BuzzFeed: "Why The Mindy Project Is No Longer A Work In Progress, But Perfection"

Mindy Kaling’s single-camera comedy is not only hitting all of its marks in its second season, it’s surpassing them… and leaving New Girl in its wake.

At BuzzFeed, you can read my latest feature, "Why The Mindy Project Is No Longer A Work In Progress, But Perfection," in which I write about why The Mindy Project is perfect (and what Fox's New Girl could learn from it these days).

The noticeable creative decline of Fox’s once-sterling comedy New Girl — which this season has offered some head-scratching plot developments (who exactly was calling for the full-time return of Coach?) and a dearth of actual comedy — has had a unintentional silver lining of sorts. It’s allowed the show’s winsome timeslot companion The Mindy Project — created by and starring Mindy Kaling — its own opportunity to shine.

And, let’s be honest: The Mindy Project is currently glowing with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. Season 2 of this sharp comedy has continued with the strengths of the back half of its freshman year, having jettisoned some of the show’s elements that weren’t working (such as Anna Camp’s best friend character and Amanda Sutton’s Shauna) and focusing on the quirky interplay between the staffers of a women’s health clinic in Manhattan.

The show hasn’t been afraid to make those changes either, restructuring the ensemble so that Beth Grant’s Beverly, Zoe Jarman’s Betsy, and Xosha Roquemore’s Tamra now pack as much comedic wallop as the core trio — Kaling’s Mindy Lahiri, Chris Messina’s Danny Castellano, and a presently paunchy Ed Weeks’ Jeremy Reed — and writer/actor Ike Barinholtz’s Morgan Tooks. I might have described the latter as a scene-stealer, but the truth of the matter is that each of these players can now walk off with a sequence tucked firmly under his or her arms. That’s a real feat for any comedy, particularly one that initially appeared as though it might not make it through its first season; but something truly alchemical happened along the way with The Mindy Project: It not only found its groove but pushed itself to become something truly great in the process.

Continue reading at BuzzFeed...

The Daily Beast: "2013 TV Upfronts Wrap-Up: Bring On the New Television Shows"

The broadcast network upfront presentations are over. Jace Lacob on the 51 new scripted shows heading to television next season. What will you watch?

At The Daily Beast, you can read my final upfronts post, "2013 TV Upfronts Wrap-Up: Bring On the New Television Shows," in which I wrap up our broadcast network upfronts coverage and take a look at the 51 new scripted series heading to ABC Television Network, CBS, NBC, FOX, and The CW for the 2013-14 season.

The upfront presentations are (finally) over.

Now that the dust has settled, it's easier to get a larger picture of what's going on for next season. The numbers: 51 scripted series have been ordered by the broadcast networks for the 2013–14 season. There are 29 new dramas for next season and 22 comedies. Thirty-one shows will launch in the fall, and 20 are being held for a later date, should some of the fall offerings fail to enflame the public's imagination. On the network level, ABC picked up 12 new scripted series; CBS ordered eight; NBC issued series pickups to 14, while Fox did the same for 12 scripted series. The CW claimed five new scripted shows.

ABC picked up a slew of pilots, including a Rebel Wilson sitcom Super Fun Night, and issued a series order to The Avengers spinoff series, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. CBS ordered several pilots, including a Sarah Michelle Gellar–Robin Williams comedy from David E. Kelley, Josh Holloway–led cyberprocedural Intelligence, and Hostages, a political conspiracy thriller starring Toni Collette, among others. NBC ordered a bunch of pilots, including J.J. Abrams’s supernatural drama Believe (which will feature Twin Peaks's Kyle MacLachlan), an adaptation of Nick Hornby's About a Boy, and global conspiracy thriller Crisis, from creator Rand Ravich, to name a few.

Elsewhere, Fox ordered a handful of pilots, including: J.J. Abrams’s futuristic police drama Almost Human; Sleepy Hollow, a modern-day update of Washington Irving's classic thriller; cop drama Gang Related, starring Lost’s Terry O'Quinn and RZA; and legal drama Rake, a remake of an Australian drama which will star Greg Kinnear. The CW ordered a remake of 1970s British science-fiction drama The Tomorrow People, a period drama following Mary Queen of Scots called Reign, and an interspecies sci-fi/romance drama called Star-Crossed, along with a spinoff of The Vampire Diaries and an adaptation of The 100.

The odds are not in these new shows' favor, however: many of these new shows will fail, and some—the networks hope, anyway—may succeed to see a second season (or longer, if they're truly lucky).

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "Fox Unveils 2013-14 Schedule: 24 Returns, Sleepy Hollow and Almost Human to Mondays"

Fox has revealed its 2013-14 primetime schedule. My take on the changes afoot at the broadcast network next season, including the launch of 24: Live Another Day.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Fox Unveils 2013-14 Schedule: 24 Returns, Sleepy Hollow and Almost Human to Mondays," which includes full details on FOX's 2013-14 primetime schedule, including comments from Kevin Reilly on the return of 24 and much more.

On Monday morning, Fox unveiled its primetime schedule for the 2013-14 season, which included several changes to its current lineup and the confirmation of rumors that 24 will be returning to the network.

Fox Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly confirmed the news earlier today on a conference call with members of the press. 24 will return in early May as tentpole event drama 24: Live Another Day, which will "arc through the summer." Speaking on behalf of 24 executive producer Howard Gordon, Reilly said that Gordon had asked himself, “'Why are we killing ourselves trying to crack a feature when this is the perfect format?'” The spine of the proposed 24 feature film occurred over the course of 12 hours and translating the thrust of the film to television was "so liberating for us." The decision will allow the show's producers to take what they saw as the best of the 12 hours and translate for television.

