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shadowkatStill making my way through the new television pilot season...
1. Manifest
This is starting out pretty good. It held my attention throughout. Grabbed it and held it by the throat in the first fifteen minutes...which are pretty much played out as follows:
A family is in the airport after having a family oriented vacation in Montego Bay, Jamaica. A get-away from their problems. The older parents, their engaged twenty-something daughter, her married older brother, his two young children, one of which has leukemia, and his wife. It's announced that the plane is overbooked. The airline asks if there are any volunteers to take the next one? They are giving out vouchers and willing to pay for people to volunteer. Happens all the time. The twenty-something daughter, whose name I can't remember (no fault of the series, I suck at name recall), decides to volunteer. They are heading back to NYC, for her wedding. This was a trip to get her head screwed on straight, since she was having second thoughts. Anyhow, she is in avoidance mode and wants to delay it a few more hours. So volunteers to take the next plane. Her brother chooses to do the same in order to get the extra money to help save his son's life. So, they end up on the next plane.
The next plane is also full. And all is going well...until suddenly they experience a lot turbulence. Lighting. Thunder. Shaking of the plane. Luggage falls out. A woman's computer crashes. Etc. Then..
the plane straightens, all is fine, and they fly out of some clouds into NYC air space, but are re-directed to land at another airport.
Once they do, their plane is surrounded by cops and ambulances, etc. And they are told that while their plane left the ground in 2013, it landed in 2018. Approximately five and a half years after they took off. What was just two hours for them, was five and a half years for everyone else. Their plane and everyone on it was presumed dead for five and half years.
Great set-up. I mean you can do all sorts of things with that. Also it's sort of based on something that actually happened -- a plane disappeared five years ago and no one has seen it since. The writers want to know what would happen if it came back?
It's a bit melodramatic in places, and sentimental in others...but far more subdued than expected. It has the potential of going off the rails -- ie. focusing too much on why the plane disappeared, the conspiracy theory, and the special abilities and connections everyone has to one another, as opposed to the interpersonal drama. I think it's better if you play out the other slowly over the time.
But a lot of people have no patience for that. And there inherent danger in exploring why the plane disappeared, etc, too thoroughly is it can become a bit hokey and silly. (See LOST. Much better to go Peter Wier's Picnic at Hanging Rock route.)
I'm sticking with it though. The cast is good. The writing convincing. I like the characters. And more importantly I care what happens to all of them. They've grabbed the creepy kid from The Middle, he's playing the kid with Leukemia in this series. Josh Dallas is the brother, and I know I've seen his sister and her fiance somewhere before. Also it marries sci-fi, cop procedural, medical procedural, and family drama neatly. Again this is just the pilot, it could flow downhill in a jiffy.
2. New Amsterdam
Reminds me of St. Elsewhere. Except faster paced. It's much better than expected. Great cast. The guy who played the husband on The Blacklist, and a bunch of other actors that I've seen before. Is a touch on the melodramatic side: adapted from the memoir of a medical director, diagnosed with cancer struggling with his marriage, who took over and turned around Belleview Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States. The writer of the memoir is serving as a consultant on the series.
Sort of St. Elsewhere meets ER.
I like medical procedurals. I admit that. I find them weirdly comforting. Helps that I hate hospital and know zip about the medical profession.
The hospital looks like a NYC hospital. And it feels real to me so far. Yes, it's swinging a bit into the area of melodrama and hyperbole here and there. The first episode has the following all packed inside of it:
* Kid from Liberia stumbles into the hospital with an Ebola style virus implanted in him from a terrorist (although unlike Grey's Anatomy this was at least handled realistically and with minimal melodrama).
* New medical director fires half the staff on the first day
* New medical director's wife has problems with her pregnancy
* We learn new medical director has cancer
I will state everything is handled realistically (in that my suspension of disbelief never felt the need to leap out the window and run screaming down the street like it did yesterday), down-played, and wrapped up in a satisfying and somewhat comforting manner. I didn't want to scream at the television once. And I was not bored. It held my attention throughout. The characters pulled me in. They looked real. Not pretty. Or overly neat. It was believable. Also diverse cast, with multiple accents, and languages. Felt like a NYC hospital. (And I've been in my fair share.)
To date it may be the most realistic hospital drama I've seen since early ER.
So, sticking with it for now.
Both were heads and shoulders better than yesterdays television series.
