Joe Carroll, a former University professor who killed a bunch of female college students, escapes from jail.  Ryan Hardy, the man who caught him, is brought in after leaving the FBI to team with a Mason, a tough female FBI Agent, to recapture Carroll.  It turns out Carroll had help on the outside from a network of wanna be serial killers.

In an interview with Collider, Kevin Williamson had this to say about his upcoming serial killer show on Fox:

You’ll be routing for the FBI agent who is going to bring him down. It’s very emotional. It’s this huge, big, hybrid show like The Vampire Diaries, where it relies on the twists and turns, and the tears, where you just get so invested in the characters and you’re like, “No, not that one,” and then they die. It’s one of those shows.

The Vampire Diaries is probably my favourite show on TV right now, so a comparison by Williamson to that show piqued my interest.  After reading the pilot script by Williamson I see hints of his description, but I don’t know how it will develop into a “huge, big, hybrid show”.  To me it comes across as a standard kinda dark procedural.  I did experience a “no, not that one” reaction whilst reading the script, and I think if it can generate that reaction in me without any of the sensory factors which go along with actually watching a TV show, I think this reaction may be a common occurrence should the show end up running for a while.

I thought the flashbacks to when Ryan was tracking and caught Joe were done well, as well as the ones featuring other character like the student who survived, and Carroll’s wife, and they helped to introduce some of the characters who I assume will be major players going forward.

Whilst reading the script I couldn’t help but picture Carroll as being played by Jere Burns (Duffy from Justified).  He’s not written in any particularly definitive way, but it was the first actor that came to mind and I couldn’t shake it.  Likewise, I couldn’t help but imagine Robin Tunney playing Mason, in no small part because I don’t like Robin Tunney and I didn’t like Mason.

My initial impression whilst reading was that it will probably need to be toned down a bit.  First of all the language, ‘cos I’m fairly certain Fox doesn’t want a bunch of f-bombs being dropped each episode.  Plus it’s a little bit too gruesome in its depiction of violence against women.  I like violence in movies but I don’t like my TV shows to be too gratuitous.

I can say right now that I’m not going to enjoy the initial feeling that every new character introduced could be a potential serial killer.  That shit will get old real fast.

I’m also not too sure about the potential longevity of a show based in essence on tracking serial killers controlled and motivated by someone behind bars, especially if the authorities do what they should and place Joe in solitary to avoid him influencing people on the outside.  It seems rather limited and a bit freak-of-the-week to me.  Still, it’s just a pilot, and shows typically develop and evolve as time moves on.  The thing I always come back to is Seinfeld, which I thought was pretty damn ordinary for the first season and a half, and then developed into arguably the best TV show of all time.

I think that casting, and a commitment for the show to be something more than an ordinary procedural, will ensure that it develops an audience.  This in turn should keep the notoriously cancellation happy Fox from axing the show prematurely.  If both of those factors aren’t covered then I can see myself losing interest like I did with Prison Break and Fringe.

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My thoughts on UNTITLED KEVIN WILLIAMSON PROJECT serial killer script HollywoodHubbub

Here are two clips for two interesting shows that ABC recently picked up for their fall schedule.  I haven’t read the script for Happy Town yet, but I’m hoping to get that done in the next couple of days and put a review up here.

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Clips for HAPPY TOWN and THE FORGOTTEN HollywoodHubbub

The original British cast

Written by: Drew Pearce & Jeff Greenstein
Plot/Info: Superheroes are real.  They interact in society just like regular people.  The show follows four friends who are B-list “capes” and frequent the only superhero bar in New York called “The Watchtower.”  The show is an adaptation of a British show which aired last year on ITV2.

I’m a pretty big fan of the original British version of the show, with its dry humour and great premise, so I was quite excited to hear that the show was being adapted for the US.  In my mind it was gonna be another great adaptation like The Office, but despite having the original creator Drew Pearce involved it unfortunately all seems to fall a bit flat.  The great thing about the original version is that the whole point of the show is to illustrate that being a superhero isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and that there are still class divisions within that segment of society.  The tone of the original show seemed to fit this much better than this script has done.