"We’ll still go in chronological order, but we will skip hours," said Reilly. "It will be dictated by the plot.” Details are still coming together, but expect some high-wattage stars for the rebooted 24: "We’re getting just about a Who’s Who of Hollywood wanting to participate in this," Reilly said. And it's possible that this reboot, given what Reilly calls its "franchise-ability," could spur further sequels down the line. "There could be sequels," said Reilly. "I don’t know if it could be yearly," but possibly 18 or 24 months later, should it score with viewers.

(Following the press call, Reilly added a few additional remarks about the launch of 24: Live Another Day. “It’s great to have Jack back," he said in a prepared statement. "24 redefined the drama genre, and as we reimagine the television miniseries, this iconic show will again break new ground for the network. The series remains a global sensation, and everyone at Fox is thrilled to be back at work with Kiefer, Howard and the incredibly creative 24 team.”)

Glee, which was renewed for two more seasons, will be benched in midseason in order to accommodate new drama Rake, starring Greg Kinnear, which will take over the musical-drama's timeslot on Thursdays at 9 p.m. Fox intends to keep its comedy programming block on Tuesdays, which will see female-skewing comedies New Girl and The Mindy Project staying put at 9 p.m., leading out of new (and much more male-centric) comedies Dads and Brooklyn Nine-Nine at 8 p.m. However, in "late fall," Bones will move to Fridays at 8 p.m., where it will be joined by a new hour-long Friday night comedy block consisting of returning comedy Raising Hope and new comedy Enlisted.

Among the new series heading to Fox next season: the J.J. Abrams-executive produced futuristic cop drama Almost Human and a modern-day take on Washington Irving's classic thriller, Sleepy Hollow, from executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Joining the schedule in 2014: "intense, mind-bending" thriller Wayward Pines, from M. Night Shyamalan (based on Blake Crouch's novel Pines), which will star Matt Dillon.

"We had some challenges this season," Reilly told reporters on a press call early Monday morning. "Next season, we’ve got the Super Bowl… and we’re making the biggest investment of entertainment programming that we’ve ever made at Fox," including "two new event series franchises, the first of which will be going into production for 2014."

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "TV Upfronts 2013: Bring On the New Shows!"

With the broadcast networks' upfront presentations less than a week away, I look at what new television shows the broadcast networks have ordered for the 2013-14 season.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Bring On the New Shows!" in which I start to round up what new television shows the broadcast networks have ordered so far for the 2013-14 season. (It will continue to be updated with each new series order over the next week.)

It's that time of year again! I take a look at the new series that are coming to television next season, as the broadcast network upfront presentations get underway next week.

The orders started coming in late Thursday night. Fox has so far ordered four comedies and four dramas, including: J.J. Abrams' futuristic police drama Almost Human; Sleepy Hollow, a modern day update of Washington Irving's classic thriller; cop drama Gang Related, which will star Lost's Terry O'Quinn and RZA; and legal drama Rake, a remake of an Australian drama which will star Greg Kinnear.

Keep checking this space for the latest updates as the broadcasters prepare to unveil several dozen new shows for the 2013-14 season.

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "TV Upfronts 2013: NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and The CW By the Numbers"

Is your favorite show safe? I take a look at what’s on tap for the broadcast networks for the 2013-14 season, which shows are coming back, and which ones have gotten the axe.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature,
"TV Upfronts 2013: NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and The CW By the Numbers," in which I offer a running total (which will be updated throughout the next week) at all the broadcast network shows that have been renewed, ordered, and cancelled as we move into upfront presentations week for the broadcast networks.

Every May, advertisers and members of the press descend on New York City as the broadcast networks host their annual upfront presentations, where they will unveil their fall schedules, trot out talent, and announce which shows will be coming back next season and which ones won’t.

The Daily Beast will be reporting on every move being made by ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and The CW as they prepare to launch their 2013-2014 schedules. As the week wears on, The Daily Beast will continue to update its gallery of new shows as the individual networks present their schedules and programming and report on what the networks’ top executives are saying.

This year’s crop of pilots was heavy on literary adaptations, period dramas, foreign formats (particularly of British, Spanish, and Israeli series), and remakes of movies (About a Boy! Beverly Hills Cop! Bad Teacher!) and old television shows (Ironside! The Tomorrow People!). Plus, there was not one, but two takes on Alice in Wonderland, proving that fairy tales are again a hot commodity this year. Will Joss Whedon’s white-hot Avengers television spinoff, Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D., make it to the airwaves? Will NBC take a chance on J.J. Abrams’ supernatural drama Believe, which revolves around a girl with unique abilities and the man who is assigned to protect her at all costs? Or will it be yet another year of doctors, lawyers, and cops?

Below you’ll find a guide to the week’s schedule of upfront presentations:

Monday, May 13: NBC
Monday, May 13: Fox
Tuesday, May 14: ABC
Wednesday, May 15: CBS
Thursday, May 16: The CW

In the meantime, here’s a scorecard—broken down by network—to help you keep track of which of the 100-plus network pilots have been picked up to series, which current shows will be returning next season, and which shows are now six feet under. (As renewals and cancelations come in, we will continue to update this list throughout the week or so.)


Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "Why Comedy Writers Love HBO's Game of Thrones"

Game of Thrones is beloved by viewers and critics alike. But the Emmy-nominated HBO fantasy drama is also a surprising favorite in the writers’ rooms of TV comedies around Hollywood. I talk to sitcom writers about why they’re obsessed with the sex-and-magic-laden drama, and how the show informs their own narratives.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Why Comedy Writers Love HBO's Game of Thrones," in which I talk to writers from Parks and Recreation, Modern Family, and Community about why they love HBO's Game of Thrones, nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Drama.

