If you were looking for a completely serious take on the Chuck premise, a super agent with computer-aided abilities, that was devoid of any and all humor, Intelligence was the show for you. Based on the ratings, however, not many people were looking for such a show. What should have been a no-brainer, with Josh Holloway in his first post-Lost starring role and Once Upon A Time‘s Meghan Ory teaming up as the microchipped agent and his handler, the show failed quickly. I bailed after 4 episodes and with no sign of improvement on the horizon. CBS aired the full 13 episode order before pulling the plug.
Tag / CBS
Post Mortem – How I Met Your Mother
After nine seasons, How I Met Your Mother wrapped up its run on CBS back on March 31. Sadly, the finale will likely color everyone’s thoughts of the series as a whole, and not in a good way. Back in the early days of the show, with early cancellation a very real threat and with the actors portraying the children getting older, the producers filmed an ending of them reacting to Ted’s story. Unfortunately, they chose to stick with that ending.
Had the show ended after 2 or 3 seasons, the ending, with Ted explaining that the children’s mother had passed away and them encouraging him to move on with Robin, would have been perfect. Unfortunately, with the show running 9 seasons, the writers and producers spent so much time and energy keeping Ted and Robin apart that there was no satisfaction in them ultimately ending up together.
The sad thing is that they managed to hit a home run by casting Cristin Milioti as the mother. The few glimpses we had of her in the final season, which was another misstep I’ll get to in a moment, showed she had amazing chemistry with Josh Radnor’s Ted. Assuming she was available for more than what she was used, it was a waste to use her as little as they did. Instead, the entire 9th season was focused on the weekend leading up to Robin and Barney’s wedding. Which wouldn’t have been bad except the marriage ended about 10 minutes into the final episode.
Looking further back, the show was a favorite from the beginning, and continued to be a strong performer well into its run. Which makes it all the more disappointing that it ended on such a down note.
Post Mortem – Friends With Better Lives
If only this were called Friends With A Better Show. This had a lot of pluses going into it: James Van Der Beek, following a career reviving turn in Don’t Trust The B in Apt 23, Zoe Lister Jones, who was one of the bright spots on Whitney, Brooklyn Decker, who is drop dead gorgeous, and Majandra Delfino, who I have been waiting for a starring role since Roswell went off the air back in 2002. Sadly, this show quickly squandered all of the good will I had for it and I was done after 2 episodes. America must have felt the same way, as CBS cut its losses and axed the show a month and a half after its debut.
Post Mortem – Bad Teacher
So what do you get when you take a hit Cameron Diaz movie, replace her with Ari Graynor, and turn it into a series on CBS? You get a mess, which I managed to watch for about 8 minutes of the pilot before cutting bait. What a waste of a talented cast.
CBS Upfronts
CBS, which fell behind NBC in the battle for 18-49 year olds thanks to the NFL and Olympics, mixed up their schedule for the fall at their upfront presentation this week. After inking a deal to simulcast 8 weeks of Thursday Night Football, The Big Bang Theory will temporarily move back to Mondays, bumping 2 Broke Girls off the schedule until November. Katharine McPhee stars in Scorpion, which will take the 8:00 hour.
Person of Interest stays where it is on Tuesday and Criminal Minds continues on Wednesdays. Kevin Williamson brings a new drama, Stalker, to Wednesday featuring Dylan McDermott and Maggie Q. Once the football commitment ends at the end of October, BBT and Elementary return to Thursdays. The Amazing Race moves to Fridays, where it will be followed by holdovers Hawaii 5-0 and Blue Bloods. The Good Wife continues on Sundays, where it will be joined be OG CSI and Tea Leoni’s new show, Madam Secretary.
The Mentalist will start off on the bench, along with a new version of The Odd Couple, starring Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon. Missing altogether is How I Met Your Dad, the “spinoff” of How I Met Your Mother that seemed like a shoe-in to get picked up.
2013 New Fall Season – Fridays
It’s time to wrap up our look at the new fall season with Friday’s slate of shows.
8:00
Hawaii Five-0 – The show is a huge hit overseas for CBS, so it gets relegated to Fridays where it won’t cause much damage here at home.
9:00
Blue Bloods – Year 4 of CBS’s dependable, if not spectacular, police procedural.
