Life On Mars
Good pilot. One of the better ones this year. I have never seen the British version (and I don't think I ever will), so I only put it on my list, because of the oh so wonderful Jason O'Mara. I love his voice. It makes me feel calm. I'm just not so sure how I'm supposed to care about the characters and everything when we all know that he's in a coma in real life and all of this is a dream. At least we think it is.

Do Not Disturb
When you watch the first five minutes of this pilot you just think "Oh, what the hell? Leave me alone." But then something happens. The cute little guy from upstairs says "I can never tell how old black people are." Then the fun starts. Yes, the show dares to make racial jokes. And it works. You just know they're not serious. It's been a long time since a sitcom really made me laugh. And this one did. The scenery is absolutely terrible and the laugh track annoys you immediately, but I hope those are things that will get better as the show progresses. The characters are worth giving it a try.

Pretty Handsome
What a brilliant pilot. I think this is one of the best hours of television I have seen in a while. Ryan Murphy does an excellent job with portraying his characters and they're all wonderful. Joseph Fiennes and Carrie-Anne Moss deliver breathtaking performances and you just know that Pretty Handsome is a show that has something to say. Something meaningful. It has a message. That's pretty rare in television business these days. Let's just hope that Murphy will not screw this one up as much as Nip/Tuck.

Alan Ball is at home again and he brought us an unusual pilot about vampires in Louisiana. However, no matter how unusual the pilot is, it contains some pretty ordinary mistakes, which make Alan and HBO look pretty bad. As always, don't be a fool to keep reading if you haven't seen the episode yourself, or you will be spoiled.

What's it about?
The series follows Sookie Stackhouse, a barmaid living in Louisiana who can read people's minds. Her life is turned upside down when the vampire Bill walks into her place of employment two years after vampires 'came out of the coffin' on national television.

What's good?
The show has a very interesting concept, which I've never seen on television before. Vampires and humans living together, but also not living together. There's still fear and insecurity on both sides and that's what makes True Blood really interesting for me. The social aspect of the whole thing is just really engaging. Will the vampires ever be able to live a normal life among us humans?

Also the song in the opening credits (which are supposed to change when the show airs in September) was great. I hope they keep it, because I need time to find out what it is.

Other than that I can only say that Stephen Moyer really impressed me. I knew him from various projects, but I never gave him the attention he deserves. His performance as the vampire Bill is one of the few things that will make me give the show a second chance, despite of all its flaws.

What's bad?
I don't see a story here. Sure. It's about vampires and humans living together. But then there's nothing. It's supposed to be about Sookie, but she just meets the vampire and gets beat up by some random couple who try to drain Bill's blood. Oooookay. And now? I really don't know where they're going with this.

Besides, the main character Sookie is just a pain in the ass. Everybody says what a great actress Anna Paquin is, but I don't see that. I'm sorry. She's run-of-the-mill (like most of the actors, unfortunately) and that's annoys me. HBO can do better.

I'm not gonna talk about the vampires' fangs. You can see how ridiculous they look in the picture above. What I'm gonna talk about is how trashy the pilot is. Every five minutes I had to check what exactly I'm watching, because I could not believe that something like that will be airing on HBO. It could as well have been a ABC or NBC show. It just has not the pay TV feel to it like Six Feet Under or Carnivàle did. I realize that the network has to be a little bit more mainstream to attract more subscribers, but that's not how I want to see that happening.

The only thing that reminds me of the fact that I'm watching a pay TV show here are the sex scenes, which are unfortunately more distracting than they're supporting the story. I'm a big fan of sex on television. I think it can help the show to tell whatever it wants to tell, but what they do on True Blood is to throw in a couple of sexual encounters (including a ridiculous sex tape with a vampire banging the crap out of some chick, which is probably one of the trashiest moments of television I have ever seen) and hope that the audience will like it. Sure, we got some nice eye candy, but that's about it. Boring.

The last thing that really annoys me about the pilot (I'm not gonna mention the minor issues) is Sookie's mind reading. There's just no way of understanding what the people that are read are saying. I tried adjusting the equalizer and all that technical blah blah, but it didn't help. I hope they're gonna change that for the final version, because I'd really like to know what those people are thinking. I consider myself quite fluent in English and I do understand almost everything when I watch a show, but the mind reading is just impossible. Help please.

What's the bottom line?
The show's concept bears so much potential, it's almost impossible to imagine that anyone could screw it up as much as Alan Ball did. I love the man for his work on Six Feet Under and American Beauty, but if that's the best he can do nowadays he should probably just stop writing. I'm obviously disappointed. However, I'm not giving up on True Blood, because I just know that it can do so much better if somebody would give the writers a kick in the ass to wake them up and point them in the right direction.

Of all the new pilots this season Fringe was probably the one I anticipated the most. Now that I've watched it I'm feeling three emotions at the same time: disappointment, excitement and uncertainty. I'm going to try to explain my position, but I'm not sure I will be able to. It's so hard to review pilots and it hasn't gotten easier since last year. There will be spoilers ahead, so be smart enough to stop reading if you don't want to know what happens in the first episode.

