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S01.E01: Dragon Slayer


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After the apparent suicide of a Senator’s son is ruled a homicide, the Portland Police Bureau's Serious Crime Unit, led by Detective Backstrom must solve the case. Following the team’s arrival on the scene, forensics expert Sergeant Peter Niedermayer verifies that the death was indeed a homicide. This starts the trail for Backstrom and his team: Detective Nicole Gravely, Detective Sergeant John Almond, uniformed officer Frank Moto and the tech-savvy Nadia Paquet. Together, they must follow leads, while trying to maintain a low profile in this highly scrutinized case.

 

 

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Yeah, this looks like a pass for me. It also seems (at least from the previews) that it's trying hard to be a "House" only with detectives, not doctors.

Oh, and nitpick alert: It's bears, THEN beets, dammit.

  • Love 2
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This show had me at the moment of the Corsican folk remedy.

 

Is it innovative? No. We've seen this before. But I am loving the cast. And who has not wanted to do that to someone at some point in their lives? The Corsican folk remedy...hehehehehe

  • Love 2
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I really wanted to like this, but I thought it was a mess.  House got away with being a misanthrope and a jerk because he was a genius, but this guy's all over the map. 

 

When Rainn Wilson used his husky gravel whisper-voice, I kept thinking he was joking, that he was going to say, "I'm.  .  .Batman."

  • Love 8
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The husband loved Niedermeier (sp?) and I enjoyed him too.

 

I think I will love most anything Dennis Haysbert does, because he is wonderful. The black balls comment to the rugby guy was fun.  Moto may be the Wojo of the group. Him not getting the stripper logo was very Wojo-y.  Doctor Deb was  cool. Not sure about Valentine, but there's potential there. Gravely seems cool, just uptight. I'm willing to give her time.

 

Hey, Kyle Secord! You're still looking good. Too bad we barely saw you.

 

As to Backstrom himself? I like Rainn Wilson fine.  But when I caught myself thinking, ' if they tone that down a bit, it should be okay' more than once? I'm hoping the next episode or two is better, writing-wise.

 

I like the quirkiness of The Finder just fine. I can take Bones in small runs. I couldn't get into House.  I think we have been inundated with obnoxious white dudes that are ultimately right. What some of us may be feeling is fatigue or overload. If you switched Haysbert and Wilson, I think I'd feel the same. Just the fact that Mr. Haysbert was headlining might keep me an episode or two longer, but the "genius = obnoxious male" is feeling tired here. 

 

I am going to give it a couple of episodes, though.

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I was kind of meh until the final reveal. That's when I thought I could get into both the character and Rainn's performance. Always love hi as Dwight but I guess I needs a Jim to keep him in check! I get that he's supposed to be unlikable anti-hero but this isn't some basic cable drama, this is weekly network comfort food ala Castle. I think the thing that's going to keep me watching is the other characters. The team surrounding Backstrom, more than Backstrom, which is the opposite of House. Like the weekend pastor partner, the ex-MMA fighter uniformed cop, the new agey forensics guy, the sexy French civilian liason, the gay prostitute/underworld connection roommate(who might be his son) are all more original compared to the main character.

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Okay, now I have to watch this pile of hot buttered garbage to see how they ruin/torture the geography of Seattle. Will they do worse than The Killing? THE STAKES ARE HIGH

Probably shouldn't judge them to harshly for messing up the geography of Seattle because it's set in Portland.

  • Love 2
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Well that was simultaneously well made... and yet unpleasant to watch. It's a rare thing to be able to do those two things at the same time.

Antiheroes are fine with me. Misanthrope centerpieces to shows can be fun if well done. Anti-social douchebags with complexity can make for compelling viewing. But there has to be this weird kind of charm for it to be watchable, and Backstrom (so far) lacks it. It felt too forced, even if it was also slick.

Use some classic examples for comparison. Consider the subtle difference between lets say... Charles Grodin and Dabney Coleman. Both constantly played total assholes throughout their career. But Coleman's assholes were compelling viewing. Whereas Grodin's assholes were just... assholes. Rainn Wilson, who I might have thought could consistently pull off the full Coleman is instead coming off like a Grodin. What a shame.

Edited by Kromm
  • Love 8
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Wow. I was excited for this series but I turned it off halfway through the pilot. Does the world really need ANOTHER abrasive, racist/misogynist/homophobic main character whose self-destructive habits are sending him to an early grave? I vote no. Something about the dialog was off for me, too. Way too artificially snappy/clever and so rapid-fired that even with my captioning on, my audio processing had to struggle to keep up. Maybe this show's just too smart and edgy for me. Or ... maybe it's just not that great. Don't know; don't care.

