Forward

Ok, other than Caprica, this is the new show that I have been looking forward to the most since I heard about it. Flash Forward is a drama with a Sci-Fi twist. At the exact same time, around the globe, everyone blacked out for exactly 2 minutes and 17 seconds, well, almost everyone…

That, however, has nothing to do with why I was looking forward to the show, in fact it has everything to do with the cast, in particular John Cho and Jack Davenport. John Cho is well known for his role in the stoner comedy “Harold and Kumar” however I know him from the short-lived sitcom Kitchen Confidential. He is heart-stoppingly funny in the episode “Teddy Takes Off”. While I love Jack Davenport, not for his role in Pirates of the Caribbean but for his role as Steve in Coupling. Steve’s rants are somewhat legendary and a point of reference for all men everywhere.

So with two such comedic actors on board with project you wouldn’t expect the straight up, no-nonsense pilot that aired on Thursday on ABC.

The show opens with a flash forward to the moment just after the Flash Forward, (man, that’s a confusing sentence), we see the devastation that was caused by the blackouts and then we jump back to “Four Hours Earlier”. The opener of the show is just an attention grabber and nothing more, if you are watching the show because you know about it, it tells you nothing, if you don’t know about the show, it intrigues you enough to watch on, end of story.

After that we work through several stories in a matter on minutes because the main aim of this pilot is to get to the “Flash Forward” as quickly as possible. We meet the hero of the story, Mark Benford, played by Joseph Finnes and his wife Olivia, portrayed by Sonya Walger. The show quickly establishes the “not perfect” nature of their marriage and then moves on. Olivia calls her a co-worker of hers, Bryce Varley, he doesn’t answer. We see him walking down the pier, where, four hours later he will attempt to commit suicide. Jump back to Mark at his AA meeting where we meet his sponsor, Aaron Stark. Aaron lost his daughter Tracy in Iraq and her remains could only be identified by her DNA. But we’re not done cramming in characters yet…

We jump back to the house where Mark and Olivia’s babysitter is not doing her job, but is instead jumping her boyfriend's bones. Leaving them behind we jump to Mark and Demetri (John Cho) and it quickly becomes clear they are FBI, tailing terror suspects and discussing Demetri’s wedding plans. A chase breaks out and we know we’re closing in the opening teaser, so the Flash Forward is coming soon. We get a shot of each of the major players, Olivia is about to begin an operation at the hospital, Bryce has the gun beneath his chin, Aaron is up a telegraph pole and Mark and Demetri are racing down the highway.

Ok, all of this happens pretty quickly. There is a fair amount of character development in a short space of time and it doesn’t really feel too forced. The exciting car chase is a little coincidental but I can forgive that because it was pretty cool to watch. However, why cram all this into less than 9 minutes of airtime? Why not use the whole of the first episode to develop the characters before adding the “Flash Forward” element?

Firstly, because they didn’t have to. We got enough information in those nine minutes to get us through to the end of the episode, other details could be filled in later. Secondly, word about this show has been floating around on the internet for months now, as well as the show being based on a novel that’s been around for 10 years, so getting right down to the essence of the show quickly was important, because most people knew where it was going anyway.

What didn’t work for me was the aftermath of the Flash. Sure the destruction was handled well and the tension moments were nice, with Mark and Demetri not knowing if there families were safe. Even the discovery that the black out had been worldwide was handled reasonably well. But then came the exposition bit…

There was a sequence shot in the foyer of the FBI building where boss, Stan Wedeck, Mark, Demetri and Janis Hawk discuss the event and there was so much exposition they might as well have just scrolled text up the screen. Mark’s sudden expression in the board meeting about the Flash felt forced and the resulting confessions from everyone else felt unnatural. I can see why it was done that way, for speed, for simplicity but I think it could have been handled better.

The rest of the pilot revolves around Mark setting up a task force to find out what happened and how and why and if it might happen again. Mark recalls details from his flashback with stunning clarity (although, his training as an FBI agent could account for this, maybe) and he and Demetri begin to put together a “big board”

Meanwhile we get to know what the other characters saw. Olivia, for example, saw herself with another man, Jack Davenport, who it turns out is the father of a child she saved after the Flash. Aaron, discovers that his daughter, Tracy,(Genevieve Cortese a.k.a new Ruby in Supernatural) is alive. Bryce believes his vision was a gift from God that saved him from killing himself, while Demetri believes that he will die in the next six months because he saw nothing.

Finally, the “Doof” moment comes as Janis Hawk, the third member of Mark's new team, discovers that while everyone else was blacked-out someone was still awake.

I’ll be honest, until that moment I wasn’t really seeing where the show was going. Sure we know its heading towards April 29th but other than that the flashes are pretty mundane, the idea that the government can map out the future through an internet blog is kind of interesting but still, it wouldn’t make for a great show. However in the last seconds of the pilot, we finally get a shady character, shrouded in mystery. Is he a good guy bad guy, innocent bystander or something else completely? Well I guess we’ll have to tune in next week and find out.

You would be forgiven for thinking I didn’t enjoy the pilot. I did, it was interesting enough to keep my attention and it was great to see John Cho and Jack Davenport back on the small screen again. I can certainly see potential in the show now that all that pesky explanation is out of the way and we can get down to see real drama. I’m definitely going to give it the benefit of the doubt…

This has been My Two Cents… Coming soon Dollhouse, season 2…