awesome pilot. really hoping this show can carry that momentum. If so then i'll be hooked weekly.

If you people were second guessing or passing on this show based on preconceived ideas, don't skip out.

9/20/2010 10:11:33 PM

9/20/2010 10:17:56 PM

I'll probably check out the pilot later tonight, TV overload is setting in.

9/20/2010 10:19:23 PM

what did you watch first at 9 tonight?

9/20/2010 10:22:07 PM

I watched the Boardwalk Empire pilot after HIMYM.

9/20/2010 10:41:20 PM

ah got ya. check it out and let me know.

9/20/2010 10:54:26 PM

Quote :

"sepinwall: Dan will have the full ratings report up in a bit, but the premiere was a ratings catastrophe: a distant distant fourth place in both total viewers and, especially, in the 18-49 demo, where it did a 1.3 rating. (To put it into perspective, Chuck has been clinging to life whenever it dips below a 2.0.) Barring some kind of miraculous turnaround, I don't think we need to worry about how they'll make this work long-term, because there won't be a long-term. "

9/21/2010 2:23:13 PM

of course The Event was a big hit and this show bombed, stupid tv viewers

9/21/2010 2:38:06 PM

This looked pretty interesting.

[Edited on September 21, 2010 at 2:50 PM. Reason : asdfg]

9/21/2010 2:50:25 PM

LOVED the pilot, this show kinda feels like Friday Night Lights: Con Man but in a good way (also the lead looks exactly like Kyle Chandler 10 years ago). Sucks that this will probably be the next in a long line of great shows Fox canceled before it's time.

9/21/2010 11:30:51 PM

this show is definitely a premise that is made for cable and not for a broadcast network 22 episode season. I enjoyed the creators comments during comic con about how they knew what they were getting into as did Fox, and if they fail they at least plan to fail in the most unbelievable way. Here's to Fox giving it a chance and perhaps their cousins over at FX showing some interest.

9/22/2010 8:05:59 AM

It sounds like we'll get one more episode and then it gets the axe, oh well it was a great pilot.

9/23/2010 5:44:58 PM

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/09/22/130038327/the-week-there-s-nothing-good-on-died-premiere-week-september-2010

Quote :

"If you ask people who don't watch television what they hate about television, they will swear that it's all Jersey Shore now — that reality shows have taken over, and now it's all just a lot of people eating bugs and having sex and punching each other. They will tell you, "There's nothing good on." But if you ask people who watch a lot of television what they hate about television, my guess is that many will tell you what I would tell you: Sure, there are plenty of idiotic reality shows that make me hang my head in despair. But those are largely relegated to obscure cable channels, and they are not all — or even nearly all — that ails network television. What ails network television are hours upon phoned-in hours of eye-crossingly similar cop shows, lawyer shows, hospital shows, group-of-dummies comedies, suspenseful set-ups not smart enough to fool small children, and this year's version of last year's retread of that hit from three years ago with a twist borrowed from a movie, sprinkled with a trend that became old news two months ago when they wrote it up in The New York Times. And why do these unchallenging shows proliferate? How do I know, even now, that the next round of pilots is going to have even more of this stuff that's neither really good nor offensively terrible but falls into the no-man's-land of "eh"-levision? Because when the broadcast networks make a show that's smart, well-executed, well-written, well-acted, and entertaining, they can't get anybody to watch it, and as much a I'd like to roast them over an open flame for that rather than becoming the latest person to jump on the "we're getting the culture we deserve" audience-blaming bandwagon, that's the bandwagon that's rolling by right now, and it's looking rather beguiling. Yes, this is about the fact that Fox's Lone Star premiered to a tiny audience of four-plus million people — less than a third of the audience of Two And A Half Men — and is apparently on the brink of being canceled after one episode. But it's about more than that. It's about that discussion I had with Shawn Ryan, who knows a little bit about working with broadcast networks in an attempt to make good shows, and who made it clear to me that they would love to make more interesting stuff, if only they could get you to watch it. You think networks are happy about being shoved out of the drama side of the Emmys because only cable networks can afford to get by on the tiny audiences that apparently will actually watch dramatic shows that require engagement? They'd love to get those trophies back. Any broadcast network would be perfectly happy — no, thrilled — to have the next Mad Men or Breaking Bad, if they could persuade people to watch it instead of Autopsy Forensic Investigation Squad: Fort Worth, or whatever the latest such project may be. It's about the fact that the death of Lone Star — which, sure, wasn't everybody's cup of tea and didn't need to be — is going to become a talking point in every meeting with every creator of every show who says, "Well, one reason to pick up my show is that it's going to be absolutely great, and here's how you know it will be, and here's the talent that's involved, and here's my great idea." Some bozo in every one of those meetings is going to say, "Will it be as critically acclaimed as Lone Star, hyuck hyuck?", and it just makes me want to put my head down on the desk. What it's emphatically not about is being mad at everybody who didn't watch Lone Star, for crying out loud — not everybody likes shows about con men, not everybody likes that style, nothing needs to be for everybody. But most of the people I know who offered discerning reasons why it wasn't their kind of show are actual discerning viewers, and as such, they aren't the type to claim there's never anything good on. Because discerning viewers — people who actually pay attention to what's on, rather than taking pride in not knowing what's on — are never the ones who tell me all of television is terrible. They've perhaps found good comedies in Community or Modern Family or 30 Rock, or they love Friday Night Lights, or they get a kick out of fizzy, well-executed entertainment like Chuck. And those are just the networks. That doesn't even touch all the vibrant and experimental stuff that's going on in cable. The ones who tell me they would watch television if it weren't so uniformly, unrelentingly terrible will also tell me they threw out their televisions five years ago, which is sort of like saying, "I haven't been on the Internet since I stopped using Prodigy on dial-up in 1997, and I'm pretty sure I'm not missing anything." You know how many people typically watch Mad Men? It's around two million. You know how many watched Outlaw on NBC, perhaps the most creatively "whatever"-inspiring show of the new season? About ten million. You bring ten million people in to watch Mad Men — heck, you bring five million people in to watch Mad Men — and you're going to see everybody trying to find the next good, challenging, interesting, complicated, cinematic drama. It's what would have happened if Lone Star had done better. The creators of Lone Star, in fact, sat there and told critics at press tour in July that you can't say Mad Men or Breaking Bad in meetings with networks, because their response is that nobody watches those shows. You cannot say that you aspire to a level of quality similar to the show that has won three consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series, and that is absolutely insane. The profit motive and the creative motive don't have to be at odds with each other, except that it's the world the audience seems to be making. Cheers was, as Ryan pointed out to me yesterday, a hit. ER was a hit. It doesn't seem like networks have always been offered quite such a depressingly stark choice between thoughtfulness and commercial viability. We'd all like them to choose art. We'd all like them to at least be committed enough to quality that they'll give a show a chance to succeed. But you can't pay gaffers with thoughtfulness. You can't ask a network to leave a show on the air indefinitely that viewers won't watch. The problem right now is not that there's nothing good on. The problem — brought into particularly painful relief by the story of the one show that got almost uniformly good reviews and is perhaps going to last all of 60 minutes on Fox — is that what's good is not watched, and what's watched is often not good. Reality shows are a red herring in this discussion, as is the idea that networks are too craven and commercial to attempt anything of any quality. So next fall, when you see some heroic-doctor show called Crash Cart, or some dark-government-conspiracy show called Bunker Five, or some cop show called McGee & Ruggles, just remember: they tried. It didn't work."

