ABC's Conviction's Integrity Holds Up

Hayley Atwell is sassy enough to entertain, smart witted enough to keep us on our toes and vulnerable enough for us to care. Give Haley a multi-layer character like Haze Morrison and you are creating magic. 

If you cannot tell, I really love ABC’s new show Conviction and it is not just about Hayley. One very talented actress cannot carry an entire show and keep it going. It takes thoughtful and intelligent writing, creative casting, talented actors and a production staff who knows how to tell as story. 

So here is the scoop on Conviction, Haze Morrison is a brilliant young attorney, who is also the daughter of a former U.S. president. Haze, after being picked up for cocaine possession is blackmailed to head up NYC's new Conviction Integrity Unit. She and her team investigate cases where people may have been wrongly convicted.

Sounds like a pretty standard template for a drama, but Conviction is a lot more. Let’s start with the cast, Hayley Atwell, best known for her role as Agent Carter in Marvel’s Agent Carter and Captain America plays Haze Morrison. Her team consists of Merrin Dungey known for her roles on Alias and Once Upon a Time as Maxine Bohen, an ex-NYPD Detective. Emily Kinney best known for her roles on The Walking Dead and Arrow as Tess Larson the Paralegal, Shawn Ashford best known for his role on The Following as Sam Spencer DA appointed liason, and Manny Montana know for his roles on South Beach and Graceland, as forensic investigator Franklin 'Frankie' Cruz. 

The Conviction Integrity Unit chooses a case and has five days to determine one of three resolutions. The first to let the conviction stand, the case needs to go back to trial, and if proven, the conviction reversed. They start from the beginning, interviewing witnesses, reviewing and researching all of the evidence, circumstances and testimony. At the end of the five days a verdict is rendered and the truth comes out. 

The writing is leading and deceiving, mixing and mirroring the struggles of the reviewing case with personal struggles of the characters. Not just Haze Morrison but each member of the team allowing for character depth and laying. Love it!

Also a terrific platform for social commentary as well as the exploration of characterization, and interpersonal relationships. The show has great promise and I am looking forward to the coming year.

Conviction is on ABC, Monday’s at 10/9c, check your local listing for more information.

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Coming Soon - Falling Water on USA

The story of three unrelated people, who slowly realize that they are dreaming separate parts of a single common dream. Each of them is on a mysterious and highly personal quest - one is searching for his missing girlfriend, one is searching for a lost child, one is looking to cure his catatonic mother - and it is the clues found in their collective dream that come to guide them. The deeper they dig the more they come to realize that their missions touch on stakes that are much larger than their individual agendas.

 Falling Water premieres Thursday, Oct 13th on NBC!

Coming This Week - Frequency on the CW

A police detective in 2016 discovers that she is able to speak via a ham radio with her estranged father; Frank Sullivan, a detective who died in 1996 and the two must work together to change the history of tragic events to come while also getting the chance to heal their complicated relationship. 

Frequency premieres Wednesday, Oct 5th on the CW!

 

Coming Soon - No Tomorrow on the CW

Evie, a risk-averse quality-control assessor who falls for free-spirited thrill seeker Xavier only to find out he lives his life that way because he believes the apocalypse is coming. 

No Tomorrow premieres Tuesday, Oct 4th on the CW!

 

Coming Soon - Timeless on NBC!

An unlikely trio traveling through time to battle unknown criminals in order to protect history as we know it.

Timeless premieres Monday, Oct 3rd on NBC!

Premiering This Week - Mavel's Luke Cage on Netflix!

Given superstrength and durability by a sabotaged experiment, a wrongly accused man escapes prison to become a superhero for hire. 

Premieres Friday, Sept 30th on Netflix!

New Fall TV - FOX's Exorcist is a Don't Miss Compelling Watch

TV show based on William Blatty's 1971 novel about a priest who performs exorcisms on demonic spirits. Written and created by television newcomer Jeremy Slater, whose writing credits include films such as the Lazarus Effect, Fantastic 4 and Pet.

Father Tomas Ortega (Alfonso Herrera, “Sense8,” “The Chosen”) is the new face of the Catholic Church: progressive, ambitious and compassionate. He runs a small, but loyal, parish in the suburbs of Chicago. He has no idea that his quiet life is about to change forever. Deep in the slums of Mexico City, another priest has found himself locked in a life-and-death struggle with evil. Father Marcus Keane (Ben Daniels, “Flesh and Bone,” “House of Cards”) is a modern-day Templar Knight, an orphan raised since childhood by the Vatican to wage war against its enemies. Father Marcus is everything Father Tomas is not: relentless, abrasive and utterly consumed by his mission – and he constantly butts heads with his adversary within the church, Father Bennet (Kurt Egyiawan, “Beasts of No Nation”).

Most of us are familiar with the original Exorcist movie starring Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn. Truth be told, when released on December 26^th 1973 it scared the pants off of the entire movie watching population. People were sick, exiting the theater in hysterics, being offended and running for church as soon as possible. There have been very few movies having a such a hard impact since then. The Exorcist became the horror standard for creepiness and just plain portrayal of evil. Trying to replicate the phenom has been basically impossible.

