The title and description of this new pilot/potential show has me thinking about the NCIS: Los Angeles intro episode on NCIS (the episode’s title was even “Legend”). Brendan Fraser will be playing “a conflicted undercover agent who has an uncanny ability to transform himself into a different person for each job.” The description also has echos of The Pretender.
The question is, does Fraser have the chops to pull off a different character every week?
Animal Practice is the second new fall broadcast show to get bumped off (after Made In Jersey, and midseason comedy Next Caller was canceled before airing a single episode). Given its ratings, this wasn’t a big surprise, but I liked the quirky little show. It was better than the show that followed, Guys With Kids, and far better than its replacement, Whitney.
The one good thing about this move is the pairing of two multi-camera shows. But where does that leave single-camera comedy Community? Sophomore Up All Night has been struggling in the ratings, but a second year show is less likely to get canceled and not air all its episodes. I’m guessing NBC is waiting for tonight’s numbers to make a final decision about the show. What it think is most likely: Up All Night is pulled from the schedule immediately, but the filmed episodes are held in case one of the midseason comedies (1600 Penn, Save Me) flops. Community is brought in as a replacement, either in Up All Night’s 8:30 slot, or back to its original 8:00 slot. Another outcome (less probable): Up All Night is allowed to finish out its 13-episode run, Community is held back for midseason.
‘Animal Practice’ Canceled by NBC, Replaced by ‘Whitney’ – Ratings | TVbytheNumbers.
Okay, this is the Arrow I’ve been waiting for! This second episode was awesome, and I enjoyed it even more than the pilot (which had gotten spoiled a bit, but still). Cool action scenes, great character moments, nonstop tension, and season-building intrigue!
Spoilers below!
The story on last week’s Grimm focuses on a father and daughter who are badger-like Wesen, while Monroe manages the shop for Rosalee, and Renard and Juliette suffer some side effects from the “pure of heart” potion and the kiss.
For full review, visit: Billie Doux: Grimm: The Bottle Imp.
This week, Monday Madness returns with a look at those TV characters who buck the 18-49 demographic trend and prove that interesting characters make for great TV, no matter their age!
One important note: this poll does not include characters who have lived for many decades (or even centuries), but through supernatural means still look and act like 20somethings. So no vampires, Alphas who never age, or characters frozen in time for 28 years, unless they were 50+ beforehand. I tried to find actual ages for characters closer to the cut-off point, but when in doubt, I went by the portraying actor’s age when the show came out. And for long-running shows, some characters may have been under 50 at the beginning, but aren’t now.
This poll will be open for one week, and you can choose up to 10 of your favorite TV characters over 50. Be sure to spread the word so your favorites will make it into the top 10! Fans have used Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, forums, Reddit, blogs, and chatboxes to get the word out about past polls. Get creative!
Important: I know there are dozens of TV characters over 50 who are missing from this list. You can nominate characters I missed in the comments until Thursday night, and I may add them to the poll (characters from live-action scripted shows only, please, and the character must be a main cast member or appear in at least 10 episodes of the show).
Want more of a say in who makes it onto the poll each week? Be sure to follow me on Twitter or like TV Breakroom on Facebook, since I usually ask for nominations for the next Monday Madness the weekend before the new poll. Please help out with nominations! There are only so many shows I can watch personally, so I’m counting on you to fill me in!
Without further ado, here’s the poll for this week’s Monday Madness! Voting ends around 1AM October 23rd.
Who is your favorite TV character over 50? (Choose up to 10!)
Total Voters: 290
Loading ...I’d heard that the pilot episode of Beauty and the Beast was awful, but I actually enjoyed it. It could have been better, yes. No, it didn’t sizzle, but there were enough good elements for the show to build on I think it will improve with time. The premiere got good ratings (for the CW, at least), so hopefully it will get that time.
The thing that surprised me most about the show was its Castle-like vibe. And it’s not only Kristin Kreuk’s character aping Beckett (with the mother’s death, becoming a cop, and understated-yet-confident detective skills), but something about the sets/filming style reminded me of the show as well (don’t know enough about the technical side of things to pinpoint exact what, though). And even though Kreuk is “CW-pretty,” she still makes a decently believable police detective (unlike Perception’s Rachael Leigh Cook, who still looks more like a high schooler than an FBI agent).
