FRANKLIN & BASH:  Wednesday 9PM on TNT

Wednesdays have become series reclamation night on cable.  Last week we had Necessary Roughness adding John Stamos for a new series setting and a bit of zing; now FRANKLIN & BASH, reaching into the same bag of TV nostalgia, has brought Heather Locklear in as a regular.  Locklear plays Rachel King, the new senior partner at the boys’ law firm and a boss less tolerant than Stanton Infeld (Malcolm McDowell)–who’s still on the show but seemingly in a diminished role–which means Franklin (Breckin Meyer) and Bash (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) will be running rings around her with their purportedly irrepressible cunning charm.  (Meanwhile, Garcelle Beauvais’s Hanna has been summarily ejected, the firm and series apparently being unable to contemplate a world with two senior female partners.)

In addition to introducing Locklear, the back-to-back season premiere (unrelated episodes, the first written by series creator Bill Chais and Executive Producer Matt McGuinness and directed by Mike Listo; the second written by Executive Producer Kevin Falls and Executive Story Editor Bill Krebs and directed by Jay Chandrasekhar) also moved the pair’s living quarters to a new location.  After live-in (literally–he’s more or less agoraphobic) paralegal Pindar (Kumail Nanjiani) accidentally burned down their house in Episode 1, the trio and their fellow live-in, investigator Carmen (Dana Davis) rented Stanton’s beachside house, presumably so the show could incorporate some more exteriors for the weekly frat-party sequences.  (One imagines that if Franklin and Bash peered out of their new digs, they could see the surfing FBI and DEA agents in their Graceland house down the beach.)   Also, Locklear’s character forced Franklin and Bash to put up a wall separating their previously shared office, for no clear reason as yet.

Will these moves change Franklin & Bash to any great extent?  It’s unlikely.  So far Locklear has little in the way of a real character to play, although eventually the show will probably get around to giving her some backstory; she’s just another authority figure for the leads to work around and run over.  The appeal of F & B, such as it is, depends almost entirely on one’s susceptibility to Meyer and Gosselaar as overgrown teens and their courtroom antics.

There were antics aplenty in the first two episodes of the season.  The first had them representing a magician (Adam Goldberg) who had an identical twin (the latter had stolen a woman’s bracelet)–one kept waiting for there to be some clever trick about all this, like the identical twin not really existing, but no, it was about as ordinary as a story about identical twin magicians could be.  Mostly it was an excuse for Franklin to keep screwing up magic tricks, until of course we reached the one he needed to pull off in open court.  The B story, about a masturbation tape that officious partner Damien Karp (Reed Diamond) had made which went viral (so to speak), was as woeful as it sounds.

Episode 2, which barely involved Locklear, was some silliness about a real estate firm that had a war veteran declared legally dead so his Social Security benefits would stop and he would lose his house, which they then snatched up.  This led to the heroes filing a wrongful death action against the realtor, and the “dead” man giving testimony as “John Doe,” which made no sense no matter how much reasonable doubt you were inclined to give the script.

Franklin & Bash doesn’t try very hard to make sense or to be a legal show in any realistic sense of the term.  It’s just a breezy summer comedy that happens to run a full hour and take place partly in courtrooms, and as such, it’s tolerable in small doses.  Last season, with a big Rizzoli & Isles lead-in, the show pulled OK numbers in the 0.7-0.9 range, but this year it has to hold Wednesdays down alone, which may be the reason for the series make-over.  Maybe it’ll work, maybe not; in any case, Franklin & Bash is a show that’ll be forgotten about 30 seconds after its last episode hits the air.

TWISTED:  Tuesday 9PM on ABCFamily

Previously… on TWISTED:  Danny Desai (Avan Jogia) served 5 years in jail after (as far as we know) strangling his aunt to death as an 11-year old.  Now he’s out, and his one-time best pals Jo (Madelaine Hasson) and Lacey (Kylie Bunbury) have–a little uneasily–resumed their friendships with him.  But his nickname at school is “Socio,” and there’s already a new dead body in town, her necklace (which had once belonged to Danny’s aunt) secretly in Danny’s possession, leaving suspicion aimed firmly in his direction.

