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It's been a while since I've watched anything on TV in prime time. NBC was advertising Midnight, Texas heavily during the news for a while. I glanced at a few reviews of the pilot yesterday and they were so bad, I thought it might be worth a look for giggles. For example, the review from Variety roughly said it had a hard time maintaining mediocrity.
Most of the reviewers had the advantage of being familiar with True Blood, the popularity of which apparently Midnight, Texas is trying to cash in on. Having never seen True Blood, I have to judge Midnight, Texas on its own.
Anyone who saw the first episode of Buffy, should remember how well Joss set background mood of the series before the first commercial. Midnight, Texas pretty much failed to set any kind of mood in an hour episode. I wouldn't say that the show was bad, mediocre or good. It was mostly inept. It was like watching an early rehearsal of a high school play version of somebody's first draft of a play. You don't want to criticize anything in particular, but it was certainly under-baked. No story to speak of. No sign of competent direction to guide the show toward anything. Lot's of characters running around seemingly at random. Lot's of stuff, but no focus.
The photography was fine. The acting seemed okay within the limits of the script. The special effects would have been state of the art in the 1940s. Not horrendous, just severely dated. The whole show was out of whack. To be bad, mediocre or good, something would have to be more in focus. It was supposed to be scary and have some humor, but the timing was so far off, I kept thinking, 'Oh, that was bland. Oh, what they said awhile back was supposed to be funny.'
The meager story had a sort of to-be-continued ending. But honestly I wonder if NBC will bother showing the second episode. I doubt anyone who saw the first will be watching.
Even the commercials were strangely inept. I guess NBC had a hard time selling ads. Most of them were a blur of early MTV-style choppy clips, none of which made any impression at all except for one trying to get people to visit Israel, for which the quick changes of scene made absolute sense. You know things are not encouraging for your new series when the best, most professional thing shown during the entire hour was an auto insurance commercial!
Grade: incomplete
Most of the reviewers had the advantage of being familiar with True Blood, the popularity of which apparently Midnight, Texas is trying to cash in on. Having never seen True Blood, I have to judge Midnight, Texas on its own.
Anyone who saw the first episode of Buffy, should remember how well Joss set background mood of the series before the first commercial. Midnight, Texas pretty much failed to set any kind of mood in an hour episode. I wouldn't say that the show was bad, mediocre or good. It was mostly inept. It was like watching an early rehearsal of a high school play version of somebody's first draft of a play. You don't want to criticize anything in particular, but it was certainly under-baked. No story to speak of. No sign of competent direction to guide the show toward anything. Lot's of characters running around seemingly at random. Lot's of stuff, but no focus.
The photography was fine. The acting seemed okay within the limits of the script. The special effects would have been state of the art in the 1940s. Not horrendous, just severely dated. The whole show was out of whack. To be bad, mediocre or good, something would have to be more in focus. It was supposed to be scary and have some humor, but the timing was so far off, I kept thinking, 'Oh, that was bland. Oh, what they said awhile back was supposed to be funny.'
The meager story had a sort of to-be-continued ending. But honestly I wonder if NBC will bother showing the second episode. I doubt anyone who saw the first will be watching.
Even the commercials were strangely inept. I guess NBC had a hard time selling ads. Most of them were a blur of early MTV-style choppy clips, none of which made any impression at all except for one trying to get people to visit Israel, for which the quick changes of scene made absolute sense. You know things are not encouraging for your new series when the best, most professional thing shown during the entire hour was an auto insurance commercial!
Grade: incomplete