The Good Place
Heaven is real and it's very exclusive. That's the concept behind the new NBC comedy The Good Place. Paradise meets trouble when Eleanor Shellstrop arrives by some divine bureaucratic mistake. Eleanor, played by Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars and appliance advertisements fame, is a garbage person. She is entirely selfish and narcissistic but lucky enough to have slipped through the cracks in the pearly gates. In The Good Place's non-denominational Valhalla everyone is matched up with their "soul mate." Eleanor enlists the help of her one and only, an ethics professor played by very promising unknown William Jackson Harper, to keep her secret while My Fair Lady-ing her into the kind of person who deserves to be there. Meanwhile, the flaw in the system is creating headaches for Michael, an angelic branch manager of sorts played by the legendary Ted Danson. The Good Place starts off slow, as is to be expected with the exposition required by the setting, but with Parks and Rec's Michael Schur behind the scenes and a strong cast things are looking up.
Star Trek threat level: 8/10
This Is Us
It's hard to know how to feel about NBC's new drama This Is Us. On one hand, it is incredibly well written and beautifully acted. On the other hand, an actor distressed with his crappy sitcom job seeks comfort from his sister who is 97% just Molly from Mike and Molly. The show follows four people who share a birthday and much more. Smallville's Justin Hartley plays the aforementioned actor and Chrissy Metz of American Horror Story plays his sister, who I honestly can't describe in any better way than to compare her to Molly from Mike and Molly. Her story line is to the Mike and Molly pilot what the Anne Heche/Vince Vaughn Psycho is to the original Psycho. Sterling K. Brown, who just received an Emmy for his work on American Crime Story, plays a well-to-do family man seeking out his biological father. Finally, Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore play a couple starting a family. This Is Us is full of wonderful dramatic moments, several surprisingly smart and subtle funny moments, and one or two bizarre, possibly problematic moments; in other words, it has the makings of a very fine drama. It also has Milo Ventimiglia's butt, if you're into that kind of thing.
Star Trek threat level: 7.5/10
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| There's no party in the pilot. When is the party? |
Easy
Netflix's new anthology series (eight episodes with eight different stories, not segmented by seasons like American Horror Story) set in Chicago is a comedy about love and sex and dating. The creative force behind Easy is acclaimed indie film director Joe Swanberg, who specializes in such topics. The first episode follows a married couple struggling with the diminishing certainty of gender roles. Andi is a career woman and Kyle is a homemaker/actor. There aren't a lot of surprises and personally, as a hip, young, single, wild and crazy guy I have no investment in a marriage, but the rest of the series seems worth watching. The cast alone is certainly promising, with appearances from Malin Akerman, Orlando Bloom, Dave Franco, and even Marc Maron playing a character who isn't Marc Maron.
Star Trek threat level: 6/10
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| Marc Maron seen here playing Marc Maron on Maron. |
Pitch
Like many others, I tend to believe that baseball is among the most boring of the major sports, but it makes for damn good film. Bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, tied game, two outs, two strikes. Alfred Hitchcock would call that "laying the suspense on a little too thick." It's surprising there have been so few TV shows about the game, the NSFW Eastbound and Down being the best the subgenre has to offer. Until Pitch. The FOX drama imagines the experiences of the first woman to play in the major leagues. Kylie Bunbury plays the fictional trailblazing pitcher for the San Diego Padres Ginny Baker, who her agent (played by the consistently ferocious Ali Larter) describes as "Hillary Clinton with sex appeal" and "a Kardashian with a skill set." She is joined by Mark-Paul Gosselaar as the prerequisite wisecracking veteran star catcher who is begrudgingly won over. The rest of the cast is solid but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Bob Balaban as the calculating owner of the Padres. It's a show with a lot of heart and drama that's impeccably well made.
Star Trek threat level: 8/10
Speechless
Comedies about disabled people are tricky. If Michael J. Fox can't make it work, who can? The answer appears to be Minnie Driver. Driver is magnificent as a hyperactive mama bear who goes to the mat and lives there for her son with cerebral palsy, Micah Fowler as J.J. The pilot reveals and corrects the oversight Driver's Maya has shown her daughter and other son, The Walking Dead's Kyla Kenedy and Spy Kids' Mason Cook. Maya's much more chill husband is played by John Ross Bowie, a great character actor stepping out of his recurring role on The Big Bang Theory. The cast is rounded out by the velvet voiced Cedric Yarbrough as J.J.'s new vocal aide. The show is funny and has heart without coming anywhere near sap territory. It pains me to say this, as it's currently in The Middle's timeslot, but Speechless will make an excellent addition to ABC's Wednesday night lineup of family sitcoms.
Star Trek threat level:8/10
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