Critic's quick take: The most promising (and puzzling) in new ABC lineup
Fall has arrived for the TV biz.
TV executives are pitching their fall slates at advertisers in New York this week in an annual ritual known as “the upfronts.” The five broadcast networks make their presentations and show their clips, after which advertisers try to decide what looked good and, more importantly, what looked like it will succeed.
Obviously, they will have more time in the weeks ahead to come to a more informed judgement on the new shows, as will we. But as the networks use these clips to entice ad buyers, it seems only fair to say whether or not they looked particularly enticing.
Which is what I’ll do for each network this week, picking out the new show that looks most promising — and the one that seems most puzzling. It’s only a first impression, of course — but in TV as in life, first impressions sometimes stick. NBC and Fox presented Monday.
ABC
You can usually count on ABC for quantity, if not always quality.
NBC and Fox introduced only three fall shows each. ABC, on the other hand, unveiled five for fall and another six for midseason (including a Roseanne revival), and while that’s not the most ABC has ever done, it’s still more than its major competitors. That’s a consequence of having more failed series and more open spots, which could be a consequence of always introducing so many new shows at once.
As for ABC's shows, no network does a better job of highlighting its returning series — reminding you of what you liked about watching them and making you feel like you've missed something if you stopped watching them. And no network does a more thorough job of introducing its new series, which works in ABC’s favor when the shows make a favorable impression, and can cut against it when they don’t. And that downside, I fear, is where ABC finds itself after this upfront.
Still, let’s start with the upside.
Most Promising: The Good Doctor
This series, from House creator David Shore, stars Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel) as an savant doctor with autism. The combination helped turn him into a great surgeon while also limiting his ability to connect with people. You don't have to look very closely to spot a lot of House in that professionally perfect/personally flawed character, but Highmore appears to be disarming rather than abrasive, so that's a switch. And anyway, House was a very well-made series with an easily understood premise designed to support self-contained episodes — and those are in short supply at ABC this season.
Most Puzzling: The Gospel of Kevin
Actually, outside of Doctor, every new fall ABC hour was puzzling. The clips from Marvel’s Inhumans gave no clue as to what the show was about, other than ABC’s continued conviction that slapping “Marvel” on a show’s title is enough. Ten Days in the Valley has a great star in Kyra Sedgwick, who plays a television producer whose daughter goes missing, but it’s hard to see how that story supports a continuing run. But both at least seemed to have a better shot at survival than Kevin, which stars Jason Ritter as a selfish, self-centered guy chosen by an angel to help save the world. It's possible, of course, that ABC has found the next Touched By An Angel, but the clips made Kevin look like one of those shows network executives pick up because they think it will be big in middle America, even though they have no use for it themselves.