  • Love 10
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I was halfway looking forward to checking this out but was disappointed.  As many have mentioned (and I thought I was so clever) I kept thinking it was "House solving crimes".  I do think it has potential if they dial it back a few notches and quit trying to be so cute.   

  • Love 1
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Watched it, but probably won't again. Had to suspend all KINDS of disbelief with the procedural stuff, and watching a department full of enablers play dumb while Rainn Wilson swans about with jackass turned up to 11 was, well, enough to make me take a swing at an orphan.

  • Love 1
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Maybe this show's just too smart and edgy for me. Or ... maybe it's just not that great. Don't know; don't care.

 

 

ThatBadgerChick...I'm "too smart and edgy," and this opener didn't measure up to my standards (which really aren't that high for network TV).  Writers are trying to hard and, perhaps, editors are making things worse.  

Edited by Former Nun
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I think my biggest problem was that he just wasn't a good detective. These curmudgeonly character shows only work if the character is also good at his job. But Backstrom was just a drunk who barely came to work and shot himself by accident trying to stop the bad guy. That martial arts cop was basically his bodyguard. Honestly, the show played like a Castle-type show where there is a civilian paired with law enforcement, instead of like House where he gets the job done and wants to help people, he just thinks people around him are idiots.

I agree about the writing. It didn't sound how normal people talk; it was very distracting.

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Does his young, pretty, so brilliant, redheaded sidekick trying to keep him on the straight and narrow HAVE to be young, pretty, so brilliant and redheaded?  I wanted this show to be good.  I've enjoyed Rainn Wilson in other parts and on TV interviews.  I was hoping for something smart (not smart-alecky), quirky, and (most of all) enjoyable.  I'll watch the next one because often the pilots are revamped.

  • Love 2
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Too greasy for me.

 

"Greasy" is an excellent way of describing it (as opposed to "gritty" or "hard boiled".)  It even fits the possible meta-reference to the Backstrom Full Breakfast.

 

Like many others, I liked the supporting cast, and personally I'm split on Backstrom.  How much of that is the pilot and how much of that is where they're going with him is an interesting question. 

 

 

I think my biggest problem was that he just wasn't a good detective.

 

I thought they were trying not to make him super-detective, and they went a little too far the other way.  He's got to be good enough for people to put up with him, and they hinted that he was, but until the last scene, I wasn't impressed (and at that point it didn't matter much.)

  • Love 1
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This is 42 minutes of my life I want back.

 

I was kind of looking forward to this, too, so wah. But I did like the supporting cast and I love Dennis Haysbert.

 

H A T E D the "I'm (fill in the blank) so I'd (fill in the second blank)... CASE SOLVED!!"

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H A T E D the "I'm (fill in the blank) so I'd (fill in the second blank)... CASE SOLVED!!"

 

 

Yeah, that's not going to get old fast...its already dead and buried with daisies growing on top.  I did laugh out loud at one thing though but for the life of me I can't remember what it was....I remember being pleasently surprised at my involuntary laugh and turned to Mrs. Roo with a raised eyebrow... which she returned because we had been grousing about everything up to that point.  Also enjoyed the first 10 or 12 times he yelled "Cass right?" only to be wrong. 

 

eta: may have been the black balls...that was funny.

Edited by Rosieroo
  • Love 2
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Does his young, pretty, so brilliant, redheaded sidekick trying to keep him on the straight and narrow HAVE to be young, pretty, so brilliant and redheaded?  

Also, I know they were going for the "division of screwups" thing, but it was really demeaning to about 50% of the viewing audience, I bet, that their representative character's character flaw was "whore" (pretty much how Backstrom put it, not me).  There were plenty of other potential "cop screw up" cliches they could have hit before setting on that one for her reason to be banished to this squad, and getting an automatic middle finger from a large part of the viewing audience.

  • Love 2
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I might give episode 2 a go if I have nothing better to do.

Give Gravely a dose of Corsican folk remedy to take her smugness down a notch. Backstrom to Gravely: you read a lot of books, but how many murders have you solved? haha. He's a jerk, but I found her to be more annoying, so I'll see if my opinion changes if i continue to watch.

Liked Valentine's quirky cool thing going on. Almond seemed tolerant/patient and wise, balances out Backstrom in a way.

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I made myself finish it to give it a chance because I did love some of the acting and I generally like Wilson as well. Never watched the Office, but I've seen him in other things, and he's funny. 

