Partners
I like all four members of this show's ensemble from prior work, but man, was this a super-broad pilot. I think there's a version of this show that explores its relationships in a way that challenges existing TV conventions, but this isn't it. This pilot in particular conjured my least-favorite TV reaction, that of replying "Oh, no" or "Yikes" aloud to the show as the laugh track reacts to a bad joke. It's sort of a half-formed thought, but I think there's something interesting with this show and The New Normal and their critical reception, where both Max Mutchnick and Ryan Murphy had initial successes in the late nineties, when shows centered on gay characters or camp sensibilities were much rarer on the broadcast network landscape, and now they've got these shows telling stories with characters more or less specifically identified as avatars of themselves. I think there's a question there about how you tell new stories and challenge the status quo when you don't automatically get credit just for showing up and the standards for "pushing the envelope" have changed (and I think that's still a goal for both of them, and their creative partners, in the way they've talked about these shows.)
The Neighbors
Like Guys With Kids, not as bad as I was fearing from some of the critical reactions I heard. However, nothing in particular about this pilot grabbed me as I watched it. It seems like a perfectly fine execution of the "aliens among us" type of show; I'm just not convinced that that particular subgenre of comedies has sufficient depths left to be explored that it needs a new incarnation.
Last Resort
More than any other pilot I've seen this fall, this really made me want to see what the next few weeks hold in terms of story development and shaping what kind of show Last Resort is ultimately going to be. It's certainly the best drama pilot I've seen so far this season, dropping intriguing hints about the show's universe and potential conspiracies without too much heavy-handed signaling of "THIS IS A MYSTERY DON'T YOU WANT TO WATCH FOR MANY MANY SEASONS TO FOLLOW THE MANY MANY BREADCRUMBS AND LEARN ALL ABOUT ALL THE MYSTERY" as too frequently occurs in the post-Lost milieu. And Andre Braugher's episode-ending monologue was so electric, it might as well have concluded with a warning to Damian Lewis not to get too comfortable.
Vegas
Elementary
Made in Jersey
I watched all three of these in one go on Saturday evening, and decided to group them all together because all three adhere so closely to procedural format, even as pilots, that the bulk of their material was largely indistinguishable from show-to-show. This is not necessarily a criticism - CBS's ratings demonstrate that a decently-executed procedural can be very watchable. And all three of these have potential. (At the very least, I'll probably keep DVR-ing them for a little while because they make for a good knitting bloc.)
Vegas should get a lot of credit for doing its own thing with the 1960s setting, as opposed to the glossiness that doomed The Playboy Club and Pan Am to unfavorable comparisons with Mad Men from the start. The pilot does a lot of interesting tone-setting with the dust vs. glitz juxtaposition of active cowboy culture and the burgeoning scene on the Strip, and hopefully the show's writers will utilize some compelling material in drawing from true life to shape their story. At its best, Vegas could be like a twentieth-century Deadwood.
Elementary is of course taxed by the existence of Sherlock, but I don't think it necessarily suffers in comparison. Jonny Lee Miller's Holmes is nervier than Benedict Cumberbatch's, comparably arrogant but not as haughty or prickly. Ultimately, it's a take on Holmes that may be less rigorously faithful, but seems more flexible and hard-wearing in order to withstand a thirteen or twenty-two episode season. Lucy Liu as Watson is distinguished more by the American flavor of the character's dry wit, as opposed to the British tone of Martin Freeman (or even Jude Law), than by gender. Like Freeman, Liu carves a place for her character in the early goings-on in showing the doctor's growing flickers of interest as he/she is drawn in by the life of the consulting detective. I also like the Holmes-as-addict/Watson-as-sober coach framework. I'm curious to see how they use the character and his aggregate mythology, as Moffatt, Gatiss and Co. can sometimes seem overly beholden to the original source material.
Made in Jersey has a lot of potential, but I don't know whether it can do enough to distinguish itself on the same network as The Good Wife. Janet Montgomery is engaging in the lead - as my mother would say, the camera loves her. (If this show tanks, I could totally see her becoming CBS's next Simon Baker/Alex O'Loughlin.) The pilot, however, relies far too heavily on making her the smartest person in the room in every possible situation, to the extent that "passion" started to read as "histrionics." The show needs some time to flesh out its other lawyers, soften some of their edges, and show that they too are human beings. What was likely supposed to come across as folksy wisdom garnered from a blue-collar childhood on the protagonist's part made it seem like all the other lawyers sprouted fully formed in their offices instead of coming from families of their own (likely also from outside of Manhattan). I do, however, appreciate that the show set up Martina's personal and professional lives without an obvious love interest - it's rare that pilots allow a female character's career to dominate the narrative that way.
Call the Midwife
I'd heard some vague praise for this show in passing earlier this year, or maybe just a discussion of its popularity relative to Downton Abbey in the UK, but was still pleasantly surprised by how delightful I found the first episode. I like the warm, sisterhood-y vibe of the show's depiction of women dedicating themselves to women's health, a topic that doesn't frequently transfer from political discourses to popular media. (I'm hoping to see some of this in The Mindy Project, and in this season's storyline for Margaret on Boardwalk Empire.) My wish for PBS to adopt a schedule of broadcasting its British imports closer to concurrent with their original air dates across the pond doesn't appear to be coming true this season, but I won't complain about it too much if they keep distracting me with adorable babies.
666 Park Avenue
Not a bad show, but I suspected when I saw the previews that it wasn't going to be my bag, and nothing in the pilot challenged that feeling. Just like Partners, I already like all four of the actors in this show's central ensemble, but the show itself isn't in a genre that tends to appeal to me and the pilot didn't bring any of the kind of engaging weirdness that helped American Horror Story overcome my misgivings. I did appreciate, however, that they had Rachael Taylor's character go to the library to research her weird new residence, since it always bothered me on AHS that the Harmons never bothered to avail themselves of all relevant information once it was clear that their house wasn't like other houses. Sunday nights are so packed, this is an easy one to let fall by the wayside.
