Topic: Network (and cable) Fall Offerings 2012

[trapeze]

Okay, so I'm going to start this thread and feel free to add whatever show you like to the list.

I will start out with an ABC drama, "666 Park Avenue." I have little information on this other than what is revealed in the trailer and what is on its Facebook page. In other words, I don't know if this is this year's "Good Christian Bitches" which, by its very name, was designed to offend Christians right out of the gate. It appears to be an evil version of "Fantasy Island." It almost certainly isn't just plain evil...that would be rather boring and one dimensional. It is probably a good versus evil themed story where evil has the upper hand and good is the underdog. It has Terry O'Quinn formally of "Lost" and Vanessa Williams who has made a career of playing sluts. Anyway, here is the trailer...

666 Park Avenue Official Trailer

EDIT: Somehow I left out Faust. It's "Fantasy Island" and Faust in Manhattan ('cause nothing else really exists that isn't on the east or west coast). As usual, though, there will be no presence of God. For some reason (and I think we all know what that reason is) it's okay to feature satan and the devil in network television shows but God is almost always a no-show. Instead the devil is always somehow defeated (usually outsmarted) by a mere mortal...a non-Christian one, at that...but a "good" mere mortal. Usually a minority.

I'm not sure how Hollywood is able to reconcile making the devil a legitimate adversary, admitting, per se, the devil's existence, and excluding God as the obvious opponent. If the devil exists (in their minds) then how do you justify the absence of God? It's intellectually lame...so yeah, pure Hollywood.

So how is the devil defeated by a mere mortal? Well, certainly not with the help of God. Nope, no praying or consulting Scripture or anything so pedestrian. Instead the devil is defeated by means of trickery and/or subterfuge involving some arcane "rules" of the occult that the protagonist "discovers" just in time.

[trapeze]

ABC is also putting up "Last Resort" which appears to be a government conspiracy show of sorts. Again, here is the Facebook page and here is the trailer...

Last Resort Trailer - ABC Network

This is as good a place as any to mention that watching any of these shows is a bit of a risk. I have started in on shows in the past (as have we all) only to have the network cancel them abruptly rather than give them the opportunity to grow an audience. With the production costs that some of these must have I can understand a network wanting to cut its losses as quickly as possible when there is no indication that a show will ever get traction but...it's still irritating.

[trapeze]

And then there is NBC's "Revolution" which we have already sort of started discussing here. So here is the Facebook page and here is the extended length trailer...

Revolution - Trailer

I will probably give this and the two above shows a shot to see if they are any good or look at least promising.

[trapeze]

Oh, wait...here's another conspiracy themed drama from ABC (they are really pumping out the expensive shows this year, aren't they?) called "Zero Hour." It has everything from government bad guys to aliens (or at least people with strange eyes) and, yes, even Nazis. Here is the Facebook page and the trailer...

ZERO HOUR Trailer - Coming Soon To ABC

This may end up being this year's "Flash Forward"...meaning that it has an impossibly complex storyline and if it doesn't get an audience fast it will have the plug pulled quickly. ABC has the two above shows, too, and I'm guessing that at least one of the three is destined for the dumpster.

[trapeze]

Alright, well, here's a superhero type show from The CW called, "Arrow" which is based (somewhat) on the DC Comics "Green Arrow." As with all of these (but probably especially with this one) it will be the writing that ultimately decides whether this one succeeds or fails. Here is the trailer...

Arrow - Extended Preview

...and the Facebook page.

This one is basically a network television version of the Christopher Nolan version of Batman. Could be good. Hard to say at this point.

That's enough for me right now...I'll let someone else take a turn or maybe post a comment or two about these shows.

[Pandora]

"Sons of Anarchy" resumes on Tuesday.  That's about all I have my eye on for now.

[AlanS]

Oh, wait...here's another conspiracy themed drama from ABC (they are really pumping out the expensive shows this year, aren't they?) called "Zero Hour." It has everything from government bad guys to aliens (or at least people with strange eyes) and, yes, even Nazis.

I don't plan on watching, but I look for the Nazis to be portrayed as Tea Party members.

[trapeze]

Okay, another one that might be worth looking at is "Vegas" on CBS. I say it might be worth a look (as much as any crime drama is) because it has Dennis Quaid as the lead. I would like to think that Quaid would not waste his time getting involved with a weekly television drama unless it has some hope of being properly crafted. But I could be completely wrong.

Anyway, it's also loosely based on a true story so there's that.

It reminds me immediately of the mid 1980's Dennis Farina crime drama, "Crime Story," which was also a 1960's period piece located in Las Vegas.

Vegas (CBS) - Trailer

Facebook page.

[Libertas]

Yeah 666 looks retarded.

