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- FoolKiller1979
As is typical of American TV networks, midway through their season they drop the under-performing shows. So, they then take their secondary shows that they did not expect to do well and put them out in the Spring, starting as early as January and sometimes as late as March. Side note: Summer is reserved for the shows they have no faith in but are contractually obligated to create.
What I have found is that the late season shows are often a little more intelligent than the usual stuff they putout in the autumn. This year I have found three shows that have caught my attention. Usually I never find more than one.
Before I begin, I want to point out that I put faith in writers/directors/actors that have entertained me before and always give them a shot, and that is what has led me to these three shows.
First, what I believe to be the weakest of the trio: Trust Me
Trust me is a TNT show on Tuesday nights at 10PM ET. It started on Mondays in January but moved nights when Saving Grace came back. I hate schedule moves but it actually helped me, I'll explain later.
This show mainly follows two friends who are creative partners for an advertising agency. As my job deals with media and marketing this might be why it holds my interest. What brought me into the show was one of the stars. It features Tom Cavanagh and Eric McCormack. Everyone knows McCormack as Will on Will & Grace, yay, move along. Tom Cavanagh is what brought me to the show. I have thought he was great ever since Ed, the best TV show not on DVD yet. Dramedy is his specialty. Fast talking, witty comments with a dramatic element suits him very well. He also plays JD's brother on Scrubs.
Basically, advertising is a rough world, each pitch for each account can mean your job, if not your entire department, could be cut. To show the importance of this it also delves into the home life of some of the employees. Eric McCormack's wife is played by Sarah Clarke (24's Nina Myers). Tensions between his job and his marriage often cause him problems, especially when his egotistical, and less mature, yet well meaning, friend gets in the way.
It is well written and acted, with the exception of Monica Potter. Why she keeps getting cast I will never know. The situations are serious but a lighthearted approach to personalities makes it a fun mix. However, it has already suffered a schedule change, so it may not do well. That said, it may survive on profitability. They are an ad agency and product placement is ripe. The commercials are fewer because they have products on screen half the show in a way that fits. Yes, Dove is obviously product placed, but they area client of the agency. So, the future of this one is up in the air, and despite liking it, I won't miss it if it gets canceled.
Next up, a show that just started Monday night on ABC, Castle.
Bring on Nathan Fillion!!! Firefly's Captain Reynolds is now a murder mystery author, named Richard (Rick) Castle on Monday nights at 10PM ET (which is why Trust Me moving to Tuesdays made my life easier). A murderer is mimicking crime scenes in his books so he gets called in on the case where he meets an attractive female detective, Kate Beckett, who also happens to be a fan, but is devoted to her job first. He acts like a spoiled rich boy, but it turns out that in order to write good murder mystery you need to know criminal psychology and understand crime scene investigation and profiling. And his ability to notice when the "story" just doesn't make sense. In the world of suspense there is no such thing as an open and shut case. If the police investigation has even a minor a plot hole he is sure they are wrong.
It turns out that he can help, but he risks disturbing every crime scene they investigate. The police have little ability to stop him though, as the mayor is a fan and is on Castle's speed dial. Once the copycat case is solved Castle isn't finished. He was having problems with writer's block and even killed of his recurring main character in his last book. The new sassy female detective is just the inspiration he needs for his next series of best sellers, but he needs to do research. So, with a call to the mayor he will be shadowing Detective Beckett for as long as he needs.
Nathan Fillion is great in this. He has that fun charm that I remember from Firefly, including some standout one liners. The plot is preposterous though. But with Fillion playing an attractive and charming role it may get a better following than his past attempts in television. It is hard to say, and I have little faith in TV execs to keep anything with Fillion going.
And finally, Joss Whedon is back with Dollhouse
Eliza Dushkuis easy on the eyes stars in this sci-fi show on Fox Fridays at 9PM ET. Of the three this show has the most likelihood of staying on the air, but then Fox hates Whedon (I'm not letting it go). It's not Firefly sci-fi but it is more serious than Buffy.
