A 24 season without Jack Bauer? What we learned at the TCAs

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/jan/20/tcas-what-we-learned-television-showcase

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When it comes to a little thing known as “Television Christmas” (patent pending), there are two events that battle for the title: Comic-Con and the Television Critics Association tour (the TCAs, for short and sweet). There’s been a lot (a lot) of love during the event, but what have we all learned from that love?

As a side note, besides the major cable networks (HBO, Showtime, and to a lesser extent Starz), now networks like Bravo, Comedy Central, Yahoo, Hulu, Netflix – the list goes on – are in the game. However, the major broadcast networks – and their siblings – are still the big networks on campus. So I’ve concentrated on them.

ABC

With all the big news and information learned from this TCA tour, nothing can really eclipse the controversy surrounding the comedy Fresh Off the Boat and Eddie Huang (whose book inspired it). A part of ABC’s attempt to bring more diversity (and honestly, quality) to its line​up, Fresh Off the Boat follows the life of an Asian family in the 1980s as they move from Washington​ DC to Orlando, F​lorida, to live “the American dream”: the patriarch wants to run his very own steakhouse.

Based on the pilot alone, it’s a funny show with loads of potential, but the day before the panel Huang wrote a scathing piece on Vulture about the horror of seeing his life essentially ​bastardised for white, American television. In the piece, he took down the series, the network​ and its producers:

This show isn’t about me, nor is it about Asian America. The network won’t take that gamble right now … Randall was neutered, Constance was exoticised, and Young Eddie was urbanised so that the viewers got their mise-en-place. People watching these channels have never seen us, and the network’s approach to pacifying them is to say we’re all the same. Sell them pasteurized network television with East Asian faces until they wake up intolerant of their own lactose, and hit ’em with the soy.

Then, during the TCA panel, Huang also made sure to talk over – and therefore silence – his critics. As the saying goes, controversy creates cash, but with ABC putting the show on at 8pm ET on Tuesday night (against firm competition like NCIS) instead of finding a spot for it in the Wednesday night family comedy line​up (alongside shows like Modern Family and Black-ish), things aren’t looking good for the series before it even airs.

On the less controversial side of things, ABC is hoping to becom​e stronger than ever with its Marvel series — Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter — and the crossover potential between the two and the Marvel cinematic universe. Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb avoided any spoilers, but he did give up the tiniest morsel in the form of “#It’s All Connected​”. With 22 episodes of Agent of SHIELD and eight of Agent Carter, that’s 30 hours of comic book-based content a season, a hearty contribution to genre’s takeover of the entertainment industry.

ABC is also embracing the trend of “American adaptations of a foreign series”, remaking the Australian show Secrets and Lies, starring Juliette Lewis and Ryan Phillippe. The hope is that the series will succeed where Fox’s Gracepoint (a version of Broadchurch in the UK) failed. At least ABC president Paul Lee is optimistic about 2015 for the network. This time last year, all of the network’s new fall series were either cancelled or heading toward cancellation.

CBS

Few regard CBS as one of the more forward-thinking networks, but after all these years, there has to be a reason why the eye is the No 1 network in America. Because of that, CBS isn’t going to be left in the dust on the superhero show front, and that’s where Supergirl comes in. At the TCAs, CBS chair Nina Tassler explained why Supergirl isn’t making its home on its sibling network The CW, alongside hits Arrow and The Flash (which share a creative pedigree and an in-show universe).

Tassler had a hand in developing Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and professed herself a fan of the genre​’s “human drama”, calling it a “real passion” of the network. That type of thinking should appeal to comic book fans, as the human stories are just as important ​as the big events that happen within them. Also, with the renewal of the Halle Berry science fiction series, Extant, the show is getting a complete overhaul of its cast and mythology heading. CBS may not be as entrenched in the genre television world as The CW, but it’s making great strides with these two female-driven series.

Knowing which side its bread is buttered, CBS isn’t abandoning the kinds of shows the network is known for: procedurals and multicamera sitcoms. There is of course the “very relevant and topical” CSI: Cyber spin-off, starring Golden Globe winner Patricia Arquette, and another spin-off of Criminal Minds, which Tassler said will be “better” than Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, the first failed attempt to spin off the long-running series. CBS is also doing a reboot of The Odd Couple starring Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon alongside Community’s Yvette Nicole Brown and The Wire’s Wendell Pierce.

However, it was the Two and a Half Men panel that led to the most poignant line of the CBS TCA schedule: “The … challenge is how to get people to watch something without telling them what it is,” said showrunner Chuck Lorre. He was of course talking about the show’s series finale – and whether or not Charlie Sheen would show up, on which even Tassler would not comment.

The CW

With the recent Golden Globe win for Jane The Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez, all eyes are on the young network. The CW continues to lead the charge on genre and superhero programming and will continue to do so in 2015 as it attempts to expand the DC Comics universe onscreen. While CBS has Supergirl, The CW and the creative team of Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Marc Guggenheim are already working on a series for The Atom (spinning it off of Arrow, just like The Flash). This also comes on the heels of The CW announcing a Vixen animated series (also in the same universe as Arrow and its cohorts) on CW Seed, the network’s digital platform.

Fox

The saying is usually “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” but the TCAs suggest that Fox might ignore that adage, owing to the success of last summer’s 24: Live Another Day. Fox TV Group chairman Dana Walden and 24 executive producers have been developing a follow-up to the “event”, but they’re also working with the mindset that “potentially, [Jack Bauer] won’t be in this instalment”. The chances that anyone will be tuning into a 24-related series without Jack Bauer seem slim. But it’s the type of determination to capitalise on the success of past shows (with or without the backbone of said shows) that is also leading the possibility of a new instalment of The X-Files.

