Caught the first episode of Code Black this week. I think I’m in from the get-go. It took me straight back to the first year of ER (which is a good thing) with all the excitement that the sensory overload that an chaotic emergency room brings, without all the pretty medical residents/nurses and background romance that inevitably take over the good story lines of a quality medical procedural. Unless it jumps the shark in the next few episodes, this is my kinda medical show. Marcia Gay Harden doesn’t disappoint, as I expected, and there are several other primary characters with obvious flaws and foibles that will make for several interesting story arcs. And Luis Guzman as the Chief Nurse giving the “I’m your Mama now” speech to the newly-arrived first-year residents was just extra gravy (“if he’s our mama, who’s our daddy?” was the cue for Harden to come banging through the double-doors screaming orders at every doctor, nurse and patient within earshot, as the obvious center of the pandemonium).
Quantico doesn’t get the same glowing review, but I’m going to keep it on the DVR schedule…for now. Whereas Code Black looks like it will hold off on the sexual tension, at least for a while, the central character of Quantico has sex in the car of a total stranger she meets on her cross-country flight to the FBI Academy within the first 5 minutes of the show. She lied to the stranger about where she was going, and he was a serviceman “heading home from an overseas tour”…the perfect ships passing in the night for a booty call, until she’s sitting in her orientation lecture looking around at her fellow trainees and…oh…hello random car sex partner! And we’re off the races, with lots of young, pretty FBI trainees with skills beyond any realistic expectation, and just-as-incredible back stories. Rich Sorority Girl happens to be a weapons expert because “Daddy taught me to shoot at the country club.” Mormon Mission Boy has a horrible secret that would get him kicked out of the Latter-Day Saints, never mind the FBI. Muslim Hijab Girl is actually identical twins living in the same dorm room, pretending to be the same trainee?!?!? (Yes, that’s exactly where the show jumped the shark in only the second episode.) But, the storyline is interesting, in a “Lost” kinda way, so I’m going to watch for a little while longer. Don’t judge me. The Muppets – so much better than I expected. Keeper. Others have mentioned Blindspot. Ditto here. Jaime Alexander is gorgeous (despite the self-inflicted haircut). And that’s not enough to carry a show that has absolutely nothing else to offer other than a smoking hot female Jason Bourne. Minority Report is off the DVR after two episodes…my love of Philip K. Dick be damned. Horrible writing. Horrible acting…even from Meagan Good, which was *very* disappointing. The plots have no obvious long-term direction…I see a future murder…but not enough of it to do anything about it without the help of the police detective who will use her investigative skills to fill in the blanks of what the precognitive social misfit can’t see. Okay…one case down, and next week we rinse and repeat from the same exact spot. Limitless feels like Minority Report, but with less of a campy sci-fi feel, much better writing and just enough humor from the main character to make it work much better. Continuing to watch this one, but it’s on a short leash. Best Time Ever – ummmmm…”best”? Your mileage may vary. Doug Fields Tampa, FL From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of PGage Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 9:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] DVR-Worthy Fall 2015 TV? On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 12:19 PM, Doug Fields <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: I’m going to give “Code Black” a try for no other reason than Marcia Gay Harden’s name in the credits. Likewise “Quantico,” because I like the storyline of a South Asian character fighting terrorism from the American side, and all the stereotyping that she’ll have to fight through to pull that off. ”going to give it a try,” while not necessarily hold out much hope for it. On the flip side, I don’t think you could actually pay me to watch the new Ken Jeong show, based on the preview commercials I’ve seen. Other than those three examples, you and I have remarkably similar tastes in television entertainment. (*huge* Philip K. Dick fan here) In which case Doug, if you fid Code Black or Quantico to be unusually good, I would appreciate a head's up here and I will dig through the On Demand and check them out. If Quantico is any good I could become a fan; I have an idiosyncratic bias against medical programs (I did finally get into Scrubs on Netflix or Amazon or wherever it went after it died). I have never quite understood all the love the Muppets got in original run. I watched a lot of it, but for me it was always a case of having limited viewing options and it being the least objectionable option (or the show my family was able to agree on). I am a fan of the first Muppet Movie, and saw most of the others with varying degrees of enjoyment. I will probably watch the new show, but it won't be the first thing on my list. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. 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