TCAs 2012: NBC Winter Press Tour, Part 1

Often, big network television looks as if some suit with no context of what is relevant in the world threw a bunch of magnetic poetry adjectives at a wall and what stuck became prime time television. This week, NBC repeated that cycle, unveiling their new roster of shows set to launch as early as next week, with the quality faring about as decently as one would expect from midseason shows from a network that is more or less in the shitter. Refreshingly, Bob Greenblatt minced no words, saying “we had a bad Fall,” referring to high profile misses like The Playboy Club and Free Agents. It’s clear that there’s a try-anything-and-everything tactic at the network, most notably in the benching of Community, NBC’s best, but ratings-starved show. Filling schedule holes of the cancelled and benched are a slew of new series that turn up yet more middling results.

The Firm:
Adapted from the John Grisham book/film, The Firm follows Mitch McDeere, who is fresh out of the Witness Protection Program after spending 10 years in hiding with his family and—big surprise—things are still quite Firm. Mitch’s plans of starting a new firm himself are flogged by a new mysterious firm showing a vested interest in both Mitch and his cases. Showrunner/Co-creator Lukas Reiter understands the confounding coincidence of going to another firm and promises that it will be justified, but even his reassurances, as well as the blessing of John Grisham himself, couldn’t quell the dissent over the show in the TCA ballroom. For whatever reason, journalists attacked the show like a piece of meat, calling out plot holes and inconsistencies in a venue where criticism is largely inappropriate; do we really need to ask why McDeere happens to use a pay phone in one particular episode over a cell phone, or why he didn’t change his name coming out of Witness Protection? (To wit, Bob Greenblatt used the ironic power of his smart phone to quickly point out there are four pay phones in the DC area, and it’s also worth mentioning that Mob rat Henry Hill also came out of Witness Protection using his same name without fear of retribution.) Interestingly enough, Josh Lucas spoke about how he  was involved in jury duty and stuck with all of it, sending a man to prison for life, an exercise not taken lightly and unrelated to his work on The Firm. Perhaps this is kismet for one of NBC’s dark horse dramas for midseason.

Bent:
Bent adds another single-camera comedy to NBC’s roster of laffers, which centers largely around the classic ‘will they/won’t they’ question that has been absent as a series tenant for quite a while. Producing this dynamic chemistry is David Walton and Amanda Peet, the latter playing a woman looking to renovate her home; the former being the rough-around-the-edges contractor that invades (and quickly destroys) her humble abode. “We had to try really, really hard to make something happen,” joked Peet of the chemistry she and Walton had to muster. “You either have it or you don’t,” added Walton. Bent also pulls a big get with the casting of Jeffery Tambor as Walton’s “bent, not broken” father. Asked why Tambor signed onto the pilot? “Because the script said, ‘Walter (50s, handsome),’” the Arrested Development vet deadpanned. Showrunner Tad Quill set out to make a classic romantic comedy series and with a little luck, he just might be able to do it.

Awake:
Michael Britten has lost everything that is important to him – his wife and teenage boy – in a horrific car accident, but they are dead in two separate realities; in one, Paul’s wife is very much alive, but when he goes to sleep, he wakes up in a world where his son is alive and his wife is dead. Then things get really crazy. It’s this high-concept bedrock upon which Awake has been constructed to artful, if not somewhat confusing, results by showrunners Howard Gordon and Kyle Killen. Jason Isaacs’ Britten is a detective caught between these two worlds and, through his discussions with grief counselors, is unsure which reality is the “real world,” and when he begins to think he has an answer, weird things begin to happen; each reality begins to inform the other, allowing him to solve cases that are unique to each world. It’s the kind of setup that is reminiscent of Lost or Heroes, but when quizzed about those series’ less-than-stellar solutions to their confounding puzzles, Killen was quick to disarm fear. “[Britten] is not interested in that debate,” he offered. “As he says in the pilot, he’s actually quite fine with everything, but it’s managing those two worlds, still remaining in them as they begin to separate further from each other.” Howard Gordon, no stranger to intricate narratives after his stint on 24, shares the sentiment. “There’s a hundred ways out, but 99 of them are probably unsatisfying to people. ‘It was all a dream’ is not particularly satisfying and hopefully we’ll be able to find a more compelling resolution eight or nine years down the road,” he said. With only a few episodes under his belt, Jason Isaacs is already a stalwart fan of the show and the concept. “There are rules, but there are also no rules, so anything is possible,” he declared. “It’s not like anything they’ve ever written before. I wish I was him, apart from the dead relative bit.”

The Voice:
NBC’s big, post-Super Bowl gambit this year is the return of the remarkably popular singing contest The Voice. Arguably the most popular singing competition show since American Idol, The Voice mixes things up a bit by holding “blind auditions” which puts a back-flip on the format, making the judges beg to be accepted by the contestants. Also of a novel spin is the personal nature of the show, which gives judges Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton extensive hands-on time with each of their singers which helps to define an actual person rather than a caricature. “You can’t help but get really engaged in being a part of these people’s lives. We take it very seriously,” Aguilera noted passionately. “What she said,” added Green. Host Carson Daly also promises that this season will be even better and more talent-filled than the last, attributing that to the nature of the show and how while it is a competition, it’s also a showcase for amazing talent. “The semi-pro, if you will, the touring singer or band, sought us out this year, for season two, which usually never happens because those people are already sort of doing their thing. The talent this year is just staggering,” Daly affirmed. Based on last year’s finalists, a tall order for sure, but one that will seem to be filled with little effort based on the sizzle reel shown at the presentation this year.

 

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Images courtesy of Chris Haston and NBCUniversal.