Ladies and gentleman, after poring over the material given to us during the network upfronts, viewing preview clips of all the new fall shows, and reading your opinions about it all, I have one thing to say about the upcoming 2007-2008 television season . . .
Meh.
This is one of the blandest fall seasons I have seen in a long time. Sure, there are a few shows that seem promising and mildly entertaining, but nothing that really popped out at me as a clear hit, nothing that got me excited. When I thought about it further I realized why that was: the new season is lacking hype, something that last season had a crapload of.
Maybe it's just me, but there seemed to be much more buzz during last year's upfronts than what I felt this year. I was extraordinarily excited when I heard about shows like Studio 60, The Nine, and Heroes, and so were many others. The excitement grew as preview clips to these shows began to appear in places like YouTube. In fact, as early as three months out people (including some of us here at TV Squad) were claiming ratings winners before the first full episode was shown.
Of course, the bottom fell out of the 2006-2007 schedule faster than the stock market did back in 1929 because the hype just didn't match what was shown. A few factors contributed to this, such as uneven writing (Studio 60), unlikeable characters (again Studio 60), unusually long waits between episodes (Jericho), and way too much serialization (Kidnapped, The Nine, Vanished). The result was that networks lost viewers and a whole lot of money.
Hence, the blandness of the new season. The networks are playing it very safe to stem the losses they incurred. However, in my opinion, they're playing it too safe. Where last year's crop of new shows was full of new ideas (based on the concept of Lost, but new ideas nonetheless), this year's shows are just copies of successful shows that have been on the air previously. Let's take a few examples:
In Journeyman (NBC) the main character finds himself traveling into the past with a purpose – impacting people's lives for the better – and sometimes the worse. This sounds a bit like Quantum Leap.
Cashmere Mafia (ABC) and Lipstick Jungle (NBC) feature four up-and-coming women living the high-life in the big city. Those remind me quite a bit of Sex and the City. There's also Big Shots (ABC), which features four CEO's living the high-life in the big city.
New Amsterdam (FOX) is about a man who was given the gift (curse) of living forever without getting old, and uses his knowledge to solve crimes. Does anyone remember Highlander?
Moonlight (CBS) is about a vampire who's a private detective. Um, isn't that Angel?
The Bionic Woman (NBC) is, well, a remake of The Bionic Woman.
Will this strategy work for the networks? I don't believe so. Television viewers are a fairly astute bunch (especially those who read and comment here at TV Squad) and know a retread when they see it. They're going to compare shows like Moonlight and Cashmere Mafia to their earlier predecessors and potentially snub their noses at it all, which will leave a lot of empty spaces on the network schedule. We'll know more when September rolls around.
Giveaways reminder: Office, Eli Stone, Supernatural, South Park
Giveaway Thursday: Tickets to the New York Television Festival ... all of it!
I miss the media-friendly John McCain - VIDEOS
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-29-2007 @ 10:09AM
Mel said...
Nice to see TVS already writing off the coming season. Why don't you guys start dropping shows even before the air? That'd be something.
Have some enthusiasm man. No mention of Pushing Daisies? Or Aliens in America? It seems to me like every show you've picked out at least has something else that is original or at least intriguing.
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5-29-2007 @ 10:38AM
David said...
I completely agree, there is normally at least one show I want to check out, next season there isn't one.
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5-29-2007 @ 10:41AM
Killer Hook said...
I've had no trouble finding new fall shows that seem like they could be great. Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Reaper, Journeyman, and Private Practice (yes I liked the backdoor pilot) are all ones I plan on checking out. I'm not as anxious to see any of them as I was for Heroes, but that's okay.
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5-29-2007 @ 10:59AM
Melissa said...
I'm already having a hard time keeping up with the shows I watch, so it's kind of nice not to want to add anything to my schedule. However, I am looking forward to checking out Pushing Daisies, and New Amsterdam.
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5-29-2007 @ 11:22AM
Will said...
I hate the words "bleh" and "meh", but I kinda agree with you. There were 4 new shows that I wanted to try out this past season (Heroes is the only one that survived), but Bionic Woman is the only one I'm interested in next season.
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5-29-2007 @ 12:27PM
darryl said...
Moonlight could also be like forever knight http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103417/ rather then Angel.
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5-29-2007 @ 12:42PM
Matt said...
This last half of 2007 looks to be very bland. My DVR schedule is almost completely empty now, save for Entourage (thank God new episodes are airing all summer), The Sopranos, Mythbusters, The Shield, The Riches, and On The Lot. Considering three of those six shows will be done within two weeks, this is going to be a sloooooow summer.
None of the new series coming out interest me at all, and as you stated, Richard, they all seem to be ripoffs of something that's already been done. The only one that seems even remotely interesting is Traveler, but even that seems like one of those shows where they won't know what to do with it after one season...if it even gets that. And, even as a Grey's fan, Private Practice does absolutely nothing for me. I should be more rational and give it another shot, but Kate Walsh (one of my top three on Grey's, if not my favorite) deserves so much better.