Episode 2:  Nothing in the second hour of Twisted, written by series creator Adam Milch and directed by Executive Producer Gavin Polone, inspired much confidence that the show knows where it’s going.  It’s already something of a tonal mess, as this week’s episode introduced an abrupt, and somewhat off-putting, note of broad satire, as the high school attended by the latest victim and the rest of the show’s teens brought in a grief counselor who made the one on NBC’s canceled comedy Go On seem like an expert.  This blended badly with the very earnest soap that occupies the rest of the show.

Another potential problem is that Twisted is so concerned with holding onto all of its narrative cards that very little really happened in the episode–not a good sign for the first post-pilot hour.  We learned nothing about either murder that we didn’t already know, and instead the bulk of the hour was concerned with the relationship between Danny and Jo, and among their parents.  Danny’s mother Karen (Denise Richards, whose current look fits this character), despairing the fact that Jo’s father, town sheriff Kyle (a dogged Sam Robards), already believes Danny guilty of the new murder, tried unsuccessfully to gain some sympathy from Jo’s mother Tess (Kimberly Quinn), while Jo suggested a dinner for the two moms.  When Kyle invited himself along, skirting rules of search and seizure with some unauthorized snooping in Danny’s bedroom, a blow-out was sure to follow, and did.  But nobody revealed anything, either in terms of character or plot, so we just had a bunch of not particularly appealing people yelling and sniping at each other.  Meanwhile, Lacey brooded about her friend’s death and didn’t volunteer her alibi for Danny (which isn’t much of an alibi, anyway, since while she was physically with Danny, she was purportedly sleeping while the murder would have been committed).

With so little going on in the way of content, shortcomings in the dialogue and some of the performances were more glaring than they should have been, suggesting further difficulties for the show could be in store.  Twisted did fairly well in the ratings last night, rising from its sort-of-premiere the week before–but that “premiere” had previously aired several months ago, and Twisted still lost almost half its big Pretty Little Liars lead-in.  It needs to stabilize quickly, both in quality and in viewership.  The show should figure out its tone and start telling its story, because going around in circles isn’t the right direction.

ORIGINAL VERDICT:  If Nothing Else Is On…

PILOT + 1: Maybe Not

Whatever may have happened in that New Jersey diner after the sudden, famous cut to black, we now sadly know how The Sopranos ends:  James Gandolfini, forever a part of television history as Tony Soprano, has reportedly died in Italy at age 51 of an apparent heart attack.  Gandolfini won 3 Best Actor Emmys for his signature role (and was nominated in each of the other 3 seasons the show was on the air), as well as a Golden Globe, SAG awards and many others.  He wasn’t HBO’s first choice for the show (the network wanted John C. Reilly), but once he had it, he and David Chase changed the face not just of their medium, but of popular culture in general, with a protagonist who didn’t look, or act, like any other dramatic television star.

Before The Sopranos, Gandolfini was a solid character actor, usually playing tough guys in movies like True Romance and Crimson Tide, but sometimes getting a chance to show surprising quirks and depth of character, notably in A Civil Action and The Mexican.  He also starred on Broadway in the Tony-Award winning God of Carnage.  Recently he’d played an assortment of colorful supporting roles, voicing one of the monsters in Where the Wild Things Are, re-teaming with Chase on last year’s Not Fade Away, and turning in a pair of strong performances as men concerned with the lives of troubled young women in the indies Welcome to the Rileys and Violet and Daisy.  Gandolfini has an upcoming comedy by Nicole Holofcener awaiting release, and he had just had a new limited series project picked up at HBO.

Our collective Ba-Da-Bing will never be the same.

