Tuesday night I watched an entire night of NBC as it was the first night that any network aired its intended Fall 2012 line-up. I even watched it mostly live, with commercials, because I was live tweeting the shows (@johned970) at least until I had to take a few work phone calls and then one of the shows almost broke me. The evening started with the second night/third hour of The Voice, then followed up with the Matthew Perry vehicle Go On and the controversial The New Normal, and ended with personal favorite Parenthood. The night perfectly showed both the strengths and weaknesses of NBC's current slate of programming and featured entries from the three main genres: reality competition, comedy and drama.
I am not a fan of the glut of singing competition shows, but can usually find something to like about each. For The Voice, I like the blind audition phase. I really dig the binary nature of the swiveling chairs; often asked to judge auditioners, I find that there is an immediate yes-no response when assessing a performer. I also appreciate the constructive criticism that the panel gives. While they could never match the spot on critiques of the judges' panel of The Sing-Off, CeeLo Green, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton really endeavor to not destroy a person while still pointing out what worked and what didn't. The thing that I don't care for with the four stars is the unnecessary sense of competition between them. Yes, they are the stars of the show, but that puerile behavior continues to overshadow the actual contestants. Is it any surprise that neither winner of The Voice has made any impact on the popular music scene? With the first contestant, Adriana, on Tuesday's episode, all four judges turned their chairs for her; given the talent on display I can only assume it was a game of oneupmanship that continued to be displayed throughout the evening. In general I was underwhelmed by the talent on the show (though the last two showed promise) and frustrated by the games of the judges. Carson Daly impressed me though. He still sounds awkward at times, but he handles the interviews fairly well.
Go On, I believe, aired an episode they weren't intending to air. Pre-show press indicated that Steven (John Cho) would be taking Ryan (Matthew Perry) out on the town as a wing man to get him back in the social scene, while the group helped Laura Benanti's character, Lauren, study for a grad school entrance exam. The episode we got instead featured Ryan struggling to be alone, forcing his assistant to forgo her life for him, while he divided the group from Lauren because she represented stasis and he represented action. I can't begin to understand why the episode order was switched, except that NBC felt this was either a stronger episode or an easier episode to watch because the focus was on fewer characters.
The irony that Ryan was pushing the group towards action while he was stuck in stasis was great, but the show muddled it up with one two many sports metaphors that didn't really connect. I liked the opening marathon one, but then to drop that entirely and pick up two others was ill-conceived. Benanti also took a smaller role in this episode, which made the back and forth of the group between her perspective and Ryan's difficult. The other bonus to this theme was the focus on Allison Miller's assistant character Carrie. She is so good, and those story beats were very real and very funny. I would like for the series to focus more on Ryan's workplace, just so she can be a part of the series more.
The show did focus on just two members of the support group, making that unwieldy ensemble easier to manage in the viewers' minds. Pushing Bill Cobb's blind George to the fore is a smart move; he's one of the strongest actors on the show and sells every moment he's given. After the pilot, I felt that the writers intended to keep the support group together by eventually killing off George. I have no idea if that's the plan mind you but it makes sense. Focusing on him now will vest the audience more or convince the writers that they could continue to use him for the life of the series. There is a downside here and it is the cat lady. The other character from the support group that got the spotlight was Sonia, played by Sarah Baker, and I'm not sure that there's a thinner character in the group. Of the third tier of players (Perry, Cho and Benanti are Tier 1; Cobbs, Miller, Julie White, Tyler James Williams and Suzy Nakamura are Tier 2; the rest are Tier 3), I much prefer the mostly Spanish-speaking Fausta played by Tonita Castro over any of the others. And really any episode that only gives Julie White a handful of lines is suspect in my book.
I'm ready to bail on The New Normal. The things I liked in the pilot, I still like here, and the things that I hated I still hate. There were a few changes of note. On the "That's unfortunate" side of things there was far less Georgia King (Goldie) than I would have liked. So much hinges on her character right now, and the show shied away from giving her much of the spotlight, and chose instead to soften Andrew Rannel's Bryan which was noticed and would be appreciated if it didn't seem disingenuous. On the "That's better" side of things, Bebe Woods, Goldie's daughter Shania, had a very good sustained Grey Gardens bit that may get me to watch next week.
It's been over six months since we last visited The Bravermans on Parenthood, and the absence has certainly made my heart grow fonder. The episode covered lots of ground, but kept focused on the outsider's desire to be a part of this family. Sarah's fiance Mark, played with nice guy charm by Jason Ritter, was desperate to be included in a Braverman family photo. Julia and Joel struggled with accepting their newly adopted son, Victor, who in turn struggled with fitting in. It's hard to get credible performances out of children, and Parenthood has been luckier than most in this regard. Jason Katims and his team of writers tend to focus on the adult's perspective, giving the children few lines (Max not withstanding), but newcomer to the cast Xolo Mariduena as Victor is able to deliver layers to his silence. He's quite the little find, and I always look forward to seeing more of Joel and Julia.
The storyline that really affected me was Haddie's. She prepared to leave a family (only for college, I know) where she felt she didn't really belong only to realize their true worth. Sarah Ramos has flown so far under the radar with this series, you'd think she was playing Joel. She always shined when she was paired with Max Burkholder as her younger Asperger's afflicted brother. But in this season premiere, she knocked it out of the park. The scene in the airport killed. Ramos is no longer a member of the principal cast, but I hope that this isn't the last we see of her. That would be a terrible, terrible shame.
All in all, the evening flowed fairly well. The Voice's large audience should enjoy Go On. The acidic sweetness of The New Normal will prepare people for the warm robust emotions of Parenthood. The only disconnect happens between the two comedies; they are so tonally different from each other that it causes some whiplash. It's a nice night of television that underscores where NBC is right now: an overdependence on reality competitions, a desire to create broader appeal comedies, while still having some key niche programming. Not all of it works by half, but there are still hidden gems that if you seek them out will prove very rewarding.
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