 

I couldn't stand Backstrom, basically for the reasons well summarized by everyone here, especially the recapper, Kromm and lassiecat. I liked EVERYONE besides Backstrom, even Valentine and Deb. I was really enjoying Neidermeier who actually appeared to be doing real work. His new-agey vibe was funny and kind of adorable.

 

I hated that Backstrom's casual racism and misogny were actually rewarded at the end because he was right that the black security guard and his stripper sister were involved. Seriously? The script is very self-conscious. The worst was 'I don't see the worst in everyone. I see the everyone in everyone.' UGH.

 

Two things that I didn't understand:

1) If the drug dealer was in on the con with the stripper-- i.e. that she would give the college student a gun that wouldn't work-- then why did the drug dealer kill the college student? I thought the reason the drug dealer 'snapped' was because the college student pulled a gun on him. Since he already knew the gun was useless, I would think he would be more interested in 'interrogating' the student to find out where the rest of his product was.  

 

2) Someone who was paying closer attention, is red-haired side-kick girl (Gravely I think) an outsider now because while she was undercover in vice, she slept with some of the Johns? I thought that was what he said, but is was hard to filter out what actually happened from his general ass-holery.

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2) Someone who was paying closer attention, is red-haired side-kick girl (Gravely I think) an outsider now because while she was undercover in vice, she slept with some of the Johns? I thought that was what he said, but is was hard to filter out what actually happened from his general ass-holery.

Yes, and that was a totally despicable choice for the writers to make, as I said.  The character had to have a flaw to be on this loser squad of Backstrom's, I'll admit, but the choice of what that flaw was is... a disgusting misogynistic writer's choice. 

Edited by Kromm
  • Love 3
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UGH.  Ok. Thanks Kromm. Given what we've seen of her character, it would seem far more likely that she would have pissed someone off by reporting something to IA or something along those lines. Why the hell was she so freaking blase when Backstrom was talking about it?  In fact, I think she made some crack about how she had a weapon on her. Being slut shamed by your entire department would be horrible.

 

 

a disgusting misogynistic writer's choice.

 ITA. I noticed that so far, every woman on the show was trotted out as a sex object. The stripper, Gravely, the ex-girlfriend who sent the victim her girl-on-girl pics (why??), even their tech (Nadia?). One of the first full sentences Backstrom said to Nadia was 'I can't have sex with you.' or something like that. Why she would have possibly been interested in Backstrom, I have no idea. Just my opinion, but there was a noticeable racist and misogynistic slant to the entire episode.  

  • Love 3
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UGH.  Ok. Thanks Kromm. Given what we've seen of her character, it would seem far more likely that she would have pissed someone off by reporting something to IA or something along those lines. Why the hell was she so freaking blase when Backstrom was talking about it?  In fact, I think she made some crack about how she had a weapon on her. Being slut shamed by your entire department would be horrible.

 

 ITA. I noticed that so far, every woman on the show was trotted out as a sex object. The stripper, Gravely, the ex-girlfriend who sent the victim her girl-on-girl pics (why??), even their tech (Nadia?). One of the first full sentences Backstrom said to Nadia was 'I can't have sex with you.' or something like that. Why she would have possibly been interested in Backstrom, I have no idea. Just my opinion, but there was a noticeable racist and misogynistic slant to the entire episode.  

If the racism and misogyny was strictly in the context of the character having those qualities, I'd understand the application of it.  There's a way to have a disgusting person be an interesting character--even a protagonist.  Backstrom saying something disgusting to the Russian girl kind of makes sense--if he's a pig he's going to act like a pig.

 

To me the issue is where the writers show their own biases.  If they've implied the Russian girl really WAS interested in him, that's leaning towards inappropriate writing--at least if they haven't backed it up by showing his good qualities that might attract her-- because it goes with a "what women really like is an abusive jerk" spin.  But the background of the redhead is even worse.  Backstrom saying nasty sexist things to her can be played, again, as him being a piece of shit, and that being fascinating viewing.  But we weren't shown her debating what he stated as the facts of her "demotion" to this department.  I suppose we could get some cleanup effort where we learn that she didn't want to dignify him with a response, but at this point it actually sounds like these writers WANT her background to be that she fucked johns to help bust them. Or even worse, fucked them and let some of them get away. Or even WORSE yet, fucked them because she just couldn't help herself, because she's a total slut.  I mean good lord.  Who wrote this script?  Russ Meyer?

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I might give episode 2 a go if I have nothing better to do.

