.
First up is Cristela. In short, exasperated gringo with a big house (strangely similar to Tim Allen's in Last Man Standing which has a not-so-cool stereotypical Mexican maid) and his Hispanic wife (who says nothing during the preview a la Wilson from Home Improvement) and apparently hosts her entire family including ne'er-do-well sister Cristela whose madcap adventures apparently revolve around race. Have a look.
I'm over-sensitive? Okay, next up is Black-ish and while I agree it looks a little entertaining, the central focus is on how the family is acting "too white" which, got me to thinking ... hmmm... that's two, but okay.
Now comes an Asian Chris Rock retread. Basically about a kid who finds growing up with a proud immigrant father in 90s Orlando just intolerable. The crew is unhappy about moving to central Florida to manage a steakhouse (Dad's dream) and the feeling is shared by just about everyone who is cool and not in love with "acting white" like right-leaning Dad. Imaginatively titled too.
The last ABC entry here is a new Shonda Rhimes story about a law teacher who seems to get her freshman class to help her win cases by whatever means necessary. Strong black female lead...no problem. It looks smart like Scandal. But I can tell I'm not going to like it for the same reason I stopped watching Scandal after season 1. There are no good guys. Scandal is full of selfish, petty, powerful, malicious people...a shark tank with no redemption. I don't need a TV show for that; I can watch a Susan Rice.
And by the way, if Scandal really is based around the Clinton White House...the body count is way low. Discredit witnesses. Deceive the jury with another potentially guilty party. Destroy evidence. Great, let's give these college students some help so they never have to pay back more than 10% of their earnings to student loan debt.
I will give a thumbs-up to only one show that even looks promising and I am a sucker for supernatural stuff, but I was surprised when Believe was canceled this year. I really liked its Firestarter vibe. This one seems a little less hopeful though.
The rest are hopeless filler. Galavant is tiresome gleek fare from the start as some sort of Monty Python farce musical. Forever is a mash-up of Sleepy Hollow and New Amsterdam and Highlander...but still looks like it will have a short shelf-life. Manhattan Love Story? barf. And American Crime tries to conscript Ryan Phillipe as a "white guy" who finds the body of a 5 year-old neighbor boy and soon finds himself inexplicably the target of suspicion. Pass...I'm about done with the 24 style knockoff's.
So I'm looking hard for a new show that has a positive white male role model... er positively-portrayed white guy, and except for the immortal Brit at the center of Forever, we get a big goose egg from our friends at ABC.
I'll try to slog through another batch of Upfront's tomorrow...but I gotta tell you, there may be very few diamonds in this rough tv season ahead. Our entertainment choices seem to be appealing to (and reinforcing) some of the worst results of Obama's rule and fundamental changes.