There have been changes to the characters in the adaptation, although I can’t figure out why they felt the need to do that other than to try and make the show more of their own.  In the original version there was Alex who controlled heat, Sarah who controlled machines with her voice, Don who could see 60 seconds into the future, Jenny who had super-strength, and Devlin who was the alpha-male #1 superhero.  The US version changes the majority of these, there’s now Pete who controls the cold, Callie who can be invisible for a limited time, Nigel who can read minds if he’s within 3 metres, Sandy who has super-strength, and Bradley who’s the alpha-male.  In addition, the bouncer/doorman at the bar has been changed from Thundermonkey (who can calls his monkeys to do his bidding) to Horseforce (who does the same but with stallions).

One of the first things that struck me when I read the script was a glaring mistake.  The title of the show comes from a sign on the outside of the bar which reads “”NO MASKS, NO POWERS, NO HEROICS” yet there’s this action almost directly under this:

[scrippet]

INT. THE WATCHTOWER – MAIN ROOM – CONTINUOUS
They enter a bustling speakeasy. We catch glimpses of superpowers — a glowing finger, someone levitating.

[/scrippet]

It seems pretty important to me that this integral element of the show should be maintained and not disregarded almost immediately.  Maybe it’s just an oversight, but it’s a pretty damn big one wouldn’t you say.

The only saving grace of the script is the fact that Don/Nigel is still gay, and is British to boot, in the US version.  I’m assuming they did this in order to appeal to a wider audience and to play off his accent and demeanour in combination with his sexual orientation, but the result is still not that great and the character, whilst essentially the same as the original version of the show, is not as well written.  Overall he seems to lack the biting edge that he has in the British version.  The other main downfall of the script is that it’s just not funny.  In fact, this was the only section which I thought was any good:

[scrippet]

EXT. SUBURBAN BACKYARD – LATER
A fairy-lit kids’ party with a makeshift stage. Pete, now in full costume, is backstage with the birthday girl’s dad. Pete peeks out at the crowd of expectant, sugar-high kids.

PETE
Are any of them biters? Because I’ve had trouble with biters before.

DAD
Not that I know of, Chillaxe.

PETE
Chillout. I mean, it’s fine if there are. But maybe we could have a little muzzle standing by? A little makeshift muzzle, just in case?

DAD
Where’s the invisible girl you promised?

PETE
What can I say? She disappeared!

Pete laughs uproariously at his joke. The dad does not.

PETE (CONT’D)
Yeah, she’s not coming.

DAD
So what am I getting for my money? You gonna do some flying?

PETE
Well, no, flying’s not really on the menu. But you can expect a cavalcade of frozen fun and sub-zero sensation!

DAD
You make crap out of ice?

PETE
I make crap out of ice.

DAD
Listen, don’t mess up my baby girl’s big day, okay? She’s got it hard enough, being in a wheelchair.

PETE
Really? Oh, man, that’s terrible.
(beat)
My three best disabled jokes just went right out the window.

[/scrippet]

Ultimately I think it was a good decision that ABC declined to pick up the show as this will leave all of us who are/were interested in the premise to seek out the superior British version when it becomes available on DVD.

Final Grade:  C- (I could have rated it lower, but I still like the whole premise of the show)

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Amy Acker

Nikki Finke is reporting that Fox has officially renewed Dollhouse for a second season, which confirms the report by The Hollywood Reporter that Fox “was leaning” towards renewing the show.

In other news, ABC has picked up the pilot Happy Town.  The show is a small-town murder mystery from Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg.  The cast includes Geoff Stults, Lauren German, Dean Winters, Amy Acker, Sam Neill, John Patrick Amedori, Sarah Gadon, Jay Paulson and Robert Wisdom.

I’m not sure what this does for Amy Acker’s inclusion in the second season of Dollhouse, and even though I’m hopeful she will be able to appear in both, chances are she will be written out of Dollhouse as a way for Fox to trim the budget of the show.

[via THR.com]

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DOLLHOUSE officially renewed, plus another pickup HollywoodHubbub

Tyler Labine

First off I have to say that I really enjoy watching Tyler Labine, even though some may say he always plays the same character, I find him funny nonetheless.  He really was the only redeeming thing about both Invasion and Reaper.  Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I really liked the pilot script for Sons of Tucson.  I have my doubts about the ability of it to succeed on Fox considering the way they treat anything which isn’t named American Idol or The Simpsons, but I think that the style of humour, and the cast which they have got for the show are all quite promising.

The pilot introduces us to Ron (Tyler Labine) who works at a sporting goods store and once again has that kind of chatty cool personality.  In walks three brothers, Gary (14, the boss), Brandon (16, kinda dumb but caring), and Robby (8, ADHD pain in the ass), who proceed to enlist Ron to be their fake dad in order to enrol at the local school for the price of $200.