A group of people, for various reasons that I haven't figured out yet, have volunteered to belong a secret, and illegal, organization. This organization works much like a brothel, except the members are people with wiped memories who are given new ones for each assignment in order to be exactly what each client wants. But they are much more than the perfect date. They can also be anything from lawyers to assassins. When they arrive they believe they really are who you want them to be. And when they are finished their memories are wiped clean again as they wander around the Dollhouse as mindless human shells.
Because things can go wrong, each person, known as an active, has a minder that monitors them and intervenes when necessary. Their priority is the safety of the actives. Everything else is secondary. Actives have been trained to implicitly trust their minders. Echo (Dushku) is the main active and sole surviving of a massacre when the first active, Alpha, slaughtered all the rest. The mystery surrounding it is still unknown, but it seems he was interrupted before he could finish the job. All employees have been informed that Alpha was killed in the act of capturing him, but the truth is that no one knows where he is. During his massacre he permanently scarred the face of the resident medical doctor and left others terrified.
Now, as Echo is on missions mysterious things start going wrong. One client turned out to be hired to kill her and she has even had her mind wiped mid-mission via phone. Alpha is suspected, but as his freedom is a secret within the secret organization they are very limited in what they can do to find him and stop him before he finishes what he started.
Oh, and an FBI agent has been trying to find evidence that this rumored Dollhouse even exists. All he has are photos of some missing girls, one is Echo, and rumors. In a flashback we see that she volunteered, but she did it to hide from something in her past.
Personally this is very entertaining, although I could live without the FBI agent thing and even have it be run by the government, but that aspect of the story is still in its infancy. It has an X-Files approach, in that each episode is a standalone story with new characters and only recurring main characters, but with an underlying serialized backstory. But this is far from a ripoff of X-File (Fringe) and is just using a similar style. It definitely shows that Dushku, who also is a producer, can act. One week she is bike riding, dancing party girl, then she is a hostage negotiator, the next she is a bank robber, and the next she is an outdoors type, and of course she is constantly going from full of personality to blank slate in every episode. It doesn't hurt that she looks good too.
So, has anyone else watched and or enjoyed these shows, or have any other new ones they can recommend?
What I have found is that the late season shows are often a little more intelligent than the usual stuff they putout in the autumn. This year I have found three shows that have caught my attention. Usually I never find more than one.
Before I begin, I want to point out that I put faith in writers/directors/actors that have entertained me before and always give them a shot, and that is what has led me to these three shows.
First, what I believe to be the weakest of the trio: Trust Me
Trust me is a TNT show on Tuesday nights at 10PM ET. It started on Mondays in January but moved nights when Saving Grace came back. I hate schedule moves but it actually helped me, I'll explain later.
This show mainly follows two friends who are creative partners for an advertising agency. As my job deals with media and marketing this might be why it holds my interest. What brought me into the show was one of the stars. It features Tom Cavanagh and Eric McCormack. Everyone knows McCormack as Will on Will & Grace, yay, move along. Tom Cavanagh is what brought me to the show. I have thought he was great ever since Ed, the best TV show not on DVD yet. Dramedy is his specialty. Fast talking, witty comments with a dramatic element suits him very well. He also plays JD's brother on Scrubs.
Basically, advertising is a rough world, each pitch for each account can mean your job, if not your entire department, could be cut. To show the importance of this it also delves into the home life of some of the employees. Eric McCormack's wife is played by Sarah Clarke (24's Nina Myers). Tensions between his job and his marriage often cause him problems, especially when his egotistical, and less mature, yet well meaning, friend gets in the way.
It is well written and acted, with the exception of Monica Potter. Why she keeps getting cast I will never know. The situations are serious but a lighthearted approach to personalities makes it a fun mix. However, it has already suffered a schedule change, so it may not do well. That said, it may survive on profitability. They are an ad agency and product placement is ripe. The commercials are fewer because they have products on screen half the show in a way that fits. Yes, Dove is obviously product placed, but they area client of the agency. So, the future of this one is up in the air, and despite liking it, I won't miss it if it gets canceled.
Next up, a show that just started Monday night on ABC, Castle.
