Several of new fall series launched last night, including dramas Bionic Woman, Dirty Sexy Money, and Private Practice.Now that you've seen the pilot episodes of all three series, what were your reactions to these new series?
I'll admit that Dirty Sexy Money's pilot was a full head and shoulders above the original network cut I saw in early May and lived up to the promise of the original script. As for my full feelings about the campy series, you'll have to wait until next week when I discuss the pilot episode and the series' third installment. But one note to producers: no more transsexual hooker storylines; it's been done to death already.
As for Private Practice, I'm not a Grey's Anatomy fan, so this isn't normally my cup of medicine-laced tea. That said, I thought that Kate Walsh was as adorable as ever and Tim Daly very charismatic; still, I'm hoping that Addison and Taye Diggs' Sam Bennett hook up (not that I'll be watching). As for replacing Merrin Dungey with Audra McDonald? To be honest, I preferred Merrin. As for the series itself, Private Practice seemed less doom-and-gloom than Grey's but I was hoping for a better mix of dramedy and romance: the medical cases were downright depressing and, please for the love of all things holy, do not ever show me Paul Adelstein naked and tied to a bed. Ever. Again.
And how did my original advance review of Bionic Woman's pilot (found here) live up to the hype? Did you agree with my assessment that NBC downplayed Michelle Ryan's looks a little too much?
Which series has joined your TiVo Season Pass list and which, well, has fallen right off of it?
Discuss in brutal and/or glowing terms right here.
Comments
As for Private Practice I thought it was much better than most of the reviews have been saying, but my min problem was with Addison. I agree with several reviewers who have said that Addison didn't seem like herself and had turned into some kind of Ally McBeal nuarotic and it was kind of disappointing.
Although I must admit, for some reason my DVR simply stopped recording for no reason and I mised the last 15 minutes of the show. I assume that the pregnant girl lived, that the crazy girl counting tiles was helped, and who knows what happened to the sperm donor. So It could have gotten better or worse in those 25 minutes. I guess I'll never know
Bionic Woman I'll be cathing Friday, and look forward to seeing the newly cast sister and the finished effects, since the version I'd seen had not only had a different (And deaf) sister, but very incomplete effects.
I was too lazy to the turn off the TV, so I watched DSM. Wow...I loved it's light-hearted camp appeal. It wasn't exactly Dallas campy, but they didn't take themselves too seriously. Peter Krause really tore up the screen and Donald Sutherland was awesome in that sleazy role.
Yeah...I am tired of the tranny plot point too. It was funny years ago. Not now.
Didn't watch Bionic Woman and I don't want to.
I think the first lines between Jamie and her boyfriend were "why are you with me?" It just came out of left field. Yes, we all remember the old Jamie Summers but we (the audience) need some time to get to know you before you start asking questions like that.
Some subtle tweaks were made to the dialogue, a few words dropped, a few words changed, but still the dialogue overall was annoyingly third-rate for a show that a major network is hanging their hopes on. How the hell did that chatter between Sarah and the European bad-ass about the Disney rides make it to the final cut? And, do I want to see an impression of an extremophile???? NO. Can you picture that kind of nonsense on "Alias"?
Jaime's boyfriend should have been re-cast while they were out looking for a new sister. I was kinda hoping Sarah would fire one of those bullets right through his heart instead of his shoulder.
I found many of the people who posted their views on the NBC Board were completely shocked by the fact that this was a serioused-up version of BW. It's as if they have been living in a media-blackout for the last 6 months. Many thought there was too much sex, when in fact there was no more than 60 seconds of onscreen kissing.
Bottom line, I thought the finished product looked more like a real TV show than the pre-air pilot, and for all the nit-picking problems I could go on about, I still have faith that the powers that be recognize the shortcomings of the pilot and intend to rectify them before long. I continue to hope that, now that the table has been set, albeit awkwardly, we can look forward to an intelligent, intriguing kick-ass girlie-heroine show. That being said, "Alias" will always be the benchmark to live up to and BW will have to play some serious catch-up before Sydney Bristow has to start looking over her shoulder.
All we can do is wait and see...and HOPE.
And as much as I love Battlestar Galactica and it's stars I found having so many of them in one episode incredibly distracting. I'm not even sure what the point of having Aaron Douglas present was.
Dirty Sexy Money was quite the find. I was curious about it since it had such a great cast, but I hadn't heard much positive buzz. Not only were the performances excellent across the board, I was impressed with how the show balanced the comedy with the drama. I could live without the potential murder mystery, it seems unnecessary with all the other family drama, but it's a small quibble. My favorite character was Brian the Angry Reverend.