2011 Midseason TV

We're several episodes into TV's midseason shows, so since we've gotten a taste of the new stuff, it's time to weigh in: which have you hooked? I've been tuning in to Perfect Couples, since it falls between two of my favorite Thursday night series (Community and The Office!), and Mr. Sunshine is a regular pick since it conveniently piggybacks with Modern Family.

While they haven't earned a spot at the top of my TiVo priorities yet, they're growing on me. Perhaps by the end of the year, they'll join the ranks of my favorite shows! But it's your turn — which new midseason series are you watching? Is Showtime's Shameless your new Sunday night must-see? Perhaps Off the Map is more your thing. Start talking!

Photos courtesy of NBC and copyright 2011 ABC, Inc.

I already gave you a sneak peek at Fox's Breaking In during the Winter TCAs, but let's take a closer look at the show by examining its very first episode. For my latest pilot scoop, here are a few of the comedy's pros and cons.

• What it's about: Cameron Price (Bret Harrison) is your typical college slacker with Van Wilder syndrome. Even with seven years of schooling under his belt, he'd much rather pull pranks and hack into teachers' emails instead of actually graduating. But once high-tech security firm Contra Security hears about Cameron's talents, it's only a matter of time before they come calling. Boss Oz (Christian Slater) literally breaks into Cameron's dorm room and takes him under his wing as an intern at the company, which attempts extreme heists (think stealing cars) to win over clients.
• Where it works: Harrison is just as charming here as he was on Reaper, and several of the quirky secondary characters show promise (I'm particularly a fan of the hovering office secretary Carol and Smallville's Michael Rosenbaum as sophomoric dimwit, Dutch).
• Where it doesn't: The script's jokes and vocabulary often try too hard, i.e., "douche-icle" instead of cubicle and "multi-assing" instead of multitasking. Groan. Odette Yustman seems like a miscast as the requisite love interest/bad girl, and for the first five minutes of the pilot, Christian Slater appears to be doing a Jack Nicholson impression, complete with dark sunglasses and cigar.
• Am I hooked? I wasn't in the beginning, but the show picks up steam further into the pilot. I'll probably give it at least one more go before I make a final judgment call.
• When is it on? Wednesday, April 6 at 9:30 p.m. on Fox.

Watch a preview clip after the jump.

I brought you the 411 on a ton of new midseason TV from the Winter TCA, but I still want to give the new shows a more in-depth look with my pilot scoops. Today I'm checking out the new CBS sitcom Mad Love.

• What it's about: Kate and Ben (Sarah Chalke and Jason Biggs) meet each other in the pilot and fall madly in love almost immediately, much to the chagrin of their jaded BFFs, Connie and Larry (Judy Greer and Tyler Labine). While Kate and Ben have an instant attraction, Connie and Larry hate each other (which basically means they also have an attraction, they're just fighting it).
• Where it works: The show has some funny dialogue and a similar feel to its network neighbor How I Met Your Mother, and Greer is endlessly entertaining (watch my interview with her for more insights on her character).
• Where it doesn't: The laugh track on this show feels particularly dreadful and forced. And while Kate and Ben are cute, their pilot interaction is just too saccharine.
• Am I hooked? I'm not sold yet, but I'll keep watching to see if Greer and co. can make the sitcom worth watching.
• When is it on? Monday, Feb. 21 at 8:30 p.m. on CBS.

To see a preview clip for Mad Love, just read more

Before all the Golden Globe madness hit, I was in the thick of the Winter TCA madness too! If you didn't get a chance to read all of my panel coverage from the event, I've rounded up the most interesting panels from the new and returning shows below.

American Idol	Shameless	Community
Off the Map	Perfect Couples	Episodes
Pretty Little Liars	Californication	The Borgias

One of the sexier shows to take the stage at the Winter TCA was Showtime's lusty historical drama The Borgias. Its cast, including Jeremy Irons and Colm Feore, and the creator, renowned filmmaker Neil Jordan, took the stage to talk about the new series. They touched on the historical accuracy of the story of the Borgia family, the scandals we can expect to see onscreen, and just how steamy things are going to get.

