Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
The final batch of new shows includes three family-centric sitcoms and three dramas, including the only two new shows on the CW this year. While I found the sitcoms enjoyable, the dramas were not to my tastes.The experiment of watching every single new show of the season was an interesting one which I may repeat. Although more than half of the shows did not interest me, there were a few I probably would have avoided and regretted missing out on. The range of shows that networks stand behind says a lot about Americans, what we like and want to see more of, where we stand politically, and how we address social issues. If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that there is something for everyone out there.
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 five 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?
I Feel Bad (NBC)
The 5-second Description: A family comedy starring Sarayu Rao as a mother who feels inferior for not living up to her own expectations. The premise sounds entirely unremarkable but accomplished comedienne Amy Poehler’s (Parks and Recreation) turn as executive producer sounds like a vote of confidence.
Interest Level Before Pilot: 6
Analysis: Sarayu Rao (previously known as Sarayu Blue) plays Emet Kamala-Sweetzer, a married mother of three who struggles with the guilt she claims all mothers feel constantly. Emet’s chief concern in the pilot is that she is turning into her mother. An embarrassing accident where she gets slapped on the rear by her own father after he mistakes her for her mother accentuates this fear. Clashing with this fear is Emet’s attempt to be supportive of her young daughter joining a provocative and age-inappropriate dance team. Emet wants to support her daughter’s interests—but she also wants to stop the child from participating in said interests without making it seem like she disapproves.
A side story involves Emet’s work life as video game programmer. She loves her job, but she is both older than her coworkers and the only female, and this leads to a constant struggle to represent women in gaming while also trying to fit in. Emet is trying to get a normal looking female character design approved for a game but her male teammates keep slapping scantily-clad, melon-sized breasts on everything she proposes. I was ready to despise the lot of them, but after reluctantly helping Emet with her daughter’s problem, the boys realize they need to try harder to present positive role models for little girls, and approve a more modest design. I liked the pilot storyline, but the whole thing felt rushed, and would have been better off explored in a future episode. Since this was only episode one, I expect Emet’s coworkers to go back to their disgusting ways next week.
There are a lot of characters in I Feel Bad, but they are not hard to follow thanks to Emet’s voiceover (it also doesn’t hurt that her four young, male coworkers are all pretty much the same person). Not enough time was spent on her husband, David (Paul Adelstein), or her traditional Indian parents (Madhur Jaffrey and Brian George); I could have used more of them and less of the basement-dwelling Redditors Emet works with. I was also disappointed to learn than Emet’s sassy, Irish best friend (Aisling Bea) was apparently written out after the pilot.
I’m not sure how I feel about I Feel Bad. I like the sense of humor and the lack of a laugh track (painfully present in 6 of the 8 new sitcoms this fall) but there were a few jokes that fell flat. Sarayu Rao is perfect and has the makings of a leading lady but she and the rest of the case have zero star power and I don’t think the show appeals to a wide enough audience to get ratings fast enough. I think I Feel Bad will be a charming little show that will be canceled in under ten episodes, but I’d be happy to be proven wrong.
Interest Level After Pilot: 6 – Same rating as before. If it’s still around five episodes from now, I hope it finds its legs.
All American (CW)
The 5-second Description: A talented football player from South Los Angeles earns the chance to play football at Beverly Hills High, and his friends and family clash as the two worlds collide. The show is based on the real-life story of pro football player Spencer Paysinger.
Interest Level Before Pilot: 8
Analysis: A lot of buzz surrounding this one raised my interest level far beyond what it would otherwise be for a show that is both a) sports-centric and b) on the CW. True to the buzz, this show’s pedigree really is step above the rest of the CW’s programming, but it couldn’t escape its origins entirely. The acting is good and the storyline seems emotional, but too much focus on dramatic teen clichés could derail an otherwise promising show.
