Fall TV Roundup, Week 7

Here's a look at this week's New Shows. We are rounding through the fall, with four shows ("Welcome to the Family," "Ironside," "Lucky 7," and "We Are Men") having already shuffled off this televised coil. As always I review the first two episodes of new shows. If you don't see a show you're looking for listed here, please check previous weeks. I will have a full round up and recap of all the new fall shows in a couple weeks. By then half of them might have been cancelled.

Thursday Nights:
Reign, Thursdays at 9 p.m. on the CW (Premiered October 17)
I wasn't a huge fan of this pilot, and the second episode wasn't much better. I know this is a teen show on the CW, but still you could be more accurate. A show about Scots in the French court shouldn't have British and American accents. But I think the bigger issue is that I'm focused on their accents because the show isn't that compelling. It might work as a soap for teens, but that also gives me pause. It doesn't seem incredibly accurate from a historical standpoint, which will probably only add to people misunderstanding history. This is essentially pretty people in period dress scheming, plotting, and having romantic trysts. It could be somebody's cup of tea, but it isn't mine.
Pilot Grade: C-
Second Episode: C-

Friday Nights:
Dracula, Fridays at 10 p.m. on NBC (Premiered October 25)
I understand what NBC is going for here. "Grimm," which debuted two seasons ago, has been one of the few break-out hits in recent years for NBC. It's a spooky supernatural show with inter-personal drama. It makes sense they want a supernatural night on Fridays. After all, if you're going to capture the 18-49 demo, you need a hook on Fridays. On paper a re-telling of "Dracula" makes sense. But in execution it just didn't work for me. The show has some kind of secret society and conspiracy, it turns the typical tale on its head, and it wants to use Dracula for all his flaws as a protagonist. On paper that seems like a winning combination, but I wasn't buying what the show put down in its pilot. We'll see how it develops, but this feels like a big waste of time and money. After all, if NBC really wanted to go for a creepy Friday night it should put sophomore returnee "Hannibal," which is chilling and well done, behind "Grimm." Instead we get a limp re-telling of a tired and familiar horror trope. Nothing much to see here.
Pilot Grade: C-