Tag Archives: CBS

If We Controlled Your Remote… 3/13/18

Posted on March 13, 2018 by and

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Kyle’s Choice

Tonight, Rise, the newest drama from series creator Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights, Parenthood) and Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller, premieres on NBC. Lou Mazzuchelli (Josh Radnor, How I Met Your Mother) has been teaching high school English in a small working-class Pennsylvania town for 17 years. He grows more and more disillusioned and disheartened each year and is doubting his ability to inspire and motivate his students. So he decides to take over the school’s lackluster theater department – much to the chagrin of Tracey Wolfe (Rosie Perez, Fearless), who had been running the department for the past 11 years. Mr. Mazzuchelli wants to really shake things up from the usual boring, safe plays the department has always done and put on something edgier, like “Spring Awakening.” He also wants to change up the usual cast, putting students in roles they may not be comfortable with and bringing in students who may not even realize their hidden potential, such as the shy Lilette Suarez (Auli’i Cravalho, Moana) and football star Robbie Thorne (Damon J. Gillespie). Though, Mr. Mazzuchelli has a tough battle in front of him as he faces pushback from the football coach (Joe Tippett), the principal, and concerned parents.

The series feels extremely similar to Friday Night Lights but set in the musical theater stage instead of on the football field (though that is also a big part of this town). The show also has a very similar look and feel to FNL, with its dark, grainy, gritty look and use of a shaky cam to make the viewer feel a part of what’s going on on-screen. The series also delves into the dramatic personal and home lives/issues of the characters. Mr. Mazzuchelli has a supportive wife (Marley Shelton, Mad Men) who teaches piano and three children at home, the oldest of whom is still a teenager but also an alcoholic (Casey W. Johnson, GLOW). The students also have their own family issues. One has a mother with a reputation for sleeping around, another has a mother in the hospital, another might be gay but has very conservative religious parents, another is transgender, another is homeless, and so on. It looks like this series is going to be a very emotional and inspirational show, filled with a lot of great musical performances, as we see how Mr. Mazzuchelli finds a way to change the lives of these young men and women and reinvigorate his own thirst for teaching, through this musical theater program.

While I really enjoyed tonight’s premiere, if I had one complaint, it would be the excessive use of the shaky-cam. This was the main thing that led me to eventually stop watching FNL. I enjoy this story and characters, the performances are great, and I definitely want to see more, but I want to feel like I’ve been taken on an emotional roller-coaster and not an actual roller-coaster.

On tonight’s premiere, “Pilot,” Lou petitions to take over as director of the school’s theater program in an attempt to revitalize his passion for teaching; he decides to make the school musical more provocative.

Check out this new drama tonight on NBC at 10:01/9:01c.

I’ll also be watching/recording The Middle, Fresh Off the Boat, black-ish, For the People, This Is Us, LA to Vegas, The Mick, The Flash, Black Lightning, and The Detour.
 
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If We Controlled Your Remote… 3/11/18

Posted on March 11, 2018 by and

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Kyle’s Choice

Tonight, ABC premieres the new series Deception. Cameron Black (Jack Cutmore-Scott, Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life) is a world-class magician who suddenly finds his career rocked by a scandal that also sends someone close to him to prison. Cameron believes it was all a setup, the work of another master illusionist, and makes solving this mystery his primary focus. Cameron soon crosses paths with FBI agent Kay Daniels (Ilfenesh Hadera, Billions, Master of None), offering his services after she appears to have fallen victim to the same illusionist. While Kay claims to dislike magic and not know anything about Cameron’s career, her partner, Mike Alvarez (Amaury Nolasco, Prison Break), is a super-fan who’s excited to have him on board. So Cameron stages his comeback, enlisting the help of his crew: street magician Jordan Monroe (Justin Chon, Dr. Ken, Twilight films), producer/makeup artist Dina Clark (Lenora Crichlow, Being Human), and master prop maker Gunter Gustafsen (Vinnie Jones, Galavant). He puts his talents and manipulation skills to the test to help the FBI crack their case, while also trying to get more information on who set him up.

I grew up watching David Copperfield on TV and always looked forward to his new specials. I was always fascinated by how he did his tricks. So I was excited when I first learned there was going to be a series about a magician helping to solve crimes. Sure, there was The Mentalist, but he just did some simple sleight of hand or mind tricks – he wasn’t a big stage magician/illusionist. I thoroughly enjoyed tonight’s premiere. The series reminds me of Castle meets Mission: Impossible/The A-Team/Leverage. It has this excellent blend of humor, drama, action, and mystery. Each week Cameron uses disguises, magic, and misdirection to help the FBI agents solve their case of the week, while at the same time he is exploring a larger arc of trying to prove the innocence of his loved one and catching the elusive illusionist who is helping these criminals. I really like this cast, and it’s especially great to see Vinnie Jones back doing a more comedic role – he was hilarious on Galavant. I’m looking forward to rewatching tonight’s premiere and checking out the future adventures of these characters.

On tonight’s premiere, “Pilot,” a disgraced magician puts his skills of deception and illusion to work at the FBI.

See the magic at work tonight on ABC at 10:01/9:01c.

I’ll also be watching/recording Timeless, Bob’s Burgers, O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession?, The Walking Dead, Worst Cooks in America, and Counterpart.
 
