Press Start Reviews: Upfronts 2018 – CBS

I’m going to be honest; CBS and I have always had sort of a fraught relationship. I do like some of their TV, but I really hate most of it. Most of the time their shows are base, they appeal to the lowest common denominator, and I definitely don’t fall within their target audience. But every so often, they really surprise me. The best world I can use to describe the new mystery drama, Instinct, is “a delight.” And this is a show specifically about trying to catch horrible murderers. But really, every Sunday I can’t wait to watch because Alan Cummings is…well he’s freakin’ delightful. He’s Alan goddamn Cummings, he was delightful as Nightcrawler for god’s sake.

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You could just gobble. Him. UP.

But it also gave us an estimated fifty thousand seasons of Big Bang Theory. Experts are still trying to get an accurate count. When Young Sheldon got picked up for a new season there was an audible wailing coming from the lab. Here’s something important to remember: BBT is not a good show. I’m sorry, but I’ll die on this hill.

But going through their stable for this year, I’m honestly shocked. They have six trailers, and I’m moderately interested in three of them? But the other three just… ugh. That dichotomy is pure CBS to me. So let’s get down to it.

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Press Start Reviews: Upfronts 2018 – ABC

ABC has been a perennial favorite of mine – they have a lot of quirky shows with interesting premises (premisii?), and most importantly last year they made a huge push in airing shows with diverse casting. The MayorFor the People, and Black-ish either are completely brown or have a lot of people of color on set.

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I love this show more than some people

That said ABC isn’t perfect. Like a lot of us, I was really excited to see Rosanne make a comeback this year… and… Yeah. I watched a couple episodes and I’m done with it. I can’t separate the woman from the show, especially when the two are so intertwined.

This year’s crop looks to be… more pale. It’s unfortunate that they didn’t continue the push into more colorful territory, but some of their shows do show promise. So let’s see what they got.

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Press Start Reviews: Upfronts 2018 – NBC

The first batch of upfronts trailers I’m going to look at are three from NBC. Their slate for the 2018-2019 season is looking pretty good, and they are not surprising anyone with their usual focus on dramas. Law and Order: SVU is returning for their 20th season, they are creating a whole night of the Chicago shows (Med, PD, and Fire), The Blacklist is back… but they are also trying to increase their comedic stable bringing home Brooklyn 99 (YES!!!) and a few others.

I’m really interested in a four of their new shows: The Gilded Age (period piece from the creator of Downton Abby focusing on 1880s New York), The Enemy Within (spy thriller, sounds kind of like The Blacklist?), Manifest, and New Amsterdam.

So let’s get to it!

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Press Start Reviews: Upfronts Trailers 2018

There are a few media/corporate conferences I look forward to every year… Apple’s WWDC and E3 to name a couple. Another is the Upfronts. As most of you know, E3 is primarily the video game industry’s way of showing off all of its great upcoming products for the next year… to reporters and other game developers. At its core, its a trade show that the rest of us can visit too. The Upfronts are basically the same thing, but for television. Every channel hauls as many ad agencies as it can into an evening of celebrity guests and trailers, trying to convince them all where they should run commercials in the 2018-2019 season.

Last year there were some really great contenders: Instinct, For the People, and The Resident have become favorites of mine. Some haven’t been so lucky; The Mayor and The Crossing haven’t been renewed.

So whats all this to do with whatever? After they try to woo the ad people, they release the trailers to the public so we can all get hype for the coming season! Usually! And sometimes we get crap like Macguyver and have to drink to forget it even existed.

 

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I hate you for not being at least watchable.

There have been twenty-four trailers released between NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and SYFY, and I’m gonna review them all. Why? Because its there that’s why. Also I’m a TV junkie and I’d be doing this on my own either way. SO! I’ll be splitting these reviews up by channel. Click the links to read each one:

Upfronts 2018 – NBC

Upfronts 2018 – ABC

Upfronts 2018 – CBS

Upfronts 2018 – FOX

Upfronts 2018 – Other

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Press Start Reviews: Lost In Space (Netflix)

I love TV, and I watch a ton of it, especially since I have a lot of free time. I wish I had the energy to write more TV/Movie reviews, so I’m going to make the attempt… but don’t expect this to be a super frequent thing.

When I review something, I like giving the short answer at the top, and if you want to read why then read further.

Good production values. Acting is iffy, but fine. It’s pretty good so far. I’ll be watching more.

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Press Start Review: Remember Me

The pure fact that memory exists is frankly amazing when you really think about it. Our wrinkled mass of neurons and blood allows us to process current information and store that data for further study or application. Some we retain for days, others we retain our entire lives. As long as that lump of protein gets the energy it needs, we can retain pretty much everything. Even the act of “forgetting” is sometimes just us misfiling a thought or experience only to be found later. More than that, the human brain is still kind of a mystery… We don’t know exactly how memory works really. We don’t know how we store specific thoughts and how they are really processed. We’re close, of course, and getting closer every day – but this game puts us into a time where the human race has already cracked that nut wide open, and is currently chewing up the insides like a rabid squirrel.

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I’ve never been so angry, I’ve started sweating before, but here we are, I guess. I saw Transformers: The Last Knight.

 

I went into this movie, hoping to finally close a chapter in my life. Like saying goodbye to a shitty car, or an apartment that had a smell you could never find, but also never hide, or throwing out a bad batch of lasagna that tasted suspiciously citric-like and there was no damn good explanation to it.

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A woman leaves behind everything she knows and is accosted by monsters at every turn all in the name of Love. I saw 50 Shades Darker, Alien Covenant, and Wonder Woman

I meant to write this sooner, but the motivation was simply not there for the previous two movies. Wonder Woman deserves to be talked about, however, one way or the other, and so I must bring the other movies up from the shadows and cast light on them, so I can scatter the horrors within.

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