Monday mix middling

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This article was published 12/09/2016 (3372 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Monday’s six-pack of new shows includes a heavenly comedy, a time-warped drama, a couple of brand-new sitcoms that are already past their best-before dates, a format-faithful legal drama and a homegrown thriller that’s a bit too overdone to be believed. All in all, a very mixed bag of TV offerings:

KEVIN CAN WAIT

Where and when: CBS/Global – Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Starring: Kevin James, Erinn Hayes, Taylor Spreitler, Mary-Charles Jones and James DiGiacomo

Premise: A newly retired police officer has dreams of a relaxing, fun-filled existence with his fellow former cops, but finds that life at home with three kids is more challenging than anything he faced on the big-city mean streets.

Lowdown: James returns to the CBS comedy roster in a show that’s as old-school sitcommy as his previous effort, The King of Queens. The genre’s format was tired and predictable during that show’s nine-season (1998-2007) run, and it’s absolutely on life support as this threadbare effort arrives on the scene. Lame setups, telegraphed punchlines, overwrought laughtrack, cute-kid actors — this one’s got it all if all you’re looking for are circa-1978-style sitcom laughs.

Bottom line: Kevin won’t have to wait long… for the viewing public’s verdict.

 

THE GOOD PLACE

Where and when: NBC – Sept. 19, 9 p.m.

Starring: Kristen Bell, Ted Danson and William Jackson Harper

Premise: A decidedly less-than-perfect woman (Bell) meets with an unfortunate demise, and because of a clerical error winds up in The Good Place, where the world’s very best souls spend an idyllic afterlife, rather than The Bad Place, where she definitely belongs. Once there, however, she tries to stay out of view of The Good Place’s primary architect (Danson) long enough to improve her outlook and become the kind of person who truly belongs.

Lowdown: There’s a whole lot to like about this unconventional and extremely bright comedy from executive producer Michael Schur (Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), starting with brilliant work from sneaky-funny star Bell and reliable TV-series hand Danson. The writing is clever (there’s a great running gag involving the notion that no one — including mistaken arrival Eleanor, who’s rather adept with profanity — is allowed to curse in TGP), and the pilot will leave viewers eager to learn what happens next. After its sneak-preview Monday debut, the series will relocate to its regular Thursday 7:30 p.m. timeslot.

Bottom line: If there’s an afterlife for failed TV sitcoms, here’s hoping this one doesn’t head there anytime soon.

 

CONVICTION

Where and when: ABC/CTV – Oct. 3, 9 p.m.

Starring: Hayley Atwell, Eddie Cahill, Shawn Ashmore, Merrin Dungy, Emily Kinney, Manny Montana and Daniel di Tomasso

Premise: A fast-living lawyer, who’s also the former First Daughter, cuts a deal that will allow her to avoid jail time for cocaine possession in exchange for being the figurehead of the New York district attorney’s high-profile wrongful-conviction task force. Once in the job, she begins to realize it’s an opportunity to really shake up the system.

Lowdown: If nothing else, Conviction’s engaging pilot episode is very much in keeping with ABC’s current drama-series brand — filled with smart, sexy, mostly shady people whose often-bad behaviour produces good (and, more importantly, entertaining) outcomes. Atwell (Marvel’s Agent Carter) is strong — though not immediately likable — as corner-cutting lawyer Hayes Morrison, Cahill is a good match as her boss, primary antagonist and possible down-the-road love connection. Given its style, the most surprising thing about Conviction is that Shonda Rhimes’ name isn’t attached to it.

Bottom line: The jury’s out on this one — it could become a hit if enough viewers are willing to give it a try, but the decision to air it behind Dancing With the Stars deprives it of the lead-in strength that’s available elsewhere in ABC’s drama-heavy schedule.

 

TIMELESS

Where and when: NBC/Global – Oct. 3, 9 p.m.

Starring: Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett and Goran Visnjic

Premise: After a band of presumed terrorists steals a top-secret time machine, seemingly with the intention of destroying the U.S. by going back and changing key events in its history, the government scrambles a special team to use an earlier prototype of the machine to chase them through time and prevent the future-altering damage.

Lowdown: One of a couple of new dramas pondering the consequences of tinkering with the past (the other is Fox’s Frequency), this occasionally entertaining adventure is weighed down by the convoluted nature of the pilot episode’s baseline premise — that changing even small events in the past could have a massive impact on the present and future — and seems destined to quickly undermine its own narrative logic. It’s clear from the outset that neither the good guys or the bad guys are going to leave the past alone, so each week’s time-sensitive mission is going to make the present messier and more difficult. We’re doomed.

Bottom line: One needn’t have travelled to the past to understand that this show has a limited future.

 

SHOOT THE MESSENGER

Where and when: CBC – Oct. 10, 9 p.m.

Starring: Elyse Levesque, Lyriq Bent, Lucas Bryant, Alex Kingston, Hannah Anderson and Ari Cohen

Premise: A made-in-Toronto drama that explores the complex — and sometimes ethically compromised — relationship between crime reporters and the police.

Lowdown: At the intersection of steamy illicit romance and grisly big-city crime, you’ll find the tightly entangled lives of the cops who fight crime and the newspaper scribes who cover it — at least, that’s the heightened reality in this somewhat overwrought drama that focuses on an ambitious young reporter who straddles the line between personal relationships and professional pursuits in an attempt to get her stories on the front page. From a newspaper writer’s perspective, it’s rather far-fetched; the betting here is that most viewers will find it a bit overdone, as well.

Bottom line: This Messenger is a very long shot, indeed.

 

MAN WITH A PLAN

Where and when: CBS/Global – Oct. 24, 7:30 p.m.

Starring: Matt LeBlanc, Liza Snyder, Kevin Nealon, Grace Kaufman, Matthew McCann, Hala Finley and Jessica Chafin

Premise: A contractor agrees to spend more time at home with the family in order to support his wife’s decision to go back to work, and quickly learns that building well-behaved and well-rounded kids is a lot tougher than constructing houses.

Lowdown: We could probably save each other a bit of time if you just referred back to the description (above) of Kevin James’s new sitcom; like that tepid effort, this one also features the star of a successful old-school sitcom returning to the genre in a show that feels sadly out of step with contemporary TV comedy. After his sharp and funny self-mocking run on the made-for-cable series Episodes, one can’t help wondering what LeBlanc was thinking when he signed on for this.

Bottom line: OK, here’s the plan: everybody start looking for another job.

 

RETURNING SHOWS:

Dancing With the Stars (Sept. 12, ABC)

The Voice (Sept. 19, NBC)

The Big Bang Theory (Sept. 19, CBS)

Lucifer (Sept. 19, Fox)

Scorpion (Oct. 3, CBS/Citytv)

Murdoch Mysteries (Oct. 10, CBC)

Supergirl (Oct. 10, CW – new network)

2 Broke Girls (Oct. 10, CBS)

Jane the Virgin (Oct. 17, CW)

The Odd Couple (Oct. 17, CBS/Citytv)

 

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @BradOswald