The Goodwin Games

The Goodwin Games

Episode 4: The Hamletta

By: Carlos Uribe

The Goodwin Games is about three siblings who compete for their inheritance and get closer as a family.

Spoilers Ahoy!

How much support should a family provide to it's members?

If you ask Jimmy, the world is a harsh place. He's fallen into a life of crime, gone to prison, and is into debt with a dangerous criminal. It's a harsh cycle for him as he struggles to get out of it. He thinks that the world will tear you down because it has no mercy. He thinks that the family should be there to provide complete and total support to it's members. He constantly lies to Chloe because he wants to be there for her. She's a terrible actress but he lies to spare her feelings. He lies because he knows it's her dream and he wants to support her as she pursues it. He doesn't tell Chloe that her high school icon, the reason she became an actress, was a pervert who only casted her because he wanted to have sex with her. He tries his best to protect her until she finally forces him to tell her the truth. He admits that he thinks she's a terrible actress in the end which leads to her trying to prove that she'll only find happiness as an actress. Only she realizes that the way she's proved it is by using a complex mathematical formula that she had a great time crafting. Her real passion, and talent, has always been in math. She simply got suckered into believing that she could be the most famous movie star in the world. This promise of fame led her away from academia and towards a career path where she would be recognized for playing a mutilated dead body on CSI. Jimmy's blind support of his sister has led to her wasting years of her life on a career that never had a chance of actually taking off. It was only when he voiced his opinion that she finally admitted she was living a fantasy. It's odd because Jimmy's unconditional support is often supported by a lot of family shows and yet it's slightly criticized by this episode as being unpractical.

The Fosters

The Fosters

Episode 2: Consequently

By: Carlos Uribe

The Fosters is a show about an interracial married lesbian couple that raises their biological son and adopted kids.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The pilot covered a lot of material for the characters that this episode shows the immediate consequences of some of the character's decisions. A pressing concern is what to do with Brandon. He skipped a musical competition to help out a girl with a situation that he knew a little about. He had put his life in danger carelessly without any warning to his parents. He had betrayed the trust of his parents. The general reaction from most parents would be to ground them. This punishment would deter any future misbehavior while hoping to promote the values they hoped to instil in the kids. This is where a lot of the conflict in this episode is created. Lena doesn't think that Brandon should be punished. She believes that he understands the consequences of his actions and that he has learned his lesson already. She convinces Stef to undertake this course of action but then they meet resistance from Mike. He's the father of the kid and he's not happy about this. He thinks his son should be punished but he's upset that he wasn't even included in the conversation. He was completely left out of a decision that directly impacted his son's development. The conflict here is pretty strong already. Two parents who disagree about the course of action is a staple of family dramas. It has to come up at least once simply because people can't always agree. It would make for a boring drama simply because there wouldn't actually be any. The belief is that every decision should be met with at least one obstacle. I don't always agree with this as it can lead to some forced conflict but it exists for a reason: it's conflict that ultimately drives the narrative. This familiar conflict between two parents feels fresh because the Fosters isn't covering a normal family situation. It's covering one that has popped up within this generation and it's one that mainstream media hasn't really covered. It's one that begs to question the parental roles that society has defined since time memoriam. In doing so, it has managed to use this familiar conflict to explore relevant family dynamics that are starting to take shape. The Fosters has become relevant to the culture we're living in.

King & Maxwell

King & Maxwell

Episode 1: Pilot

By: Carlos Uribe

King & Maxwell is about two former secret service agents that act as private investigators. It is based on the novel series by David Baldacci.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The most populous genre on television is the detective procedural. There are countless television shows where the audience follows a small group of characters trying to solve that week's mystery. They have proliferated in a medium that is arguably best suited for them. The literary world has a rich tradition of mystery novels dedicated to present a case being solved by the protagonist(s). A smart author will create a strong character or partnership in order to launch a series of novels that sell themselves after a few books. They create a brand that can become bestsellers. It's a bit surprising that television doesn't go to the literary world more often. There's the occasional Sherlock Holmes adaption or the attempts to bring a few iconic detectives their own shows but this tends to be shockingly rare. Hollywood pursues film adaptions of popular literary works quite rigorously but movies aren't the best medium for the mystery genre. It might get a sequel or two but most film detectives can only hope for a single mystery. Film Noir might have been popular at one point but it's no coincidence that the genre disappeared as television matured. A film is so limited in the number of mysteries it can tell. A book series is better but it can only deliver so many novels a year. A television show can present 22 good mysteries a season. It can develop the characters, visually represent the case, and employ elements that a novel can't. There are a lot of reasons for why procedural are so prevalent in the medium but it's partly because television is the best way to tell these kind of stories. It makes sense that television producers would try to adapt popular contemporary literary heroes into the medium because of the built-in fanbase and brand name that should theoretically make it easier to market. It's odd that television adaptions of the mystery genre has been so few so it makes King & Maxwell stand out a bit. I'm not sure whether the source material is bad, as I've never read a David Baldacci novel, but this adaption of it is very dull and is filled with weak writing.

