Early Previews of Fall 2013 TV Pilots

For the past several television seasons, a number of shows have released their pilots online prior to the shows' actual premiere dates. These pilots tend to sporadically pop up over a period of weeks. So to make things easier for you, I'll be keeping a running list of the 2013 fall pilots you can preview before their television premieres.

Early Pilot Previews

• Trophy Wife
• Watch on Hulu
• Watch on ABC
• Back in the Game
• Watch on Hulu
• Watch on ABC
• The Goldbergs
• Watch on Hulu
• Watch on ABC 
• Welcome to the Family
• Watch on Hulu
• Watch on NBC
• Ironside
• Watch on Hulu
• Watch on NBC
• We Are Men
• Watch on CBS

Bonus

You can also watch The Mindy Project's second season opener a week before its premiere date Tuesday September 17th.

• Watch on Hulu
• Watch on Fox

Some Thoughts on The Following 1x01, "Pilot"

If you're planning to watch The Following but haven't yet, this isn't the review for you. There are spoilers in this post for the first episode, and it doesn't contain a rehash of the show's plot. If you have watched the first episode, please read along and share your thoughts.

Even though the trailers weren't particularly appealing to me, I was excited for The Following. The premise of a serial killer leading a cult intrigued me, the show seemed to generate a fairly positive buzz early on (although that buzz has become more divisive in the past few weeks), and most of all, Kevin Williamson, known for Scream and The Vampire Diaries is the show's creator.

The Following wasn't as original as I was hoping it would be (especially given Scream's fresh take on the horror genre), but I feel like it's still different from a lot of shows on television at the moment. In fact, it had a cinematic feel to it. The show is largely a crime thriller, but it also has a dash of horror movie in its DNA. The scene where Kevin Bacon's Ryan Hardy searches for Sarah in her house and then her neighbors' house genuinely held me in suspense. While I suppose it could veer off into disjointed follower of the week stories, The Following appears as if it's going to stick largely to an cohesive and overarching story of Joe Carroll and his followers. If so, the shortish episode order (I believe the promo said fourteen or fifteen episodes) could lead to an solid, connected story told in weekly increments.


I was a little surprised that Sarah met her end so soon into the show. The revelation of Sarah's neighbors and Joey's nanny as followers of Joe also took me by surprise. I probably should have caught on that the nanny was a follower, but the idea of the neighbors as followers was a pretty solid twist. There's a limited number of times the "so-and-so is secretly a follower" twist can be played, so I'm hoping they'll dial back on it for a while in future episodes. Still, I'm betting at least one major player will be revealed as a follower in the future.

Unfortunately, quite a few of the other twists and turns of the pilot were pretty predictable. Sarah's screams were obviously prerecorded. It was clear far before the reveal that Claire and Ryan had a relationship in the past. Even some of the surprises, like Sarah's death, were made obvious a couple beats too early, lessening the suspense. To be fair, part of the episode's predictability might stem from my prior viewing of the trailer, but it still didn't stray too far from the cliches.

The Following also seemed to take itself slightly too seriously for my taste. The subject matter didn't lend itself to a lot of jokes (and slightly too serious is much better than too buffoonish), but a little bit of dark humor would have gone a long way. The show also seemed to think it was a smarter show than it actually was. It wasn't that The Following was dumb, but it wasn't brilliant or original enough to justify quite such a serious tone.

This serious tone was least compatible with the Poe angle of Joe's murders. Gouged eyes are nothing to laugh about, but the Edgar Allen Poe theme is a slightly campy concept that seemed off when taken so seriously. I'm not opposed to the idea of Poe-based murders in the show if used as a loose theme or even done in a more fun manner, but the idea was applied in too heavy-handed a manner. The thick application of Poe's stories wasn't done particularly creatively either, and I felt like a handful of Poe ideas were repeated over and over (repetitive eye gouging, quite a few references to unfinished business and Poe's unfinished story, Poe quotes recited/written on a wall/written on a body/etc.). I'm no Poe scholar, but it felt like the writer read a Poe story in high school, thought it was cool, and looked on Wikipedia for a couple of facts to tie in. Given that Joe was an English teacher, a wider variety of literary allusions might have worked better and allowed for more creativity. I'm just hoping that Joe sticks to his word about moving onto a murder plot with wider appeal.