• Irons leads the cast as Rodrigo Borgia, a character that's been called the original Tony Soprano. Irons is well-equipped to sink his teeth into the role of the family head who eventually becomes Pope in 1492, citing the juicy goings-on of the time period: "murder, poisonings . . . incest here, sodomy there."
• Jordan said that the "entire series is about God and power" and seems to have found a minefield of drama in the scandalous history of the Borgias. He said he "didn't have to manipulate events to make them dramatically engaging" and that the events are pretty well documented: "I didn't have to make things up to make these people seem crazy."
• I, for one, am excited about the costumes, which Irons called "amazing" and added that he got so used to the period garb that he felt uncomfortable in a pair of pants. He said the women's costumes are "extraordinary," and pointed out that it's just one example of what makes the show on the whole a sumptuous affair.
• There is an incestuous storyline in store on the series, as there had been rumors during the Renaissance of an affair between brother and sister Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia. Jordan says that they were people who were simply "utterly fascinated by each other," and it won't be "a story about incest, it's a story about two people who were enraptured with each other."

Don't forget to check out all of my coverage from the Winter TCA

The Winter TCA got to see the face of an old Friend today, when Matt LeBlanc stopped by for his new Showtime series, Episodes. He was joined by his castmates and showrunners to talk about satirizing himself, the business of Hollywood, and whether Episodes would ever see a Friends reunion.

• LeBlanc talked about being game to play a satirical version of himself, saying, "I don't mind being the punchline if it's a good joke." He did admit that he wasn't totally sure about the concept of playing himself at first, but when it was clear that the Matt LeBlanc of Episodes is a character, and not really him, "that made it OK for me." As far as what's real LeBlanc vs. the show's LeBlanc, he says that it's going to be "more fun for me to not distinguish between the two and let people make up their mind on what's real and what's not real."
• On whether there would ever be a Friends reunion on Episodes akin to the one Curb Your Enthusiasm had for Seinfeld, executive producer and creator David Crane said they wouldn't touch it. "We're not looking to write the other Friends in," Crane said, much to my own disappointment as a Friends fan.
• British actors Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig play the writing couple who get sucked into Hollywood to find out that they've been misled by industry types like John Pankow's character, Merck. Asked if they'd had similar experiences as actors, Mangan said he had, and that it made him realize there's "something about the system that's a bit odd." Greig, on the other hand, said that this is her first time working in America and has only had good experiences. "I believe people when they say, 'You're fantastic.'"

Miss anything this week? Catch up on all my Winter TCA coverage here!

Shameless, Showtime's new comedy about a family that's just barely getting by in the Chicago projects, hit up the Winter TCA today. Star William H. Macy, who plays alcoholic patriarch Frank, chatted with costars Emmy Rossum and Justin Chatwin and the series' producers about their characters and the tone of the midseason TV offering.

• As downtrodden as Shameless can seem in its portrayal of a low-income family with an often-absent father, executive producer John Wells says that it's "really about a loving family." It shows how "people find ways to survive," and the sympathy and empathy they have for each other. Rossum ascertains that "these aren't people who feel sorry for themselves," and that they're "can-do people with a positive attitude." On that note, the producers said that there's an upcoming episode where we'll find out how the Gallaghers are able to live in their house.
• Macy was extremely enthusiastic about his character Frank, calling it the "role of the century," and playfully adding that "it sure is fun to play someone who's toasted all the time." Besides the character, Macy said he was attracted to the show for its great writing, adding that the cast is sometimes surprised by how outrageous the scripts are: "It stops us on the set every once in a while," adding "we just think 'that's shameless.'"
• Rossum also credited her character, Fiona, as the element that made her want to participate. She said she loves the character and had tons of praise for Fiona, citing her "fierce loyalty to her family" and the fact that she has a duality that makes her so strong, yet vulnerable. She's "very much a modern woman," Rossum said.

To learn more about Shameless, like the steamy sex scenes and Chatwin's role, just read more

The sitcom is alive and well, especially on CBS, which unveiled its latest comedy, Mad Love at the Winter TCA. The show is an ensemble comedy starring Jason Biggs, Sarah Chalke, Judy Greer, and Tyler Labine as four twenty-something singles falling in love in New York City. The stars and series creator sat down to talk about their rom-com-flavored sitcom and how great the cast gets along.

