Talk Back: ABC's "The Deep End"

The ratings are in and ABC's new legal drama The Deep End tanked in the ratings.

But, given the lackluster results, I am curious to know which of you out there watched the first episode of The Deep End. Just what did you thought of the series? (You can read my review of the original pilot episode, written last summer, here.)

Did you find it engaging? Self-indulgent? Ridiculous? Did the presence of Matt Long, Mehcad Brooks, or Tina Majorino make up for one-dimensional characters and an effort to capitalize on the soapiness of Grey's?

And is there any way you would ever tune in again?

Talk back here.

Channel Surfing: Idina Menzel to Tackle "Glee", Zach Levi Talks "Chuck," ABC Scores Date with "Conveyor Belt of Love," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Former Wicked star Idina Menzel is in advanced talks to join the cast of FOX's Glee in a recurring role when the series returns in March with its back nine episodes. Menzel, who will play the coach for the glee club's main rivals, Vocal Adrenaline, could potentially appear in all nine remaining installments this season. [Editor: personally, given the strong resemblance between Menzel and Lea Michele, I figured producers would get her to play Rachel's biological mother. Unless...] Menzel will also be joined by Spring Awakening's Jonathan Groff who, as previously reported, joins Glee in a multiple-episode story arc and is slated to appear in five or six episodes this spring. (Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Meanwhile, E! Online's Megan Masters has some details about what we should expect from Glee's back nine episodes. "I don't know if Glee starts back after a school break, but it's basketball now," Corey Monteith tells Masters. "Finn Hudson is the captain of the basketball team." And look for more music, according to Kevin McHale. "There are more songs per episode than the first 13, so it's more work, but it's fun. It's all different genres, the most eclectic so far.... There are classic songs that I never thought we'd be able to do by big, famous bands—oldie, classics, very well-known bands that we're going to Gleeify." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams gets ten fantastic questions with Chuck star Zachary Levi about Season Three of the NBC action-comedy, which (finally!) returns to the schedule on January 10th. "We found out late about the six episode pickup, so the writers had already molded and created the 13-episode arc," said Levi when asked about the late-in-the-game six-episode additional order. "We couldn't try to fit six episodes into that without screwing everything up, so now it's six episodes that stand on their own in a lot of ways. They'll still be coming off of and informed by these 13 episodes, but it won't be a part of the bigger arc. I know that it will be its own mini arc... This season we've gotten to do some international travel with the show, taking it out of the domestic United States of America; that's been fun. I think maybe we'll try and do more of that. I know that everyone will continue to progress with the characters and the relationships." (TVGuide.com)

ABC has ordered reality dating series Conveyor Belt of Love, in which 30 single men are given a minute in front of 5 women and then rolled long on a conveyor belt, and will debut the format as a special on January 4th, following the season premiere of The Bachelor (full title: The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love). Series, from Endemol and executive producers Tom Shelly and Alex Duda, might represent a new low in the already sensationalized dating genre. (Hollywood Reporter)

Hugh Laurie will direct an upcoming episode of FOX's House, which will air this spring. "I am thrilled, daunted and honoured – with a ‘u’ – by this new responsibility," said Laurie in a statement. "House scripts are Fabergé eggs, and I will try my very hardest not to drop this one on a stone floor." According to executive producer Katie Jacobs, the episode Laurie is directing is "very intense and truly a director’s piece." (via press release)

ABC has given the 8 pm Thursdays timeslot (formerly home to FlashForward) to 20th Century Fox Television's six-episode legal dramedy The Deep End. It's expected to premiere in January, with some speculating that the series will debut on January 14th (that night will feature a crossover between Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice), while others contend that it will launch the following week, on January 21st. ABC has yet to indicate scheduling for its other midseason drama entry, Happy Town. (The Wrap's TVMoJoe, Variety)