Falling Skies

Falling Skies

Episode 1: On Thin Ice

Episode 2: Collateral Damage

The Season Premiere

By: Carlos Uribe

Falling Skies is a show about the human war effort, along with it's allies, against an alien invasion force.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Welcome to the new season of Falling Skies! The premiere picks up seven months after the cliff-hanger from last season's finale. The new aliens turned out to be allies who have helped turn the tide of war against the skitters. They've given the humans technology to properly remove the harnesses, grenades that mess with the mech's operations, and are building a giant weapon that will allow their army to invade the planet. The human-alien alliance has turned out to be fruitful for our rebellion but it doesn't come without any tension. The humans don't trust them. They might be willing to work with them to beat the skitters but they're worried about what's going to happen when they win the war. Will these new aliens actually help them or will they turn around to conquer them? This is a good tension for the show because it makes sense and it helps to ensure there's going to be some conflict between the aliens and the human commanders. These new aliens aren't the only ones helping our human war effort. The skitter rebellion has officially set up camp next door and the two factions have started to help each other. There is tension between them as humans don't trust them and some still can't seem to comprehend the idea that there could be good and bad skitters. The show doesn't have a lot of subtlety as the writers are clearly drawing parallels between the skitters and bigotry towards human minority groups. This alliance between the three factions (human, skitter, new aliens) has helped turn the balance of power over to the human side. Of course, allowing this imbalance to side with our protagonists makes things too easy for our heroes. The writers upgrade the skitters by giving them access to supermechs that aren't so easily defeated by EMP grenades and some of the kids are too far gone through the harness to ever be saved. There is a threat of an incoming massive invasion that threatens to destroy their city. Overall, I guess it's a good way of setting up this season's conflicts: the tensions between the allies and the threat of the skitters remains. It is a pity that we did skip seven months because it would have been interesting to see how these new aliens set up their alliance with the humans. Falling Skies always seems to be more interesting in the effects and not the causes. They skipped the actual invasion, they fast-forwarded Tom's negotiations with the overlord, and now they've jumped ahead to a period where the humans might actually be able to win their war due to new alliances.

Sam & Cat

Sam & Cat

Episode 1: #Pilot

By: Carlos Uribe

Sam & Cat is a show about Sam (from the television show iCarly) and Cat (from the television show Victorious) who join forces to start a babysitting business.

Spoilers Ahoy!

There is a joke in the television fan community to spin-off characters from two different shows (or the same one) and have them start a traveling detective agency. The idea is that it would be a lot of fun to spend time with these two characters as they solved crimes while they toured the country. It is often used as praise for two strong, compelling, and entertaining characters and is rarely applied to weak ones. This is sort-of what Dan Schneider did with a character from iCarly and a character from Victorious. Only this is a show for children and there are real-life budget restraints to take into consideration. He couldn't have them open a detective agency because murder is not really a topic for children. They could investigate small “crimes” but that wouldn't be very relatable or open as many kid-related plots as a series would require. So the two form what is the kid version of a detective agency: a babysitting business. A perfect idea as it allows the show to incorporate cute kids on a weekly basis, is relatable, and is appropriate for children to watch. He doesn't have them travel but settle down in one place. This will allow the producers to save money on sets, allow them to develop recurring characters, and allow them to do non-babysitting adventures. In other words, it could operate as a normal comedy without having to be burdened by it's premise. Sam & Cat has a lot going for it. It's taking two characters from former popular comedies and putting them in their own shows. It's giving them a strong premise to create the situations for the “sit”-com part of the show. It has decent talent behind-the-scenes that promise at least some tolerable writing for the adults. This could be a hit. Kids don't have a lot of standards when they watch shows and they'll be interested in checking this show out. The question is whether parents will hate the show or whether they'll be able to sit back and actually enjoy it?

