New TV Shows Fall 2012, 666 PARK AVENUE, REVOLUTION, LAST RESORT, VEGAS and ARROW, What Will I be Reviewing?

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Did you catch the post yesterday relating to all the returning shows that I will be watching and reviewing this year? No, well be sure to go check that out, if you didn’t and can’t be bothered then you should know that Dexter and Person of Interest will be the main two shows that I will be reviewing weekly, whilst also dipping in and out of Homeland and The Walking Dead. In this post I want to talk about all the new shows which will be coming our way this fall, which ones I will be watching and what will be added to my review list, your comments and suggestions are welcome as always and please let me know if there is anything I’ve missed which should be included here. I will review all the “Pilot” episodes of the shows which are mentioned below.

Revolution (NBC, Monday’s @10pm) – Premiere September 17^th

I put out the trailer for NBC’s Revolution some time ago now and I have to say that out of everything that is new this season this is the show that I’m most looking forward to. The reasons? Well, firstly it’s brought to us by J.J. Abrams and his production company Bad Robot, responsible for shows like Lost and Person of Interest, however there names can also be seen alongside some of TV’s lesser shows, like Alcatraz for example. Revolution looks to be in a different league all together from Alcatraz though and seems like it could truly be the next Lost, although if like me you watch Person of Interest that is brilliant also. Revolution picks up its story fifteen years after the loss of all electrical power and energy, having mysteriously disappeared we follow a group of survivors (including Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito) on their mission to survive the world they find themselves in. It looks really good and I can’t wait to see how it works out, let’s just hope it fares better than Alcatraz and does miles better than NBC’s last drama effort Awake.

666 Park Avenue (ABC, Sunday’s @10pm) – Premiere September 30^th

^I’m not really sure what to make of this show right now, it does look really good but I fear for me that there may be a few hide behind the pillow moments, no only kidding I will watch this show but I’m unsure as to weather or not I will be reviewing it every week. The show has a supernatural edge but is billed as a drama, it follows the new managers of a hotel named 666 Park Avenue (of course), the new managers come to learn that there esteemed guests may not be all that they seem. I will probably watch the first few episodes and see how it goes from there.

Last Resort (ABC, Thursday’s @8pm) – Premiere September 27^th

Last Resort is another show which I’m not really that sure on, the reason I say that is because of its scheduling. The premise here looks pretty good and we are set to follow a US Submarine crew who are out on exercise when they refuse to obey a direct order of firing missiles at Pakistan, their refusal makes them become the enemy and the US fire on them causing them to take refuge on a fictional island named Sainte Marina, knowing that they are now enemies of their own country they declare themselves a sovereign state with nuclear capabilities whilst also trying to find out who set them up. What puts me off? Well… Terra Nova came with an interesting premise which had a lot of people excited, but the scheduling was similar to this show in that it aired at 8pm, meaning family TV. I hope Last Resort turns out a little better but I guess we will have to wait and see.

 

Vegas (CBS, Tuesday’s @10pm) – Premiere September 25^th

Set in the 1960’s I’m not so sure that Vegas will get my full attention, I let Magic City go by without watching the Pilot after all. Vegas does come with a strong cast and a mobster storyline through so you never know, maybe I’ll surprise myself. The show is the true life story of Sheriff Ralf Lamb (played by Dennis Quaid) who formerly worked as a rancher, he was the Sheriff in Clark County from 1961 to 1979 and this charts his battle against mobster Vincent Savino (Michael Chiklis). The show also stars Terra Nova’s Jason O’Mara, so I will watch the Pilot and then see how it goes from there I think.

 

Arrow (The CW, Wednesday’s @8pm) – Premiere October 10^th

I know very little about this show other than its based on a DC comic book hero named Green Arrow who is clearly not famous enough to get a movie deal. Comic book adaptations are not really my thing if I’m honest, I don’t mind the movies but I attempted to watch The Cape a while back and that was terrible so I will treat the arrow as a back up in case all of the above fails to impress me.

