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S01.E01: Pilot


Tara Ariano
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I am a strong supporter of Conviction Integrity Units, but I don't know if I can get past the HEAD of the unit being blackmailed into that position as a punishment. That indicates to me that the show isn't talking the mission of the CIU seriously at all.

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I gave this a shot because I am a fan of Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter, but this is such a predictable procedural and the five day premise is ridiculous on top of that.  I was surprised to see Emily Kinney. Glad to see that she is getting work. 

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Umm . . . Hayley's hair looks amazing and Merrin Dungey might be a better eyeroller than Sarah Brown.  

Hays is such a stupid name and Hayley cannot pull-off an American accent full time. Lets hope they reveal Hays is short for Hayley.  Or Hazel.  Or Rebecca.

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My mom called for most of the middle of the episode, but watching the first 10 and last 10 or so minutes, I thought it was decent--certainly I'll tune in for the next few episodes. Hayley Atwell is dynamite even if I miss her British accent, and I can already tell you she and Merrin Dungey are the money duo--even on mute they crackled with a lot of energy. The DA is good as an utter sleazeball, Shawn Ashmore is his usual average if bland self, and the blonde woman and ex-con man seem standard enough to round out the cast. Atwell and Dungey will be very good and the rest of the cast didn't seem offensively bad as actors--and they seemed to have about as much chemistry as you could expect from a pilot--so the show is going to live or die on the writing. You can definitely tell ABC is trying to re-capture the Castle audience.

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  On 10/4/2016 at 3:06 AM, stealinghome said:

My mom called for most of the middle of the episode, but watching the first 10 and last 10 or so minutes, I thought it was decent--certainly I'll tune in for the next few episodes. Hayley Atwell is dynamite even if I miss her British accent, and I can already tell you she and Merrin Dungey are the money duo--even on mute they crackled with a lot of energy. The DA is good as an utter sleazeball, Shawn Ashmore is his usual average if bland self, and the blonde woman and ex-con man seem standard enough to round out the cast. Atwell and Dungey will be very good and the rest of the cast didn't seem offensively bad as actors--and they seemed to have about as much chemistry as you could expect from a pilot--so the show is going to live or die on the writing. You can definitely tell ABC is trying to re-capture the Castle audience.

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The best parts were definitely when Merrin and Hayley were on screen together.  

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I had no idea that Conviction filmed in Toronto, but I recognized the location of Mama Morrison's fundraiser as the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts (a.k.a. the new(ish) opera house).

Pilots are often busy cramming in backstory and larding relationships with tensions and unexpressed conflict, but I like the cast, I think, and Eddie Cahill seems less of a chore than "Wayne Wallis, Sexy Nemesis" might suggest. (Except I think they're calling him "Conner Wallace" now?) Hayes Morrison herself should be pretty much unbearable, as written; not so much anti-hero as dire and obvious Mary Sue. But, gosh darn it, Hayley Atwell and her new fancy accent are just adorable.

I didn't hate it. And I liked the confrontation scene between Hayes and Mama Morrison -- was that Bess Armstrong? I didn't notice her name in the credits.

Edited by Sandman
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Yikes!  My expectations were set pretty low, but I found the first half to be kind of bad at times.  I guess they are going for an anti-heroine thing with Hayes, but she was just obnoxious, despite Hayley Atwell's general awesomeness.  Then again, she was at a disadvantage due to the dodgy American accent.  Oh, network television!  At this point, I can handwave plenty of things.  I would have been all for just pretending Hayes lived abroad or something for a period of time, and adapted a British accent.  But she got better in the second half and Hayley was still pretty awesome all around, despite the accent.

Of her team, Merrin Dungley was the only one I really liked and, really, she was easily the best thing about it.  Iceman... err, Shawn Ashmore seemed to kind of fade into the background at times, Manny Montana was alright, I guess, and Emily Kinney still looks and acts like she's sixteen, so I kept wondering why did they let a high schooler join the Conviction squad.

All that said, I'm not going to even pretend I won't watch every episode.  I will follow Hayley Atwell anywhere, even if I'll always be wishing ABC just gave her another season of Agent Carter instead.

Edited by thuganomics85
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  On 10/4/2016 at 3:02 AM, SimoneS said:

I gave this a shot because I am a fan of Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter, but this is such a predictable procedural and the five day premise is ridiculous on top of that.  I was surprised to see Emily Kinney. Glad to see that she is getting work. 

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Agreed, it was too generic and by the numbers, I did like the cast enough and Hayes seemed to finally mellow out of her ott-ness mid episode (hopefully).