Opening at over 3,800 theaters Friday (just above the top 10% of theater counts), Monsters University from Pixar and Disney should average $21,100 per theater for the weekend (for an $80 million opening).  [The average wide-release film the past two years has had an opening weekend of $5,300 per theater.]  The early reviews are positive at RottenTomatoes: 79% positive overall (with top critics nearly identical at 80% positive).  Nonetheless, this reception is still several notches below the 96% positive score (and 90% positive with top critics) for Monsters, Inc. (released November 2, 2001).  Monsters University should be on track for $255 million domestic, below the $289.9 million domestic for Monsters, Inc.

Opening at around 3,055 theaters today (a theater count somewhat above the 2,886 average the last two years), World War Z from Paramount should average a decent $12,800 per theater for the weekend (for a $44.5 million opening).  Early reviews are generally positive: 73% positive overall but a wobbly 56% positive with top critics.  World War Z should be on course for $130 million domestic.  

Expanding to around 500 theaters Friday, The Bling Ring from A24 (which brought us Spring Breakers earlier in the year) should average a mediocre $5,100 per theater for the weekend (for a $2.5 million opening semi-wide opening).  Early reviews are somewhat positive: 62% positive overall and a similar 56% among top critics.  The Bling Ring should finish with about $9 million domestic.

FRIDAY

STARZ:  The network continues to have a hard time getting any traction for its original scripted shows, as MAGIC CITY returned for its second season with a miniscule 500K viewers, of whom only 30% were under 50 (an 0.1 rating).

SYFY:  CONTINUUM held just about even, with 1.3M viewers and an 0.4 rating in 18-49s.

SUNDAY

HBO:  The Season 6 premiere of TRUE BLOOD, with 4.5M viewers and a 2.4 in the demo (plus 1.1M and 0.6 for the 11PM rebroadcast) was down from both last year’s premiere (5.2M/2.9) and last week’s Game of Thrones finale (5.4M/2.9).  Roughly 2/3 of its viewers were under 50.  VEEP was also marginally down, to 1M viewers and an 0.5 demo rating, while FAMILY TREE rose about 15% in total viewers (to a still-slim 540K) and remained steady at 0.2 in the demo.

LIFETIME:  The 2-hour season finale of THE CLIENT LIST was just about even with its recent ratings at 2M viewers and 0.7 in the demo, although the 9PM hour was a bit low and the show’s usual 10PM slot was slightly higher.  That was considerably lower than last year’s finale, which had 2.7M viewers and a 1.0 demo rating.  (Enough so that the rumored creative issues on Season 3, with star/producer Jennifer Love Hewitt insisting on plot turns that suit her domestic arrangements, may be making Lifetime dig in more deeply than it otherwise might.)

TNT:  FALLING SKIES plunged from last week’s season premiere, down by a third in both metrics to 2.8M viewers and 1.0 in the demo.  Since the HBO competition was softer this week, and both Sundays included NBA Finals games, there’s no ready explanation for this, but while the numbers are still fine, TNT has to be very concerned.  (The 11PM rebroadcast held up better, with 1.2M/0.4 compared to last week’s 1.4M/0.5.)

AMC:  With one week to go before its season finale, MAD MEN was down a sliver at 2.1M viewers and a 0.7 in the demo.  THE KILLING held more or less even with 1.4M viewers and a 0.4 demo rating.

SHOWTIME:  The season finale of NURSE JACKIE was steady with 750K viewers and 0.3 in the demo, but the final episode of THE BORGIAS was down to 525K viewers and just 0.1 among those under 50.

MONDAY

ABCFAMILY;  It wasn’t a good night for the Monday newcomers, and that started with THE FOSTERS, which slumped to 1.25M viewers and 0.5 in 18-49s, down by 450K viewers and 0.2.  That’s something of a puzzle, considering that Week 2 had been healthily up from its premiere 2 weeks ago.  (We don’t have the 12-34 demo numbers, which are really this network’s target.)  Fosters was significantly below its SWITCHED AT BIRTH lead-in, steady at 1.6M viewers and 0.7 in the demo.