Bring on Nathan Fillion!!! Firefly's Captain Reynolds is now a murder mystery author, named Richard (Rick) Castle on Monday nights at 10PM ET (which is why Trust Me moving to Tuesdays made my life easier). A murderer is mimicking crime scenes in his books so he gets called in on the case where he meets an attractive female detective, Kate Beckett, who also happens to be a fan, but is devoted to her job first. He acts like a spoiled rich boy, but it turns out that in order to write good murder mystery you need to know criminal psychology and understand crime scene investigation and profiling. And his ability to notice when the "story" just doesn't make sense. In the world of suspense there is no such thing as an open and shut case. If the police investigation has even a minor a plot hole he is sure they are wrong.
It turns out that he can help, but he risks disturbing every crime scene they investigate. The police have little ability to stop him though, as the mayor is a fan and is on Castle's speed dial. Once the copycat case is solved Castle isn't finished. He was having problems with writer's block and even killed of his recurring main character in his last book. The new sassy female detective is just the inspiration he needs for his next series of best sellers, but he needs to do research. So, with a call to the mayor he will be shadowing Detective Beckett for as long as he needs.
Nathan Fillion is great in this. He has that fun charm that I remember from Firefly, including some standout one liners. The plot is preposterous though. But with Fillion playing an attractive and charming role it may get a better following than his past attempts in television. It is hard to say, and I have little faith in TV execs to keep anything with Fillion going.
And finally, Joss Whedon is back with Dollhouse
Eliza Dushku
A group of people, for various reasons that I haven't figured out yet, have volunteered to belong a secret, and illegal, organization. This organization works much like a brothel, except the members are people with wiped memories who are given new ones for each assignment in order to be exactly what each client wants. But they are much more than the perfect date. They can also be anything from lawyers to assassins. When they arrive they believe they really are who you want them to be. And when they are finished their memories are wiped clean again as they wander around the Dollhouse as mindless human shells.
Because things can go wrong, each person, known as an active, has a minder that monitors them and intervenes when necessary. Their priority is the safety of the actives. Everything else is secondary. Actives have been trained to implicitly trust their minders. Echo (Dushku) is the main active and sole surviving of a massacre when the first active, Alpha, slaughtered all the rest. The mystery surrounding it is still unknown, but it seems he was interrupted before he could finish the job. All employees have been informed that Alpha was killed in the act of capturing him, but the truth is that no one knows where he is. During his massacre he permanently scarred the face of the resident medical doctor and left others terrified.
Now, as Echo is on missions mysterious things start going wrong. One client turned out to be hired to kill her and she has even had her mind wiped mid-mission via phone. Alpha is suspected, but as his freedom is a secret within the secret organization they are very limited in what they can do to find him and stop him before he finishes what he started.
Oh, and an FBI agent has been trying to find evidence that this rumored Dollhouse even exists. All he has are photos of some missing girls, one is Echo, and rumors. In a flashback we see that she volunteered, but she did it to hide from something in her past.
Personally this is very entertaining, although I could live without the FBI agent thing and even have it be run by the government, but that aspect of the story is still in its infancy. It has an X-Files approach, in that each episode is a standalone story with new characters and only recurring main characters, but with an underlying serialized backstory. But this is far from a ripoff of X-File (Fringe) and is just using a similar style. It definitely shows that Dushku, who also is a producer, can act. One week she is bike riding, dancing party girl, then she is a hostage negotiator, the next she is a bank robber, and the next she is an outdoors type, and of course she is constantly going from full of personality to blank slate in every episode. It doesn't hurt that she looks good too.
So, has anyone else watched and or enjoyed these shows, or have any other new ones they can recommend?
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). It gets better as it has focused much less on the perfect escort angle and more on the special services angle. The FBI agent is a distraction and they have barely touched on her backstory anymore. I have a feeling that comes after they establish what exactly Dollhouse is, as so far we just know what they do. The Dollhouse itself has a backstory that needs to be fleshed out before we can even understand her motivations for signing. Unfortunately that is being split between the FBI agent and the rogue active. Too many shows lately want to have multiple storylines going at once. 