Fox’s upcoming sitcom The Mindy Project, created by and starring Mindy Kaling, deconstructs the romantic comedy fantasies of its lead character, an ob-gyn whose disappointment in the dating world stems from her obsessive viewing of Nora Ephron films.

At the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in July, Kaling was candid about the role that When Harry Met Sally and other rom-coms would play on the show, but also revealed the show might feature shoutouts to HBO’s Game of Thrones, which is nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Drama.

“My writing staff, they are just obsessed with Game of Thrones,” Kaling said. “The show could just have Game of Thrones references: dragons, stealing eggs of dragon babies… You might see a lot—more than your average show—of Game of Thrones references.”

Yet the writers of The Mindy Project are not the only scribes who have fallen under the spell of the ferocious Game of Thrones, which depicts the struggle for control of the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

“It’s a violent, strange show with lots of sex in it,” Kaling went on to say.

Writers’ rooms—where the plots of television shows are “broken,” in industry parlance—often revolve around discussions of other shows, particularly ones that have a significant hold on the cultural conversation, whether it be Breaking Bad, Mad Men, or Homeland.

“A comedy writers’ room is like a really great dinner party with the smartest and funniest people you’ve ever met,” Parks and Recreation co-executive producer Alexandra Rushfield wrote in an email. Their typical conversations? “The presidential campaign. Whatever articles or books people are reading. Taking wagers on crazy statistics, like how much all the casts in the world combined might weigh. General heckling of co-workers.”

And TV shows such as Game of Thrones that viewers can debate endlessly. Modern Family executive producer Danny Zuker likened Game of Thrones to Lost in terms of the volume of discussion and passionate debate that the show engenders. It’s certainly immersive: five massive novels, two seasons of television, maps, online forums, family trees. Game of Thrones is a show that provokes—or even forces—viewer evaluation, deconstruction, and discussion.

“Many writers that I know are into it,” said Zuker over lunch on the Fox lot. “The setting of the world probably appeals to that nerd that is in most writers… I never played Dungeons & Dragons, but I get why the most disaffected kids who are intelligent and creative did, because in that world you could be powerful…. I basically just described comedy writers.”

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "Fall TV 2012 Preview: 7 Shows to Watch, 7 Shows to Skip"

The fall television season is here! But which shows should you be watching and which should you skip? I'm glad you asked.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Fall TV 2012 Preview: 7 Shows to Watch, 7 Shows to Skip," in which I offer my take on the upcoming fall season, with seven shows you should be watching (from ABC's Nashville to PBS' Call the Midwife) and those you should be snubbing (Partners, The Neighbors).

The fall television season is once again upon us, and overall the results are pretty depressing: there’s a decided lack of originality to much of the broadcast networks’ new offerings, as if they were somehow injured by the lack of interest in last year’s riskier programs.

In fact, there is a whole lot of formulaic fare coming to your televisions, and a ton of new (mostly awful) comedies this year. But fret not: it’s not all doom and gloom, as there are at least a few promising new shows on the horizon, from the Connie Britton-led country music drama Nashville to the sweet charms of offbeat comedy Ben & Kate.

Once again, the broadcasters have opted to hold back many of the more interesting new shows until midseason, which means we’ll have to wait until January for the launch of Kevin Williamson’s serial killer thriller The Following against James Purefoy in a murderous game, and Bryan Fuller’s television adaptation of Hannibal, which finds a young FBI agent (Hugh Dancy) meeting the cannibalistic psychopath Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) for the first time. Which isn’t to say that midseason is entirely promising either: the winter will also find ABC offering us the truly terrible Dane Cook comedy (and I use that word loosely), Next Caller.

In the meantime, however, while we’re waiting for the rise of the serial killers on the broadcast nets, here’s a look at the best and worst of the new fall television season.

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "TV Preview: Snap Judgments of 2012-13’s New Shows"

Will the 2012-13 television season be a success or a snooze? Over at The Daily Beast, Maria Elena Fernandez and I offer our first impressions of 30-plus network pilots—from The Following and Nashville to The Neighbors and Zero Hour (and everything in between)—coming to TV next season.

Head over to The Daily Beast to read my latest feature, "TV Preview: Snap Judgments of 2012-13’s New Shows," in which we offer our dueling he said/she said perspectives on all of the available broadcast network pilots.

While some of you may have jetted off on summer vacations in the last few weeks, we’ve spent the first part of the summer wading through pilots for more than 30 new scripted shows that likely will be on the air next TV season. (Sometimes networks change their minds, and, if we’re honest, there are a few shows we’d love to see disappear altogether.)

It was a Herculean feat to make it through the pile of screeners this year—it was not overall the best pilot season—to offer our first takes on the dramas and comedies that are headed to the fall and midseason schedules of ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and the CW.

Every year, the networks present their usual takes on the familiar doctor-lawyer-cop tropes, and this year is no exception. But there are also a few bright spots: a fading country music star (played by Friday Night Lights’ Connie Britton, y’all!), the crew of a nuclear sub gone rogue, a 1960s cattle rancher turned Vegas sheriff, a romantic comedy-obsessed ob-gyn, a serial killer inducting cult members via social networking, another modern-day Sherlock Holmes, and the beloved Carrie Bradshaw.