TNT:  Less of a puzzle:  why people fled KING & MAXWELL after sampling it last week.  The dismal private detective series fell by 700,000 viewers to 2.8M and by 0.2 in the demo to 0.4.  Lead-in MAJOR CRIMES was also down quite a bit from last week’s season premiere, with 4M viewers (1M below the premiere) and 0.7 in the demo (down 0.2).

SYFY:  DEFIANCE is losing steam, off 300,000 viewers to 1.6M and down 0.1 in the demo to 0.5.  WAREHOUSE 13 gave back last week’s gains, with 1.35M viewers and 0.4 in the demo.

MTV:  There was no full moon for TEEN WOLF, off 20% from last week in total viewers to 1.7M and down 30% in 18-49s to 0.7.  (As with ABCFamily, we don’t have the network’s more targeted demos.)

A&E:  LONGMIRE held its 0.7 demo rating from last week, but even it was down in total viewers by 300,000 to 3.4M.  Lead-in THE GLADES, conversely, was even with 2.3M total viewers, but slipped 0.1 to 0.5 in the demo.

TUESDAY

ABCFAMILY:  PRETTY LITTLE LIARS maintained its impressive season premiere numbers, with 2.9M total viewers and a 1.3 in the 18-49 demo (presumably the numbers were even better among ABCFamily’s 12-34 audience).  TWISTED, airing its first really “original” episode (last week’s pilot had previously aired as a “preview” in March) was up from last week with 1.8M total viewers and 0.7 in 18-49s (compared to 1.6M/0.5).

COMEDY CENTRAL:  The renewed INSIDE AMY SCHUMER held at 0.4 in the demo, with 800K viewers.  A Tuesday-to-Tuesday comparison of John Oliver’s stint guest-hosting THE DAILY SHOW (Monday-to-Monday is unfair, because last Monday was his first night, boosted by the curious) had him very steady at 1.2M viewers (up 100K) and 0.5 in the demo (even).

It was a big night for basketball and song.

ABC:  Per Mitch Metcalf:  We are estimating that last night’s Game 6 of the NBA FINALS, in which Miami forced a Game 7 on Thursday by beating San Antonio in overtime, will end up with a 7.6 rating in the official nationals later today when the west coast viewing of this live telecast is counted properly (up from the distorted 6.5 fast national rating).  This would be slightly ahead of Game 5 on the same night last year (when Miami ended the series against OKC) and sets up Thursday for an 8.5+ rating for Game 7.  In final adjusted numbers, we estimate the pre-game JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE will be at 1.0, down 0.1 from the equivalent night last year, while NBA COUNTDOWN will be at 2.1 (also down 0.1).

NBC:  The season finale of THE VOICE was at 4.3, which we estimate should bump up to 4.4 when final numbers are in.  That’s the same as the 4.4 the Spring 2012 finale had, but the asterisk is that in 2012, the finale aired in-season, against first-run competition on all the other networks.  Of course, it didn’t face an NBA Finals game–but on the other hand, it’s not clear how deep the overlap is between the Voice audience and basketball fans.  In any case, the finale was down 0.6 from the November 2012 cycle finale.  At 8PM, AMERICA’S GOT TALENT had a 2.9 that was down 0.1 from last week.

FOX:  SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE was at 1.4, down 0.3 from last week.

CBS:  Reruns, highlighted by 1.1 for NCIS.

CW:  Reruns at 0.3/0.3.

Hockey holds the ice tonight at NBC with Game 4 of the STANLEY CUP FINALS.  FOX has 2 hours of MASTERCHEF, while CBS and ABC air a mix of new programming and reruns.

