Military dramas proliferate on fall TV
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — If you couldn’t get enough of “Army Wives” back in the day or History’s “Six” earlier this year, this fall’s TV season is made for you.
No fewer than three new military-themed series are coming to the broadcast networks, and there’s little to distinguish one from the other.
The CW’s “Valor” (9 p.m. Oct. 9, WPCW) is the sexiest, with Capt. Leland Gallo (Matt Barr, “Hatfields & McCoys”) and his helicopter co-pilot Nora Madani (Christina Ochoa) nearly hooking up in a premiere episode that also introduces a serialized conspiracy theory.
CBS’s “Seal Team” (9 p.m. Sept. 27, KDKA-TV) stars David Boreanaz (“Bones”) as leader of a Navy outfit that includes a CIA analyst (Jessica Pare, “Mad Men”) and a dog.
NBC’s “The Brave” (10 p.m. Sept. 25, WPXI) adds an intelligence analyst (Anne Heche) to the mix as she oversees special ops missions from Washington, D.C., led by Capt. Adam Dalton (Mike Vogel, “Under the Dome”) abroad.
“Seal Team” seems like an ideal fit for CBS. “Valor” on The CW is the biggest outlier given that the network is known as a home to superhero shows, soaps and female-fronted hourlong comedies.
CW president Mark Pedowitz acknowledged “Valor” is an attempt to “extend” the network’s brand and marks his third attempt at launching a military series on The CW.
“We believe we have the right mix for the show now,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it’s going to be a great soap, on top of it having a military background.” Cue the canoodling. Executive producers Anne Fricke and Kyle Jarrow describe “Valor” as a femaledriven drama.
“They are sleeping with people,” Mr. Jarrow said. “They’re cheating on people. They’re struggling with questions of personal morality and personal choices, just like we all do. It felt
really important to dramatize that in telling a full story of what it’s like to be someone in the military. So in terms of delivering those soapy elements, it actually feels like it’s also being honest about what it is to be somebody in the military.”
“Seal Team” executive producer/director Christopher Chulack (“Southland”) said the series is not a response to a conservative climate in Washington.
“We’re not messaging,” he said. “This is a story about the study of the psyche of the men and women who are involved in these situations, so it’s not politics. It’s human study, character study. That’s what we’re trying to do with a big backdrop.”
“Seal Team” executive producer Ed Redlich suggested “Seal Team” won’t be the type of CBS procedural it certainly seems to be.
“There’s a way to do this show, which would just be a mission of the week, and they would go off and do their stuff and come back,” he said. “I don’t think anybody here wanted to be on that show. And we have instead, with the complete support of CBS, developed a show where the character stories are a huge part of the show, and they will be serialized, and you will follow them.”
Producers of NBC’s “The Brave” embrace the style of show “Seal Team” producers reject.
“We’re a mission-of-theweek [show] that happens to take place around the world,” said series creator Dean Georgaris. “We do not become a serialized show.”
Star Demetrius Grosse said “The Brave” traffics more in espionage and intelligence work than in firefights. And Mr. Georgaris isn’t worried about there being too many series with military settings.
“I think back to ’94 when ‘ER’ came out, and I think ‘Chicago Hope’ came out the same year, or a similar time,” he said. “We’re not worried about standing out. We’re focused on trying to do the best job with our approach, which is an immersive approach. We don’t cut away to characters at home.”
He compared the style of “The Brave” to a past NBC hit.
“We are in that model of, ‘Let’s do what they did in “ER,”’” Mr. Georgaris said. “I remember that show, for me, was really revelatory, because I didn’t understand all the lingo and I had to play catch up all the time, and then I watched every single episode.”
Channel surfing
Jeff Skowron and Matt Yeager, who created the 2010 Johnstown-set web series “Greg & Donny,” will return to the New York Television Festival as part of the independent pilot competition Oct. 23-28 with a new pilot, “Max Riddle,” about a guy who loses his job to a robot in fictional Flood City, modeled after Johnstown. Watch the trailer on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/ w at ch?v=tP9chU4kJDw ).… truTV renewed comedy “I’m Sorry” for a second season to debut in 2018. … Netflix renewed “Friends From College” for a second season.