Usually
I jump into new series with excitement, falling in love with even the
poor-conceived-and-sure-to-be-canceled ones with the passion only a television
scholar can offer. However this year, as
I’ve shared previously, I’ve been under-enthused about most of the new debuts.
Still, it’s time to chime in with some thoughts on the new network dramas.
The only
new drama that really sparked my interest early on this season was NBC’s Blacklist (and even so I still have
episodes piling up in my DVR). Although
I always watch a handful of procedurals, my preference is always for more
complex serials. In order for a
procedural to hold my attention it needs to be less episodic than the norm and
have an overarching plot that is mysterious enough to earn my buy in. The Blacklist
did this. Although on the ill-fated NBC
network, the show has been successful.
(I predicted its renewal weeks ago and, sure enough, it has been renewed
for a 2nd season).
The plot
revolves around a former government agent, Raymond “Red” Reddington (James
Spader), who supposedly turned to the dark side (selling national secrets and
colluding with global terrorists and wrong-doers). In the pilot episode he surrenders himself to
the FBI under the agreement that he will only work with one agent, Elizabeth
Keen (Megan Boone), a newbie FBI profiler.
Reddington then begins working with the FBI, giving them information
about various dangerous criminals that assists in their capture. The men and women he feeds to the FBI are
from his personal “blacklist,” a compilation of the global criminals he
believes are truly dangerous to society, many of whom are unknown to the FBI.
Although
the plot evolves in the traditional drama-per-week (one bad guy goes down
predictably each week and one tragedy is prevented), Spader makes for a
charismatic main character – one viewers are never 100% sure of whether to
trust. Boone also creates a sympathetic
protagonist, haunted by her own past and eager (despite herself) for Red’s
friendship. The overarching plot that
links the various episodes together works:
viewers, of course, want to know Reddington’s motivation for working
with Keen & the FBI, but the other plotlines become even more
compelling. One narrative mystery
revolves around Keen’s own husband who appears to have a secret past (and who,
it seems for a series of episodes, may have acted as an assassin). Another mystery revolves around Keen’s
parents and their connection to Reddington.
And even Keen’s partner has a backstory that calls for unpacking. So, so far so good. I’ll tune in for my weekly installation of
fast-paced action and intrigue.
A new
show that aligns with my usual serial interests is Fox’s Sleepy Hollow. This
supernatural drama is a remake of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow.” The premise is that Ichabod
Crane, a soldier in the Colonial Army, beheads a Hessian soldier in 1781,
creating the Headless Horsemen who then kills him in return. Centuries later, in modern day Sleepy Hollow,
New York, Ichabod rises from his grave after the Headless Horseman returns to
the area.
The show
has a Fringe/Lost-ish feel with a
complex mythology. Ichabod begins
working with Lieutenant Abbie Mills after she witnesses the beheading of her
mentor and partner. While the show is a
bit heavy handed in the culture-clash motif that runs throughout the episodes
(Ichabod from pre-Civil War America working with Abbie, a professional black
woman in post-Civil Rights Era America), the relationship works well enough to
keep the show going. However, it is
really the complicated, mystical explanation for the return of the Horseman
that finds me interested. (Although, if
I’m being honest, I’ve only been a distracted viewer of the show; I’ll have to
return and watch each episodes in their entirety since the show is now here to
stay, having been renewed for a second season).
The Headless Horseman, a stand in for Death, is revealed as one of the
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and so soon the mission to stop the killing spree
is not really your typical run of the mill save-the-day type of plot, but more
so the save-the-world type of plot.
There
were, of course, plenty of other drama debuts this fall but I’m not confident
that many more of them will earn their renewal status. The vampire trend continues with the launch
of NBC’s Dracula and the CW’s The Originals (a sequel to the largely
popular The Vampire Diaries). I have yet to be motivated to watch an
episode of the former (and it looks like I may not ever need to as its ratings
are predicting a cancelation), and I’m far behind in the latter (although it
may ride on the coattails of its ancestor text and find renewal, which would be
fine as I feel the series has enough to offer).
Other
shows that are hanging out in my DVR player unwatched at present include Fox’s Almost Human, ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of Shield, and ABC’s Once Upon a Time in Neverland.
As a J.J. Abrams creation, I look forward to trying out Almost Human and would venture a guess
that it could make it to renewal. I was
less than impressed by the debut of Agents
of Shield, but all the Joss Whedon fans remind me that his shows often
start up slow. But for the life of me I
can’t get myself to watch an episode of either Once Upon a Time in Neverland or Once Upon a Time (its predecessor) this fall. Perhaps when I do I’ll be pleasantly
surprised, but I think I’m just burnt out on the premise.
So tune
in next year to see if my predictions hold true for the shows I claim have a
future and see if my reluctance to dive in fully to the others is any
indication of those shows’ longevity.
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