Winter TV Roundup, Week 8

We’re making our way through February and now that the NFL Season is in the rearview mirror, we’re seeing an uptick in Sunday night options. But what of these shows are worth checking out? Let this weekly post be your guide as I review the pilot and second episode of new scripted series this Winter. Don’t see a new show listed below? Check previous weeks.

Wednesdays:
Good Cop/Bad Cop, Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on The CW (Premiered February 19)
About: The CW has been a network adrift the past few years. With the Arrowverse done, there’s not a consistent draw to the network. They’ve been filling the air with international co-productions and a variety of different kinds of series. Some of them hit, some don’t. This latest series, Good Cop/Bad Cop, hit for me. It centers on a small Washington town where Lou (Leighton Meester) is the lone detective. She has her methods and is great at her job, but she presses the Chief (Clancy Brown), who happens to be her father, for help. In response, he hires her quirky brother, Henry (Luke Cook), to be the next detective. Now, after years apart, the siblings are forced to work together. That creates some personality friction, but their divergent styles might just be what the force needs. It’s a quirky concept but one that I really enjoyed. Meester is great in the role, and I liked the way she played off Cook. They have good chemistry together and the pilot episode was a lot of fun. I think there’s some good potential here.
Pilot Grade: B-

Win or Lose, Streaming Wednesdays on Disney+ (Premiered February 19)
About: This new series from Pixar focuses on a middle school softball team going for the local championship. It’s a novel concept. Each episode focuses on one person connected to the game and follows them for the week leading up to the big game. The animated style is solid, and concept works well. I really loved the first episode and the emotions it explored. The second episode was OK but didn’t feel as fully formed. I still like the concept and I think it will work well for younger audiences. Episodes are about 20 minutes, with rest of the eight-episode season dropping in two-episode batches for the next three weeks.
Pilot Grade: B-
Second Episode: C

Sundays:
The Americas, Sundays at 8 p.m. on NBC (Premiered February 23)
About: This new docu-series focuses on the American continent, from Canada to South America. The series is narrated by Tom Hanks and explores the wild region in and around North and South America. The nature photography is beautiful, capturing some amazing sights. For fans of these types of explorations, this will be a nice, peaceful addition to the Sunday night lineup. I enjoyed the first two episodes for what they are and think others will as well.
Pilot Grade: C+
Second Episode: C+

Suits LA, Sundays at 9 p.m. on NBC (Premiered February 23)
About: Suits was one of the Blue Sky dramas on the USA Network. It debuted in 2011 and ran for seven seasons. It was reasonably popular and a fun show. It’s streaming appearance on Netflix made it wildly popular, leading to NBC ordering a new spin-off. That spin-off has a completely different cast and a completely different location in Los Angeles. The pilot introduces both, with the series led by Stephen Amell, who was a prosecutor in New York that transitioned his life to be an Entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles. Those New York connections will, no doubt, be the way the series connects with the original and the recurring appearance from Gabriel Macht’s Harvey Specter, the star of the original series. We didn’t see Harvey in the pilot, and we didn’t see a lot else that gave me hope. I really enjoyed the original series, but this initial pilot was missing a lot of that magic. We’ll see how it develops, but right now it’s more fizzle than sizzle.
Pilot Grade: C

The White Lotus, Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO (Premiered February 16)
About: This anthology series is back for its third season. This year’s cast includes Jason Isaacs as a businessman in trouble, and Parker Posey as his society wife who is somewhat clueless. We also see Walton Goggins as a man with a secret, and Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb, and Michelle Monaghan as friends on a getaway. This season takes place in Thailand, and we know something big is coming. The first episode laid out the people and the world, while the second episode dug into the issues and the coming reckoning a bit more. If you’re a fan of the series and the formula, this will be a welcome return on Sunday nights. The cast is strong and there is some potential for this mystery to be the best payoff.
Pilot Grade: C+
Second Episode: C+

Grosse Pointe Garden Society, Sundays at 10 p.m. on NBC (Premiered February23)
About: The final piece of the new Sunday night on NBC is this new drama that wants to pull on the nostalgia for soapy dramas like Desperate Housewives. Here, we are introduced to a group that all participate in a local garden society. And all of them have some issues in their lives. We see three different time periods, six months ago, the present, and six months from now. It forebodes an incident that leads to a buried body and a mystery that will play out throughout the season. Up until that point, we’ll get some soapy adventures. The cast is led by AnnaSophia Robb, Aja Naomi King, Melissa Fumero, and Ben Rappaport. Presumably there will be some gardening at some point, but for now there is plenty of drama. I like the people involved, but the pilot was just OK. We’ll see how the drama and the mystery builds, but for now this doesn’t feel like Must See TV.
Pilot Grade: C

Streaming Series:
Zero Day, Now Streaming on Netflix (Premiered February 20)
About: This new Netflix drama boasts an incredible cast and an engaging premise. The threat of a cyber-attack that could cripple the world is real. This series focuses on an event that happens, and the investigation into who is responsible. It’s led by Robert De Niro, who plays a former President tapped to lead the investigation. The rest of the cast includes Matthew Modine, Angela Bassett, Lizzy Caplan, Joan Allen, and Jesse Plemons, among others. I really liked the pilot and the premise. De Niro delivers a stirring speech in the pilot and a lot of the story threads dropped are engaging. The second episode is a decent follow up. The series is just six episodes, each under an hour, making for a quick binge. I finished the series, and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t think it reached the heights of the pilot. Still, it’s worth checking out as an interesting and engaging series that offers something a little different.
Pilot Grade: B-
Second Episode: C+

A Thousand Blows, Now Streaming on Hulu (Premiered February 21)
About: The latest on Hulu is a British series created by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) that is a historical drama. The series centers on Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), who led the biggest all female gang in London in the 1800s. There, she meets a man from Jamaica, Hezekiah (Malachi Kirby), who came with dreams of being a lion tamer and ends up fighting for money. They partner up, while Hezekiah tries to get in the ring with the biggest bare-knuckle boxing promoter, Sugar Goodson (Stephen Graham). There’s a lot going on. This series has a nice period setting and some interesting potential diving into the world of crime. It also captures the story of real people that most aren’t familiar with. The series is six episodes, all now streaming and all around an hour. For me, the first two episodes were a little dry and I wasn’t as taken with the world or characters. Fans of this kind of story might feel different, but this didn’t quite work for me.
Pilot Grade: C
Second Episode: C