The response to The Following's pilot seems to have been fairly divisive, but I actually fall somewhere in the middle between love and hate. I liked it more than my multiple critiques probably suggest and think it could become a really interesting show, but it definitely had its flaws. Given that this was only The Following's first episode and that it had a lot of story to cover, I'm definitely willing to tune in for at least another week and see where the story goes.

Some random thoughts on The Following:

• I spent several minutes during the episode pondering Claire Matthews's (Natalie Zea) face. At first I thought she looked like Ellen Pompeo. In another scene, I noted a striking resemblance to Rebecca Gayheart. For a brief moment, I even caught a very mild resemblance to Blake Lively. Yet in some scenes, I thought she looked like none of them at all.
• When the puppy torture chamber made an appearance, I (as did many others, I imagine) made a comment along the lines of "I can handle dead bodies, but I can't take dead dogs" (in reference to on-screen violence, of course). It cracked me up when Shawn Ashmore's Mike made almost exactly the same comment right afterwards. 
• In retrospect, I should have seen Maggie Grace's death coming from the start. It was a very Scream-esque move to kill off the actress with a decent level of name recognition early on.
• With dead puppies and eye stabbings, The Following is pretty heavy on the gore for a network show. However, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting from the responses I'd read about the show's violence. It seemed gratuitous at times, but I managed to make it through the episode just fine.
• It was somewhat of a cliche song choice, but I really liked the use of "Sweet Dreams" at the beginning and the end of the episode.
• Whether or not it turns out to be true, there's definitely some suspicion being raised that Joey is really Ryan's son, right? Claire's mention of her relationship with Ryan "eight years ago" seemed too blatant to be a throwaway line.
• I can never seem to keep Shawn and Aaron Ashmore's roles straight in my mind. During the episode, I wondered if Mike was played by the X-Men/Animorph Ashmore or the Veronica Mars Ashmore. It turns out that Shawn is the X-Men/Animorph one.

Did you catch the premiere of The Following? What did you think of it? Was the violence worse than you expected or not as bad? Do you plan to keep watching?

LOL, Okay: A Review of Revolution 1x01, "Pilot"

For the past several years, many shows have tried to fill the television void left by Lost. These shows vary, dealing with everything from aliens (The Event) to dinosaurs (Terra Nova) to worldwide blackouts (FlashForward), but they all try to replicate Lost's complex mysteries and mythology. Even if these shows don't intentionally imitate Lost, the comparisons are inevitable.

This fall season's Lost-esque contender (which actually has J.J. Abrams attached as a producer) is Revolution, a show about the world 15 years after all electricity has been shut off. More specifically, it focuses on Charlie Matheson (played by relative newcomer Tracy Spiridakos), a plucky young woman trying to find her uncle and obtain his help to get her brother Danny back after he's been taken by the evil "militia."

So is Revolution any good? 

Let's start with the positive. During the 44 minutes I was watching Revolution's pilot, I was never bored. There's some exposition and a few flashbacks, but most of the episode focuses on the show's here and now. The pilot is pretty well-paced and moves along fairly quickly. There's a good bit of action, but there's also some smaller moments that let viewers begin to get to know the characters and understand what they're going through. One of my favorite moments of the pilot was a short scene right after the power goes out where Charlie's parents let her eat as much melting ice cream as she wants and tell her to remember what it tastes like.

The characters themselves are a bit of mixed bag. I'm going to need a few more episodes to decide how I feel about the show's female lead Charlie. I think she could be a likable character, but her can-do spirit and repetition of the "we're family" argument could also become grating. Her gruff uncle Miles (played by Twilight's Billy Burke) serves as a nice foil to Charlie. Miles is probably my favorite character. He's kind enough to be likable, but his pessimism adds a nice element of spice that the show needs. My second favorite character is Aaron (Zak Orth), a semi-dorky ex-Google employee, who provided a not overly over-the-top bit of comic relief.

I loved Giancarlo Esposito's performance as Gus on Breaking Bad, but his performance here as Captain Neville, part of the militia, is decidedly less impressive. His threat to Charlie's dad to "re-educate" his teenaged children so that they wouldn't remember his name is a joke compared to Gus's threatening of Walt's family. Pretty much everyone who plays a bad guy in Revolution is similarly campy and over-the top. Watching them trot around on horses made me laugh rather than fear them. Monroe, presumably at least the show's intial big bad, didn't get enough screen time for me to decide if he suffers from similar campiness. However, his giant tattoo of his own name on his arm points to yes.

