Interest Level Key:
1: Don’t wanna touch this with a ten foot pole.
2: I’ve never even heard of this.
3: Looks like shit.
4: Looks like shit but there’s one or two things I like.
5: Not my cup of tea but I can see the appeal for others.
6: Maybe. I’m giving it a couple episodes to prove itself though.
7: It has the potential to be good. I’m hopeful but cautious.
8: Bring it on. (a.k.a. I’m in for half a season at least.)
9: I am super stoked for this show; there’s maybe one thing I’m iffy about.
10: Have they renewed for season 2 yet?
Stumptown
The 5-second Description: Military veteran turned gambling addict, Dex Parios, decides to become a private investigator in Portland, Oregon.
Interest Level Before Pilot: 9: I am super stoked for this show; there’s maybe one thing I’m iffy about.
Analysis: Based on a limited graphic novel series, Stumptown is the story of Dex Parios, a veteran struggling with PTSD who is conscripted into the private investigative business in an effort to clear her gambling debts. The victim, Nina, is the 17-year-old granddaughter of well-connected local casino boss, Sue Lynn Blackbird (Tantoo Cardinal). She is also the daughter of Dex’s former childhood flame and fiance, who was killed in front of her in Afghanistan.
Dex’s personal connection to the case forces her hand and she agrees to investigate. Naturally, all is not as it seems, as it turns out Nina ran away to elope with her boyfriend but the boyfriend turns out to be complicit in the kidnapping plot and Dex has to fight tooth and nail to rescue her former flame’s daughter and bring her back home. This kidnapping plot serves a number of purposes: to tell us about the source of Dex’s PTSD and attitude problems, to show us the sorry, desperate state she is currently in, to demonstrate how scrappy Dex can be, to introduce us to Dex’s eventual love interest, Detective Miles Hoffman (Michael Ealy), and to kickstart her interest in becoming a PI.
I am not familiar with the graphic novel so perhaps this is a deviation and Dex was always an investigator but if it is a deviation, it is a minor one. Besides, it will be fun to watch Dex blunder her way through the business and will cut down on exposition if Dex is learning things alongside the audience.
Also in Dex’s life are her friendly younger brother Ansel, who has Down Syndrome, and her best friend, Grey McConnell (New Girl’s Jake Johnson), who has just opened a bar. Grey is funny and easy-going and maybe a little shady, but you can tell he cares about Dex. Whether this will evolve into romantic feelings remains to be seen; in the meantime, he is an extremely supportive friend. While I would have checked out the show for Smulders anyway, I will admit that Jake Johnson is the main reason I dipped my toes in. His character from New Girl was my favorite and Johnson is criminally underrated. It will be interesting to see him try his hand at drama, but I have every reason to believe he will bring the comic relief in equal measure. Camryn Manheim plays Miles’ boss, Lieutenant Cosgrove, but she is given nothing to do in the pilot. Hopefully she will play a larger part as she clashes with Dex because otherwise, this is a waste of Camryn Manheim.
There is no overarching mystery introduced in the pilot of Stumptown, just characters to explore, so the future is wide open and the possibilities are endless. There is a running gag about Dex’s car being a piece of crap that should get some good mileage; in the pilot, it helped set an irreverent tone by blasting “Sweet Caroline” during a particularly down and dirty fight scene. My only complaint about the pilot would be that–unless I blinked and missed it–Dex’s job before becoming a PI is never stated and the show’s title-Stumptown–is never explained (apparently it is a nickname for Portland, where the show is set). Stumptown’s only competition is CBS’s S.W.A.T. (trash) and NBC’s Chicago empire (negligible), so it has a great chance in its timeslot.
Stumptown will likely fill that Jessica Jones-sized hole in a lot of viewers’ hearts. While Dex and Jessica share a lot of traits (a sharp wit and a world-weary attitude, physical and emotional strength, addiction problems, and a sibling she will do anything to protect), Dex is definitely less pessimistic than Jessica. She seems more willing to let people in and less “over it” in general, which is a promising start.
Interest Level After Pilot: 10: Have they renewed for season 2 yet? This is probably my favorite new show of the fall so far and I’m rooting for it.
The Unicorn
The 5-second Description: A widower with two young daughters is coerced by his friends to reenter the dating scene a year after his wife’s death.
Interest Level Before Pilot: 4: Looks like shit but there’s one or two things I like.
Analysis: I had pretty low expectations going into this because I found the premise rather annoying. Based on the preview for this show, it seems we are to believe that a man who is faithful, romantic, and a good father is so rare that he must be referred to as a “Unicorn.” That is not only insulting to men everywhere, but it’s a pretty weak premise for a show. With that said, the actual pilot of this show was surprisingly sweet and funny and much better than the preview would lead you to believe.