Spencer James (newcomer Daniel Ezra) is a talented football player and a straight-A student, but he is not thriving at his public school in an unsavory part of town. Billy Baker (Taye Diggs), the assistant coach for the Beverly Hills High football team, personally recruits Spencer, citing a connection to the teen, as Billy and Spencer share hometown roots. Spencer tries it out and befriends some students but clashes with others, including rival football players, Asher (Cody Christian) and Jordan (Michael Evans Behling), who is also Billy’s son. Spencer also flirts with Asher’s girlfriend, Leila (Greta Onieogou), much to the chagrin of Billy’s fresh-out-of-rehab daughter, Olivia (Samantha Logan), who quickly develops a crush on Spencer. When Spencer’s roots prevent him from getting into Beverly Hills High, Billy invites him to move in with his family. It is revealed that he is harboring a secret from Spencer, and it seems pretty obvious that Billy is the absentee father that keeps coming up in conversation.
If all of this sounds convoluted and trite, it’s because it is. I must admit that I was a little disappointed to see the heavy focus on relationship drama and teen rivalry draped on in layers in the first episode. And it doesn’t help that All American is basically The O.C., if you subbed indie music for football, which is a personal downgrade for me.
Taye Diggs is always a draw and the teen actors (who are surely all in their twenties, at least), are doing the best they can with the material they’ve been given, but they haven’t been really challenged yet, the lead actor included. The abundance of characters meant every introduction was rushed. This show might have benefitted from waiting until episode 2 to bring in some tertiary characters.
There is definite potential in this show, but I have a bad feeling that it will succumb to the banality of teen melodrama instead of mining its emotional core from natural sources. It has all the makings of the next Everwood or One Tree Hill, if that’s your thing.
Interest Level After Pilot: 5 – I might check in at midseason to track the buzz, but I am disappointed to see that this show brings very little to the table that is fresh.
Charmed (CW)
The 5-second Description: A remake of the old WB (yes, WB) hit series about three sisters who find out they are witches. This time, they’re Hispanic and allegedly doing a better job at being feminists.
Interest Level Before Pilot: 5
Analysis: Just like the original, Charmed is the story of three young adult sisters who discover they are witches, like their deceased mother, and must use the “Power of Three” to defeat evil demonic forces. In the updated version, we are first introduced to feminist spitfire, Mel Vera (Melonie Diaz), and her younger sister Maggie (Sarah Jeffery), a college freshman rushing a popular sorority. Some months after their mother is killed by mysterious forces they originally believed to be a suicide, the girls meet Macy Vaughn (Madeleine Mantock), the older sister they had no idea existed, when she is mysteriously drawn to their house. While they are getting cautiously acquainted, they start to develop powers. Like the original, Macy, the eldest sibling, discovers telekinesis and middle sister Mel stumbles upon her ability to freeze time. Unlike her original series counterpart, Maggie develops the power to read the minds of anyone she touches, as opposed to just getting premonitions like Phoebe.
It isn’t long before the girls are approached by their whitelighter, the magical guardian angel meant to introduce them to a life of witchery, mentoring and protecting them along the way. Much to Mel’s chagrin, theirs is Harry Greenwood (Rupert Evans), the professor who took their mother’s job as chair of Women’s Studies at the college Mel and Maggie attend. Harry guides them through their first battle as they root out the demon responsible for their mother’s death.
From the get-go, this show has presented itself as very feminist-forward and hoo boy does it ever delight in using every buzzword it can get its mitts on. In the current climate, it is inevitable that a show about a trio of powerful witches who are literally sisters would be concerned with ‘taking down the patriarchy’ but I think the rhetoric—and especially vocal Mel—could have been toned down a bit. The new show’s creators took fire early on for suggesting that this show was more feminist than its source material, and that criticism was deserved. The original Charmed was very much considered a feminist show for its time and it feels like a disservice to claim that it isn’t because we’ve updated our verbiage and definition of what constitutes feminism. You don’t win the war by quantifying the contributions of everyone that fought before you.