 

So, that’s it for the new shows coming this year, Revolution is by far and away the favourite for me and we will just see how the rest get on, there will of course be British TV to review including The X Factor which features Nicole Scherzinger, BBC's Good Cop and Luther is also set to return which this year, then there is always movies and box sets, I'm currently a couple of episodes into season one of Sons Of Anarchy courtesey of LOVEFiLM Instant which I will be reviewing soon. Any thoughts?

TV Review: LAST RESORT - Captain 1.1

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Yet another “Pilot” review of the new Fall TV season here for you now and Last Resort would probably go down onto everyone’s most anticipated list, I can’t say that it wasn’t on mine although I have never really heard of the people involved other than Scott Speedman (Underworld) and Robert Patrick (Terminator 2), I like the premise that was on offer and after sampling maybe the first minute on my DVR before heading off to work for the day I was really looking forward to getting home to see it. On previewing the show with several other new “Pilots” I expressed a little concern that this show will air at 8pm, if you remember at the time I said that kind of reminded me of Terra Nova, they occupied the early slot and it quickly became apparent that it was nothing more than throw away family TV. First impressions of Last Resort are not much better, I can’t say that I really enjoyed the “Pilot” all that much.

If it’s a TV show like Lost that your looking for then in terms of setting and beautiful scenery Last Resort will certainly fit your bag, but other than that its really as far as things go for me. The show follows the crew of the U.S.S Colorado a submarine commanded by Captain Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher), he is sent orders to fire missiles at Pakistan, however these orders come from a back channel, one which should only be used when control in Washington has become unusable through war. Questioning the decision Capt Chaplin is quickly removed of his command by the powers that be and his loyal right hand man Sam Kendal (Scott Speedman) is promoted to man in charge, he also refuses the orders and the submarine is fired on by another US warship and the sub dives to the bottom of the ocean, following this the crew find themselves seeking refuge on an island where a NATO listening station is situated, they quickly take over the island at the expense of the disgruntled locals and declare themselves a sovereign state with nuclear capabilities.

Like I said above I actually enjoyed the opening to this show, the Marines, or Navy Seals who boarded the submarine in the beginning were thought at first to be part of the crew, however it quickly became apparent that they were no friends of the people on the submarine and that they may well be involved in whatever has lead to the US wanting to fire on Pakistan. There were a lot of people involved in this opening episode but the main ones to focus on now would be Capt Chaplin, his second in command Kendal, Joseph Prosser (Robert Patrick) who disagrees with the way things have been handled and Lieutenant Grace Shephard (Daisy Betts) the ears of Washington and the one person who is part of the crew that may know what they are up to. Kind of like “the others” in Lost the US Marines who found themselves seeking refuge on the submarine would not seem to be so welcome, it will be interesting to see how that pans out with the marine who was sitting in the bar drinking claiming that it was all his fault? What exactly? The fact the US want to fire missiles or the fact your friend got shot in action? I guess we will find out.

I really don’t have to much I want to say on this “Pilot” episode, there was certainly a lot to get your head around, and way to many characters for me to name them all now. So, the crew have set up on an island, no doubt they are going to have countless run-in’s with the locals who don’t want them there, and the Marines will want to do their own thing. I have a couple of gripes other than the “family” TV show element which Last Resort has, first how in one hour of a TV show does Captain Chaplin come to hate the US all of a sudden? He was an honourable captain of one of their submarines until pretty much one sentence pissed him off to the point that he now wants to fight his own country and never return, although the island setting does look nice, why leave your family? The Captain also has in his possession some very valuable merchandise belonging to the US, not to mention the missiles but also the submarine which I’m sure will be worth several hundred million, if not billion dollars, I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure they may want that back. And, just how does he propose protecting the little island and his handful of crew members from one of the world’s biggest military super powers?

There is not a great lot other than the above I want to say on Last Resort, as far as “Pilots” go this is one that has not grabbed me, I think Vegas was a better offering and even Revolution may have edged it slightly. I will continue to watch Last Resort, hoping that I’m wrong about the family TV show side of things but on what I’ve seen in the first episode I wouldn’t say that I’m all that interested in seeing what more it has to offer, my TV schedule is after all, busy enough right now.