On-Season Week 1

Week One

And so, after a long summer, our on-season analysis finally begins. We start this week with just five shows (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Bull, Hawaii Five-0, Lucifer and MacGyver), but gradually the others will all start to filter in and this will start to look really heavy. I'm looking forward to the new season and I hope you all are too, so please come join me as we look over the on-season's opening week!

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x01 "Coral Palms Pt. 1" (premiere episode)

"Jake and Captain Holt, under their aliases Larry and Greg respectively, while they hide from Mafia boss Jimmy Figgis in Florida. They've been there six months and Jake is still struggling to adapt - but is he even trying or is his secret venture threatening to expose them both?"

Drawing parallels to OITNB's Piper-centric second-season premiere, Andy Samberg (Jake) and Andre Braugher (Holt) took centre stage in an episode solely focused on their Florida exploits, but with that extra time the writers were able to play with their characters more intricately - especially Holt, whose deadpan and emotionless response to everything was thrust into being forced to play the role of a stoner searching for an assistant manager job at an arcade. That is, until, he discovers Jake is secretly trying to locate Figgis and forces him to give it up and get a job. The assistant manager job. Which increases the hilarity as Jake forces deadpan Holt to dance at a kids' party, don a hotdog outfit and clean a particularly disgusting crazy golf hole. Perfection.

   In the end, Jake and Holt rushed to retrieve a video of them getting run over by go-karts to prevent the video going viral and exposing them - only to realise it may actually be the best way of drawing Figgis out. Thus they release it themselves. (Also, Jorma Taccone, Rhea Perlman and Maya Rudolph all guest starred!)

   In every aspect the humour was brilliant, and even when not laugh-out-loud it was entertaining and (I'm going to use this phrase a lot I imagine) "comfortingly familiar". An episode of Jake and Holt that played with the characters of Jake and Holt in all the right ways.

   VIEWERS: 2.39m (A solid start taking B99's ratings above what it achieved in the back third of season 3, but I will be hoping they don't fall too far - or at all - below the 2m line)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1 (Shot up from the back third of season 3; solid start. Needs to be held)

VERDICT: The premiere was deliberately lacking on the other main cast members but anything else would not have worked as effectively. And now the stage has been set for this seemingly three-part opening arc to continue (perhaps the next episode will conclude with Figgis's arrival in Florida and the third will conclude with his arrest). 8/10

Bull - 1x01 "The Necklace" (series premiere episode)

"Bull defends the son of a tech entrepreneur from a murder charge, after a girl he had slept with at a party washes up on a shore, strangled."

Where to start with Bull? What a fantastic pilot episode. To say it was well-written would be a gross understatement, but the plot (though it was fantastic) was not the biggest reason Bull was so brilliant. That honour goes to how all-encompassing the show is when it comes to the people in the story. Not only do we see all our main characters - Bull and his staff, the defendant, his family and his lawyers - but we are treated to close examinations of side characters too: the mock jurors, the real jurors and the victim's family, so that even when we're celebrating Bull's hard work exonerating the defendant we viewers know is innocent, we are still brought to focus upon how that decision actually affects the victim's grieving parents.

L-R: The defendant, Brandon Peters,
 Dr. Jason Bull & Chunk Palmer

   No matter how small a character is, they all are imperative to the story and the way it is being manipulated to unfold by Bull's predictive algorithm, and that provides us with a look-in to a spectrum of beliefs and personality types (of which we are told much more by Bull's hardworking team) that builds the trivia and the deep understanding of the human psyches I so enjoy in a show. Even the opening scene itself does just that, as a growing collage of videos from people about their faith (or lack thereof) in the justice system reveals from the get-go how this show is all about the differences between each and every one of us.

   The show's USP for now is its star name of Michael Weatherly, but I'd like to see more of his staff in the future: I feel particularly like the lawyer, Benny, didn't get much time in the pilot. (It's way too early, however, to criticise that too much.) And with regards to the ending: although, naturally, Bull would probably be able to work out who the real killer was, the final scene where he and the police simply show up to the killer's house was pasted onto the end of the episode with no real explanation, and that was perhaps the one fault of what was a thrilling, complex and fascinating pilot episode.

