Showing posts with label Fox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fox. Show all posts

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Is Your Favorite Show Coming Back?

As we reach the end of the 2012-13 TV season, the networks have been busy pulling the plug on some shows and offering lifelines to others. If you're confused about what's coming back and what's not, here is a handy list. (And I hope your favorites are all safe in that long "renewed" list.)

CANCELLED/WRAPPED/BUH BYE

1600 Penn (NBC)
30 Rock (NBC)
666 Park Avenue (ABC)
90210 (CW)
Animal Practice (NBC)
Ben and Kate (Fox)
Body of Proof (ABC)
CSI: NY (CBS)
Cult (CW)
Deception (NBC)
Do No Harm (NBC)
Don’t Trust the B in Apt. 23 (ABC)
Emily Owens MD (CW)
Family Tools (ABC)
Fringe (Fox)
Go On (NBC)
Golden Boy (CBS)
Gossip Girl (CW)
Guys with Kids (NBC)
Happy Endings (ABC)
How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) (ABC)
The Job (CBS)
Last Resort (ABC)
Made in Jersey (CBS)
Malibu Country (ABC)
Mob Doctor (Fox)
Mobbed (Fox)
The New Normal (NBC)
The Office (NBC)
Partners (CBS)
Private Practice (ABC)
Ready for Love (NBC)
Red Widow (ABC)
Rock Center with Brian Williams (NBC)
Rules of Engagement (CBS)
Smash (NBC)
Touch (Fox)
Up All Night (NBC)
Vegas (CBS)
Whitney (NBC)
Zero Hour (ABC)

RENEWED/SAVED/BACK FOR MORE

2 Broke Girls (CBS)
The Amazing Race (CBS)
American Dad (Fox)
American Idol (Fox)
America's Next Top Model (CW)
Arrow (CW)
The Bachelor (and the Bachelorette) (ABC)
Beauty and the Beast (CW)
The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
The Biggest Loser (NBC)
Blue Bloods (CBS)
Bob's Burgers (Fox)
Bones (Fox)
The Carrie Diaries (CW)
Castle (ABC)
Chicago Fire (NBC)
Community (NBC)
Criminal Minds (CBS)
CSI (CBS)
Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
Elementary (CBS)
Family Guy (Fox)
The Following (Fox)
Glee (Fox)
The Good Wife (CBS)
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Grimm (NBC)
Hart of Dixie (CW)
Hawaii Five-O (CBS)
How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
Last Man Standing (ABC)
Law & Order SVU (NBC)
The Mentalist (CBS)
The Middle (ABC)
Mike & Molly* (CBS)
The Mindy Project (Fox)
Modern Family (ABC)
Nashville (ABC)
NCIS (CBS)
NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS)
The Neighbors (ABC)
New Girl (Fox)
Nikita* (CW)
Once Upon a Time (ABC)
Parenthood (NBC)
Parks and Recreation (NBC)
Shark Tank (ABC)
Person of Interest (CBS)
Raising Hope (Fox)
Revenge (ABC)
Revolution (NBC)
Scandal (ABC)
The Simpsons (Fox)
Suburgatory (ABC)
Supernatural (CW)
Survivor (CBS)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Undercover Boss (CBS)
The Vampire Diaries (CW)
The Voice (NBC)
The X Factor (Fox)

Note that Fox's "The Cleveland Show" is not listed on their Fall 2013 schedule, but it hasn't been officially canceled, either. Others neither here nor there at the moment: "Betty White's Off Their Rockers," "Celebrity Apprentice," "Hannibal" and "Fashion Star," all on NBC.

*"Mike and Molly" has been renewed but won't be back till mid-season, while "Nikita" has been renewed just to come back with six episodes mid-season and finish off the show's story.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

New on TV: Mob Doctor and Revolution

Last night, two new fall shows bowed, with "The Mob Doctor," starring Jordana Spiro as a tough surgeon who can't get rid of family ties to the mob, and "Revolution," the one where electricity (and apparently fossil fuels?) have been wiped from the world. Oddly, both showed off Chicago sets last night, with our "Mob Doctor" tied to Bridgeport on the South Side and "Revolution" offering the Loop partially under water and Future World Wrigley Field (where we see that the Cubs won the World Series in 2012, which is probably reason enough for the world to get zapped.)

"The Mob Doctor" is on Fox, and it is, I think, a strange little show. Spiro is a bit more world-weary than your normal TV doc, and her issues trying to save patients, spar with an unethical superior at the hospital, and keep her brother, the one whose gambling debts got her into this mess, from getting rubbed out by the mob, are certainly a unique mix. In last night's premiere, she bucked the system at the hospital, refused to kill a prosecution witness in the operating room to appease the thug threatening her brother, and got a favor from a more powerful crime boss to get rid of that threat entirely. Unfortunately, that put her into even hotter water with the new overlord. The show has a gritty, no-nonsense look and feel to it, and there was even a chase scene under the L tracks in the premiere.

I don't know Spiro, who is apparently from "My Boys" and "Dexter," but she was fine, and she has an excellent supporting cast with Zeljko Ivanek as a hospital administrator on her side, Zach Gilford ("Saturday Night Lights") as her love interest, and William Forsythe as the Big Bad who helped her out, with a large price tag attached.

Although I did stay tuned for the whole hour, I can't say I was enthralled or compelled enough to go back. Honestly, the premise seems clunky and forced, and I'm not sure it's strong enough for episode after episode of the same hospital/crime mashup.

"The Mob Doctor" airs at 8 pm Central Monday nights on Fox.

And then there's "Revolution." Last year's "Terra Nova," about a family trying to survive a dystopic future world, didn't work out very well, but this season's "Revolution," about a family (or at least a couple of pieces of a family) trying to survive a dystopic future world, has a bit more "Hunger Games" in the mix, with a young woman battling mysterious militia forces as she travels across a new, powerless America to try to find and free her captured brother.

Daniella Alonso is properly smart and feisty as the girl with the crossbow, and she is backed up by Billy Burke as her uncle, someone she hadn't seen in 15 years, but who is now on her team as they look for her little bro. Her life is further complicated by an attraction to a hunky guy who seems to be on the wrong team, even though he's saved her life a couple of times already.

The great actor in the background on "Revolution" is the eminently watchable Giancarlo Esposito, who never puts a dramatic foot wrong.

It's fun to see the famous Chicago Theatre sign distressed and wet, and the Cubs in-joke is amusing. And the sword fight in the pilot was quite nicely done. But how long can they keep Nora and Uncle Miles moving, not finding Danny, but somehow staying away from Captain Neville and his evil minions and their superior firepower?

I confess I am also not clear on the underlying mythology of what exactly does and doesn't work in this "Revolution" world. Guns, crossbows, engines, dams? Why and how do these work or not work under the No Power rules?

"Revolution" looks a lot spiffier than "The Mob Doctor," with a pilot episode directed by Jon Favreau, but even so, it's not really the kind of thing I'm likely to keep watching. "Revolution" takes the 9 pm slot on Mondays on NBC.