Usually I only like to
review shows that are currently on the air, but considering the fact I’m taking
some time to reflect on the series as a whole before I post my review of the
series finale of Gossip Girl and most of the shows that I typically like to
comment on are currently on a break, I’ve decided to take the time to write a
review for the pilot of Deception; that being said, here are my thoughts on the
pilot.
The main thing that I found
myself thinking about as I was watching the pilot was that the show is
seriously lacking originality in a lot of ways, and I say this because I
thought of at least four different shows that I’ve already seen before as I was
watching the pilot. Those shows would be Revenge, Dirty Sexy Money, The Killing
and Desperate Housewives. I know that some people might think that I’m being a
bit random with some of the shows that I just listed, but those are simply
several of the shows that the pilot of Deception reminded me of in some way.
I’ll try to explain what elements of the pilot made me think of those shows as I
discuss certain elements of the show in my review.
Let me go right ahead and
say that while the pilot didn’t seem all that original to me, there were still
enough things about it to make me want to continue watching Deception once it
premieres on TV. The main thing that I like about Deception is that it features
several actors that I’ve seen in other things and like, namely Victor Garber
and Tate Donovan. The cast also consists of Wes Brown and Ella Rae Peck, both
of whom I’m familiar with, but have mixed feelings about after watching the
pilot. Wes Brown guest-starred in five episodes of 90210 at the beginning of
its fifth and current season. I didn’t really like him on 90210, but that was
pretty much because of the character he played, but Wes Brown and his
character, Julian Bowers, ended up being one of my favorite things about the
pilot, especially when it came to his scenes with Meagan Good, who plays the
protagonist of the show, Joanna Locasto.
I’ve never seen Meagan Good
in anything prior to this show, and I don’t remember hearing of her before
either, but I really liked her in the pilot. In terms of her acting, she
doesn’t come across as being on the same level of amazingness as Sally Field,
but I still think she did a great job in the pilot, and I’m confidant she will
continue to a great job on the show in the future. Here’s a brief side note:
Sally Field is my favorite actress, and she has been my favorite actress ever
since I saw her in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire when I was six years old. For those
of you who might not already know, I’m currently twenty-five years old, but I
digress.
Personally, I thought the
pilot did a great job of setting up the characters and storylines. There are
definitely several potentially interesting storylines based on what I saw. Although,
the pilot definitely felt a little rushed in my opinion. Given the fact that
this is only the first episode, I think I can forgive the writers for making
the episode feel too rushed though. After all, a pilot of a TV show is supposed
to do a lot of things. It’s supposed set up the storylines and the characters
on the show, so networks can decide whether or not it has potential to be a
good show and should be picked up to series. Not only does a pilot have to do
that for the network, it basically has to do the same thing for the viewers at
home too once it premieres on TV. That being said, I’m okay with TV shows being
fast paced, because if they move too slow then the viewers can get bored and
lose interest, causing them to stop watching. The writers really need to be
careful about how fast the storylines move on Deception beyond this episode
though, otherwise they could be completely out of ideas halfway through season
two at the rate the story moved in the pilot, assuming that Deception does well
enough in the ratings to be renewed for a second season.
As I mentioned earlier, I
found myself thinking a lot about Revenge, Dirty Sexy Money, The Killing and Desperate
Housewives as I was watching the pilot for various reasons. It reminds of
Revenge and Dirty Sexy Money because the protagonist on both shows had a
relationship with the family on the show when they were kids. Plus, they are
both primetime soap operas and I think it’s safe to say that Deception would be
considered a primetime soap opera as well.
I’ll go ahead and say that
between those two shows, Deception definitely reminds me of Dirty Sexy Money
the most, especially when it comes to the premise of both shows. For those who
don’t know that much about Dirty Sexy Money, it’s about a man named Nick George
who grew up with the Darling family, a rich family that his dad worked for. Nick
takes a job, as the family’s new lawyer so he can get close to them again,
because he believed that one of them is responsible for his father’s death.
Also, Nick’s first love was Karen Darling. The fact that Joanna’s mother worked
for Vivian’s family when they were kids, which is how Joanna and Vivian met and
became friends also reminded me a lot of Dirty Sexy Money. Joanna having a
relationship with Julian in the past also felt very reminiscent of the show as
well. I’ll admit that I don’t think that the writers of Deception are trying to
copy Revenge all that much, especially since Joanna isn’t forced to assume
another identity in order to reconnect with them and she’s a cop and wants to
solve the mystery of Vivian Bower’s mysterious death rather than get revenge on
them and make everyone’s lives a living hell like Emily Thorne on Revenge does.
Although, Joanna is claiming to just be getting out of an abusive marriage as a
part of a ruse to reconnect with the Bowers, which did kind of remind me of
Revenge.
