Wednesday, May 18, 2011

More on the new CBS shows

So CBS has posted some videos about their new shows so I gave them a look see. These are all 'behind the scenes, we are awesome' type videos but there are a few clues buried in the ego fests. Enough at least to get an idea of the idea behind each show.





2 Broke Girls
The story centers around two young women in the big city. Max and Caroline are roommies and work as waitresses. And they are both flat broke, living pay check to pay check. Plus to give it a real Odd Couple feel Max is a street smart wise cracker and Caroline is a richie rich never had to lift a finger girl whose trust fund disappeared.

In other words, very paint by number, complete with the canned laugh track. And anyone that knows me knows that I really don't care for the laugh track. That said, this one will likely last at least the full season if not beyond simply on the pure entertainment with some fun quips factor.

Unforgettable
There is a very rare mental condition in which folks remember everything. And I mean everything. That they do, they see, they hear, they read. Even things they don't want to remember. Perfect autobiographical memory. Only, says the trailer,  6 people in all the United States have this condition. One such person is Carrie Wells (played by former Without a Trace star Poppy Montgomery). Oh and she's a cop or at least was. Of course she is. This is CBS where 9 out of 10 shows are some variation on  law enforcement. You could call it the Crime Broadcast Station. They love their crime fighting. Whether this show bats one out of the park like Criminal Minds, CSI and NCIS will depend on the characters and character relationships which were not  really hinted at in the video so we shall see.

A Gifted Man
Take one extremely smart, extremely successful doctor who couldn't keep his marriage together thanks to busy schedules etc. Have him bump into his ex and feel like maybe he wants to try it again. So he calls her. But she has died. Two weeks before their meeting. Making said doctor think he dreamt it. And then think, when she keeps showing up, that he's gone over the edge and he's nuts. But he's nope. She's a ghost with unfinished business that needs his help.

It's sweet, it's copied from several movies and frankly I think doomed from the start. This is one of those stories that can't possibly last more than one season and personally I don't think they should try. If they are smart this is meant to be a one season show and nothing more. A long mini series. But I fear that is not the case.  And I'm not sure that the tale will hold interest long enough to last more than 3-4 episodes.

Person of Interest
A lost soul, a mystery man with a lot of knowledge about something, odd numbers. Yep this is a JJ Abrams show. If you need any more clues it has Michael Emerson (Ben Linus) in it as the mystery suit. He acts as a kind of handler for Reese, an ex operative of some kind that apparently walked away from his original job. Finch wants Reese to help him figure out and stop some bad something that all his list of people are all connected to. How he got the list is not mentioned and knowing JJ and his shows it probably won't ever be. But that's kind of the fun. It's easy to imagine that Finch is just Ben Linus having left the island after Hurley passed it on to not so little Walt, continuing the cause of sorting out the Equation. Or some similar game. If this has anything like Lost's sense of character and theme it could go for a season or two or perhaps even more easily. Although a part of me hopes not more than a couple of seasons cause I really want to see that dramedy idea that Terry had about he and Michael as retired assassins trying to stay sane in suburbia.

How To Be a Gentleman
Andrew is a manners obsessed geek who even writes the daily news manners column. He comes off like a total priss. Bert is a douchebag man's man type. Andrew tries to make Bert a gentleman while Bert is trying to turn the priss into 'a man'. Wackiness happens. With an annoying laugh track. Kill me now. Please

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