Jay Ryan as Vincent Keller, on the other hand, seems far too young for his character. The actor is 31 but looks mid-twenties, but even if the character was only months into his residency when 9/11 occurred (it’s stated that he was a doctor at that time), he’d have to be at least 37 or some sort of genius who was able to graduate from either high school, college, or medical school (or all three) early. And what secret government agency would do experiments on a trained doctor instead of a grunt or an exceptional soldier? At the very least, weren’t they worried a doctor would figure things out? Unless something comes to light later as reasons for these issues (the program targeted soldiers with high IQs, the modified DNA slows down the aging process, etc.), it seems a bit of a cop out to make Vincent a handsome young doctor.
Also, as many reviews have complained, one cheek scar and an occasional Hulk-out (which only changes Vincent’s face as much as half a Grimm woge) do not a beast make. While the previous Beauty and the Beast show’s full lion face was ridiculous, there really is very little that is beast-like about Vincent.
While the two actors have chemistry together, much of Cat figuring out what’s going on seemed awkward. I was impressed by her fighting skills (taking on three people at the subway station? You go, girl!), but annoyed that most of Vincent’s fights took place off screen. No, I don’t want to see dismembering, but if his abilities are the main beast-like quality about him, we should have a better idea of what they are.
As far as the rest of the cast goes, Cat’s partner, her boss, the medical examiner (with a delightful British accent), and Vincent’s roommate all seem decent enough, but we didn’t spend enough time with them to get a good feel of how they’ll contribute to the show in future episodes.
I’m ranking this pilot 4th out of the new drama premieres I’ve seen, and I plan to keep watching.
In a universe where a superhero can survive 70 years in ice and Nick Fury has already lied about one circumstance surrounding a “death,” it can’t come as too much of a surprise that Agent Phil Coulson might still be alive and kicking. With the news out of the New York Comic Con stating that Clark Gregg has joined Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D., the beloved character is decidedly not dead. While it’s still possible the show might take place before The Avengers or Coulson would only appear in flashbacks, my theory is that Nick Fury faked Coulson’s death not only to bring the Avengers together, but to launch a new secret division of S.H.I.E.L.D. that Coulson will manage (given that the council wanted to nuke NYC, it makes sense that Fury would want a group of agents they know nothing about).
As much as I hate the idea that a key emotional moment in The Avengers was a fake out, bringing in Coulson will do wonders for the Marvel show. No one is better suited to tie the show in with the movies than Coulson. Fury is too much the larger-than-life boss, and Hill is too new to the franchise. Looking forward to where S.H.I.E.L.D. will go from here!
NYCC: Coulson Lives In Whedon’s “S.H.I.E.L.D.” (Updated with Photos) – Comic Book Resources.
USA Network’s critically acclaimed legal drama Suits has been renewed for a 16-episode third season. The show, starring Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams, returns in January for the final 6 episodes of its second season.
CBS, however, canceled its new legal drama, Made In Jersey, after only two episodes. The Friday show was pulled from the schedule immediately, and both CSI:NY (now moved to 9PM) and Blue Bloods saw ratings upticks without the freshman drama.
With the first cancellation of the broadcast season out of the way, NBC unexpectedly canceled its midseason comedy Next Caller before a single episode aired. Apparently studio execs didn’t like the direction the Dane Cook-helmed comedy was headed, so they pulled the plug with no plans to air the 4 out of 6 episodes that were already filmed. Bad news if you were looking forward to the show, good news if you’re hoping another fall NBC comedy gets a full-season order.
This Monroe-centered episode introduces a new enemy, gets rid of a past frenemy, and sends Rosalee out of town on a bus – for the character to visit an ailing relative, and for the actress to go on maternity leave (Bree Turner and her husband recently welcomed a baby boy, Dean, to their family).
Full review at: Billie Doux: Grimm: Over My Dead Body.
This isn’t going to be a full review – just some initial impressions and comments on one of the most anticipated premieres of the fall season – Arrow!
For starters, if the numbers hold, this is going to be the CW’s most watched airing of any show, on any night, in nearly three years, best rated telecast of any CW show in 2 years, and most watched premiere since The Vampire Diaries in 2009. It even gave Supernatural a ratings boost for its second episode (ratings tend to go down after a series/season premiere, with Arrow as a lead-in, Supernatural actually went up two tenths!). Update: the numbers did hold – 1.3 18-49 rating, 4.14 million viewers.
My expectations were high for this show. I enjoyed the pilot, but I wasn’t blown away. It’s partly because so much of the plot had been revealed in promos and sneak peeks. I’d seen most of the kidnapping scene (though I thought it was pretty neat that they’d hidden the fact that his friend Tommy, played by Colin Donnell, had been taken with him), and heard rumors about who was behind it. Similarly, Oliver Queen’s skills as Arrow and the plan to take down a corrupt businessman had been fully revealed by previews for the show.
