Winter TV Roundup, Week 1

We've entered a new year, and networks and cable channels have plenty of new offerings. Over the next few weeks, as with this fall, I'll be offering my take on the pilots and second episodes of these new offerings.


Thursday Nights:
The Assets, Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC
About: This is the first of the new shows to bow this winter, and it had the worst debut for a network ever. That doesn't bode well, but I think there are a few things to consider here. First, it was billed as a mini-series and a period piece set during the Cold War and starring some British folks playing America. OK, that last part is just my observation. And second, when I say billed I am being polite. I don't think ABC marketed this show much at all. In fact, heading into the first episode I had no idea what it was about, and it was only by chance I saw it was on. Debuting a show with little or no fanfare that has no built in audience via a star on January 2 seems like a recipe for disaster. And maybe ABC doesn't care, but still… "Rookie Blue" gets better promotion during the summer than this. Third, this feels a little bit like trying to cash in on another's success. F/X had a modest hit last winter with "The Americans," a show about Soviet spies living in Washington, D.C. during the Cold War. This mini-series is along the same lines, only it's based on a true story about a U.S. spy that betrayed his country. Given that it is based on a true story you could argue that people might know the story or could look up the facts, but one of the disappointments for me was that you learn who the traitor is in the first few minutes of the show. I would have been more interested in the hunt for the spy, which is what the show says it is going to be. While we will still get to see how the traitor is caught and, if we're lucky, his motivations, the hunt would have been fun. That being said, this show was mildly interesting. It wasn't great, but I saw enough to keep watching. The question is whether the network will let it air all eight episodes as planned. Another bomb on Thursday could spell the end.
Pilot Grade: C+