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Like practically everyone else, I'm here because I miss Hayley Atwell being on my TV.  That said, I guessed from the trailers that this would not be great, and ... yeah.  It was not great.  Especially all the quick-cutting at the beginning, which made things confusing rather than interesting (or whatever they were going for).  But on the bright side, it was more meh than outright horrible, so I am definitely willing to give it a few chances (or at least leave it on in the background).  Hopefully like Hayes (I think) said, we'll see a good variety of cases, and not just "happy endings." 

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Comcast only recorded 35 minutes of the pilot for me. I'll follow Hayley Atwell to On Demand because I miss Agent Carter. So far I like it better than Bull...probably because of Hayley...and maybe because I haven't seen the whole thing.   

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Hayley Atwell was awesome, as usual.  (And smoking hot, too!)

The remainder of the cast aren't worth a fart between them.  Gruesomely skeevy DA just stinks up the room.  Politically motivated Mom is going to be the weekly moment when I nip off to the karzie for a pee.  Unjustly Convicted Innocent Guy of the Week left me not giving a damn.  Big brother only appeared for so brief a moment he didn't have time to be bad, but didn't inspire, either.

Team members one and all, are yawnsville.  I see several people complementing Merrin Dungey, but she was just as stilted and wooden as the others.  Each of them had the beginnings of a back-story introduced, so perhaps they can improve, but they'll have to work hard.  

Never the less, I will keep watching, unless the show catastrophically self-destructs, somehow.  Once Hayley Atwell keeps doing her thing, I'll hang on.  I just hope that dress becomes a regular part of the cast!

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This show is very by the numbers but I expected that since all these types of shows are. Not many actresses can pull of making a character like Hays Morrison work. Hayley Atwell is one of them that can. I shouldn't like her but I'm drawn to her because of Hayley. 

I do like that Hayes knows the political game and you can't trick her on that part. She knew getting a good looking black man with no criminal history freed is what the DA wanted for headlines. She knew that the other lawyer (is that Iceman or his brother?) was trying to set her to look stupid and is spying on her for the DA. 

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I kept wishing I could replay some scenes to hear what the dialog was - my TV doesn't have the greatest sound but yikes, cast, slow down when you talk!!  

I thought it was predictable, bland, and boring with stock characters and unintelligible speaking.  I found myself playing solitaire on my phone through most of it, but I'll probably have it on most Mondays unless the 10 p.m. slot offers something actually watchable.

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Will be interesting to see how this does against Timeless, which has the higher concept (higher not necessarily equalling superior), a giant NBC push, and a post Voice timeslot. The ads for Conviction, meanwhile, had a terrible aesthetic, like a subway ad for a sketchy dermatologist. But I'm with those who would follow Hayley Atwell anywhere. I don't even know that she can sing, and don't really care, but I badly wanted her to be the new Mary Poppins. 

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Add me to the chorus of finding the show to be mostly meh but sticking around anyway because of Hayley Atwell. I wish she could have found better stuff but I'll take it since hopefully the fact that she's the lead means there will be lots of focus on her.

To be fair I actually like most of the supporting cast from their previous projects too so I'm favourable to giving them a chance. I just hope the show gets more interesting.

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This is going to be incredibly unpopular here but I wish Hayley and Piper Perabo had their tv shows switched. I am not a fan of Atwell's acting and don't think she has chemistry with her co-stars. Perabo could have chemistry with a block of wood. Perabo deserves better than that shitty show she is stuck on and I think she could have sold the poor rich girl role better.

Who was the Senator Mom? All I could think of was Suzie Orman because of the hairdo.

I really like the premise of the show and I am ok with it being a procedural. My problem is going to be Atwell. I just don't get her appeal at all.

Edited by pivot
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I'm not familiar with Atwell but liked the character of Hayes well enough, although I'm not really buying her as a brilliant troublemaker. She's too old to still be acting out her teenage rebellion.

The show was predictable overall but I don't necessarily mind that. The cast is the biggest sticking point for me since I thought the characters were a collection of tics rather than people. All the actors rushed their lines out in one gulp, which was regrettable. It's early days though, and I'll stick with the show in hopes that things start to jell into a more natural groove.

Did I miss an explanation of where Hayes' father is? Deceased?

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I like crime shows that don't focus on gratuitous violence, and I like Hayley Atwell, so this is okay for me, except I might fall asleep at that time, so I'll probably watch the next day. Plus, it's opposite Timeless, which I like a tiny bit better at this point.

