Thursday, September 30, 2010

New Fall TV, Part 3

Lone Star: About a week after this Fox series debuted (and bombed), I fired up a DVRtini and watched the first 10 minutes or so of the pilot before I decided, eh, life is too short. It needed to grab me a lot more considering it was all but D.O.A. A few days later, it was all INCLUDING D.O.A. Maybe this would have been a better fit on FX or something.

Blue Bloods: This is kind of like "The Defenders," only not as ludicrous. It's entertaining, nonessential, and one I might watch given the right circumstances and wouldn't walk out on if someone else had it on. And it just feels like a CBS show.

The cast is strong, and the effort to raise issues is admirable. However, the emphasis on the family part of this family of cops (and a D.A.) will probably mean major compression of the procedural part of the show, and the cases might be weak as a result.

Also, the pilot illustrated the difference between a truly ambitious show and a fairly ordinary one. "Blue Bloods" offered convenient resolutions for its characters; while there are clearly ongoing problems for this family, the main story was wrapped up rather tidily. I don't expect every show to be a dark, complex meditation on life's failures and inherent ambiguity, but I'm just saying.

Another problem I had with the debut episode: A few illogical plot points that distracted me, including one that looks to loom over the whole season (or at least a good stretch) because it is at the heart of a big conspiracy/mystery storyline. But I don't want to sound too negative. "Blue Bloods" isn't a must watch, but it's a decent enough cop show, and I have to say I just like the networks making an effort to put scripted programming on Friday nights.

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