2019 Summer TV Review:
CBS:
Blood & Treasure:
Former FBI agent Danny McNamara is brought in by billionaire Jay Reece to help
save Danny’s mentor Dr. Anna Castillo, a world renowned historian/archeologist
who has been taken captive by the terrorist Karim Farouk took (played by Oded
Fehr of the Mummy and the Resident Evil franchises) and find the artifacts he
sent her to look for which Farouk took as well.
Danny (played by Matt Barr of Harper’s Island and Hellcats) was an
expert in stolen arts and antiquities for the FBI but now is a lawyer
specializing in repatriating stolen art which makes him qualified in tracking
down Farouk, to save his mentor and get back the stolen artifacts. It is
personal when it comes to stopping Farouk as he failed to stop him when he was
in the FBI, but always follows the book which is why he recruits his
ex-girlfriend Lexi Vasiri (played by Sofia Pernas of The Brave) who is a
resourceful art thief. She will do anything it takes to get revenge on
Farouk because he killed her dad which she still blames Danny for because he
ran the sting on Farouk that involved her dad getting killed. The two of them
have to work together despite their issues in order to take down Farouk before
he unleashes another brutal terrorist attack and recover the lost artifacts.
They have more than one obstacle in getting to Farouk besides dealing with his
men trying to kill them. They also have to deal with an Interpol agent who
worked with Danny before, an Carabinieri
TPC officer investigating them while they are in Italy, and an Egyptian
government officer who worked with Danny before, and the secret cult that is
trying to get Cleopatra’s tomb back which is what Farouk stole in Egypt.
Verdict:
Renewed: The show is very good at grabbing your attention with little to no
unneeded boring scenes as it is a very good action/adventure show. It gets
right to the point in trying to take down the bad guy/save the day. It is very
odd though to hear a British accent on Pernas as she was playing a member of an
American Seal team in her previous TV role. The way they wrote it for Barr he
seems like he really is an expert on artifacts and really cares about artifacts
going where they belong. They also have a very good supporting cast by having
Oded Fehr playing the bad guy, Patrick Sabongui (of Flash and Stargate
Atlantis) playing the Egyptian government officer who worked with Danny before,
Danny’s mentors being played by Anna Coppola (of NCIS) and John Larroquette (of
Night Court and Boston Legal) plus, Michael James Shaw (of Constantine and
Limitless) as the fence who is their only lead into Farouk. It does seem very
Indiana Jones esque since it has to do with archology and finding artifacts, plus
the connection to the Nazis besides the Egyptian history of Cleopatra and Anthony,
which is also very interesting to see how it’s all connected. The main issue is
as exciting as it is to look for stolen treasure and stop a bad guy what if
they succeed in taking down Farouk in season 1 where do they go from there?
They would have to make it a few seasons worth of trying to stop him or them
stopping bad men like him if they stop him.
NBC:
The in Between:
In this Supernatural detective hybrid veteran Seattle detective Tom Hackett(played
by Paul Blackthorne of Arrow) has been solving murders with the help of his
foster daughter Cassie Bedford for years. His daughter has unexplained psychic
abilities, including being able to converse with spirits and witnessing moments
that have occurred in the past. Whenever she is called up upon by the unsettled
souls who are stuck in the in between despite her reluctance she calls her
father to see if anything she has seen can help him solve his cases as Seattle
P.D.'s clandestine partner. Her hope is she may have found a way to keep her demons at bay, all while solving
some of the city's most challenging cases. Flash-forward to this year where
Hackett’s partner has retired and they replace him with former FBI agent and
LAPD detective Damien Asante who transfers to Seattle under some suspicion. He
is very skeptical of how Hackett does his detective work since it’s relied on
by Bedford’s visons and abilities so they have to learn how to be a team to
solve all of these darkly puzzling murders.
Verdict: Cancelled. If you like different kind of shows that are
niche that stick out I would suggest it but I don’t think NBC wants an odd
show. I am all for different kinds of procedural shows like Lucifer or
Blindspot to name some since there are too many boring ones out there on every
network where it takes places in all different cities where they all solve the
same kind of mysteries or murders. This one is different with it being
supernatural where she can see the dead and have visons but they don’t really
explore how or where she got them. The show has lots of things they throw at
you so it might confuse the average person so they might not stick with it if
they don’t pay full attention to what’s going on. I don’t see any real depth in
the main character beyond her being the girl with powers and I don’t buy her
acting as well. The real reason to watch the show is for Blackthorne playing a
detective again like he did in Arrow. He’s just not as rough around the edges
like his previous role so it’s a welcome change to see how good of an actor he
really is as the real star of the show. Also I don’t get why the creators think
it’s plausible a British man wants to be a detective in Seattle so he can talk
in with his real accent but doesn’t make sense for the character. I do not like
the dead people following around the main character it doesn’t do anything for
the show. The supporting cast doesn’t show any real promise as the team that helps
the detectives solve the crimes and make their boss happy. Nor do we care about
her dating life or his.
ABC:
Grand Hotel:
Eva Longoria executive produces(plays Mendoza’s deceased wife) this Miami based
drama that takes place in the last family owned hotel called the Riviera Grand
based on the Spanish series. Santiago Mendoza
(played by Demian Bichir from Weeds & the Bridge) owns the hotel with his
second wife Gigi (played by Roselyn Sanchez of Without a Trace & Devious
Maids) while their kids enjoy the lavish life style their parents have made for
them. Each of their children and themselves all are hiding secrets as well the
hotel staff like scandals, escalating debt and the possible cover up of a death,
hide beneath the picture-perfect exterior. Mendoza’s kids are played by Denyse Tontz (from Big Time Rush & The
Fosters) and Bryan Craig (of General Hospital). The hotel staff is played by
Wendy Raquel Robinson (from The Steve Harvey and The Game) show & who is in
charge of the staff, Chris Warren (from High School Musical & Alvin &
the Chipmunks) playing her son who’s a waiter, Lincoln Younes (from Tangle
& Home & Away) who is the new mysterious waiter they hired, Ann Winters
a pregnant maid(of Tyrant & Zach & Mia) and hotel manager played by Shalim
Ortiz (of Una Maid en
Manhattan & Señora Acero). The show takes
places between the present and a few months earlier during a major hurricane
that happened where one employee went missing.
