Showing posts with label Law and Order. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Law and Order. Show all posts

Sunday, January 09, 2011

The Case of the Character-Based Procedural

There's a stigma to any show that can be called "procedural". The TV landscape has become so saturated with CSIs and Law & Orders and versions of NCIS that it seems like there's not a lot left. The genre of crime/patient/case-of-the-week plotting and very basic character development is really for casual viewers. For true procedurals it's important that someone be able to turn on their TV and watch a random episode in the middle of the season and not be confused. So for real TV people, the sort who watch from the pilot to the finale in order and without skipping- critics, devotees, industry folks-, procedurals can be really tedious.

The heavily-serialized have become a rarity on primetime network TV, there's really no arguing with that. With Lost gone and none of its replacements really taking off, serialization really just belongs to family dramas (Brothers & Sisters, Parenthood, Life Unexpected), teen shows (Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries) and primetime soaps (Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill). But that doesn't mean that all we're left with is pure procedurals.

So much about House makes it a procedural. Case-of-the-week, repetitive format, etc... but then there's actual House. The famous curmudgeon has a host of problems-psychological, emotional, physical- that make him the sarcastic genius that he is. You don't know that, unless you actually watch the show. The whole show. Same thing with Castle, Bones and Psych. Those shows are still very formulaic, predictable, the characters do, comparatively speaking, take a back seat. But they're not Dragnet. The Good Wife strikes a balance, about half the show is heavily serialized and the other half is procedural law drama. Same with Boston Legal, Drop Dead Diva, and pretty much everything else about lawyers. Grey's Anatomy's the same way. So is Private Practice. As was ER. You could tune into a random episode of Buffy and follow the monster-of-the-week, you'd miss the season-wide big bad and the full-series character arcs, but you could follow the episode. The same can be said of many West Wing episodes.

My point is, the line is blurrier than it seems to be. Some of the most interesting characters on TV exist in what many critics would label a "procedural"- Jack Hodgins, Shawn Spencer, Kalinda Sharma, oh and Gregory House (considered one of TV greatest characters of all-time). I think the secret is layering. Lost quickly grew tedious in its perpetual lack of closure but Law & Order seems to re-set its world at the end of each episode. Self-contained stories are important to give the audience some sense of accomplishment or resolution, but it's the over-arching themes and developments that really pull the characters forward, give the series growth and depth. I think Buffy had it down with its mix of single-episode, season-long and series-wide stories. Their plots worked on 3 levels and their characters got the best of both worlds.

What I'm saying is that Jack Hodgins couldn't live in a true procedural. They just never would have written him. Maybe long arcs aren't the focus, but "non-serial" and "weak on character" are not mutually inclusive concepts (neither are, for the record, "heavily serialized" and "strong on character"). Maybe not every week, but character-based non-serial shows belong in the critical eye. Hodgins deserves at least that much.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

NBC Next Season... so far

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the end of an era. A welcome end, in my procedural-averse opinion but the end of one nonetheless. After 20 seasons and 453 episodes, TV's second longest-running drama of all time will finally end this year; Law & Order is no more.

NBC will be announcing its full fall schedule, sans L&O, at their upfront presentation on May 17th but here's what we know already:

- Thursday night comedy will return 100% in tact with full season pickups for next year already doled out to The Office, 30 Rock, Park & Recreation and (most excitingly) My TV's favourite new comedy Community. That said, reports say that Office star Steve Carrell is looking to move on after his contract is up at the end of season 7 (next year), which leaves the show in tricky "do we retool or cut and run" territory.

- Hour-longs Chuck, Parenthood and Friday Night Lights will all be making another appearance next season. Chuck just got a 13 episode season 4 pickup this afternoon to the cheers of avid fans everywhere. The "we desperately want to be Brothers & Sisters" ensemble family drama Parenthood will also be back next year for its second season, so I suppose I should actually watch more than the pilot. And the tiny-but-brilliant Direct TV gem Friday Night Lights was picked up last year for its final season (#5), which will air on NBC next spring.

- The network already has 6 new shows on the roster for next season: The Event, a conspiracy thriller starring Jason Ritter (a My TV favourite actor); something called Outsourced which is apparently about a call-center in India and a charming-looking sitcom called Perfect Couples (I'm going to predict that neither of these will go far); JJ Abrams' spy comedy Undercovers, which I'm sure will do pretty well; a new Jerry Bruckheimer vehicle about US Marshals called Chase, which I don't think I'll like very much; and one of My TV's most anticipated shows of the new season, Love Bites starring My TV obsessions Becki Newton (Ugly Betty) and Jordana Spiro (My Boys).

- The Dermot Mulroney reboot of The Rockford Files, produced by Steve Carrell and House's David Shore is off to a shaky start with an ill-received pilot, according to NY magazine but still seems poised for a possible pickup.

- Things aren't looking good for ratings-challenged current series Heroes, Trauma and Mercy either, so I wouldn't expect them back. But I'm sure you can place a safe bet or two on the return of The Biggest Loser and The Apprentice, though no announcements about any of these 5 series have been made yet.

Check back throughout the week as the 2010 upfronts roll around.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Casting News

LAW & ORDER: SVU
Jack & Bobby matriarch and wife to My TV favourite director Tommy Schlamme, Christine Lahti will be joining the cast of SVU as a new Assistant District Attorney. The brilliant actress is almost enough to make me actually watch the procedural ("almost" being the key word).

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
Former Sopranos star and Joey flameout Drea de Matteo will be the newest series regular on Wisteria Lane as the vixen head of a the new italian neighbours. Wil she measure up to the dearly departed Edie Britt?

THE STAGE
It seems that he'll be joining the Broadway revival cast of Lend Me a Tenor (premiering in February) but first, TR Knight might succeed in winning me over for the first time in his career by taking on the incredibly complex role of Leo Frank in Jason Robert Brown's Parade in Los Angeles.