What's it about?
A television drama centered around a female FBI agent who is forced to work with an institutionalized scientists in order to rationalize a brewing storm of unexplained phenomena.

What's good?
I think it's needless to say that the show looks extremely sophisticated on a visual level. We've been told that the pilot cost 10 million dollars and the viewer can definitely see that, beginning with the opening sequence in the airplane and ending with the dynamic car chase near the conclusion of the episode.

When you hire Joshua Jackson and Lance Reddick you don't need to worry about the acting. It's bound to be superb. However, the real star of the show is Anna Torv, who I've never heard of personally, playing the main character Olivia Dunham.

I've mentioned the first scene of the pilot before, but I need to elaborate the brilliance a little bit further. We start off in a plane. Some people might think they turned on ABC's Lost until everyone on the flight starts to decompose (yes, it's that ugly) and you realize that things are starting to get interesting. My favorite moment of the episode is when the co-pilot turns around so we can see the lower half of his face fall off. It's trashy and cool at the same time.

Last but not least Fringe keeps a good balance between science fiction and fantasy/mystery. Some hardcore scientists might be turned off by the dream sharing scene (which was a little bit over the top, now that I think of it), some amateur elves and X-Files fanatics will probably be disappointed by the large amount of scientific gibberish. Fortunately, I'm neither one of those and if you don't take those kinds of things too seriously, you will find yourself enjoying the ride.

What's bad?
Before I go on with the really bad things, I'd like to mention some of the minor problems I noticed during the pilot. First of all - is it so hard to get German extras in the US? I'm sure there's more than enough German actors available. It really takes away some credibility if you have to listen to some American amateur actress uttering something that's supposed to be related to the German language. If you can't do it right, don't do it at all. Also the "opening credits" (really, you can't call them like that, because they're so short) look ugly. I think that design is vital for the persuasiveness of a show, especially when it's as expensive as Fringe. I also don't like the lettering that keeps us up to date where exactly the characters are right now. I prefer the good old captions at the bottom of the screen. Like I said - these are the minor issues I had with the pilot.

The key problem of the first episode is the fact that I, as a viewer, have no idea where the show wants to take me. After watching the pilot I feel lost. There's not enough material to keep me hooked. I have no desire whatsoever to find out what happens next. You get the impression that you've just watched eighty minutes of a show and that it's over now. I don't really get how the writers are intending to transfer the events of the pilot into the overall season arc. Sure, there have been some indications near the end, but that's not enough for me. The pilot seems to imply that the first seventy minutes are pointless and that you've been cheated. At least that's how I feel.

As much as I love Joshua Jackson I am sorry to say that his character seems to be one of the major disturbing factors in the pilot. Not that he's not charming - he is, very much so. Unfortunately the writers wanted to include some comical elements in a generally serious matter. What they achieved was to turn Peter into a snappish, arrogant and repetitive parody of himself. I have no doubt that there's potential for him to grow and become more interesting, but I can only judge what I have seen, right? He just needs to stop being so goddamn skeptical all the time and I'm sure he will be fine.

Generally speaking the rest of the characters aren't too engaging, either. Olivia, the main character, sometimes acts more like a robot than a real person. The villain with the fake arm is more ridiculous than anything. Kirk Acevedo's Charlie is completely different than what I'm used to from the actor, which is probably why I have such a hard time to accept him as the good guy. Philip (Lance Reddick) and Dr. Bishop (John Noble) have interesting approaches, but there's still quite some work to do. As mentioned before Joshua Jackson's character has lots of potential, but Peter's portrayal in the pilot episode was virtually a disaster.

What's the bottom line?
Despite all the excruciating issues I had with the pilot episode I'm very fond of the show. The thing is that I'm not sure if I really like it or if I just want to like it so much I overlook everything that turns me off about it. There's a lot of time until Fringe premieres in September, which gives me hope that the writers will take a look at the message boards, the blogs and all the other internet stuff to turn their show into something special. Right now it's just another J.J. Abrams show for me. A little bit of Lost, quite a bit of the X-Files and just a tiny bit of innovativeness ain't enough to keep me as interested as I am right now. You might say that I'm expecting too much from the prince of mystery drama (and I probably am), but damn, I have every right to be critical after J.J. has given us Lost.

What is it about?
Life introduces us to detective Charlie Crews and the painful cobwebs of his imprisonment as he re-enters a world that's moved on without him. His appreciation for the details offers him up an unique insights into crime solving, and also reminds us of all the little things we take for granted.

Who's in it?
Damian Lewis, Sarah Shahi, Brooke Langton, Robin Weigert

What's good?
I don't know how to say this. I'm just gonna let it out. "Life" might be the first crime show I really like. It has everything it needs. A good lead, Sarah Shahi and Robin Weigert. What more can you want? The chemistry between Charlie and his partner was pretty good and the dialogues were funny. Also the camera work in the pilot episode was quite impressive and I like the style of the show. "Life" also isn't a typical procedural, because it looks like it is going to deal with Charlie's past and the circumstances that led to his imprisonment. So, there are definitely some serial elements mixed with the crime stuff.

