Friday, June 12, 2009

Nose Dive

Royal Pains, consider yourself one "one episode left" notice. I was VASTLY underwhelmed by tonight's follow-up to the pilot. Mostly because you retained about 300% of the quirk of the pilot but 25% of the drama.

Now, I know. You aren't a murder mystery show. But both Monk and Psych manage to fit quirk within a murder mystery every week and keep things moving along in an amusing way (diminishing returns on Monk, IMHO, but that's why I stopped watching it). Medical shows can be funny and quirky and still solve medical mysteries. In fact, that show is House. You, Royal Pains, are not House. You aren't trying to be House. I get it.

But, please, could you try a little harder to HOLD MY ATTENTION!?

Show of hands... who knew what was wrong with the ballerina 3 minutes after the second act started (since we didn't see the ballerina until the end of the first act, and even then it was COMPLETELY SEPARATE FROM THE PLOT LINE WE WERE IN).

Also, could they be moving any faster on the Hank/Jill romance? It's episode two and they already have reached smoochus interruptus.

Sigh.

Anyway. I'm hoping this is a fluke of bad storytelling and not a hint at the formula to come from Royal Pains. Because if it is representative of what's ahead... well, I won't be watching after next week. And I really want to be watching after next week because I need more scripted TV in my summer life.

SYTYCD note - results show more engaging than Idol's (woo! no Ford commercials!), the "dance for your life" bit is interesting, Sean Kingston is not even a mediocre live performer, and the right guy and girl went home tonight.

3 comments:

Ted said...

Travis,

I saw the EASTWICK pilot. Based on the early reviews I thought it was gonan be bad but I thought it was pretty good. My only questions is why is the cast so caucasian. There is no one of color in the cast and I don't understand why. DO you think they'll do any recasting or add anyone?

Taylor said...

thefutoncritic.com and Ain't it Cool News both got the Flash Forward pilot, so maybe it's not as secretive.

Travis Yanan said...

@Ted

Not sure why the cast is so caucasian. It's not like there are no minorities in New England. I suppose the original movie was very caucasian as well... but it is a disappointment (and Lindsay Price isn't exactly playing Asian in it). Same problem I have (among others) with ABC's midseason drama The Deep End... why are none of the young leads minorities (yes, yes, one is Australian... still)!?

@Taylor

Well, those people are on critic / press review distribution lists. The industry at large has zero access... thus far. As the summer inches along I'm sure leaks will happen.