Pilot watch '07
Jul. 25th, 2007 04:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bennet_7I've been pondering the leaked pilots and here are my thoughts. A bit spoilery but not beyond the basic premises of the shows.
Chuck
A pleasant surprise as really I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was. On paper it's Jake 2.0 2.0 as they share the same basic premise - smart but nerdy guy comes into contact with government technology and now has to use his new skills to fight crime and foil terrorist plots. Chuck seems a bit lighter and a bit goofier - for me it has a bit of a Scrubs vibe what with the wacky friend and the guy named Captain Awesome - and less sci-fi in tone than Jake 2.0. Hopefully that will be a good thing and it will be spared Jake 2.0's 12-episodes-before-it-got-axed fate.
The action sequences are actually really good. Very stylish and fun. I do miss the spy capers of Alias (and Vaughn. Mmmmm) so maybe this will fill that niche.
Kudos to the casting director for getting Zachary Levi to play Chuck - he was really good. However, his resemblance to Adam Brody and some of his acting choices made him seem very early season 1 of The O.C Seth Cohen (not that that can be a bad thing). It's nice to see Adam Baldwin in something again and I can't wait to see what they do with his character.
So yes. I'll be watching.
Pushing Daisies
This was brilliant. Everything you see in the promos is what you get in the pilot except with an extra dollop of awesome. It's quirky and charming and one of the best produced pilots I've ever seen. It moves along at a cracking pace and the world the characters live in is quickly but elegantly explained by the voice-over narration. Narration is tricky: I hate it in Grey's Anatomy but quite liked it in Veronica Mars. As this show is basically a fairy tale it suits narration and the narrator (Jim Dale) is appropriately whimsical while underscoring important moments.
The cast is fantastic. All of them. I'm a bit unsure of what they are going to do with the wacky aunts but I trust Bryan Fuller so I am pushing those fears aside. I'm particularly impressed with Anna Friel as Chuck (suddenly the most popular name in Hollywood). She comes across as sweet and kind without making me want to hit her with a bit of two-by-four.
As I mentioned in my icon post the show is seriously pretty. I read an interview where the network said they were looking for a show that was like a TV version of the film Amelie. Well not only have they managed to capture Amelie's whimsical tone, but they've also emulated the film's look in terms of lighting and set design. It's particularly apparent in the early scenes featuring Ned as a boy.
OMG the kitchens got the same floor tiles!!11!
It's subtle but it's there.
And now I wait with baited breath. Is it September yet?
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
I wasn't expecting to like this one and I didn't. Maybe it's because I've never been a fan of the Terminator films (I've only seen the first two) but I wasn't aware that they had a mythology deep enough to explore that a TV show was needed to do so.
But this TV show left me cold. It's certainly not quirky or funny. I don't care enough about the characters to follow this as a drama. And while the sci-fi elements are good, they aren't used in a way that impresses or interests the sci-fi geek in me. It's just missing that indefinable quality that makes a show a good show or at least, one that interests me.
Lena Heady was good as Sarah but I just wish Sarah had more character. Thomas Dekker reminds me too much of that Jesse McCartney person who claims to be both an actor and singer. I love Summer Glau and if she were doing the awesome ballet/kung-fu type of fighting that she did in Serenity I might stick around. However Terminators seem to prefer just throwing each other into walls - and that's boring.
I'll keep my eyes on the reviews and if it gets more interesting I might pick it up again. For now though I will not be back.*
*Oh come on. You would have said it too.
Chuck
A pleasant surprise as really I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was. On paper it's Jake 2.0 2.0 as they share the same basic premise - smart but nerdy guy comes into contact with government technology and now has to use his new skills to fight crime and foil terrorist plots. Chuck seems a bit lighter and a bit goofier - for me it has a bit of a Scrubs vibe what with the wacky friend and the guy named Captain Awesome - and less sci-fi in tone than Jake 2.0. Hopefully that will be a good thing and it will be spared Jake 2.0's 12-episodes-before-it-got-axed fate.
The action sequences are actually really good. Very stylish and fun. I do miss the spy capers of Alias (and Vaughn. Mmmmm) so maybe this will fill that niche.
Kudos to the casting director for getting Zachary Levi to play Chuck - he was really good. However, his resemblance to Adam Brody and some of his acting choices made him seem very early season 1 of The O.C Seth Cohen (not that that can be a bad thing). It's nice to see Adam Baldwin in something again and I can't wait to see what they do with his character.
So yes. I'll be watching.
Pushing Daisies
This was brilliant. Everything you see in the promos is what you get in the pilot except with an extra dollop of awesome. It's quirky and charming and one of the best produced pilots I've ever seen. It moves along at a cracking pace and the world the characters live in is quickly but elegantly explained by the voice-over narration. Narration is tricky: I hate it in Grey's Anatomy but quite liked it in Veronica Mars. As this show is basically a fairy tale it suits narration and the narrator (Jim Dale) is appropriately whimsical while underscoring important moments.
The cast is fantastic. All of them. I'm a bit unsure of what they are going to do with the wacky aunts but I trust Bryan Fuller so I am pushing those fears aside. I'm particularly impressed with Anna Friel as Chuck (suddenly the most popular name in Hollywood). She comes across as sweet and kind without making me want to hit her with a bit of two-by-four.
As I mentioned in my icon post the show is seriously pretty. I read an interview where the network said they were looking for a show that was like a TV version of the film Amelie. Well not only have they managed to capture Amelie's whimsical tone, but they've also emulated the film's look in terms of lighting and set design. It's particularly apparent in the early scenes featuring Ned as a boy.
OMG the kitchens got the same floor tiles!!11!
It's subtle but it's there.
And now I wait with baited breath. Is it September yet?
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
I wasn't expecting to like this one and I didn't. Maybe it's because I've never been a fan of the Terminator films (I've only seen the first two) but I wasn't aware that they had a mythology deep enough to explore that a TV show was needed to do so.
But this TV show left me cold. It's certainly not quirky or funny. I don't care enough about the characters to follow this as a drama. And while the sci-fi elements are good, they aren't used in a way that impresses or interests the sci-fi geek in me. It's just missing that indefinable quality that makes a show a good show or at least, one that interests me.
Lena Heady was good as Sarah but I just wish Sarah had more character. Thomas Dekker reminds me too much of that Jesse McCartney person who claims to be both an actor and singer. I love Summer Glau and if she were doing the awesome ballet/kung-fu type of fighting that she did in Serenity I might stick around. However Terminators seem to prefer just throwing each other into walls - and that's boring.
I'll keep my eyes on the reviews and if it gets more interesting I might pick it up again. For now though I will not be back.*
*Oh come on. You would have said it too.
