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: REVOLUTION – Pilot 1.1 on NBC From J.J. Abrams

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Amidst all the new and returning American TV shows this fall the one which I have been most excited about is Revolution, the new high concept vehicle brought to us from J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot production company. Mr Abrams is on somewhat of a sticky wicket right now, he really needs something to go his way, amongst the things I have watched lately his only success has been Person of Interest on CBS which is on it’s way back for a second season at the end of this month. Other than that Abrams has seen shows like The Event, FlashForward and Alcatraz cancelled after one season thanks to poor audiences, with his long running hit Fringe due to wrap with one more season he could really do with Revolution being the runaway hit which grabs everyone’s attention just like Lost did back in it’s day. Second to J.J needing this to work out NBC could really do with something which captures and audience right now too, as we all know what happened with their latest offering Awake.

They went all out on this “Pilot” episode as is usually expected from anything to do with Abrams, they even got movie Director John Faverau in to direct the first episode, a lot of what we saw in this episode was really the kind of scenery you see in movies and was shot really well, think overgrown cities in Will Smith’s I Am Legend, the way the vines wrap themselves around buildings, abandoned cars litter the overgrown streets and time seems to have come to a stand still, that’s the kind of scenes we get here. Away from the cities people have created little villages/settlements for themselves in vacant houses or simply just pitched tents in fenced off fields, back to a more basic time before the all important invention of electricity. Actually watching this opening episode cast my mind back to the summer and Danny Boyle’s extravagant London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, the staging regarding time before the Industrial Revolution had a very similar feel in what they were trying to portray.

To Revolution then, what did I think? I would say that I think the show looks like it’s going to be ok, not great but definitely worth your time on a weekly basis, we got introduced to so many people here in this opener that its hard to remember all their names and what their involvement may or may not be, but I’ll try and cover things in order that we don’t miss any key moments. I suppose the first of those would be the opening sequence where a frantic Ben (Tim Guinee, Person of Interest, The Fix) runs through his door announcing that “its all about to go off”, his daughter is sitting watching TV whilst his wife Rachael prepares their evening meal. Ben has in his possession a very modern USB stick which before all the power goes off he manages to download some data too, before calling his brother Miles (Billy Burke) to inform him that “It’s all going to turn off and never turn back on again”. Just then, all electrical appliances cease to work, mobile networks go down, cars bring themselves to a standstill and planes drop out the sky.

We then pick up 15 years later, when the villages I mentioned above have been formed, some people have remained living in the city’s and others including Captain Tom Neville (Breaking Bads Giancarlo Esposito) have formed the feared “Militia”, a seemingly renegade bunch who are after Ben and his brother Miles and we know very little about at this point. Ben is killed thanks to the efforts of his son Danny (Graham Rogers) who then takes off with his sister Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) in order to find their Uncle Miles in Chicago. Kind of a quick killing I suppose, really didn’t care much because at that point I really didn’t know enough about the characters, never mind I suppose its not really going to matter, I’m guessing he’s not that big of a part in the story (although according to IMDB he is in more than the “Pilot” episode, flashbacks obviously).

I’m intrigued enough to continue watching, although batteries no longer working would suggest energy source problems rather than electricity, I’m sure all will be revealed, probably not this season though, that’s what J.J will be hoping. There were a couple of nice twists, just enough to keep you with bated breath. The fact that Miles was obviously once friends with Captain Neville who now wants him would suggest that one or both of them know something that no one else does, the lady in the house situated in the middle of nowhere who has an identical USB device to that of the one Ben had in the opening sequence and uses it for electricity in her attic, before she finally boots up her computer to inform someone of the Militia’s presence at her home, could be interesting.

It’s definitely enough to keep me watching, I just hope we don’t end up with another FlashForward or The Event where it’s cancelled after one season and no answers ever come, we’ll see how things progress when the show premiere’s on NBC September 17^th, I’ll speak about it again there. What did you think of Revolution? Will you be watching? Or, do you think this is another high concept idea which will last no longer than one season? Your comments and discussion are welcome below as always.

TV Review: REVOLUTION - Chained Heat 1.2

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Rolling on with Revolution, the new high concept drama from NBC and J.J. Abrams, following the “Pilot” episode I wouldn’t say that I way awe inspired or anything, I thought, yeah, that was ok, let’s see what happens next week. Now I’ve had that chance as this week saw Revolutions second episode “Chained Heat” air on NBC. I Think it’s hard sometimes to become instantly attached to characters after one episode of a show, following this second episode I still wouldn’t say that I feel emotionally attached to any of the characters on display, Charlie Matheson for instance, I couldn’t care less right now whether or not she finds her brother Danny, this is probably a good thing though, because lets face if she does find him then it won’t be until the end of the first season by which point I think people may have switched off.

I love what Revolution is trying to achieve and I love how it is very similar to J.J. Abrams Lost, at least in it’s story, problem is up to now I don’t think Revolution is going to achieve what Lost did, that show set the bar extremely high for this type of concept and everything done now (FlashForward/The Event/Awake) is compared to it, I remember watching Alcatraz at the beginning of the year and feeling the same about that show, I just wasn’t attached to the main characters. Even so I still think Revolution has room to grow, there is after all plenty still to get through.

