“Emergence” Might Emerge On Top of a Overdone Premise

Last January I wrote a review of the new Fox series “The Passage” in which yet another child with some sort of mysterious ability to save the world is on the run from mysterious bad guys and being is protected by a hero.

Can a Young Girl Save the World? Better Question Why Is This Show Called “The Passage”?


Although I initially gave it a rating of “I’m Watching” I actually gave up after about three episodes and the series was canceled at the end of its first season. I mentioned that it’s been done over and over again in series such as “Heroes“, “Touch“, 2002 TV miniseries “Taken“, and others. ABC’s new thriller “Emergence” is the latest attempt to try this overdone premise.

Our hero this time is small town police chief Jo Evans played by Allison Tolman. She recently played in NBC series “Good Girls” but I remember most from her 2014 season role in “Fargo” where she also played a police officer. A small plane crashes on the beach just outside of town and she discovers a young girl on the beach. She is about 10 years old and is unharmed. The girl has amnesia and doesn’t know who she is or if she was even on the plane.

A series of mysterious events follow which include strange electrical disturbances somehow related to the girl. Agents of the NTSB try to interview the girl in the hospital that she’s being checked out but it turns out they are not really from the NTSB. The FAA and NTSB clear the crash site of debris in 24 hours which of course is unheard of. We also have an investigative reporter who shows up with all sorts of strange conspiracy theories. At one point the girl is kidnapped by some mysterious people. I won’t spoil what happens after that but the story continues to be creepy throughout.

The young girl, who is given the name “Piper” because she doesn’t remember her real name, is played by Alexa Swinton. Her only notable previous performance was 12 episodes as Eva Rhodes in “Billions“. We also have Jo’s daughter Mia who appears to be about 13. She is played by Ashley Aufderheide who had previously been seen as a younger version of Tulip on “Preacher” in 2016. Living with them is Jo’s father Ed played by veteran character actor Clancy Brown. We also get to meet Jo’s ex-husband Mia’s father Alex played by Donald Faison who is most remembered for his role as Dr. Christopher Turk on the 2001 comedy “Scrubs“.

Jo takes the girl Piper into her home rather than turning her over to child protective services because there are all of these strange occurrences surrounding the kid. Her ex-husband Alex gets sucked into helping them protect the child. Friendship develops between Piper and daughter Mia.

The story moves at a good pace. There’s lots of action and the performances are up to par. The problem is with any of these “Something weird is going on and there’s a big conspiracy behind it all” is that you don’t know until late in the season (if that quickly) if any of this suspense is going to pay off. I guess I’m a eternal optimist when it comes to shows like this. I hope this one really goes somewhere. There’s something compelling about the series. So I’m giving it a cautious rating of “I’m Watching“. But keep in mind that’s what I gave to “The Passage” and it fell apart after a couple of episodes and was ultimately canceled. So travel at your own risk.

“Mixed-ish” is Funny and More Poignant than Its Parent “Black-ish”

ABC’s new sitcom “mixed-ish” is the second spinoff series from their hit comedy “black-ish“. When “black-ish” premiered a few seasons ago, I didn’t think I would like it. Even though I’m a bleeding heart liberal, I’m still an old white guy and I didn’t think I could relate to a show about the struggle of a black family to not lose their African-American identity as the parents both became successful in a white dominated world. But in the end I’ve really enjoyed it because my ultimate test of whether or not I watch a sitcom is “Did it make me laugh?” and this one delivers on a regular basis. It does get a bit preachy at times and I didn’t particularly enjoy last season’s plot line about the marriage difficulties of Andre and Rainbow Johnson. But I’ve stuck with the show through five seasons and plan to continue to watch. I did not watch the spinoff series about their daughter going off to college “grown-ish” because I thought I already had my fill of the Johnson family on the original series. The college adventures of their daughter just didn’t appeal to me. I didn’t bother to watch any of it. When I heard they were doing another spinoff I doubted that I would have much interest in it.