Despite the differences
between Deception and Revenge, Deception still feels similar to Revenge in
terms of the tone and feel of the show being very dramatic. Dirty Sexy Money
was a drama, but the writers also never took things too seriously, which led to
it being much campier and somewhat funny at times, which is what sets both
Deception and Dirty Sexy Money apart in my mind. For anyone reading this who
has never seen Dirty Sexy Money before, I definitely recommend buying the DVDs
and checking it out. I’m sure that there were other factors to the show’s
eventual cancellation, but I’ve always considered the writers’ strike and ABC
deciding to wait until the next fall to have Dirty Sexy Money return with new
episodes rather than producing and airing more episodes for its’ first season
to be the main thing that ultimately caused the show to fail. It was a great
show that was cancelled well before should have been.
One of the concerns that I have
about the show is what the creator of Deception, Liz Heldens’, plans are for
the show in the long-term sense. It’s definitely important that Liz has a plan
going forward and won’t just be pulling stuff out of her butt as the show goes
along, especially when it comes to writing a show like this where the series
starts with a mystery. If you as me, it’s extremely important that she has
vision for where she wants the show to go that’s big enough for the series to
continue even after the mystery surrounding Vivian’s death has been solved, but
the same time I hope that she doesn’t allow the premise of the show to become
too big that the plot becomes extremely convoluted, causing the show to go
completely off the rails like Revenge has to a certain extent this season.
Don’t me wrong, I still love Revenge, and I’m thoroughly enjoying season two
for the most part, but I do wish that the writers would go back to doing some
more “take down of the week” episodes and move away from the whole thing with
the Americon Initiative, at least for a little while. The stuff with Americon Initiative
has been interesting at times, but I also think that the introduction Americon Initiative
has caused both the writers and Emily to get sidetracked from her plans for
revenge a bit too much this season, but I digress.
The pilot of Deception also
reminded me a bit of Desperate Housewives, especially when it was in its’ first
season and the writers were slowly revealing the mystery behind Mary Alice’s
suicide in the sense that like Desperate Housewives, Deception is starting with
the mysterious death of Vivian, which is part of what has me feeling concerned
about the show’s future. With Desperate Housewives, each season essentially had
a season long mystery, and after the mystery of why Mary Alice killed herself,
none of the season long mysteries were ever able to truly live up to the
greatness and intrigue that mystery of why Mary Alice killed herself at the
beginning of the series had.
Having watched the pilot,
it’s obvious that all of the characters have something to hide and have mysteries
of their own, so hopefully whatever happens with the other characters after the
mystery of Vivian’s death is solved will be enough to keep the show going for
four to six seasons, maybe more, while remaining interesting enough to keep me
and other viewers watching. I’m okay if the story behind Vivian’s death
expanding beyond her family to a certain extent, because it will have to since
it’s a TV show and not a miniseries or a movie, but I also hope the writers
don’t expand the mystery behind Vivian’s death to the point where it causes
Deception to go completely go off the rails like Revenge has this season.
Speaking of Desperate Housewives, the scene where Joanna is in her bathroom
crying right after she finds out that Vivian is dead instantly me made think of
the scene in the pilot episode of Desperate Housewives where Bree is alone in
the bathroom of Rex’s hospital room crying. I don’t know why, but for some
reason the way that scene was shot instantly made think of that scene from
Desperate Housewives.
Based on what I saw of the
characters in the pilot, I consider the characters to be a mixed bag of likable
and unlikable characters, as well as several characters that I wouldn’t say
that I necessarily like or dislike, but was at least intrigued by them for the
time being since there are some characters they didn’t show very much of, so I
haven’t been able to completely decide how I feel about them. The characters
that I found the most likable were Joanna, Will and Julian. I found them to all
be interesting, and I feel like Meagan Good has a lot of chemistry with both
Laz Alonso and Wes Brown. I also liked Tate Donovan’s character, Edward Bowers,
but I’m pretty sure that his character isn’t supposed to be a good guy.
In terms of the characters
that I found least likable in the pilot, that would definitely be Sophia and
Mia. Sophia came across being as rather cold and heartless, in my opinion.
During one scene where Joanna and Sophia have a heated confrontation about
Joanna coming back into their family’s lives, I couldn’t decide if Sophia was
supposed to be drunk and angry, drunk and out of it since she was drinking wine
during the scene, or if that was simply Katherine LaNasa’s way of portraying
just plain angry. I honestly couldn’t get a very clear read on the character
Sophia in the pilot other than she seemed like a very unpleasant and unlikable
person even before she got the news about Vivian being dead, and she continued
to act that way throughout the rest of the episode. I was really shocked by the
way Sophia acted, especially when it came to how she talked about Vivian. The
way she acted made me think that Sophia didn’t even love Vivian, which also
makes me wonder if she was involved in Vivian’s death in some way.
