Tag / J. August Richards

by admin

ABC Upfronts

ABC is shaking up their lineup this fall, with changes on every night save Thursday.  The week gets off to a familiar start with Dancing With The Stars, followed by The Good Doctor, a new medical drama about an autistic country doctor who moves to the big city.  Seriously.  The Tuesday night comedies get switched around somewhat, with black-ish moving over from Wednesdays, followed by The Mayor, about a young wrapper looking for his big break.  The night ends with The Gospel of Kevin, starring Jason Ritter, JoAnna Garcia Swisher, and J. August Richards.

Wednesday stays mostly the same, with American Housewife moving over from Tuesdays to take black-ish‘s place.  Thursdays stay exactly the same, with the three Shondaland shows remaining in place.  A revamped Friday kicks off with Once Upon A Time, which will be losing most of its main cast, followed by Marvel’s Inhumans, the most recent attempt to make the Inhumans happen.  Sunday goes mostly reality, with To Tell The Truth and Shark Tank moving over.  The night ends with Ten Days In The Valley, a new drama about a producer whose daughter goes missing.

Agents of SHIELD will take over for The Inhumans on Fridays after 8 weeks and Quantico will return at some point for an abbreviated 3rd season.  Also on the bench for mid-season are The Crossing, a drama about war refugees from America, Deception, about a magician who turns to the FBI which is in no way similar to The Mentalist, and For The People, about a set of new lawyers trying to find their way.  Comedies include Alex Inc, based on a podcast, and Splitting Up Together, starring Jenna Fischer.

Cancelled shows never to be seen again are The Real O’Neals, Imaginary Mary, The Catch, Dr. Ken, Last Man Standing, American Crime, Secrets and Lies, Time After Time, Notorious, and Conviction.

by jim

Book 2 (of 52) – Close To The Ground

Close To The Ground - Jeff Mariotte

Close To The Ground – Jeff Mariotte

After the good experience I had revisiting the Angel universe back in November, I decided to pick another one out of the unread drawer and head back to Los Angeles for another look at a season one era tale.  Sadly, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous entry, though it was still a pretty decent read.

The first season of Angel was kind of hit or miss, especially early in the season when Glenn Quinn’s Doyle was still alive.  The show didn’t really start to come together until after Quinn was replaced by Alexis Denisof and the later additions of J. August Richards and Amy Acker.  Having to set the novel before these changes puts author Jeff Mariotte at a slight disadvantage.  His previous work didn’t rely too heavily on having Doyle around.  The same can’t be said of this one, where Angel Investigations is hired to protect a young woman after Doyle has a vision about her as a mystic from Ireland looks to steal Angel’s lifeforce.  Meanwhile, in a subplot that never actually gets around to being tied in to the main goings on, Kate Lockley investigates a string of bank robberies.

While this didn’t live up to the last Angel book I read, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good story.  Mariotte certainly had a good read on the characters as they existed early in the show’s run.  The main threat, a sorcerer so hell bent on summoning a demon that he needs Angel’s life force in order to live long enough to complete the spell, was a little by the numbers, but that is to be somewhat expected after reading enough of these books.  Overall, I’m willing to go back for more, if I have more in the drawer.