When the network isn’t attempting to capitalise on the past, it’s also open to the possibility of more network synergy, with an upcoming crossover between Empire and American Idol. Empire star Terrence Howard said “It would be stupid not to”, but it’s not clear whether that was before or after he compared himself to Jesus.

The network is also trying to move forward with its newer programs. While NBC is essentially ditching its attempt to be a progressive comedy network by killing the Thursday night comedy lineup formerly known as Must See TV, Fox is willing to take up the mantle. That’s why Weird Loners (starring Happy Endings’ Zachary Knighton, Ugly Betty’s Becki Newton, Hello Ladies’ Nate Torrence, and Meera Rohit Kumbhani) is being called a “sort of a single-cam answer to [NBC’s] Undateable”.

… and FX/FXX

The biggest story to come from the FX (and its baby sibling, FXX) camp is network president John Landgraf’s proclamation that, in the battle of the prestige networks, HBO versus FX is the only show in town. It’s difficult to argue against that point, as FX has only increased its status as a paragon for cable television (whether it be cable, like Sons of Anarchy or The Americans, or comedy, like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and You’re The Worst).

On FX proper, there’s also the final season of Justified, a show that’s going out with the smart idea of not continuing past its expiration date: “Our biggest concern telling these stories is that we don’t run out of story and start repeating ourselves. Although there were financial incentives to keep it going, it really felt in terms of the story of Raylan Givens in Kentucky, that six years felt about right.”

Despite the cancellation of the little-viewed but critically praised The Bridge, Landgraf only spoke in terms of optimism. In fact, according to Landgraf, FXX’s ratings jumped 146% upon gaining the exclusive cable rerun rights to The Simpsons. It was a deal that’s led to plenty of jokes about FXX being the channel that is nothing but Simpsons jokes (and the shows FX doesn’t want), but the numbers tell their own story.

If “Seriously Funny” weren’t already the tagline for TBS, it could probably be applied to FX’s approach to comedy. Its new programming looks to be heavy on the comedy side of things, with Better Things (starring Louie’s Pamela Adlon as an actress raising three daughters – art imitating life) and the “painfully funny” (maybe that should be the networks’ tagline) The Comedians (starring Billy Crystal and being paired up with Louie, as of 9 April).

During the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia panel (which FX itself deemed the “longest-running live-action comedy series in cable history”), the cast discussed keeping the show smart amid all the childish humor, reminding us all that “smart” is the goal when it comes to FX and FXX’s approach to television. There’s again, there Denis Leary’s upcoming comedy, Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll (surprisingly not an adaptation of a Chuck Klosterman book), which didn’t so much have a panel or a discussion of how smart the show was as it had Denis Leary drop as many f-bombs as he possibly could. If that doesn’t sell the show for you, then what will?

NBC

Miniseries, movies and specials – oh my! That appears to be NBC’s main strategy for success in 2015, which, if nothing else, is a good way to separate the network from the pack. NBC is also making sure to get big names for these alternative television programs, with Stevie Wonder executive-producing an eight-hour miniseries and separate musical on the underground railroad (Freedom Run) and the network developing a series of standalone television movies with Dolly Parton (based on the singer/songwriter/actress’ “songs, stories and inspiring life”.

That’s all in addition to the development of The Wiz and The Music Man as future live events, in the same vein as The Sound of Music Live and Peter Pan Live. There’s also the anticipation and cautious optimism when it comes to impending mini-series The Slap, a remake of a 2011 Australian miniseries based on Christos Tsiolkas’s novel. The pitch-perfect casting of the American version – featuring an all-star cast featuring Uma Thurman, Zachary Quinto and Thandie Newton, to name a few – is a good sign. As is executive producer Jon Robin Baitz’s decision to adapt it, after vowing to never work in network television again after being “ousted, not fired” from his show, ABC’s Brothers & Sisters.

Then there was the Bill Cosby scandal. Cutting the network’s ties with the disgraced comic, NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt came prepared, but even that preparation didn’t seem like enough:

You know, 15 women came out and accused him of having done what they accused him of … While over the years we’d heard some of those accusations and we knew there were a couple settlements and whatnot, it didn’t seem to be the sort of thing that was critical mass. When we realised that there seemed to be so much more of it, it wasn’t something that we could go, ‘Oh, we’re not sure.’ Look, he hasn’t been proven guilty of anything, so I don’t want to be the one that says guilty until proven innocent, but when that many people come out and have similar complaints and it becomes such a tainted situation, there was no way that we could move forward with it.

NBC also announced a 13-episode series order for Telenovela, Eva Longoria’s first television starring role since Desperate Housewives. But NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt made it clear that NBC is determined to bring multi-camera comedies back (the way Justin Timberlake brought sexy back, even though we were not sure it had ever really left). At the TCA panel for Undateable season two, executive producer Bill Lawrence referred to this type of old-school comedy style as “comfort comedy”, and it looks like NBC is now in the “comfort comedy business.”

Overall, NBC will mostly be sticking to what it knows, and right now, that knowledge comes in the form of crossovers between the hit series Chicago Fire and its spin-off, Chicago PD. That doesn’t mean the network won’t still try to make “high-concept” shows work and stick (unlike past lofty flops, like Crisis). Upcoming Allegiance and Odyssey will have to deal with comparisons to cable dramas like The Americans and Homeland, respectively. But given the surprise success of The Blacklist, NBC has proven there’s at least a place for these types of shows.