Knowing all of this, when FOX announced The Exorcist adaptation in its 2016 Fall lineup I was giddy and oddly reserved. Being completely honest, given the current technology and entertainment climate this show was going to either be amazingly good or horribly bad. So sitting down this evening to watch it live was a tough choice. I also chose to participate in the twitter feed while watching which is a first for me. 

So the good news is this, I was scared, I jumped, and I got creeped out. So were the other viewers watching the show and live tweeting. The pilot, Chapter One: And Let My Cry Come Unto Thee, engaged and hooked me in from the moment the dogs arrived and the inhuman wailing began. There are several reasons for this, so lets talk about why The Exorcist pilot worked.

The writing, and this is so very important in any show, particularly a horror drama. If the dialog and or the scenes are not delicate and yet strong the genre comes off as hokey and unbelievable. The scare has to be rooted in a tangible fear for it to resonate. While most of the audience will be on the fence as to whether they believe in the demonic and or have religious ties makes this a particularly tough job for this show. You do not want to alienate anyone, however you want be able to deliver a truth when needed. Again, very well planned and executed by the writers room, bravo!

Where you have excellent writing you need a superior cast to deliver the story. The casting is magnificent, the two lead actors, Alfonso Herrera and Ben Daniels are seasoned enough actors to be able to portray the characters with a depth they need. Making them believable and giving the audience empathy for them. These two actors are also not well known enough for the audience to have their resumes prevalent in their mind when watching. The only people in the cast easily recognizable are Geena Davis and Alan Ruck, both veteran film actors who add credibility to the show.

Lastly, some (namely uneducated television executives) will want to push the technology side of genre over the top. Kill them with the impossible! This can be very easily done and ruin a movie or show. I still have a little bitterness for the use of technology in the recent movie The Conjuring 2. An otherwise awesome movie, the use of technology to create the crooked man as a form the demon liked to take to terrorize the family completely threw me out of the experience. This is why in these cases, less is more. In tonight’s The Exorcist pilot I think the production staff and director made the best choice of using technology on a limited basis. Kinda like the demon, only showing itself when absolutely necessary. Good job!

Challenges ahead for the show will be numerous. Tonight they have set the bar pretty high. We will see if they can maintain the critical balance of creepiness, scare and want. You have a tough audience and only time will tell how it shakes out. My advice, center your focus on the writing, the core of good against evil and showing the hope and faith in humanity. 

The Exorcist can be seen on Friday’s 8pm CST on FOX, check your local listings. The Exorcist is being put to the three episode test, will it be compelled to stand up in the end or be defeated by lack of faith?

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New Fall TV - Designated Survivor Blows Us Away!

Designated Survivor – ABC

A low-level Cabinet member becomes President of the United States after a catastrophic attack kills everyone above him in the Presidential line of succession.

Where to begin, let’s start with the cast. The list is long, which is not always a good thing—too many chefs in the kitchen but in this case I am impressed.  We have got Kiefer Sutherland, famously known for his role as Jack Bauer on the television series 24.  Next we have Kal Penn, best known as Kumar in the Harold and Kumar movies, also known as Dr. Lawrence Kutner on House MD and more recently as Fontanelle White on Battle Creek.

Playing Jessica Kirkman is Natascha McElhone, most recently known as Karen on Californication and previously for her roles in the movies Solaris, Ronin, and The Truman Show.  Also popping her head in is Maggie Q as FBI Agent Hannah Wells– loved Stalker, so disappointed it got cancelled- I digress. Maggie Q was recently seen on the big screen in the Divergent movies, she is also the queen of the action drama portraying badass women in Nikita and Stalker.

That is a snip of the cast as there are a lot of moving parts on this show. It is well paced giving you gulps of information and anxiety at a time. Making you empathize and feel for Tom Kirkman the once cabinet member and now President of the United States.

Right off the bat everything happens very quickly which many times is a bad opening. A lot can be lost in translation if it is not paced and scripted diligently. Thankfully this was not the case in the pilot of Designated Survivor. The episode moved flawlessly taking you through the calm, the disappointment, the shock, the awe, the confusion and the nausea of what our government could possibly look like if an event of this magnitude were to take place. At the same moment we are reminded this is television and we settle into our new reality with hope. Hope for the characters, their struggles and their choices. 

Basic premise right of the bat is intriguing, however what is the staying power of such a show? Crisis management can only last so long until you start treading into the weeds of non- reality. We saw it happen in Revolution fairly quickly with no recovery. This was and is my major concern about this show. I will say, upfront the pilot episode did ease my inhibitions a little. Good writing will do that.

Speaking of good writing, Designated Survivor has a few aces in the writers room for whom I have faith to pull out the stops. All seasoned pros, as a writer myself I would love to witness the energy of that dynamic. For example, you have the brains of West Wing, Suits and The Unit, the creativeness of No Ordinary Family and Tru Calling, the out of the box mentality of Lost and Cold Case and a gutsy, greenish producer who is looking to conquer the television medium. It will definitely be interesting. 

More to come, Designated Survivor is on ABC, Wednesday nights, check your local listings. Designated survivor is being put to the three episode test so stayed tuned for the results!

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