Newspaper Page Text
NEW
SHOWS
TO FALL FOR
TV critic never agree on anything. Until now.
El's Jennifer Godwin sat down with five of
the best and wouldn't let them leave until they
agreed on which new shows you will (and won't)
like this season. Here's our exclusive guide.
It’s that time again: With fall in full swing,
the small screen soon will be teeming with
new TV series. To help prepare you for
this season’s onslaught of premieres, we
turned to five top TV critics from around
the country: David Kronke of the Los
Angeles Daily News, Charlie McCollum
of the San Jose Mercury-News, Joanne
Ostrow of the Den ver Post, Joanne Weintraub of
the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Molly
Willow of the Columbus Dispatch.
They all gathered in Los Angeles to
determine which new shows you
should casually check out, which to
avoid at all costs and which are so
darn good that they deserve a pre
premiere season pass on your TiVo.
As the first order of business, the
critics unanimously give Pushing
Daisies the top slot on the list of best
new shows. “The pilot is a perfect lit
tle short film,” Kronke says. But it’s
the promise of more goodness to come
that clinches its place as fall’s No. 1 newbie.
McCollum say's the show’s creator, Bryan Ftiller,
“is one of the few writers on television who can
sustain a premise past the pilot”
The genre-busting, hour-long series follows
6
USA WEEKEND • Sept. 21 -23,2007
the adventures of a baker named Ned who can
bring the dead back to life with the touch of his
finger. Of course, Ned’s party trick comes with
some complicated and dense fine print and if
he misuses his power, then innocent people die.
The two other easy calls for our critics are
comedy-adventure shows, Reaper and Chuck,
both of which are about reluctant heroes called
on to fight dark forces. The title characters of
both series are single slackers who w'ork in
generic big-box stores and have noth
ing better to do. really, than save the
world. But Kronke questions their
viability: “I wonder if the show's are
so similar that people might feel like
they have to pick one.”
After a much longer debate, dur
ing which the quality of the rest of
this new season’s offerings are ques
tioned (“I thought there were a lot of
mediocre shows this year,” Willow
laments), the critics round out the
top five “Best” list with the charming
M ?
' I
I /
Annual
Fall TV
Preview
Christina Applegate sitcom Samantha Who l
and the whodunit drama Women's Murder Club.
By outward appearances, Women’s Murder Club
is merely another cookie-cutter crime proce-
Continued on page 8
m o.
ISfe&ji
■ Bgr . v WH •.
I rffT
SHOOTING THE STARS
Our critics' top picks for "Most Likely
to Be Breakout Stars" teamed up for
an exclusive USA WEEKEND photo shoot
Bret Harrison of GW's
Reaper, Zachary Levi of
NBC's Chuck and Lee Pace
of ABC's Pushing Daisies had no
trouble getting comfortable
with each other during our
cover shoot last month.
As the guys gathered
around a card table prop, they
immediately began playing a
real game of poker while
mugging for the camera and
chugging the apple juice that
stood in for scotch at the dean
and-sober photo session.
The three share a boundless
energy for their work as well as
some surprising connections.
Harrison and Levi have been
friends for a while; Pace and
Harrison share a manager; and
Pace and Levi are neighbors
on the Warner Bros, lot in
Burbank, Calif., where their
shows shoot on side-by-side
soundstages.Tll swing by on
my Schwinn!" Levi promises.
Cover and cover story photographs by Robert Sebree for USA WEEKEND
Grooming. Bianca/Crystal Agency, Sabrina Sweet Styling by Jennifer Azoulay/Crystai Agency
The actors' happy energy
seems to come from good
old-fashioned job satisfaction.
‘Reaper is maybe the most
fun show I've ever worked on,"
says TV vet Harrison, who
shoots the series in Vancouver,
British Columbia, alongside
other young actors. Pace, who
worked primarily in film before
coming to TV for Daisies,
agrees: "Every week there is
going to be a new guest star
and a new cool thing to do!”
And Chuck's Levi, who topped
our critics' list, enthuses: 'l'm
amped every day. I come to
work, and I am so freaking
excited. We shot until 6 in the
morning last night, and I could
have done another two hours.”
If our cover boys are lucky,
TV audiences will respond to
Reaper, Pushing Daisies and
Chuck with the same amount
of infectious enthusiasm.
Jennifer Godwin