1. Manifest
This is starting out pretty good. It held my attention throughout. Grabbed it and held it by the throat in the first fifteen minutes...which are pretty much played out as follows:
A family is in the airport after having a family oriented vacation in Montego Bay, Jamaica. A get-away from their problems. The older parents, their engaged twenty-something daughter, her married older brother, his two young children, one of which has leukemia, and his wife. It's announced that the plane is overbooked. The airline asks if there are any volunteers to take the next one? They are giving out vouchers and willing to pay for people to volunteer. Happens all the time. The twenty-something daughter, whose name I can't remember (no fault of the series, I suck at name recall), decides to volunteer. They are heading back to NYC, for her wedding. This was a trip to get her head screwed on straight, since she was having second thoughts. Anyhow, she is in avoidance mode and wants to delay it a few more hours. So volunteers to take the next plane. Her brother chooses to do the same in order to get the extra money to help save his son's life. So, they end up on the next plane.
The next plane is also full. And all is going well...until suddenly they experience a lot turbulence. Lighting. Thunder. Shaking of the plane. Luggage falls out. A woman's computer crashes. Etc. Then..
the plane straightens, all is fine, and they fly out of some clouds into NYC air space, but are re-directed to land at another airport.
Once they do, their plane is surrounded by cops and ambulances, etc. And they are told that while their plane left the ground in 2013, it landed in 2018. Approximately five and a half years after they took off. What was just two hours for them, was five and a half years for everyone else. Their plane and everyone on it was presumed dead for five and half years.
Great set-up. I mean you can do all sorts of things with that. Also it's sort of based on something that actually happened -- a plane disappeared five years ago and no one has seen it since. The writers want to know what would happen if it came back?
It's a bit melodramatic in places, and sentimental in others...but far more subdued than expected. It has the potential of going off the rails -- ie. focusing too much on why the plane disappeared, the conspiracy theory, and the special abilities and connections everyone has to one another, as opposed to the interpersonal drama. I think it's better if you play out the other slowly over the time.
But a lot of people have no patience for that. And there inherent danger in exploring why the plane disappeared, etc, too thoroughly is it can become a bit hokey and silly. (See LOST. Much better to go Peter Wier's Picnic at Hanging Rock route.)
I'm sticking with it though. The cast is good. The writing convincing. I like the characters. And more importantly I care what happens to all of them. They've grabbed the creepy kid from The Middle, he's playing the kid with Leukemia in this series. Josh Dallas is the brother, and I know I've seen his sister and her fiance somewhere before. Also it marries sci-fi, cop procedural, medical procedural, and family drama neatly. Again this is just the pilot, it could flow downhill in a jiffy.
2. New Amsterdam
Reminds me of St. Elsewhere. Except faster paced. It's much better than expected. Great cast. The guy who played the husband on The Blacklist, and a bunch of other actors that I've seen before. Is a touch on the melodramatic side: adapted from the memoir of a medical director, diagnosed with cancer struggling with his marriage, who took over and turned around Belleview Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States. The writer of the memoir is serving as a consultant on the series.
Sort of St. Elsewhere meets ER.
I like medical procedurals. I admit that. I find them weirdly comforting. Helps that I hate hospital and know zip about the medical profession.
The hospital looks like a NYC hospital. And it feels real to me so far. Yes, it's swinging a bit into the area of melodrama and hyperbole here and there. The first episode has the following all packed inside of it:
* Kid from Liberia stumbles into the hospital with an Ebola style virus implanted in him from a terrorist (although unlike Grey's Anatomy this was at least handled realistically and with minimal melodrama).
* New medical director fires half the staff on the first day
* New medical director's wife has problems with her pregnancy
* We learn new medical director has cancer
I will state everything is handled realistically (in that my suspension of disbelief never felt the need to leap out the window and run screaming down the street like it did yesterday), down-played, and wrapped up in a satisfying and somewhat comforting manner. I didn't want to scream at the television once. And I was not bored. It held my attention throughout. The characters pulled me in. They looked real. Not pretty. Or overly neat. It was believable. Also diverse cast, with multiple accents, and languages. Felt like a NYC hospital. (And I've been in my fair share.)
To date it may be the most realistic hospital drama I've seen since early ER.
So, sticking with it for now.
Both were heads and shoulders better than yesterdays television series.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-27 07:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-27 10:12 am (UTC)I'd skipped New Amsterdam because the previews for it made me think it was going to be saccharine and preachy, but after reading your thoughts on it, maybe I'll give it a shot after all.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-27 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-27 04:52 pm (UTC)I think Amsterdam might turn out better than Manifest...better cast.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-27 04:55 pm (UTC)Amsterdam was surprisingly less preachy and saccharine then expected. (That's why I can't watch The Good Doctor. )
Manifest has potential...but the previews worry me. It could slide downhill into plot-twist cliché rather fast.