Thursday, October 6, 2011

Pilot Reviews: Unforgettable and Person of Interest

More Pilot Reviews...

Unforgettable

Ignoring my love of red-heads, this show is actually pretty good.  The main character's perfect memory is a nice twist on the procedural (and a little more original than, for instance, The Mentalist which just copied the concept of the far superior Psych).  The connection to the head detective on a case in the main character's apartment building was a little too coincidental, and the way that the first episode ended was predictable and annoying.  The overall mystery and the set up seem to be capable of turning this into a strong television show, however, and the second episode was much better, in my opinion.

However, this is about pilot reviews, so to that end...

Pilot Grade: 79%

Interesting Fact: While many fans will recognize Poppy Montgomery, the lead female character, from her work on Without a Trace and Dylan Walsh from his work on Nip/Tuck, I'm most excited about the presence of Kevin Rankin, who was Herc on Friday Night Lights.

Person of Interest

Created by Jonathon Nolan, brother of Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Memento, Insomnia, Inception, Prestige), and screen-writer of the films his brother has directed, this is the first foray of the film writer into television, and sadly, I felt like that showed on the screen.

Nolan is a fantastic writer with an unbelievable imagination (after all, Memento, the most intriguing of Christopher Nolan's films at least until Inception came along was all Jonathon), but television is a different animal than the feature film.  Therefore, it might take some time for Jonathon to get the hang of writing effectively for television.

Overall, it just felt a little off to me.  I haven't had a chance to see the 2nd episode yet, but I expect that the show will get better from where it started.  The pacing wasn't great, and the introductions of the characters and the exposition took me out of the episode more than once.  But these are definitely things that well get better with experience.

As for story, I really like the concept, and you can't ask for a better cast: Jim Caviezel who has primarily been a film actor, but did recently star as 6 in the AMC remake of The Prisoner, Taraji Henson, who was Oscar nominated for her role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and, of course, Michael Emerson, who was one of the best actors (and characters) in LOST.

I have hope for the show, but it did disappoint me a little with the first episode.

Pilot Grade: 81%

Interesting Fact: The show is being executive produced by J.J. Abrams who created some fantastic television shows in his time: Felicity, Alias, LOST, and Fringe among them.

Until Next Time,

For my review of Up All Night and Free Agents go here...

For my review of Whitney and New Girl go here...

For my review of 2 Broke Girls and How To Be A Gentleman go here...

For my review of Pan Am and Prime Suspect go here...

(My thoughts after Terra Nova, although not a proper Pilot Review, is here...)

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