The Mob Doctor

How to put this… This is basically a show about a woman facing a truly dreadful choice and possibly making the wrong one. It’s about a young, brilliant surgical resident who happens to come from a mob family. To save her brother’s life, she agrees to work for the mob boss, doing things like treating all those bullet holes they don’t want reported to the local constabulary.

The clips looked bloody. The doctor is told to kill someone and may just. It looks pretty icky all the way around. The only problem with something like this is that, if done well, it could be really good and thought-provoking. Let’s just say I’m not holding my breath.

Ben & Kate

Alas, another riff on the endlessly immature man thing, but this looks like there might be some good stuff in here, nonetheless. Ben and Kate are sibs who had dysfunctional parents and who pretty much raised each other. Kate, natch, is the serious good girl. Ben, the older brother, is more than a little immature. Kate did get herself pregnant and is raising her daughter. Then Ben comes back and decides to help Kate raise her daughter. This is a sweeter family comedy and it looks like Ben is more spontaneous than completely immature, and that can be a good thing. We’ll see.

The Mindy Project

Blech, ick, ack-tooey. Played by Mindy Kaling, this is about a young OB/GYN with a truly messed up personal life. She gets arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct and goes right back to work the next day. What? This is supposed to be a comedy, but they seem to have forgotten to make it funny, if the clips are any indication.

Other good news from Fox – Touch got picked up and will be back next fall. That I’m happy about.

Justin Bartha, Andrew Rannells, Georgia King, courtesy NBC

One of my favorite times of the TV year has always been the Upfront season, particularly this week in May when the broadcast networks announce their new shows for the fall season. I’ve always loved pondering what the new shows would be like, which ones would become my new faves.

This year, it’s actually looking pretty good. Not seeing too many trends, except more comedies, and the clips look reasonably funny, too.

There are a fair number of shows about families, but not a lot that’s family safe, as per usual. Sometimes, this can be a real problem when the show is really good and your kids want to watch it. And this year, the raunchier stuff seems to be on the weaker shows, with many exceptions. The violence might be a problem, as some of the better dramas seems to have that going on.

So, since NBC went first, we’re starting with them. I’m looking at the shows that will start in the fall, mostly since I don’t have the time or the brain cells to spare for the midseason stuff. We’ll get to those soon enough.

Revolution

A post-apocalyptic drama in which all electricity and most of the things that make the world turn are gone. I don’t know why your basic gas engines no longer run and why nobody can find a way to generate at least some juice – it ain’t that hard. But I’m assuming creators J.J. Abrams and Eric Kripke have something up their collective sleeve to explain that. Anyway, a young woman and her two friends go on a quest to find out what her father had to do with the sudden power dry up 15 years before.

Violence, needless to say, is going to be the issue with this. But the clips made it look fairly interesting, with lots of modern day sword fighting and bows and arrows, which if you’ve got a weakness for swashbuckling, can be fun. Giancarlo Esposito (who played Sidney Glass/Looking Glass on Once Upon a Time this past season) plays the head of some evil militia, so it looks like Sidney’s not coming back to Storybrook.

Go On

This comedy stars Matthew Perry as a wacky sports shock jock who is having trouble dealing with his wife’s death in a car accident. So he gets sent to group counseling and pretty much takes over the group. Sounded awful in the description, the clips look significantly better. The only other issue is Perry, who seems to be making a career out of playing largely unlikeable, obnoxious people. Not to mention that the two times I’ve met him, he wasn’t terribly pleasant as a person, either. So I may have to jam the mind open.

The New Normal

There’s at least one sexy scene in the clips, but the show, itself, may be okay. It will certainly generate some great discussion about what makes a family. Goldie is fed up with her life and wants to make things better for herself and her daughter. So she agrees to be the surrogate womb for two gay men who want to raise a baby and in the process, they become part of her family. The clips showed some rather frank scenes, and it looks like it will deal with discrimination of all kinds in a rather in your face way. So it looks promising.

Animal Practice

An unorthodox veterinarian bumping heads with the new owner of the hospital. As one of the characters in the clips noted, “Can you spot the sexual tension?” I don’t know if we want to perpetuate the old they hate each, then love each other stereotype – not real healthy for a relationship, and there is the irresponsible single male stereotype going on here, too. But, but, but…. The clips don’t look as bad as I thought they would. I think it’s probably too quirky to sell in the mass market. If they can get it to hang on for a season or two, it could develop a cult following. I mean what to can you expect when one of the characters is a capuchin monkey named Dr. Zaius (at least, I think that’s the name I heard).

