Wednesday, September 19, 2012

2012 TV Pilot Season: Episode 2: Revolution and Mob Doctor

In the next episode of the 2012 TV Pilot Marathon, I review NBC's highly-anticipated Revolution and Fox's much less-anticipated The Mob Doctor.


Revolution (NBC, Monday, 10)- Created by Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Jon Favreau, you'd expect that the pilot episode for Revolution was going to be a slam dunk. For the most part, it wasn't. In the show, fifteen years have past since something mysteriously turned off all of the electronic devices in the entire world "forever". Ben Matheson (Tin Guinee) seems to know what's going on, but when a militia, lead by Tom (Giancarlo Esposito) kill him and kidnap his son Danny (Graham Rogers), Ben's daughter Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos), along with step-mother Maggie (Anna Lise Phillips) and former techie Aaron (Zak Orth), meet up with her uncle Miles (Billy Burke) and attempt to stop the militia.
    Of the words I had expected to call Revolution boring was not one of the one's I thought I'd use, but it seems as if it is the best way to describe the show. The acting is all very average or worse and as such, it is very hard to make a connection with the characters. The pilot seems to slowly trudge through with it's only slightly-interesting characters, accomplishing almost nothing at the end of it's first hour (Think the episodes of The Walking Dead entirely on the farm, but without the likable characters and good acting). It's too bad too, because the premise is so undeniably interesting that it alone warrants watching the next few episodes. But Revolution better step up it's game soon, or else it might good out like last year's Terra Nova. Revolution gets 3 stars of of 6.

The Mob Doctor (Fox, Monday, 9)- I have to admit. Every year there is a show I can help but laugh at every time they show a trailer for it on TV. This was one of those shows. Granted,they can sometimes turn out good. Last year, I Laughed whenever Grimm's trailer came on, and it was my favorite new show from 2011. The Mob Doctor is not Grimm. The Mob Doctor AKA Grace Devlin (Jordana Spiro) is indebted to the mob after she begs for her brother Nate's (Jesse Lee Soffer) life. She works in a Chicago hospital alongside boyfriend Brett (Zach Gilford), friend Rosa (Floriana Lima) and boss Stafford (Zeljko Ivanek). However, she soon learns what being indebted to the mob means when mobster Constantine (William Forsythe) starts asking for her help in some not-too-legal matters.
    The Mob Doctor is exactly how it sounds. It feels like a show Fox threw in to it's schedule just to have something to fill an empty slot. Make no mistake. This show will be canceled by the end of the year. And it isn't that big a loss. In all seriousness, I watched this show about 6 hours ago,and I can't remember all that much about it. Honestly. It kinda feels like a salesman came to my door to sell me something and left when I told him to leave. It makes no attempts to be something memorable and even it understands how stupid it's own premise is. The Mob Doctor gets 3 stars out of 6.

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