Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
September 28, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Kim Hollis: You Again, the latest Disney comedy starring Kristen Bell, ordered to a meager $8.4 million. Why didn't audiences show up en masse to watch Betty White be funny?
Josh Spiegel: Dare I venture the possibility that, perhaps, the Betty White craze is dying down? The movie didn't look...you know, good, but that doesn't stop most movies from making money. If anything, this one looked most desperate to use Betty White, and considering that this week included the self-aware desperation of the Community season premiere using White - to good advantage, by the way - that's saying something about You Again. Bland title, bland premise, wasted performers.
Bruce Hall: I guess this nixes any chance of President Obama making Betty White Secretary of the Treasury. Not only is it possible that we're all pretty much over Betty White - lovable as she is - but more importantly perhaps Kristen Bell is more important to Hollywood than she is to any of us. Just plopping actors with a high Q Score into any old drivel is the sort of cynical trickery I actually thought Hollywood was growing out of. But maybe I'm the fool here.
Wait, what was that gross again? $8 million? No, it's not me. It's not me at all.
Brett Beach: The premise of this film as I once understood it sounded like fun. When I started seeing the ads I gathered that Disney knew or felt they had a dud on their hands because they were attempting to sell it six ways from Sunday and none of them seemed appealing. Kristen Bell always had at me at "white trash walking" so this will get viewed at some point on Netflix or Redbox (like When in Rome), even though I now fear the worst. The most interesting thing she has done recently has been the Yeasayer music video. She needs to do something weird and effed up and soon. And I love Betty White but if she was responsible for more than $400,000 of the $8.4 million, I'll be a flibbertigibbet.
Matthew Huntley: Brett, I think you put it best by saying Buena Vista tried to sell this movie six ways from Sunday. Honestly, hitherto its TV spots, I didn't even know what it was about, and I'm sure I'm not alone on this (I never saw a trailer in the theaters, but the poster wasn't too informative, and the title, like Josh said, was lame). And after seeing said TV spots, You Again screamed "made-for-TV movie on ABC," and that's probably how audiences will see it. They'll probably skip theaters, skip DVD/Blu-ray and wait for it on TV. Bottom line: nothing about this movie seems funny, clever or interesting - Betty White or no Betty White. Maybe if I ever catch it (on TV) it will prove me wrong.
Reagen Sulewski: The switch in focus from Bell to Curtis and Weaver was kind of interesting from the stand point of who the studio had more trust in, but it really was a mistake. If Bell can open crap like When in Rome to $12 million, you're throwing money down a hole to not put her front and center in the marketing. I think in the end they knew they didn't have much of anything with this and cut their losses, so to speak.
David Mumpower: I'd been joking for a while that Kristen Bell was Disney's female equivalent of The Rock and that it seemed inevitable that the two of them do a movie together at some point. Oddly, The Rock's stupid comedies perform better than they have any right to do (did you know that The Tooth Fairy earned $60 million?), while When in Rome and You Again in combination won't reach that level. I think it's fair to say that Kristen Bell is in serious danger of missing her window as a lead actress. She's been in two blue chip projects with Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Couples Retreat; everything else has been...gruesome.
Farewell, Lone Star. We hardly knew you.
Kim Hollis: We discussed your most anticipated new TV shows last week. What are thoughts and impressions so far (yes, you can talk about Survivor and Top Chef: Just Desserts if so inclined)?
Josh Spiegel: We're only a week into the new season, and there's too much to watch. I still think cable is beating network TV in its development in every respect. Sons of Anarchy and Terriers on FX, Mad Men and Rubicon on AMC, Boardwalk Empire and Bored to Death on HBO. All of these make any new network show pale in comparison. The irony is that the best new network show, Lone Star, is getting ratings that would be great on cable and are embarrassing everywhere else. Lone Star was great, but it's going to be dead by this time next weekend. The other new shows - Undercovers, Running Wilde, Raising Hope, My Generation - I've seen range from horrendous to promising. Only Lone Star and Boardwalk Empire are the most exciting new programs, and only one will return for a second season.
Bruce Hall: Sons of Anarachy is spinning its wheels right now, but it remains more interesting than the majority of what is on the traditional networks.
Mad Men remains sublime. If I ever end up in a permanent coma just put that show on an endless loop in my hospital room and I assure you I will be fine.
That new Shatner comedy whose title I am too lazy to reproduce completely wastes the genius of the original concept and manages to turn something fresh and original into something stale and forgettable. Then again, this means that show about the Cavemen is no longer the biggest head scratching "Fail" of the past few years. Running Wilde makes me think that as much as I love Will Arnett, he may be best suited to a supporting role. 30 minutes of Gob Bluth gets tiring fast. Terriers is getting great buzz and continues to interest me, Boardwalk Empire opened boffo, but let's see more before we crown it.
All of my television is watched online so I have managed to avoid all the new cop/hospital dramas. This is because unlike most people, being well into three decades on this planet I am pretty much over cop/hospital dramas. If I am missing anything, please let me know, as part of my rationale for giving up the Tube is that I no longer have to pay for anything I don't want to see.
Max Braden: Of the new shows I was most looking forward to the tension inherent in Lone Star's setup, but it actually turned out to be fairly boring. I doubt I would have kept watching it even if ratings had kept it viable. Thirty seconds of The Event during other commercial breaks and I knew that was all I wanted to see. And about the only reason I'll leave the TV on NBC at 9:30 on Thursdays is because Outsourced has a girl with an Australian accent, and it's not time to switch to The Mentalist yet.
On the up side, both Raising Hope and Running Wilde were a bit funnier than I expected. Raising Hope should appeal to people who liked My Name Is Earl. I was also found Hawaii Five-0 satisfactory, primarily because of Scott Caan. But in that hour my first choice is Castle. I overlooked Undercovers while watching Survivor, but based on positive reaction, I might check it out this week.
