What One Hour Dramas Will Last 2010 TV Pilot Season?

This past week, September 20^th-24^th, a deluge of new TV shows hit the flat screens. Nearly a dozen dramas alone launched their pilot episodes. The battle for seasonal longevity begins. But what should you be watching? What shows have what it takes to hang on?

It seems with so many great ideas, most of these shows should last the storm. But in just the past two TV seasons, the victims of one-season syndrome have been daunting. You may not remember the glitzy shows sporting clever ideas, glossy delivery, eye-catching visuals, personable, quirky casts of movie stars and TV favorites, and even thought-provoking pilot episodes. They all get chopped.

Remember Defying Gravity, Flash Forward, The Forgotten (Christian Slater), Dollhouse, Eastwick, Happy Life, Head Case, Kings, Mercy, Mental, Miami Medical, Raising the Bar, the Listener, the Philanthropist, Three Rivers, The Beautiful Life, and Trauma? All those dramas died just last year. Well maybe 2009-2010 was a particularly brutal year. How about 2008-2009's season of Crusoe, Cupid, Dirty Sexy Money, Easy Money, Eleventh Hour, Eli Stone, The Ex List, Fear Itself, Harper’s Island, Knight Rider, Life on Mars, My Own Worst Enemy, Privileged, Reaper, Starter Wife, Swingtown, the Unit, the Unusuals, and Valentine. And that’s just dramas!

So here's the big question this week: What makes a lasting drama show?

Is it a smart concept like The Event? Is it a good piece of writing like Lone Star? Is it exciting action like in Undercovers? Is it the cast like Blue Bloods? I’m convinced it’s none of these things. And while time slot and scheduling are pivotally important, I’m convinced this isn’t the most important thing either. The answer: It’s the characters. Not the cast, mind you. The characters.

The shows that last have charming and likeable characters that we want to invite into our home week after week, whether they are the fun-loving gleeks on Glee, or the engaging detectives on Fringe or Law and Order: SVU. So as we explore this season’s roster of pilots, ask yourself, do you want to spend time with these characters?

WEATHERS THE STORM

Hawaii Five-O

Slick and taut, this Kurtzman and Orci (Fringe, Transformers) show demonstrates some exciting, suspenseful scenes. While some of the cop conventions are familiar, the characters are charming, specifically Alex O’Loughlin’s McGarrett and Scott Caan’s Dano. The show wraps up its revenge story for McGarrett’s father in the pilot, leaving it little place to go other than a slick cop show, but that may just be enough. It dominates its time slot with a squad of cops you want to take you around the sexy world of Hawaii justice.

The Defenders

This surprise gem, Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell are charming and entertaining Vegas lawyers, who provide a different vibe through the myriad of legal dramas by battling in the seedy and colorful courtrooms of Vegas. And not only are they flashy, but they invariable show heart for their clients and clever tactics over their competition. Plus with some interesting personal lives, these are two lawyers you'd want to hire. They shouldn't have trouble defending their right to practice.

Nikita

What else could you need besides Maggie Q? This TV Show picks up where the movie franchise left off, and while the tone and packaging reeks of a glossy and over-the-top CW production, it does what any good spy TV show must do. Gives us a spy we want to spend time with. The Division has been turned into spy school with some quirky secondary characters, but the real winner is the entertaining Maggie Q who sizzles every time she’s on screen. This show should kill in its niche market on CW.

MAY PULL THROUGH

Detroit 187

Somewhere between the moment Michael Imperioli's Detective Fitch has a staring contest with his latest perp, and the moment rookie Detective Washington answers his cell phone in the middle of an arrest, missing the bad guy dragging the playground slide away, you know this show is trying something new. It's clever. And while some of the cop conventions are familiar, the world is salty and fresh and the characters are engaging and quirky. Let's hope the show continues to deliver and bring audiences back for another beat in Detroit.

Lone Star

With some really smart writing and a charming fantastic performance by James Wolk, this show tries some new territory with a very morally ambiguous con artist in love with two women. But in one of the toughest time slots on TV, this show leans entirely on our young hustler’s charm and it may just be too smart for network and may have done better on cable. If you want a good show, check this out before the Star wanes.

