New Shows, 7: Brothers, The Cleveland Show, Trauma
Continuing with the reviews, with a bit more speed and brevity, after the fold …
Brothers
As my previous post pointed out, this got really low ratings. Which is a pity, since there are many worse shows on television than this one. Alas, for its chances, there are also many better shows.
CCH Pounder has received good press, justifiably, but the main cast is all pretty decent. Daryl Mitchell has something of an early Eddie Murphy to his quick, punchy, and aggressive-yet-not delivery, and the writing team clearly knows how to write for him. Indeed, that’s particularly evident in his mere inclusion, as a man in a wheelchair, in the show, and it’s impressive to see two characters in wheelchairs (the other being in Glee) make it onto television this year, given how disgraceful network TV’s exclusion of characters with disabilities has been overall. Michael Strahan is a bit blah, but his role doesn’t require much more.
I could see myself watching this again, though not as destination television. Apart from anything else, too much of the humor is based on people yelling at each other, and insult humor can wear off quickly. Ultimately, given its ratings, I wouldn’t recommend anyone get too attached, since I fear it’s not long for this world.
The Cleveland Show
I go back and forth on whether I like Family Guy, and if so, how much. At times, I’m in the mood for it and think it’s great. At other times, it’s tired and way too poorly written for my tastes. It relies too much on gags, without enough narrative-based humor. So I was intrigued to see that The Cleveland Show’s ads suggested a bit more narrative.
The pilot, by contrast, went back to all gags, with very little narrative-based humor. And I didn’t laugh much at all. After FG and American Dad, Seth McFarlane’s formula has become all too evident, and all too firm, so it seems, giving this show little sense of its own life. I’d expect that after its newness factor wears off, it’ll slide precipitously in the ratings, or if it doesn’t, it had timeslot and timeslot alone to thank. It’s not bad per se; it’s just really nothing more than humdrum, which for comedy is almost a worst crime than being actively bad.
Trauma
Lots of explosions and tension almost led me to think I cared more about the plot and character than ultimately I did. A medical drama, it featured the explosions and attending hoopla way more than the characters, to the point that I still don’t really know who these people are. I’m happy to see Cliff Curtis getting work, and he doesn’t disappoint, and, as said, the tension pulled me through the episode effectively enough. But a pilot that doesn’t tell me who its characters are and why I should care about them has stumbled. Maybe I’ll tune in again sometime to find more answers, and I liked this more than Mercy, so if you choose to add one new medical drama to your life, until I get to watch Three Rivers and check that one out, I’d recommend it be Trauma. That’s only if you need one, however. Trauma, sadly, doesn’t do much to make a viewer need it, becoming, for me, take it or leave it TV
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