Tag / Damon Wayans Jr.

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2024 New Fall Season – Mondays

We continue our annual look at the new fall season with Monday night’s offerings, a night that hasn’t offered something even halfway intriguing since 2018.

7:00

Scrabble – Another attempt to turn the venerable board game into a game show, this time starring Raven-Symoné.

7:30

Poppa’s House – Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr. team up on a new family comedy.

8:00

Rescue: HI-Surf – A lifeguard drama set in Hawaii from one of the producers of ER and starring Arielle Kebbel seems worth a shot, at least.

Trivial Pursuit – A new game show, hosted by LeVar Burton, based on the classic board game.

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CBS Upfronts

We wrap up our looks at the network upfronts with CBS, who released their entire 2024-2025 plans.  The week starts with Monday’s familiar comedy block, starting with The Neighborhood followed by Poppa’s House, a new comedy starring Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr.  That is followed by two entries in the NCIS franchise: the OG and the new NCIS: Origins, a prequel narrated by Mark Harmon.  Tuesday remains the same, with different iterations of Dick Wolf’s FBI running all night.

Wednesday continues as all reality, with extra-long episodes of Survivor followed by The Summit, a new show featuring a team of strangers trying to climb a remote mountain in New Zealand.  Thursday has another hour-long comedy block, with Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage taking over for its parent series Young Sheldon, followed by the returning Ghosts.  A new version of Matlock, starring Kathy Bates, follows, and the night finishes with a second installment of Elsbeth.  Friday remains the same, starting with S.W.A.T., followed by Fire Country and the final season of Blue Bloods.  Sunday kicks off with 60 Minutes, followed by Tracker, The Equalizer, and re-runs to protect against football overruns.

On tap for midseason on Wednesdays are game shows The Price is Right At Night, Raid the Cage, and an updated version of Hollywood Squares, featuring Drew Barrymore as the iconic middle square. NCIS: Sydney is on tap to replace Blue Bloods after it wraps up its run in the fall.  Once football is over, Sunday re-runs will be replaced by Watson, a present day take on the literary character who returns to his medical career following the death of his partner Sherlock Holmes.  Not slotted, but still planned for midseason, is the latest installment of The Amazing Race.

Gone and never to be seen again are Bob Hearts Abishola, CSI: Vegas, NCIS: Hawaii, So Help Me Todd, and Young Sheldon.

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CBS Upfronts

Forgoing a traditional upfront presentation with an ongoing writer’s strike threatening the start of the fall season in September, CBS announced what they hope will be airing on their network this fall.  With only two new shows on the schedule, things will look very familiar to viewers.  The week starts with a stable Monday, with the comedy block of The Neighborhood and Bob Hearts Abishola followed by two entries in the NCIS franchise: the OG and NCIS: Hawaii.  Tuesday also stays the same, with Dick Wolf’s FBI running all night.

Wednesday goes all reality, with extra-long episodes of Survivor and The Amazing Race taking the entire night.  Thursday has another hour-long comedy block, with Young Sheldon and Ghosts, followed by the returning So Help Me Todd and the new Elsbeth, a spinoff of The Good Wife starring Carrie Preston.  Friday remains the same, starting with the final season of S.W.A.T., followed by Fire Country and Blue Bloods.  Sunday kicks off with 60 Minutes, followed by a new version of Matlock, starring Kathy Bates as the septuagenarian lawyer who rejoins the workforce to win cases and expose corruption from within, The Equalizer, and CSI: Vegas.

On tap for midseason are comedy Poppa’s House, starring Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr., and the Justin Hartley drama Tracker, based on the Jeffery Deaver books and which is slated to debut following the Super Bowl in February.

Gone and never to be seen again are NCIS: Los Angeles, East New York, and True Lies.

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CBS Upfronts

Everything old is new this season at CBS, which will have 5 reboots on the air this fall.  The week starts with 3 new shows on Monday night: The Neighborhood, about a white family from Michigan that moves to LA and ends up with Cedric the Entertainer as their neighbor, Happy Together, starring Damon Wayans Jr. and Amber Stevens West as a happily married couple who begin to reconnect with their younger, cooler selves, and Magnum P.I., a modern take on the classic show with Jay Hernandez taking on Tom Selleck’s role.  Bull moves from Tuesday to close out the night.

FBI, starring Missy Peregrym and Jeremy Sisto, is sandwiched between two editions of NCIS on Tuesdays.  Wednesday night stays exactly the same.  Thursday, freed from the NFL, stays mostly the same, with The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, and Mom, followed by a rebooted Murphy Brown and season two of S.W.A.T.  Friday stays exactly the same.  Sunday adds God Friended Me, about an atheist that gets a friend request from God on social media.

On tap for midseason, along side returning favorites Elementary, Instinct, Man With A Plan, and Life, are The Code, which taps the underrepresented area of legal law, The Red Line, about 3 Chicago families dealing with loss, and Fam, a comedy about a woman whose perfect life is thrown asunder when her sister moves in.

Gone and never to be seen again are 9JKL, Kevin Can Wait, Living Biblically, Me, Myself, & I, Scorpion, Superior Donuts, Wisdom Of The Crowd, and Zoo.

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Midseason Review – Tuesdays

old-tv-set1We continue our look back at my expectations for the fall television season, and today we are focusing on Tuesdays.

7:00

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Following the success of The Avengers, ABC, corporate sibling of Marvel, gets to air the spin-off featuring a team of SHIELD agents tracking down threats across the globe.

What looked to be the hit show of the fall has thus far disappointed.  From a strictly Marvel perspective, the lack of any recognizable characters, beyond Coulson, from the movie universe has been a disappointment.  From a Whedon perspective, the show has lacked any of the heart that previous Mutant Enemy productions have shown.  It may be that this show just has too many corporate masters to appease in order to put on a decent show.  I’ll keep watching, though, in the hopes that it improves.

7:30

Brooklyn Nine-Nine – There hasn’t been a real police workplace comedy since Barney Miller left the air in 1982.  The premiere episode wasn’t bad, but sometimes a little bit of Andy Samberg can go a long way.

The show still struggles occasionally with Andy Samberg overload, but, besides that, it has been a very surprising comedy hit.

8:00

New Girl – This show really found its footing once Zooey Deschanel’s Jess and Jake Johnson’s Nick hooked up towards the end of last season.  The two have incredible chemistry, and keeping them apart really served no purpose.  Now if only they could find a consistent usage for Winston.

With Happy Endings ending, Damon Wayans Jr. was available to return to the role he played in the pilot, at least for the remainder of this season.  Things have been a little uneven this season. Continue reading →

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Midseason Review – Tuesdays

Once again, we continue our look back at my expectations for the fall television season, and today we are focusing on Tuesdays.

CBS

Unforgettable – This may end up being utterly forgettable, but I’m going to give it a shot.  The main hook, that Poppy Montgomery’s character has total recall of her memories, was played off in the pilot where she was witness to a crime.  As she re-joins the police force, it may be interesting to see how they use this ability without her being personally involved in every case.

This is by no means a good show.  I really should stop watching it.

NBC

Parenthood – Nothing really new to say here.  It is what it is.  Never great, but usually good enough.

I think this show works better in bunches than in week to week doses.  I caught up on the latest 6 episodes during the December vacation and enjoyed it.  But, I hadn’t enjoyed it enough previously to not let the 6 episodes pile up.

FOX

New Girl – The one pilot I saw early, thanks to the magic of OnDemand.  I find Zooey Deschanel to be very charming, and would likely watch her reading the phone book for a hour.  Thankfully, this seems to be much more impressive than that.

Continue reading →