So, what do we want to know? First off, the biggest question of the show, and its premise, who is responsible for the power going off? It would already seem apparent that the Matheson family in some way shape or form either have something to do with it or they are aware of what caused the problem. The Militia’s General Monroe who worked with the Matheson’s before the lights went out seems well aware of this fact. What caused General Monroe to become the leader of The Militia and such a nasty git for want of a better word? He has now formed the Monroe Republic, who claim to be the good guys out to burn American flags, why does he hate America all of a sudden? Then we have Grace, who we met briefly in the Pilot (although I don’t remember) what relevance does she have to the story? Who are the resistance? How many people have futuristic USB sticks? Are they the resistance? You get my point here, there is still plenty to explore with the off shoots seemingly looping back to the central plot, but we have said this before.

I have a couple of issues, some of the acting this far has seemed rather hammy, particularly from Tracey Spiridakos, not all the time it just seems to be the points where she is giving a speech to her uncle Miles about how she needs to protect her brother, this episode she did handle shooting that guy whilst also killing the other one very well, I liked the way they showed the flashbacks letting us know where she mustered up the courage from. A couple of Billy Burke’s lines also came over a little hammy during this episode, I don’t remember the exact words but it was when Charlie asked him where he was going, his reply, along the lines of “it’s a great place called mind your own business”. Charlie hasn’t minded it so far, nor do I think she is going to start now.

Another little issue I have is the swashbuckling sword fights, they are pretty kick ass don’t get me wrong but I just don’t find them all that enjoyable, leave swashbuckling to pirates, the cross bows too, at times I feel like I’m watching The Hunger Games. Revolution is doing a great job this far of being (for TV) visually stunning, it really shows that a lot of money has been spent on production, for me “Chained Heat” was better than the Pilot and the added twist at the end of Rachael (Charlie’s mother) still being alive and held captive by Monroe was quite revealing. I just hope that Revolution lives up to the hype that we have all been hearing about running up to the Fall TV season.

Weekly TV Previews: Will REVOLUTION Get Any Better? PERSON OF INTEREST Finding Mr Finch, VEGAS and There Back DEXTER Season 7, HOMELAND Season 2

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Hello and welcome back to the regular Fall TV season feature here at Movies Music & Television of the weeks TV previews, like always I will preview the next episode of all the shows currently under review here at MM&T as well as the shows which I’m watching but maybe not writing about every week. This is the first one back since last Fall so some shows (Dexter/Homeland) are yet to premiere on their respective networks, there for not to much to give away right now, but we’ll get through what we can, here goes;

Revolution – No Quarter 1.3

Following two episodes of Revolution I’m yet to be enthralled by what’s been on offer, best way to put it, is that in my opinion it’s been mediocre when compared to other works from J.J. Abrams, that’s not say that it can’t get better and in all honesty I hope it does, I touched on the subject in my review of “….” That there are plenty of avenues for the show to go down and hopefully it will do that. In respect of this review, well it does not really give much away other than Miles (Billy Burke) telling Charlie (Tracey Spiridakos) that the futuristic USB stick has the ability to turn the power back on and give the US it’s power back, take a look and let me know what you think.

 

Person of Interest – Bad Code 2.2

It goes without saying that Person of Interest is the best show that J.J. Abrams has on TV right now and the season 2 premiere did not disappoint in any way whatsoever. Reese was back to doing what he does best in kicking ass whilst Finch was off being all mysterious and wisdom like fencing off against computer hacker Root (Amy Acker). It seems that season 2 will deliver action, drama and mystery at the same level and above from what we got during season one and I can’t wait. “Bad Code” sees the hunt for Mr Finch head to Texas and possibly the first opportunity for the Machine to act outside of its usual jurisdiction of New York, amidst the kick ass who thinks Reese will be successful in finding Finch this week?

 

Vegas – Money Plays 1.2

From all of the pilot episodes I have seen so far in this Fall season this one has by far impressed me the most, it delivered a classy first episode which saw a weekly crime procedural mix together what should be a longer running feud between law enforcement and a local Mob boss, I’m hoping the weekly procedural side of things drops like I said in the review and hopefully we concentrate more on the bad guys v good guys side of things. The latest offering from Vegas “Money Pays” looks to continue in the light of the “Pilot”, plenty of kick ass from Dennis Quaid and a weekly procedural, I don’t mind that to much if like Person of Interest they can keep the focus on the main story behind the characters, take a look at the preview. 

 

Dexter – Are You…? 7.1

Without doubt the biggest returning show of the Fall season is Dexter, hype has been building since last December when Dexter Morgan plunged his knife into the chest of Travis Marshall’s chest, only to be caught by his sister and Miami Metro Lieutenant Debra Morgan, finally part of Dexter’s secret is out but now Dexter must fight even harder to stay one step ahead of Miami Metro and more importantly his sister, who can never find out the full truth behind Miami’s best blood spatter expert. Being the first episode I can’t find a direct trailer for the episode but this is the latest preview available from three days ago, enjoy.

Homeland – The Smile 2.1

Homeland was without doubt the biggest new drama to hit screens last Fall, from start to finish it was brilliant, it had you constantly guessing, is Nick Brody (Damien Lewis) a terrorist? Or is CIA Agent Carrie (Clare Danes) as crazy as everyone thinks she is? The question was answered during the season 1 finale when Sgt Brody was preparing to blow up the US President and a roomful of his representatives, of course he didn’t go through with it but now he has an even bigger position of power, spurred on terrorist Abu Nazir, Sgt Brody is now a US Congressman with an influential voice in US politics. Again like Dexter I don’t have a trailer for the first episode but this latest teaser really promises that Homeland will once again be hard hitting and possibly even better than season one.