• Biggs fielded questions about why he wanted to do the show, and he replied that he has "been trying to do something with CBS for quite a while." He says it's been a great experience for him, especially since the cast has such great chemistry: "We've been having a blast." And to his credit, he didn't shy away from poking fun at his own career, joking, "I have sex with a sheet cake in the second episode."
• Biggs and Chalke play characters who fall for each other in the pilot, and Labine and Greer play their cynical pals. When Labine and Greer were asked how they felt about constantly being cast as sidekicks, neither seemed particularly disappointed by it. It's "less hours and more fun," according to Labine, while Greer shrugged it off, saying, "I love my career . . . I think it's been awesome."
• Amid the best-friend talk of Labine and Greer, series creator Matt Tarses took the opportunity to point out that their characters, Larry and Connie, aren't just best friends. Indeed, they hate each other immediately in the pilot, but it's obvious they they may be more: Tarses says that "there's an attraction that'll play out over the course of the show" between them.

To find out more about Mad Love and Greer's comments about Miss Guided, just read more

CBS's new series Chaos is aiming to make a group of rogue CIA agents both dramatic and funny, while also providing plenty of action (bonus: Brett Ratner is also an executive producer). The show's actors, including Freddy Rodriguez and Tim Blake Nelson, joined producers of the new series at the Winter TCA to talk about how they hope they'll pull off the unique tone, and what it's been like to film the exciting show.

• Executive producer Tom Spezialy talked about how the show is aiming to be an updated version of The Three Musketeers, and he referred to the four main characters in the CIA operative CHAOS (Clandestine Administration and Oversight Services) as the four musketeers several times. Spezialy says there are moments of true drama, but that he still "hopes it's funny." To that end, he mentioned a few filmmakers he thinks of as influences for Chaos's tone, including Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne, and Mike Nichols.
• As the new guy to the CIA unit CHAOS, Rodriguez's character Rick gets hazed a little bit by his new colleagues, but Rodriguez himself has already had to deal with some interesting challenges on set. In one scene in the pilot, he has to hold a real scorpion, and Rodriguez admits that he had "a slight anxiety attack." He told Ratner that he would only do it if Ratner would hold the scorpion, too, and when he wouldn't, "we had words." However, Rodriguez came around and held the scorpion (ha, he says it peed on him), and concedes that it's one of the "many fun things that I had to be involved" in on the show.
• Actor Tim Blake Nelson, who stars as "human weapon" Casey Malick, was relieved to play a part who was "someone in the mainstream as far as sanity is concerned." Nelson said that as a character actor he seeks out challenges, and "nobody had ever asked me to do anything like this before," referring to all the action he has gotten to do on the show, including fight training and fight choreography, which he said was "very exciting."

Catch up on all my Winter TCA coverage here!

When new midseason series Harry's Law popped onto the stage during the Winter TCA, we got a visit from a couple of movie and TV veterans, respectively: Kathy Bates and David E. Kelley. The star and its creator, along with the show's other stars like Nate Corddry and Brittany Snow, talked about the darkly comedic law drama, about a lawyer (Bates's character Harriet, aka Harry) who sets up an unconventional law practice in a run-down Cincinnati shoe store.

• The character of Harry was originally written to be a man, Kelley said, describing the original vision of him as "a curmudgeonly, cantankerous old grump." When they couldn't find the right actor, it was opened up to a woman, and executive producer Bill D'Ella's wife suggested Bates. And it wasn't hard for Bates to come around to the character. When reading the pilot, Bates said she loved that "she had her feet up on the desk, smoking pot and watching Bugs Bunny. After that I was in."
• When asked whether having an older woman leading a TV show was a tough sell, Kelley credits his star for it not being an issue. He said, "It's one thing to have a 60-year-old lead, [but] it's quite another to have Kathy Bates as your lead." Once Bates was in, there was no hesitation from the network.
• I was excited to see Snow on the panel, and she talked a little bit about her character Jenna, Harriet's assistant, whom she described as "quirky and crazy and all over the place." The adorable Snow was clearly in awe of Bates, calling her "the epitome of a class-act," and said that it's been a pleasure learning from the actress she calls "a legend."