So what did we think? First, a few caveats: 1) The opinions below should be considered “first impressions” of the pilots that were made available by the broadcast networks and not reviews. 2) All pilots—from music and dialogue to casting, etc.—are subject to change, so what airs next season may, in fact, be drastically different than what was seen here. 3) We reserve the right to change our initial opinions upon seeing final review copies of these pilots—not to mention a few more episodes. 4) Not all of the midseason pilots were sent out by the networks; some, such as NBC’s Hannibal and Crossbones, to name two, haven’t even been shot yet; CBS again opted not to send out its midseason offerings; while Fox isn’t letting us see The Goodwin Games just yet.

ABC

666 Park Avenue (Sunday at 10 p.m.)

Logline: A young couple moves from the Midwest and takes up residence as the live-in managers of a luxury Manhattan apartment building, where not everything is as it seems.
Cast: Terry O’Quinn, Vanessa Williams, Dave Annabel, Rachael Taylor
He Said: Eh. While the showrunners have source material to pull from (it’s based on a novel by Gabriella Pierce), I wasn’t all that thrilled by where the show is going. O’Quinn makes a better villain when he at least seems—on the surface—to be a good guy, but his Gavin Doran is written so overtly devilish that it doesn’t charm or intrigue. He’s Fantasy Island’s Mr. Rourke but with a short temper and a fondness for contracts. The supernatural elements don’t really scare, but I will say this: it did make me nervous to step on an elevator for a day or so… but didn’t make me want to watch another episode.
She Said: I really enjoyed all the spooky fun of this. It’s genius casting to pair Terry O’Quinn and Vanessa Williams as the married owners of a very mysterious fancy schmancy Manhattan building. So far, O’Quinn isn’t doing anything we didn’t see John Locke (Lost) do and Williams has brought her fabulous diva out for the third time, but they have a delicious spark. David Annabel and Rachael Taylor are also very believable as an in-love couple that moves in and are hired to manage the building. I wouldn’t move in to The Drake, but I’d visit.
Verdict: Sublet.

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "Bring on the New Shows!" (Upfronts 2012)

Over at The Daily Beast, we're keeping you up-to-date with all of the news, renewals, cancellations, and series orders coming out of this week's broadcast network upfronts.

You can read our Network Scorecard, which keeps track of all of the renewals and cancelations as well as reactions to the scheduling changes and check out video promos for all of the networks' new shows. And you can read detailed descriptions--as well as insider information--about all of the new series heading to your television in the fall and spring.

Jace Lacob and Maria Elena Fernandez take a look at what’s coming up and what’s coming back on TV this fall as television's network upfronts week comes to a close. The CW moved Supernatural to Wednesdays, ordered five new shows, renewed Hart of Dixie, and canceled Secret Circle and Ringer. CBS moved Two and a Half Men to Thursdays and The Mentalist to Sundays, while The Good Wife is staying put. ABC renewed Revenge (moving it to Sundays at 9 p.m.), Modern Family, Grey's Anatomy, Suburgatory, and several others. Fox renewed Touch (and it moved it to Fridays), canceled Alcatraz, moved Glee to Thursdays, and ordered Kevin Williamson's The Following and several comedies, including one from The Office's Mindy Kaling. NBC renewed Community (which moves to Friday this fall), Parks and Recreation, Parenthood, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and 30 Rock, and ordered 10 new shows, including a comedy with Matthew Perry, serial killer drama Hannibal, the Dick Wolf-produced Chicago Fire, and J.J. Abrams action drama Revolution. Read our analysis of all of the networks' 37 new series and counting!

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "The Woman Behind New Girl"

As the first season of Fox’s breakout comedy New Girl comes to a close, creator Liz Meriwether talks to me about the blowback over star Zooey Deschanel and her character Jess’s “adorkable” qualities, the show's handling of sexuality, and girl-on-girl snark.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "The Woman Behind New Girl," in which I sit down with New Girl creator Liz Meriwether to discuss the show's first season as a whole, reactions to Jess and her "adorkable" qualities, the show's handling of sexuality, girl-on-girl snark (particularly surrounding New Girl and Girls), and more.

One of the few comedy hits of the season, Fox’s New Girl, wraps its first season Tuesday night.

Created by Elizabeth Meriwether (No Strings Attached), New Girl revolves around a socially awkward teacher, Jess (Zooey Deschanel), who—after discovering her boyfriend has cheated on her—moves in with three guys (Max Greenfield, Lamorne Morris, and Jake Johnson) and discovers that they are just as neurotic as she is.

At 30, Meriwether might be one of the youngest television show creators in Hollywood. Arriving fresh from a dental cleaning, she was sporting similar eyeglasses to the ones Zooey Deschanel’s Jess dons on the show. Meriwether’s been known to spend the night at the office and says coffee is her fuel. “Honestly, other people’s brilliance and creativity gets me through the day and pushes me to keep thinking about the show,” she said, sitting in her office on the Fox lot in Los Angeles. “Because there are definitely times that I want to curl up with Upstairs, Downstairs and disappear.”

The Daily Beast caught up with Meriwether to discuss the evolution of the show, its handling of Jess’s sexuality, girl-on-girl snark, the breakout character of Schmidt (Greenfield), and more.

“The characters don’t have to be symbols of a bigger movement. I feel like we are really past that.”

One of the things the show has done so well is transform the notion of an awkward girl moving in with three guys into a study of group neuroses, gender, and the ways in which makeshift families are constructed. Was this always the goal?

That makes it sound really smart. The show was always about this ensemble. The way that I had always pictured it was four or five weirdos living together and trying to figure stuff out. Zooey [Deschanel] is such an amazing presence and such a great ensemble member herself. The show is growing towards everybody having their own stories and people being interested in all of the characters, which I think is great. For our show to work, you need to see it as an ensemble and not just one person’s show.

