THE CARRIE DIARIES
Network: CW
Written By: Amy Harris
Draft Date: December 20, 2011
Pages: 60
Disclaimer!
Remember that one time when Gossip Girl, at the height of its ratings and buzz (aka: season 2) tried to do a backdoor pilot about Lily Rhodes in the 1980s? Well, for some reason / many reasons, that didn't wind up happening. Now, three years later, CW is a changing network with new leadership, Gossip Girl is gasping for its last breath / apparently is getting one last season for some reason... and we have another 1980s-set teen drama that's a prequel to an iconic New York City-set series (that also happens to share two out of three words in its title with CW's lone, um, successful? show, The Vampire Diaries... so that will be fun and confusing if this is picked up... and before you jump down my throat, TVDers, please keep in mind that I think TVD has developed into one of the best network dramas on the air right now).
Where was I. Oh, right! Carrie Bradshaw.
I will say that, having sat through 94 Sex and the City episodes and 2 SATC movies (or, really, one movie and one horror show where depressingly materialistic women try to ignore that they're aging and throw everything that's bad about Western culture into the face of the Middle East), I could very, very clearly hear Carrie saying these lines (write Amy Harris did work on SATC), especially the abundant and theme-explicating voiceovers (which I'd ordinarily complain about... except that TCD is just following the SATC template). In fact, I heard Sarah Jessica Parker in my head while reading those lines. A very large part of me wonders if the show could get SJP to record the voiceovers like Kristen Bell does for/as Gossip Girl and Bob Saget does for How I Met Your Mother.
If you're a stickler for continuity... The Carrie Diaries is just a tad different than what was "established" in SATC (then again, SATC never really talked much about Carrie's backstory). So, try and forget anything you knew about Carrie. And that sound you hear is all of the gentlemen readers who are, somehow, still reading this review after the prior paragraph shrugging.
The year is 1984. Carrie Bradshaw is a sixteen-year old about to start the first day of a new year at high school. But there's a change... because her mother died of cancer three months ago. This year is different. Carrie's fourteen-year old younger sister, Dorrit, has reacted to the trauma by developing a pot habit and biting Carrie when they fight. Their father, Tom, is generally clueless to the fact that Carrie's mother always took her shopping for a new outfit for the first day of school, and so, being Carrie Bradshaw, Carrie Bradshaw is depressed and passive-agressive about this until Tom does the unthinkable, and opens the doors to his late wife's untouched closet for her to peruse.
Hey, it's 1984 and she's 16. I'm okay with her being materialistic in the Age of the Material Girl. The show isn't quite playing to the "isn't this ridiculous" tone of Clueless with it, but whatever.
Carrie lives in generally affluent suburban utopia somewhere in Connecticut. Sucks to be her, right? She has a smart, loyal friend who spent the summer interning in DC, Jill aka "The Mouse." Then there's Maggie, overtly sexy, who is the son of the chief of police / sheriff. Maggie is dating a very obviously in the closet (he says, looking back from 2012) boy, Walt. And so we have our core group of friends that are a close proximation but not exact copies of Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha. Being high school, there's a mean girl (the somewhat hilariously, somewhat laughably named Donna LaDonna) and her minions (The Jens). Maggie lost her virginity, The Mouse lost her virginity... but Carrie is still a virgin. There's a very frank discussion of what happens when a girl loses her virginity.
In walks Sebastian Kydd, the new boy in school. And he knows Carrie from two summers ago. And they kissed. But Donna LaDonna has her sights set on the fresh meat, too.
But then, a shocking twist! As Carrie is about to ask Sebastian out, she sees her dad in the school hallway, reminding her of when/how she found out about her mother, and she passes out. Tom and Carrie's guidance counselor develop a way to help Carrie get a new beginning: intern once a week in Manhattan at a law firm (because Carrie wants, at this point, to be a lawyer).
So, it's not quite Jane by Design, but you can kind of tell that's where it may be going, right?
Anyway, Carrie goes to Manhattan for the first time, and hates doing filing work at the firm. But she ripped her panty hose on the way to work, so took them off and, being the 1980s, receives a very stern talking to about that from what I assume is The Horrific Future Version of Joan Holloway. She's told to go the Century 21 to get a pair of hose during her lunch break, and when she walks in, she finds herself in "what will become her fashion mecca." There, she meets Larissa, a female style editor at Interview magazine, who basically sweeps Carrie along for a crazy, glamorous night in Manhattan that will set a template for Carrie's life 20 years later.
This section reminded me of that episode the The Simpsons where Homer becomes a famous artist for five seconds because he smashes a failed attempt at a backyard BBQ pit. "Carrie, this is everybody. Everybody, this is Carrie. That's Dominick, he's an artist who works with found objects and wax..." (this is a direct quote from TCD).
There is some actual conflict with her home life, because this magical night in Manhattan is happening on the same night as The New Beginnings dance at high school, where Carrie and Sebastian may become an item and/or do the nasty and she has a curfew (of midnight). Instead, Carrie pops her Manhattan cherry (*the script makes this thematic point, it's not me being crude*) and Donna gets Sebastian... for now. But Carrie has been changed forever.
This is a definite, "um, we'll see how it turns out." Combine the soap of teen drama, the overt sexual nature of SATC, and the challenges of a period piece... who knows. It seems to fit in what the CW's old wheelhouse was, under Dawn Ostroff. You don't want to completely alienate that audience by completely changing the nature of every series, but this seems more risque than risky. But maybe risque can pay off.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Pilot Script Review - Cult
CULT
Network: CW
Written By: Rockne S. O'Bannon
Draft Date: January 6, 2011 (I suspect the title page means 2012, but that's what's on it)
Pages: 63
Disclaimer!
Scripts like Cult are what I like to read. It's imaginative and ambitious, to say the least. Ambition and a distinct voice are what broadcast shows need if the networks want to stop ceding ground to cable and its supposed hands-off executives and creator/showrunners' creative license and freedom.
Which is not to say that Cult is going to work, mind you, as either a pilot or a series. I just like the fact that someone (Mark Pedowitz) picked something like this up to shoot. This was the third CW script I read and, IIRC, the first pickup made. When I read it (and I held off on reviews until I'd read all five of the dramas picked up so far), my first thought was "If Cult is the vision Mark Pedowitz has for the post-Dawn Ostroff CW, then things are really going to change on the netlet." Now having read and reviewed Mile High Medical and read The Carrie Diaries... well, let's just say that some bets are being hedged.
Cult is about as far away from Gossip Girl as you can imagine. It's a swing-for-the-fences kind of show. The thing about trying to hit a home run is (*note: I have no idea if this is actually true in baseball*) you're going to miss more often than if trying to just get a solid on-base hit.
Or something about a pop fly to left field? I don't know. Sports aren't really my thing.
Anyway, Cult is one of those shows that is either going to be a hit or a spectacular failure. These kinds of big idea shows tend to be one or the other, and for every Lost or Heroes, there's... every show that was spawned by the networks trying to make a compatible lead-out or get their own version of said hit.
But what is Cult? I'm still trying to answer that question. It's a show so darkly meta I don't quite know what to make of it, where obsession with television and television shows and the delusion that fiction might be bleeding into reality is, itself, the point. It kind of winks at you and says "it's just TV!" then asks, "but wait... is it?"
Cult is about a detective, Eric Collins, whose family has been kidnapped, he believes, by this really nefarious cult leader, Billy Grimm. But Billy's smart. He has minions, lots of minions. Brainwashed minions. They do his bidding, so his hands are clean. But our hero is sure that he's responsible. And, naturally he wants his family back.
