A TV tradition remains: Put the duller shows on in March
Out with the old TV and in with the old TV. Despite so much profound change in the making and distributing of televised content, March is still the month when networks begin to quietly unload whatever’s left of the current season. Most of it is that underwhelming yet serviceable kind of TV nobody ever talks about.
CBS’ exceedingly bland “Instinct” is exactly the sort of show to not talk about, the perfect expression of formulaic, Marchlike mediocrity. Drawn from a James Patterson novel, it could just as easily (and more memorably) be titled “Don’t You Think Alan Cumming Should Have a Crime Drama on CBS?”
Cumming, whose portrayal of the dangerously loyal campaign manager Eli Gold in “The Good Wife” gave that show some of its crucially comedic edge, stars here as Dr. Dylan Reinhart, a professor who wrote a bestselling guide to psychopathic behavior.
When New York Police Department homicide detective Lizzie Needham (Bojana Novakovic) shows up to one of his classes seeking his expertise for a current case, Reinhart demurs, saying he hasn’t got time to work with cops. Fine, Needham says, but she wants to know: How did he know that she’s a cop before she told him?
“Oh, come on,” he snaps. “The ‘I-don’t-carehow-I-look’ pantsuit, the
To watch
“Instinct” (one hour) airs Sundays at 7 p.m. on CBS.
“For the People” airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.
“Station 19” (one hour) airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC. humdrum flats, the almost total absence of makeup. And the slight dip in the your posture favoring your right side, probably due to the Sig P226 holster (on) your hip.”
Though the line is meant to impress upon viewers that Reinhart has superior powers of observation, it also shows how “Instinct” will be leaning heavily on Cumming’s powers of gay-tinged snark.
The show is unabashedly rote.
ABC reveals a similar case of the March doldrums with two tepid and predictable new dramas from the factory known as Shondaland — the production company overseen by frequent hitmaker Shonda Rhimes, whose magic touch and/or guiding influence has graced “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder.”
Rhimes, as you may have heard, recently signed a big deal with Netflix, which is rapidly on its way to throwing more TV spaghetti noodles against the wall than all three networks combined. That move might or might not be a good thing. Shondaland’s prow- ess certainly shows some fatigue in “For the People,” a legal drama that premiered on March 13, and in “Station 19,” a firefighter drama that premiered March 22. Both shows strongly suggest that Shondaland could use a creative jolt.
In creator (and “Scandal” writer) Paul William Davies’ “For the People,” a group of eager young attorneys begin their first day at U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where half of them have been chosen to work as prosecutors and half to work as public defenders. These newbies are the cream of the crop, including BFFs Sandra Bell (“Girlboss’ ” Britt Robertson) and Allison Adams (“The Leftovers’ ” Jasmin Savoy Brown), who work together as public defenders under the watchful eye of their boss, Jill Carlan (Hope Davis), who constantly reminds her team that public defenders in federal cases seldom see a win for their clients.
Instead, they’re encouraged to bring back small victories in the form of plea deals and reduced sentences. “For the People” starts from the idea that the prosecutors aren’t as coldhearted as they seem, nor are the public defenders as noble.
But what’s really interesting about the show is, well, nothing much.
Things are noticeably hotter, heavier and more Shonda-esque on “Station 19,” a “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff about a stationhouse of exceptionally busy fire and rescue workers in Seattle.
Jaina Lee Ortiz (“Rosewood”) stars as Andy Herrera, a committed firefighter who seems not at all committed to Jack Gibson (“Friday Night Lights’s” Grey Damon), a colleague who wants to marry her. One problem with that plan is that Andy’s secret affair with a police officer (Alberto Frezza) who was once her high school boyfriend.
Viewers should feel much more comfortable on this saucier side of Shondaland, where workplace sex and relationships continue unabated by either human-resources departments or socialawareness movements.