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "The 13 Best Drama Pilot Scripts of 2012"

With the broadcast networks about to unveil their new lineups, I pick my favorite drama pilot scripts—from psychological thriller Mastermind to period drama Ralph Lamb.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "The 13 Best Drama Pilot Scripts of 2012," in which I offer my takes on the best and brightest offerings at CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, and the CW when it comes to their drama pilot scripts.

At the network upfronts the week of May 14—when broadcasters unveil their fall schedules along with new programming and glad-hand with advertisers amid a series of presentations and parties—broadcasters will reveal the shows that might end up on your TiVo’s Season Pass in the fall.

This year, nearly 90 pilots are battling for slots on the schedules of CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, and the CW, all of which are desperate to replace aging hits and find those few breakout shows. This year’s crop is especially heavy on the supernatural, imported formats (especially from Israel), period dramas (which range from the frontier era and the Gilded Age of Shonda Rhimes’ The Gilded Lilys to the 1980s of Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries), remakes and prequels (Mockingbird Lane! Hannibal! The Carrie Diaries!), Beauty and the Beast (there’s not one but two competitive projects based on the fairy tale), and—oddly enough—a fascination with cults, which turn up in several pilots.

Among the many pilots this development season, what follows are the 13 strongest drama scripts. A few caveats: The list below focuses exclusively on drama pilots, as I believe that casting and chemistry among actors are two of the most important factors to the success of comedies. The selections below represent my own personal taste, which doesn’t always necessarily mesh with that of the broadcasters. Finally, as always, there’s a lot that can change between these scripts and completed pilots, with significant change sometime occurring before a pilot makes it to the screen. That said, here’s hoping that some of these projects—presented in no particular order—will make it on the air!

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

The Daily Beast: "Fall TV Report Card: The Winners and Losers"

With the 2011-12 television season in full swing and the cancellation orders stacking up, Jace Lacob rounds up the season’s winners (Revenge! Homeland!), losers (Man Up! Whitney!), and draws.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest story, "Fall TV Report Card: The Winners and Losers," in which I offer up not a critic's list, or a Best of 2011 TV list, but a business story selecting the winners and losers (as well as draws) for the first half of the 2011-12 television season. (Those selections are in the gallery.)

With the 2011-12 television season well underway, it’s become increasingly clear that this isn’t the best fall the broadcasters have ever had. Back in May, when the networks touted their new offerings to advertisers, it appeared they were trying to take some risks with their programming.

But the opposite is true: most of those shows featured what the networks hoped were built-in audiences for retro brand settings (Pan Am! The Playboy Club!) or remakes of vintage television (Charlie’s Angels, it’s back to pop-culture heaven for you), but viewers largely stayed away from these and many of the new fall shows.

Those claiming that viewers’ attention is elsewhere, such as on the Internet, likely don’t have a response for the oversize audience for things like AMC’s The Walking Dead, now the highest-rated cable show on the air, or the first post–Charlie Sheen episode of CBS’s Two and a Half Men. (The latter could be due to sampling, but the show has remained consistently in the range of 14 million to 16 million viewers since then.) It seems as though people are watching television, but they’re increasingly just not that excited about what’s airing on the broadcasters. (Just look at the declining fortunes of once-invulnerable reality franchise The Biggest Loser.) Which is downright worrisome, as the networks have to replace aging series and churn out new and zeitgeist-grabbing programming on a yearly basis. And sorry, Fox, but that wasn’t The X Factor, despite the nonstop hype.

Continue reading at The Daily Beast...

An Indelible Mark: A Review of Season Four of Fox's Fringe

Try as you might, there are some marks that can never be scrubbed out entirely. There are some people who leave an indelible impression on our souls which remains long after they've gone, an afterimage burned onto our retinas, an echo of a cry for help, a sigh, a plaintive wail, or a whispered declaration of love.

Within the world of Fringe, Peter Bishop no longer exists. We saw him blink out of existence at the end of the third season finale, flickering before our eyes as two universes forgot all about him. Nature, of course, abhors a vacuum, so time and space rush to fill the void left behind when an item is plucked out of the timestream.

What does all of this have to do with Season Four of Fringe? I'm glad you asked. (PLEASE DO NOT REPRODUCE THIS REVIEW IN FULL ON ANY WEBSITES, BLOGS, MESSAGE BOARDS, OR SIMILAR.) The season opener ("Neither Here Nor There") contains a rather ordinary procedural plot, but it also reintroduces us to the two universes, and to changes that have occurred as a result of Peter's non-existence. Some of these changes are slight, and some are rather large. The dead walk again as the living, memories are altered, personalities shifted as a result of Peter not being in the mix since the series began.

Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is colder, more distance, less prone to smiling, and still grieving over the boyfriend she lost in the first Fringe case in the pilot. Walter Bishop (John Noble) is emotionally and psychologically untethered, lacking a connection that can anchor his fractured mind; he's now a virtual recluse, a man scared of his own shadow who can't leave the lab, much less venture out into the world. (Peter did more than take Walter out of St. Clare's; he gave Walter a purpose and acted as a life preserver in more ways than one, allowing Walter to explore the outside world anew.) Astrid (Jasika Nicole) is now in the field alongside Olivia, not forced to serve as Walter's primary caregiver and nursemaid in the lab setting. (Look for a particularly hilarious anatomical reference in the first episode back.)

And then there's Lincoln Lee (Seth Gabel).