I wasn’t expecting Tommy to be dating Oliver’s ex-girlfriend, Laurel (Katie Cassidy) – but I felt like I should have seen that coming. I wasn’t expecting Oliver’s father to sacrifice himself for his son in such a violent way. I wasn’t expecting Tommy to figure out things so quickly.
I liked the dynamic between Oliver and his new “bodyguard,” John Diggle (David Ramsey). One of my favorite scenes of the pilot was Oliver jumping out of the moving car and Dig being flummoxed at where he went. Oliver’s sister Thea (Willa Holland) being into drugs seemed a little cliché, but I think the show can do interesting things with it, especially with Oliver having to keep up his playboy persona – he can’t set a good example for little sis even though he wants to. I wish Quentin Lance (Laurel’s father and a police detective) got a little more screen time – Paul Blackthorne seems to fit the role very well.
In some comments on other sites, I’ve read some complaints that there isn’t much chemistry between Oliver and Laurel, but after seeing joint interviews with Stephen Amell and Katie Cassidy, I think that will be quickly remedied in future episodes.
Out of the drama pilots I’ve seen this fall, I rank Arrow third – not quite as good as Elementary, but far better than Revolution.
Did you watch Arrow? What do you think of it?
And the winner of our TV duos bracket is: Troy and Abed! The duo completely dominated its final matches, thanks to tweets from the actors’ Community co-star, Joel McHale. Troy (played by Donald Glover) and Abed (played by Danny Pudi) garnered 75% of the vote in the final match against BBC’s Merlin and Arthur. Over the six rounds of the tournament, more than 10,000 votes were cast for the Community duo!
Nice to have something for Community to celebrate while we wait for NBC to put it back on the schedule!
Cool. Cool cool cool.
Plus, check out the fun video below that has some awesome Troy and Abed moments!
It’s still a long wait for Psych fans – the seventh season won’t start until February 27 – almost 10 months after the season 6 finale! Think the musical episode will be worth it? Is it killing you to have to wait another 4 1/2 months to know what happened to Henry? (It’s killing me!)
Returning seasons of Community and Whitney have been postponed – and NBC hasn’t said when they’re coming back. This could actually be good news for either or both shows, as some new NBC comedies (Guys With Kids and Animal Practice) aren’t doing so well. I recently speculated that there might be some comedy rearranging on the network, and I hope Community will get a chance to flourish on Wednesdays instead of being shuffled off to a Friday death slot or being forced to compete with the hugely popular CBS hit, The Big Bang Theory.
I expect we’ll get some news after Wednesday’s ratings come in for Guys With Kids and Animal Practice. In the meantime, Grimm repeats will continue to air on Fridays at 8.
Community Season 4 Whitney Season 2 premiere postponed – TVLine.
Fox has picked up two new comedies for full seasons! Both The Mindy Project and Ben & Kate got additional episode orders, joining Go On, The New Normal, and Revolution as the first new shows to get full seasons. I still need to watch the second episodes of the two Fox shows, but I enjoyed both pilots.
‘Ben and Kate’ & ‘The Mindy Project’ Get Full Season Orders – Ratings | TVbytheNumbers.
This is it, folks. Our final match pits Merlin and Arthur of the British show Merlin against Troy and Abed from NBC’s Community. Which duo should win the tournament?
In previous rounds, Troy and Abed have defeated The X-Files’ Mulder & Scully, Psych’s Shawn & Gus, Suits’ Harvey & Mike, Warehouse 13’s Claudia & Jinks, and The Closer’s Brenda & Fritz. Merlin and Arthur have previously defeated Nikita & Michael, Andy & Barney of The Andy Griffith Show, Supernatural’s Dean & Sam, White Collar’s Peter & Neal, and Doctor Who & Donna.
Want a trip down memory lane? You can see all our past matchups here. You can also find a full list of previous TV duos matchups and most eliminations here. (P.S. Be sure to stop by our new show poll – which premieres tickle your fancy?)
Our final match will be open for 72 hours (3 days), so spread the word quickly so your favorite pair will win! Fans have used Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, forums, Reddit, blogs, and chatboxes to get the word out about past polls. Our toolbar at the bottom of the page has lots of quick links to help you share this post, or you can mouse over the image above!
Which is your favorite TV duo? Final Round!
Total Voters: 4,430
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