Praise for Person of Interest

It took me a while to get into the show Person of Interest but I am now a huge fan.  I knew I had to give the show a try since it is another J.J. Abrams production and I usually love his creations.  Undercovers from last season was a big disappointment though so when it took me a while to get into this one I was afraid it was because it would be another bomb.  It turns out it just needed a few episodes to get the characters established.  Jim Caviezel is perfect in the role of John Reese, ex-CIA operative who is presumed dead.  He is lethal to those who deserve it and protective of the innocent.  Finch, played by Lost's Michael Emerson, took me a while to get used to.  As I was a huge Lost fan, it was difficult at first not to see him as Ben every time his face appeared onscreen.  Now, however, he is transforming into the character of Finch before my eyes.  Making Detective Carter a more essential part of the team has added a nice element to the story and the flashbacks of Reese with his former girlfriend make him more human and vulnerable to the viewer.  The only thing I don't like is that the show is not available on iTunes, such a bummer.

TV Season 2010 Pulse Check

Back in September I wrote two blogs on my favorite new Dramas and Comedies of the 2010 season. It is now time for a pulse check - how are they doing so far, are they still beating or on life support?

Beating Strong - Raising Hope
This show still makes me laugh. When the scripts are good so are the episodes. There have been a few blah ones, but overall I am really enjoying this blue collar family and their hilarious predicaments. Jimmy is the underdog you want to root for. He isn't the smartest guy in the world but he puts his new daughter first. His parents aren't the best but they sure try hard and Maw Maw is priceless.

Having Heart Trouble - The Event and Outsourced
Unfortunately The Event is becoming a bore. It is falling into the same pattern of Flashforward where it starts out intriguing and then can't keep the excitement going. I still have a few episodes on the DVR and I'm not dying to watch them.
Outsourced has lost it's hilarity. The first few episodes were great, hilarious, but now the writing has faltered and they are no longer as funny as they were in the beginning. In fact, I have not finished watching the last two episodes. I turned them off mid show and deleted them. Meh.

On Life Support - Undercovers
I can't believe I am saying this but I have lost the desire to watch this show. It has nothing to do with the cast, they are great, it is the writing
(JJ Abrams is obviously busy doing other things and it shows, bummer). There is no urgency in their missions. There is nothing at stake. In Alias, the fate of the entire world was always at stake as well as Sydney's life. There was so much intrigue, twists and turns that if you missed an episode you had to find out what happened, asap. It was a huge water cooler show. The critics and network executives at NBC agree with me about Undercovers as the show was just cancelled for good this week. The ratings were low and with no huge stars to keep it afloat the network decided to take it out of it's misery.

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Fall TV Season 2010 - Drama

The new TV season started this week and so far I liked the potential of The Event and Undercovers.  The Event has similarities to last years Flashforward in terms of plot (something/one trying to take over the world/government ) as well as its multiple characters/timelines to follow.  The main character, played by Jason Ritter (who looks more and more like his late father every year) was excellent in the role.  He drew me in immediately.  My only fear is that the show will fail to take cues from Lost and attempt to drag the story out instead of having set times for conclusions.  Viewers want things wrapped up, they don't want to be dragged on a wild goose chase for multiple episodes without some payoff.  Flashforward did not learn this lesson and was canceled, another great concept that went down in flames.  Undercovers, created by Alias director/producer JJ Abrams also caught my eye.  While JJ Abrams name alone made me watch the first episode, I will continue to watch because of the great casting of the main characters.  Two unknown actors fill the main roles of the husband and wife spying team of Steven and Samantha Bloom (Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and they are excellent, especially Boris (yummy).  Their boss is played by Gerald McRaney.  A TV staple for over 20 years, Gerald perfectly fits the role.  While the show is similar to the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I'm already attached to this cast more than I ever was to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.  Hopefully the plots will continue to live up to the history of JJ Abrams other projects (Lost, Alias, Fringe) so that I will have a new favorite show to add to my collection.  Another show that premiered this week titled The Chase also had enjoyable moments and a great cast.  However, it doesn't appear like it will be a show where you have to watch every episode to keep up, so I may just watch occasionally.  One of the supporting actors is a favorite of mine from Prison Break (Amaury Nolasco played Sucre) and another Prison Break alum, Robert Knepper (T-Bag) will be guest starring in an upcoming episode.  Despite all of the hype and critical acclaim, I hated Lonestar another new drama that premiered this week.  I found it slow and boring in places.  The main actor didn't carry the role the way I felt a leading man should and the concept of a man keeping two women in the dark about his duplicitous nature just rubbed me the wrong way.  I hated the fact that he was stringing these two women along and yet I was supposed to accept and like this aspect of his character.