Verdict: Cancelled. The show is supposed to be full of intrigue,
suspense and mystery but it gets bogged down by too much soap opera drama not
regular TV drama that we can handle when telling a story. The step children do
not get along with each other nor do Mendoza’s kids get along with their new
mom. It doesn’t matter to me at all about Gigi’s children because they serve no
real purpose to telling the story or the plot so its wasted scenes showing them
do anything as they are not that interesting. The story plots of Mendoza and
his kids are interesting based on who he owes money to if it’s the mafia/gang, the
story behind the what happened to his wife, the manager’s origin story of his
connection to the hotel and people Mendoza has been borrowing money from, his
son lost his leg/what his life was before and their daughter who just came back
from business school coming to help run the hotel. The most interesting plot is
the new waiter’s reasons for wanting to work at the hotel and his search for
the truth about the missing employee. If they can focus more on the Mendoza
family not his new wife’s family and more about the new waiter’s role in this
hotel’s puzzle of mysteries then it could be saved because of the how
interesting those plots actually are.
Reef Break:
Cat Chambers (played by Poppy Montgomery of without a Trace &
Unforgettable) is a former thief who used to smuggle things by surfing them in
and out for the largest crime boss in the Pacific Island a US Territory of Reef
Island. She goes back to the island to testify against her former boss who
tried to kill her five years earlier. While on the island she draws attention to
herself and gets involved in being the person who delivers a ransom over
kidnappers. After saving the daughter of the richest person Carter Eastland on
the island with help of a young and newly promoted detective name Wyatt Cole as
it draws the attention over the governor on how she handled it with instinctive
gift for understanding crime and criminals. The governor sends the deputy
governor to offer the job of a fixer for their office because they don’t want
the headlines for all these crimes getting out of hand since she can do the job
that law enforcement can’t or will not do.
As she continues to work for the governor’s office she is reminded to do
things by the law as detective Cole is looking out for her. She also had to
deal with her ex-husband Jake Elliott (played by Ray Stevenson of the Punisher
and Thor Marvel franchise) who is an FBI agent whose exploits are considered
legendary on the island as he will also remind her to do it by the book but
will still reluctantly help his ex-wife from time to time as she tries to
redeem herself.
Verdict: Cancelled.
In the long running history of buddy-cop/detective/law enforcement team ups
comes a new twist. In previous attempts it’s a magician or an actress or a
person on a drug that uses 100% of your brain teaming up with someone in law
enforcement this is one is a former criminal teaming up with a detective and a
FBI agent to take down corruption and criminals. I like the banter between her
ex and her current guy she is seeing but we don’t care who she has been with or
is seeing now. Also unless you google clues from the first three episodes you
don’t know if the island is part of Hawaii or by Australia since the cast has
Asian people or has people with an accent of UK or Australia so it is confusing.
It’s also too convenient that her ex still lives on the island if he works for
the FBI they move you from one assignment to one assignment once you take care
of business and the deputy governor being half siblings with the detective
working with Cat. Her former boss being able to speak to her from prison is
dumb and adds another element we don’t need if he is locked up. They also
trying to resuscitate her reputation of being a criminal who is selfish by
having a kid she looks out from her past that lives with her, but I do like the
shady characters from her past she can lean on for tips in taking down the real
criminals. The reason I think ABC will cancel it is because of their track
record of not giving shows more than one season that are similar. They
cancelled Take Two from last summer, Deception from the last year’s spring
season, and both Fox & CBS cancelled their buddy cops shows Lucifer and
Limitless. Plus ABC cancelled the hybrid FBI/CIA show Whiskey Cavalier despite
it being great TV, good crime solving and enough humor to keep these procedural
shows not too boring with good banter between the team.
CW:
Pandora: Set in the year 2199 this Sci-Fi show is about Jax a resourceful young
woman who lost everything (her parents) and has to live with her uncle at
Earth’s Space Training Academy. She learns and trains to defend the galaxy from
threats both alien and human. During her adventures, she begins to discover
secrets about the nature of her own identity and decides she must uncover the
truth/about her parents and find out whether she is to be humanity’s savior or
the instrument of its destruction.
Verdict: Cancelled. The show is
very sci-fi so there are lots of things you need to pay full attention to even
remotely figure out what is going on in these episodes. There is also too many
characters to try to figure out who they are and what their backstory is but at
least they have developed characters unlike many shows where the supporting
cast/friends have no real purpose but just to be in the show. They have aliens,
clones, physics and even an Asian guy with a British accent. It seems like many
characters also have their own secrets but if you are lost on who the
characters are and why they are in the show it’s hard to want to wait to find
out their secrets. I do like the idea of universal training academy to keep the
world safe on Earth like in Star Trek for example. CW has renewed some of the
worst shows I have ever seen and cancelled good shows so I will not be
surprised if they renew it because it is on in the summer where the ratings are
not hard to lose when it’s not going up against top tier shows. I personally
like the show/will watch the full season because it is Sci-Fi and have good
characters you want to know, but as I said there is too much going on to be
fully aware of what the show is presenting to you that even if you pay
attention to every detail you still wind up being confused or lost.