He does his job and returns home only to have his girlfriend dump him, be served with an eviction notice, and get fired the next day for selling a crossbow to a 12 year-old.  Ron’s once again called upon to help the boys out when Robby faces disciplinary problems over a fire he caused at the Back to School Fair.  After all this, Ron takes the boys to their home, and with their reluctant help he cons an old lady out of some civil war figurines.  The pilot ends with them all realising they work well together, so they enter into a deal whereby Ron will provide his services for a set fee and boarding in the tool shed.

If someone had told me the premise of this show, I don’t know if I would have been that interested in watching it, but the inclusion of Tyler Labine and Jake Busey (as Tony, who doesn’t appear in the pilot script) definitely makes this something I’m gonna watch when it airs.  There are some occasional laughs in the pilot, but for the most part it’s fairly standard sitcom stuff.  I can see myself getting real annoyed with Robby pretty quickly if he’s just played as a hyper kid who does as he pleases, but my hope is the character will be developed a bit so as to avoid this.  Ultimately, I think the success of the show will come down to whether or not you like Tyler Labine’s whole schtick, or whether you find him grating.  Reading the script I could visualise him speaking the words very easily and this just led to me enjoying it more.  Plus, as an added bonus it would appear that Labine’s casting in Sons of Tucson means that Reaper is no more, and seen as how I had only recently decided to stop watching that show it means I’ll have somewhere else to see Tyler Labine.

Final Grade:  C+ (although I think the show has more potential than the actual pilot)

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I was fortunate enough to get a large number of upcoming TV pilot scripts in over the last day.  I’ve already reviewed Community and Happiness Isn’t Everything, and I hope to be able to review most of the others in the next week, but it depends how I progress with uni work.  Anyway, here’s what came in:

BACK – Dean Widenmann
EASTWICK – Maggie Friedman
EMPIRE STATE – Michael Seitzman
THE FORGOTTEN – Gerald Di Pego, Eric Roth & Zak Penn
HAPPY TOWN – Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec & Scott Rosenberg
HOUSE RULES – Michael Seitzman
MASTERWORK – Paul T. Scheuring
SONS OF TUSCON – Greg Bratman & Tommy Dewey
THREE RIVERS – Carol Barbee
UNTITLED HEMINGSON LEGAL DRAMEDY
WASHINGTON FIELD – Jim Clemente & Tim Clemente and Edward Allen Bernero

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Jason Biggs

According to Nikke Finke, this is the younger-skewing sitcom written by Mitchell Hurwitz and Jim Vallely, and starring Jason Biggs, that CBS thinks could do well paired with The Big Bang Theory. “The network is happy with the way it came in.” Good thing, too, because this is CBS’ biggest commitment and there’s a giant penalty. Five scripts are already in.

I’m not gonna bother with a full review of the script because frankly it was pretty terrible.  Call me a stickler, but I think a sitcom should actually be funny, and this one isn’t.

I’m sure the casting of Jason Biggs will go towards attracting viewership should it make the schedule, and I’m equally sure that it will appeal to those less demanding of their sitcoms, but for me it’s an utter failure.  It’s almost like the exact opposite of Arrested Development, not only is it not funny, but the actual family dynamic of the characters is reversed.  They’re all in love with each other, caring, supportive, and kissy. Yeah, that’s right, the whole pilot is about kissing between brother and brother, son and mother, and son and father, and none of it is funny.

Now I know you shouldn’t judge a show by it’s pilot episode, it should be given time to grow and adapt, but my standards for comedy are a little higher than most peoples and the script for Community (reviewed here), has shown that a good sitcom can be written right from the get-go.  I often wonder why exec’s can’t fill their lineup with top-to-bottom quality shows, maybe it’s because not all of the pilots are good, or maybe it’s because they choose shitty ones over better ones, but in the end it’s just disheartening to think that this show will probably make it onto the airwaves and garner better ratings than quality sitcoms like The Office or Parks and Recreation.  After Sit Down, Shut Up and now this, it’s seeming more and more likely that Hurwitz’s success on Arrested Development was fluke more than anything else.

