Winter TV Roundup, Week 2

We've reached the ides of January, and the flood of content is upon us. There were a ton of new shows that bowed last week, and a ton more to come. Winter was once a quieter season for new content, but not anymore. In fact, in the Netflix world, there is no quiet time for content. In these weekly posts I review the pilot and second episode of new scripted series this winter. (And the "Masked Singer.") Don't see a new show listed below? Check previous weeks.

Monday Nights:
The Passage, Mondays at 9 p.m. on FOX (Premiered January 14)
About: When I saw the first trailer for this series during Upfronts, I was drawn to the personal drama between Mark-Paul Gosselaar and the child he was protecting, played by  Saniyya Sidney. I wasn't familiar with the books upon which the series is based, and the initial trailer sort of hid an important plot point. So I was reasonably excited for this one to come, but sort of forgot about it during the Fall since it took a while for it to air this winter. As the new premier date approached, we got more of a trailer that showed something I didn't expect: Vampires. So this series, and the books upon which it is based, is about a government research project meant to cure disease that has some unintended side effects. You know, like vampirism. And they start testing on Death Row inmates because that's a good idea, then soon realize they need to start younger if the person is to have no adverse side effects. So they look for a little girl who doesn't have a family and won't be missed (Sidney) and send an agent (Gosselaar) to go get her. But along the way, the agent and the little girl form a bond and he has some reservations about this project. That's pretty much what occurs in the pilot, and he fights to protect her. (Though if you saw the previews for the season following the pilot you know somewhere along the line that goal changes...) Anyway, I still love the interaction between Sidney and Gosselaar, and the idea isn't bad, but I'm kind of over vampires. So this show might be a tough sell, depending on your feeling about vampires. The pilot was also a little dry, as not too many of the characters seemed to have depth and pop off the screen. I do like Henry Ian Cusick, who plays one of the scientists, and this could develop into something. Time will tell.
Pilot Grade: C

Tuesday Nights:
Good Trouble, Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Freeform (Premiered January 8)
About: I reviewed this pilot early last week before its official premier, so if you want a longer take read this. Suffice to say this one is a spin-off of "The Fosters," featuring two of the stars, Maia Mitchell and Cierra Ramierez, jumping ahead a few years to follow their post-college life in Los Angeles. The show will probably appear to "Fosters" fans, but I thought the pilot was a little slow and uneven. We'll see where the second episode goes. Granted, I'm not the Freeform target audience.
Pilot Grade: C

Project Blue Book, Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on History (Premiered January 8)
About: "The X-Files" was a long-running and popular series that explored the supernatural and sought to answer questions and tell stories in a fictional setting. It presented a true believer and a scientist working for the FBI on unexplained cases. In a lot of ways, "Project Blue Book" wants to follow in those footsteps. But this one is based on real cases and real investigations done by a military officer (Michael Malarkey) and a professor (Aiden Gillen), both of whom would fall into the skeptic category. They're trying to find the logical, rational explanation for these cases. The first of which involves a military pilot who encounters an unidentified flying object, one that takes a toll on him. The two partners clash in their styles and approaches, and the episode revealed that there is more going on here, including some government conspiracy that higher ups, including a general overseeing the project (Neal McDonough), want to keep quiet. I enjoyed the first episode and think there's some potential here for something interesting grounded in real life cases.
Pilot Grade: B+

Wednesday Nights:
Schooled, Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. on ABC (Premiered January 9)
About: This latest ABC family sitcom is a spin-off of "The Goldbergs." This one brings back a familiar character, Lainey Lewis (AJ Michalka) as a teacher in the 1990s at her high school. It also brings back some familiar faces in Coach Mellor (Bryan Callen) and Mr. Glascott (Tim Meadows), the school principal. Now Lainey needs a job and returns to her old school at the music teacher. Now the teachers she used to go to school to learn from are her peers, which creates an interesting dynamic. Also interesting is the copious 1990s references, many of which were a lot of fun. I wasn't a huge fan of "The Goldbergs," but the pilot here worked for me. It touched on some interesting aspects of what I remember from middle and high school, and the real life story in the pilot about Matt Ryan was a lot of fun, too. This could be a nice addition for ABC.
Pilot Grade: C+

The Masked Singer, Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on FOX (Premiered January 2)
About: I don't usually review reality shows, but as I noted last week the genius here was a fun concept, a lot of ads during football, and a premier when nothing else was on. They knew once you gave in and watched it, you'd likely want to come back. That was the case for me. I enjoyed the pilot, where the first six singers performed and Antonio Brown was unmasked, and the second episode, featuring the rest and seeing Tommy Chong unmasked. There are still 10 more singers, and it's fun to wonder who they might be and guess. The judges are ridiculous, and their guesses are, too, but it's all in fun. And I like that this isn't a competition so much as a mystery guessing game with musical performances. In short, it's not deep or complicated but it works.
Pilot Grade: B
Second Episode: B