Guys With Kids

Okay, I kinda liked this situation comedy about three guy friends who are up to their hips in small children and trying to figure out how to be cool with the other guys. Not liking that being an active father is not considered cool yet, but am trying to see the progress. There are some male immaturity issues going on here, but there are also some very real bits that I saw, like the couple trying to get in some necking in the bathroom while the little ones bang on the door. Another scene, the dad comes home and his little daughter demands that he chase her, and he agrees that he’s chasing her as he slowly drags himself to the fridge. I’ve got a feeling I’m not going to like this show much when I finally see it, but every year there’s a show or two that I figure I’m going to hate, then decide I love.

Chicago Fire

Boy, does this one remind me of ER. There’s even more soapy, sexy stuff in this one. Focusing on a Chicago fire station, we start with the team dealing with the loss of one of their own, particularly two guys who are blaming themselves for the death. It’s not violent, but there’s a lot of danger because they’re fire fighters and that does involve plenty of blood and danger. I don’t know if I’ll be watching it regularly, but it looks somewhat promising.

Kelli Garner

This week we’re looking at all the shows that debuted this season, including one that I actually liked – Pan Am, on ABC.

The show covered the lives of five Pan Am stewardesses in the early 1960s, and a lot of folks thought it celebrated the sexism of the time, with some justification. Certainly, in the pilot, there was a scene where the girls are being weighed and a matron snaps their girdles to be sure they’re wearing one. That was the clip that had my flesh crawling when I saw it.

But it just goes to prove that it’s worth it to keep an open mind. I think overall, the show celebrated independent, intelligent young women who were making the most of what opportunities they had, which were very limited at the time.

Was it perfect? Hardly. But it was a better and more interesting drama than even, I suspect, the network gave it credit for, given that they sometimes ran episodes out of order, which made it confusing to watch.

The fact that the show could be a little unnecessarily sexy made it a problem for family viewing, but it could have been worse.

What do you think? Was this show treated unfairly? Or are you glad it’s off the schedule?

But two traditions remain – the end of the broadcast season and the upfronts for the broadcast networks.

Once upon a time, when the three broadcast networks were pretty much all there were, they would debut their new shows in September, the season would run about 22-26 episodes through mid to late May and then there would be summer re-runs, with the occasional summer show – usually an also-ran that the network had paid for but decided didn’t quite fit into the regular season schedule.

The reason behind this was that people don’t watch as much TV during the summer, presumably because they’re on vacation and going places, staying outside late, stuff like.

It may also have been people didn’t like watching re-runs, because cable channels came along and eventually started programming their new series to air during the summer and lo, and behold, people started watching more TV. More to the point, cable series began to get some real respect because they were pretty good.

So new the broadcast networks are looking for inexpensive new shows for their summer schedules, but the bulk of their programming still debuts in September, because that’s the tradition and it mostly works. And in preparation for that September debut are the massive dog and pony shows for the advertisers called the upfronts.

You may have been hearing about upfronts all spring, since many of the cable networks stage them, as well. But next week, the five broadcast networks are presenting theirs.  These are when the new series for fall are presented to the advertisers as each network scrambles to sell as much advertising time as possible before the public discovers that some of the shows really suck and stops watching them.

In the meantime, some of our favorite series are winding down. House and Desperate Housewives are ending all together.

So what are your fave shows and why? What were the hits and misses as far as you’re concerned? What got cancelled too early? What hasn’t been cancelled and should have been?

Since there isn’t a lot of new programming coming up this week, I’ll be looking back at this past season and would love to hear from you in the meantime.

Elijah Wood and Eddie Izzard

TREASURE ISLAND

Friendly Rating: Elementary age and older, could be too intense for younger viewers

Safety Rating: Gets progressively bloodier and more violent with stabbings and guns and even a keel hauling

Quality Rating: Very well-made adaptation and beautifully acted

Special movie airs in a four-hour marathon tonight at 7 p.m. on Syfy.

When the SciFi Channel became Syfy a couple, three years ago to much angst among its fan base, the nice folks there explained that they wanted to expand their brand and not be locked into straight science fiction programming. Treasure Island may be proof that they had the right idea.

There is no science fiction or fantasy involved in Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic 1880s novel beyond the fantasy about pirate life, as opposed to how it really was. So why is this on Syfy? I don’t care. This is a really nice done movie, and based on the plot synopsis I found, a fairly faithful rendering of the original story (I tried reading the story as a kid, before I was ready, and just couldn’t get into it, though I’m going to now). And that’s including all the pirate cliches – the peg leg and parrot on the shoulder, treasure maps, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum – that’s all from the novel. What makes it work is how they’re handled – as organic parts of the storytelling.