But wait. That's just the plot of Cult, the television show within the show Cult. This show. Man, people are obsessed with it. It's kind of creepy, and it's got all of these audience-participation add-ons, online components, etc. It's the kind of show you watch with a group or people but no one is allowed to talk, or alone in a dark and you turn your cell phone off because god forbid someone calls you during it. It's the kind of show where even if you work on it, like go-fer Skye Yarrow, you don't know what's coming next. You've never met the boss, Steven Rae. The crew gets annoyed when they're told some small detail, like a graffiti symbol in the background, isn't right because, dammit, the smallest details are just that important because THE FANS WILL NOTICE. The network brass want to make the show more accessible, etc.
But, really, Cult is about Jeff Sefton, a shamed reporter trying to rebuild his reputation whose younger brother, Nate, is obsessed with the show Cult (and we're talking way beyond the obsession of, say, a Lost fan who wrote 4 8 15 16 23 42 on a chalkboard after Numbers aired in 2005... not that I'm admitting to anything...), who is scared for his life, believes that the show Cult is something more than just a show, and goes missing or, perhaps, has been murdered... leaving clues only Jeff can pick up on. Will Jeff jump down the rabbit hole for his brother? Can he believe that something more than a TV show is happening? Jeff's first attempt at finding the truth is to visit the set of the show, where he meets Skye, and eventually an unlikely partnership is forged between a skeptic and a believer.
Oh, and there are a helluva lot of other plots and characters (like meeting the actors who play the characters on the TV, a number of scenes from the show (which is, actually, kinda of arch/big), and more.
So... is your head spinning?
There are elements I don't love. I think that some of the crosses between the show-within-the-show perilously teeter from "thematic" to "redundant." What with the hero-detectives and their missing-maybe-murdered family members and such. But, again, that's the point. Some of the in-show marketing for the show-within-the-show is... well, let's just say that it's probably not how an actual marketing department would market anything.
I don't know if Cult is going to work, if it can find an audience, or if it can keep that audience hooked without confusing the crap out of everyone. But I'm excited to find out, and I want to know more. And that's really all any TV pilot script can ask.
Network: CW
Written By: Rockne S. O'Bannon
Draft Date: January 6, 2011 (I suspect the title page means 2012, but that's what's on it)
Pages: 63
Disclaimer!
Scripts like Cult are what I like to read. It's imaginative and ambitious, to say the least. Ambition and a distinct voice are what broadcast shows need if the networks want to stop ceding ground to cable and its supposed hands-off executives and creator/showrunners' creative license and freedom.
Which is not to say that Cult is going to work, mind you, as either a pilot or a series. I just like the fact that someone (Mark Pedowitz) picked something like this up to shoot. This was the third CW script I read and, IIRC, the first pickup made. When I read it (and I held off on reviews until I'd read all five of the dramas picked up so far), my first thought was "If Cult is the vision Mark Pedowitz has for the post-Dawn Ostroff CW, then things are really going to change on the netlet." Now having read and reviewed Mile High Medical and read The Carrie Diaries... well, let's just say that some bets are being hedged.
Cult is about as far away from Gossip Girl as you can imagine. It's a swing-for-the-fences kind of show. The thing about trying to hit a home run is (*note: I have no idea if this is actually true in baseball*) you're going to miss more often than if trying to just get a solid on-base hit.
Or something about a pop fly to left field? I don't know. Sports aren't really my thing.
Anyway, Cult is one of those shows that is either going to be a hit or a spectacular failure. These kinds of big idea shows tend to be one or the other, and for every Lost or Heroes, there's... every show that was spawned by the networks trying to make a compatible lead-out or get their own version of said hit.
But what is Cult? I'm still trying to answer that question. It's a show so darkly meta I don't quite know what to make of it, where obsession with television and television shows and the delusion that fiction might be bleeding into reality is, itself, the point. It kind of winks at you and says "it's just TV!" then asks, "but wait... is it?"
Cult is about a detective, Eric Collins, whose family has been kidnapped, he believes, by this really nefarious cult leader, Billy Grimm. But Billy's smart. He has minions, lots of minions. Brainwashed minions. They do his bidding, so his hands are clean. But our hero is sure that he's responsible. And, naturally he wants his family back.
But wait. That's just the plot of Cult, the television show within the show Cult. This show. Man, people are obsessed with it. It's kind of creepy, and it's got all of these audience-participation add-ons, online components, etc. It's the kind of show you watch with a group or people but no one is allowed to talk, or alone in a dark and you turn your cell phone off because god forbid someone calls you during it. It's the kind of show where even if you work on it, like go-fer Skye Yarrow, you don't know what's coming next. You've never met the boss, Steven Rae. The crew gets annoyed when they're told some small detail, like a graffiti symbol in the background, isn't right because, dammit, the smallest details are just that important because THE FANS WILL NOTICE. The network brass want to make the show more accessible, etc.
But, really, Cult is about Jeff Sefton, a shamed reporter trying to rebuild his reputation whose younger brother, Nate, is obsessed with the show Cult (and we're talking way beyond the obsession of, say, a Lost fan who wrote 4 8 15 16 23 42 on a chalkboard after Numbers aired in 2005... not that I'm admitting to anything...), who is scared for his life, believes that the show Cult is something more than just a show, and goes missing or, perhaps, has been murdered... leaving clues only Jeff can pick up on. Will Jeff jump down the rabbit hole for his brother? Can he believe that something more than a TV show is happening? Jeff's first attempt at finding the truth is to visit the set of the show, where he meets Skye, and eventually an unlikely partnership is forged between a skeptic and a believer.
Oh, and there are a helluva lot of other plots and characters (like meeting the actors who play the characters on the TV, a number of scenes from the show (which is, actually, kinda of arch/big), and more.
So... is your head spinning?
There are elements I don't love. I think that some of the crosses between the show-within-the-show perilously teeter from "thematic" to "redundant." What with the hero-detectives and their missing-maybe-murdered family members and such. But, again, that's the point. Some of the in-show marketing for the show-within-the-show is... well, let's just say that it's probably not how an actual marketing department would market anything.
I don't know if Cult is going to work, if it can find an audience, or if it can keep that audience hooked without confusing the crap out of everyone. But I'm excited to find out, and I want to know more. And that's really all any TV pilot script can ask.
Pilot Script Review - Mile High Medical
MILE HIGH MEDICAL
Network: CW
Written By: Jennie Snyder Urman
Draft Date: December 22, 2011
Pages: 63
Disclaimer!
If you ever watched Grey's Anatomy (particularly the pilot) and thought "this is just too subtle for me" and "gosh, I wish Meredith had a lot more voiceover" and "that Meredith is just too put together, I wish she were more neurotic," then Mile High Medical is for you.
Emily Barnes was not a popular girl in high school. She was insecure and lacked confidence. Now she's a surgical intern starting her first year at Denver Memorial Hospital and she is still insecure and lacks confidence. So much so that she yells at a frizzy-haired high school girl who she kind of creepily watches before walking into her first day (because the high school is across the street from the hospital, naturally) because the girl called her a loser.
Honey. You're a mess.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for flawed characters. I prefer them, really. But Emily comes off as so needy and pathetic that it's a major problem for me (also a major problem: her pervasive voiceover where she spells out her thoughts and/or the subtext of everything, i.e. "He's touching you. Do not spaz out. Do not. Spaz. Out" or, when a patient starts to code she yells "I need a doctor!" is told she is a doctor, and then thinks "A real doctor! Get a real doctor!" WE GET IT). Her one saving grace is her super ability to have bedside manner. But it doesn't really help her escape the bottomless pitiable pit she's jumped into. And this is the show's lead?