The premise is simple: Wade Felton (Justified’s magnetic Walton Goggins) is a father of two young girls, Grace and Natalie. Wade’s wife died about a year earlier after being sick for awhile and the three of them have been living off donated casseroles the entire time. Wade’s circle of friends include two couples: Ben and Michelle (Omar Benson Miller, Maya Lynne Robinson) and Delia and Forrest (Michaela Watkins, Rob Corddry). The four of them believe it is high time for their grieving friend to move on and open his eyes to the women that seem to gravitate towards him but it seems Wade is still living in denial. It isn’t until the last casserole is removed from the freezer that it truly sinks in that his wife is gone and he agrees to let his friends create an online dating profile for him.
The rest of the pilot is pretty much concerned with Wade’s first date (and realizing he is not ready), his total obliviousness to women flirting with him, and his relationship with his daughters; one of them is secretly dating the boy next door, the other hates the idea of her father moving on, but slowly comes around. Maya Lynne Robinson brought the funniest lines in the pilot; Michaela Watkins’ Delia is a bit overbearing but means well; Rob Corddry pretty much does what Rob Corddry always does. The overall ambience is a bit rushed and messy but sentimental and sharp-witted as well.
I’m still not sure that the show’s actual definition of a “Unicorn” is any better though: apparently having a dead wife is the real qualification. Women are drawn to Wade because they know he is not like the other men on the dating sites. He was a loving and devoted husband and father… right up until the day that he couldn’t be anymore.
I’m waffling on this show. I didn’t expect to like it at all and I still can’t help but feel like the show would have been better with Goggin’s former co-star, Timothy Olyphant, in the starring role. Olyphant can definitely pull off that “Oops, I didn’t realize how attractive I am” demeanor with suave and sincerity; with Goggins, I’m suspicious because he usually plays shady characters. On The Unicorn, he is playing a character that is utterly sincere and exactly what you see on the surface. It’s a change-up that could misfire entirely or pay off in surprising ways.
Interest Level After Pilot: 6: Maybe. I’m giving it five episodes to prove itself though. I fear for The Unicorn’s safety. Single camera comedies on CBS rarely do well, and CBS has a full docket this season. This will probably be a one-and-done.
Perfect Harmony
The 5-second Description: A recently-widowed and suicidal former professor at Princeton becomes the music director for a small church choir in Kentucky.
Interest Level Before Pilot: 8: Bring it on. (a.k.a. I’m in for half a season at least.)
Analysis: Dr. Arthur Cochran (Bradley Whitford) is a former Princeton instructor who has fallen into depression following the death of his wife. She wanted to be buried in her hometown in Kentucky so that’s where Arthur has ended up, and he would have ended things permanently if he hadn’t been interrupted by a struggling church choir he overhears while attempting to commit suicide in his car.
Arthur goes in to see what the commotion is but in reality he is looking for a sign–the right sign–that he should continue to live his life. He meets the odd assortment of townsfolk that comprise the choir: Ginny (Pitch Perfect’s Anna Camp), a single mother and waitress, Wayne (Will Greenberg), Ginny’s ex and the father of her child (Spencer Allport), Dwayne (Geno Segers), Wayne’s best friend who is in love with Ginny, Adams (Tymberlee Hill), and Jax (Rizwan Manji). Arthur takes it upon himself to correct their performance, insulting each of them in the process, but he still intends to kill himself.
It is only after meeting the smug director of the church’s rival choir, Pastor Magnus (John Caroll Lynch), that Arthur decides to stick around and help the underdog choir beat Pastor Magnus in a local competition they always lose. Magnus, as it turns out, has denied the burial of Arthur’s wife in their graveyard as per her wishes, and Arthur decides to take on the challenge out of spite, but in the process, he gets the sign he has been waiting for.
The premise for Perfect Harmony is such a strange, oddly specific one, but the show relies on formulas and tropes that are tried and true. The sarcasm dripping from Arthur and the lively mashups are reminiscent of Fox’s Glee, but Arthur’s character archetype–the reluctant ringleader of a band of misfits–is oddly reminiscent of NBC’s Community. Just like Community’s Jeff Winger, Arthur tries to push away these friendly weirdos but they just won’t leave him alone and the result is that they unwittingly form a sort of family. Watching these people rally around the broken Arthur and pull him out of the pit he put himself in is the true highlight of this show–the musical mashups are just icing on the cake.
Interest Level After Pilot: 10: Have they renewed for season 2 yet? I can’t think of any complaints. It’s crazy and over the top but very endearing and has a lot of promise.
Carol’s Second Act
The 5-second Description: A cheerful former school teacher in her 50s decides to pursue a second career as a doctor after divorcing her cheating husband.
Interest Level Before Pilot: 7: It has the potential to be good. I’m hopeful but cautious.
