Fox's new series are hit and miss

The networks just don't trust us bloggers. Even with a name like tivogirl I have to grovel to get information, much less screeners, and most networks completely ignore my existence. But not Fox.

For the last few weeks I've been getting all kinds of fun boxes from the marketing department: a faux-biohazard package with screeners of Bones and House packaged in sealed evidence bags and realistic-looking blood transfusion pouches; a hard-sided mini cooler promoting the "great dads" of Sunday night with goodies from The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad and new show War at Home; a blue prison-issue shirt to promote Prison Break; and a pretty nice leather binder with a legal pad and pen from Head Cases.

Some of this stuff is meant to goad critics into at least givin a show the benefit of the doubt, and sometimes it works. For me, it's nice (though most of the stuff goes on the "up for grabs" shelf at work) but certainly doesn't influence whether or not I recommend a show. I hope I'm not the only one.

So now on to the scoop. How are the new shows? One is terrific, one is pretty good and the third is just plain awful.

Prison Break, which premiered Monday night (and repeats tonight if you missed it) is fantastic. By the first commercial break, I was hooked. It's not as bleak and honest a depiction of prison as Oz, but more along the lines of The Shawshank Redemption. Perhaps that comparison comes because there is a glimmer of hope. A promise that this kid just might pull this thing off and get himself and his doomed brother out of there.

Head Cases, which doesn't debut for another few weeks, has promise. It's about a couple of lawyers who are just a little off, and the pilot details how the two come together to create a firm. While there is a case going on in the midst of it, it's hard to get a feel for the real dynamic of the show without the regular weekly structure in place. If it keeps up the humor and pace of the pilot, Head Cases will go into my season pass list.

The War at Home... awful. Derivitive. Moronic. Worst of all, it's a comedy that is not in the least bit funny. I actually turned this off barely five minutes into the show. I had hopes, as I like Michael Rapaport, but this was a cookie cutter sitcom complete with annoying teenage daughter, obnoxious laugh track and heard-it-before sarcastic and humorless jokes. Do not waste your time.

Posted by tivogirl at 11:01 AM