Pilot casting alert! Alfre Woodard (Three Rivers) has been cast opposite Jason Lee in TNT drama pilot Delta Blues, where she will play a "formidable new lieutenant who tries to exercise her power over Dwight (Lee)" in the George Clooney and Grant Heslov-executive produced pilot. (Hollywood Reporter)

Additionally, Kate Micucci (Scrubs) has been cast in Greg Garcia's FOX comedy pilot Keep Hope Alive, where she will play a character described as "an unkempt, fairly oblivious cousin of Jimmy (Lucas Neff) living in a tent in the laundry room of their great-grandmother's house." The role was originally written for a male actor and named Mike. Project, from 20th Century Fox Television, is about a single dad who must raise his infant daughter with the help of his family after the baby's mother, with whom he had a one-night stand, winds up on death row. (Hollywood Reporter)

FX has ordered a second season of The League, with thirteen episodes set to air beginning in late summer 2010. (Televisionary)

ABC has given a pilot presentation order to The Six, a US adaptation of long-running Russian game show What? Where? When? from Merv Griffin Entertainment. (Hollywood Reporter)

FOX has given a script order for an untitled multicamera workplace comedy spec script from writer/executive producer Matt Goldman (Seinfeld). Project, from Sony Pictures Television and Tannenbaum Company, follows a man "who tries to make a comeback, both personally and professionally, while working at a dysfunctional company for a woman he dumped five years ago." (Hollywood Reporter)

Oprah Winfrey's nascent cable channel OWN has signed a deal with independent documentary distributor Roco Productions for a monthly documentary showcase on the cabler and possible theatrical releases. (Variety)

ITV executive Natalka Znak, who co-created and executive produced such UK reality hits as Hell's Kitchen and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! has been hired by RDF USA as executive vice president. She will assume her new role beginning in April. (Hollywood Reporter)

Discovery Channel SVP Gena McCarthy has left the network. While no reason was given as to why McCarthy stepped down from her position, reports indicate that it might be related to structural reorganization at the cabler. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: NBC Detects US "Prime Suspect," Kristin Kreuk Flies to "Chuck," Katherine Heigl Takes Break from "Grey's," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

NBC is developing a US version of British crime drama series Prime Suspect, which starred Helen Mirren as the dogged and damaged Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison. The US version, which will be developed and written by Without a Trace's Hank Steinberg, will be shot as a two-hour presentation and is the first effort of a multi-year deal between NBC and ITV Studios, the production arm of British terrestrial network ITV. "We want to carefully choose a couple of iconic titles this year to reinvent, and our intention is to create another classic television show from this brilliant original format," said NBC Primetime Entertainment president Angela Bromstad. "Hank Steinberg was key in helping us secure this project, and we are incredibly excited about this modern vision for the show." (Variety)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that former Smallville star Kristin Kreuk has been cast in a recurring role on NBC's Chuck, where she will appear in multiple episodes as Hannah, a new potential love interest for Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) whom he meets on a plane to Paris and who ends up working at the Buy More after she's laid off from her job in publishing. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

