Second Season TV

Without question, my favorite TV season is the second season, the one that spans the summer months, especially on the "off-network" channels. The programs are smarter, more well-written, often better acted, and more engaging than the Fall season, which seems to be a far-too-often formulaic presentation of unreal reality shows, lame game shows, totally uncomedic sit coms, and themes that hold absolutely no interest for me, including anything with housewives, unique/dysfunctional families, teenagers, and vampires.

Last night, the third full day and night of unrelenting, powerful winds that have me totally on edge, I taped CHAOS, which is supposed to portray a unique CIA special operative group. I've tried to come up with even one redeeming quality about the show, and it's simply not there. The basic premise is faulty, the writing is sophomoric, the acting is pedantic, and the action scenes are a woefully off-kilter rip-off of Get Smart!

Get Smart featured a savvy suit, an agent with the ability to ponder, then pontificate in a way that was hilarious. Agent Smart could think his way out of any situation, either deliberately or inadvertently, but he was clever in the process. In the new cast, the Agent Smart character totally lacks the charisma necessary to either be serious or be funny, which leaves him falling flat and a meaningless distraction. The token Hispanic minority male character loses his credability when he hits on his stereotypical blonde female boss, who plays him like a violin, which very few women do in today's workplace because jobs are too hard to find after one is fired and sued for sexual harassment. The macho agent, Eric Close, was much, much better as a cop on one of the major network "law" franchises. If he gave up that job for this one, it's a career killer.

The scripts appear to be the semester end-product of a college screenwriting class, wherein each class member is told to create a character that could function within a common setting, with the operative word being "could," rather than "can." The magic words, cohesion, coherence, and significance, are woefully lacking, perhaps in part because the mediocre cast lacks the acting chops to pull off a really mediocre script. The two back-to-back episodes I watched featured faulty scripts from the setting to the situation to the conflict to the dialog. The smarmy asides, as well as the contrived smart talk, creates caricatures, rather than developing characters, a device used by inexperienced, immature writers to cover their inability to write well.

And, when it comes to 21st century action scenes, who sends in a team of CIA operatives, all dressed in suits/ties/tie-on shoes, to a foreign country in a crisis situation -- and expects them to carpool? Agents who purchase their hi-tech equipment at a Chinese "adult toy store?" Agents who fight the bad guys with high kicks and karate chops, enemies who fire real guns with real bullets back at them? When the most engaging fight scene is a staged lover's spat based on a two-year relationship way back when, you know this show is not going to be back for another shot at making it.

I'm going to remain optimistic that there will be a few good shows over the summer, so I'll keep DVRing and previewing before I set up for recording any new season. CHAOS will not be on my second season TV viewing list.