The new summer replacement shows are starting to roll out. Although the “season” doesn’t have a clear start. Shows like Resurection, Silicon Valley and Fargo already have their own threads. But there are some new shows that aren’t likely to get as much attention.
So, let’s talk about other new shows: What’s good, what’s bad.
First up: Black Box. ABC, Thursday at 10pm. The Scandal time slot. Premiered 4/24.
Stars Kelly Reilly as bipolar neurologist Catherine Black. Medical drama with a focus on the brain.
Short story: Bad. Just plain bad. Gave up 40+ minutes into it.
Long story: I like Kelly Reilly a lot. Flight, the Sherlock Holmes movies. So I gave it a try. Also has Vanessa Redgrave as her therapist.
Started out okayish but quickly went south.
Some really bad acting. In particular, the new “hot shot” neurosurgeon actor, Ditch Davey, does the worst acting I’ve seen in network TV in years. One-off guest star non-actors do a better job.
The show mixes reality with hallucinations (both Black’s and others) plus flashbacks. It is hard to manage such a mix without getting confusing. They don’t do a good job.
There was another summer replacement show a few years back that was set in a psych hospital. Such shows have a problem: The format requires the star to fix the PotW in one hour. You can do that with a lot of regular medical problems, but for mental conditions, not so much. For causes like tumor and blood flow problems, there’s the neurosurgeon. But those get tiresome really quickly. For the standard mental problems, you aren’t fixing a lot of people ever, let alone in a week. And even if there’s medication, the reality doesn’t make good TV: “How is the Zoloft doing?” “No change.” “Okay, let’s taper you off and start you on Prozac in a couple weeks.”
So such a show is going to have problems. And it appears that ABC has ordered 13 of these.
One of the PotWs in this episode compulsively draws with markers on walls. So we first see him after he has defaced a good part of a room at the hospital. Umm, who thought it was a good idea to give this guy markers? And resupply him as he uses them up? That doesn’t happen in reality. He isn’t given markers. When he goes ballistic you throw Thorazine or the modern equivalent at him. The walls stay clean.
The worst part is that Catherine Black starts off full-on House end-of-season-5 crazy. Completely bat-crap crazy. I don’t want to watch this crazy person who is supposed to be taking care of other people with mental issues. And forget any sort of empathy or interest or anything.
I wondered at first if this was also a Shondaland production given that its been Rhimes’ slot for years. Watching the opening credits was an “uh-oh” experience. Credit after credit for “producer” of one form or another. For a brand new show, no less. Including one for Reilly. (Stars usually take a bit before they get producer credit.) Way too many cooks. (And no Rhimes.)
While the ratings standards for summer replacements are low, I expect this show to be replaced by Scandal re-runs.