It isn't just the villains of Revolution that are campy. The whole show is pretty silly. I admittedly don't know much about what the world would look like if electricity everywhere was shut off (and maybe Revolution is spot on), but I feel like Revolution takes some major liberties with the concept. It explains that many people died from lack of medicine and other complications of the electricity blackout, but the world looks far more deserted (and full of vegetation) than I would expect it to a mere fifteen years after the blackout.

I enjoyed watching Revolution quite a bit, but I managed to do so by saying "LOL, okay" to many of its aspects and embracing the silliness. Here's a sample of those "LOL, okay" moments.

Warning: This section may contain spoilers from Revolution's pilot.

These children's clothes? LOL, okay.

This magical electricity necklace? LOL, okay.

Danny using a crossbow? LOL, okay.

Gus on a horse? LOL, okay.

More 19th century clothing? LOL, okay.

The idea that Danny could even temporarily escape the militia's capture? LOL, okay.

Expecting us to think Elizabeth Mitchell's character is really dead? LOL, okay. (Although I suppose I may have to eat my words on that one if she really is.)

Nate's general existence? LOL, okay.

Danny's general existence? LOL, okay.

Extreme vegetation? LOL, okay.

The fight scene where Miles takes on a hoard of men with only minimal help? LOL, okay.

This tattoo? LOL, Okay.

Vague, covert instant messaging using the handy, dandy electro-pendant? LOL, okay.

Revolution is no Lost. It's silly and will probably end up suffering from some of the same problems that Lost's failed successors have. Still, it's pretty fun, and I'm interested to see where it's going. If you enjoy high-concept, mysterious shows and can accept the absurdities of Revolution with a "LOL, okay," (I promise guys. That's the last time I'm going to use that phrase. Well, it's the last time in this post.) it's worth a shot.

If you're interested in Revolution, you can check out its pilot now on Hulu or NBC.com. Alternatively, you can wait until its television premiere on NBC on Monday, September 17 at 10/9c.

Have you seen Revolution's pilot yet? What did you think? Who's your favorite (or least favorite) character? What moments, if any, stood out as absurd to you? Do you plan to keep watching? Let me know in the comments.

Review: The Mindy Project 1x01, "Pilot"

I love Mindy Kaling. I find Kelly Kapoor, her character on The Office, to be hilarious. I particularly enjoyed Kelly's music career. I read both of Mindy Kaling's blogs, The Concerns of Mindy Kaling and Things I've Bought That I Love. I check her Twitter fairly often. Most of all, I loved her book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns).

All of this is to say that it was pretty much a given that I'd be watching her new show The Mindy Project. When I saw that the pilot had been released early on Hulu, I was really excited, and of course, watched it instantly.



Given how much I like Mindy Kaling, I'd pretty much committed myself watching The Mindy Project before even watching the pilot. It could have been completely wretched, and I'd still probably watch a minimum of half a season. Thankfully, it is far from wretched. However, it is also fairly far from perfect.

One of The Mindy Project pilot's weaknesses is that it doesn't offer much new. It focuses heavily on rom-com cliches and fails to add a fresh twist to them. I particularly didn't care for Mindy's drunken wedding speech. The whole scene feels particularly tired and a bit lazy. Rom-com cliches can be fun, but I'm hoping that The Mindy Project will eventually find a way to help its use of them to feel a bit fresher.

I enjoyed Mindy Kaling's character, but I'm a bit iffy on some of the supporting characters. Anna Camp who plays her sister friend Gwen doesn't have a lot to do in the pilot but does well with what she is given, and I enjoyed the appearances by Bill Hader and Ed Helms. Everyone else is either bland or unlikable. The two main love interests are particularly disappointing. It took me a while to tell them apart, and when I finally did, it was mostly because of Jeremy's accent. Mindy's British-accented fling Jeremy is like a watered down, doctor version of Russell Brand. The show is presumably setting up Danny as Mindy's hate-turns-to-love romantic interest; he has the hate part down pat, but I'm curious how convincing the love part will be because Danny isn't very likable.