Blue Bloods

While slightly implausible to follow an entire family through the various aspects of the judicial system, with two brother cops, one lawyer sister, and the chief of police father played by Tom Selleck, the family is entertaining. Walhberg and Moynahan give great performances, and the weekly case forces the family to explore their different views on how justice is won. If this family can engage enough viewers to move to a different time slot, it may survive the tough New York beat.

GOING TO BE BLOWN AWAY

The Event

What’s it about? We don’t know. Maybe we’ll keep watching to find out. Maybe. The Event delivers glossy execution, with the central storyline featuring a ragged hero who must go to great lengths to find his missing wife. And while it pulls on the heat strings, it doesn’t establish likeable characters, spending the rest of it’s time creating the mystery. Remember Lost wasn’t just a mystery show, it also had the survivor angle and some likeable characters we wanted to hang out with. I think this Event will be over soon.

Chase

Holy paint by the numbers. A reckless tough chick US marshal who plays by her rules. Quirky partners and the fresh ambitious newbie. The giant seal in their office screams desperate. It felt like our villain got more screen time then our hero. Yes, everything about this show follows the formula, but the various weekly chase doesn’t really engage the characters with much complexity. These heroes are too cold and phony, and without much more going for it, I doubt this one will make it to the finish line.

Undercovers

It’s Mr. And Mrs. Smith, only campy, cheesy, and a tad annoying. This husband and wife duo comes out of retirement to work together and get a chance to reinvigorate their stale marriage. Unfortunately, we never know why things got stale (not all marriages do) and the rediscovery of the romance falls flat. Their banter feels phony and unrealistic to the moments at hand. This cute JJ Abrams idea will most likely go under.

The Whole Truth

Sometimes we follow the prosecution and sometimes we follow the defense. Unfortunately this show never really makes anything of this novel delivery, which instead makes us more apathetic about the judicial outcome. The cases aren’t ground-breaking, but more importantly, the two lead lawyers, Rob Morrow and Maura Tierney, just don’t grab us. They have no real vulnerability and nothing makes us want to spend more time with them. And that’s the real truth.

My Generation

This documentary style show tries where others have failed, to show the struggles of twenties-somethings in a group friends format. But this style separates us from the characters, because we never see them real enough. It constantly has to explain the presence of cameras and the characters are always aware. And surprise, surprise, stereotypes have grown up to defy their stereotypes! The love triangles are obvious, the storylines apparent, and none of these characters are engaging enough. This probably won’t last this generation of TV.

Ultimately my picks to survive to next year are Hawaii 5-0, Nikita, and Defenders, although I’m curious to see Law & Order: Los Angeles, Ordinary Family and some of the others en route. Detroit 187 may last if it finds the right time slot. A gritty cable channel like A&E or AMC would be wise to pick up Lone Star if it falls off the network roster.

5 Steps To A Successful Romcom!

There will always be Romcoms. Movie-goers will always want to see that hunky guy and that quirky girl to butt heads and then fall in love. And Studios will always meet the demand, because a couple big stars in a successful $30 million Romcom can pull in well over $100 million! But did you ever wonder why do some Romcoms make it big and others to fall flat?

While true movie magic is required to enter the Romcom hall of fame, after looking at this year’s box office, it becomes apparent that a simple set of Romcom criteria is all that’s required to hit big at the box office. The criteria explored below demonstrate why a rather cliché The Ugly Truth scored big, an honest Going the Distance fell hard, and why 500 Days of Summer succeeded when it isn’t even a Romantic Comedy!

1) BATTLE OF THE SEXES

Ding. Ding. Ding. Men don’t know what they want! Why are women so emotional! Yes, no Romcom is complete without it. Whether it’s old school Doris Day vs Roc Hudson or our classic Harry vs Sally, our two lovers must battle over everything that’s wrong with love and dating. After all, they’ve had their fair share of romantic difficulties, just like us! The argument can change from story to story, but this epic clash is what makes it feel relevant to our lives. Do men just want sex? Can women and men be friends? How can we find love if we’re so different?!

This year’s box office hit The Ugly Truth doesn’t give us anything new, but it does follow the formula with Gerard Butler, our macho lust guru and cable TV personality, facing off with his new producer, the prissy romantic Katherine Heigl, over the classic debate “Is it true men just want sex and women just want love?” However in Justin Long's and Drew Barrymore’s honest Going The Distance, about a couple trying to carry on a long distant relationship, the story fails to achieve this battle. The gender roles are interchangeable and with the larger strife simply being geographical, the story misses its possible foray into the grand gender debate.

