TV has changed a lot, but one tradition remains: Put the duller shows on in March
Out with the old TV and in with the old TV. It’s March, after all, and despite so much profound change in the making and distributing of televised content, this 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” (which premiered March 18) is exactly the sort of show to not talk about, the perfect expression of formulaic, March-like 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?”
Whether you do or don’t, he now does. 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 best-selling 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-care-how-I-look’ pantsuit, the 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, just like that precocious teenager who mouths off to his elders on NBC’s new sitcom “Champions.” There’s no need to keep viewers guessing anymore, even among CBS’ doddering demo: Cumming is gay in real life and so is his character. Mulling over whether he should help Detective Needham solve a curiously symbolic murder of a nightclub patron, Reinhart must also consider the promise he made to his husband, Andy (Daniel Ings), to stay out of the sleuthing business. That’s because Reinhart, we eventually learn, once worked for the CIA.
Meanwhile, the professor’s book editor (Whoopi Goldberg, occasionally) doesn’t like his new manuscript. It’s too theoretical, she whines — too academic. It needs more action, more blood. What it really needs is the kind of anecdotal stuff the professor can glean if he teams up with the NYPD.
The show not as complicated as it sounds; in fact, it’s unabashedly rote, following CBS’ house style down to the letter, in which a pair of mismatched crimesolvers — one of them preternaturally gifted — lightly bicker and bumble their way to the arrest of a suspect. Attempts to mask “Instinct’s” shortcomings with Cumming’s dapper, devilish manner don’t help all that much.
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 prowess 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’ IF YOU WATCH
(one hour) airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on CBS.
“For the People” (one hour) airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.
(one hour) airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC. “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’s” Britt Robertson) and Allison Adams (“The Leftovers’s” 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. What’s mildly intriguing, at least in the first few episodes, is the chance to see a Shondaland series in its nascent moments of restraint, when the dialogue and plot still have a chance of resonating with reality. Viewers might be surprised at the lack of dead bodies or sex in the storage closets; the emphasis is instead on young lawyers putting in extra hours to do a good job. (Is this why it’s on in March? Is hard work really so dull?)
Things are noticeably hotter, heavier and more Shonda-esque on “Station 19,” a “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff about a station-house 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.
Station 19’s captain (Miguel Sandoval), who is also Andy’s father and mentor, is injured in the line of duty. He decides to make Andy and Jack co-captains in his stead, to the skepticism of the entire firehouse. On that note, viewers should feel much more comfortable on this saucier side of Shondaland, where workplace sex and relationships continue unabated by either humanresources departments or social-awareness movements.
The strongest feeling from these shows is a stultifying sense of been-there, donethat. In fact, that’s a defining characteristic of TV dramas so far in 2018, whether on broadcast networks, highend cable or streaming services. As quantity continues to squash quality, it’s starting to feel like March all year long. If Rhimes wants to make a meaningful impact at Netflix, it might be wise to slow down the conveyor belt.