The Unusuals, The Superstars, & The Listener
The Unusuals benefits from some great, funny characters. Leo Banks (Perrineau) is so worried about dying on the job that he wears a bulletproof vest at all times, even sitting at his desk. Henry Cole is deeply religious, but hides a troubled past (which includes, no kidding, stealing an armored car). Walsh runs a diner in his spare time, despite being a terrible cook. And then there’s Delahoy, who’s suffering from a brain tumor that will kill him in six months, but he refuses to seek treatment.
The pilot takes place on Casey Schraeger’s first day on the job. When we meet her, she’s working in vice and posing as a prostitute. Unsuccessfully. During mid-seduction, Casey is promoted to Homicide after the murder of Detective Kowalski.
Besides the multiple Oz cast members in the cast, the pilot reminded me of the first episode of the prison drama for another reason. Just as the Oz pilot concerned itself with introducing and developing a character who died at the end of the episode, most of the pilot here develops the character of the late Kowalski, who we never actually see. Instead, we learn about him from his wife, mistress, and the young man he secretly mentored. Turns out, his co-workers didn’t know him as well as they thought.
It’s a strong pilot, although it’s a little in love with its own quirkiness. Besides seeing the various ways in which the cast is insane, we get at least two verbal reiterations of everybody’s mental problems. That’s only a mild irritant though, since this is a pilot and the rest of it is so strong. It’s one of the best new shows of the season, so of course it was canceled.
The Prognosis: Well, it went to “Record All”, and the writing only got stronger as the series progressed. I was sad that it was cancelled, and will be buying the DVD at the first available opportunity.
The Superstars
ABC, Tuesday 8 PM
The Premise: Celebrity / Athlete pairs compete in summer-themed challenges in this reality competition.
The Personnel: Well, aside from the Dancing with the Stars personnel (including pro dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, David Charvet (husband of winner Brooke Burke), and Superstars host Warren Sapp), there are a fair number of people you’ll vaguely recognize. Terrell Ownes, Ali Landry, Dan Cortese, Estella Warren – almost all of the cast members require very little explanation. They’re no A-list, but you’ll know that you’ve seen them before. Well, most of them. Joanna Krupa?The Poop: Now, it’s important to remember that there’s a distinction between things I’ll watch during the summer and things I’ll watch during the season proper. Nine months out of the year, I wouldn’t bother with The Superstars, but with no competition? Pretty entertaining.
In all honesty, it seems pretty poorly thought-out. Like, I’m not sure that this was ever intended to be a 90-minute show, as the first two episodes tend to show a lot of practice footage. We get that they’re going to see how long they can jump – why show us practicing for jumping? Just show us the jumping!
The events run from straightforward to bizarrely convoluted, and the rules don’t make a heck of a lot of sense. (Second person to false start in a race is eliminated, even if they weren’t the first to false start?) I mean, they don’t even have a straightforward procedure to determine the two lowest-scoring teams. It seems like they’re making up the rules as they go along. It’s entirely possible that this is Calvinball.
Despite everything, it remains pretty watchable. The pro athletes enjoy their smack talk, which is fairly entertaining. While it’s not going to keep you riveted, the hosts are genial and the events are visually interesting enough to keep it going. It’s not great, but it’s not a bad summer show.
The Prognosis: Like I said, not great, but not bad. I’ll watch it for now, since I don’t like starting a reality show and not knowing who won. Of course, it’s going to be opposite Big Brother in the near future, so this could end up occupying space on the DVR for the foreseeable future.
The Listener
NBC, Thursday 10 PM
The Premise: A young paramedic has the power to read minds. So, it’s like if Matt Parkman from Heroes had his own show. And was boring.
The Personnel: You have never heard of anyone involved in this show before. It’s possible that they were all grown in a lab mere weeks before the pilot aired.
The Poop: You know, for a show about a telepath, there isn’t a lot of mindreading in the first 
episode. Paramedic Toby mostly does a lot of meddling that’s well outside the parameters of what a paramedic is supposed to do. Seriously, he’s kind of a stalker.
episode. Paramedic Toby mostly does a lot of meddling that’s well outside the parameters of what a paramedic is supposed to do. Seriously, he’s kind of a stalker.This show is a weird mix – it sort of feels like somebody greenlit it back when Heroes was at its peak, and as the ratings dipped, they decided to focus more on the “pushy paramedic” aspect. And it’s a weird mix, to be honest. Telepathy doesn’t really help a paramedic, except that he could tell what somebody was choking on before administering the Heimlich maneuver. If he has a power that isn’t really in line with his job, the show should be about a telepath who happens to be a paramedic, rather than a paramedic who happens to be telepathic. It’s like if Pushing Daisies had focused solely on the pie-making portion of Ned’s days.
They seem to want a mythology involving Toby’s powers, but it’s shoehorned into what is clearly an unused Third Watch plot. I’m really not sure what’s going on here. Neither is the cast, who are all very pretty but convey little to know emotion. It’s poorly-conceived and poorly-executed, and not fun to watch.
The Prognosis: I really didn’t enjoy this. There’s nothing really mockable, either. It’s just lazy and boring, with a mushy concept. I’m not sure who the audience for this is supposed to be, since there’s too much telepathy for a mainstream audience, but not enough for the sci-fi fans.
