Ah, out with the old, in with the new. The television season is dead, long live the next television season. And to prepare for it, I’m going to review new shows as the pilots become available.

Medical Investigations; NBC, Friday Nights 10:00 pm

“The National Institutes of Health, the world’s foremost medical research center, has for the last hundred years been on the cutting edge of disease prevention, diagnosis, and cure. The following is inspired by true events.”

Uh-huh. Sure it is.

The pilot starts in New York City, where a man with a dysfunctional family life falls over and turns blue. But what starts as a single case soon becomes an epidemic, requiring the aid of Dr. Stephen Connor (Neal McDonough, Boomtown), the head of a mobile medical team from the National Institutes of Health (the NIH) and the owner of a pretty dysfunctional family life himself, and his team. What caused the discoloration? Why are these people dying? And what can be done?
(more…)

Ah, out with the old, in with the new. The television season is dead, long live the next television season. And to prepare for it, I’m going to review new shows as the pilots become available.

Joey; NBC, Thursday Nights 8:00 pm

What do you do if you’re NBC and losing some of your best comedies (Friends, Frasier)? You create a spinoff so you can keep at least one of the franchises alive, of course. I mean, it takes time, energy, and creativity to create a new show; all it takes to create a spinoff is for some existing cast members and producers to sign contracts. Much simpler.
(more…)