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY:  Watch It At Home – No Dean’s List For Pixar’s Latest

There’s a wonderfully charming, imaginative Pixar movie opening on Friday, one that will restore your faith in the studio’s near-miraculous ability to give life and personality to the most unlikely objects (here including a parking meter and a Walk/Don’t Walk light, among others).  Sadly, that marvelous film is The Blue Umbrella, the 5-minute short that precedes MONSTERS UNIVERSITY in theatres.  The feature attraction is altogether more earthbound.

There’s a key moment in Monsters University where a character says ruefully that it’s OK to just be OK, and while he’s instantly assured that he’s much better than OK, the statement says a lot about where Pixar’s head is these days.  The studio that once celebrated idiosyncratic, original protagonists in movies like Ratatouille and WALL-E and The Incredibles is now content to pay the bills.  After Cars 2 and (to a lesser extent) last year’s Brave, it’s unfortunately no longer a shock to be underwhelmed by a Pixar production, and Monsters University is expertly made but no more than medium quality.  We’re in franchise territory, of course, a place where multi-billion dollar corporate assets like Pixar have to dwell (after only one sequel in its first decade of existence, 3 of Pixar’s last 4 movies have been installments of existing franchises).  Specifically, University is a prequel to 2001′s Monsters Inc, set during the college years of eye-with-legs Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) and fuzzy giant James P. “Sulley” Sullivan (John Goodman).  However, directors Pete Doctor, David Silverman and Lee Unkrich are gone, replaced by writer/director Dan Scanlon, and only Daniel Gerson has returned of the original screenwriters.

Although we see glimpses of the Monsters Inc factory and there are certain repeated motifs (like the doors that provide access from the monster world to that of human children), the story and milieu this time are very different.  It wouldn’t be accurate to say that Monsters University tracks every cliche of the college-comedy genre–with its G rating, there’s a whole range of campus tropes University can’t get near–but the basics here are wearily familiar.  Mike is the over-eager book-smart student who needs help translating his academic learning to practical effect; Sulley is the lazy natural talent, trying to live up to an illustrious family name.  The two rub each other the wrong way at once, but after an initial disaster that gets both of them in trouble, they’re forced to work together.  Not only that, but the only fraternity they can join is campus joke Oozma Kappa, a group of campus outcasts that includes mama’s boy Scott (Peter Sohn), two-headed Terry (Dave Foley) and Terri (Sean Hayes), and middle-aged Don (Joel Murray).  The only way to regain their dignity and stay in school is for Mike and Sulley to put aside their differences and guide Oozma Kappa to victory in a series of impossible competitions called the Scary Games.

Naturally, everything that happens in Monsters University is given a monstrous spin from its real-world movie equivalent, but the basic outlines are obvious from influences that start with Revenge of the Nerds and go through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  The aspirational and self-actualization messages that feel genuinely inspirational in the great Pixar films are blatant and predictable here, with hardly any subtlety or surprise, and there’s nothing more to the characters than what we learn about them in the first 30 seconds after they’re introduced.  Despite a hugely gifted vocal cast–aside from those already named, Steve Buscemi, Charlie Day, Alfred Molina, John Krasinski, Bonnie Hunt, Bobby Moynihan, Nathan Fillion and Aubrey Plaza are among those making appearances–only Helen Mirren’s marvelously imperious Dean (a flying insect with huge wings) makes any impression; you’d barely know the rest of them are there if you didn’t stay for the credits.  Crysal and Goodman, both working hard to sound like teens at ages 65 and 61, don’t get to do anything they didn’t do in the first movie, and without any engaging storyline for them to react to like the baby in Monsters Inc, they have nothing to fall back on but repetition.

Pixar is Pixar, so Monsters University looks wonderful, with the kind of detail in lighting and production design that we expect from the studio.  It will no doubt please young children, and it moves along at a fair pace during its 100 minutes, so no one should be bored.  On its own limited terms, it’s a perfectly reasonable piece of family entertainment.  It’s sad, though, when a Pixar production is less ambitious and distinctive than the recent Epic or Disney’s non-Pixar Wreck-It Ralph.  Monsters University feels like a movie made to fill a slot on the studio’s summer schedule.