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If We Controlled Your Remote… 3/9/18

Posted on March 9, 2018 by and

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Jenny’s Choice

One of the biggest shockers of last week’s Blindspot had to be Blake’s kidnapping. Roman fought like hell to get to her but couldn’t get there quite quick enough, and she was spirited away in a van while taking a break in the middle of a high-stakes poker game to get close to a contact/old friend of her father’s. The other biggest shocker was that Reade’s girlfriend (now fiancée) Meg is in the country illegally. Eek! He’s known for a while, but last night, Zapata learned about it as well. And Reade took it upon himself to talk to a friend at the State Department, but with a new person in charge, he couldn’t help Reade.

Then there was the A story: a woman (Betty – not her real name…) working at the NSA stole sensitive information when the rest of the floor was celebrating someone’s birthday. She couldn’t just walk out with it, obviously, since they screen for stuff like that, so she took some pill that made her pass out and have to get carried out by paramedics, which meant she bypassed the normal security procedures with the drive of information she stole in the heel of her shoe. Then Nas showed up at Weller and Jane’s apartment with news that Crawford was indeed the initial funder of Sandstorm and then she told them about the theft from the NSA – a very, very bad computer virus the NSA made. After finding the middleman between the buyer and seller (a 16yo kid with a very bad attitude) and putting the pieces together, the team ended up at the black-hat hacker/dark web party Rich had been begging Reade to attend. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to get the buyer, but they did get “Betty” and Jane was able to get the virus so the bad guy got away but didn’t get the prize. Of course, Nas turned around and stole it from the FBI in the hopes to get back into the NSA, rather than just working with the CIA like she has been. Weller knew right away and wasn’t surprised or even that unhappy, it seemed like, so…more power to her, I guess.

Finally, Jane took some advice from Nas about Avery and invited Avery to meet her for coffee, rather than waiting and letting Avery come to her. Nas also called Weller and said she looked into Avery’s father (I’m assuming adopted father, but…) and found he had some shady dealings with none other than…Crawford. Eek!

On tonight’s episode, “Everlasting,” when Patterson’s investigation into a tattoo results in a horrible incident, she tries to figure out what went wrong…but quickly realizes all is not as it seems.

See what happens with Patterson tonight on NBC at 8/7c.

I’ll also be watching/DVRing MacGyver, MasterChef: Junior, Hawaii Five-0, & Blue Bloods.
 
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If We Controlled Your Remote… 3/6/18

Posted on March 6, 2018 by , and

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Jenny’s Choice #1

Thank goodness the Gabriel Hicks story line on NCIS is over. The best part of the episode had to be the creepy killer (Paul Triff) who used to live in McGee’s apartment. He was back last week, after we learned that he’d been Hicks’s cellmate. He agreed to tell them anything Hicks had told him, but only if he got to spend some time in the apartment. So McGee sent his family away, brought in a cage for Triff to stay in, and cleared the apartment of anything that pointed to McGee having a family. Triff was kind of hysterical, and in the end, he saved McGee’s life when Hicks showed up and tried to shoot him. We nearly saw the end of Fornell when Hicks kidnapped him, but Fornell got himself free in the trunk, crawled up through back seat, and started strangling him from behind until he crashed the car. They fought and Hicks nearly got the best of him, but Gibbs was there and used Fornell’s Taser and zapped him, saving the day. Of course!

On tonight’s episode, “Handle with Care,” Gibbs and the team work to clear the name of retired Marine Sergeant John Ross (Drew Carey, who in real life served in the Marine Reserves for six years) when cyanide is found in one of the hundreds of care packages he sends to active-duty Marines.

See how they clear Ross’s name tonight on CBS at 8/7c.
 
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If We Controlled Your Remote… 2/26/18

Posted on February 26, 2018 by , and

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Kyle’s Choice #1

Tonight, NBC kicks off the new dramedy Good Girls, which follows three suburban mothers who decide to fix their financial problems by robbing a grocery store. Beth Boland (Christina Hendricks, Mad Men) discovers that her husband, car dealership owner Dean (Matthew Lillard, Twin Peaks, Bosch), has been both cheating on her and has been lying about the family’s devastating financial situation for years. Her younger sister Annie’s (Mae Whitman, Parenthood) ex is demanding custody of their daughter Sadie (Izzy Stannard, Brad’s Status) and she needs money to hire a lawyer. And friend Ruby (Retta, Parks and Recreation) and her security guard husband Stan (Reno Wilson, Mike & Molly) are in desperate need of money to pay for their daughter’s kidney treatments. Fed up with their situations, the women break bad and rob the local grocery store where Annie works, hoping to get $30K to ease their money problems. However, their situation becomes a lot more complicated when they discover they got more than they bargained for and are now wrapped up in a dangerous situation involving the head of a local crime gang, Rio (Manny Montana, Graceland).

I really enjoyed tonight’s premiere. The cast is great and really play well off one another, and the pilot does a good job of establishing the characters’ relationships and motivations. The series feels much like Big Little Lies meets Breaking Bad. You’ve got the dark secrets these suburban moms are dealing with that ultimately cause them to do really bad things in the name of helping out their families. The series has this nice blend of drama and humor. The women forced to do some unexpected things, and while they initially have good intentions, things quickly get out of hand and desperation takes over. I look forward to seeing what other twists and turns happen over the course of the season and if/how these women are about to get out of the situation they’ve managed to get themselves into. Will be see them go full-on Walter White by the end of the season, or will they find a way to still remain good people at heart?

On tonight’s episode, “Pilot,” a trio of desperate suburban moms decide that being good never got them anywhere and rob a supermarket in order to get a little cash to help them and their families out. Unfortunately, the supermarket is already the territory of a local gang, and the women soon find themselves in hot water.

Meet the three moms who take on more than they bargained for tonight on NBC at 10/9c.
 
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