   SIDE NUGGET: Bull's stylist Chunk's surname being Palmer - well, I suppose someone being called Gibbs would have been too much of a stretch!

   VIEWERS: 15.56m (Just tens of thousands off NCIS's same-day ratings: will decline as some DiNozzo fans decide this might not be for them, but what a thundering debut)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 2.2 (Right in the 2.0-2.4 ranger I predicted; an instant hit)

VERDICT: I didn't find as many NCIS nuggets as I hoped for, but perhaps they'll come along later. Weatherly proved himself the right man for the job and the writers excelled in setting the tone and style of the show with Bull's sophisticated technological capabilities, while retaining the emotional depth that is so important. 9/10

Hawaii Five-0 - 7x01 "Makaukau 'ce e Pa'ani?/Ready to Play?" (premiere episode)

"McGarrett returns from his liver transplant early - and struggles to readjust as a new threat appears when serial killers are murdered and left at Five-0's doors."

Hawaii Five-0 returned in stonking form with an adrenaline-fuelled premiere - right after a CGI appearance from Jack Lord, the deceased actor who played McGarrett in the '68-'80 original series, in a church with the modern McGarrett, where they discussed legacy and achievements and left modern McGarrett feeling a little down. The only downside of this was because CGI standards are so high these days, the failure to replicate Groot-level realism does (irrationally) tend to rankle.

   But immediately thereafter we were thrust into a high-octane premiere, with 17 bodies dropped throughout the remaining 40 minutes: two serial killers, their total of fourteen victims and Five-0's suspect (who was a patsy set up by the real serial-killer-killing-serial-killer). The premise of this is exceptional, and that it's to span over the first four episodes and still cause problems later on in the season has me drooling. And if the upcoming chase scenes are to be anything like the incredible 7/8 minute parkour chase, then Hawaii Five-0 can count me ready for anything.

   Elsewhere, it was nice to see Julie Benz return as Abby, Chin's girlfriend, and the cliffhanger with the real serial killer leaving his calling card (centuries-old ivory chess pieces) behind at McGarrett's house refuelled the excitement right after it had tapered off; however, the single scene that conspiracy theorist Jerry appeared in to identify the type of chess pieces being left in the dead serial killers' mouths seemed forced to ensure he could get a bit of screentime.

   VIEWERS: 10.09m (Only on one other occasion between 5x16 and this premiere has H50 hit over 10m in overnight ratings, so what a start)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.3 (average statistically and about right for H50. Good start)

VERDICT: A well-balanced, high intensity episode was filled with the usual McGarrett/Danno banter and brilliantly set up an arc to span plenty of the seventh season 9/10

Lucifer - 2x01 "Everything's Coming Up Lucifer" (premiere episode)

"Lucifer's search for his mother becomes complicated by the murder of a young girl which he believes was committed to send him a message. While he tries to discover whose body his mother has inhabited since escaping from Hell, Amenadiel tries to discredit Lucifer's claims of being the Devil and Maze returns from her sabbatical to a cold reception."

Season 2's premiere is more about where our characters are starting off now than anything else, as the murder-of-the-week becomes more like today's side plot. Lucifer believes his mum, without her original body, is inhabiting the bodies of the recently deceased returned to life (which I found to be a very clever way to begin the series) and his and Amenadiel's search becomes the driving force of the episode. But when the murder itself throws Lucifer even deeper into this rabbit hole he resorts to scrabbling for allies: Chloe to believe he is actually the Devil and Maze, after she returns and convinces him she didn't help his mum escape from Hell, to provide actual answers (which she can't). In the final scene, Lucifer's search concludes as his mum, who has sought him out herself, falls into his arms holding a bloody screwdriver and begging for help.

   Meanwhile, Amenadiel convinces Chloe that Lucifer is lying about being the Devil in order to prevent humanity learning of the existence of divinity with a smartly-constructed set of lies, and Detective "Douche" Dan arrives at the crime scene to help investigate, having been released from remand and reinstated with a demotion because the police would rather not have the embarrassment of him cop to charges of improper evidence handling (after the corruption scandal of Detective Graham at the end of season one). Dan's airtime was limited today, but he'll get more of a look in as the season develops.