The show seems to make the point that we don't grow up. We are all the children/teenagers/whatever we always were, just trying to ignore the fact that we're older and still the same. I get it. I just don't want to watch it.
The other interns:
- Cassandra Kopelson. She's the mean girl who made Emily's high school life hell and just happens to also be starting the internship program. Neither Emily nor Cassandra seem to be able to let certain elements of high school go. Tell me if you've heard this one before... hospitals are like high school. Seriously. Seriously! Pretty sure the hospital departments as different high school cliques was in the Grey's pilot (even if the various departments were labelled differently). Seriously. But that phrase is repeated so often and so verbatim that I actually think Denver Memorial is more akin to kindergarten than high school. Now, of course, Cassandra has some hidden damage that Emily wasn't aware of... but she's still that mean girl you wished would get run over by a bus. And wouldn't you know it, she seems to be romantic rivals with Emily for...
- Will Rider. Charming, went to med school with Emily. Emily spends approximately every waking moment lusting after him, and even has a heavy-handed metaphor-patient in the form of a 12-year old girl who talking about Twilight (hmmm, maybe Emily is cut from the same cloth as Bella... that would explain some of my frustration with her) is also dealing with the issue of being too worried about rejection to ask the cute boy out. It goes better for the patient than it does for Emily, who overshares in her startling confession to Will, and then is treated to the most on-the-nose rejection I think I've ever seen: "I'm so sorry. I just don't see you like that. But I'm so touched by what you said, I really am. And I hope that we can still be friends, because I really value your friendship." I have no doubt that passage has been uttered in real life. But, come on. That's the first draft cardboard dialogue block you write when you just need to power through the vomit draft and you're going to come back and write something more specific to the character and not nearly so cut-and-dry.
- Tyra Granger, who has very little to do in the pilot except explicitly tell Emily on the first moment of their meeting that she is the Chief of Surgery's daughter and a lesbian. Which would be fine if Tyra were at all presented as out-and-proud (it turns out she isn't actually out to her dad). She kind of disappears (since she and Emily don't share a medical case in the pilot). The Chief, for his part, has a long-winded speech and also basically disappears
Then there's the interns' resident, Micah, who we're clearly supposed to believe will eventually be Emily's love interest post-Will rejection. His mother is dying of pancreatic cancer. And, of course, the hard-nosed, famous-within-the-world-of-the-story attending surgeon Gina, who has terrible bedside manner and whom Emily must prove herself to if she hopes to survive.
You know what this show is. Interns struggling to survive (although if I read the times indicated on the slug lines correctly, the first shift was a whopping 10 hours from 8AM to 6PM... and I totally buy that a patient who needs her heart reconstructed can be closed up and awake and texting 65 minutes later, so, thanks for the specificity). Being competitors, friends, rivals, and lovers. And patients and surgeries reflecting on the characters' personal journeys.
I'm not saying the Grey's formula can't be done ever again, but... come on. Who are we kidding with this one, folks. At least try and make it a little different.
Network: CW
Written By: Jennie Snyder Urman
Draft Date: December 22, 2011
Pages: 63
Disclaimer!
If you ever watched Grey's Anatomy (particularly the pilot) and thought "this is just too subtle for me" and "gosh, I wish Meredith had a lot more voiceover" and "that Meredith is just too put together, I wish she were more neurotic," then Mile High Medical is for you.
Emily Barnes was not a popular girl in high school. She was insecure and lacked confidence. Now she's a surgical intern starting her first year at Denver Memorial Hospital and she is still insecure and lacks confidence. So much so that she yells at a frizzy-haired high school girl who she kind of creepily watches before walking into her first day (because the high school is across the street from the hospital, naturally) because the girl called her a loser.
Honey. You're a mess.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for flawed characters. I prefer them, really. But Emily comes off as so needy and pathetic that it's a major problem for me (also a major problem: her pervasive voiceover where she spells out her thoughts and/or the subtext of everything, i.e. "He's touching you. Do not spaz out. Do not. Spaz. Out" or, when a patient starts to code she yells "I need a doctor!" is told she is a doctor, and then thinks "A real doctor! Get a real doctor!" WE GET IT). Her one saving grace is her super ability to have bedside manner. But it doesn't really help her escape the bottomless pitiable pit she's jumped into. And this is the show's lead?
The show seems to make the point that we don't grow up. We are all the children/teenagers/whatever we always were, just trying to ignore the fact that we're older and still the same. I get it. I just don't want to watch it.
The other interns:
- Cassandra Kopelson. She's the mean girl who made Emily's high school life hell and just happens to also be starting the internship program. Neither Emily nor Cassandra seem to be able to let certain elements of high school go. Tell me if you've heard this one before... hospitals are like high school. Seriously. Seriously! Pretty sure the hospital departments as different high school cliques was in the Grey's pilot (even if the various departments were labelled differently). Seriously. But that phrase is repeated so often and so verbatim that I actually think Denver Memorial is more akin to kindergarten than high school. Now, of course, Cassandra has some hidden damage that Emily wasn't aware of... but she's still that mean girl you wished would get run over by a bus. And wouldn't you know it, she seems to be romantic rivals with Emily for...
- Will Rider. Charming, went to med school with Emily. Emily spends approximately every waking moment lusting after him, and even has a heavy-handed metaphor-patient in the form of a 12-year old girl who talking about Twilight (hmmm, maybe Emily is cut from the same cloth as Bella... that would explain some of my frustration with her) is also dealing with the issue of being too worried about rejection to ask the cute boy out. It goes better for the patient than it does for Emily, who overshares in her startling confession to Will, and then is treated to the most on-the-nose rejection I think I've ever seen: "I'm so sorry. I just don't see you like that. But I'm so touched by what you said, I really am. And I hope that we can still be friends, because I really value your friendship." I have no doubt that passage has been uttered in real life. But, come on. That's the first draft cardboard dialogue block you write when you just need to power through the vomit draft and you're going to come back and write something more specific to the character and not nearly so cut-and-dry.
- Tyra Granger, who has very little to do in the pilot except explicitly tell Emily on the first moment of their meeting that she is the Chief of Surgery's daughter and a lesbian. Which would be fine if Tyra were at all presented as out-and-proud (it turns out she isn't actually out to her dad). She kind of disappears (since she and Emily don't share a medical case in the pilot). The Chief, for his part, has a long-winded speech and also basically disappears
Then there's the interns' resident, Micah, who we're clearly supposed to believe will eventually be Emily's love interest post-Will rejection. His mother is dying of pancreatic cancer. And, of course, the hard-nosed, famous-within-the-world-of-the-story attending surgeon Gina, who has terrible bedside manner and whom Emily must prove herself to if she hopes to survive.
You know what this show is. Interns struggling to survive (although if I read the times indicated on the slug lines correctly, the first shift was a whopping 10 hours from 8AM to 6PM... and I totally buy that a patient who needs her heart reconstructed can be closed up and awake and texting 65 minutes later, so, thanks for the specificity). Being competitors, friends, rivals, and lovers. And patients and surgeries reflecting on the characters' personal journeys.
I'm not saying the Grey's formula can't be done ever again, but... come on. Who are we kidding with this one, folks. At least try and make it a little different.
Pilot Read 2012 Disclaimer
GENERAL DISCLAIMER
I only review drama scripts. I'm a drama writer and so, when there are already 1000 things I'm behind on reading/writing/doing, I don't have the time to read comedy scripts. Sorry.
