‘Pitch’ offers sports media fairy tale
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Dramas about the media are far less interesting than those about fully developed characters. Tonight’s network premieres, “Pitch” (8 p.m., WHBQ-TV Channel 13) and ABC’s “Notorious,” both fall into the first category.
On “Pitch,” Kylie Bunbury stars as Ginny Baker, the first woman to play in Major League Baseball. Her first start as a pitcher for the San Diego Padres becomes a media circus. Well-wishers include “Ellen” and “Hillary,” and seemingly every secondgrade girl in America.
“Pitch” does a good job depicting the locker-room resistance to the team’s marketing of the gender breakthrough. Mark-Paul Gosselaar stars as rumpslapping, Cooperstownbound catcher Mike Lawson, whose reaction to the rookie proves all-important. Dan Lauria portrays the old-school manager overwhelmed by the ballyhoo, and Bob Balaban has a small, delicious role as the team owner making the most of his role as a history maker.
Unfortunately, Ginny is too defined by those around her, including her catcher, her type-A publicist (Ali Larter) and her father (Michael Beach), seen in gauzy flashbacks mentoring Ginny on her way to the major leagues. In the pilot at least, Ginny remains a bit of a cipher.
Fox uses its network and cable sports talent and graphics to give the game portions of “Pitch” a realistic look. At the same time, treating Ginny’s breakthrough as merely a “television” experience gives “Pitch” a slightly dated, 20th-century feel.
A player, particularly a black woman, breaking a barrier of this magnitude would be subject to the full brunt of social media, which is downplayed here. The gruesome racism and misogyny of Twitter and other outlets just don’t fit into this series’ uplift.
Like “This Is Us,” the pilot of “Pitch” contains a narrative twist designed to leave viewers misty-eyed. But even that sentimental narrative hook suggests that “Pitch” might work much better as a movie than as a series.
Everybody is betraying everyone else when they’re not sleeping together in the thoroughly ridiculous new media melodrama “Notorious” (8 p.m., WATN-TV Chanel 24).
Not unlike “UnReal,” this soap emphasizes the power of the TV producer — in this case, Julia George (Piper Perabo). She helms a cable news and gossip show in collaboration with celebrity defense attorney Jake Gregorian (Daniel Sunjata).
The show only works
Dear Reader: Neuropathy is a medical term that means nerve damage. The type of nerve damage that people with diabetes get involves specific nerve fibers in all nerves, particularly the nerves that travel to the legs and feet. (There are other conditions in which a single nerve leading to the legs and feet is pinched, causing pain. An example is what is often called a “slipped disk” or “herniated disk” in the lower part of the spine.)
The symptoms of peripheral neuropathy include numbness and tingling. Some cases cause burning, shooting or stabbing pain. When the doctor does a physical examination and touches your feet and lower legs with something as light as a feather (like some cotton), you may not feel it. However, you will feel it if the cotton touches your skin in the thigh or elsewhere on the body. You may also lose sensation to a pinprick in the lower legs and feet, but not the rest of you.
Diabetes is the most common cause of peripheral neuropathy. But neuropathy can result from other causes as well. These include: Excessive alcohol intake. Hypothyroidism. In this condition, the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone.
Amyloidosis, a disease in which an abnormal protein accumulates in the body.
Vitamin deficiencies, particularly vitamin B1, B12 and folate deficiency.
Infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). for viewers willing to invest in its aggressive cynicism and complete absence of three-dimensional characters. Everything, from love affairs to orders of coffee, is a clearly calculated power play. It’s exhausting.
TONIGHT’S SEASON PREMIERES
Workers strike on “Superstore” (7 p.m., WMC-TV Channel 5).
The mayor’s protégé arrives on the slab on “Rosewood” (7 p.m., WHBQ-TV Channel 13).
A colleague becomes a patient on “Grey’s Anatomy” (7 p.m., WATN-TV Channel 24).
Rhodes irks the boss on “Chicago Med” (8 p.m., WMC-TV Channel 5).
A man claiming to be Liz’s father abducts her on “The Blacklist” (9 p.m., WMC-TV Channel 5).
The unsolved murder hangs over the “Keating 5” on “How to Get Away With Murder” (9 p.m., WATNTV Channel 24).
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
The New England Patriots host the Houston Texans on “Thursday Night Football” (7 p.m., WREG-TV Channel 3).
The 2016 documentary “Huntwatch” (9 p.m., Discovery) chronicles efforts to protect Canada’s seals.
Sam has a dinner guest on “Better Things” (9 p.m., FX).