Summer TV Premiers

Though we're still in the midst of season finales from the regular TV season, some networks have begun to unveil their summer TV premiers. On Monday night, FOX premiered its comedy, "The Goodwin Games," while ABC offered a preview of its new summer drama, "Motive." Reviews of the pilots of both are below.

The Goodwin Games, FOX Mondays at 8:30 p.m.
About: "The Goodwin Games" was announced with much fanfare in May, 2012 as part of the mid-season offerings for FOX during the 2012-2013 season. It comes from the team responsible for "How I Met Your Mother," and was touted as a winning new comedy starring Scott Foley and Becki Newton. Soon, the show recast a main role. That's not a great sign. Later, FOX cut the show's order from 13 episodes to just seven episodes. That's not the kiss of death for a show, after all "The Office" only got a six episode order for its first season, but that's not good. Then mid-season turned into May 20, after all the other FOX shows had ended their season, for a premier. That's basically a summer burn off timeslot. Logically one had to wonder how a promising show announcement turned into a show that's essentially been cancelled before it premiered, especially for a network seemingly starved for comedies. The answer came with Monday night's premier. The show, on it's surface, seems promising. An eclectic set of siblings forced to complete a series of challenges from their dead father to earn an inheritance. But there weren't a lot of laughs to be had here. It felt like  the show was trying too hard to be quirky and endearing, and couldn't pull off either well. It was mildly amusing, but it's easy to see why the network soured on the show after seeing the re-shot pilot. It lacked the punch of the other shows, and it's hard to see how it builds to a compelling series. The pilot was mildly amusing, but not really memorable. Not a good sign for the show's prospects, even in a summer sea of repeats.
Pilot Grade: C-

Motive, ABC Thursdays at 9 p.m.
About: ABC has found success in the past by importing Canadian dramas during the summer. "Rookie Blue," about young cops, has been a modest hit the past few summers on Thursday nights. ABC decided to up the ante this year with "Motive," a crime drama that debuted in Canada in February. The show purports to tackle the genre from a different angle. It tells you who the killer and victim are at the top of the show, then spends the rest of the hour figuring out why they did it. While this is a slight twist on the crime genre, offering a motive for the crime isn't entirely new. Those that are familiar with the genre will note that, in the process of finding the killer, most crime shows actually talk about the motive, too. While this show is organized a bit differently, it's not reinventing the wheel as it would have you believe. The show offered  a preview premier on Monday night, and while it was mildly interesting it doesn't seem like much more than a Canadian take on a popular genre here. The show might do reasonably well during the summer simply because it's new, but it's only OK.
Pilot Grade: C