Spies, like vampires, are hot right now so it comes as no surprise that the USA Network is launching a Summer series called Covert Affairs tonight. Be warned: this is a 90-minute debut. Check your local listings for times in your area. The executive producer of this series is Doug Liman, the director of The Bourne Identity. Piper Perabo plays Annie Walker, a rookie spy who has to learn the ropes quickly if she’s going to survive. For a Sneak Peek, click here. A couple months from now, Nikita will debut on the CW, yet another version of the French noir thriller, La Femme Nikita. Hot, sexy spies…who needs James Bond?
Rizzoli & Isles could have used the 90 minute running time. How did The Surgeon escape from prison?
RIZZOLI & ISLES went to Warp Factor Nine at that point of the episode, Jeff. I agree, this should have been a 90-minute or 2-hour debut. They showed a scene from the prison hospital where The Surgeon knocks out (or kills?) the doctor and the nurses. But, how he escaped into downtown Boston is left to our imaginations.
NYT seemed to like it. But I lose hope daily that anything will be good past the first episode.
Quality seems to plummet after the first few episodes on most of these cable series, Patti. Entropy sets in.
Jackie agrees with you, George. She said it should have been a 2-hour episode.
First ORIENT EXPRESS and now this. Enough compression!
Why in the world would the director and producers decide to cram a whole novel into an hour format, Jeff? Both RIZZOLI & ISLES and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS tried to pull that trick off…and failed.
Jeez louise, folks…cable tv series, like all tv series, like all art, follows the law of averages. A whole LOT (lawt) of average out there.
But I’m fond of Piper Perabo, so I’ll try to catch this one. More promising than any NIKITA spinoff, most likely.
And R&I might well’ve been a longer program initially.
I agree with you on the Law of Averages, Todd, but don’t you think some of these TV executives would like to be in the top part of the averages? The first episode of RIZZOLI & ISLES was like an overstuffed sausage. Trying to establish the characters, then introducing a romantic element, then solving the murders…it was all too much for a one hour program.
Which brings Sturgeon’s Law to mind.
Patti’s distress is that TV series start out being interesting and exciting and then fall apart after a few episodes, Rick. That might be a corollary to Sturgeon’s Law.
I’m glad I spent the evening reading. Finished South of Sulu, a short story collection by George Worts, which was a lot of fun.
Then I read the first two chapters of The Art of Description by Mark Doty, the latest “Art of” book from Grey Wolf Press. Now THERE’S some wonderful, dense, thought-provoking reading!
Love Graywolf Press, Rick!
As in Mr. Sulu, Rick?
Didn’t think so.
Isn’t Sulu running for Congress, Jeff? And, I think he was feuding with Captain Kirk.
Essentially everyone in the cast resented Shatner, he was a bullying ham, by their accounts.
The executives don’t care as much as the producers, particularly the creator/writer/producers…the station execs are simply hoping for ratings, which have never correlated wtih good work. Good work, bad work, indifferent work all have been known to gain huge support, and also to tank.
Those series that fall apart after a few episodes clearly weren’t planned very well, or had their support removed or were nibbled to death by the executives. Or some combo. Even worse for viability: the series that gets off to a rocky start, then improves, such as NBC’s KIDNAPPED a few seasons back…really Really bad idea, given how little support they’ll get. DOLLHOUSE likewise.
I was one of those loyal fans of KIDNAPPED, Todd. Hung on until the bitter end, hoping an audience would find it. Essentially, DOLLHOUSE had the same problem. Shatner, like many leading actors, seems to be an ego-maniac.
The more you describe the R&I pilot, the more I wonder if you’ve seen the edited-down version. Probably not a good sign from the pov of the cable station’s support for the series.
It seems ironic that RIZZOLI & ISLES and the Masterpiece Mystery version of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS both futilely attempted to tell a novel’s worth of story in an hour format, Todd. The producers and TV execs, if they were responsible for this travesty, are courting disaster.
Apparently Rizzoli & Isles got very high ratings, so I guess we’ll see how next week goes.
With a lead-in like THE CLOSER, Jeff, you would expect RIZZOLI & ISLES to score some high ratings. Let’s see if they last.