Gotham
Scorpion
I talked about the first episode of Scorpion being "not bad" here. The second episode did a very CBS thing and went straight for your heart detailing the various faults in the team members. And all this was triggered by a number of children who were infected by genetically engineered viruses.
The show is sometimes smart, definitely cliched, and follows a pattern that most CBS shows employ. And thinking back, I give a lot of CBS shows a shot. All the CSI's, The Mentalist, Numb3rs, Person of Interest, and Elementary were all shows I followed at one point, and then just lost interest. I can't explain it, but I suspect Scorpion is probably on the same road for me. The question is am I getting off on an early exit or not?
But one of the big head-scratchers in this episode was when they could only send a germophobe into a bio-hazardous facility to retrieve some sensitive information because he was the only one with a photographic memory. It's like these geniuses have never heard of a camera. If eye-rolling drama continues to be manufactured like this, I'm probably switching back to Monday Night Football.
Selfie
As much as I like Karen Gillan who was a companion on Doctor Who and most recently was Nebula, the blue skinned cyborg in Guardians of the Galaxy, and John Cho who is one half of Harold and Kumar, and plays Sulu in the Star Trek reboot, their talent alone cannot save Selfie, an updated remake of My Fair Lady.
The premise is about a woman completely obsessed with social media who has no real friends and enlists Cho to rehabilitate her image. I gave this a shot because I like the two leads even though the title is cringe inducing and the premise is paper thin, and you know what? I was right. Sometimes you CAN judge a book by its cover. This isn't worth your time. And it makes me wonder how this made it to air, yet the vastly superior Happy Endings and Trophy Wife couldn't stay on it.
Manhattan Love Story
I did not think it could get worse than Selfie, but let me quickly introduce you to Manhattan Love Story. It's about two people who meet on a blind date and you literally hear everything they are thinking about. This show feels like every bad date I've been on. And what do you do after a bad date? You move on.
Black-ish
To me, Anthony Anderson will always be the loudmouth hacker in the first Transformers live action movie, as well as the guy who kept calling Jet Li "Dim Sum" in Romeo Must Die. But I'm extremely surprised to find out he had a dramatic turn in Law & Order a few years ago. And now he's starring in his own sitcom, Black-ish, about an upper-middle class African American family. It's not exactly a traditional family comedy, but then again, what is anymore?
I think the show has promise and could be this year's The Goldbergs. Last year I started watching it because of the 80's connection. It started out loud and a little grating, but then the show actually morphed into a very funny and reliable comedy. There's definite potential here for Black-ish as it's a nice complement to The Goldbergs and Modern Family.
Gracepoint
Talk about heavy. Gracepoint is a 10 episode mini-series about a pair of detectives trying to solve the crime of a murdered child in a small California town. I'm a David Tennant fan because of his work in Doctor Who, but he also starred in the series on which Gracepoint is based, Broadchurch. I haven't seen it, and I'm not normally into things that are this heavy and dramatic, but so far I find it interesting. The main hook is that everyone in the small town is a suspect for the murder. Fox even has the website www.suspecteveryone.com so people can vote for who they think is the murderer. It's great audience interaction and it also allows us to find out who all these suspects are. By the end of the first episode, we see Anna Gunn's son deleting a bunch of texts between him and Danny, the victim, indicating some level of involvement in the murder. Now with 9 more episodes, this is clearly a red herring, and I think watching the series for clues is going to be half the fun for me. I enjoy murder mysteries even though I'm not particularly good at them. Plus, knowing there will be an end in 9 more weeks is a pro. Whether or not it pays off is still up in the air.
Mulaney
Is it the 90's again? Because this series feels like the reincarnation of Seinfeld. Unfortunately, it's the Walking Dead version moving at a snail's pace with zombie-like acting. I'm sure John Mulaney is a talented person. He was a writer for SNL and helped create the character of Stefon. But his on air acting experience amounts to zero, and it totally shows in Mulaney. His wooden acting and monotone delivery makes Jerry Seinfeld look like he's doing Shakespeare. I feel like he may have been better suited staying at SNL and doing Weekend Update. This could possibly be the first show to get cancelled this TV season.
So ultimately, Gotham is the only must watch show. Blackish & Gracepoint have potential. Scorpion I'll continue to watch until I just stop watching. And the rest you can just forget about. What new TV shows are you watching and have potential? Let me know so I can get in on the fun!
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