   VIEWERS: 4.41m (Same-day ratings bolstered from the end of season 2 with a solid start)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.3 (Roughly matches half of season 1's weekly share - season 2 is doing its job)

VERDICT: The murder was interesting enough for all of its shortness, Aimee Garcia as new forensic examiner Ella Lopez looks set to add an intriguing alternative religious standpoint and the new police set was a welcome aesthetic pleasure. But all in all this was a simple episode which positioned all the characters for their upcoming arcs - and did so with no problems at all. 7.5/10

However, Lucifer is now not back until October 3rd, in two weeks' time. Um ... why ...?

MacGyver - 1x01 "The Rising" (series premiere episode)

"MacGyver and his team work to retrieve a biological weapon, while adjusting to the new recruit."

MacGyver is definitely the weakest of the five episodes I've viewed this week. It's premiere had plenty of excellent features: the directing of the action scenes was fantastic, the cast worked perfectly in their roles, the guest cast saw Tracy Spiridakos and Vinnie Jones in villain roles, the plot (if clichéd) was interestingly resolved and the cliffhanger of Spiridakos's character Nicky escaping caught everyone brilliantly off-guard.

Lucas Till as Angus MacGyver

   However, the flash test explanations and equations to highlight Mac's intricate designs (SOOT + ADHESIVE = FINGERPRINT being one horrific example) became redundant due to the voiceovers where he explained them anyway (and the examples today were not as impressive or creative as I'd hoped); the feeling of a government-division-more-secret-than-the-CIA was never imprinted upon me and I'll admit even for me some of the lines were corny.

   But I don't want to focus on the bad - perhaps I'm seeing them more keenly because MacGyver was my least favourite pick of the new shows I'll be rounding up. In all honesty, the positives far outweigh the negatives today (George Eads as Jack Dalton stands out as the comic tough guy) and there is nothing to suggest MacGyver cannot improve and get some momentum going in the next few weeks.

   VIEWERS: 10.89 (Could have had a better start in that 8pm position, but double figures never represents a bad one)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.7 (Stupendous)

VERDICT: The mythology of the show was opened with Nicky's escape and Phoenix's creation at the end of the episode, but so far MacGyver hasn't taken the world by storm. 7/10

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Lucifer: "My mum's gonna kill me."

NEXT WEEK'S ROUNDUP: On-Season Week 2

DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE EXPLAINED

Ratings are fairly simple to understand, and are show-specific, so you can tell how your show is doing based off its general average ratings figure. But demographic share is broader, and yet of bigger importance to networks and therefore success is more often gauged on this than ratings. So, if you've read this far, this article will give an overview of the importance of demographic share to broadcast networks and the survival of your favourite TV shows. However, I have quoted the explanation of demographic share below in case you didn't wish to read another article!

"(*A 1.0 in adults 18-49 equals about 1.27 million people in that age group [...] Advertisers on network primetime pay a premium to reach those viewers — and the adults 18-34 subset — which in turn drives most decisions to renew or cancel shows.)"

(And for clarification, the average demographic share across all the big four networks [ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX] last season for non-sports shows was 1.3. The article suggests an average plus 50% of 1.95 in demographic share to be a good marker of a hit TV show. While the demographic share a show gets does vary from network to network, I will generally follow that 1.95 "hit show" marker throughout this on-season roundup, and a 1.3 as an average for an averagely successful show.)

Final thoughts

I'm glad to have my TV shows back and can't wait to continue to see what these and the rest can offer in the future. Our two debuting shows in Bull and MacGyver may have fared differently but they've both got plenty to offer as their seasons progress; meanwhile, Lucifer has taken the time to position its characters more carefully than either Hawaii Five-0 or Brooklyn Nine-Nine needed to or did. While B99 chose to follow a predictable format to close out its opening arc, Hawaii Five-0 takes the award by a country mile for "Quickest Show Off The Mark".

All five shows here today except Lucifer return next week, where we'll also see premiere episodes from NCIS: Los Angeles, Quantico and Code Black. Thank you to everyone who has read this first week's roundup; I will see you all next Saturday!

Sam