After all of that criticism, you might be starting to think that I hated The Mindy Project, but I actually did enjoy it. I'm a sucker for Mindy Kaling's brand of comedy: cute, girly, slightly shallow, and a little immature. The Mindy Project reflects all of these concepts. Most of the pilot's references, ranging from Downton Abbey to Sandra Bullock, are right up my alley. The pilot had plenty of fun lines, although none really stick out in my mind. Most of all, I thought it was a really likable show; I want it to succeed.

So yes, The Mindy Project's pilot is a little rough, but I strongly believe that it's going to find its voice.  Mindy Kaling's brand of humor isn't for everyone, but if you're a fan of hers, I suggest you give The Mindy Project a shot. I know I'll be sticking with it for a while

If you want to check out The Mindy Project, you can watch the pilot now on Hulu or wait to watch its television premiere Tuesday, September 25 at 9:30/8:30c on FOX.

Have you seen The Mindy Project yet? Did it live up to your expectations? How do you feel about the romantic interests? Do you plan to keep watching? Let me know in the comments.

Edit 11/21: I'm not sure why I assumed Mindy and Gwen were sisters, but apparently that's not the case. I've corrected my mistake above. 

Go On: 1x01, "Pilot"

I wasn't planning on watching Go On. I love Chandler Bing as much as the next person, but Go On's promotion didn't appeal to me. However, I changed my mind when I saw that NBC was going to air Go On's pilot early. Go On is the first fall pilot I've seen pop up this year, and that was enough for me to give it a shot. What can I say? I'm easily swayed.



Go On isn't completely terrible; I like the show's concept, and I like Matthew Perry. One of the problems with Go On, however, is that it feels second-rate in several ways. Its setup is similar to Community, but I far prefer Community's community college environment and cast of characters (It's been a while since I've seen Community's pilot, but I feel it was much stronger at these aspects even then.). Matthew Perry's Ryan King is definitely Chandler-esque, but he's a muted version saddled with emotional baggage.

In fact, most of Go On has a muted feel to it. I didn't really connect with the show's comedic moments or its dramatic ones. The emotional aspect felt forced and most of its comedy felt stale. I didn't feel like these elements were balanced particularly well either; it was as if the show tried for both and ended up with neither.

I do have to give Go On some credit for its standout scene. The March Sadness bit was pretty funny and a nice way to introduce the therapy group. It was definitely the freshest moment of Go On. It was pretty presumptuous for Ryan to propose such a game after spending only a few minutes in therapy, and I thought the show seemed to overly glorify his methods while treating the group's leader Lauren like a joke. Perhaps future episodes will do a better job with that balance.

For the most part, however, I didn't really enjoy Go On very much. It wasn't particularly bad, but other than the March Sadness scene, it just didn't work for me. With its setup, it could very well turn into a fun show, but without some changes, I'm going to have to give it a pass. I'm probably not going to watch again, but if I hear good things about future episodes, I may give Go On another go.

The show that desperately wants to be edgy: A review of 'Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23's' pilot

I really wanted to like Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 because the premise, while not the most original concept, is really fun, and I've been a fan of Kristen Ritter since Veronica Mars. The commercials for the show looked somewhat lame, but after the Breaking Bad reference in one of them, I was willing to give the show a shot. Unfortunately, it blew that shot.

One of the strangest things about Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 is its marking strategy. Most of the commercials try to portray the show as a super-edgy and scandalous. However, I found that the pilot just came off as trying way too hard to be this and failing. I think the show might fare better if it didn't try so hard to be shocking and embraced that it's a network show being paired with Modern Family. I'd enjoy if it more if it focused on being witty rather than being scandalous.


In addition to trying to be something its not, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23's pilot was terribly paced, moving much too quickly. So much time is devoted to June and Chloe's antics against each other that I didn't get much insight into the characters beyond what I already knew from the minute-and-half long trailer. June in particular made so little of an impression on me that I kept calling her Jill in this review until I looked up the show's air date and learned that I had her name wrong. In the span of less than half an hour, Chloe and June go from being strangers to enemies to tentative friends. Their eventual tentative friendship felt false as a result of this, and if Chloe's truly such a "B," I feel like her and June's bonding shouldn't have come so early into the series. I understand that the show wanted to set up its entire premise, but it really suffered from cramming so much into the pilot.