On the subject of the patriarchy, it’s a little unfortunate that the show’s best character so far is “cis-gendered” white male, Harry. Evans’ eccentric portrayal was a standout in the pilot, bringing humor to the bewildering situation that the Charmed sisters find themselves in. I was also pleased to see Evans use his English accent for once, as I have only seen him in roles where he’s playing Americans. A twist at the end of the premiere suggests that Harry is not to be trusted, but I give it three episodes max until we find out that the mysterious Ouija board entity claiming to be their mother turns out to be the season’s big bad trying to sow the seeds of doubt in the newly-minted witches.
On a side note, I thought it was a bad idea to have one of the sisters be an outsider to the family that they just discovered. The original Charmed made this blunder when they fired Shannen Doherty and replaced her with Rose McGowan but that was a decision they were forced to make. There was no reason that Macy couldn’t have just been the sister who went off to college or was raised by her father somewhere else and is now getting reacquainted with her siblings. They’ve already used their jump-the-shark moment in episode one; this show is going to be so screwed if any of these young actresses don’t get along or decide to leave the show prematurely. I hope their contracts are airtight, because the show would have a difficult time surviving a second surprise sister.
Interest Level After Pilot: 5 – My instincts were right about this one. It looks like a cute show that is capable of amassing a fanbase, I’ve just grown out of that fanbase long ago.
The Conners (ABC)
The 5-second Description: Not technically a new show, but a re-imagined second season of long-running sitcom Roseanne, which itself was already a revival. Let’s see if the newly-revived show can survive the massive upheaval of losing their lead and the political furor that never really belonged in the show’s canon to begin with.
Interest Level Before Pilot: 6
Analysis: I have never watched Roseanne religiously and when it was revived earlier this year, after 21 years off the air, I still wasn’t interested. It wasn’t until ABC made the bold decision to remove the comedienne from her own sitcom and stand up for the politics that they believe in that I thought… Yeah, I’ll give this a shot.
This ‘pilot’ isn’t really debuting anything except its new name. The new characters introduced the previous season all carried over and the entire episode was preoccupied with the absence of Roseanne, who has allegedly passed away from a heart attack in her sleep. It is later discovered that Roseanne died of an opioid overdose, and Dan goes on a vendetta against the neighbor who gave her the pills (played by the divine Mary Steenburgen), until he finally talks to her and she expresses grief at her unintentional actions. Opioid addiction is a serious issue among lower-class Americans just like the Conners, so it is a bold choice to confront it and I hope the show continues to address the problem throughout the season.
Much like Lethal Weapon, it was weird watching a show where a main character has been killed off against their still-living portrayer’s wishes. Even though I felt the reasons for firing Roseanne Barr were justified, the show does indeed miss something without her presence. Most of the Conners deal with the loss of their matriarch with inappropriate humor but a few good scenes from the show’s best actors, John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf, really grounded the emotion. Metcalf in particular nearly brought me to tears with Jackie’s inability to grasp the reality of her sister being gone as she busies herself rearranging the kitchen. That woman is a national treasure.
There is something to be said about having a controversial character guide the show’s conflict but I think this show is capable of addressing the issues that plague lower-class Americans without resorting to overt party politics. I think the show can survive if it plays this right, and the massive ratings for the premiere are a good sign. If The Conners can retain even half of their premiere ratings, they are doing alright.
Interest Level After Pilot: 5 – As proud as I am for this show taking a stand, I thought the jokes were as mildly funny as I thought they were in the 90s. I will probably not watch week to week, but I may tune in from time to time to see how the show handles controversial topics in the future.
The Rookie (ABC)
The 5-second Description: Based on true events, The Rookie follows John Nolan (Nathan Fillion, of Castle and Firefly fame), a forty-year-old man, who becomes the oldest rookie at the Los Angeles Police Department.