That Blue Umbrella short, though, is the real thing, in its own tiny, lovely way a reminder of what Pixar used to be and perhaps may be again.  Sometimes college students realize it’s their minors that will be more important to their future lives than their majors; Pixar may want to reconsider its courses for next term.

Things picked up for The Voice as it neared its belated season’s end.  

NBC:  THE VOICE was up 0.2 in preliminary numbers to 3.5 with its final Monday telecast of the season, and may rise more when final ratings come in this afternoon.  THE WINNER IS… was also up 0.2 to 2.0, although it may go in the other direction when official numbers are released. 

ABC:  THE BACHELORETTE and MISTRESSES were both down 0.2 from last week to 1.6 and 1.2 respectively.  (Bachelorette was down a big 0.7 from the same week last year, although that faced slightly softer competition on NBC.)

FOX:  Another dismal Monday, as THE GOODWIN GAMES and an off-FX ANGER MANAGEMENT both slid to 0.5s (down 0.1 and 0.2 from last week), each of them lower below the 8PM rerun of Raising Hope.

CBS:  Reruns, all at 0.9-1.0.

CW:  OH SIT was at 0.3, and then a rerun CARRIE DIARIES was barely watched with an 0.1.

Tonight’s primetime features an interesting battle between NBA FINALS GAME 6 and the season finale of The Voice.  Basketball should win handily, but both networks will have an audience.  FOX airs a new SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, and CBS is in reruns.

KING & MAXWELL:  Monday 10PM on TNT

Previously… on KING & MAXWELL:  Sean King (Jon Tenney) and Michelle Maxwell (Rebecca Romjin) are disgraced former Secret Service agents (an assassination and a kidnapping happened on their respective watches) who’ve formed a partnership as DC-area private detectives.  They interact with straight-men FBI agents Rigby (Michael O’Keefe) and Carter (Chris Butler) while solving sundry crimes and being adorably not-a-couple.

Episode 2:  The only significant change from the pilot is that Edgar (Ryan Hurst), the–depending how you look at it–either autistic or comic weirdo computer/financial genius who Sean and Michelle cleared of murder charges, now works for them as their hacker in residence, doing cutesy things like turning Sean’s door into a desk and keeping a potted flower in his briefcase.

Aside from that, the second episode of King & Maxwell, written by series creator Shane Brennan and directed by Tony Wharmby, is more of the same.  Whether this all goes back to the David Baldacci novels that inspired the series, or it’s Brennan’s own doing, what distinguishes the show so far from the usual run of mediocre TV procedurals is just how abysmally plotted it is.  Tonight’s episode turned on an Eastern European politician who’d raped a girl the last time he was in the US, when Michelle was on his security detail (she had him arrested, but the State Department set him free).  Now he’s back in town, and not one but two conspiracies are going on around him, each more far-fetched and downright silly than the last.  King and Maxwell quip up a storm as they, and Edgar, put the ludicrous links of the plots together, and it’s all completely bland, with no suspense and nothing going on to engage the viewer.

Tenney and Romijn are pleasant to have around, but King & Maxwell is fundamentally wretched (even the Canadian locations make little effort to suggest the real Washington DC).  Nevertheless, it appears to be what TNT wanted, since the network left things more or less as is.  The show had a mediocre start in the ratings last week with a 0.6 (down from 0.9 for its Major Crimes lead-in), but if it could hold there, it might survive at the low end of TNT’s acceptable curve.  Any slippage, though, and King & Maxwell is likely to go where it belongs, which is to the bottom of the resumes of all concerned.

ORIGINAL VERDICT:  Change the Channel

PILOT + 1:  There Must Be A “Law & Order” Rerun On Somewhere