What's bad?
Sometime they overdid the jokes. I mean, I got that Charlie is supposed to be a funny guy and I think we all know that he was in prison for the last couple of years and that he is not familiar with modern technology, but we don't need that to be thrown in our faces every couple of minutes. I almost got the feeling that the writers thought I was stupid and they wanted to remind me of that. Additionally, there was too little Robin Weigert for my taste. The woman is a hell of an actress and they should have made use of her. Instead she only got one little scene. I hope her screentime will increase considerably during the next few episodes.

What's the bottom line?

What is it about?
Dan Vassar is having a bad day, returning home he finds someone else living in his house who informs him that it is 1987. When he finally makes it home his wife wants to know where he has been for the past two days.

Who's in it?
Kevin McKidd, Jessica Anderson, Moon Bloodgood, Reed Diamond, Gretchen Egolf, Brian Howe, Charles Henry Wyson

What's good?
Kevin McKidd. That man is amazing. I loved him in "Rome" and he isn't any less lovable in "Journeyman". The other actors are okay too, although they seem a little bit shallow in the pilot episode. I'm sure that's going to change over the course of the show. Though I don't even like time travel, this one is an exception. It's just that I find it interesting to see how things are going to turn out for Dan, now that he is in this unusual love triangle. There's a woman in the past and one in the present. I can't wait to see how this arc is going to play out.

What's bad?
Nothing aggravating. Some of the actors seem out of place, but maybe it's just because they didn't have time to play their characters the right way. There's plenty of episodes left. At least I hope so, because "Journeyman" isn't the kind of show that gets picked up for a second season. I hate to say that, but it's true. It's just too weird and extravagant for the general public. Much like Pushing Daisies or Chuck.

What's the bottom line?

What is it about?
Cane is an epic drama about the external rivalries and internal power struggles of a large Cuban-American family running an immensely successful rum and sugar business in South Florida.

Who is in it?
Jimmy Smits, Hector Elizondo, Nestor Carbonell, Rita Moreno, Paola Turbay, Oscar Torres

What is good?
Nestor Carbonell. That man is so adorable and his voice makes me shiver every time I have the pleasure to hear it. The show also had some very interesting camera movements. I don't know if they were intentional, but they seemed quite artistic in an unconvential kind of way.

What is bad?
I am so sorry but I don't quite know where to start. The main plot is pretty uninteresting. I expected it to be darker, with twisty characters and unconsumed storylines, but the pilot is the exact opposite. It's kinda soapy, some of the actors are really bad and the fact that the cast is so big is what I consider the major problem of the show. I still have no idea who the main characters were and who only played a supporting role. It was very confusing and distracted me from following the story of the pilot. One point I don't get is why the hell they are not talking Spanish. They're from Cuba for God's sake. That's what always bothers me when I see foreign people in American TV shows. It's like "why didn't the Sopranos talk Italian?" if you know what I mean. To me it just seems like a cheap cop-out to make them talk English. Ah, I almost forgot Polly Walker. What the fuck was she doing? Was that supposed to be an American accent? Either it was a very poor attempt or my boxes are broken. Otherwise I can't explain why it sounded so ridiculous. But maybe I'm just wrong and that was her normal British accent, in which case my boxes must be really, really broken.

What is the bottom line?
I don't think that I am going to watch Cane. I am sorry that I'm gonna miss Nestor playing Frank, because he really did a good job, but the story just isn't interesting enough to keep me as a viewer. Maybe I'll give it a try in midseason when I don't have anything else to watch, but for now I'm saying goodbye to the show.

What is it about?
Cavemen is a unique buddy comedy that offers a clever twist on stereotypes and turns race relations on their head. Inspired by the popular Geico Insurance commercials, the series looks at life through the eyes of the ultimate outsiders - three modern cavemen - as they struggle to find their place in the world. Joel, his cynical best friend, Nick, and easy-going little brother, Jamie, are contemporary cavemen who live in the suburban south and simply want to be treated like ordinary thirty-something guys. Despite their attempts at assimilation, Nick doesn't believe mainstream society will ever completely accept them, Jamie seems to take it all in stride and Joel straddles the middle, torn between his friends, his traditional values and his loving fiancée.

Who is in it?
Bill English, Dash Mihok, Nick Kroll, Kaitlin Doubleday, John Heard, Stephanie Lemelin, Sam Huntington

What is good?
Let me think about it. Well, the actors aren't really that bad, considering they have to play such stupid characters. Another advantage is that they went without a laugh track, which made the show a lot more bearable. I guess that's it. Oh, don't let me forget. The music was pretty entertaining. Now I'm done. Really.

What is bad?
The idea of the show is just so stupid that I feel ashamed even thinking about it. The racial jokes aren't really that funny either. At least they weren't as bad as the nerd gags in The Big Bang Theory.

What is the bottom line?
It's not as bad as The Big Bang Theory, but it's kinda really, really boring. The show is so boring that I couldn't even think of all the bad things, because I eventually fell asleep while thinking about the pilot episode. Just spare yourself the boredom and go have a little chitchat with your wall instead of watching Cavemen.