Final Grade: D

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Chevy Chase

First of all a little background. NBC’s “Must See TV” branding first entered into usage during the 1982-83 TV schedule when the programming included Fame, Cheers, Taxi and Hill Street Blues, a lineup that whilst I was not an actual viewer (I was 4 years old at the time), I would consider to be “Must See TV”. Skip forward 26 years and the lineup on Thursday nights may not necessarily have the historical significance that it did back in 1982, but save for a couple of exceptions, it certainly has an abundance of quality.

NBC’s current Thursday schedule is My Name is Earl, Parks and Recreation, The Office, 30 Rock, and Southland. I soured on Earl a long time ago and I’ve yet to watch Southland, but the middle pack of shows are fantastic and only promise to get better. So, whilst NBC may no longer use the “Must See TV” moniker, instead settling on “Comedy Night Done Right”, I think that the current Thursday schedule is the closest that NBC has come to “Must See TV” since 1996-97 when the schedule consisted of Friends, The Single Guy, Seinfeld, Suddenly Susan, and ER.

This brings me to the actual topic for this post, NBC’s new comedy Community. I’m hopeful that NBC will finally pull the plug on Earl and shift the lineup a little on Thursdays, especially with Leno being on 5 nights a week from 10pm. After reading the pilot script for Community my dream lineup would be Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office, and 30 Rock; Leno would really only be a bonus if a decent guest was on as I’ve grown tired of his whole routine (bring on Conan in 3+ weeks). I’m not sure if Community would fit at 8pm as it will probably be a little rawer than Earl is (in content not quality), but I like the pairing of Parks and The Office because of their similarities.

So, Community is written by Dan Harmon and tells the story of a bunch of students at Greendale Community College. They are:

• Jeff (Joel McHale) – A disbarred lawyer who has to go to Greendale because he has a foreign law degree
• Pierce (Chevy Chase) – 50-ish awkward/creepy guy (not really an apt description but it’s hard to pin down)
• Abed (Danny Pudi) – Asperger’s suffering Arab
• Britta (Gillian Jacobs) – The object of Jeff’s affections
• Duncan (John Oliver) – Psychology Professor who was one of Jeff’s old clients
• Troy (Donald Glover) – 18 year old jock who lost his scholarship
• Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) – shy 40-ish mother
• Annie (Alison Brie) – 18 year old who went to High School with Troy but dropped out

As would be expected, the pilot basically sets the stage for the introduction of all these characters and lays the groundwork for the group dynamic that will be the basis of the show for as long as it runs. It’s actually sharper than I expected it to be, much more in line with The Office than other standard sitcoms like Two and a Half Men. This seems to be a trend with NBC lately and I must say that I like it. I like smart comedies that don’t dumb themselves down to the lowest common denominator, and that’s almost certainly why I think Arrested Development, Seinfeld, and The Office are among the best shows ever.

The script is only 34 pages long and I’m not the fastest reader in the world, but I ripped through this one faster than I typically would (I won’t say how long it took at the risk of being mocked), and to me that indicates that I was really into it. There was a real nice flow to the story and the introduction of the characters, even ones on the periphery like the coach or the hilarious old black woman. In fact, the old black lady was used to great effect as a nice nod to the old sitcom convention of having an older and wiser character guide the central character.

[scrippet]

Jeff is startled to see the old black woman from the cafeteria next to him in the lobby. She’s placing books on a cart, unloading the overnight return bin.

JEFF
Don’t you work in the cafeteria?

OLD BLACK WOMAN
I have many jobs. In many places.

Jeff’s jaw drops. She rolls her eyes at him.

OLD BLACK WOMAN (CONT’D)
I’m not magical, I’m underpaid. You racist jackass.

JEFF
Sorry.

[/scrippet]

Save for some private exchanges between Jeff and Duncan, or Jeff and Britta, the sneak peek promo which NBC released a few days ago pretty much covers the entire first episode. The extent of the material contained in the promo no doubt helped me get into the script that much more, because I was able to attach a face to each character, and with some (Chevy Chase, Joel McHale and John Oliver) I had a good idea of how the lines would be delivered, which only ended up making them better.

Speaking of Chevy Chase, I can’t tell you how excited I am to have him back on TV in a potentially quality show. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time, and loved him in Foul Play, Caddyshack, Fletch, Spies Like Us, and even Nothing But Trouble. I really hope that NBC gives Community the time to develop that it did for The Office, 30 Rock, and now Parks and Recreation.

Final Grade: A-

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COMMUNITY pilot script review HollywoodHubbub