Give Gravely a dose of Corsican folk remedy to take her smugness down a notch. Backstrom to Gravely: you read a lot of books, but how many murders have you solved? haha. He's a jerk, but I found her to be more annoying, so I'll see if my opinion changes if i continue to watch.

Liked Valentine's quirky cool thing going on. Almond seemed tolerant/patient and wise, balances out Backstrom in a way.

The only thing saving this show is if next episode Gravely took her sidearm and puts a bullet in Backstrom's head.  Then she gets a medal and they spend the rest of the episode shitting on his memory, because fuck Backstrom with a rusty tire iron.

Edited by Mars477
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I wanted to like this show, but everything was to cliched for me.   Some of the characters seem fun, but I don't think I can invest myself in it.  I thought the procedural-comedy thing might work, but it wasn't as funny as I had hoped.  In fact, I thought the comedy was a little lacking.  I'll give it another week, but it doesn't seem like my cup of tea!

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...and I actually believed Rainn Wilson who said in an interview that after nine (I think it was nine) years on series television, he really didn't want to go back to TV.  Then. He. Read. This. Wonderful. Shit (oops...) Script.

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I need to find a different forum because I thought it was cute and nothing like House.  But then I hated House and I think this character has nothing on that despicable character.  Plus there wasn't a single one of the side characters in House that appealed to me and so far I love the supporting characters in this show.  And I like that he's kind of bumbling.  So there I said it.  I liked it. 

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Does his young, pretty, so brilliant, redheaded sidekick trying to keep him on the straight and narrow HAVE to be young, pretty, so brilliant and redheaded?...

I'll watch the next one because often the pilots are revamped.

For me, she kind of does need to be because Backstrom is so repulsive. And yeah, I missed the first 15 minutes, which the rest of the hour in no way made me want to go watch, but I might give episode 2 a try. Maybe. If I have nothing else to do.

I watched the premier and it was okay. I'm just not sure how many times I can hear "I'm (fill in the blank) so why would I do that?" before I have to vomit.

Just a few days before I saw this I tweeted to my daughter: "If I was Mom's external drive, where would I be?" I now sincerely hope she doesn't think I was parroting Backstrom. And I still can't find the frickin' drive. Edited by shapeshifter
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It kept my interest, and I liked seeing Rainn Wilson in a different character.  I also liked that I didn't have to record it, watch it, re-watch it, watch it, pausing while writing down pertinent events and characters names to just understand what was going on. 

 

I'm not looking for constant flashbacks and twisted snippets that I have to strain to figure out so the story makes a shred of sense.  I hate having to work so hard to make sense of a TV show.

 

It's just supposed to be entertainment, and I liked it.  So I guess SierraMist & I will be the only ones here next week!  *LOL*

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It's just supposed to be entertainment, and I liked it.  So I guess SierraMist & I will be the only ones here next week!  *LOL*

Because Episode 1 was a pilot and shows often at least TRY to revamp after Pilots, I'll give it another week or two.

 

But as I said, I was turned off SO hard not by Rainn's character being a misogynist or racist or just plain jerk, but by the underlying setup by the writers that seemed to subtly support his point of view rather than subverting or opposing it.  

 

And really even there we know from shows like House that there are plenty of ways to show a lead as a misanthrope without making him those other things at all.

 

So that's what they need to change (and since the show is long ago in the can they'd better have realized this on their own).  Not make Backstrom nicer, necessarily, but elevate the supporting characters out of boxes like "whore who slept with Johns instead of busting them" or "black officers who work with Backstrom who never seem to 'shoot back' when he makes racist comments".  And yes, make his meanness a bit more focused on him simply being a dick rather than go-to-easy insults about Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, Women, and god forbid, I'm afraid the Gay jokes might be coming too.

  • Love 3
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I was looking forward to this because the previews looked fun and I needed a show to watch on this night. So I kept with it for 45 minutes, then couldn't stand it any more and turned it off. I won't be back. Backstrom is insufferable, unlikeable and, on top of that, crude, crass and rude. And is anyone anywhere named Neidermeyer outside of Animal House? There are a zillion names the writers could have picked besides Neidermeyer, a name that only makes me want to rent a fun old movie so I can spend my tv time seeing something worth my time.

 

I couldn't be more disappointed.

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I was looking forward to this because the previews looked fun and I needed a show to watch on this night. So I kept with it for 45 minutes, then couldn't stand it any more and turned it off. I won't be back. Backstrom is insufferable, unlikeable and, on top of that, crude, crass and rude. And is anyone anywhere named Neidermeyer outside of Animal House? There are a zillion names the writers could have picked besides Neidermeyer, a name that only makes me want to rent a fun old movie so I can spend my tv time seeing something worth my time.