All pilot script reviews will, when available, give the draft date of the script. I can't recall a single instance of a final shooting script for pilots being circulated in the industry over the last few years since I've been doing script reviews. Often, scripts are way too long and need significant cuts to get down to a target run time. Plus... studios and networks give notes. So, it's important to keep in mind that THINGS CAN CHANGE, and often do (but not too often for the better).
And things can often turn out much better on screen after casting (I try to read/review without casting in mind and ideally before casting is done) and filming and editing happen that I am simply too shortsighted and ill-visioned to see or appreciate at the script stage.
It's also very important to keep in mind that these are my opinions. I have a... particular taste in what I watch and enjoy. It may not be yours. In fact, it probably isn't. You may disagree with me (whether you've read the script or not). That's okay.
I don't like writing reviews of bad material. I wish every script could be the best script I've ever read, and that's the attitude I try and go into every script with. I want to be wowed, either by concept or character or even a line or a moment that just lands and hits me hard. I want to be jealous that someone else wrote this, and I didn't. There are plenty of reasons I may dislike a script, and they'll probably be enumerated in individual reviews.
If you disagree with me and you haven't actually read the script, let's just accept that it's a waste of mutual time for you to lambaste my opinion.
If you have read the script and disagree, I'm game for a discussion. Especially when I dislike something, I'm always more than happy to be proven wrong by the finished product or by someone else's point of view.
There are spoilers inherent in writing reviews. After all, how can I give an opinion if I can't talk about what I'm opining? When I feel something is a GIANT TWIST however, I will do my best to not spoil it, especially twists that come towards the end of a script.
Finally, if you are the writer of a project that I have, let's say, ripped to shreds, I hope you don't take it as a personal attack (and I'll do my best to not make any personal attacks like "sometimes you have to wonder how X got an agent," etc). Hey, you're the one who got a pilot picked up to be produced by a broadcast network, right?
I only review drama scripts. I'm a drama writer and so, when there are already 1000 things I'm behind on reading/writing/doing, I don't have the time to read comedy scripts. Sorry.
All pilot script reviews will, when available, give the draft date of the script. I can't recall a single instance of a final shooting script for pilots being circulated in the industry over the last few years since I've been doing script reviews. Often, scripts are way too long and need significant cuts to get down to a target run time. Plus... studios and networks give notes. So, it's important to keep in mind that THINGS CAN CHANGE, and often do (but not too often for the better).
And things can often turn out much better on screen after casting (I try to read/review without casting in mind and ideally before casting is done) and filming and editing happen that I am simply too shortsighted and ill-visioned to see or appreciate at the script stage.
It's also very important to keep in mind that these are my opinions. I have a... particular taste in what I watch and enjoy. It may not be yours. In fact, it probably isn't. You may disagree with me (whether you've read the script or not). That's okay.
I don't like writing reviews of bad material. I wish every script could be the best script I've ever read, and that's the attitude I try and go into every script with. I want to be wowed, either by concept or character or even a line or a moment that just lands and hits me hard. I want to be jealous that someone else wrote this, and I didn't. There are plenty of reasons I may dislike a script, and they'll probably be enumerated in individual reviews.
If you disagree with me and you haven't actually read the script, let's just accept that it's a waste of mutual time for you to lambaste my opinion.
If you have read the script and disagree, I'm game for a discussion. Especially when I dislike something, I'm always more than happy to be proven wrong by the finished product or by someone else's point of view.
There are spoilers inherent in writing reviews. After all, how can I give an opinion if I can't talk about what I'm opining? When I feel something is a GIANT TWIST however, I will do my best to not spoil it, especially twists that come towards the end of a script.
Finally, if you are the writer of a project that I have, let's say, ripped to shreds, I hope you don't take it as a personal attack (and I'll do my best to not make any personal attacks like "sometimes you have to wonder how X got an agent," etc). Hey, you're the one who got a pilot picked up to be produced by a broadcast network, right?
Monday, October 31, 2011
Grimm Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
GRIMM
9:00-9:15
- 6.710 million viewers
- 4.2/7 HH
- 2.2/6 A18-49
9:15-9:30
- 6.227 million viewers
- 3.9/6 HH
- 2.0/6 A18-49
9:30-9:45
- 6.572 million viewers
- 4.1/7 HH
- 2.2/6 A18-49
9:45-10:00
- 6.719 million viewers
- 4.2/7 HH
- 2.2/6 A18-49
9:00-9:15
- 6.710 million viewers
- 4.2/7 HH
- 2.2/6 A18-49
9:15-9:30
- 6.227 million viewers
- 3.9/6 HH
- 2.0/6 A18-49
9:30-9:45
- 6.572 million viewers
- 4.1/7 HH
- 2.2/6 A18-49
9:45-10:00
- 6.719 million viewers
- 4.2/7 HH
- 2.2/6 A18-49
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Revenge Update: An Ill-Timed Stinker
So here I was, all prepared to issue a "mea culpa" about Revenge, which, until last night, was proving a remarkably delicious, confectionery treat to top off my Wednesday evenings.
I loved the pilot script, thought the pilot was lacking (and potentially very confusing to people who hadn't read the script).
Future episodes played better, almost a procedural of Emily Vancamp-Thorne-Walker taking REVENGE on someone through sometimes obvious, sometimes underhanded methods, all the while espousing the world's most monotonous theme-anviling voiceover and smirking and giving shifty-dead eyes that no one seemed to notice.
Also Madeline Stowe wears the shit out of every dress.
Also DEAR GOD Josh Bowman (Daniel) is gorgeous. And HOW AWESOME is Emily that she's so cold and calculating and amoral that she is SLEEPING WITH HOT DANIEL while systematically taking REVENGE (she really does need to shout that word, Sideshow Bob style, after every sentence... "Ah, Kettle chips. The perfect sidedish for... REVENGE!") on his family, and possibly on him.
Also the character they introduced as Daniel's college friend (who is, obviously, secretly poor—QUELLE HORREUR—and, I believe "super secretly" evil gay) is summering in the Hamptons with the Graysons in The Biggest House Ever, yet shares a bedroom and shower with Hot Daniel. RIDICULOUS.
Also what the hell is Connor Paolo's accent, given that neither his fictional father nor his fictional older brother speak with anything remotely like it?
The show, clearly, has so much going for it in the campy guilty pleasure department.
But, still, a big problem I've been having with the show is that there is very little actual drama to it. Emily (and pouty kind of sidekick Nolan) have everything worked out (they have had 8 years to prepare for it since she got out of juvie/whatever/backstory/zzzzzz) that it's all going marvelously flawlessly. Y'know what that means? It means it's boring, or at least more boring that it could be.
Real drama happens when characters have their backs against the wall and have to get out of sticky situations.
I was really excited for last night's episode based on the previews (that'll learn me, especially given every other promo for the show has some version of Madeline Stowe saying "I know your secret" but it turns out to be a dream and/or she's talking to her husband and/or vamping to some member of her staff of thousands) because things, finally, seemed to not be going according to plan when Emily blustered that Lydia (Madeline Stowe's ex-friend who was sleeping with Rich Dad in the pilot) FALLING TO HER COMA (ugh, really, she's not dead? Really? I'm fine that you're going to bring Amber Valetta back, but at least do it as an evil septuplet... because you know she's going to wake up from the coma with explosive amnesia) was not part of her plan.
But things kind of went along swimmingly, anyway. So last night's episode was a big ol' letdown.