Last resort?  OK beyond the premise, which is weak, and the fact that a single boomer could not hold off a determined attack...who is the head of the gubmint in this fantasy?  Usually Hollyweird likes to portray Pubbies as blood-thirsty louts eager to destroy the world...so that's probably on the no-watch list for me.

Revolution?  Again, who are the bad guys?  And can Hollywood refrain from revelling in a world without electricity where greenies and tree-huggers are probably jumping up and down in delight?  I might check it out only to prove the lefty biases are right.  I'll wager dollars to doughnuts the people trying to turn the switch back on are portrayed as worshippers of fossil fuels.

Zero Hour?  Lemme guess, if not for Catholics and Nazis, all would be well in the world.  This one could be a disaster...looks like a Dan Brown spinoff into loony town to me.

Arrow?  The punisher with a quiver?  No bullets can stop him...not even a .50cal round out of a Barrett?  Yeah, OK, suspend disbeleif and enjoy the action.  At least the girl is really cute.

[benb61]

This one is basically a network television version of the Christopher Nolan version of Batman. Could be good. Hard to say at this point.

Arrow is actually the DC Comics property "Green Arrow".

[trapeze]

Okay, I DVR'd "Revolution" and I watched the premier and I am watching the second episode and it did not take very long to disappoint.

Second episode has the group formed in the first episode (heroine girl named Charlie, fat nerdy guy, British woman, heroine girl's ex-military uncle) trekking around in search of Charlie's brother who was captured by a (evil) militia. But it seems the militia is also hunting the uncle (who is like a kung fu master with a sword) and they encounter a bounty hunter who is after the uncle. They fight. Uncle is about to run the bounty hunter through with sword when Charlie intervenes and begs uncle to not kill him. And he doesn't. ?!

Instead they lock him in a boxcar. And guess what? Yeah, he escapes and captures all of them. They escape in light speed and this time the uncle kills the guy.

So off they go again and this time some other bounty hunter guy with the militia catches up to the girl and instead of killing him she manages to handcuff him to a pole and leaves him. ?! Does she learn anything? No. How then is she still alive in this world?

Then toward the end of the second episode she kills two people and moans and groans over it. She is the liberal. The bleeding heart. And she makes absolutely no sense. It's like she's schizo. Oh, yeah...she's the liberal...what was I thinking?

This world that they live in has had no power and no legitimate authority for something like fifteen years...she is an adult and she hasn't yet figured out that it is kill or be killed? Ridiculous.

They show a flashback to the first days of the power outage. Her mother and her brother and her are sitting outside of some office waiting on dad to get something inside. Some guy walks up and grabs young Charlie and threatens to snap her neck if they don't hand over their little red wagon of canned food. Dad shows up and pulls a 45 auto, threatens to kill the guy if he doesn't let the girl go. Does he do it? Heck, no. The guy is walking away with their food and dad shouts at him to stop or he'll kill him...the guy says, "no you won't." Guy continues walking away and then is gunned down in the back. Except dad didn't shoot him...mom did. Mom should have shot dad next...he's going to get them all killed with his wimpy behavior.

See, here's the thing...I actually like this genre, the post apocalyptic world where everyone is on their own and it's dog eat dog, survival of the fittest. One of my favorite books of this type is the Larry Niven novel*, "Lucifer's Hammer" where a comet impacts the earth (breaks apart) in multiple locations and instantly plunges the world into a near stone age. Stupid people are killed within a week or two. Or eaten by cannibals...kept alive like cattle and eaten as needed. Liberals who refuse to embrace reality end up dead or eaten. Smart people gather together, collect firearms and ammo, manufacture explosives, secure a still functioning nuclear reactor, devise plans to grow food and keep livestock, etc.

This tv series (so far) flies in the face of what a post apocalyptic world would be like. Fifteen years after civilization falls and you still have bleeding hearts? Liberalism is a luxury of a civilized world. When the sh*t hits the fan on a global scale the libs would be the first to vanish. Most would either be immediately killed or would change their attitudes just as fast. Darwin awards handed out every hour for the first week or two and then there would be no more liberalism. This tv show expects me to believe that a person who grows up in this "Road Warrior" world would somehow, inexplicably not get that you don't leave enemies alive to kill you.

I have a feeling that I won't be able to watch this for very long. I already want most of the major characters to die horrible deaths so that maybe we can find some new, smarter protagonists to root for.

There are many, many more points to bitch about (everyone is inexplicably clean) but there isn't any point in listing them all. I think I am close to loathing this show because it does not respect me as an intelligent person. I may go visit its Facebook page and start openly bitching about how stupid it is.

*it's a 1970's era novel and a lot of the dialogue is dated. Very dated. But it's still a good read.

[Libertas]

"I have a feeling that I won't be able to watch this for very long."