With Mia, she did seem to be
one of the few people that seemed to be truly upset about Vivian’s death.
Unfortunately, I found her rather annoying and was constantly wishing that Mia
would just take a hike, never to be seen or heard from again. Given the twist
at the end of the pilot with her character, I don’t think that’s going to
happen though since Mia now seems to be one of the main reasons why Joanna
plans to stick around and get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Vivian’s
death beyond the fact that Vivian was Joanna’s best friend. Despite not liking
Mia, I did think the twist with Mia at the end of the episode was a pretty good
way to end the pilot. Since the pilot won’t be airing on TV for several more
weeks, I won’t say anything about the what twist with Mia involves other than
the fact that it’s one of the reasons why I’m planning to continue watching the
show once it premieres on TV.
I can’t decide who I should
blame for me not liking Mia. A part of me wants to say that the writers are to
blame for Mia being annoying and unlikable, but given the fact that I wasn’t
too crazy about Ella Rae Peck when she was on Gossip Girl during its fifth
season, there’s a part of me who thinks that Ella Rae Peck is the one who’s to
blame for being Mia unlikable. Maybe it’s a combination of the two, I’m just not
sure, and that’s the problem with a lot of the characters on this show right
now. I’m not sure whether or not I like them, and I’m not sure how the viewers
are supposed to react to a lot of the characters on the show. It’s hard for me
to pinpoint who’s responsible for my indecision about the characters, because
it’s hard to get a clear read on most of the characters at this point. That’s
something that both the writers and the cast will need to really work on moving
forward with the show if they want the show to succeed.
One thing that I was
surprised to discover as I was watching the pilot was the fact that Marin
Hinkle is a member of the cast. As far as I can remember, I didn’t know that
she was going to be on the show prior to watching the pilot. Her appearance in
the pilot was very brief, but based on what they showed of her character,
Samantha Bowers, I was very intrigued by what the deal was with her character,
and it was one of the things about the pilot that captured my interest. I’m
definitely looking forward to seeing how she fits into the whole puzzle that is
Deception. I always kind of liked Marin on Two and a Half Men, as well as other
things I’ve seen her in, so seeing her on this show definitely got me excited.
One thing that I think is
going to be extremely important for the writers to do in future episodes is
show more flashbacks of Vivian’s life before she died, especially flashbacks of
her friendship with Joanna so viewers can better understand Vivian and why the
way she was as a person. Right now I’m having a really hard time caring that
Vivian is dead. I can’t help, but wonder are supposed to feel sad and think her
death was tragic? Are the viewers supposed to just shrug it off and not feel
too torn up about it like most of her family seems to be doing? The way most of
her family talks about her, especially her mother, Sophia, they all seem to
think of her as a drug addled party girl who they didn’t care about and are
relieved that she’s dead, or at least they weren’t very close to her when she
died. The people who seem to be the most upset about Vivian’s death are Joanna
and Mia, which isn’t enough for me as a viewer to care about Vivian’s death at
this point, especially since it looks like it actually involved foul play and
wasn’t a simple drug overdose.
Given the fact that Mia was
one of the characters I found least likable in the pilot, having her be the
only other character besides Joanna who seems particularly torn apart over
Vivian’s death isn’t enough to make me care or get too emotionally invested in
the fact that Vivian has died. If the writers continue to have most of Vivian’s
family act rather cold and dismissive about her death, they will definitely
need to feature more flashbacks of Vivian’s life in future episode, which would
hopefully make me care more about Vivian and the fact that she’s dead, or would
at least help better explain the family’s reaction to Vivian death. Otherwise,
if the writers aren’t able to make the viewers care about Vivian or at least
make them understand why her family isn’t all that sad about Vivian dying, then
the show doesn’t have a very good chance of succeeding.
Based on the pilot alone,
the way the writers are handling the character development for Vivian right now
reminds me of the character development for Rosie Larsen in AMC’s The Killing. The
scene with Vivian at the very beginning of the pilot very reminiscent of The
Killing and instantly reminded me of the beginning of The Killing’s first
episode where Rosie was being chased through the woods. I know with that show
the writers were trying to develop the character Rosie in a way that was very
similar to the way a police officer would learn about murder victims, which
would be through evidence and questioning various suspects in the case. That in
my opinion was one of the biggest weaknesses of The Killing, because it kept
viewers from caring very much about the fact that Rosie had been murdered.
Given the fact that Joanna grew up with Vivian and they were friends instead of
being a cop with no prior relationship or connection with the family, which was
the case on The Killing, I hope the writers of Deception can avoid falling into
that same trap and instead make the viewers care about Vivian and the fact that
she’s dead over time despite any trouble she might have been involved in when
she died.