Post Mortem – Golden Boy
Back in 2004, Greg Berlanti created a little show called Jack & Bobby, about a boy who would become president 45 years in the future. That show only lasted one lackluster year, but obviously the idea of the framing sequence of someone of importance in the future around a current day story of their upbringing stayed with Berlanti, who revisited it for Golden Boy, the tale of a young detective who one day will become the police commissioner.
The show wasn’t particularly good, but it wasn’t bad either. It just was, which fit in particularly well on CBS. Not well enough, though, as the show was given its 13 episodes and then was dumped. One hopes that, one of these days, Chi McBride will find himself on a successful show worthy of his talents.
CBS Upfronts
The big news out of the CBS upfront presentation wasn’t what they did pick up for the fall, but what they didn’t. Leslie Moonves and company passed on yet another NCIS spinoff and a Beverly Hills Cop sequel with Eddie Murphy on board for a recurring role. Instead, the network decided to take some chances in favor of higher-concept dramas and single camera comedies. Hawaii Five-O gets shunted off to Fridays. Person of Interest, with Sarah Shahi onboard as a series regular, moves to Tuesdays. Thursday’s comedy block expands to two hours, where The Crazy Ones, a new series created by David E. Kelley and starring Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar anchors the second hour. Beyond that, a lot of CBS being CBS.
Midseason Review – Fridays
It’s time to wrap up our look back at my thoughts on the new fall season’s slate of Friday shows.
7:00
Whitney – There were some good things about this show last season, but I’m honestly somewhat surprised that it got renewed. Of course, being dumped on Friday nights doesn’t show much confidence on NBC’s part that the show will be able to grow an audience. Speaking of a network having no confidence…
NBC scrapped their Friday night plans early on and Whitney never aired in this timeslot. It did eventually return on Wednesdays following the demise of Animal Practice. The show dropped a character, added a new one, and gave the gang a new bar to hang out at.
7:30
Community – I’m shocked, but pleased, the Community is coming back for a fourth season, even if it is without creator Dan Harmon. This has been one of my favorite shows over the past few years, but it remains to be seen if it can keep up without its singular voice running the ship.
Again, Community never aired in its Friday timeslot. It is currently scheduled to debut next month after 30 Rock wraps up its run.
8:00
Made In Jersey – I’m not sure if I’m going to give this one a try, but star Janet Montgomery did impress during the second season of Human Target.
I did manage to give it one episode, which was only one less than CBS, if memory serves. The only thing it had going for it was Janet Montgomery’s attractiveness, which wasn’t worth an hour commitment.
Fringe – The 5th, and final, season is slated for 13 episodes and picks up after last season’s trip to the future, a future where Anna Torv’s Olivia is no longer amongst the living.
The show wraps up its run with tonight’s series finale. I must admit that I didn’t dig this season’s jump into the future as much as I did past seasons.
Nikita – The third season finds Nikita back with Division after taking down Percy last year.
I’m not sure why this show is still on the air, but it chugs along in relative obscurity, neither exciting me or disappointing me.
9:00
Blue Bloods – Year 3 of CBS’s dependable, if not spectacular, police procedural.
Another procedural from CBS that just is what it is.
The only new Friday show I’m somewhat interested in is Banshee, thanks to the good folks at Cinemax.
2012 New Fall Season – Fridays
It’s time to wrap up our look at the new fall season with Friday’s slate of shows.
7:00
Whitney – There were some good things about this show last season, but I’m honestly somewhat surprised that it got renewed. Of course, being dumped on Friday nights doesn’t show much confidence on NBC’s part that the show will be able to grow an audience. Speaking of a network having no confidence…
7:30
Community – I’m shocked, but pleased, the Community is coming back for a fourth season, even if it is without creator Dan Harmon. This has been one of my favorite shows over the past few years, but it remains to be seen if it can keep up without its singular voice running the ship.
8:00
Made In Jersey – I’m not sure if I’m going to give this one a try, but star Janet Montgomery did impress during the second season of Human Target.
Fringe – The 5th, and final, season is slated for 13 episodes and picks up after last season’s trip to the future, a future where Anna Torv’s Olivia is no longer amongst the living.
Nikita – The third season finds Nikita back with Division after taking down Percy last year.
9:00
Blue Bloods – Year 3 of CBS’s dependable, if not spectacular, police procedural.