EDITOR’S NOTE: The newest addition to our staff, Redeye Rogue has some opinions of his own regarding my recent preview of the new fall additions to the CBS schedule. Since we’re all about diversity, I thought it only fair that we let an eight-foot cycloptic toaster chime in… even if it is after the fact. So, below see what I had to say and then what Redeye Rogue thinks about my dumbass opinions.
Shawn’s Take: When we first heard about Elementary, we wanted to repeatedly punch ourselves in the face because we are kind of tired of seeing the U.S. television industry lazily copy the success of magnificent BBC programming by stealing their shows and then thoroughly screwing up what has made the BBC versions so great to begin with. To make matters worse, someone thought it was a great idea to send Holmes to New York and making matters even worse, casting Lucy Liu in the Watson role. So, unlike the BBC’s Sherlock, which we’ll go as far to say may be the best show on television regardless of what side of the Atlantic you’re on, this adaptation of Doyle’s masterpiece not only has set the characters and the story in the modern era, but they’ve also gone so far as to change the locale to a completely different continent, ergo, destroying part of what makes Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes, and they’ve changed Doctor Watson from a male, British Army Doctor to a female Asian-American surgeon. Fantastic. Despite that, after watching the trailer, it really doesn’t look bad. Don’t get us wrong, it’s no Sherlock, but it doesn’t look awful. That being said, don’t fool yourself, the lame suits at CBS have brought us, yet again, another police procedural with a gimmick (see: Numb3ers, Unforgettable, CSI and The Mentalist for recent examples of CBS doing this).
Redeye’s Take: Lucy Liu in what could be a compelling crime procedural show. Only problem is, it’s a crime procedural show. Won’t someone please tell CBS that those are played out already?
Shawn’s Take: This actually appears to be really good but we have two big problems with it. First, the trailer seems to have just a whole bunch of random action scenes thrown together to make the show seem more exciting than it really is. Second, the show is filmed in Las Vegas, New Mexico, NOT Las Vegas, Nevada and the landscape isn’t even close to matching the majestic mountains of Southern Nevada (yeah, we’re biased on this issue). For crap’s sake, at least use some CGI and fake it.
Redeye’s Take: Come on dude! It’s the same guy who wrote Goodfellas and Casino. It’s got Dennis Quaid. Could it possibly be anything other than awesome? If CBS can resist going all ‘procedural’ on this one there might be hope.
Shawn’s Take: This looks so horrible we don’t want to waste any effort commenting on it further because it’s not worth our time. It’ll be lucky to get a two-paragraph review when it premieres. Watch the trailer and understand why. Next!
Redeye’s Take: Despite Shawn’s immediate dismissal of the show as looking “…so horrible [he doesn’t] want to waste any effort commenting on it,” I’d like to say that out of all the shows on the line-up, the one with the most heart and soul is quite possibly Made In Jersey. Not only does it score points with RedEye for having heart, but it seems to be a quirky “ethnic” comedy, vis à vis class comedy/legal drama. The comedy seems well-played. I don’t think this one is going to be as bad as everyone is expecting. Hell, it doesn’t even look like a CBS show.
This is what you call your ‘Truth in Advertising’
Shawn’s Take: Partners looks absolutely awful on every level conceivable. Not only is it filled with the most ridiculously stupid gay stereotypes and corny and predictable jokes, it is also a typically awful CBS comedy.
Redeye’s Take: I’m sorry to say that Partners doesn’t look very good. It looks very, very sitcom-y which I guess is standard fare from CBS. Shawn said that on any other network it would be gone quickly while I say that no other respectable network would have touched it. I’m embarrassed for everyone involved. It did bring back fond memories of Bosom Buddies, though… which I wish they would bring back.
