This year does not appear to be a whole lot different. I still have at least three other shows I'm planning to watch after these three, but these three did not impress a whole lot. Today I bring you two dramas and a comedy.
Red Band Society
I can't say I liked this show all that much. It has a very talented cast so the acting is not the problem. I've seen many reviewers claim its closest comparison is Glee - which I've never seen - and that could explain why it doesn't appeal to me. However, they also mostly mention that it fails at doing it successfully like Glee did.
The show very clearly wants to tug at your heart strings, but the problem is that it's done in such a way to where it feels manipulative. I'm not saying the show isn't at times touching. But the setting is a hospital ward for kids with diseases that require you to live in a hospital. Of course it's touching.
Oh yeah speaking of which, the impracticality and improbability of the setting is hard to ignore. The hospital is apparently some kind of hotel for these kids - who seem good enough to sneak out for a party and therefore don't really need to live in a hospital. One of the kids has an eating disorder so I can't see why she needs to live in a hospital. They have elaborately decorated and expansive rooms. The show's blatant disregard for any sense of realism is jarring.
Anyway, Red Band Society looks like it has some potential, but the high school drama portion of it will prevent me from seeing if it ever does reach it. I also didn't like the constant reliance on the narrator. Let the audience figure some things out for itself please. There's an audience for this show and it's probably the opposite of me. (Or not... the ratings for this show are dangerously low)
Grade - C-
Verdict: Skip
Gracepoint
The existence of this show is a mystery. Well, not really, the existence of this show is basically "money." But still, there's a British version called Broadchurch and this is evidently going to be mostly the same exact show but with two extra episodes tacked on. I've never seen the British version, which is probably a positive because it apparently pales in comparison.
Something I've also never heard was the original voice of David Tenant. I thought his American accent was fairly good personally. I don't really care about accents though. It also features Anna Gunn, Skylar from Breaking Bad. I'm wondering if I can separate her from that character. So far so good as she might be the best part about the show.
Gracepoint is a fairly bleak show that could benefit from some humor. The score of the first episode is too heavy-handed and too prominent. There was only one intriguing part of the pilot and the rest was kind of boring. The original, Broadchurch, was apparently a huge mystery and that was part of the allure. There's no sense of that mystery in Gracepoint. It's clear that anybody could be the killer, but I don't know any of the characters and I also don't really care yet.
Either way, I'm being a bit unfair as I overall enjoyed it. I didn't love it. But I'll keep watching.
Grade - B-
Verdict: Tentatively watching
Black-ish
Yeesh. What an awful title. The ABC department really needs to learn how to make titles, because they are dreadful at it. I think Trophy Wife was cancelled because of its title and I'm sticking to that. (Oh yeah you can add Trophy Wife as a show I would have kept watching, but it's no longer airing)
Blackish is actually pretty good and a ton of fun to watch. I love it. Anthony Anderson is great, if a bit over-the-top as the lead. All the child actors are actually pretty good and not unbearable. (The standard for a child actor is: don't be unwatchable bad). The show addresses race head-on, but in an extremely entertaining way.
The show isn't without its faults: I kind of wish they'd tone down some of the fantastical elements going forward. And I'm not sure Anderson's "HA!" is as funny as the writers seem to think it is. (It's actually not funny at all by the end). But I'm nitpicking and this is the pilot episode. These things tend to get worked out over the course of a season. I can't remember the last time a pilot episode made me laugh this much and was as much fun as this was.
Grade - B+
Verdict: You should watch this
Playlist
1. "Mardy Bum" - Arctic Monkeys
2. "White Room" - Cream
3. "The Heartbeat the Soul" - Dark Waves
4. "Cool Kids" - Echosmith
5. "Push it Along" - A Tribe Called Quest
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