Emily did not really seem to take REVENGE on anyone last night. There was no magnificent takedown (unless you count Secret Gay drugging Hot Daniel, then failing to seal the deal when he took Daniel upstairs to "sleep it off" in the poor family's / other love interest's apartment above the bar... and what was that montage scene at the end with Jack looking at Daniel when he came home from the party and the bar was already closed? Was he proud that Daniel worked himself so hard through his double-shift that he was taking a nap? Was he angry? Was he told that Daniel mysteriously disappeared after his enabling, secretly gay, secretly poor best friend drugged him? WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING????).
I didn't realize how much I was craving the procedural-ish element of the show until the show didn't give it to me. Emily didn't want anything last night. She wasn't even really cleaning up the mess Nolan made-ish for her. She was just... dating. Which is a problem, but I respected her when she was an amoral whore slutting it up for with rich, hot guy while scheming REVENGE. But according to next week's promo (Travis, what did you just say? Why have you learned NOTHING), she says she's falling in love with him? I realize this is all part of her evil scheme... but it's so much more interesting/unique (JMHO) if she is really this cold, calculating bitch.
Meanwhile Hot Daniel's Secretly Poor, "Secretly Gay" Evil Best Friend is scheming to... what, exactly? He's already gotten the internship (and Wall Street internships are bank, yo, my younger brother made like $10K in a couple months when he did his years back). And, um, sorry, but when you bang your own head against a blue-painted telephone pole, you don't get a horizontal gash on your forehead. You get bruising. And a concussion. And a skull fracture, perhaps. And even if you do get a gash, YOU GET A SCAR. HOT DANIEL WILL NOT WANT YOU, "SECRETLY GAY" FRIEND, IF YOU HAVE A SCAR ON YOUR FOREHEAD. Unless that just happens to be his thing, that might make Daniel more interesting instead of just man candy.
Where was I? Oh, right. I'm confused about Daniel's friend's motivations. But Emily is onto the fact that he's Secretly Poor, so hopefully she'll chase his ass back to the jitney so he can join the Other 99% in the Occupy Wall Street protests.
Meanwhile, Madeline Stowe's bodyguard? Security chief? New secret boyfriend after James Tupper was sent to jail and died? He's onto Emily. Thank god. Because this shit was gonna get real boring (despite all the WTF listed above) if there was no real noose-tightening going on.
Madeline Stowe did not get much to do last night. I mean, she stood on the veranda in a dress and was stoically angry and that was just about it. Eric Van Der Woodsen had more to do, and his plotline involved dipping his big toe into the Wall Street pond by using banker jargon, stealing, and learning a valuable lesson about the market value of lobster futures.
I don't know, guys. I just don't know. I'm so clearly, unexpectedly invested in this show. I want it to be horrible, yet good, which I realize is an almost impossible tightrope to walk, but the last few weeks have been so delicious and almost-dramatically satisfying, just like a good cotton candy puff piece of nothingness should be.
Although I might have just been in a bad mood because Happy Endings had what I thought was its worst episode ever (but, thankfully / paradoxically / go-figure-ally, its highest rated) immediately beforehand.
I loved the pilot script, thought the pilot was lacking (and potentially very confusing to people who hadn't read the script).
Future episodes played better, almost a procedural of Emily Vancamp-Thorne-Walker taking REVENGE on someone through sometimes obvious, sometimes underhanded methods, all the while espousing the world's most monotonous theme-anviling voiceover and smirking and giving shifty-dead eyes that no one seemed to notice.
Also Madeline Stowe wears the shit out of every dress.
Also DEAR GOD Josh Bowman (Daniel) is gorgeous. And HOW AWESOME is Emily that she's so cold and calculating and amoral that she is SLEEPING WITH HOT DANIEL while systematically taking REVENGE (she really does need to shout that word, Sideshow Bob style, after every sentence... "Ah, Kettle chips. The perfect sidedish for... REVENGE!") on his family, and possibly on him.
Also the character they introduced as Daniel's college friend (who is, obviously, secretly poor—QUELLE HORREUR—and, I believe "super secretly" evil gay) is summering in the Hamptons with the Graysons in The Biggest House Ever, yet shares a bedroom and shower with Hot Daniel. RIDICULOUS.
Also what the hell is Connor Paolo's accent, given that neither his fictional father nor his fictional older brother speak with anything remotely like it?
The show, clearly, has so much going for it in the campy guilty pleasure department.
But, still, a big problem I've been having with the show is that there is very little actual drama to it. Emily (and pouty kind of sidekick Nolan) have everything worked out (they have had 8 years to prepare for it since she got out of juvie/whatever/backstory/zzzzzz) that it's all going marvelously flawlessly. Y'know what that means? It means it's boring, or at least more boring that it could be.
Real drama happens when characters have their backs against the wall and have to get out of sticky situations.
I was really excited for last night's episode based on the previews (that'll learn me, especially given every other promo for the show has some version of Madeline Stowe saying "I know your secret" but it turns out to be a dream and/or she's talking to her husband and/or vamping to some member of her staff of thousands) because things, finally, seemed to not be going according to plan when Emily blustered that Lydia (Madeline Stowe's ex-friend who was sleeping with Rich Dad in the pilot) FALLING TO HER COMA (ugh, really, she's not dead? Really? I'm fine that you're going to bring Amber Valetta back, but at least do it as an evil septuplet... because you know she's going to wake up from the coma with explosive amnesia) was not part of her plan.
But things kind of went along swimmingly, anyway. So last night's episode was a big ol' letdown.
Emily did not really seem to take REVENGE on anyone last night. There was no magnificent takedown (unless you count Secret Gay drugging Hot Daniel, then failing to seal the deal when he took Daniel upstairs to "sleep it off" in the poor family's / other love interest's apartment above the bar... and what was that montage scene at the end with Jack looking at Daniel when he came home from the party and the bar was already closed? Was he proud that Daniel worked himself so hard through his double-shift that he was taking a nap? Was he angry? Was he told that Daniel mysteriously disappeared after his enabling, secretly gay, secretly poor best friend drugged him? WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING????).
I didn't realize how much I was craving the procedural-ish element of the show until the show didn't give it to me. Emily didn't want anything last night. She wasn't even really cleaning up the mess Nolan made-ish for her. She was just... dating. Which is a problem, but I respected her when she was an amoral whore slutting it up for with rich, hot guy while scheming REVENGE. But according to next week's promo (Travis, what did you just say? Why have you learned NOTHING), she says she's falling in love with him? I realize this is all part of her evil scheme... but it's so much more interesting/unique (JMHO) if she is really this cold, calculating bitch.
Meanwhile Hot Daniel's Secretly Poor, "Secretly Gay" Evil Best Friend is scheming to... what, exactly? He's already gotten the internship (and Wall Street internships are bank, yo, my younger brother made like $10K in a couple months when he did his years back). And, um, sorry, but when you bang your own head against a blue-painted telephone pole, you don't get a horizontal gash on your forehead. You get bruising. And a concussion. And a skull fracture, perhaps. And even if you do get a gash, YOU GET A SCAR. HOT DANIEL WILL NOT WANT YOU, "SECRETLY GAY" FRIEND, IF YOU HAVE A SCAR ON YOUR FOREHEAD. Unless that just happens to be his thing, that might make Daniel more interesting instead of just man candy.
Where was I? Oh, right. I'm confused about Daniel's friend's motivations. But Emily is onto the fact that he's Secretly Poor, so hopefully she'll chase his ass back to the jitney so he can join the Other 99% in the Occupy Wall Street protests.
Meanwhile, Madeline Stowe's bodyguard? Security chief? New secret boyfriend after James Tupper was sent to jail and died? He's onto Emily. Thank god. Because this shit was gonna get real boring (despite all the WTF listed above) if there was no real noose-tightening going on.