 

I couldn't be more disappointed.

Greg House is insufferable, unlikeable and, on top of that, crude, crass and rude too.  The difference really is that House is evenhanded in his loathing for all humanity.  That's the key to a character like that.  You don't have to like them, or even understand them, but I think you need to be able to draw a clear line to them being damaged and self-destructive, and maybe just overall jerks, rather than them seeming to target specific groups.  You didn't have to LIKE Greg House, but... you could admire him at many points.  There's a totally different burden being asked to admire a racist, sexist, piece of shit, like Backstrom.

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I'm certainly not saying I admire Backstrom.  The show was entertaining.  I found Gregory House totally unlikeable, but oh wait, he was so smart so we can excuse his sexist attitude.  It's better that he treated everyone that way?  I never admired House, nor did I find the show entertaining.  It's really apples and oranges anyway.   The shows have nothing in common. 

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I'm certainly not saying I admire Backstrom.  The show was entertaining.  I found Gregory House totally unlikeable, but oh wait, he was so smart so we can excuse his sexist attitude.[...] It's really apples and oranges anyway.   The shows have nothing in common.

Given that the pilot was written by Hart Hanson of Bones, and that Bones and (the mega-hit) House were on the same network, I'm pretty sure at some point in time, this show was pitched to the Fox execs as the crime procedural version of House. The set-up of the brilliant but misanthropic lead and his long-suffering minions is nearly identical.

 

Everyone's mileage varies. For me, House was an asshole and made comments manufactured to shock people, but I never found him to be truly sexist, racist, bigoted etc. He was smart enough not to make assumptions about people based upon their demographics.  Backstrom seems to make and act on guesses about people based upon their race, gender, religion, etc. Which I do find offensive. 

 

For those interested, the earliest version of the pilot script is out: http://www.zen134237.zen.co.uk/Backstrom_1x01_-_Dragon_Slayer.pdf Of course, they changed stuff and moved stuff around. The most interesting change was that in the original pilot script,

Gravely was a lesbian. She was an outcast because of a highly publicized shoot-out where she killed three suspects after they supposedly called her a slur. Obviously the shoot-out part got dropped. I wonder if they're going to reveal that Gravely is a lesbian later on or if that character detail got dropped as well.

(I only spoiler tag this because I don't know if that is a detail they are planning on disclosing later). If that's the case, wth about the rumors about her? If it's not still the plan for Gravely, your guess is as good as mine as to why they decided to change it.  

Edited by mandigirl
  • Love 1
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Wow. I was excited for this series but I turned it off halfway through the pilot. Does the world really need ANOTHER abrasive, racist/misogynist/homophobic main character whose self-destructive habits are sending him to an early grave? 

 

Add privileged white man-child.  Blech.

Like many others, I liked the supporting cast

 

Not me.  If you're going to have a Hindu doctor, have him answer the "Why do 95% of Indians live in dumps?"  (I really want to know the answer to that!)

 

I hadn't planned on watching -- see above about "privileged white man-child: but my wife was interested.  After 7 minutes she asked if we could stop.  At her request, I deleted it from out DVR.  Nothing I've seen here makes me anxious to try again.

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I'm certainly not saying I admire Backstrom.  The show was entertaining.  I found Gregory House totally unlikeable, but oh wait, he was so smart so we can excuse his sexist attitude.  It's better that he treated everyone that way?  I never admired House, nor did I find the show entertaining.  It's really apples and oranges anyway.   The shows have nothing in common. 

House tried to kill Chase with strawberry lipstick. House tried to kill Cuddy by driving into her house. So far, Backstrom has not demonstrated any homicidal urges toward his own team. But the season is young.....

  • Love 2
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Does his young, pretty, so brilliant, redheaded sidekick trying to keep him on the straight and narrow HAVE to be young, pretty, so brilliant and redheaded?

At times this show felt like an extended episode of a slightly more serious, slightly less violent "Eagleheart."
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Compare all you want to House. This is its own show, and it sucks big pond water. If I wanted to watch House, I would watch House. Not this POS. They have nothing to do with each other. 

 

But for the record, while I never watched House, out of curiosity I did watch the pilot that was rerun a couple of months ago on some channel. I made it all the way through and, though House was insufferable, I thought maybe I could watch another episode some time.

 

Not so with this show. Suffering through 45 minutes of it, commercials included, made me turn it off, never care to know the ending or anything else about it except its cancellation date. Which I hope comes soon. WTH does this cr*p get approved to be made in the first place?

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