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Happy to watch Haley Atwell (if not her terrible accent) and Merrin Dungey but really unhappy to see Emily Kinney. The episode was okay. About 20 too many TV cliches, but I'll watch another one to see for sure.  

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It would seem Hayley Atwell has a thankless role until you watch Merrin Dungey struggling to turn her preposterous character into something besides plot exposition. The woman is either there to be the cop voice or she's turned internal affairs. What she's not going to be is both as the writer needs it. 

As to Hayley Atwell, I've only seen her in movies. Busty, yes. Her mini-arc where she turned it around to where she's got something on her mother and the DA, and decided to enjoy busting prosecutors or cops as she like was absurd but she sold the gusto. This is why prosecutors are always selected for being rabid about the lower orders going to jail and it is only a rare handful who have central nervous systems. Nobody is going to put a loose cannon in that job. 

Looking forward to the episode where the forensics guy tries to get them to spring his boyfriend. 

There's way too much kissing the asses of prosecutors and cops by Hollywood writers afraid of getting mugged. Hope the show gets ratings. But the premise is going to make sure the reviews are negative.

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Hey It's That Guy/Gal (Conviction pilot edition):

Senator Mom is played by Bess Armstrong. It's freaking me out to see baby-faced Tag from Friends with silver temples. 

The guy that played the "Oily Bohunk" in 16 Candles (John Kapelos) has spent an awful lot of time during the rest of his career playing cops.

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  On 10/4/2016 at 5:52 PM, lordonia said:

Did I miss an explanation of where Hayes' father is? Deceased?

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If there was an explanation, I didn't catch it either, but I presume he's alive, since Mama Morrison ("Harper"? Really, show?) said "this time, your father agrees with me." Unless Harper Morrison is Harper Morrison, Psychic Senate Hopeful (and if so, why aren't we watching that show?), I think President Morrison is still around somewhere. Drinking something.

As I say, I liked Atwell's handling of the scene at the fundraiser: here's her mother, plainly telling Hayes things she's waited her entire life to hear, and the daughter unable to trust any of it. I thought that scene was truthful in a way that most of the rest of the script was not.

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This was my least favorite pilot so far. I'll give it another shot because it picked up at the end and sometimes pilots are weird. I never watched Agent Carter so I don't have any residual love for the actress going in. I hated her character. Some characters can get away with being obnoxious, but charming, but I didn't think that came across at all.  I like characters who are flawed if they show some acknowledgement/regret about being flawed and I didn't get that at all.  And in the scenes where she was smiling for the cameras I thought Hayes just seemed super fake. I'm sure the actress is fine with better material, but this was just not good.

The rest of the team is much more interesting to me. I think this show would have been better if it was just focused on the idea of checking into wrongly convicted cases, and not tried for the character back story. The procedural part wasn't that strong, but it has potential.

  On 10/4/2016 at 10:48 PM, NeenerNeener said:

It's freaking me out to see baby-faced Tag from Friends with silver temples. 

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That's who that was? Damn that is freaky. Has it been that long since Friends?

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  On 10/4/2016 at 11:05 PM, KaveDweller said:

 I like characters who are flawed if they show some acknowledgement/regret about being flawed and I didn't get that at all.  And in the scenes where she was smiling for the cameras I thought Hayes just seemed super fake.

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I agree that Hayes looked ultra-fake smiling for the cameras, but I had the impression that the reason for that Hayes essentially hates herself. I'm not sure why that is, but it's consistent with her telling Wallace that she was destructive by nature and was bound to screw up the job. I actually thought Atwell sold that aspect pretty well, but I want to know why Hayes is the way she is.

And yes, it has been that long since Tag was on Friends. It really has.

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  On 10/4/2016 at 11:11 PM, Sandman said:

I agree that Hayes looked ultra-fake smiling for the cameras, but I had the impression that the reason for that Hayes essentially hates herself.

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I didn't get that.  She's been slapping on a huge fake smile for the cameras ever since she was the 1st daughter, and it's automatic with her now.

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  On 10/4/2016 at 10:48 PM, NeenerNeener said:

Hey It's That Guy/Gal (Conviction pilot edition):

Senator Mom is played by Bess Armstrong. It's freaking me out to see baby-faced Tag from Friends with silver temples. 

The guy that played the "Oily Bohunk" in 16 Candles (John Kapelos) has spent an awful lot of time during the rest of his career playing cops.

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Eddie Cahill had a much longer run on CSI  - NY.

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I came for Hailey Atwell, and the rest of the cast. These are some of my favorite actors.  But wow! Did not expect that awesome chemistry between Hailey and Eddie! That is my new ship.