At the very least, FX will have its fantastic summer lineup coming back soon. Rescue Me, It's Always Sunny..., and Nip/Tuck are all coming back soon. I'm pretty sure FX can do no wrong. Praise be to them for keeping me from going crazy until Heroes returns.
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5-29-2007 @ 1:17PM
Dr. Funbags said...
I thought for a second you were giving us an outlook on TV Squads new Editorial message.
Meh.
The use of that word sums up the place.
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5-29-2007 @ 2:22PM
Richard Ott said...
Well, as a very frequent Saturday Morning viewer, even
after The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show era has passed,
I will tell you that the 2007-2008 season is looking bright
from the kids' prospective. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
is still on the air after its latest incarnation, TMNT: Fast
Forward, and it's still as great as it ever was in 1984,
though I would've deleted the pooping sounds from
that pig-like creature in one of the episodes. The Power
Rangers francise continues with Operation Overdrive.
Here's the stange part. If the Mighty Morphin season
had been on Saturday Mornings from the start in 1993,
it would've outlasted ABC's Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show,
which was on for 14 seasons. The Power Rangers was
originally a weekday afternoon series through the 90's.
Spiderman is coming up on CW in the fall of 2008, but
I've heard nothing else about the Tower Of Drauga
cartoon series scheduled to air in the Spring of 2008.
There's also Tom & Jerry Tales, Scooby Doo, Get A Clue,
Loonatics, The Batman, & Legion Of The Superheroes.
Strangly, Sonic X has popped back up on the Fox line-up,
but this cartoon series as a whole has ended...hasn't it?
CBS, meanwhile has made big stars out of the Slumber
Party kids, just for being on Dance Revolution, a dance
contest show I found to be utterly boring. ABC has gone
Disney in their Saturday Morning line-up, but it should be
showing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse & Tigger & Friends,
amoung other educational shows that are currently on
The Disney Channel. The shows they have on now are
reruns of That's So Raven, Hanna Montana, The Suite
Life Of Zach & Cody & The Replacements, currently seen
on Toon Disney & The Disney Channel respectively, but
they're all just that, reruns. Nothing original is being made
for the ABC line up on Saturday mornings, in spite of the
huge Disney soccer game bumpers to promote it. NBC
has completely abandined their line-up in favor of the
Saturday morning news show. So there you have it.
ABC needs more original weekly shows, CBS still has the
Slumber Party Kids, Turtles still rule on Fox, and CW will
air Spiderman in 2008.
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5-29-2007 @ 3:28PM
pgwp said...
From what I've seen, I'm inclined to agree with you. But like you said, last season suffered from too much hype. And personally I'm sick, sick, sick of overhyped products--whether tv shows, movies, or music. I think the new season looks pretty boring but I'm trying to be an optimist. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised by something I wasn't expecting, rather than immediately let down by something I was expecting too much.
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5-29-2007 @ 4:25PM
Thomas said...
I watched all the episodes of kidnapped in close succession on Channel 4 and it was actually pretty good. I think if Us channels actually decided to make 10-12 episodes of such "high concept" shows they would see far more success. Unless they really grab people and make them want to know what happens (like Lost) then the viewer just sees a show which could go on for however many episodes without a resolution or it will be cancelled. Invariably they are cancelled because people can't be bothered, so the networks have wasted a load of money and airtime and achieved nothing. If they just committed to a couple of these for a fixed time and just stuck to it, I think people would regain more confidence in both the type of shows and the networks themselves. I know people who don't want to get invested in shows for fear of them being cancelled.
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5-29-2007 @ 4:43PM
Dorsey said...
I'm fairly happy with the new lineup for this up coming season. I'm happy because I don't care for any of it and I am looking to trim my TV watching as it is. Also with them discarding shows that I did watch (Jericho, Veronica Mars and a few others.) I am down a few hours. So thank you major networks, I get a little bit of my life back.
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5-30-2007 @ 10:32AM
bananapancakes8323 said...
Boy, did you hit the nail on the head. Since I've had children, the only alone time my husband and I have is evening television. We've had a great time watching some great shows, but it's almost at the point where these networks need to reanalyze their creative and writing staff. Grey's Anatomy was at the top of my faves, but knowing that ABC is resorting to creating a spin-off of a show that's only 3 seasons young makes me wonder if they're out of ideas. Somebody obviously needs to get a thinking cap on and take a look around. FX (which I never watched until recently, despite the craze around Nip/Tuck) has got it going on. They are showing hit movies, great reruns of good sitcoms, and seriously original primetime lineups. The Riches is by far the most creative thing on television right now, and before the season finale of Grey's, we even caught ourselves forgetting about Thursday nights, and craving for Mondays. The saddest part of this all is all the people like myself who sit around waiting for these shows to come on everynight, and getting let down, wishing I had spent my time a little more constructively.
Aside from all this rambling, I'm curious to see what summertime will hold. I think before long if these fall TV network dudes dont get a grasp on things, summer will be the new fall!!
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