And thus we come to the end of this week-long look at the how new shows are fairing. Sunday gives us two shows that resemble two others shows that also premiered this Fall TV season. As always seems to be the way in Hollywood, trendy properties travel in pairs.
“The Playboy Club” disappeared a while ago, but for some inexplicable reason ABC’s “Pan Am” continues to fly.
For a while I was on board, as it wasn’t quite as deadly dull as “Playboy,” and certainly didn’t take itself as seriously. But last week they gave us an episode in which the crew rescues a Haitian woman after having to make an emergency landing in the coup-ridden country. If that wasn’t enough, they also had to leave a dead body AND everyone’s luggage on the Haitian tarmac in order to take off from the hurricane damaged runway.
In other words, the show has gone from fun and ridiculous to just plain ridiculous.
They’re stuck with a collection of characters that are not inherently interesting, who instead have to be placed into interesting situations, but there are only so many “interesting” situations a stewardess can be placed in before it becomes farcical. I really don’t see it lasting more than one season, at most.
ABC’s “Once Upon a Time,” like Friday’s “Grimm,” has a starting-off point based in fairytales, but it’s bit more confusing than “Grimm”‘s simple cops vs. fairytale villains set-up. Similar to the comic book series “Fables,” “Once” places fairytale characters in modern-day America, only in this case the people don’t really understand that they are living a cursed existence, and were, indeed, once fairytale characters. That is, all of them but one little boy, who is Snow White’s grandson, and also may be the father of the Wicked Queen, who is also the mayor of the Maine town all the characters live in.
Needless to say, it’s all a little confusing, and I can’t really get a grasp on what the show is aiming for. But I’m intrigued enough to stick around and see. For a while, at least.
Finally we have Fox’s latest animated series, “Allen Gregory,” which stars Jonah Hill as the dandy and egotistical son of a gay couple, one of whom is basically the animated version of Jim Rash’s Dean Pelton character on “Community.” (I’m still completely surprised Rash doesn’t actually voice the character–French Stewart does–and I think he should sue….for character copyright…or something.)
While the art and animation are actually kind of nice, the show itself is not terribly funny, and the only thing I’ve come away with after watching it is a realization that skinny or fat doesn’t matter when it comes to Jonah Hill. He’s completely grating even when you can’t see him at all.
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