Monday, September 28, 2015

Fall 2015 TV season

Sept. 24 Fall 2015 TV season: This week has been crazy, fun, and exciting with all these new TV shows.  I checked out a lot of pilots.  On Tues. morning, I woke up early and watched the pilot to Blindspot.  I always take notes when I watch TV shows. 

Fall 2012: I only watched Arrow and Elementary pilots.  I only watched Arrow after the pilot.

Fall 2013: I watched a lot of pilots and only liked Dracula.  In mid- season Jan. 2014, I only watched Believe because Jake McLaughlin was in it and the show was good.

Fall 2014: I watched a lot of pilots and only watched Gotham and ForeverForever got cancelled after 1 season.  I have heard of the saying: "Don't be sad that it's over, be glad that it happened."  It did get 1 season and all the story lines were finished and there was an open ending if there was a second season. 

I don't know if you remember, but in 2012 and 2013, I wrote the TV show pilot reviews on my blog.  It was like a synopsis.  I know you can't tell, but it does take like 40 min. to write a synopsis.

In fall 2014, I was really busy with taking 2 classes at MacEwan and working 4 days a week at my restaurant job and didn't have time to write the synopsis/ TV show pilot reviews. 

That's why I started writing the reviews for Gotham and The Flash.

This week I was watching all these pilots, and I thought it was going to be so time- consuming to write a synopsis for all of them.  I will write a short version of shows that I decide to not watch after the pilot.  I will write a whole synopsis for the TV shows I enjoy watching.

Minority Report: I have never seen the movie so I can't compare the show to the movie.

Pros:

1. The origin story is very good about a young girl and 2 twin brothers who can see the future.  They see murders about to happen and they help the police prevent it.  That's a good premise.

There is good writing like:

Agatha: Did you really think you can fix the past by meddling with the future?

2. Good characters and actors of Dash (Stark Sands) and Lara Vega (Meaghan Good) teaming up together to solve crime.  Dash is the psychic.  You want to root for them.

3. It was very fun and exciting to watch the future of 2040.  There's good technology like infrared and holograms.

4. There were good action scenes like fights and chasing.

5. Good ethnic diversity.  Meaghan Good is African-American.  I was on imdb.com and it says that.  There's Wilmer Valderama (Fez from That 70s Show) and an Asian woman Li Jun Li who both are cops on this show.  

6. It's kind of funny with the dialogue and The Simpsons are on their 75th season.  Vega's mom talks about in her day, she had Tinder.  

Comparisons:

A quirky guy with power or ability teams up with a straight- laced woman to solve crime: It's been done on Castle, The Mentalist, Lie to Me, Elementary, and Forever.

It's not a bad comparison.  I have watched those above shows except Elementary.

My opinion: I didn't continue with this show, because I didn't really connect with the characters.  I listed all these pros, but it really comes down to how I feel. I don't feel happy or excited about watching this show.


Limitless: I watched the pilot when it aired, and 2 days before it I saw the movie.

Pros:

1. It stayed very much like the movie with the graphics.  Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper from the original movie is in it as a reoccurring character.)

2. There are likeable characters like the lead Brian (Jake McDorman whom I have seen on that TV show Greek.)  Brian is a very sympathetic character who will do anything to help his dad's illness and solve his friend's murder.

There is the FBI agent Rebecca (Jennifer Carpenter, Deb from the TV show Dexter) and there is Boyle (Hill Harper from CSI: NY).  There is Dennis, Jake's dad (Ron Rifkin from Alias.)

3. There are good action scenes with fight scenes and chasing.

4. When Brian is on NZT drug that makes him really smart, he is creative and intelligent.  It's creative and intelligent writing.

Comparisons:

A quirky guy with power or ability teams up with a straight- laced woman to solve crime: In this case, Brian is a more of a down-to-earth regular guy than quirky.

My opinion: I like it, but I didn't really connect with the characters again. 


The Muppets: I read about this show and it seemed kind of funny.  I watched it and it's like the Muppets all work for a Late Night TV show called Late Night with Miss Piggy.  It had real celebrities playing themselves like Elizabeth Banks and the band Imagine Dragons.

It's like The Office with the mokumentary one-camera on them and have the characters talk one-on-one with the camera. 

My opinion: It was alright and all, but I'm not really into sitcoms and I'm not a big fan of the Muppets.  If you like sitcoms and the Muppets, then you would like it.


Sept. 26 Scream Queens: This is from Ryan Murphy who created Glee and American Horror Story.  I have seen Glee when it first came out and liked it.  Then I quit in the second season.  I was more interested in other shows.  They aired the pilot and the second episode "Hell Week" back to back so I watched it.

Pros:

1. The writing is good.  It has it's light, fun, and dumb jokes.  It also has it's dark and scary jokes with brutal and creative murders.

2. The great cast in actors and characters.  I give it points because it's mainly women and girls because it takes place at a sorority house.

There are unlikeable characters like Chanel (Emma Roberts) and her sorority girls who are mean, dumb, and stuck-up.  Then it blends well with the likeable outcasts who are allowed into the sorority because the dean Munsch (Jamie Lee Curtis) made the rule that anyone who pledges is allowed in.

The likable girl-next-door Grace (Skyler Samuels), her roommate Zayday (Keke Palmer from Akeelah and the Bee.  I have only seen her as herself on Degrassi.)  There is Lea Michele as Hester in a neck brace (from Glee).

They had Ariana Grande guest-star as Chanel #2.  Nick Jonas from the Jonas Brothers is in it.

There is Nasim Pedrad (Saturday Night Live) and Oliver Hudson (I first saw him from the funny show My Guide to Becoming a Rockstar, and he was on Rules of Engagement. He's also older brother to actress Kate Hudson). I had a nitpick when I see that he's playing Grace's dad.  He seemed young.  Then I see he's 39 and Grace is supposed to be 18, so I guess it's realistic.

There's Niecy Nash who is a black woman security guard.  I looked her up and I have never seen her work.

Questions: There are questions that viewers want answered.

1. Who is the killer?  And why is he killing these people off?
2. Who is the baby that was born 20 yrs ago?  Is he or she the killer?

My opinion: I'm not going to keep watching this show.  It's fun and all, but it's not really for me.


The shows I'm watching are:

Blindspot: There are only 8 episodes.


Heroes Reborn: 13 episodes.


Sept. 28:

Quantico: I finally saw Quantico, the new show about FBI recruits, and how Alex (Priyanka Chopra) was framed for it.  It was actually pretty good.  There were a few surprises that I didn't see coming and I bet a lot of people didn't see the one about Nimah (Yasmine Al Massri).

I am mainly watching it for Jake McLaughlin.  On imdb.com, it says there are 14 episodes.

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