Madeline Stowe did not get much to do last night. I mean, she stood on the veranda in a dress and was stoically angry and that was just about it. Eric Van Der Woodsen had more to do, and his plotline involved dipping his big toe into the Wall Street pond by using banker jargon, stealing, and learning a valuable lesson about the market value of lobster futures.
I don't know, guys. I just don't know. I'm so clearly, unexpectedly invested in this show. I want it to be horrible, yet good, which I realize is an almost impossible tightrope to walk, but the last few weeks have been so delicious and almost-dramatically satisfying, just like a good cotton candy puff piece of nothingness should be.
Although I might have just been in a bad mood because Happy Endings had what I thought was its worst episode ever (but, thankfully / paradoxically / go-figure-ally, its highest rated) immediately beforehand.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Homeland
Really quick, because I haven't mentioned anything about this show and because the name of this blog still is, technically, "Travis Yanan Watches TV" and I suppose that I should, on occasion, prove I am still doing that...
I'm enjoying this show. Are you? It's easily the most interesting / intriguing of the new fall dramas that I've seen (I am not watching Starz's Boss, for some reason... but I've heard positive things), but with this fall's generally terrible network dramas, it would be with only Morena Baccarin's hilarious wig and nudity.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE.
Claire Danes is awesome (even if I'm still waiting for anything to come of the fact that she's mentally imbalanced / has a mood disorder / is potentially bipolar but they haven't gone into it).
Also that spy-hooker got killed for her necklace.
That might be it.
I have hang-ups (also, I am watching as it airs, so this says nothing about anything that may be coming in future episodes).
The premise of the show, per the ads, is/was "the nation sees a hero, she sees a threat."
Yup. That's what the show is.
I'm waiting for it to be more. Because, right now, really the show is asking a yes or no question. Danes's character is either right about Damian Lewis's character (a Marine sergeant captured by a terrorist in 2003 and released / rescued / I can't remember in 2011) being turned or not.
So... there's that. And the show gives us little peeks that Danes's character doesn't get through her many (now disabled) super-spy-cameras (that were put everywhere in the Lewis/Baccarin home except the garage, sigh, blind spots due to having to not be caught in the act of spying) that seem to want us to think "yes, he is" because he now prays to Allah. ZOMG! I HAS A PREJUDICE.
But, yeah, if there doesn't wind up being some twist that takes the show beyond "yes or no" then I'm going to be disappointed.
Also, it only took four episodes for Danes's character to appropriate Jack Bauer's "THERE'S NO TIME" catchphrase.
I took a shot (ah, the good old days of 24-viewing-party-drinking-games).
I'm enjoying this show. Are you? It's easily the most interesting / intriguing of the new fall dramas that I've seen (I am not watching Starz's Boss, for some reason... but I've heard positive things), but with this fall's generally terrible network dramas, it would be with only Morena Baccarin's hilarious wig and nudity.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE.
Claire Danes is awesome (even if I'm still waiting for anything to come of the fact that she's mentally imbalanced / has a mood disorder / is potentially bipolar but they haven't gone into it).
Also that spy-hooker got killed for her necklace.
That might be it.
I have hang-ups (also, I am watching as it airs, so this says nothing about anything that may be coming in future episodes).
The premise of the show, per the ads, is/was "the nation sees a hero, she sees a threat."
Yup. That's what the show is.
I'm waiting for it to be more. Because, right now, really the show is asking a yes or no question. Danes's character is either right about Damian Lewis's character (a Marine sergeant captured by a terrorist in 2003 and released / rescued / I can't remember in 2011) being turned or not.
So... there's that. And the show gives us little peeks that Danes's character doesn't get through her many (now disabled) super-spy-cameras (that were put everywhere in the Lewis/Baccarin home except the garage, sigh, blind spots due to having to not be caught in the act of spying) that seem to want us to think "yes, he is" because he now prays to Allah. ZOMG! I HAS A PREJUDICE.
But, yeah, if there doesn't wind up being some twist that takes the show beyond "yes or no" then I'm going to be disappointed.
Also, it only took four episodes for Danes's character to appropriate Jack Bauer's "THERE'S NO TIME" catchphrase.
I took a shot (ah, the good old days of 24-viewing-party-drinking-games).
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Once Upon A Time Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
ONCE UPON A TIME
8:00-8:15
- 12.575 million viewers
- 7.3/11 HH
- 3.9/10 A18-49
8:15-8:30
- 12.849 million viewers
- 7.5/11 HH
- 4.0/10 A18-49
8:30-8:45
- 12.962 million viewers
- 7.5/11 HH
- 4.1/10 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 13.352 million viewers
- 7.7/11 HH
- 4.1/10 A18-49
We'll see what happens next week (with presumably a stronger football game and with Fox's comedies instead of baseball... so that might be a wash, competition-wise), but this was as strong a start as I think ABC could have hoped for (and, has been written up elsewhere, the strongest drama debut of the season so far). I retain my qualms and questions about the show and its internal logic, but as I said at script and screener stage... this is the kind of show that at its best is something I can fall head over heels for... so my fingers are crossed.
8:00-8:15
- 12.575 million viewers
- 7.3/11 HH
- 3.9/10 A18-49
8:15-8:30
- 12.849 million viewers
- 7.5/11 HH
- 4.0/10 A18-49
8:30-8:45
- 12.962 million viewers
- 7.5/11 HH
- 4.1/10 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 13.352 million viewers
- 7.7/11 HH
- 4.1/10 A18-49
We'll see what happens next week (with presumably a stronger football game and with Fox's comedies instead of baseball... so that might be a wash, competition-wise), but this was as strong a start as I think ABC could have hoped for (and, has been written up elsewhere, the strongest drama debut of the season so far). I retain my qualms and questions about the show and its internal logic, but as I said at script and screener stage... this is the kind of show that at its best is something I can fall head over heels for... so my fingers are crossed.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Man Up Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
Ugh, are premieres really still happening?
MAN UP
8:30-8:45
- 8.062 million viewers
- 5.0/8 HH
- 2.6/7 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 7.495 million viewers
- 4.7/7 HH
- 2.3/6 A18-49
MAN UP
8:30-8:45
- 8.062 million viewers
- 5.0/8 HH
- 2.6/7 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 7.495 million viewers
- 4.7/7 HH
- 2.3/6 A18-49
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Last Man Standing Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
LAST MAN STANDING
8:00-8:15
- 12.746 million viewers
- 7.8/13 HH
- 3.3/10 A18-49
8:15-8:30
- 13.106 million viewers
- 7.8/12 HH
- 3.6/10 A18-49
8:30-8:45
- 13.044 million viewers
- 7.8/12 HH
- 3.6/10 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 13.873 million viewers
- 8.3/13 HH
- 3.9/10 A18-49
8:00-8:15
- 12.746 million viewers
- 7.8/13 HH
- 3.3/10 A18-49
8:15-8:30
- 13.106 million viewers
- 7.8/12 HH
- 3.6/10 A18-49
8:30-8:45
- 13.044 million viewers
- 7.8/12 HH
- 3.6/10 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 13.873 million viewers
- 8.3/13 HH
- 3.9/10 A18-49
Friday, September 30, 2011
How To Be A Gentleman Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN
8:30-8:45
- 9.694 million viewers
- 5.9/10 HH
- 3.0/8 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 8.258 million viewers
- 5.1/8 HH
- 2.5/7 A18-49
8:30-8:45
- 9.694 million viewers
- 5.9/10 HH
- 3.0/8 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 8.258 million viewers
- 5.1/8 HH
- 2.5/7 A18-49
Thursday, September 29, 2011
One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other
Oh, Happy Endings. Have I told you recently how much I love you? And how worried I am for you? Yes, yes, you hit series highs coming out of Modern Family (while losing a veritable bleep-ton of MF's audience, which you inexplicably continued to bleed throughout your 29 minute run-time despite the fact that you are awesome and, in my estimation, The New Friends). But I worry.