2) THE ROMANCE & THE FANTASY

Let’s face it! Anyone willingly going to a romantic comedy is looking to be swept away by a bit of romance. This is a love story! It needs an element of fantasy. A storybook component. And to fulfill this fantasy, our man must to be able to step into the role of Prince Charming. Sure he may be rough around the edges, immature or emotionally distant, but damn it, when we crack that exterior, he’s just Mr. Right. The Ugly Truth doesn’t compare in this are to say Pretty Woman or Bridget Jones’ Diary, but it does allow its lovers to experience some passion and Gerard butler does become the courageous, yet emotional man. But Going the Distance’s Justin Long falls short here.

The poor guy already has to compete in looks with our hunky Gerard Butler and Hugh Grants, but he’s never given an opportunity to step out of his role a stoner, music exec wannabe and into the shoes of Mr. Right. His passion with Drew is relegated to comical love-making over the dining room table. The fantasy of this movie is lost. Sure, the best fantasies are the most honest, realistic ones, but they’re still fantasies.

3) THEY’RE JUST SO…RIGHT FOR EACH OTHER

Come on, how many cute meets have we seen where the boy and girl want to kill each other at first glance? But we just know they are just perfect for each other. She’s so high-strung, she needs a guy like him to mellow her out. And he’s so rough around the edges and angry. He needs a real go-getter to help him shed his veneer. A successful Romcom allows their lovers to change each other for the better. They share their vulnerabilities, and then they can overcome them. Once again, The Ugly Truth follows the paint-by-numbers, but it gets there as Gerard realizes love does exist and Katherine throws away her list for

this unpolished gem in front of her. But Drew and Justin fall in love over a sincere but hollow Act I movie montage, and we never see why she’s good for him and why he’s good for her. In Romcom land, liking someone doesn’t make you right for them. No movie does it better than When Harry Met Sally. Not only do they appreciate each other’s faults, but help each other overcome them.

4) THE FINAL HURDLE

It’s the final act. They’ve let down their walls, expressed their feelings, and faced the possibility that they could end up together. But there’s still that one major issue: the final hurdle! We know most romantic comedies will end with the couple together, and their romance has given us hope, so this is needed to create fear in our hearts that they may not make it. It’s here, often in the landscape of their gender battle, where the true conflict lies. “But they’re friends,” as in Harry Met Sally! “She’s a hooker and he’s a respected business man,” as in Pretty Woman! Going the Distance actually trumps The Ugly Truth, with a clear larger conflict: they live on other ends of the country and they don’t want to give up their careers for love. Unfortunately it alone is not enough to save the story from the other categorical absences. The Ugly Truth fakes it through, trying to have the looming gender issues between men and women be the larger problem, but there really is no reason why these two can’t be together and that’s exactly what takes the steam out of this third act.

5) HAPPY ENDINGS

Finally, those two lovers who we knew were right for each other have battled through their gender issues, changed each other for the better and overcome that final hurdle. They better end up together! Because if they don’t, well sorry, but it ain’t a romantic comedy. Classically speaking, in regards to all that Greek stuff, the comedies end with the couples end up together. This is because it isn’t a story about one of these lovers. It’s about them collectively. They can’t go their separate ways. They are one entity. Both The Ugly Truth and Going the Distance pull this one out, but it’s actually a surprising hit “Rom Com” that fails in this category and reveals it’s true colors: 500 Days of Summer.

That’s right! It’s not a Romcom. It’s a comedy about one guy, Tom Hansen, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who spends 500 days courting a woman who breaks his heart, but ultimately teaches him love exists and it’s worth a chance. This isn’t about Tom and Summer. It’s about Tom. Stories like this are actually just comedies, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall. They don’t have our classic battle of the sexes or that final hurdle to find love. We actually aren’t rooting for them to end up together. In 500 Days, we’re rooting for Tom to find clarity. It wasn’t just 500 Days fresh and offbeat point of view that scored at the box office. Stepping out of the classic Romcom structure allowed 500 Days to find complexity and open up its demographic.

This is not to say that one should choose these types of Comedies over RomComs. One only need to look at recent box office monsters like the Proposal, It’s Complicated, Knocked Up, the Break-Up or The Ugly Truth to see there are plenty of movie-goers eager for this genre. But if you want your Romcom to succeed, it better follow these principles.