Broadcast Summer 2019 TV Review:

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.