Summer Reviews: Cancelled

After seriously considering it, I have decided that I won't be repeating the classic summer reviews from last summer. As much as I hate to do it, I simply don't have the time for it. The following shows are affected:

Adventure Time
Cheers
Dawson's Creek
Good Luck Charlie
House of Anubis
iCarly
Mad Men
Rescue Me
Scrubs
Shake It Up
South Park
Stargate SG-1
That 70's Show
The Wonder Years

Over the weekend, I'll move them all to "Previous Weekly Coverage".

I will continue to cover summer originals.

Sinbad

Sinbad

Episode 1: Pilot

By: Carlos Uribe

Sinbad is a British television series about the mystical adventures of the sailor Sinbad.

Spoilers Ahoy!

There are two kinds of shows: the ones with a serialized plotline that gets developed every week and the one where there's a different weekly plot. It's gotten more complicated as the latter has started to introduce serialized conflicts into it's framework. Sinbad is a pretty good example of this. The pilot might spend a lot too much time getting to the basic premise of the show but it sets up an overreaching narrative while promising weekly adventures. The basic idea behind the show is that the actions of the thief Sinbad accidentally leads to the death of his brother. His grandmother isn't too happy with him so she curses him so that he can only be on land for a whole day. He's basically been cursed to spend his life traveling on a ship until he can find redemption. The series has set up the excuse for the weekly adventures (the curse) while giving his character a strong motive (redemption). The promised serialized arc of the show comes from Lord Akbari. Sinbad had accidentally killed the lord's son at the beginning of the epiosde and Akbari wants revenge. He wants to kill Sinbad. He's going to be the recurring antagonist but his quest for revenge is also what's going to provide a serialized plot. Let's face it: a series could last in perpetuity of Sinbad searching redemption through his voyages. He would have no actual chance of finding redemption until the final episode nor would the adventures actually have to add up to anything. It's true that Lord Akbari's quest could easily be in perpetuity as well in the sense that every episode he has a plan that's foiled. There are three reasons that make me doubt that is the extent the series plans to take the character: the first is that he has no real plan in this episode. He gets to easily arrest Sinbad. The second is simply because he's not stuck in the ocean. He can interact with different characters that will hopefully allow the series to develop a serialized narrative over time. The final reason is because a huge portion of the episode is spent on building things up. This gives the impression that there's an actual narrative here rather than just an excuse for episodic adventures. I could be wrong. It's possible Sinbad is just going to be a show where the protagonist goes on weekly adventures as he foils Akbari's latest plan.

Primeval: New World

Primeval: New World

Episode 1: The New World

By: Carlos Uribe

Primeval: New World is a show about dinosaurs that pop out of time portals to attack modern Vancouver.

Spoilers Ahoy!

I'm going to begin this episode with a simple question:

Is the original Primeval this bad?

I've never seen the original show but it managed to last five seasons on British television. It surely had to be better than this because Primeval: New World is one of the worst pilots I've seen from Canada. It's no surprise that this show got canceled because it forgets the real reason people tune in to watch any show: the characters. The plot is important and it shouldn't be neglected but it's nothing if it doesn't have the strong characters to be in it. The Following is a plot-heavy show but it didn't have any strong characters. It became a huge, unbearable mess where all of the plot twists and violence felt meaningless because it didn't have a good grasp on any of it's characters. It might not have started out that way but Fringe would have a complicated serialized plot but it's flaws were easily ignored because of it's strong use of compelling characters. It's true that a lot of so-called character dramas (The Walking Dead) struggle with creating good characters or end up giving them a disjointed, terrible plot (Flashforward). The former is because it's difficult to come up with compelling characters while the latter is because too much concentration was given to the characters. The ideal show should strive towards having a great plot, strong characters, and organic dialogue. Primeval: New World doesn't bother to really set up it's characters and the dialogue all feels stilted. The only part it really goes for is a plot but it ends up miserably. In other words, Primeval: New World is such an epic failure because it doesn't really try with two of the key ingredients to a good show and then completely botches up the one ingredient it concentrates on. It's a big mess of a show and one that gives no viewer any reason to come back. I'm guessing Primeval was better than this piece of garbage. I'm guessing that the creators of this “spin-off” thought that they didn't need to put in a lot of effort because fans of the original were going to watch it. I sincerely hope they abandoned this show as soon as they realized just how horrible it was. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Primeval was just as bad and the fans don't care about strong characters or good dialogue. Maybe they just want to watch dinosaurs. I don't know but my first introduction to the franchise was not a good one.