Thursday Nights:
Fam, Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBS (Premiered January 10)
About: Not all new comedy can work. This new addition to CBS centers on a couple, Clem (Nina Dobrev) and Nick (Tone Bell), and their messy family. I'm not going to take a lot of time here to dwell, as this show frankly wasn't worth it. The characters and story in the pilot were stiff and there weren't a lot of laughs. CBS has some wonderful comedies, and in fact I liked both the new Monday shows they launched this Fall. I'm also waiting for "Life in Pieces" to come back. Instead, we get this series which is a misfire. Comedies sometimes take a few episodes to find a groove, and I suppose that could be the case here, but the pilot was rough and I have trouble seeing this as being worth watching.
Pilot Grade: C-

Sunday Nights:
Valley of the Boom, Sundays at 9 p.m. on NatGeo (Premiered January 13)
About: This new limited series focuses on the tech boom in the 1990s. It's part documentary, with interviews with the real players involved, and part drama, with re-enactments of those times. It focuses on three companies, and how they played a part in the big boom. The first two installments aired Sunday night, with the next two coming in a week and the whole thing wrapping up the final Sunday in January. The fictional parts feature actors like Bradley Whitford and Steve Zahn, and the whole thing has an interesting feel. As someone who grew up during that time, it's interesting to see the process and path to where we got to now. Some of these companies that are the focus of the documentary had great ideas but were just a bit too ahead of their times. That, too, is fascinating. But as a whole, I don't know if I needed six hours of this docuseries or have the time to commit to this during what's turning out to be an incredibly busy period. It's interesting, but not incredibly compelling.
Pilot Grade: C
Second Episode: C-

True Detective, Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO (Premiered January 13)
About: This anthology series from HBO was an early adopter of the format. In fact, it debuted in early January 2014 and was a phenomenon. Others have done it better since, and the first season of the series from Nic Pizzolatto was uneven, but the second installment in the summer of 2015 was, in many ways, a train wreck. And the show finished its run nearly four years ago and hasn't aired since. I don't know that many folks were clamoring for its return. The genre has become saturated in the time since season one premiered, and for all its hype "True Detective" was never the premier example of the genre. But, for better or worse, it's back with a long gestating third installment. Pizzolatto again wrote or co-wrote all eight episodes for the season, and even directed a few. The first two aired on Sunday night, with the rest of the season playing out over the next two months. This time the case centers on two lost children, one who is found dead and the other missing, in 1980. It also jumps to 1990 when new evidence opens the case and 2015, when a documentary true crime show conducts interviews to explore the landmark case further. It centers on an Arkansas state police office, Wayne Hays (Mahershala Ali), whose life and family are the connective tissue between the eras. In 1980 he originally caught the case. In 1990, he gets pulled back in as his wife (Carmen Ejogo) writes a famous book about the case and in 2015 he's the primary interview subject for the documentary, trying to remember it all through the haze of dementia and memory loss. Ali is incredibly talented. He's won an Oscar and could well take home a second one on the night "True Detective" airs its finale. And the series has some other strong actors, including Scoot McNairy as the kids' father and Stephen Dorff as Hays' partner in 1980. All of them did a nice job in the early episodes, but it's the great work of Ali that's carrying this dark, somber and glacially moving narrative. This plays into the familiar tropes of this series, hewing closer to what made season one grab folks attention than a disastrous season two. But the first two episodes also didn't give us much of an impression about where this might be going. "True Detective" has always leaned more toward wanting to be a character study of the men working the case than a whodunnit mystery, but you need some hooks in the mystery to help drive the story along. We get pieces of it in the first two episodes, and I'm curious to see where it goes. If nothing else, watching Ali sink his teeth into this part for six more hours will be worth the journey. I don't know if we needed "True Detective" back, or if it will return again after this run ends, but I'm enjoying the ride so far.
Pilot Grade: C+
Second Episode: C+

Streaming Series:
Sex Education, Now Streaming on Netflix (Premiered January 11)
About: The latest offering from Netflix is a British dramedy about a sex therapist (Gillian Anderson) and her teenage son (Asa Butterfield), who decides to use what he knows from growing up with his mother to make some money helping classmates. The pilot is pretty much about introducing the players and the world, and adding in plenty of raunchy gags, while the second episode moves about setting up the premise moving forward. Episodes are 48-50 minutes, and the first season is only eight episodes so it's a quick binge watch. Anderson and Butterfield are strong leads, and both do a nice job in these roles. So, too, does the supporting case. However, your enjoyment of the series might depend on personal taste. Some of British style doesn't work for me, and that's probably true here. And I also wasn't wild about the subject matter. Over-the-top sex comedy isn't my thing, and this has that in spades. So while I appreciate the craft, I wasn't drawn to the story here.
Pilot Grade: C
Second Episode: C

Informer, Now Streaming on Amazon Prime (Premiered January 11)
About: Netflix wasn't the only streamer to launch a new series last week, as Amazon Prime offered another British series, this one a crime drama, called "Informer." It's about a young man (Nabhaan Rizwan) popped for a minor drug offense and turned informer by a cop (Paddy Constantine) to help root out terrorists. The first two episodes set the stage that something goes wrong in the future, and also tell the story of these characters and the operation. I found it overly long (both of the first two episodes clock in at 57 minutes) and dull. It wasn't a story that greatly held my attention, and didn't really feel like anything new. The whole first season is just six episodes, so if you're a crime show junkie it might be worth going down the rabbit hole. In the Peak TV era, there are simply too many options to stick with something that doesn't grab you early on.
Pilot Grade: C-
Second Episode: C-