Lincoln is still the nerdy FBI agent that we met previously on this side of the universal divide, but he doesn't remember the team nor their previous interaction. When a bizarre Fringe investigation drags him into their world, he acts as the audience's introduction (or, for veterans, reintroduction) to the backstory and thrust of the series. The case itself, as I suggested before, feels a bit been-there-done-that within the immense possibility of the show, connecting to an earlier conceit within the series and taking it into a new direction. (Yes, I'm being deliberately vague here.)

But it's the second episode of the season ("One Night in October") that brilliantly showcases what Fringe is capable of: emotionally resonant stories with sci-fi trappings that are intensely character-driven explorations of the human heart. This is very much the case with the largely Over There-set installment which finds the Fringe Division attempting to entrap a vicious serial killer (John Pyper-Ferguson, in a fantastic and gripping dual role) whose methods for spreading death are rather unique, yet also connect to the wider philosophical issues at play here. Are we the sum of our experiences? Do our choices define us? Can we remember when those memories are cruelly ripped away from us?

Peter Bishop does not exist.

We know this to be true, just as we know that the Observers feel that he has served his purpose and the timeline has been corrected. Yet, there is no Fringe without the younger Bishop, and Peter lingers in the, well, fringes beween here and not-here. But his interaction with the makeshift family that comprises the team had long-lasting ramifications for all of them. If they can't remember him, if he never truly existed, how have their lives changed? And why do all of them feel an emptiness where there shouldn't be one? There's a Peter-sized hole in the world, and no amount of gumdrops or creepy cases will change that, even if Walter and the others can't recall just why they feel quite so sad.

What follows in "One Day in October" is a beautiful exploration of memory, loss, choices, and divergent paths in the woods, one that informs not only the case at hand (an intensely creepy and profoundly unsettling one) but also the characters of Olivia and Walter, and their dark counterparts. Olivia and Fauxlivia have an intriguing moment of exchange that reveals just how much the universe has changed without Peter in it... and all of the actors do a phenomenal job creating new iterations of the characters we've come to know and love thus far.

Watch Torv's body language as Fauxlivia, slouched and loose, the timbre of her voice altered, and then see how rigid and unbending she is as Olivia. Noble does a staggering job (how has this man not been nominated for an Emmy already?) as the even more broken Walter Bishop, bringing a scared petulance to his routine, a terror that his fragile grasp on reality is slipping away further still. (There's also a hell of an homage to a certain 1980s commercial that is quite clever.) Gabel is great as the two versions of Lincoln; one sheltered and naive, the other headstrong and edgy. And it's great to see Nicole's Astrid in the field for a change; for far too long, she's been stuck in the lab. (I am curious to see just what happened to Blair Brown's Nina, but she's not in either episode, sadly.)

The installment also shows the uneasy alliance between Over Here and Over There, and how this dynamic will play out throughout the season. An opportunity for cooperation presents its own dangers. To catch a thief, it often takes a thief, it's said. And to catch a killer, it might require the same. Or at the very least, the killer's dimensional twin, who is a mild-mannered psychology professor. Do they share the same dark impulses? Why did their lives go in such opposite trajectories? And what will their crossing paths do to one another?

All in all, it's a fantastic start to the season for Fringe, in particular that second episode, which utilizes a real alchemy which which to test our characters in unexpected and tantalizing ways. While Peter Bishop may not exist (at least not in the sense that we've come to understand thus far), his presence is felt in intriguing and powerful ways. And so too is this season's first few episodes, which will linger with you well beyond the closing credits.



Season Four of Fringe launches this Friday evening at 9 pm ET/PT on Fox.

The Daily Beast: "The Fall TV Season Begins!"

Time to head back to the couch, America. The fall TV season is here and all of your favorite shows—from The Walking Dead and The Good Wife to Dexter and Boardwalk Empire—and a slew of new ones are soon heading to a TV set near you. Will you find Ringer to be the second coming of Sarah Michelle Gellar… or is it the second coming of Silk Stalkings? Time will tell, but at least your TV favorites are back with brand new seasons, and lots of plot twists.

To refresh your memory after the long summer, over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, entitled "The Fall TV Season Begins!," in which Maria Elena Fernandez and I round up a guide to the good and bad times of last season--or in this case, 23 cliffhangers--and offer a peek into what’s coming next this fall.

The Daily Beast: "Desperate Times for TV Networks"

The fall of 2004 kicked off a television season that brought us some of the biggest hits of the last decade, launching Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, and House. Seven years later, those supernovas are either burning out or dead altogether, victims of audience fatigue or oversight, as their once-huge numbers dwindled year after year.

ABC announced on Sunday that Desperate Housewives will end its run in May—-the demise of the once powerful drama signals a death knell for serialized storytelling at the broadcast networks.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Desperate Times for TV Networks," in which I examine the death of massively popular scripted TV, with the announcement that long-running drama Desperate Housewives is to end.

Have the days of 2004-05 season--and those massive ratings--gone for good? Does Terra Nova have a chance in hell? Head to the comments section to discuss and debate.

The Daily Beast: "TV Preview: Snap Judgments of 2011-2012's New Shows"

Will the 2011-12 television season be a winner or another dud?

Over at The Daily Beast, my fellow Daily Beast staffer Maria Elena Fernandez and I offer our first impressions of more than 30 network pilots--from Awake and Ringer to Alcatraz and Work It--coming to TV next season.

You can check out our he said/she said-style thoughts in my latest feature, entitled "TV Preview: Snap Judgments of 2011-2012's New Shows."

