Welcome to my Monday newsletter. This week, I am looking at new series The Regime, Elsbeth and Shogun!
I don't know if this is sort of an expectations game but I didn't have high hopes for The Regime after seeing some mixed to negative reviews in the last couple days. But then I think this show exceeded my expectations, at least by a little bit. I agree with the consensus that Kate Winslet is far and away the best part of this show. The acclaimed actress, last seen on TV in HBO's gripping Mare of Easttown, is fully committed to this role and she gives the show more gravitas than it probably deserves. The supporting cast isn't developed all that much in the first episode aside from Matthias Schoenaerts, who is solid but not doing anything special like Winslet.
But for me, it wasn't just Winslet that was worth watching. I think the premise of an authoritarian regime in a small country is an interesting one. I'm not sure it totally works on the satirical level (clearly, it's trying to make a commentary on where some of our national and global politics are trending). But as a story, I'm pretty interested to see what happens next. I think the show, at least in the pilot, found the right balance of humor and drama with some good writing moments. Maybe it all falls apart in coming episodes but I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the premiere and the tone of it.
It's hard to believe but we now basically have a The Good Wife universe on TV as CBS's new Elsbeth is the third show to take place in that same world started by CBS's acclaimed legal drama and continued on Paramount+'s quirky The Good Fight. Elsbeth focuses on Carrie Preston's goofy recurring character, Elsbeth Tacioni, as she moves from Chicago to New York ostensibly to oversee the NYPD, led by Captain C.W. Wagner (Wendell Pierce). The premiere focused on the murder of a young actress where Elsbeth suspected the director (strong guest star Stephen Moyer) as everyone else was going down different paths.
Like Will Trent, Elsbeth is a quirky and very competently made procedural. The Good Wife was one of the last really strong network dramas to effectively mix cases of the week with season-long arcs. After one episode, Elsbeth seems to be a little more contained to a case of the week show though the final minutes give some indication it has higher aspirations. While I enjoy Carrie Preston's performance and I think there's a lot to like here, I'm going to ultimately need this show to be a little more than it currently is because I know Robert and Michelle King are capable of that. I'm cool with case of the week shows ala Columbo or, much more recently, Poker Face but if each episode is just "Elsbeth goes against the main police narrative and solves the case," that will get old even with great guest stars and fun performances. If it can have the mini weekly cases while also developing some longer arcs, then I think this show stands to be one of Broadcast TV's better offerings at the moment. I hope that happens. On a different note, CBS is doing some real wacky things with the scheduling of Elsbeth with no more airings until April (due to State of the Union and March Madness). Why did they just not wait to premiere it?
The biggest premiere of the week was probably Shogun on FX/Hulu. I am trying really hard to get into this show because it's received a ton of acclaim and is sort of the "it" show at the moment but it's going to be a tough one for me. It has nothing to do with the show itself, which has great performances and is one of the most visually stunning shows to come out in awhile. It's more the subject matter that is difficult for me to stick with. I have very little interest in Feudal Japan and while I can always be swayed by really good TV (and that might be the case here), I struggled to keep attention during the first two episodes. Usually I say that to knock a show but that's not the case here. I just am not sure it's for me. I'll probably give it one more week because I would like to keep being part of the discussion, but I just don't know if it's going to be for me. It might have to go the Game of Thrones route, where I know it's popular and acclaimed and can accept why, but it just doesn't do it for me personally.
SCRIPTED PREMIERES THIS WEEK
Before the glut of premieres coming up on Thursday of next week (why is March 14 so crowded?), this is a pretty quiet week. Tuesday has FOX's season premiere of The Cleaning Lady and Alert: Missing Persons Unit. Both are shows that have middling buzz and middling ratings. On Wednesday, FOX has the second season premiere of Animal Control. The comedy has already been renewed for a third season. On Thursday, Netflix has the Theo James-led action drama The Gentlemen. It hasn't gotten a lot of buzz before its premiere but I wouldn't be shocked if it ends up being a surprise success like The Night Agent.
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