Here's why. You're far too young-skewing for ABC's current audience, even the demo-friendly Modern Family.
Here's what happened in A50+ on ABC this Wednesday.
- The Middle: 4.5/9
- Suburgatory: 4.8/9
- Modern Family: 5.0/9
- Happy Endings: 2.7/5
- Revenge: 4.8/10
See? One of these things is not like the other.
It's like the old people took a fiber-pill induced 30-minute bathroom break before settling in for Revenge.
Meanwhile, A18-34 and A18-49...
- The Middle: 2.0/7 and 2.7/8 (-0.7)
- Suburgatory: 2.7/8 and 3.3/9 (-0.6)
- Modern Family: 5.4/15 and 5.7/15 (-0.3)
- Happy Endings: 3.2/9 and 3.1/8 (+0.1)
- Revenge: 2.1/6 and 2.7/7 (-0.6)
Your A18-34 is better than your A18-49. In short, you are a CW show that happens to air on ABC.
And I love you. Never change. Just survive. Please.
Hopefully overall numbers and retention post-MF improves as the season goes along (though I think the A50+ is a lost cause... as is the upper end of the A18-49, the parents with teenagers watching MP... just keep working that A18-34/W18-34).
Happy Endings is a show about urban early-30somethings airing on a night of family comedies. When ABC sees what it has on its hands with Apartment 23 (FKA "The Bitch in Apartment 23"... which I personally loved for the improbably comedy dream team Krysten Ritter playing a bitch and James Van Der Beek playing himself... but did not love the straight woman lead character), also not a family comedy, maybe you two can go be together and have, hopefully, a long, hilarious run.
Year of Penny, suck it.
PS - I've been asked for quarter hour ratings... like I said, there was significant bleed... but my point re younger-skewing remains the same
9:31-9:45
- 7.976 million viewers (last minute of Modern Family: 12.542 million)
- 4.9/7 HH (MF: 7.4/11)
- 3.5/9 A18-49 (MF: 5.5/14)
- 3.5/10 A18-34 (MF: 5.2/15)
- 4.6/12 W18-34 (MF: 6.4/17)
9:45-10:00
- 6.572 million viewers
- 4.1/6 HH
- 2.8/7 A18-49
- 2.9/8 A18-34
- 4.0/10 W18-34
Here's why. You're far too young-skewing for ABC's current audience, even the demo-friendly Modern Family.
Here's what happened in A50+ on ABC this Wednesday.
- The Middle: 4.5/9
- Suburgatory: 4.8/9
- Modern Family: 5.0/9
- Happy Endings: 2.7/5
- Revenge: 4.8/10
See? One of these things is not like the other.
It's like the old people took a fiber-pill induced 30-minute bathroom break before settling in for Revenge.
Meanwhile, A18-34 and A18-49...
- The Middle: 2.0/7 and 2.7/8 (-0.7)
- Suburgatory: 2.7/8 and 3.3/9 (-0.6)
- Modern Family: 5.4/15 and 5.7/15 (-0.3)
- Happy Endings: 3.2/9 and 3.1/8 (+0.1)
- Revenge: 2.1/6 and 2.7/7 (-0.6)
Your A18-34 is better than your A18-49. In short, you are a CW show that happens to air on ABC.
And I love you. Never change. Just survive. Please.
Hopefully overall numbers and retention post-MF improves as the season goes along (though I think the A50+ is a lost cause... as is the upper end of the A18-49, the parents with teenagers watching MP... just keep working that A18-34/W18-34).
Happy Endings is a show about urban early-30somethings airing on a night of family comedies. When ABC sees what it has on its hands with Apartment 23 (FKA "The Bitch in Apartment 23"... which I personally loved for the improbably comedy dream team Krysten Ritter playing a bitch and James Van Der Beek playing himself... but did not love the straight woman lead character), also not a family comedy, maybe you two can go be together and have, hopefully, a long, hilarious run.
Year of Penny, suck it.
PS - I've been asked for quarter hour ratings... like I said, there was significant bleed... but my point re younger-skewing remains the same
9:31-9:45
- 7.976 million viewers (last minute of Modern Family: 12.542 million)
- 4.9/7 HH (MF: 7.4/11)
- 3.5/9 A18-49 (MF: 5.5/14)
- 3.5/10 A18-34 (MF: 5.2/15)
- 4.6/12 W18-34 (MF: 6.4/17)
9:45-10:00
- 6.572 million viewers
- 4.1/6 HH
- 2.8/7 A18-49
- 2.9/8 A18-34
- 4.0/10 W18-34
Suburgatory Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
SUBURGATORY
8:30-8:45
- 9.782 million viewers
- 6.1/10 HH
- 3.3/9 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 9.836 million viewers
- 6.2/10 HH
- 3.3/9 A18-49
8:30-8:45
- 9.782 million viewers
- 6.1/10 HH
- 3.3/9 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 9.836 million viewers
- 6.2/10 HH
- 3.3/9 A18-49
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Hart of Dixie Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
HART OF DIXIE
9:00-9:15
- 1.716 million viewers
- 1.2/2 HH
- 0.7/2 A18-49
- 0.8/2 A18-34
- 1.4/4 W18-34
9:15-9:30
- 1.903 million viewers
- 1.4/2 HH
- 0.8/2 A18-49
- 0.8/2 A18-34
- 1.5/4 W18-34
9:30-9:45
- 1.938 million viewers
- 1.4/2 HH
- 0.8/2 A18-49
- 0.8/2 A18-34
- 1.4/3 W18-34
9:45-10:00
- 1.952 million viewers
- 1.4/2 HH
- 0.8/2 A18-49
- 0.8/2 A18-34
- 1.4/3 W18-34
Significantly up in viewers versus Gossip Girl premiere (1.373 million for GG versus 1.877 million for HD) and especially older viewers (0.3/0 to 0.8/1)! But young adults and women far underperforming (GG's 1.1/3 versus HD's 0.8/2 A18-34 and 1.7/5 versus 1.4/4 W18-34).
I'd venture this is a "yikes"-appropriate result? No breakout hit for CW this year!
9:00-9:15
- 1.716 million viewers
- 1.2/2 HH
- 0.7/2 A18-49
- 0.8/2 A18-34
- 1.4/4 W18-34
9:15-9:30
- 1.903 million viewers
- 1.4/2 HH
- 0.8/2 A18-49
- 0.8/2 A18-34
- 1.5/4 W18-34
9:30-9:45
- 1.938 million viewers
- 1.4/2 HH
- 0.8/2 A18-49
- 0.8/2 A18-34
- 1.4/3 W18-34
9:45-10:00
- 1.952 million viewers
- 1.4/2 HH
- 0.8/2 A18-49
- 0.8/2 A18-34
- 1.4/3 W18-34
Significantly up in viewers versus Gossip Girl premiere (1.373 million for GG versus 1.877 million for HD) and especially older viewers (0.3/0 to 0.8/1)! But young adults and women far underperforming (GG's 1.1/3 versus HD's 0.8/2 A18-34 and 1.7/5 versus 1.4/4 W18-34).
I'd venture this is a "yikes"-appropriate result? No breakout hit for CW this year!