“Mixed-ish” takes us back to 1985 when Rainbow Johnson was 12 years old. By the way I never realized that Johnson was not only her married name it was her maiden name as well. When the government raided the hippie commune where she grew up, her parents moved the family to the suburbs and tried to rejoin normal society. She and her younger brother and sister were totally unprepared for dealing with the challenges of being biracial. Her white father and African-American mother had isolated them from any issues of race while growing up in the commune. Their first day at school found them being forced to choose between identifying as white or black or being left out altogether.

I still cannot identify with what it means to be black or biracial but the story of this family struggling to adapt to this huge culture shift of moving from a commune to the suburbs is entertaining, compelling, and educational. As I have said above and many times before, the ultimate test of a sitcom is “Did it make me laugh?” and like its predecessor, this one did.

Rainbow’s mother Alicia was trained as a lawyer but ran away from the law to join the commune with her hippie husband Paul to raise their family there in peace and harmony. When the commune was shut down the family moves in to a furnished rented house provided by Paul’s father. In order to make ends meet, she trades in her usual tie-dyed clothing for a corporate pantsuit and goes to work as legal counsel for her father-in-law’s business.

Alicia is played by Tika Sumpter whose early career included 239 episodes of soap opera “One Life to Live” and 11 episodes of “Gossip Girl“. Rainbow’s dad Paul is played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar who has had a variety of TV roles but is probably most remembered for “Saved by the Bell” and “NYPD Blue“. Tika’s performance bears little or no resemblance to the older version of Alicia who is played by Anna Deavere Smith in her 9 appearances on “black-ish”. However Gosselaar’s performance is most definitely reminiscent of Beau Bridges version of the character Paul in his three guests starring appearances on the original show.

Gary Cole does a wonderful job creating a new character of Paul’s father Harrison. Young 12-year-old rainbow Johnson is played by Arica Himmel has appeared on stage in off Broadway performances in a few guest performances on other recent TV series. She plays her part quite credibly and you really develop a sympathy for the difficult position she has put in with the culture shock and identity issues she is facing. Newcomers Ethan William Childress and Mykal-Michelle Harris are suitably cute and funny as Rainbow’s younger brother and sister. Alicia sister Denise known to the kids as Aunt Dee-Dee is also a very funny quirky character played by Chicago Second City alum Christina Anthony. She attempts to help the children get in touch with their African-American side.

The characters are suitably quirky. The writing is every bit as good as its parent program and the storylines of these biracial kids trying to make it in the world is actually more compelling than the storylines of “black-ish”.

Despite my already overcrowded TV schedule, I’m going to add this one to the mix and give it a rating of “I’m Watching“. If you like the first show at all I think this one will appeal to you. It risks becoming preachy like the original but if that doesn’t turn you off maybe you should check it out.

“All Rise” has Potential to Give Shondaland Competition

I was skeptical that we needed another legal drama on TV but I decided to give the new CBS series “All Rise” a trial run 🙂 Our main character is Lola Carmichael, a newly appointed LA Superior Court Judge on her first day on the bench. Carmichael is played by Simone Missick who has been recently seen as Misty Knight in several of the Marvel comics Netflix series Iron Fist, The Defenders, and Luke Cage.

In the first couple of scenes I didn’t know whether it was going to be a legal drama or an action show. In the opening scene as Carmichael is getting out of her car in the parking lot, someone tries to steal her laptop. A friend witnesses the theft and stops the guy by hitting him with his car. In the next scene she walks into a courtroom thinking it was hers but it was not. She notices that a woman defendant is standing there in her underwear being arraigned. Outraged, she wraps her coat around the woman and berates the public defender and the prosecutor and the judge for not noticing the woman was standing there half naked. A bailiff is then outraged at the way we kowtow to criminals. He pulls his gun and starts waving it around eventually firing at the judge and missing. Another bailiff shoots the rogue bailiff.