9/23/2010 5:47:02 PM

Such a tragedy

9/23/2010 8:33:46 PM

While I agree with most everything in that article (except for the part where they included Modern Family as a good comedy) I just didn't think Lone Star was as good as the few people that watched it seem to be making it out to be.

It was decent, but it just didn't grab me right away like other recent great shows have. (Breaking Bad comes to mind) It does feel like a show that would most likely grow on me (like Lie to Me perhaps) and I do get the feeling that canceling it early on would be a mistake in the long run. But I really feel like the quality of this show lies in the future potential rather than what we've seen so far. Because the first episode wasn't really anything to write home about.

9/23/2010 8:49:02 PM

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but I thought it was pretty spectacular and there's an army of critics that agree with me.

9/23/2010 8:51:19 PM

Massively pretentious douchebags do have a tenancy to stick together, you know.

9/23/2010 8:55:11 PM

find me another pilot from this season that was even close to the quality of Lone Star.

9/23/2010 8:57:57 PM

Well Boardwalk Empire and Terriers were both much much better if you're taking non-network shows into account. And while it was nothing groundbreaking or horribly original, Hawaii 5-0 was WORLDS more entertaining.

If you're looking for something of similar quality, Chase wasn't complete shit. So I'd go with that maybe?

9/23/2010 9:09:00 PM

yeah, let's leave cable out of the discussion. As i've said before, this show is definitely a premise that would benefit from being on cable and having shorter seasons. Plus the opportunities cable provides shows like this.


And I agree, Hawaii 5-0 was pretty damn thrilling. But they also had an $8 million dollar budget for the pilot and hired Len Wiseman (Live Free Die Hard) to direct. While i still plan to watch I think we'll see the episodes severely toned down and with more of the usual CBS styling. And if you get down to the bare bones of it, it's just another CBS crime show.


but as far as the networks go, this is definitely one of the most original ideas to have come along since probably LOST i'd say and it's just a shame that only a small number of discerning viewers know good programming from bad.