Overall, there's plenty of TV that will keep my attention. My current weekly lineup will be (with DVR assistance): How I Met Your Mother, House, Castle, Hawaii Five-0, Glee, Raising Hope, Running Wilde, Parenthood, Survivor, Modern Family, Cougar Town, The Defenders if I'm idle, Community, 30 Rock, The Office, The Mentalist, Human Target when it returns, The Amazing Race, Fox animation if I'm idle, and Mad Men. By total hours, that puts Fox and CBS about even for my most watched channels and ABC as the least.
Reagen Sulewski: I'm still woefully behind on the pilots I wanted to check out, but Running Wilde reminds me of Andy Richter's failed shows - brilliant in each second and too weird to last long. I can't decide if the "here's the line where we're setting up the main conflict of the series" exchange at the end was clunky or wonderfully self-referential. Maybe both.
Jim Van Nest: I only tried out a few knew shows (with No Ordinary Family to come this week) and so far I'm on board with The Event and Raising Hope. Outsourced had its moments, but I'm not sold yet.
I've stuck mainly with returning shows. House, Glee, Bones and CSI (surprisingly) came back strong. The Good Guys was as funny as ever (why aren't people watching this?!?!?!) and Dexter was phenomenal last night.
Although, my favoritest new show (though it's not brand new) is The Big C on Showtime with Laura Linney. If you're not watching this, shame on you. If you don't have Showtime, keep it on your radar. Very well written, well acted series. It's really amazing how you can be laughing with her while you want to cry for her. Linney is as good as she's ever been.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the return of Survivor. While there's no Russell this time around (Thank God) there are plenty of despicable people to fill his shoes (with sand?) this season. Hopefully someone will stand out on the good side of the equation soon.
David Mumpower: With regards to the new shows, the big surprise was Running Wilde, a show I had TiVo'd only because Keri Russell is in it. I loved her in Mission: Impossible III and Waitress so much that I was willing to overlook the presence of Will Arnett, someone I would hit in the face with a shovel if given the opportunity. The pilot offered a hysterical bit between two ultra-rich characters who had no ability to deceive and that gag co-starred Peter Serafinowicz, whom I have loved ever since Tim Bisley shot him in the groin with a paintball gun in Spaced. I don't give this show any hope of long term sustainability/popularity, but I'll be watching the rest of it.
Hawaii 5-0 had a quirky start with a mismatch of tight action and woeful exposition. The first 10 minutes featuring Spike from Angel against that other vampire from Midnight in a scene directed by the guy who also directed his wife when she played a vampire in Underworld was...oddly non-vampiric. But it was white hot. After that, the show was a mixed bag, but I liked it well enough to give it a shot. That goes double if James Marsters makes a return appearance here and there.
As for The Event, I find it telling that after so many people I know gave the show a chance for one episode, there was almost no discussion among my friends about the follow-up episode. Suffice it to say that my answer to the question "What is The Event?" is "Boring." I'm learning a lesson from the Flash Forward fiasco and cutting my losses right now.
The other two new shows we've given a shot thus far are Top Chef: Just Desserts and Nikita. The former show is a complete bust as Bravo seems to have chosen the hateful and craziest contestants they could find. They had this misstep with the most recent season of Top Chef as well, but viewers got lucky in that the innocuous people wound up advancing far into the game while the all the bitchy people (except Angelo) got eliminated quickly. For that to happen on Top Chef: Desserts, the entire cast would have to be eliminated. Unlike Top Chef, this is a show that has contestants serving food I might actually enjoy eating (I have the palate of a four-year-old with the applicable matching sweet tooth), but the personalities chosen to compete make me unwilling to watch further.
Meanwhile, Nikita is a concept I have always loved going back to the original French film (Anne Parillaud FTW!) and I very much enjoyed the Canadian series (Peta Wilson FTW!). I also have a huge crush on Maggie Q for her performance in the afore-mentioned Mission: Impossible III (I really, really like that film if it's not obvious) as well as her rendition of Pour Some Sugar on Me during the end credits of Balls of Fury. I do not, however, award her a FTW! for her performance in Nikita thus far. In fact, she is the worst part of the show to date, slutty outfits notwithstanding. I simply don't understand how this is possible in that she's a fun, charismatic person yet she is playing this role as if inflection is her mortal enemy. I'm going to keep watching for a while longer, but Nikita is breaking my heart. Dear producers of the show: please get better so that I can give Maggie Q the FTW! she so sorely needs.
We were also planning to watch Lone Star, a show whose first two episodes I've TiVo'd, but....well, you know. Adrianne Palicki's fate as an actress appears to be choosing wonderful roles in television series that critics fall all over themselves to praise critically that no one else watches. Personally, I think that's a better fate than working on Two and a Half Men and the like, but Palicki's accountant probably disagrees with me.
Kim Hollis: I remain most excited about Boardwalk Empire. I mentioned last week, I think, that I thought the first half of the show was a bit slow, but that second portion was great and I look forward to seeing where they take it. The Event was so awful. I started making fun of it only a few moments in and watched the whole episode, but I could have turned it off after a half hour. The supposed big moment is not shocking, not unexpected and honestly, pretty dumb.
Running Wilde is pretty charming, which wasn't entirely what I was expecting. I laughed a lot, and that's good enough for me. Undercovers is actually fluffy and silly but fun. I'll give Nikita a pass after watching two episodes. It does nothing for me. Top Chef: Just Desserts should have been awesome since the food is fantastic looking, but there is not a likable chef in the bunch.
The best hour of TV remains Modern Family/Cougar Town. I really don't care much about anything else with perhaps the exception of Boardwalk Empire, but that's not because I've fallen in love with it but because I see potential.