The only good thing about Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 cramming so much into its pilot is that I am kind of curious to know where the show is headed. I'm assuming the show's going to use a frenemy dynamic, and if done right, that could be interesting. There are several directions the show could go plotwise, and I do wonder which they'll choose.

I also liked that James Van Der Beek plays a fictional version of himself that's friends with Chloe. It's a funny idea, and I enjoyed some of the Dawson's Creek jokes. However, even in the pilot, I started to get slightly tired of the gag, and I fear that it won't take long for the show to wear it out.

As you can probably tell, I wasn't a huge fan of Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. It's a show that desperately wants to be cool but really isn't. I won't say that it doesn't have any potential, but I'm not planning to watch again unless I heard great things.

For those of you who want to check out Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 for yourself, you can watch the pilot online now or check it on ABC Wednesday April 11 at 9:30/8:30c.

Battle of the Sci-fi Pilots: Touch Versus Awake

It's that time of year when the mid-season pilots are premiering, and if you've been watching FOX and NBC, you've likely seen promos for Touch and Awake. I was intrigued by these shows because they both feature science fiction premises. While neither of these shows are actually currently airing, both have already previewed their pilots. FOX's Touch aired its pilot at the end of January, but the show is set to actually premiere on March 19. NBC's Awake released its pilot last Thursday and is set to premiere on March 1. While the premises of the show aren't really similar, there are few enough sci-fi shows on network television that I think it's fair to compare the two. Having seen both pilots, I'm going to do just that.

Touch

Premise:

Widower Martin Bohm (Kiefer Sutherland) is having trouble connecting with his mute son Jake (David Mazouz), but he starts to suspect that Jake is using numbers to communicate. These numbers bring about unlikely connections, and it appears that Jake can see things that others can't.

The Good: 

Part of my motivation for watching Touch stemmed from the fact that it comes from Tim Kring, the creator of Heroes. As an avid fan of Heroes' first season, I was hoping for something similar. In that manner, Touch didn't totally disappoint. Much like Heroes, it portrayed a wide variety of people around the world and then began to bring them together. This was an interesting aspect, and I liked the way that the storylines connected.


Additionally, I appreciated that there were some likable and familiar faces among the cast. Having never watched 24, I'm not really familiar with Kiefer Sutherland's work. That being said, there's something likable about him (although it may partially be that Kiefer is a super fun name to say). As a recent Doctor Who fan, I was excited to see Gugu Mbatha-Raw who I recognized as Tish Jones, Martha's sister. Although I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't recognize him until I did a quick IMDB search, What I Like About You's David de Lautour had a small role in the pilot of Touch as well.

The Bad:

Probably the biggest issue I had with Touch is that the pilot was cloying sappy. The show was so desperate to make me feel sorry for Sutherland's character and his son that it didn't quite feel genuine. For a show called Touch that's about the connections between people, I really failed to connect with any of the characters. They seemed more like sob stories than actual people.

Another issue I had with the pilot is that it was honestly kind of dull. I think I paused the episode 2 or 3 times before actually finishing it. While the idea of kid who knows things that he shouldn't is somewhat intriguing, it's just not that interesting to watch. I'd take Heroes-esque superpowers over that any day.

Will I Keep Watching:

When I first finished Touch's pilot, I thought that I might watch a couple more episodes to see where the show is going. However, the more I think about the pilot, the less I'm motivated to watch any more of Touch. Even writing this review, I was kind of surprised at how negative I felt towards it. It wasn't completely irredeemable, but it wasn't very interesting either. As I have plenty of shows to watch at the moment, it's doubtful that I'll keep watching.

When It Airs:

You can currently watch Touch's pilot at Hulu or on FOX's website. The show officially premieres on FOX on Monday, March 19 at 9/8c.

Awake

Premise:

After suffering a car accident with his wife and son, police detective Michael Britten (Jason Issacs) finds himself switching between two realities every time he goes to sleep. In one reality, his son is alive and his wife is dead; in the other reality, the reverse is true. Additionally, Michael's different cases in the two realities start to bleed together.

The Good:

I thought Awake's pilot was a solid start to the show. The premise is definitely intriguing and is a large part of what hooked me into watching the show, but it's not the show's only strength. I think Awake's cast was chosen well, and they all, particularly Issacs, put forth good performances. There was some sentimentality in the pilot in dealing with the deaths of Michael's family. However, it felt naturally derived from the plot rather than tacked only solely for the sake of stirring the audience's emotions. I felt connected enough to the main characters that I could feel bad for Michael's and his family's pain.