I know that my next comment
doesn’t have very much to do with the pilot, but it’s still something that I’ve
been thinking about when it comes to my thoughts on Deception. I can’t help but
think that even a lot of the promotional posters and pictures that are being
used to promote the show lack originality. Here’s one of the pictures I’ve seen
for the show.
The main problem that I have
with it is that it instantly reminds me of the DVD cover for the first season
of Six Feet Under. Take a look:
Maybe I’m the only one who
thinks the two pictures look similar, but I don’t think it’s a good sign when
NBC can’t even come up with a truly original ad campaign for Deception, which
is by itself plagued with problems regarding originality, or rather lack there
of. After watching the pilot for Deception, I’m really starting to think that
NBC is supposed to stand for Nothing But Copycats, especially when I think
about some their other shows in recent years, both shows that are currently on
the air or shows that have been canceled.
Without getting into a
longwinded discussion about the numerous problems that NBC has had with
developing successful new shows in recent years, I have to say that feel like
they keep green lighting TV shows that are basically copying elements from
previous hit shows in the hopes of having the show also become a hit with the
viewers. The problem is that when people have tried to emulate previous hit
shows, the execution ends up being rather poor or mediocre. One example of this
being The Event, which was their obvious attempt at coming up with the next
Lost. I did like The Event, but I’m not going to deny that I thought it was
rather poorly executed by its’ writers and producers. One of the biggest
complaints that I remember people having with it when it started was about how
the story was constantly jumping around in time, and people found the story confusing
and hard to follow. I didn’t think the nonlinear structure was too terribly confusing
since they used subtitles to tell how far in the past the flashbacks were
taking place, but I thought the writing for the show was rather confusing in
other ways. Things got worse after the show came back from a long hiatus when
the writers switched from having the show be extremely non-linear to constantly
jumping all over the globe in terms of where the story was taking place.
Personally, I’m really
surprised that people haven’t been likening Revolution to Lost since there are
several things that they have in common. First off, J.J. Abrams was involved
with the development of both shows. Second, Elizabeth Mitchell was a cast
member on Lost and is now a cast member on Revolution. Finally, the
storytelling structure for the show is very similar to Lost in the sense that
each episode tends to be centered around one character and features flashbacks
involving that character. I for one think that Revolution is even more mediocre
than the pilot of Deception is, but it’s definitely grown on me a little bit as
the show continues. Personally, I think the pilot for Deception is better than
the pilot for Revolution, but that’s not saying much. If its long hiatus
doesn’t kill it, I think Revolution might have a chance of surviving and get a
second season, because everybody isn’t declaring it the next Lost, which would
only set expectations that Revolution just isn’t able to come close to meeting,
at least not right now.
In defense of NBC’s attempts
to come up with the next Lost, it’s not like they aren’t the only ones who have
tried and failed to come up with a show that people consider to be the next
Lost. Based on the super early promotion that ABC gave the TV show Flash
Forward during the series finale of Lost, it’s obvious that they were hoping
that Flash Forward would follow in Lost’s footsteps and become a hit. I
wouldn’t say that NBC was trying to copy Once Upon a Time by adding Grimm to
their primetime lineup since they were both new shows last season, but given
that both shows involve fairytales I’ve seen a lot of people compare the two, saying
that they view Once Upon a Time as the superior show. I honestly love both
shows, but I have to say that I actually like Grimm more than Once Upon a Time
this season, but I digress. The point I’m trying to make is that NBC needs to
stop making mediocre copies of hit TV shows, and instead put some effort into
trying to come with some original ideas for new TV shows if they ever want to
get out of the crappy state that the network is currently in.
All in all, this was a
decent, but not great pilot. The main problems that I have with it really are
that it seems to lacking in originality and only has a few likable characters
at the moment. I’ll be honest; I didn’t go into watching the pilot with very
high expectations though. If the pilot is any indication, Deception definitely
has potential to be a good; it simply needs to make some improvements and the
writers need to find a way to make it more original and come up with something
that sets it apart from the shows that it seems to be attempting to copy. I definitely
liked the pilot enough to keep watching Deception once it premieres on January
7th, especially since I’m always in the mood for a good primetime
soap opera. Sure, Revenge and TNT’s Dallas are both great shows and they are
already doing a pretty good job fulfilling my constant craving for an
entertaining primetime soap opera, but I can never seem to get enough soap
opera goodness in my life.
I don’t know if I would
consider this a show that I’ll always feel compelled to watch live, but based
on the pilot alone, I like Deception enough to at least watch it later on DVR
or perhaps online. Since I do think that the pilot showed potential to be a
good show, I would recommend that people check it out for themselves,
especially since the pilot is currently available to download for free on
iTunes and people can also watch it on NBC’s website and Hulu. Deception isn’t
a show that I would tell people to always watch live at this point, but I would
tell them that it’s at least worth watching on DVR or online.
That being said, my rating
for the pilot of Deception is a B.
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