SPOILER ALERT! Katherine Heigl is taking a five-episode leave of absence from ABC drama series Grey's Anatomy in order to shoot a new feature film role opposite Josh Duhamel in Life as We Know It. E! Online's Watch with Kristin, meanwhile, was able to learn just how producers would write Izzie Stevens out of the show to explain Heigl's absence. According to information gleaned from unnamed insiders, Jennifer Godwin is reporting that the major plotline this season on Grey's is the merger between Seattle Grace and rival hospital Mercy West. "Yep, Seattle Grace is about to double in size, bringing in a slate of new doctors and paving the way for major shake-ups in the season to come," writes Godwin. "What does this mega medical merger mean for our favorites? Well, Dr. Izzie Stevens is getting fired." The introduction of several new characters--played by Robert Baker, Jesse Williams, and Nora Zehetner, will allow Heigl to take a break from the series and will also act as a smokescreen for Ellen Pompeo's maternity leave. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin, Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FOX has ordered thirteen episodes of procedural cop dramedy Jack & Dan from writer/executive producer Matt Nix (Burn Notice) and Fox Television Studios using the the low-cost production model the studio has established with Mental and Persons Unknown. However, this time round the studio has teamed with a US broadcaster first before taking the project internationally. Project, written by Nix and executive produced by Nix and Mikkel Bondesen, is about a procedure-minded cop who is teamed with "a drunken, lecherous, wild-card cop who hangs onto his job only because of a heroic act years before." Burn Notice fans, however, shouldn't be worried about Nix leaving the USA series: Burn will continue to be his priority and production on the series will be staggered in order to accommodate his schedule. (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere at FOX, the network is also developing an untitled ensemble medical drama in Kuwait with Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah (Freaks and Geeks, 90210) and 20th Century Fox Television, a drama entitled Daylight Robbery about a group of women on a crime spree from writer/executive producer Karen Usher (Prison Break) and 20th Century Fox Television, and an untitled actioner from writer/executive producer Michael Duggan (Millennium) and Sony Pictures Television about a government agent and his older handler. (The Wrap's TV MoJoe)

HBO has given a pilot order to single-camera comedy Enlightened, starring Laura Dern as a "self-destructive woman who has a spiritual awakening and becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating havoc at home and work." The pilot, written by Mike White, will shoot in December. (Hollywood Reporter)

Mehcad Brooks (True Blood) has been cast as a series regular on ABC's midseason legal dramedy series The Deep End, where he will play Malcolm Bennet, an associate at the high-powered Los Angeles legal firm which the series revolves around. (Hollywood Reporter)

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan has a fantastic interview with Diablo Cody and Jill Soloway about Season Two of Showtime comedy The United States of Tara, set to return early next year. Soloway has assumed the mantle of showrunner following the departure of Alexa Junge as head writer. "The show was getting a little bit too dark in terms of delving into her past and what happened” to Tara to cause her dissociative identity disorder, said Showtime president Robert Greenblatt. "While we ultimately want to unpeel the onion and reveal what she went through, we had to rethink how we were doing that. It’s a comedy at the end of the day. It’s not a one-hour, serious drama about this affliction." So what can fans expect? For one, Cody said that they intend to "open up the series and take it out of the house a little bit and show all these different facets of Tara’s life and her alters’ lives." (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

CBS has ordered a script for an untitled multi-camera comedy project co-created by and starring Bret Harrison (Reaper) about two district attorneys, one of whom is in his twenties (to be played by Harrison) and the other in his forties, and the woman who comes between them. Project, which will be written by Robert Borden, will be produced by Universal Media Studios, Stuber Prods., and executive producer Scott Stuber. (Hollywood Reporter)

MTV has ordered eight episodes of Teen Mom, a spinoff of the cabler's 16 and Pregnant that will catch up with four of the teenagers featured on 16 and Pregnant and see how they are coping with their first year of motherhood. No premiere date has been set. (Variety)

Rick Fox (Dirt) has been cast in a recurring role on the CW's Melrose Place, where he will play the owner of the restaurant where many of the aspiring actor characters work. (Hollywood Reporter)

Hallmark has promoted Susanne Smith to SVP of marketing for both the Hallmark Channel and the Hallmark Movie Channel. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Pilot Inspektor: An Advance Review of ABC's "The Deep End"

Every once in a while, a pilot comes along that has such a stellar cast that it's heartbreakingly depressing when the pilot itself isn't quite up to snuff.

This development season that pilot would be ABC's The Deep End (formerly known as The Associates... and before that Untitled Dave Hemingson Legal Dramedy), which has gathered together some fantastically diverse talent as Matt Long (Jack & Bobby), Tina Majorino (Big Love), Ben Lawson (Neighbours), Norbert Leo Butz (Dan in Real Life), Leah Pipes (Life is Wild), Billy Zane (Samantha Who?), Sherri Saum (In Treatment), Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight, Swingtown), and Clancy Brown (Carnivale).

