Show Off
The days have been getting darker earlier and you’re likely wearing a sweater while reading this, signaling winter’s dreaded arrival. If you’re not looking forward to dropping temperatures, here’s something you can look forward to: fall’s new lineup of TV shows.
Here are the good, the bad and the…
UGLY BETTY
Network: ABC
Airs: Thursdays, 8/7c
Star Rating: 1 Star
The premise: Betty Suarez (America Ferrera) is a plain girl from Queens, New York. Ok, not just plain, but not too cute either. However, she’s smart, savvy and hard-working. Only no one notices because she’s well, ugly. Coke-bottle glasses and braces and all. Good thing they didn’t pull out all the clichés, huh?
Betty has big dreams about working in the publishing world. She interviews with Meade Publishing and the interview tanks. Poor Betty wonders if she’ll ever move out of her dad’s place.
But things are about to change. Big-wig Bradford Meade spots her in his building and decides she’d be the perfect assistant for his son, Daniel, who heads up the company’s fashion magazine. Why? Because she’s ugly. You heard me right. Betty’s the only girl in Manhattan who Bradford knows his son won’t, you know, get friendly with.
Daniel’s not crazy about this new hire, but he finally sees through her unattractiveness to the smart girl, and the two go forth and take the fashion world by storm. Blah blah blah.
Where to begin. The premise is based on someone’s lack of surface beauty. Need we say more? Second, the character isn’t funny or charming. Third, the show’s premise is based on someone’s lack of surface beauty. I give it three episodes, tops.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
Network: NBC
Airs: Tuesdays, 8/7c
Star Rating: 4 Stars
Riffing off the 2004 movie Friday Night Lights, this show centers on the small, dusty town of Dillon, Texas, where people live and die by the high school football team. The townsfolk REALLY want the team to win the 2006 state championship rings, and well, that’s a lot of pressure to put on high schoolers.
Coach Eric Taylor is expected to pull off this win. But that ain’t an easy feat. He’s got everyone from waitresses to pastors telling him how to play the game. Meanwhile, the local media is circling like vultures, waiting for him to fail. But team superstars quarterback Jason Street and running back Brian “Smash” Williams have his back.
Unlike the movie, the women in the players’ lives get some air-time, which adds the element of balancing school, football and their social lives.
This isn’t just another movie-to-TV translation. It’s like watching the movie all over again. It’s all about those tiny, fleeting moments in life: the team giving pointers to the local Pee-Wee club; the crowd holding up crossed fingers when a favorite player goes down; the sweet glances between crushes.
It’s all good. But let’s just hope they can sustain the energy over the course of the season — both the football and the TV season.
HEROES
Network: NBC
Airs: Mondays, 9/8c
Star Rating: 4 Stars
Everybody needs a superhero, right? Or maybe, we ARE superheroes. That’s the premise of this series about everyday people who discover they have special gifts.
We’ve got an indestructible cheerleader; a cop who hears people’s thoughts; a young dude who, like R. Kelly, believes he can fly and really can; a corporate drone who alters space and time, and more. X-Men, beware.
Tying these uber-humans is a genetics professor in India whose father’s disappearance leads him to uncover a secret theory that sparks the interest of a mysterious figure. Fearing for his life, the prof flees to New York.
The ultimate destiny of all these folks is, of course, to save the world. And not die trying. All during a solar eclipse.
What we’ve got folks is another sci-fi drama that leaves us wanting more, more, more. Throw in jealous lovers, corporate takeovers, drug addictions, politician-brothers, and you’ve got another “Lost”-type series that draws you with its intriguing plotlines. But first, we have to figure out what the puzzle is before we can start putting the clues together <cue creepy music>.
There’s plenty to love about this show if you can keep up with all that’s going on!
SIX DEGREES
Network: ABC
Airs: Thursdays, 10/9c
Star Rating: 3 Stars
Can you envision that dude in bio class as your future brother-in-law? Or boss? Or…? Well, start envisioning because if this show has it right, we’re all connected through a chain of six people.
In this series, the six people are an assortment of New Yorkers: Mae (Erika Christensen) is a free spirit who’s nabbed for indecent exposure after a night on the town. Her court-appointed attorney is Carlos (Jay Hernandez), who’s instantly smitten and calls in a few favors to spring her. He’s rewarded with her phone number; sadly, it turns out to be fake. So he tracks her down at her job — a hip nightclub he’s nowhere cool enough to get into.
We could tell you more, and there’s lots more, but we don’t want to ruin it for you. Suffice to say the show’s characters are drawn together in a mysterious web of coincidences. Or, maybe they’re NOT coincidences…
This series has the schmaltzy narration and love-struck doe-eyed characters we can thank “Grey’s Anatomy” for, but it DOES make you stop and think. Are our lives run by destiny? And more importantly, will destiny keep us glued to the set week after week? Hmmm…maybe it’s in the stars. Three stars, that is.
