THE FALL 2017 MASKYS

It’s MASKY time. I’m going to do it a bit differently and not bother with the snarky pithy categories. People work too hard on these pilots (even the bad ones) for me to mock. Also, there were fewer fall shows and I could not get my hands on either of the new Marvel series (FOX and ABC). I’ll predict both open and then fall below a 1 rating in 18-49’s within five weeks so we’ll move on from that.

I’m only going to talk about the Fall shows and will do a separate column on mid-season. I have watched a few of them and it doesn’t look like it gets any better.

A few observations.

Where the country is today vs. where it was when these pilot scripts were picked up are two different worlds. There is a very militaristic, vigilante theme here. I wonder, given the current state of events, if those types of shows will find an audience. I found it hard to separate among them. Two of them actually involve the rescue of an attractive blond woman from “them”.

WISDOM OF THE CROWD continues last years failed theme of how a rich person can come in and do things better than the current institutions (struck out on CBS and FOX last year) and THE MAYOR is the tale of someone doing something for publicity and winds up winning an election (hmmm).

The networks all did shows that feel appropriate to their sensibilities, for better or worse. I may have mentioned this during my Upfronts columns but FOX is bizarre in that they have a comedy about aliens, a drama about mutants and a sci-fi one hour comedy featuring even more aliens. That’s a pretty pretty narrow choice of projects to put on in the fall. ABC seemed to be the most adventurous of the networks while the CW continues to be the network with the series I’m most likely to check out again. I wish there was more humor in the dramas and a bit more heart in the comedies.

Anyway, thanx to those who were kind enough to offer me the shows knowing that I can’t be bought. Here are my letter grades for the new fall series sort of ranked within each letter. Sort of.

B

DYNASTY

YOUNG SHELDON

VALOR

THE BRAVE

SEAL TEAM

THE GOOD DOCTOR

SWAT

C

THE MAYOR

THE GOSPEL OF KEVIN

TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY

WISDOM OF THE CROWD

ME, MYSELF AND I

GHOSTED

D

THE ORVILLE

F

9JKL

Last year the MASKY for Best Fall Drama went to DESIGNATED SURVIVOR. Comedy is a lot harder and I gave the MASKY to THE GREAT OUTDOORS. Mid-season MASKYS went to 24: LEGACY and THE MICK so I got half of them right (renewed) which was not great, but full disclosure.