Interest Level Before Pilot: 4
Analysis: After witnessing a bank robbery, divorced former construction worker, John Nolan, decides to become a police officer. We are not told the reasons for Nolan’s drastic career move, but you get the sense he wants something more out of life. Nolan instantly clashes with Sergeant Wade Grey (Richard T. Jones), who believes Nolan to be pursuing a midlife crisis at the expense of his precinct’s safety. Possibly, Sergeant Grey is not entirely off-base on this one, but I’m certain we are meant to believe that Nolan is exactly where he should be, because that’s just the kind of stupidly optimistic show this is.
I could go into detail about the rest of the cast, but I honestly didn’t care about most of them. There are two other rookies, including one (Melissa O’Neil) that Nolan is secretly dating, despite being old enough to be her dad (gross). There’s a racist asshole training officer (Eric Winter) that I think we’re supposed to feel sorry for (meh). There’s Mercedes Mason, who I know to be a hilarious and charming person in real life, playing the station’s Captain, Zoe Anderson. Mason had about 4 minutes of screen time in the pilot, so there was not enough there to care about.
Nolan and his training officer, Talia Bishop (Afton Williamson), have a rough first day. There’s a lot of posturing between Nolan and Sergeant Grey and I’m already sick of it. Obviously, it is The Rookie’s mission to prove to us that John Nolan is truly pursuing his calling, so all the tension just feels obligatory. Perhaps the show should have started with the rookies in the police academy, so we could see all the times that Nolan questioned his decisions. Knowing he persevered enough to get this far suggests he isn’t going to drop out now.
I was also quickly tired of the training officers’ hazing of their rookies. If this is really how the L.A.P.D. acts, then no wonder Nolan feels like the resident senior citizen shouting “Get off my lawn!” Obviously, ABC wanted to keep their claws in Nathan Fillion in a post-Castle landscape, and that’s fine, but I feel like they could have picked something better than this. Fillion will go through the motions, because this is a solid, steady job, but I doubt he will be truly challenged in this role.
Interest Level After Pilot: 5 – I understand why people will like this show; it’s just not for me. But at least the premise is more believable than Castle.
The Kids Are Alright (ABC)
The 5-second Description: A family sitcom about the Clearys, an Irish Catholic family with eight sons, growing up in California in the 70s.
Interest Level Before Pilot: 8
Analysis: I thought this show looked charming and funny from previews and the pilot did not disappoint. It follows ‘middle’ son Timmy Cleary (Jack Gore), who is a proxy for series creator Tim Doyle, on whose life this series is loosely based. Timmy wants to be an entertainer, but he is constantly being overlooked by his parents, who are busy juggling eight sons. The pilot is concerned with two threads:
- Timmy’s attempts to audition for a stage production of Man of La Mancha after his mother tells him no. “We do not have the wherewithal in this family for any of you kids to be special!”
- Eldest brother Lawrence quitting seminary school to ‘see the world’ and thus disappointing his parents.
The pilot is frenetic and it’s impossible to keep all the kids separate but they clearly have their own personalities that will come through if the show is given enough time. I think the second eldest Cleary, Eddie (Caleb Foote), deserves a special shout out for being the butt of some of the best jokes, but the MVP award definitely goes to the parents, Mike and Peggy, played by Michael Cudlitz (Walking Dead, Southland) and Mary McCormack (West Wing, In Plain Sight). Cudlitz is the perfect no-nonsense 70s dad adjusting to changing times, while McCormack commands every scene as the mother wrangling them all.
The show makes plenty of jokes about growing up in the 70s but still manages to draw connections to modern families. The struggle to support a lower middle-class household full of rowdy boys reminded me of Malcolm in the Middle, which is definitely a plus. I expect a bit more sincerity from The Kids Are Alright, since Malcolm could get a bit zany at times. I also look forward to plenty of zingers from McCormack’s Peggy, whose commandeering front betrays the weakness she has for each of her kids.
Interest Level After Pilot: 8 – It impressed me more than almost any other sitcom of the 2018 season, but low viewership means it may not get far.
