Spring TV Roundup, Week 5

We're almost to April and the new shows keep coming. In these weekly posts I review the pilot and second episode of new scripted series. Don't see a new show listed below? Check previous weeks.

Tuesday Nights:
You Me Her, Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Audience Network (Premiered March 22)
About: Audience — the network created by DirecTV — has premiered some new shows off and on. Last Tuesday it launched a pair of comedies. The first is "You Me Her," which is a co-production with Canada and is about a couple (Rachel Blanchard and Greg Poehler) who separately meet an escort (Priscilla Faia) and fall in love with her. That's a complex premise, especially for a half-hour comedy. Poehler is the brother of Amy, and recently had a show on NBC. Blanchard is a familiar character actor and Faia was a star on another Canadian import, "Rookie Blue."All three have an affable look and feel in their roles, but there's something odd and creepy about the premise of this show. Now they'll be in a three-way relationship in future episodes and, soon after, I imagine things will fall apart. This is risqué ground to cover for a show, and it feels like a stretch that this lasts more than a season. The pilot wasn't terrible, if you can get past obvious moral objections, but I'm not sure I see this working as a series.
Pilot Grade: C

Almost There, Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on Audience Network (Premiered March 22)
About: This was the other sitcom that premiered on the Audience network Tuesday. I guess it's another relationship comedy. It doesn't seem as controversial, but it wasn't memorable either. In fact, I'm not sure what the pilot was trying to accomplish. But whatever it was didn't work. This was a train wreck.
Pilot Grade: F

Wednesday Nights:
Heartbeat, Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC (Premiered March 22)
About: "Heartbeat" is the latest series on NBC. But don't get too attached, I don't see it lasting long. The series got a premier Tuesday night behind "The Voice" before moving to its regular time slot on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. The opening episode ratings were a shrug, the second episode was worse. And that's reflective of the show itself. It was supposed to debut in the fall, but star Melissa George was pregnant, which delayed production. But maybe that wasn't the only reason it got pushed off the fall. The show's gone through several titles and it wants to be a combination of "Grey's Anatomy" and "House," but it falls short of both. That's a bad combination. George plays an irascible genius with a complicated love life. I simply couldn't be made to care about that or any of the medical cases in the first two episodes. This show is beyond boring, and I can't see it lasting too long even for the woeful Peacock.
Pilot Grade: C-
Second Episode: C-

Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on CBS (March 16)
About: This spin-off of "Criminal Minds" takes a team of FBI profilers to foreign lands to help Americans in peril. If you like "Criminal Minds" but want more exotic locations, you're in luck. Sadly, this series has less dynamic and memorable characters, and so far it has much more boring stories. The pilot was about girls abducted to be hunted for sport (a ripoff of the plot from "Hostel" in some ways) and the second was about Americans being abducted so someone could harvest their organs. Basically, this is every foreign travelers worst nightmare. And, again, the characters have no personality or pop. This is a by-the-numbers procedural that is tailor-made for CBS. It will probably get another season, but I won't be watching.
Pilot Grade: C
Second Episode: C-

Thursday Nights:
The Catch, Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC (Premiered March 24)
About: TGIT and the Shondaland block has lost some of its luster this season. "How To Get Away With Murder" struggled in its uneven second season, and "Scandal" has gotten tired quickly. But "The Catch" is the latest show to launch in that block, and I wasn't sure what to expect. What I got was a fun cat-and-mouse game pilot that hit all the TGIT notes while being something a little different. I liked Mirelle Enos and Peter Krause in the lead roles, and I could see this developing into something fun. Of course, that could just be the pilot and this could settle into something else as a weekly series. We'll have a better idea after Thursday. But for now, I liked the pilot and thought it was one of the best new shows I've seen this Spring. It's an improvement over what the rest of the lineup has been this season, though sadly few watched. But if you were on the fence, I'd say give "The Catch" a shot.
Pilot Grade: B-