Analysis: Well, I was wrong about this one. I wanted to like it because the cast is just so likeable–Patricia Heaton in particular, who has played a sitcom mom on TV for over 20 years. But this show is an awkward dumpster fire of trite sitcom jokes that were played out in the 90s.
The premise for Carol’s Second Act is strikingly similar to last year’s drama, The Rookie, in that they both feature main characters trying their hand at a new (more demanding) career a bit later in life than normal. Not only do they find themselves in over their heads with peers young enough to be their kids, but they also have to prove themselves to a boss who doubts them based on the assumption that they are experiencing a midlife crisis.
Of course, Carol’s Second Act is a light-hearted, juvenile comedy so the stakes are much lower for Dr. Carol Kenney (Heaton). By the end of the first episode, she has already shown her much younger boss, Dr. Maya Jacobs (Ito Aghayere), that she has skills to offer that only come with the considerable life experience her colleagues lack.
Obviously Carol is supposed to be smart… We can assume that she never would have made it through medical school if she were an addled moron, but Carol still seems pretty dumb throughout the pilot. From her cutesy enthusiasm to her inability to follow simple orders to her attempts to treat Dr. Jacobs like an equal peer, the show wants us to think Carol is adorable, but she’s really just annoying and disrespectful.
Carol’s trio of fellow interns all dutifully fill sitcom arechetypes: Daniel Kutcher (Jean-Luc Bilodeau) is attractive and accomplished but cocky and for some reason talks in the third person; Caleb Sommers (Lucas Neff) is well-meaning but dumb and only got into the program through nepotism; Lexie Gilani (Sabrina Jalees)… is also there.
This show is already horribly misusing Kyle MacLachlan, who plays the enthusiastic Senior Attending Physician who will undoubtedly become Carol’s love interest. This role is an interesting choice for MacLachlan who, fresh off his Twin Peaks revival, probably could have done better. Ashley Tisdale shows up for a few seconds at the end of the pilot as Carol’s shrill daughter Jenny (yup, her name is Jenny Kenney [shudder]), a pharmaceutical rep with a close relationship with her mother. Her only accomplishment in this episode is to make a boner joke and establish herself as the future love interest of one of Carol’s younger coworkers (I’m guessing Daniel).
Pilots can be messy, I get that. Maybe this one will take a while to find its footing and the actors will settle into their roles and their characters will become less one-dimensional, but I expect at least one genuine laugh from a sitcom in order to continue with episode two and I did not get that with Carol’s Second Act.
Interest Level After Pilot: 3: Looks like shit. Let’s hope Carol’s second act (and Patricia Heaton’s third act) is mercifully short.
Evil
The 5-second Description: A skeptical forensic psychologist partners with a priest to investigate supernatural occurrences – it’s like X-Files but with demons.
Interest Level Before Pilot: 5: Not my cup of tea but I can see the appeal for others.
Analysis: Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) is a psychologist working for the DA’s office in New York until she is let go and recruited by a “professional assessor” working for the Catholic Church, David Acosta (Luke Cage’s Mike Colter). David wants Kristen to investigate a serial killer who may be possessed by a demon. Kristen, a single mother with four–yes four–preteen girls, doesn’t believe in the supernatural and is not religious, but agrees because times are tough and she’s struggling to hold it all together for her daughters.
For a pilot episode, Evil didn’t hold anything back. They went full tilt with the weird and moody aspects that are designed to make you uncomfortable. Kristen’s encounters with a supposed demon while suffering from sleep paralysis were a bit darker than I would expect from a CBS show. The show definitely has a style all its own, but it will probably still follow a serial mystery-of-the-week style. This is still on CBS, after all.
I’ll admit that the pilot failed to hold my interest at times. Herbers’ acting is shaky and all over the place; Colter is fine but doesn’t really stand out yet. Lost and Person of Interest fans will delight to see Michael Emerson show up and firmly establish himself as the show’s first antagonist, their “Cigarette Smoking Man,” so to speak. Former The Daily Show correspondent, Aasif Mandvi, shows up as David’s assistant and ‘tech guy,’ also a skeptic. The sleep paralysis demon has a name (it’s George, naturally), and he will probably become a fan favorite, even though he is disgusting. Kristen’s four children are named Lynn, Lila, Lexis, and Laura, which is just plain stupid. I’m also not certain they told us all the names in the pilot, that’s how interchangeable those kids are; I only found out this information while researching the cast online.
The pilot is pretty rushed and focuses primarily on the case of the week. It seems they are going for a Mulder-Scully vibe but I’m not feeling it yet. The next case evidently involves a miracle and it makes me wonder if the show will continue to occupy the shadows or if it will have lighter episodes to accompany the gloomy ones. At this stage, it is impossible to tell.
Interest Level After Pilot: 5: Not my cup of tea but I can see the appeal for others. My rating stays the same. Some people will definitely like Evil’s style, but it will probably struggle in the ratings because it is too dark.
