Wednesday, September 23, 2009

ABC's The Forgotten a dud, Jerry Bruckheimer's downfall?

I'll keep this short as I'm low on time (I've been writing and watching for about 3 hours now), and I don't want to go overboard and rail on the show for paragraphs. I also want to spend time examining Jerry Bruckheimer's shows and his lack of a hit in years.

Christian Slater stars as Alex Donovan, head of the branch of the Forgotten Network. They are a group of civilians who use their time identifying unknown dead bodies and on occasion, finding the villain. Think of it as Cold Case with the crimes occurring in present day with the investigators being regular people.

After a long drawn out search and eventual capture of the criminal, it felt empty. Throughout the episode, the victim voiced over what she felt or did. I thought it was really stupid especially if she didn't have anything good to say. I guess the forgotten still need to talk to the audience. The characters weren't compelling and the dialogue was pretty cheesy at times.

Score: 7.5/10

Assuming this show gets canceled, and I'm fairly certain it will, this marks yet another Bruckheimer failure in recent years, not that some of his other shows were as bad as the Forgotten. I've taken a list from Wikipedia of shows he's produced and bolded the hits.
The Forgotten (2009-present) TV Series (exec. producer)
Dark Blue (2009-present) TV Series (exec. producer)
Eleventh Hour (2008-2009) TV Series (exec. producer)
Justice (2006) TV Series (exec. producer)
E-Ring (2005–2006) TV Series (exec. producer)
Close to Home (2005-2007) TV Series (exec. producer)
Just Legal (2005–2006) TV Series (exec. producer)
CSI: NY (2004–present) TV Series (exec. producer)
Skin (2003) TV Series (exec. producer)
Cold Case (2003–present) TV Series (exec. producer)
Profiles from the Front Line (2003) TV Series (exec. producer)
Without a Trace (2002–2009) TV Series (exec. producer)
CSI: Miami (2002–present) TV Series (exec. producer)
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000–present) TV Series (exec. producer)
Soldier of Fortune, Inc. (1997–1998) TV Series (exec. producer)

Notice something? There hasn't been a show lasting over 2 season since 2004. I liked Close to Home and Eleventh Hour, but those were also canceled. Jerry Bruckheimer is still TV gold, but you've got to wonder what happened to his unprecedented success. It could be because he isn't producing shows only for CBS. That could be the case but it's obvious from the evidence Bruckheimer is at least on a slump. I'm sure he'll find a few more hits in his career, but the time of plunking the Bruckheimer label on a show and expecting ratings success is over.

0 comments:

Related Posts with Thumbnails