Billy Bones (David Harewood), for example, is a Jamaican pirate whose fateful arrival at the inn run by young Jim Hawkins (Toby Regbo), and he’s the one that stumbles through the old bottle of rum tune as part of his character.  Eddie Izzard’s turn as Long John Silver is as nuanced a performance as anyone could ask for. Even though you know his heart is black, you almost fall for his friendship with Jim.

We do have to keep in mind that folks in the 19th Century weren’t nearly as worried about their young boys being exposed to violence as we are now, so as bodies pile up in the book, they pile up in the movie, too. And there is lots of talk about killing people. But it’s one of those could be worse scenarios in which the deaths aren’t, for the most part, as graphic as they could be. They are graphic enough and plentiful, so you may need want to approach this with some caution.

But, dang, it’s a good little flick. Okay, long flick. It doesn’t always move as quickly as some of us multi-tasking, attention-impaired folks might like, but once it does – it’s pretty intense.

Booke by Brooke Gladstone

THE INFLUENCING MACHINE: BROOKE GLADSTONE ON THE MEDIA

By Brooke Gladstone, Illustrated by Josh Neufeld, W. W. Norton & Company, 2011

Yes, this is a book. Yes, it looks like a comic book (or, technically, a graphic novel) so your kids might actually read it. And I know I focus on television here.

But this book is exceptional. It’s probably one of the most comprehensive, yet succinct analysis of the media landscape today. Well, the news landscape, at any rate. The book doesn’t just look at how we get our news and how we got that way (from, like the ancient Aztecs and Romans), it also looks at how we digest what we get.

I saw it on a display shelf at my local library and promptly destroyed the poor librarian’s work by pulling this off and reading it.

It’s a quick read – the graphic format is a major plus that way. But it’s also footnoted and well-sourced.

Whether or not you take what Gladstone, a commentator on media for National Public Radio, has to say as gospel, has to do with who you are – and Gladstone explains all this.

However, I believe that any parent who is concerned with the messages their kids are receiving in terms of violence, sex, dysfunctional relationships, and gender and racial stereotyping would interested in reading this book. Even though it focuses on news literacy, one of the central messages is that being aware of how media work and how they affect us can help us use it effectively instead of it using us.

One of the concerns that Gladstone tackles, for example, is how the flood of information out there forces us to choose what sources we get our information from, and because of that we tend to choose those sources that validate our beliefs. If you’re conservative, you watch Fox News and berate everyone else. If you’re liberal, you listen to MSNBC and berate Fox News. Note the berating part. Because this narrows our perspective, it makes us less tolerant of other opinions. But Gladstone also points out that there is research that suggests that the more information we consume, particularly through the Internet, the more likely we are going to expose ourselves to those whose ideas are different (page 140).

Then there’s the whole hyperactivity/loss of focus thing. There are some problems with it, but Gladstone posits that maybe it’s not that we’re dumbing down, but that our process of thinking is changing.

Again, it’s an easy read. I’d link to a certain behemoth Internet retailer, but they’ve been behaving rather badly of late and I see no reason to promote their rapacious interests. Here, instead, is the link to the American Booksellers Association member directory search site. Find a local bookstore near you and buy your copy there. That’s what I’m doing. (Yes, Ms. Gladstone, I’m buying a copy. Be happy.) Because even though I’ve read this, I think I’m going to want to have a copy around for future reference.

Jesse Owens, courtesy PBS

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: JESSE OWENS

Friendly Rating: All ages, younger children might get the squirmies

Safety Rating: Very safe

Quality Rating: Well written and moves well.

Series episode airs tonight on PBS, check your local listings for times.

There’s a reference to Jesse Owens in the film Blazing Saddles that I sort of got at the time, but got later as my understanding of the world around me grew. This is one of those cool docs that can bridge that gap between sort of getting the joke and actually getting it.

Our popular culture is filled with references to people who had their moment in the sun, but maybe aren’t quite so well known today. These are the names our kids hear us go on about, but have no real experience of. Then we get a film like Jesse Owens, which is rich in excellent footage of the time and which gives a rich picture of the world at his time. So that’s who he is. That’s what that reference is all about.

Owens is best known for being one of the first Black athletes to participate on the U.S. team at the modern Olympics. He was famously snubbed by Adolf Hitler, who wanted to prove Aryan (aka White) superiority and failed miserably. Owens won multiple medals at those games and broke numerous records, some of which stood for at least 10 years.