One of the best aspects of the pilot is simply that it made me excited to see where the show is headed. I want to know what's going to happen; I want to find out why Michael's experiencing two realities. It's a good sign when a pilot stirs curiosity in its viewers.

The Bad:

I don't have many complaints about Awake's pilot. I suppose the two cases that were featured were somewhat generic. As the pilot set up the show's slightly complicated premise in addition to featuring Michael's cases, however, I suspect that future episodes will improve in this aspect. To be honest, I'm just assuming that they're going to keep a crime-of-the-week aspect to show, but I don't know for certain.

My only other issue is that it became slightly confusing to keep the two realities straight. However, it wasn't too difficult, and the fact that Michael has different partners and wears different colored bracelets in each reality helped greatly.

Will I Keep Watching:

I'm going to answer this with a definite yes. I am slightly skeptical of how the concept of Awake will work past the pilot. The show could certainly lose its luster and focus over time, but I'm just going to hope the writers have inventive plans for the rest of the series. I'm certainly interested to see where the show is going, and I feel like I'm going to have some fun speculating about Awake.

When It Airs:

You can currently watch Awake's pilot at Hulu or on NBC's website. The show officially premieres on NBC on Thursday, March 1 at 10/9c.

 Bottom Line

I think Awake is a much superior show to Touch, and it's the only one of the two that I plan to keep watching. I found it to be a much fresher, genuine, and intriguing show. Particularly with sci-fi shows, it can often be hard to tell where the show is headed by simply viewing the pilot. However, judging solely by their pilots, Awake is going to be worth your time far more than Touch is.

New Fall Pilots You Can Watch Right Now

It's getting to be that time of the year when the new fall television shows are premiering. I believe that Ringer kicked off the premiere of the pilots last night (which I've yet to see any of other than its much-ridiculed boat scene but sadly haven't heard great things about). Tonight, the CW is premiering H8R (yes, that's actually the show's title). On Thursday, NBC is airing the pilots of Up All Night and Free Agents, and the CW is airing the pilot of The Secret Circle.

While Ringer may have been the only pilot to air so far, there are a few other pilots you can check out now.

As I mentioned in my last post, New Girl is currently available on Comcast ON Demand. I've since learned that it's also available as a free download on iTunes. I wasn't extremely impressed with New Girl, but I think it might have some potential. For a more detailed description of my thoughts on the pilot, you can check out my post specifically about New Girl.

Also on iTunes, you can download the pilot of CW's new show The Secret Circle. I haven't watched this pilot, so I can't give you much of a recommendation as to whether you should watch it or not. 

Finally, the pilot for ABC's soapy drama Revenge is currently available online. If you download a free script for the show off Amazon's Kindle store, you'll find a link to pilot. I'd wholeheartedly recommend this pilot. It's definitely soapy, but it's much less cheesy than I thought it would be. It was really enjoyable, especially for a pilot. Revenge is a fun, vengeancey show, and I'm excited to see where they're going with it.

Have you seen any of the pilots of the fall season yet? Are you planning on watching any of this weeks' premieres? Do you know of any other available pilots? As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Edited to add: I've just come across another new pilot that's available online: Showtime's Homeland. I haven't heard much about it, to be honest, but I thought I'd share the link for anyone who's interested. You can check it out on Vulture.

New Girl: My Thoughts on the Pilot

As I was browsing through the Comcast ON Demand offerings, I saw Fox’s upcoming comedy New Girl listed. I figured it was just a short featurette, but to my surprise, they had the complete pilot available. Intrigued, I decided to give it a shot.

Credit: FOX

Before I get too far into this review, I have to make a disclaimer; I went into New Girl with negative expectations. I was somewhat curious about it, but I didn’t like the previews. My biggest issue with New Girl’s pilot is something that had already bothered me in the trailer: I found Zooey Deschanel’s character to be annoying. I’ve enjoyed Zooey in other movies like Elf and 500 Days of Summer, but I thought her performance in New Girl was too over-the-top in its quirkiness. It’s not just Zooey’s fault; the script practically begs viewers to see her character, Jessica, as adorably quirky because she sings a lot and wears glasses. There were a few brief moments where I bought into her character and thought her to be funny. It’s possible that these brief moments could be glimmers of improvement in the future. However, I currently find the character annoying for the most part. I could see some viewers finding her endearing, and I think most people’s opinions about New Girl are going to depend on if Zooey’s character and performance works for them.

