The Fall 2011 New Series Thread (starts 9/13)

[lordkosc]

I do not regret skipping the last 4 episodes.

[Charlatan]

I strongly recommend that you enjoy it while it is on the air. Its debut was....problematic. It's not that it did bad by NBC standards (it was something like a 53% improvement for the slot), but it did bad by objective standards, and holy hell does it have a whole lot of elements working against it. I tried to play a level of Super Mario 3D Land while I had it on and ended up having to go back ten minutes and watch it again because it demanded attention to keep up and I was utterly lost. That's different from commanding attention (what Breaking Bad does, for example, although Breaking Bad would also get the living shit canceled out of it if it were on any broadcast network), and I'm not sure how receptive the general audience will be to a show that does that. It's virtually impossible for anything ordered by NBC to get canceled off the network before it finishes, so I'm sure we'll get the full order, but it's still.......squishy.

According to Firewall and Iceberg, the procedural parts of the show remain good throughout, but the overall magic thing is maybe not done as well as it could be through the first four episodes, which is not surprising for a guy whose only other television project to date was Lone Star, which was barely a project. I think he's a good enough creative mind to end up pulling that together by the end.

Also, somebody needs to do something about Tara the Tennis Teacher's moles. One of them needs to be covered/removed (depending on whether they're added), because right now any shot of her left side makes it look like a vampire with bad aim tried to jump her on a very dark night.

I just watched this last night off my DVR and I agree with everything you said. Specifically:

- you have to pay hella attention to this. I was messing around on the computer and I also had to back up a few times to figure out what was happening in which world. And it's not that complicated either.

- when they had the close ups of both the tennis teacher and the main actor, I was thinking this is the peril of HD TV. The closeups were so close that I could see her pores and the aforementioned moles, and the bags under his eyes threatened to overwhelm me.

In addition:

- the first time I heard the wife speak I thought maybe something was wrong with my speakers. For some reason I thought she'd be a lot older. She looks like 10 years younger than him, and he's not even terribly old.

- there's no humor in this. Personally I don't like a show where there's a complete absence of humor.

- I understand it's the first episode, but and there's got to be some exposition or people won't get what the heck is going on but if they spend so much time in the doctor's offices it's gonna suck.

I dunno, I want to like the show but it feels like such a downer "which world am I in, the one where my wife is dead or the one where my son is dead?" is NOT a winning tagline.

[Brian Seiler]

- the first time I heard the wife speak I thought maybe something was wrong with my speakers. For some reason I thought she'd be a lot older. She looks like 10 years younger than him, and he's not even terribly old.

That would be because she is ten years younger than him. His wife is the beautiful, absolutely perfect Laura Allen who should totally dump that Weyman shithead and come live with me, and she's 37, which is about right for the role, because she's got to be young enough for crapping out another baby to be at least practical. She typically plays younger than her actual age - that's the impression I got on Terriers (sorry Rubin) anyway. Jason Isaacs is 48, which strikes me as being a little old for his part, and it doesn't help that he looks.....you know....old.

- there's no humor in this. Personally I don't like a show where there's a complete absence of humor.

This is more likely to be an issue, judging from the creator's somewhat sparse body of work. Lone Star was good, but it was not funny for the two episodes that it existed. The only other credits he's got to his name at this point are something from 2011 called The Beaver (Was that the Mel Gibson thing? Either way, it's hard to judge a writer based on feature scripts, because those tend to be interfered with a lot more by the director than television product.) and a project that's currently filming. It's also telling that he's apparently signed to the Daredevil reboot, and Daredevil is easily the single most depressing comic book character of the past twenty years (I mean, come on - his first girlfriend turned into a porn star who died of AIDS, and that's just the start of his long slide downhill). The show had a lot to do in the pilot, so I get why there would be no jokes there, but I also won't be terribly surprised if Killen just isn't the joking type.

[Super_D]

Props to Suburgatory for a reference to The Wire.

[Woolen Horde]

Watching Bent. It's not quite clicking, but I'm still watching, mainly because of the ridiculous hotness that is Amanda Peet and Margo Harshman. It's like Brunette Valhalla. Plus, it has George Bluth and Landry from Friday Night Lights as a sidekick (and, weirdly enough, the main male character's name is Riggins).

I think they're going for some kind of modern day Who's the Boss, but the main dude is just annoying doing his Jon Heder act.

[CLWheeljack]

Is anybody else still watching Suburgatory? The last episode was surprisingly touching, and I thought it Jane Levy really showed some surprising range. I don't know how much buzz she's getting, but I think she's really very good.

Looks like it was renewed for another season, which is nice.

[Rock8man]

Is anyone else watching Touch? I was very vary of it, since it's from Tim Kring, the guy behind Heroes, which I hated, but I like Keifer Sutherland in this show, and they do a decent job. I don't have any passion for the show, but I continue to watch it off and on.

What sometimes interests me in the show is purely from a craft perspective. I wonder which of the beautiful shots they show are some kind of stock footage taken at a public square, and which are filmed specifically for the show. If they did a shot with hundreds of people in it, are they allowed to show that on TV, or do all those people have to be paid as extras? Anyway, they create a good illusion of lots of people in the world being interconnected sometimes, and they do have some shots of lots of people in the intro and flashes of people in some episodes that look beautiful, shots you don't normally see in TV series.

[Warning]

Is anyone else watching Touch? I was very vary of it, since it's from Tim Kring, the guy behind Heroes, which I hated, but I like Keifer Sutherland in this show, and they do a decent job. I don't have any passion for the show, but I continue to watch it off and on.

What sometimes interests me in the show is purely from a craft perspective. I wonder which of the beautiful shots they show are some kind of stock footage taken at a public square, and which are filmed specifically for the show. If they did a shot with hundreds of people in it, are they allowed to show that on TV, or do all those people have to be paid as extras? Anyway, they create a good illusion of lots of people in the world being interconnected sometimes, and they do have some shots of lots of people in the intro and flashes of people in some episodes that look beautiful, shots you don't normally see in TV series.

I don't dislike it. We've watched the first 5 or 6 episodes and it's pretty watchable. (Damning it with faint praise - I know) Years of watching 24 has conditioned me and I always expect Jack Bauer to start kicking ass.

[Rock8man]

I don't dislike it. We've watched the first 5 or 6 episodes and it's pretty watchable. (Damning it with faint praise - I know) Years of watching 24 has conditioned me and I always expect Jack Bauer to start kicking ass.

Yeah, I'm guilty of the faint praise too. Not disliking it is the best way to describe how I feel about it too.

I haven't seen 24 yet. Maybe I should watch that instead on Netflix instant. I do like that actor a lot.

[Warning]

Yeah, I'm guilty of the faint praise too. Not disliking it is the best way to describe how I feel about it too.

I haven't seen 24 yet. Maybe I should watch that instead on Netflix instant. I do like that actor a lot.

I'd definitely recommend at least watching the first 5-10 episodes of season 1 to see if the format works for you. If so, then it's pretty great stuff for about 4-5 seasons.

[kedaha]

Is anyone going to create Fall 2012 thread? Picked up Homeland and Person of Interest based on this thread last year, hoping there might be one or two more promising new shows launching.

[lordkosc]

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-t...ad.php?t=69771

[kedaha]

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-t...ad.php?t=69771

Cheers! :D