The film focuses on the Olympic Games, but does start with Owens’ youth as the son of a sharecropper who moved north to build a better life for his family. There are quite a few subtitles, which might be a problem for younger viewers with limited reading skills. That’s because many of the people describing what happened at the Games are German and were actually there, including a German Black man, which is insanely cool.

Worth looking at, moves quickly. One more cultural reference pinned down.

Motorcity, courtesy Disney Channels

MOTORCITY

Friendly Rating: Early elementary and older

Safety Rating: Lots going boom and gender issues

Quality Rating: Business as usual, but still very entertaining

New series airs on Disney XD tonight at 9 p.m.

For all Motorcity is set in a futuristic Detroit that has been paved over by a megalomaniac tyrant, it covers some pretty familiar territory and does so in a pretty entertaining way, albeit there are definite problems with violence and gender stereotyping.

The premise is that Abraham Kane (voiced by Mark Hamill) has not only purchased the city of Detroit, he has paved it over and created the utopian Detroit Deluxe. The problem is, he has stripped the people of basic rights, including the right to own and operate a car. Everyone dresses alike and presumably thinks alike.

But driven underground is the resistance group – The Burners, a group of hot rod loving young folk determined to free Detroit Deluxe from Kane’s tyranny, led by Mike Chilton (Reid Scott). Side note, I’m guessing Chilton’s name is an homage to the series of car repair manuals put out under that name.

There are killer robots making lots of stuff go boom. Julie (Kate Micucci), the one girl in the gang, is drawn with the usual emphasis on features, although it’s not as outrageous. And besides her ding-a-ling girlfriend in Detroit Deluxe, that’s it for female characters. On the flip side, the weenie Chuck (Nate Torrence) is a tech genius and the paternal wisdom figure is a man. So we’re working against the dumb male stereotype so beloved of Disney Channel programmers. It would appear that to be an intelligent male, you have to be kicking butt and taking numbers, rather than telling jokes.

On the plus side, this is a more intelligent premise than you usually get in these kinds of shows. Julie is not only part of the gang, there’s an interesting twist in that she’s Kane’s daughter. Then there’s the whole freedom fighter theme, nor does Kane seem to have his sights on expanding his utopia, just crushing the resistance.

Parents with concerns about violence may want to watch this one with their kids, but at least it will be more interesting to do that than not.

Cuba Gooding, Jr., courtesy ABC

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m one of those folks who can really pull it off in crisis mode, but as soon as the crisis is over, I totally fall apart.

Life at the old homestead has been extraordinarily crazy for the past few weeks, including the illness and death of one of our dogs – a peaceful death for a very old critter, but still sad and slightly traumatic. Things are back to the normal craziness, but I’m trying to recover.

So I’ve had to take an unscheduled vacation from blogging. But there are still some shows worth noting on Sunday, April 22, including:

The Fox 25th Anniversary Special runs from 8 to 10 p.m. Hard to imagine, Fox has been with us for 25 years, and these kinds of retrospectives can be a lot of fun for you and your kids.

Nat Geo WILD is featuring War Elephants at 8 p.m. – I really wanted to see this one, about a population of elephants trying to come back after a civil war in Mozambique pretty much trashed their habitat and almost wiped them out.

Finally, there’s a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie Firelight on ABC at 9 p.m. This one stars Cuba Gooding, Jr., as a counselor at a youth correctional facility for young women who set up a volunteer fire fighting force, thus giving the girls’ self-esteem and a new lease on life. Yeah, it’s probably inspirational as all get out. (Who me? Cynical?) Anyway, it’s probably about as safe as this kind of subject can be.

So there you have it. I am outta here!

Greg "Gadget" Abbott, courtesy PBS

INDEPENDENT LENS: REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR

Friendly Rating: Ecology and engineering minded kids and older

Safety Rating: One off-color threat to the male anatomy

Quality Rating: Very interesting

Series episode airs tonight on PBS, check your local listings for times

In 2006, director Chris Paine took on the major American auto manufacturers over their decision to pretty much kill the development of electric cars in his doc Who Killed the Electric Car? Except that in recent years, electric cars, such as the Tesla, the Nissan Leaf, and the Chevy Volt, have been making a comeback.

So Paine is back again, looking at all the changes that finally got companies like General Motors off the dime and working on electrically-powered automobiles.

This is a fun little doc. Paine doesn’t spend a lot of time saying “I told you so,” only a little. More interesting are the different profiles he does of some of the executives behind the scenes of these new cars.

So give it a try.