I enjoyed her male counterparts a bit more. They form a fun little group and were well cast. However, I was a little disappointed at how one-dimensional the male characters are. Damon Wayans Jr.’s aptly named character, Coach, is portrayed simply as the tough, sometimes insensitive coach, and Max Greenfield’s Schmidt is the girl-obsessed toolish guy. Jake Johnson’s character, Nick, is the closest to having more than one dimension, but he’s still just the guy who’s not over his girlfriend. To be fair, it’s hard to develop characters in a short thirty minute pilot, and I feel like this flaw will be quickly overcome. The three actors have a nice chemistry together. Unfortunately for New Girl, that chemistry is going to be disrupted. Damon Wayans Jr. is currently working on the second season of Happy Endings, so his character has been written off after the pilot. I’m curious how the replacement of his character will affect the group dynamic.

Plotwise, I wasn’t really impressed with New Girl’s pilot. If you’ve seen the show’s trailer, you’ve seen the whole plot of the first episode. There’s just not that much to it, and it’s far from original. Again, this is somewhat forgivable because this was a pilot. Pilots often have scanty plots because they have the difficult task of setting up a series. I did really enjoy the series’ premise. The idea of three guys adjusting to living with a girl may not be an out-of-the-box idea, but it's a fun one. There's a lot of interesting ground that the show could cover.

New Girl's pilot definitely had that pilot feel to it. I see this as both a bad and a good thing. It’s a bad characteristic because it gave it an raw and slightly unfinished mood. As an episode, this pilot just didn’t work that well for me. The writing wasn’t particularly unique or witty, and the main character annoyed me. As a pilot setting up a show, however, it did a decent job. This pilot feel could be a good thing because it gives some hope that New Girl will improve over time and just needs to find its footing.  Plenty of great shows have had mediocre pilots. Plus, there were a couple of moments that I enjoyed, and the premise has a lot of promise. I think New Girl will instantly charm a lot of people. It has that hipstery, Zooey Deschanel vibe going for it, and some people will be drawn to that. Personally, however, pilot just didn’t work for me, I’m probably not going to seek out future episodes unless I hear that it’s improved, but I might stop and watch another episode if I found it while flipping through channels.

If you’re interested in checking out New Girl, you can watch it on Comcast ON Demand like I did, or you can watch it Tuesdays on FOX at 9/8c starting September 20.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on New Girl in the comments. Do you plan on watching pilot? If you've seen the pilot, what did you think? Do you think you'll watch regularly?

No Ordinary Family Pilot (Spoilers for pilot, I guess)

I watched the No Ordinary Family pilot about a month ago when ABC posted it online. I wrote a note or two about it and saved it as a draft, but I never got around to reviewing it. I honestly don't remember the pilot well enough to give a detailed review. So, I'll just share my basic thoughts on it:

I enjoyed the casting of the parents. I'm a fan of Julie Benz's from her work on Buffy and Angel, so I enjoyed seeing her again (I know she was on Dexter, but I've never watched that). I'd never seen Michael Chiklis in anything before, but I thought he was great for his role. I couldn't stand the daughter, but honestly, I'm not sure good casting would have fixed that. Her role was a one-note role, and that note was whiny. All she did in the pilot was whine and text. Oh, and she made oh-so-cool references to twitter and photoshop. I don't have much to say about the brother, but he was somewhat likeable. I really would have liked for the storyline about his not having a power to have been drawn out a bit more because I think it could have led to a good twist and some good conflict.

As for the show as a whole, I can't say I'm a fan. I found No Ordinary Family to be cliche and unoriginal. I don't mind that it's similar to The Incredibles or other shows; I just wish that it brought something new and interesting to the table. Obviously, as this was the pilot and was expositional, there's a lot of room for improvement. That being said, I probably won't watch again unless I happen to come upon it while flipping channels or the rest of the season gets rave reviews.

And one last thing. I don't remember who he played on No Ordinary Family now, but I wrote "7th Heaven dad!!!" in my notes. Just thought I'd share that little piece of information with you.