Which fall or midseason show are you most excited about? And which are you most dreading? Head to the comments section to discuss, and see whether you agree with our first impression take on more than 30 broadcast network pilots. Did your potential favorite make the must-see list?

The Daily Beast: "2010-11 TV's Winners and Losers"

The dust has settled on the TV season—American Idol and The Good Wife are in, The Event and $#*! My Dad Says are out.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, entitled "2010-11 TV's Winners and Losers," in which I rate the hits and the flops of the 2010-11 season and take a look at the broadcasters' position going into and coming out of the 2010-11 television season.

Brief caveat: please do remember (because I inevitably will receive something to this effect in the comments section), this isn't a critical evaluation. While certainly some shows I love (cough, The Good Wife, cough) did end up in the winners' column, this is more a look at how individual shows and networks fared in terms of series launches, ratings retention, and (to a smaller extent) critically.

The Daily Beast: "The Death of Will-They-or-Won't-They"

In recent years, it’s been a given that romantic pairs on television had to be subjected to the will-they or-won't-they dilemma—where couples as clearly in love as Ross-and-Rachel, Sam-and-Diane, or Jim-and-Pam were prevented from jumping into bed together for years, as the writers forced them through increasingly tight narrative hoops.

These days, though, it seems like more and more TV couples just will. As writer-producers have sought to surprise the audience, they’re puncturing romantic tropes in the process.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "The Death of Will-They-or-Won't-They," for which I talk to Community’s Dan Harmon, Parks and Recreation’s Mike Schur and Greg Daniels, and Bones’ Hart Hanson about how TV is throwing off that age-old will-they-or-won’t-they paradigm in the post-Jim-and-Pam era.

The Daily Beast: "Upfronts 2011 Full Report"

Television's upfronts week came to a close Thursday with the CW, which will bring Sarah Michelle Gellar back to TV with the thriller Ringer. On Wednesday, CBS presented J.J. Abrams' Person of Interest and five others, showed off new Two and a Half Men star Ashton Kutcher, and moved The Good Wife to Sundays. ABC, meanwhile, unveiled its schedule Tuesday; Fox and NBC did their dance for advertisers on Monday. Watch trailers of the networks' new shows, including ABC's Charlie's Angels reboot, Fox's supernatural drama Alcatraz, and troubled NBC's The Playboy Club.

Over at The Daily Beast, we're keeping track of every renewal and cancellation (and which shows are still in limbo) and well as keeping an eye on the bigger picture issues facing the broadcasters this May.

Plus, we've got the lowdown--in-depth breakdowns as well as information you can't find anywhere else--on the 44 (and counting) new series heading to the networks next season.

Bridge to Nowhere: Quick Thoughts on the Third Season Finale of Fringe

It's no secret that I love Fringe. I've written numerous features and posts celebrating the way in which it blends science fiction with nuanced emotional drama, positioning the fractured characters of the Bishops and Olivia Dunham as a makeshift family studying the mysteries of the universe... and the human heart.

Which might be why I was so monumentally disappointed with the Season Three finale ("The Day We Died"), which aired on Friday evening. After a season that was so tremendously emotional, which delivered a series of staggering performances from John Noble, Anna Torv, and Joshua Jackson in two separate, parallel universes, my expectations were extremely high indeed. But what I found with the future-set finale was that I didn't care about "these" versions of Olivia, Walter, and Peter and that the drama here felt entirely manufactured and without emotional weight, destroying the intense momentum established within the last few episodes.

It was clear from the start that the future timeline of 2016 Fringe was a mere detour on the road to the season finale (I had anticipated the Days of Future Past-style storyline earlier in the week), which erased all sense of narrative stakes from the story unfolding here: End of Dayers, the "death" of Olivia Dunham, the grief of Peter Bishop, all of it would be wiped clean before the final credits rolled.

And it's true: they were. While I didn't anticipate that Peter himself would be erased from the timeline (more on that in a second), the future-set storyline attempted to set up some tantalizing storylines (just what happened to Broyles' eye? Ella is now a Fringe agent! Astrid has a kick-ass new hairstyle), but it paled in comparison to the depth and scope of Over There's characters, which we had a real sense of from the beginning. In the hands of Noble and Co., those performances were incredibly nuanced, using more than wigs or funny-colored contact lenses to give us a sense of the underlying differences between the versions of these now-familiar characters.

In the future, there was a lot of shorthand going on: things that we weren't privy to happened off-screen in between the last episode and the 15 years that have gone by. But whereas the subtle differences within the characters was explored organically Over There, in the future world of Fringe, we're not given much depth, but rather just a hell of a lot of exposition. (Heck, Walter Bishop was more or less the Exposition Fairy throughout this episode.) Olivia and Peter are married; Olivia wants a kid but is unsure (her internal dilemma summed up by a refrigerator drawing of an unknown and unseen child neighbor) of whether or not they should, given the crazy world they live in; Ella has grown up and followed her aunt into the Fringe Division; Walternate somehow crossed over from his world before his universe was wiped out by Peter Bishop; and Walter is in jail, imprisoned for his vast crimes against humanity. (Interestingly, Astrid still doesn't have much of a storyline, even 15 years down the line.)

The Walter bits got under my skin in a major way. We saw in the pilot episode, clearly intended to be referenced here, what the effects were of his incarceration at St. Clare's. But here, there's no real sense of what the difference was between those two imprisonments or how his mental state further deteriorated. Or if it did. If you're going to attempt to come full circle and use that scene in St. Clare's as a callback of sorts, it needs to pay off better than it did here.