The Deep End, from writer/executive producer Dave Hemingson (Kitchen Confidential), follows the personal and professional goings on of a group of ambitious young law associates and their demanding bosses at a cutthroat Los Angeles law firm. The series, from 20th Century Fox Television, was originally developed as a dramedy and previously shot a pilot last development season before jettisoning most of its cast and reformatting as a straight drama, albeit with some soapy Grey's Anatomy-style antics. (I could make some coy joke about lawyers jumping into each others legal briefs here, but I just won't do it.)

We're introduced to the four new associates at Sterling Law, one of Los Angeles' most prestigious law firms: there's Dylan Hewitt (Long), a do-gooder from a blue collar background who turns up ten days late (more on that in a bit), ambitious Midwesterner Addy Fisher (Majorino), womanizing Aussie Liam Priory (Lawson), and rich girl Beth Bancroft (Pipes). All are thrown into the deep end at Sterling. (Hell, one of them is literally thrown into the deep end of a swimming pool at one point, just to hit you over the head with the metaphor.)

They've all been recruited by the quixotic (and hilariously savage) Rowdy Kaiser (Butz), a man just as likely to help you out of a jam as he is to skin you alive, and they find themselves quickly trying to keep up with the demands and foibles of the firm's partners: the ruthless and Machiavellian Cliff Huddle (Zane) who is referred to not-so-lovingly around the office as "the Prince of Darkness," his icy wife Susan Oppenheim (Saum), and the uber-intimidating founding partner Hart Sterling (Brown).

There are a slew of cases for each of the new associates to tackle and, naturally, complications ensue at every turn. After attending a client's bris with Susan, Liam is mistakenly believed to be Jewish by a would-be Israeli client (Big Love's Noa Tisby) until she discovers that he may have misled her a little when things turn physical. Politics could derail Dylan's pro-bono custody case when Cliff takes an interest in the case and sides with the opposing party, a wealthy woman who carried her grandchild in her womb. (Don't ask, really.)

Elsewhere, Addy finds herself arrested when she is pulled in multiple directions by several of the partners and struggles to file a brief at the courthouse in time, while Beth, working on a transfer of power at a major corporation, realizes that the outbound CEO isn't in full control of his faculties, believing her to be his long-dead daughter.

But that's nothing compared to the Grey's Anatomy-style bed-hopping. Dylan swiftly falls for winsome paralegal Katie (Lefevre), herself torn between Dylan's good guy qualities and her ongoing affair with the very married Cliff. Liam hooks up with the Israeli client and beds one of the firm's secretaries. And it turns out there's a sexual history between Liam and Beth that continues to flare up every time there's stress.

All of which could lead to a frothy nighttime soap but there's a decided lack of sense of humor here. Everything is played so straight, without any real fun that it's hard to root for the characters or care about their off-hours pursuits.

In fact, the only actor that seems to be having any real fun with The Deep End at all is Norbert Leo Butz, who imbues Rowdy with a dangerous, mercurial edge. This unpredictable side to his character makes Rowdy a hell of a lot of fun but he seems trapped in another series altogether, one that's more in line with creator Dave Hemingson's original vision for the series, which had a decidedly more humorous bend.

The rest of the actors seem to sadly be sleepwalking through their roles a little bit and none of the characters are all that three-dimensional. If we're going to be spending any extended time with these associates and partners, they had better be quirky and memorable, but instead they come off as slightly stale cliches we've seen on numerous other legal series.

Given that ABC won't be launching The Deep End until midseason, I hope they can take the time to fine-tune the tone of the series and inject more humor and fun to this. It could be a legal dramedy akin to the early years of FOX's Ally McBeal and boasts one of the finest ensemble casts this development season. But as it stands now, I didn't think The Deep End was all too deep, really.



The Deep End launches next year on ABC.