I don’t know why they felt like they had to have 2 big action scenes and what is actually an ordinary courtroom story. The rest of the episode was more along the lines of what you would expect. We fast-forward two weeks to where Carmichael returns to the bench and finds the same female defendant before her for a different offense. Over the objections of her judicial assistant Sherri, she rejects a plea agreement entered on behalf of the young defendant who maintains her innocence of a burglary charge. The assistant sort of plays the role of comic relief in this show… sort of a plucky sidekick to the judge.

Judge Carmichael is a former prosecutor who is young, idealistic, and out to do “real good” in the judicial system. We also have a Carmichael’s boss Judge Lisa Brenner played by former CSI Marg Helgenberger. Other characters include a young public defender and the bailiff who shot the rogue bailiff in the opening scene. He’s going to law school part-time and wants to be a lawyer himself.

The entire thing reminds me of a sort of “Grey’s Anatomy” except in a courtroom instead of a hospital. We’ve got lots of young, idealistic, good-looking people crusading for truth, justice, and the American way. It’s not at all cynical like many legal dramas are these days. It’s sort of a “feel-good” kind of show. Unlike shows like “How to Get Away with Murder” the plots are not so complicated that eventually you give up trying to keep up with all of the twists, conspiracies, and unnecessarily disjointed storytelling methods. My other current favorite legal drama is “The Good Fight” which is only available on CBS All Access. It’s very good but it is also highly political which we don’t get that in this new show.

I don’t really have room in my schedule for another legal show despite the fact that I’m currently watching the series finale of “Suits” as I write this review. If I do pick up another legal show it might be the new Jimmy Smits show “Bluff City Law” on NBC which I have not yet seen.

But if you like stories of people crusading for the underdogs, don’t want the overly complicated stories of HTGAWM, or the political commentary of “The Good Fight” then perhaps this show is for you. If I had room for it on my schedule I would stick with it but I doubt I will watch more than one opening episode. I give it a rating of a strong “Recommended Watchable“. However you might want to wait on my review for “Bluff City Law” if you only have room for one new legal show on your schedule.

Bob Hearts is a Weak Reboot of Mike without Molly

When the opening scene of a sitcom relies on a fart joke, any high expectations you have that this is going to be a good show vanish into thin air. I already had weak expectations of CBS new comedy “Bob Hearts Abishola“. It stars former “Mike & Molly” star Billy Gardell who is basically playing the same character he played in his former show. Sure Mike Biggs was a Chicago police officer and this guy lives in Detroit and owns a sock company but in all other respects this is still Mike Biggs. He retains his Chicago accent that makes him sound like he could be on an SNL sketch sitting at a bar talking about rooting for “Da Bears”.

This “new” character Bob (we don’t learn his last name) is being wheeled into the hospital having a heart attack. He is accompanied by his overbearing mother played by former SNL alum Christine Ebersole, his brother Douglas played by Matt Jones, and his sister Christina played by Maribeth Monroe. Jones has been recently seen in “Mom” as Christy’s ex-husband. Monroe recently appeared in several episodes of “The Good Place“.

After Bob has stint surgery, he recovers and is cared for by a nurse named Abishola who is from Nigeria. She is played by Folake Olowofoyeku. That actress actually grew up in Nigeria so her accent is authentic. Her resume lists mostly bit parts. Bob gets an immediate attraction for her and then offers to give her a pair of his superior socks that his company sells. After leaving the hospital, he tracks her down and gives her the gift. The rest of the episode introduces her parents, her son about 10 years old, and gives you further insight into Bob’s overbearing mother and wacky brother and sister.

Unlike “Mike & Molly”, there really is no chemistry between Bob and Abishola. There is a sort of a cuteness factor about the entire scenario but it just doesn’t have much appeal. The story of their relationship really doesn’t get very far in a half-hour pilot. Perhaps after a couple of episodes the relationship will become more interesting. It’s kind of too soon to tell.

For now I’m giving this one a very weak rating of “Could Be Watchable” but I probably will not stick with it more than another one or two episodes unless it really shows me something special.