Terra Nova Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
TERRA NOVA
8:00-8:15
- 9.336 million viewers
- 5.7/9 HH
- 3.0/9 A18-49
8:15-8:30
- 9.575 million viewers
- 5.8/9 HH
- 3.1/8 A18-49
8:30-8:45
- 9.550 million viewers
- 5.8/8 HH
- 3.2/8 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 8.951 million viewers
- 5.3/8 HH
- 3.0/7 A18-49
9:00-9:15
- 9.151 million viewers
- 5.5/8 HH
- 3.1/7 A18-49
9:15-9:30
- 9.078 million viewers
- 5.4/8 HH
- 3.0/7 A18-49
9:30-9:45
- 8.786 million viewers
- 5.3/8 HH
- 3.0/7 A18-49
9:45-10:00
- 9.300 million viewers
- 5.5/8 HH
- 3.3/7 A18-49
8:00-8:15
- 9.336 million viewers
- 5.7/9 HH
- 3.0/9 A18-49
8:15-8:30
- 9.575 million viewers
- 5.8/9 HH
- 3.1/8 A18-49
8:30-8:45
- 9.550 million viewers
- 5.8/8 HH
- 3.2/8 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 8.951 million viewers
- 5.3/8 HH
- 3.0/7 A18-49
9:00-9:15
- 9.151 million viewers
- 5.5/8 HH
- 3.1/7 A18-49
9:15-9:30
- 9.078 million viewers
- 5.4/8 HH
- 3.0/7 A18-49
9:30-9:45
- 8.786 million viewers
- 5.3/8 HH
- 3.0/7 A18-49
9:45-10:00
- 9.300 million viewers
- 5.5/8 HH
- 3.3/7 A18-49
Pan Am Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
PAN AM
10:01-10:15
- 11.406 million viewers (significantly higher final minute of DH versus the rest of DH, but here it is...: 12.188 million)
- 7.4/11 HH (DH: 7.9/12)
- 3.3/8 A18-49 (DH: 4.1/9)
10:15-10:30
- 10.987 million viewers
- 7.2/11 HH
- 3.0/7 A18-49
10:30-10:45
- 10.977 million viewers
- 7.3/12 HH
- 3.1/8 A18-49
10-45-11:00
- 10.906 million viewers
- 7.3/12 HH
- 3.0/8 A18-49
I'm still of the opinion that this show is an over the counter sleeping aid, but can't argue with these numbers. Quite strong coming out of depressed Desperate Housewives when talking retention. I think that inflated final minute of DH was helped by Pan Am pre-tune in (like with New Girl, which started at 9:01pm but was advertised as 9pm), so don't read too much into it.
10:01-10:15
- 11.406 million viewers (significantly higher final minute of DH versus the rest of DH, but here it is...: 12.188 million)
- 7.4/11 HH (DH: 7.9/12)
- 3.3/8 A18-49 (DH: 4.1/9)
10:15-10:30
- 10.987 million viewers
- 7.2/11 HH
- 3.0/7 A18-49
10:30-10:45
- 10.977 million viewers
- 7.3/12 HH
- 3.1/8 A18-49
10-45-11:00
- 10.906 million viewers
- 7.3/12 HH
- 3.0/8 A18-49
I'm still of the opinion that this show is an over the counter sleeping aid, but can't argue with these numbers. Quite strong coming out of depressed Desperate Housewives when talking retention. I think that inflated final minute of DH was helped by Pan Am pre-tune in (like with New Girl, which started at 9:01pm but was advertised as 9pm), so don't read too much into it.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Fringe Season Four Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
FRINGE
9:00-9:15
- 3.846 million viewers
- 2.3/4 HH
- 1.7/5 A18-49
9:15-9:30
- 3.209 million viewers
- 1.9/3 HH
- 1.4/4 A18-49
9:30-9:45
- 3.373 million viewers
- 2.0/3 HH
- 1.4/4 A18-49
9:45-10:00
- 3.502 million viewers
- 2.1/3 HH
- 1.4/4 A18-49
9:00-9:15
- 3.846 million viewers
- 2.3/4 HH
- 1.7/5 A18-49
9:15-9:30
- 3.209 million viewers
- 1.9/3 HH
- 1.4/4 A18-49
9:30-9:45
- 3.373 million viewers
- 2.0/3 HH
- 1.4/4 A18-49
9:45-10:00
- 3.502 million viewers
- 2.1/3 HH
- 1.4/4 A18-49
A Gifted Man Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
A GIFTED MAN
8:00-8:15
- 8.915 million viewers
- 6.0/11 HH
- 1.4/5 A18-49
8:15-8:30
- 9.268 million viewers
- 6.2/11 HH
- 1.4/5 A18-49
8:30-8:45
- 9.725 million viewers
- 6.4/11 HH
- 1.5/5 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 9.880 million viewers
- 6.4/11 HH
- 1.5/5 A18-49
8:00-8:15
- 8.915 million viewers
- 6.0/11 HH
- 1.4/5 A18-49
8:15-8:30
- 9.268 million viewers
- 6.2/11 HH
- 1.4/5 A18-49
8:30-8:45
- 9.725 million viewers
- 6.4/11 HH
- 1.5/5 A18-49
8:45-9:00
- 9.880 million viewers
- 6.4/11 HH
- 1.5/5 A18-49
Friday, September 23, 2011
Prime Suspect Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
PRIME SUSPECT
10:00-10:15
- 6.833 million viewers
- 4.5/7 HH
- 2.1/5 A18-49
10:15-10:30
- 5.747 million viewers
- 3.9/6 HH
- 1.7/4 A18-49
10:30-10:45
- 5.822 million viewers
- 3.9/6 HH
- 1.6/4 A18-49
10:45-11:00
- 5.809 million viewers
- 4.0/7 HH
- 1.6/4 A18-49
The 10pm hour will be different next week with Private Practice and not Grey's Anatomy, but still... not looking good for NBC's new 10pm dramas. Guessing Awake goes here midseason (with Smash already set to take over for Playboy post-Voice in February)?
10:00-10:15
- 6.833 million viewers
- 4.5/7 HH
- 2.1/5 A18-49
10:15-10:30
- 5.747 million viewers
- 3.9/6 HH
- 1.7/4 A18-49
10:30-10:45
- 5.822 million viewers
- 3.9/6 HH
- 1.6/4 A18-49
10:45-11:00
- 5.809 million viewers
- 4.0/7 HH
- 1.6/4 A18-49
The 10pm hour will be different next week with Private Practice and not Grey's Anatomy, but still... not looking good for NBC's new 10pm dramas. Guessing Awake goes here midseason (with Smash already set to take over for Playboy post-Voice in February)?
Whitney Series Premiere Quarter Hour Breakdown
WHITNEY
9:31-9:45
- 7.331 million viewers (final minute of The Office was actually smaller than the rest of the Office, unlike several other overruns we've seen so far this week: 6.801 million)
- 4.3/7 HH (Office: 3.8/6)
- 3.6/9 A18-49 (Office: 3.5/9)
9:45-10:00
- 6.391 million viewers
- 3.9/6 HH
- 3.0/7 A18-49
Significant bleed, much like other post-Office attempts by NBC. Can't imagine this is a good sign, especially given the complete lack of interest in the lead-out.
9:31-9:45
- 7.331 million viewers (final minute of The Office was actually smaller than the rest of the Office, unlike several other overruns we've seen so far this week: 6.801 million)
- 4.3/7 HH (Office: 3.8/6)
- 3.6/9 A18-49 (Office: 3.5/9)
9:45-10:00
- 6.391 million viewers
- 3.9/6 HH
- 3.0/7 A18-49
Significant bleed, much like other post-Office attempts by NBC. Can't imagine this is a good sign, especially given the complete lack of interest in the lead-out.
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