What do you get when you take a dynamic actress and place her in a tired legal procedural? You get ABC’s Conviction, which tried to make you overlook the cancellation of Agent Carter by keeping Hayley Atwell in the family. Sadly, she was about the only thing this show had going for it. 13 episodes later, the plug was pulled. Hopefully Atwell finds something worthy of her talents again soon. She will be missed.
Tag / Agent Carter
Post Mortem – Agent Carter
After two impressive, if lowly rated, seasons, ABC pulled the plug on Agent Carter, the time-appropriate sequel to the first Captain America film. Hayley Atwell portrayed the title character, Agent Peggy Carter, who worked for the SSR after WWII. The series filled the gaps, both between the loss of Captain America at the end of the war and the current day Marvel universe and also during the hiatus of Agents of SHIELD on the ABC schedule.
Of all the shows that found themselves cancelled this year, this is the one I will likely miss the most. There was tremendous talent involved in this show and it offered a certain fun spy vibe that no other show fulfills. I certainly expect bigger and better things from Atwell in the future and hope the character shows up again, somewhere in the vast Marvel cinematic universe.
ABC Upfronts
Lots of changes coming this fall on ABC, as the network announced their upcoming schedule this week. 4 shows that I’ve been watching, Castle, The Muppets, Agent Carter, and the summer series Rookie Blue, were given the heave ho, leaving lots of holes in their, and my, schedule.
Conviction, a new legal drama starring Agent Carter star Hayley Atwell, moves in to the post-Dancing With The Stars slot on Monday vacated by Castle. Tuesday sees the network expand their comedy block to two hours, with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. moving back to the 9pm hour. Minnie Driver stars in the new comedy Speechless, airing before Modern Family on Wednesday. Following Black-ish comes Designated Survivor, a new drama starring Kiefer Sutherland as the new President after a devastating attack on Washington DC.
Thursday gets some new blood, thanks to Scandal star Kerry Washington’s pregnancy, in the form of Notorious, a sexy legal drama starring Piper Perabo and breaking Shonda Rhimes stranglehold on the night, at least until the spring. Friday nights stay exactly the same, as do Sundays. Saturday is still left for college football.
The mid-season slate, aside from the returning Scandal, looks uneventful.
Midseason Review – Tuesdays
Continuing our look back at my thoughts on the new fall season with the offerings I found myself interested in for Tuesdays.
7:00
The Muppets – ABC brings a new version of the Muppets to television, this time as a work place comedy. Basically, The Office but with Kermit.
Possibly the new show I was looking forward to the most, but it suffered from tone issues. A new showrunner is taking over, so hopefully things will more resemble the Muppets everyone knows and loves.
The Flash – A surprisingly fun adaptation of the DC superhero. The first season was very satisfying and I hope for more of the same.
Still a lot of fun, though the Flash’s secret identity is one of the worst kept secrets in Central City.
8:00
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Another new status quo, following the end of last season and the events of the latest Avengers movie, as we head in to season 3.
More of the same from the fine folks at Mutant Enemy and Marvel.
Scream Queens – Emma Roberts and Jamie Lee Curtis team for this horror comedy, hopefully in the vein of the Scream films, from FOX. I’m certainly willing to give it a shot to impress.
I lasted a few weeks, but once the show came back after the World Series, the schedule got busy and I had to drop it.
iZombie – The zombie comedy, which was a midseason surprise last spring, returns for a full season. I have a lot of faith in EP Rob Thomas, so I’m looking for good things.
A surprisingly enjoyable procedural from the people who brought us Veronica Mars.
ABC Upfronts
The biggest surprise about ABC’s schedule for this fall’s television season is how stable it is from this spring. 4 out of the 7 nights remain untouched, and only one returning show is moving to a new time slot. In case you are wondering, this is relatively unheard of here in the 20th century.