Graceland

Graceland

Episode 1: Pilot

By: Carlos Uribe

Graceland is a show about undercover federal agents living in the same house in Southern California.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Television is filled with cop shows. It's the most prominent genre currently on the air because they're easy to make and people watch them. This doesn't mean that every cop show that makes it to air is going to make it. It needs to get at least one thing right: it needs to make people want to see the specific characters in the show solve crimes. People have a lot options to chose from so the chemistry between the actors and the strength of the lead detectives is crucial in order to get people to come back for future episodes. A cop show needs a strong team to keep it's audience but it also needs a hook to get people to check it out. The reason why people check out Graceland over a hundred other cop shows. The aspect that separates the show from the pack without being so different that it's no longer a recognizable part of the genre. The hook of Graceland is that federal agents are living undercover in the same house. They come from three different agencies (FBI, DEA, and Customs) that allows the show a large variety of potential crimes to investigate. The characters could go undercover to infiltrate drug and smuggling rings, cults, and other groups. Forcing them to live together basically means that the characters will not only be close but frequently run into conflict with each other because that's what happens when people spend a lot of time together. The house also acts as a unique base of operations-which is different from just another police headquarters. The whole undercover aspect promises that these characters will be taking on roles, which can be entertaining on it's own right. In other words: Graceland has a pretty great premise that could take it a lot of places on the weekly cases while providing a lot of room to develop conflicts in the long-run. Graceland has the potential to be a fun, summer series on USA but it does have a lot of issues to sort out first. The team needs some fleshing out, the pacing needs to be quickened, and the plot needs to be tightened. These are all issues that can be solved as Graceland goes forward.

In the Flesh

In the Flesh

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

By: Carlos Uribe

In the Flesh is a show about a zombie trying to readjust to society after he has been cured from his rabid state.

Spoilers Ahoy! (Including very vague spoilers on The Walking Dead and Warm Bodies)

The zombie genre has been pretty popular lately. One of the most popular televisions shows currently on the air is The Walking Dead. The Dead Island and the Left 4 Dead video game series have managed to sell well. The upcoming blockbuster film World War Z is based on a bestselling novel about the military response to the zombie threat. The zombie genre has been really popular lately and this is where In the Flesh comes in. It's a show about zombies but after they had found a cure. They managed to get rid of their rabid, flesh-eating state so that they could be re-integrated into society. This is a world that had survived the zombie apocalypse and was now re-adjusting to the aftermath. The idea for a zombie cure is always a promise in the genre. The Walking Dead's first season revolved around the hope that the government would find a cure for the disease and everything would go back to normal. When this hope was crushed, they meet an old man on a farm who keeps a group of zombies in his barn because he believed they would find a cure one day. He saw them as human beings rather than the undead. The third season itself had a leader of a town who kept his small daughter because he couldn't accept her loss. He employed a scientist who was trying to study the zombies they encountered. In other words, The Walking Dead is filled with people who are always hoping that one day the monsters trying to kill them will become humans one day. These people will likely always be wrong on that show as society has completely collapsed. Not all zombie fiction is so grim as the movie Warm Bodies was all about how a zombie managed to remember how to feel when he fell in love with a human female. The movie was based on a novel. Warm Bodies was less interested in exploring how society would cope with this cure and more in how it came to be. In the Flesh is interested in what happens after they have been cured. It becomes a pretty great show even if the social allegories are a little too on-the-nose at times. Like, seriously, a character should have noted how the treatment towards the zombies in this show by the humans is often how people discriminated against people of a different color back in the sixties. Although at least they have some justification in this bigotry as these were creatures that were literally trying to destroy their society just a short while back. Which does add a nice layer of complexity to the issue.