(Broyles' bionic eye grated in a way I didn't expect. Surely, if William Bell could create a bionic arm for Nina that looked extremely real, surely way in the future, a bionic eye could match Broyles' natural eye color? As for Nina, she got reduced to being a funeral guest in the future. A major missed opportunity for story there.)

We're shown scenes that are clearly meant to tug at the audience's heartstrings--Peter brings Walter licorice and calls him dad, Walter embraces Olivia as he might a daughter, Olivia is shot to death before our eyes--but these moments don't carry much weight because (A) the Peter/Walter dynamic has already played out far more convincingly within the main narrative where that same moment ("dad") had a lot more impact than it did here and (B) because these characters and situations would likely not exist by the time the final credits rolled... as Fringe would not suddenly jump ahead 15 years within its main narrative. (Sorry, but even for a show as unpredictable as this one, aging up the actors is just not going to happen on a weekly basis.)

I thought it was interesting that the producers would opt for a sort of Days of Future Past storyline here in order to undo Peter's decision at the end of the last episode by sending Peter's consciousness to inhabit his future self and see the error of his ways. But I also think that Joel Wyman and Jeff Pinkner missed a trick here by having Peter's subconscious subsume his "younger" self. Other than a throwaway line of dialogue from Ella about Peter rambling about the machine, it was 2026's Peter Bishop who was running things, rather than vice-versa.

While it meant that Peter didn't have to play catch-up within this new "reality," it also meant that the narrative stakes were eliminated for him as well. No longer on a mission, having conveniently "forgotten" that he had come forward in time, it was the status quo for Peter Bishop, able to remember what he cooked for Olivia for breakfast and containing the sum of his experiences from the last 15 years. He wasn't a fish-out-of-water, he wasn't his younger self traveling to the future; he was just a middle-aged guy that looked like our Peter Bishop who had inexplicably become a government agent and who wore a wedding band.

So much of Season Three has focused on the familial tensions between Peter and Walter and the romantic ones between Peter and Olivia, so it suddenly felt incredibly trite to see them as a married couple for a little bit here, albeit a marriage that comes to an end with Olivia's sudden (and very predictable) death. Given how much I love the character, I was shocked how little I cared about her demise here, as I knew instantly that it wouldn't "stick" and that the producers would not be getting rid of Torv (or of Jackson) any time soon.

The lack of real emotion carried through to Peter's eulogy at Olivia's watery funeral ceremony, where the cameras pulled back from Peter's speech to offer a musical montage set to Michael Giacchino's score. Lost pulled this trick before (we don't need to hear the words to get the sense of the scene and its tone), but that device only works when there is genuine emotion underneath and I didn't feel that for a second here. Rather, it felt lazy, a shorthand way of getting around having to write the eulogy without it seeming hokey or cliche.

The episode got bogged down first in a dull case of the week (End of Dayers, who weren't given any real development, and despite using Brad Dourif as their putative leader, he was an incredibly flat character) and then in a discussion of paradox, explained rather clunkily by Noble's Walter, that ends up bogging down science fiction-based time-travel dramas. The machine wasn't created by the First People but by Walter himself, sent back to prehistoric times by a wormhole that was created by the machine that they assembled. The First People were, in fact, our Fringe team: Walter, Ella, and possibly Astrid, traveling through the wormhole to hide the pieces of the machine so that they could one day assemble it and Peter could one day use it. But while Walter couldn't not build the machine (it had already been built), Peter could change his decision within the machine. He could opt to create, rather than destroy, to save, rather than damn.

And so he does, his subconscious drifting back to his body in 2011, encased within the machine, which he uses to create a bridge between the two universes, bringing Walter and Olivia face-to-face with Walternate and Fauxlivia, two halves of the same people mirroring one another within Liberty Island, two universes folding over each other at this point in time and space.

And then just when Peter declares that both sides will have to work together, to coexist (to live together or die alone, to quote another show) and that he had created in this space a bridge between the two worlds, he blinks out of existence and we're told by the Observers that, having served his purpose, Peter Bishop never existed.

It's this final moment that gives the episode some heft, a brain puzzle of a reveal that changes the status quo of the show because it means that everything has changed as a result of Peter not existing. We've still gotten to this point--to the two Walters and Olivias staring across a room at each other--but the events that lead them here have been different. Walter had to have crossed Over There but not to save his son, because he NEVER had a son, never suffered the loss of a child, never lost his mind or his moral compass because he acted out of love. Was Walter ever in St Clare's? Was his mind ever compromised? Did Olivia ever step outside the armor she'd constructed for herself? Did they skate out of some tough cases because Peter "knew a guy" that could help them? (Nope.) Did she ever love? Did Walter ever lose his wife, his family?

Peter's disappearance from reality not only changes the status quo of the two universes, but it closes the door to the 2026 divergent reality we saw in "The Day We Died." Because Peter never existed, that world never existed because Walter and Walternate never fought over a stolen son; Olivia never married Peter; Olivia never died. There's a sense of course-correction here, of the facts being true but in slightly different ways, of Walter and Olivia's lives changing as a result of the absence of Peter Bishop from them. Which is definitely interesting and thought-provoking. I just wish we could have gotten to that moment without the hokum and water-treading of the majority of this installment.

I'm still a Fringe fan and I'm sticking with the show when it returns in the fall, but it doesn't diminish the head-scratching, disappointing qualities of the season finale... and of my frustration that a show that has so consistently gotten it right lately had gotten it so terribly wrong.

What did you make of the season finale? Did you love it or hate it or did you fall somewhere in between? Agree with my assessment or disagree. Head to the comments section to discuss "The Day We Died."

Season Four of Fringe will begin this fall on FOX.