Monday remains the same as it has been for years, with Castle following the latest installment of Dancing With The Stars. Tuesdays start off with the return of the Muppets starring in The Muppets. Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD returns at its current time slot, followed by the new FBI drama Quantico.
Wednesday nights also remain unchanged, with Modern Family continuing to anchor the night. Thursdays will continue to belong to Shonda Rhimes, thanks to Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How To Get Away With Murder. Former Community and The Hangover star Ken Jeong gets his own sitcom, Dr. Ken, which will air on Fridays. Sundays will air 2 new dramas following the returning Once Upon A Time.
Agent Carter will return at mid-season, once again filling in for her present day SHIELD contemporaries.
Obviously, The Muppets are the most exciting of the new shows. I’m also likely to give Dr. Ken a shot. Beyond that, nothing here seems too spectacular.
Midseason Review – Tuesdays
We continue our look back at my expectations for the fall television season, and today we are focusing on Tuesdays.
7:00
Selfie – I love Karen Gillan and am quite fond of John Cho, but put them together in this loose adaptation of Pygmalion and, at least based on the pilot, you get a steaming pile of something or other. I will give this a chance to improve due to the talents involved, but I don’t hold out a great deal of hope.
Well, the show was quickly pulled off the air and cancelled. Hopefully, Karen Gillan returns to our television screens quickly, in something worthy of her talents.
The Flash – Spinning off from Arrow comes this latest forray from the CW in to the world of DC superheroes. Hopefully it follows more from Arrow‘s example than Smallville‘s.
I don’t know if this has been the best new show of the season, but it has certainly been the most fun. It has a sense of joy that neither Smallville nor Arrow had before it that brings a bit of levity to the DC television universe.
7:30
Manhattan Love Story – I’m not too sold on giving this new show, about the romance beteen two nuerotic New Yorkers, a shot. But, I’m willing to try anything once.
Well, some show had to be the first one cancelled this season, which is about the only thing this show accomplished.
8:00
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – The show, which greatly improved following the events of Captain America: Winter Soldier, returns for a second season at a later timeslot and with a new status quo.
The battle between SHIELD and Hydra continues in a much improved show from one year ago.
Supernatural – For some reason that nobody can particularly understand, the show returns for its 10th season. The show has been adrift for quite some time now and last season really started to drag. I’m willing to keep watching, but I don’t know for how much longer.
Due to timeslot conflicts, I had to record this on a different TV. To date, I’ve watched maybe 3 episodes of the new season and I’m not in much of a hurry to watch the rest.
Marry Me – Casey Wilson reunites with the creator of Happy Endings, who also happens to be her husband, for this new comedy. Happy Endings was a tremendous show that ended way too early, so I will give this a shot and hope that it rekindles some of that magic.
This also needed to be recorded on a different TV due to timeslot conflicts. I haven’t watched much of it, but I have enjoyed what I’ve seen. It does seem to scratch, at least a little bit, that Happy Endings itch.
New Girl – The group returns for season 4, and less couples than we have seen in year’s past. Hopefully, the funny keeps coming.
I think the problem is that they have too many characters that they don’t really know what to do with.
ABC Upfronts
ABC, which finds itself in fourth place as this season winds down, has provided a fall schedule that is relatively stable. Mondays, Saturdays, and Sundays will return in the fall exactly as they wrapped up this spring. Tuesday sees Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. move back an hour, with the new Pygmalion update Selfie, starring former Doctor Who star Karen Gillan, leading off the night.
Wednesday stays mostly the same, with The Goldbergs and new comedy Black-ish filling in the holes left by Suburgatory and Mixology. After years of trying, and failing, to find something on Thursdays that could lead in to Grey’s Anatomy, the folks at ABC have given up, instead moving both Greys and Scandal up an hour, leaving the 9:00 hour to the latest from Shonda Grimes.
In the winter, Agent Carter, a spin-off from the first Captain America film following Hayley Atwell’s character in the post-war years, will take over for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. while Galavant, a musical fairy tale comedy, does the same for Once Upon A Time.