Nit pick - costuming stop dressing Miss Atwell like a size 2. Embrace those curves.  

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I came to the show without any opinions or previous exposure to any of the cast except for Eddie Cahill as Tag Jones...saw him in a few episodes of CSI but he will probably always be Tag to me. I pretty much enjoyed Hayes. I did notice the actress' shaky accent here and there but it didn't bother me. I think she will grow on me. Merrin Dungey's character seemed kind of one-note but grew on me. The show has potential. This case was pretty neatly tied up in a somewhat contrived way ("code name" HE using the actual initials of the person she was referring to, and which can conveniently be misread as "he"....really), but they needed to use a lot of time in this pilot episode to establish everything so I can see why it had to be that way. Did anyone else get an Adnan Sayed feel from this case? (Serial podcast)

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Wow this sucked.  SO many cliched beats to everything. 

If it wasn't for Hailey Atwell being fairly magnetic, with any accent, I'd already have given up.

But I'll give it a few more episodes.  Maybe.

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Sorry, Netfoot, the boob window has its attractions but it's not because the dress looks better. 

In the end this show's quality will I think be directly proportional to the care with which they do the cases of the week. If they wrote those slovenly because they think it's all about the badass hero Hayes...

That's assuming they have a chance, defying the presumption of guilt is risky.

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  On 10/5/2016 at 1:58 PM, sjohnson said:

Sorry, Netfoot, the boob window has its attractions...

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Undenyably, but...

  Quote

but it's not because the dress looks better. 

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Well, I found the asymmetric cut of the black one slightly detracting from the overall effect.  I actually think the red one was marginally better.  Boob-window and all.  

Have you noticed how the heroine is always dressed in a bright colour, while everyone else is in muted grays and whites? 

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Hayley's American accent was okay when used sparingly on Agent Carter, having to talk the whole time with it is not working for her yet. I think it does hurt actors when have to use a different accent, they have to split their focus on the accent and the acting. 

I wish they'd let her use real accent and just say she went to boarding school in England. That would probably be a great way to rebel against your American Government parents, speak with a British accent. 

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Man, was this not good. I hoped it would be with Hayley Atwell, but I know that she wouldn't be able to pick a show that could follow up to Agent Carter. But hell if she didn't try.

It's sad because I enjoy most of the actors (I've never seen Emily Kinney in any series regular/recurring role) but this was just super uninteresting and there wasn't anything new to it. I didn't like Kinney's character anyway; she was just so bad all around. Shawn Ashmore's character was bland too. Oh no, him and Hayes are going to be at odds because she took his job. Merrin Dungey's character was also bland. Oh look, Manny Montana's character is secretly gay! Big secret right there. And Eddie Cahill is good, but not that good. 

I'm giving it another shot because of the actors and I'll stick around as long as I can, but this might be the first pilot this season that won't capture my attention long enough to finish the season. 

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Watched this because I love Hayley and was upset about Agent Carter. The cast has some solid talent, but something was just off, hope it falls into place better.

As many have mentioned Hayley looked amazing, but the wardrobe department dowes not even have to try, she is just stunning in anything.

I am going to have to re-watch I loved "My So Called Life" and did not even realize that was Bess Armstrong!

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I watched it again and I did enjoy it. I usually give shows a few episodes, because pilots are usually so full of exposition that they don't have time of anything else.  I will give it some time to find its footing. 

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I love Atwell as the female equivalent of all those troublesome male geniuses leading every procedural ever. She owns it in a thoroughly charming fashion.

I liked that of course she didn't wear the black dress her mother wanted her to wear, but a red dress with Cleavage instead. I particularly liked that no one on the show unneccesarily pointed that out. Her mother just admired her dress while staring at her tits. Moms don't have to say anything to say everything. And Hayley Atwell gives me tit envy.

I haven't seen Bess Armstrong (who plays the politician mom)  since she played Claire Danes' character's mom in My So-Called Life, about twenty years ago. Her face looks remarkably unchanged to me so I have to wonder if that's natural.

Given that I like Atwell's character, I would love to have a ship on this show. She and Eddie Cahill's character have chemistry, but he's not doing much for me otherwise. Is he supposed to be the dull, honourable, and reliable one to her bigger personality and wilder lifestyle? Is he supposed to be a tough, ambitious, and slippery politician like her Mom? I hope the show gives me something to work with.

Edited to say that the writers need to up their game on the procedural aspect. That was dull.

Edited by Kirsty
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