9/23/2010 9:18:55 PM

Quote :

"Massively pretentious douchebags do have a tenancy to stick together"

pot meet kettle

Quote :

"Well Boardwalk Empire and Terriers were both much much better"

Boardwalk Empire was better but that's the fucking Cadillac of TV shows and the pilot was directed by Scorcese so I hardly think that's a fair comparison. I haven't been particularly impressed by Terriers, I like the leads but the writing (aside from the occasional one liner) isn't doing anything for me at this point. If you weren't impressed by the Lone Star pilot that's fine, but there are a hundred shows more deserving of your vitriol than this one.

9/24/2010 2:50:15 AM

Vitriol? Are you sure you know the meaning of that word? I'll save you the trouble of looking it up:

Quote :

"vit·ri·ol/'vitre?l/Noun 1. Sulfuric acid. 2. Cruel and bitter criticism."

I fail to see how anything I said was cruel or bitter (or even criticism, for that matter).

I said I didn't think it was as good as some people were making it out to be, but I even said it was decent. I just don't get why a small group of people seem to be huddled around this show jerking each other off about it. The pilot just wasn't anything spectacular. I still think there's potential for this show, but it's not like Fox is likely to let anyone find out. So if I'm forced to judge it based on what I've seen so far, that's what I'll do.

9/24/2010 6:55:35 AM

Quote :

"Boardwalk Empire was better but that's the fucking Cadillac of TV shows"

He meant Lexus, but he didn't know it.

9/24/2010 8:11:54 AM

welp I'm gonna watch this tonight. I may be the only one in America

9/27/2010 8:51:35 PM

well...i predict that may have been the last one. Perhaps i was less involved because in the back of my head i knew the story would never see its outcome.

9/27/2010 10:01:00 PM

We watched the pilot on FOX.com last night (Ugh, I fucking hate their streaming with the same stupid commercials 10 time!) and then watched episode 2 last night. Pretty good. My wife hates like everybody on the show though. Haha. We'll see how much longer it lasts.

9/28/2010 10:00:43 AM

^^Jeepin, you are correct sir:

Quote :

"The first casualty of the fall TV season is "Lone Star." The Tim Roth show "Lie to Me" will debut its third season in "Lone Star's" time slot Monday, Oct. 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, FOX announced Tuesday (Sept. 28). FOX confirms to Zap2it that "Lone Star" is "being removed off the schedule ... at this point in time." No new date or time has been announced, so it is safe to say that "Lone Star" is canceled. Despite wide-spread critical acclaim (and Zap2it's own campaign to save the con man drama), the ratings it drew for its first two episodes were nowhere near salvageable."

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2010/09/lone-star-canceled-lie-to-me-to-debut-in-its-time-slot.html

9/28/2010 6:55:31 PM

Second episode was solid, too bad that's all we're getting.

9/28/2010 7:30:06 PM

oh this sucks. I looked forward to this show much more than "the event"

9/28/2010 7:32:44 PM

9/28/2010 9:13:01 PM

this was definitely better than 90% of what else is on.

i mean fox cancelling a good show is nothing new. Atleast they know how to pick something decent. The other networks seem to just pick complete shit until something sticks.

9/28/2010 9:17:03 PM

Hey Jeepin have you seen the trailer for the new FX show Lights Out? I was a little iffy about it but Sepinwall saw some screeners and said it was really good. Definitely has potential, and FX is putting out good shit.

9/28/2010 9:18:13 PM

I saw the trailer during the premiere of SoA a few weeks back but I completely forgot to look into it the next morning and find out more about the plot. But solely based on that preview it definitely looks like it has potential. And you're right, FX has been producing quality TV so i'm very apt to watch this, even if i go in blindly.

Quote :

"Lights Out, from Executive Producer/Showrunner Warren Leight (In Treatment), stars Holt McCallany (CSI: Miami) as an aging former heavyweight boxing champion who struggles to find his identity and support his wife and three daughters after retiring from the ring. Financial problems leave him at a perilous crossroads - battling the urge to return to boxing or reluctantly accepting a job as a brutal and intimidating debt collector. Catherine McCormack (Braveheart) co-stars as "Theresa Leary," Lights' wife who is finishing her medical residency; Pablo Schreiber (Law & Order) as "Johnny Leary," Lights' brother and business manager whom Lights put through college; and Stacy Keach (Fat City) as "Pops," Lights' father and former trainer who runs the boxing gym owned by Lights. Clark Johnson (The Shield, The Wire) and Norberto Barba (In Treatment, CSI: NY) directed the pilot episode. Series Creator Justin Zackham (The Bucket List), Phillip Noyce (Salt) and Ross Fineman are also Executive Producers. Lights Out is produced by Fox Television Studios and FX Productions."

9/28/2010 9:31:55 PM

Having a bunch of The Wire alums isn't gonna hurt it either. Clark Johnson is a very capable director as well (at least for TV).

9/28/2010 9:50:28 PM

Supposedly there are 4 episodes in the can that haven't been aired...so maybe they get burned off on Fridays at some point in the future or released on a dvd set.

9/29/2010 2:36:41 PM