Fall Preview Week: Fox

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For years there were only three major networks. Then one day came Fox, the network that managed to slowly work its way into the group, where so many failed. They also killed weekday afternoon cartoons but that’s another article, which I’m surprised I haven’t written yet in two+ years of blogging. I’m sure I’ve at least danced around it. At any rate, we’re talking about what they’re offering for their Prime Time lineup.

The network that did is offering four new comedies, two of which are animated, and four dramas, plus another competition show, The X-Factor. Since we here BW Media Spotlight are all about storytelling criticism and analysis (all one of me), we don’t care about the competition show (and to be honest, I probably wouldn’t care anyway, although they are interesting to watch now and then) so let’s focus on the other five. Once again, summaries and trailers.

Geez, while NBC’s summaries were sparse, and CBS loved to focus on the creators, Fox is just loaded with data, so I’ll just give you the highlights.

The Finder

So the story is that an already pretty good tracker for the military turned into an awesome one once he woke up from a coma, granted him courtesy of an IED he found a bit too late while serving in Iraq. While that premise sounds destined to appear in one of Cracked.com’s lists of things Hollywood gets wrong, the characters in the trailer look interesting, as this appears to be a mix of fun and serious like Bones or Psyche. And if you hate those shows, just watch the trailer with an open mind.

Napoleon Dynamite

One of the animated comedy offerings (why never an animated drama or action show?), I really don’t have to tell you about this because you’re already in one of three camps. CAMP 1: You love the movie, already plan to pull out your phone lines on premier night while hoping this isn’t like Spaceballs: The Animated Series (talk about a disappointment), and will annoy everyone in the other two camps with more Napoleon quotes until your beaten to death. CAMP 2: You hate the movie with a passion and are already planning how to bury the bodies of camp 1 when they start throwing quotes at you on Monday. CAMP 3: My camp, which really couldn’t care less one way or the other, but still would prefer not to listen to quotes you don’t understand. The original cast will provide their characters’ voices in the cartoon, which may or may not be of help.

I Hate My Teenage Daughter

Fox claims that’s a working title, but that’s the one in the trailer, too. It a show about bad parents, in this case both single moms, who finally have to step up and get their out-of-line daughters under control. Do I even have to tell you why I’m passing on that? Some of you may be interested to know Jamie Priestly is one of the moms, but I don’t think she’ll be topless or seductive for any of it, so there’s probably nothing for you, either. I give her credit for trying something different, at least.

New Girl

Another working title from the other live-action comedy, and one selling itself on being a “single cam” show. Again, I have to ask when this became a genre (or maybe its a style, anime/manga fans have confused me on how this works). There’s something cute in the stupidity. It may find an audience but how long will they keep it? It involves a woman who breaks up with her cheating boyfriend, moves in three dudes, and gets help from them and her childhood best friend, the only other female in the cast. I can’t say anything bad about it, but I don’t see a lot of mainstream appeal on this.

Allen Gregory

The other animated comedy, and quite possibly the stupidest thing (outside of the “pissing me off” shows I’ve previewed this week) in the line-up. So it’s about a hyper-intelligent kid who is forced to go to elementary school because his dad’s boyfriend thinks it’s a good idea for some reason. This thing is just begging to fail, isn’t it? French Stewart as the dad will not save this show.

Terra Nova

Let me see if I can guess the pitch for this. Take 2012 (the end of the world, but set in 2149), add in Land of the Lost (not the original and not the Will Ferrel film, the 90’s remake)  a bit of the other Lost (mysterious happenings) and you get further proof that the human race should never develop time travel. While it’s nice to see Fox trying to do another sci-fi show (although any fan of Firefly or Space: Above & Beyond can tell you how poor their track record is) I really want nothing to do with this show.

Alcatraz

OK, so remember how they closed the famous prison after it was proved to not be impossible to escape from after a couple of prisoners did so? (Mythbusters even proved the rumored escape plan was at least plausible.) Well, apparently that wasn’t the whole story. The truth is all the prisoners mysteriously vanished. Now they’re back, haven’t aged a day, and they’re committing evil again. So a small team, including the obese guy from Lost, have to bypass government cover-ups and the reason behind the mysterious disappearance while stopping the Alcatraz disappearees from doing more bad things. There are no words for how lame this.

Touch

No trailer, so I’m going by description alone. Except I have no idea what it’s saying. It has the same creator as Heroes, Tim Kring, and looks about as complicated, only trade mysterious superpowers with a kid who see the world numerically and a group of strangers will still have to come together, possibly to save the world or something. I’m totally passing on this.

So one network left to go, as tomorrow we’ll conclude Fall Preview Week with the CW’s offerings.

Check out the other networks

• Fall Preview Week: ABC
• Fall Preview Week: NBC
• Fall Preview Week: CBS