Pop Culture Princess
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Who will win the battle of the similarly themed TV shows this fall?
With only a few weeks away from an all new season of TV shows to watch and wonder over,it's not too soon to place your bets on which ones will survive their initial outing and which won't.
Much like movie trailers,some programs are eager to showcase all the goods they have to offer in order to get you to tune in,which can either induce your appetite for viewing or kill it in a channel click.
For your best guess at what will fly high in the ratings,let's take a look at a trio of match-ups between shows that appear to share the same story line or tone. Bandwagons may be fun to ride but not so easy to stay on board if your gimmicky grip isn't strong enough:
NEW GIRL vs. 2 BROKE GIRLS
For our first showdown,it's the Battle of the Whimsical Gals,as Zooey Deschanel stars in New Girl, as Jess, a plucky,offbeat single lady who decides to get over her cheating boyfriend by moving into a new place with three male roommates.
Naturally,the guys bond with their new roomie like a sister and wacky dating adventures follow. As charming as Zooey can be in movies,her quirky rambling can grate on your nerves over time and that's just from watching the promos for this show before it even airs:
Up against such star vehicle stuff is 2 Broke Girls, which has tough talking waitress Max(Kat Dennings)reluctantly taking under her wing a down on her financial luck heiress named Caroline(Beth Behrs)who is her new co-worker.
The ladies also become roommates and plan to raise both of their less than considerable fortunes by opening a cupcake shop,if they can scrap enough money together. This clash of personalities and social classes is a standard staple in the comedy cupboard but it seems to work well here:
Predicted Winner: I'm giving this one to 2 Broke Girls. Kat Dennings has great snarky attitude and the overall concept seems more in touch with the economic struggles that most of us are going through without making a complete mockery of them.
New Girl has an air of self indulgence about it,not to mention that when it comes to sitcoms,CBS has a way better track record than Fox.
ONCE UPON A TIME vs. GRIMM
We've got a pair of fairy tale based series that are clearly not meant for children on deck. Once Upon A Time has a woman named Emma Swan(Jennifer Morrison) moving to the town of Storybrook,where characters from classic bedtime tales have been exiled and are living out their eternal lives as so called regular people.
Emma is destined to change all of that but how she is to do so is yet unknown to her. The producers of Lost are behind this show and they are apparently going for the same kind of mystery within a mystery theme that engaged audiences before:
Meanwhile,Grimm is firmly set in the real world or so our leading man police detective Nick(David Guintoli)believes.
While tracking down a kidnapper of young girls wearing red,Nick discovers that he is the latest descendant of a long line of supernatural hunters who happened to spread all of those well known fairy tales. He can spot the true monsters of legend who easily hide out in plain sight amongst us and hopefully stop them from preying on the helpless in time:
Predicted Winner: This is a hard call,since the possible odds for both of these shows to fold their tents early(and together) is rather high. However,I will give the edge here to Grimm. Once Upon a Time seems to be overly complicated in it's plotting and one great thing about fairy tales is that they're deceivingly simple. A police procedural approach may be more accessible for such fantastical fare.
RINGER vs. REVENGE
Last but far from least, Poor Little Rich Girl Thrillers seem to be back in style this season. Ringer has Sarah Michelle Geller as twin sisters Bridget and Siobhan,who reunited after six years with one sister married to a wealthy man and the other needing protection after witnessing a mob hit.
When Rich Sis Siobhan falls overboard during a private boat trip,Poor Sis Bridget steps into her very pricey shoes and attempts to adapt to her sibling's life. Turns out that money didn't buy her sister any love or safety as Bridget's list of folks to flee from grows bigger than before:
Revenge is set in the Hamptons,where Emily Thorne(Emily VanCamp)returns to settle an old score with the Grayson clan,headed up by mother Victoria(Madeleine Stowe).
For reasons known only to a few,Emily's father was wrongly imprisoned and Emily's happy childhood cut tragically short due to the machinations of the Grayson family and now a grown up Emily is out for some serious yet subtly scheming payback. The show is said to be loosely based on The Count of Monte Cristo and with any luck,it'll be as smartly written as that timeless tale is:
Predicted Winner: Ringer,no doubt about it. A double dose of Sarah Michelle Geller in a twisty-turn suspense series is pretty much golden,folks. Revenge might be a good show but SMG has a strong following from Buffy that still holds up today and plenty of her fans are happy to see her back on the small screen again.
Well,that's how I see it for now. Please feel free to give me your opinions on the subject and offer up a few upcoming throw-downs in TV land this autumn of your own. Picking winners is not an easy task,since there are always a number of variables that could tilt the end result either way. Then again,some battles are almost too simple to watch and see who ultimately comes out on top:
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