Midseason Replacement Shows

Every year there are a bunch of midseason replacements - whether to replace a failing show, or to take the place of one that is going on hiatus. Some of the more famous ones from years past include: Grey's Anatomy (replaced Boston Legal), The Simpsons (replaced Booker), and All in the Family (replaced To Rome with Love) to name a few.

This season there are some very good new shows, some that need more time to develop and some that will not last very long at all. Here are just a few of the many that came out in 2011.

Leaders of the Pack

Shameless

This US spinoff of the UK show stars William H Macy and Joan Cusack among others. This is one of my favorite shows of 2011. It is funny, serious, exciting, dramatic, sexual, and many other things all at once. The series focuses on Macy's family - he is an alcoholic and his daughter played by the lovely Emily Rossum has to take care of the "kids" (she is just 21 herself). Joan Cusack plays a agoraphobic with seriously kinky sexual desires, and if I had a vote, she'd win a lot of awards this year. Must watch.

The Chicago Code
This "The Wire" wannabe is a new crime drama set in Chicago. It follows the chief

of police and her ex partner as they look to fight crime (especially corruption in an alderman's office). I'm not sure yet if a show like this can be as gritty as it calls for on network TV. That's what made The Wire so gripping - the fact that it was on HBO and could do/show whatever it needed to to get the message across. That being said, it's a fantastic show with great dialogue especially if you're from Chicago. The only thing that bothers me is that there isn't an authentic Chicago accent on the whole show (well, that and that the lead character is a Sox fan). I hope this show gets the ratings it needs to carry on.

Mr. Sunshine
Matthew Perry's new show Mr. Sunshine - which he also stars in - is a hit. Will it say on TV? Who knows. It seems to me that single-camera shows like this one and SportsNight from years ago have trouble finding an audience. That said, Perry and Allison Janney are absolutely fantastic together. The humor never stops in this show, and the dialogue is quick and witty.


On the way, but not there yet

Breakout Kings
This new A&E drama stars Domenick Lombardozzi from The Wire. It is about a group of convicts who work with the police to catch people who have broken out of prison. The show is good, but it is hard to believe a show like this when episodes wrap up neatly in an hour. I think the show would be greatly helped by having a storyline that runs through for a season - even if it is a back story. More about tracking those that broke out than catching them. That being said, the drama and characters do have an attractive quality about them, and I hope this can turn into a great show.

Fairly Legal
This is a new USA show starring Sarah Shahi (who I recognize very clearly from Season 1 of Alias).

She plays a former lawyer turned mediator who can get just about anyone to agree with her point of view and to see the light of the beauty of compromise. The show is a fun one, it will never be a great law drama, but it is fun to watch.


Need to pick it up

Off the Map
The new drama from Sandra Rhimes - creator of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.

I actually have started to like this show a bit more the past couple of weeks; however, I still think it tried to jump us directly into the middle of the jungle without a parachute and lacks a bit of focus. I think the writers want to keep the show moving and fresh, but one of the great things about a show like Grey's Anatomy or ER (et al.) is not the medicine, but the relationships with the characters. This we don't get in Off the Map. One of the characters has been diagnosed with heart disease and I could seriously not care less. That's not a good sign. I want to be invested in characters and I want to care what happens to them. I'm not there yet with Off the Map. Sure, the awkward moments and funny comments are enjoyable, and there is real drama with the medicine cases, but overall the show still isn't captivating for me.

Mad Love
The midseason replacement for Two and a Half men (after Charlie Tiger Blood Sheen stopped #winning) is Mad Love. It stars Jason Biggs (American Pie) and Sarah Chalke (How I Met Your Mother) as an unlikely couple that fall for each other in the first episode. It also centers around their two friends who just cannot get along. For the first episode, this was funny. Even the second. But now we're quite a few in, and I'm not sure how many times they expect to play the same scene over and over again with Biggs and Chalke being lovey-dovey and their friends hating each other. I can't see this show lasting past summer - if it even gets that far.


So, that is a wrap-up of a few of the new shows out there this season, there are many more, and I'm sure I'll get to them at some point.

Until the next episode...
Chris