I agree, these libiot wimps would have all but been eliminated from existence by now, 15 years later and theres still gobs of them roaming around?  Nobody associated with this production has the slightest grasp of reality.  And this weird cabal with power, wtf is that about?  Must be the Illuminati behind the off-switch.  This has all the makings of bad plot gone worse.  I am certain I won't be hanging on much longer if at all.  About the only reason to watch is so I can ridicule the characters for being so repulsively stupid and the plot so tragically flawed.

[trapeze]

I forgot to mention that I did watch the pilot for Vegas. It was reasonably watchable. And hey, Dennis Quaid.

While it was on I looked up some stuff on Quaid's character, Ralph Lamb, on the internet. There was no shortage of stuff.

In a recent interview Digilio remembered a 1966 discussion with Lamb about Chicago mobster Johnny Rosselli. Rosselli became posthumously famous for helping the CIA in an unsuccessful assassination plot against Cuban premier Fidel Castro. But in December 1966 Rosselli, who had formerly visited Las Vegas without causing trouble, began making a regular circuit of Strip gambling clubs, for no apparent legitimate purpose. It looked to Lamb as if Rosselli were setting up a shakedown racket. Digilio recalled, "We said, there's always a shadow hanging over the place that nobody was going to touch any of these mob guys, maybe you ought to flex your muscles."

Digilio was a body-builder and former amateur wrestler who admired Lamb's willingness to get physical when necessary. But even he wasn't prepared for the enthusiasm with which Lamb did so on this occasion.

Rosselli and one Nicholas "Peanuts" Danolfo were sitting in a booth at the Desert Inn with Moe Dalitz, the proprietor, when Lamb sent in a rookie cop to tell Rosselli to come downtown and have that mandatory conversation with Lamb. Rosselli was 61 by then, but he had worked for Al Capone and had once beaten a narcotics rap when the arresting officer disappeared, permanently. He told the young cop to get lost, just as Lamb had expected. The sheriff had instructed the officer to be no hero that day, so the rookie retired to the parking lot, started his engine, and waited.

Now Lamb went into the resort and pointed out to Rosselli the discourtesy he had shown an officer. Then he grabbed Rosselli by his expensive necktie, dragged him across the table, and slapped him around a while. Danolfo started to jump in but Dalitz, spotting another officer coming up behind Danolfo to sucker punch him, grabbed his necktie and bade Danolfo resume his seat, observe and learn. Lamb threw Rosselli into the back-seat cage of the rookie's waiting cruiser and sent him to jail, ordering the extra touch of delousing. Rosselli made bail and left town. Ten years later, Rosselli's corpse was found floating in a 55-gallon oil drum off Miami.

One example was worth a thousand words, and Lamb had little further annoyance with mob misbehavior. It was even claimed, never in print but quite often, that if outlaws became too troublesome, Lamb's men would simply kill them.

To that assertion Lamb said recently, "I know of no policeman, in any department anywhere, who has ever participated in a murder such as you are describing."

Well, did it help to have the reputation?

"Yes," he replied.

I expect this show to be soap opera-ish and mostly not true. I do not think, for instance, that they will cover any of the unflattering stuff about Lamb like corruption indictments and such. But who knows?

So, the pilot (or series premiere, if you prefer) was entertaining and easy to watch. I will watch a few more to see if it grows on me but, as mentioned, I have no preconceptions about the truth of the stories. There won't be any.

[trapeze]

And just in case anyone is interested..."Arrow" premiers on the CW this Wednesday. May or may not be good. Might really suck. Who knows? I have it on the DVR until I know which way it's going to go.

[trapeze]

And I did watch the first episode of "666 Park Avenue" and it is pretty much exactly what I thought it would be. It's a Faustian version of Fantasy Island in Manhattan.

There are minor subplots where the various tenants are revealed to have made a deal with the devil (or his representative) played by the bald guy from "Lost" Terry something or other.

The sort of major plot is the female lead trying to figure out just what the heck is going on. She is bothered by prescient dreams of the past and the "future" where she sees things, bad things, going on in the building. There is also a teenage female (a petty thief) who has some kind of psychic powers and she is somehow tied to everything.

Basically, the overarching theme of this series is corruption...personal and professional corruption. The question is will the female lead character (Jane) be able to defeat the corrupting influence?

[Predator Don]

The walking dead begins soon......I will save myself for it.

[Libertas]

I watched the season finale of Hell on Wheels last night, beats just about anything network morons can dish up any given evening.

I just wish they hadn't killed off the prettiest gal on the show.   

Oh well...

[trapeze]

Just saw ABC promo for "Zero Hour" so I guess it's getting ready to hit the schedule as a mid season replacement.

Of the other above mentioned shows (all of which I have seen at least three episodes) none of them have inspired me to tune in...none are shows that demand that I watch them.

Bill Murray explains how you get people to tune in:

Scrooged (2/10) Movie CLIP - Marketing With Terror (1988) HD