Pilot Thoughts: Blood and Oil, Quantico, Heroes Reborn

Last week I wrote about four new pilots I watched this fall. Here are three more though technically two pilots and a reboot.

Blood and Oil (ABC)

As a previous fan of Revenge and current fan of Empire and How to Get Away with Murder, my love for trashy prime-time soaps is clear. My hope was Blood and Oil would follow suit. Unfortunately its biggest sin in the pilot is just how shrug-worthy it all feels. The lead couple played by Chace Crawford and Rebecca Rittenhouse are blander than milk though I can see the show writing them this way for now to show how quickly they're corrupted by all the sex/money/murder happening in this North Dakotan oil town. But all of that sex/money/murder were just too far and few in the pilot with even Don Johnson and Amber Valletta looking bored. The one teeny tiny highlight was Scott Michael Foster playing the entitled bad boy rich kid. More him and more sex. Less everything else. C

Quantico (ABC)

This show was ABC trying to do a Shonda Rhimes show without Shonda Rhimes. It's literally a mash-up of Grey's Anatomy (hot coeds living and learning together), Scandal (amidst political and dangerous situations), and How to Get Away with Murder (plus a whodunit with a flashback structure). So on the one hand, hats off for doing all of that and still delivering a relatively fun and intriguing pilot. But then it also falls a bit under all of the weighty comparisons and expectations. The characters right now, as uniformly hot as they are, are not specially drawn out, but that's to be expected on a show with this large of an ensemble. Lead Priyanka Chopra seems more than capable though so I'll be interested in seeing what more she can do. B

Heroes Reborn (NBC)

This isn't technically a pilot, but I still wanted to chime in with my thoughts. So, I loved the original Heroes and while I agree that they went off the rails in later seasons, I was still interested in this world, these characters. With that said, I'm predisposed to like this continuation reboot. And here's the thing, this show is exactly what you expect. If you liked Heroes Original Flavor, you will like this. If you didn't, then this new show isn't for you as well. I believe they achieved a nice balance of addressing what happened in the earlier series while being free to continue with a new-ish story. I personally can't wait to spend some time with some old and new characters alike. Is it perfect? It's not at all and many of its flaws (confusing timeline, awkward dialogue) are still present but I'm a sucker for people with super powers so I'll be here every week. B

There was a brief moment last week when I considered watching the pilots for The Grinder and Grandfathered, two shows that I kept mistaking for one another all summer. Both have actually gotten mildly positive notices, but in the era of Peak TV I think I'll do myself a solid and try to limit my TV watching a bit more. In fact, I've already given up on one new show this fall: Scream Queens. I just didn't feel the need to watch another episode after its two-hour premiere episode.