Tag / Pan Am

by jim

Post Mortem – Pan Am

Pan Am was ABC’s attempt to capitalize on the success of Mad Men, swapping out the ad agency for the not-so-friendly skies of Pan Am with a little CIA kick.  The show focused on the flight crew of a Pan Am clipper from the airline’s heyday in the early 60s, where one (or two) of the stewardesses (not yet flight attendants) were working for the agency.

Christina Ricci was the main attraction prior to the premiere, moving to television as the radical troublemaker who barely holds on to her job.  However, Kelli Garner and Margot Robbie stole the show, as the new CIA recruit and her sister who became the face of Pan Am.

At the end of the day, Pan Am was a decent enough show, but just never caught on with an audience waiting on the return of Mad Men.  On the plus side, it did last a good deal longer than The Playboy Club.

by jim

Midseason Review – Sundays

As we start to gear up for midseason premieres and February sweeps, let’s take a look back at what I said and thought back in September.

ABC

Pan Am – ABC’s attempt to hop on the Mad Men brigade premieres tonight, with Christina Ricci making her move to television.  It looks somewhat interesting, so I will give it a shot.

Not a bad show, but it didn’t take off (see what I did there?) as expected.  Kelli Garner made more of an impression than Christina Ricci did, but that still wasn’t enough to save the show.

Once Upon A Time, which I either didn’t plan on watching or didn’t include because it didn’t start until late October, turned out to be pretty good and one of the highest rated new shows of the season.

CBS

The Good Wife – Slowly built itself up to a top performer last season and should do even better on Sundays without much competition.  The only problem with the new timeslot will be in the fall due to football overruns.

Still a strong performer.  Should be much easier to watch now that football is over and it will air at a consistent time.

Not included in the fall were the cable shows that made up most of my Sunday night viewings, The Walking Dead, Dexter, and Homeland.  TWD started and ended strong, but spent entirely too much time on a plot that should have taken 2 episodes, 3 tops.  Dexter explored religion and whether it was possible for a serial killer to grow.  Homeland was the breakout hit of the fall, with both Claire Danes and Damian Lewis giving standout performances.

New shows for the spring include the second season of Shameless and the new show House of Lies, both of which premiered on Showtime earlier this month.

by jim

2011 New Fall Season – Sundays

I never received this year’s Fall TV Preview from our good friends at Entertainment Weekly, so I’m going to wing this based on what I’ve seen so far and what I can remember from the Internets.  Not much to watch on Sunday nights, so let’s get this started.

ABC

Pan Am – ABC’s attempt to hop on the Mad Men brigade premieres tonight, with Christina Ricci making her move to television.  It looks somewhat interesting, so I will give it a shot.

CBS

The Good Wife – Slowly built itself up to a top performer last season and should do even better on Sundays without much competition.  The only problem with the new timeslot will be in the fall due to football overruns.