Courtesy of areyouscreening.com

When mixing the professional and personal lives of television characters, one can almost always expect the name Shonda Rhimes to come up in the credits. The two categories are so implicitly merged within her worlds that it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

That is part of what so many viewers love about the shows from ShondaLand. It is something that can be found in not just one, not two, but all three of her shows currently on ABC, the newest of which is “Scandal.”

Departing from the medical worlds of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice,” Rhimes relocates to the political and power hungry landscape of Washington, D.C.

“Scandal” steps inside the crisis-management firm of Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington. It is not a law firm, although the entire team seems to be an amalgam of law degree-holders. They don’t have any legitimate ties to the police nor to the government, yet each team member knows someone, somewhere, well enough to get what they need to do their job.

It’s a team of fixers; they pick someone’s problem and make it go away.

Even if it’s not entirely clear exactly what her firm does, what we do know is that it is good at it. Because we are told. A hundred times. In the first hour of the show.

However, the lack of clarity of the job and the redundancy of the dialogue is relatively forgivable because the characters, in true Rhimes fashion, are gripping with chemistry and banter that makes the show worth watching.

We enter this world through the eyes of Quinn Perkins (Katie Lowes), a wide-eyed young lawyer who idolizes Pope. Of the team, Quinn is probably the least interesting, which makes it unclear as to why Pope was so determined to hire her.

Luckily, Lowes does not need to carry the show, for she has a strong ensemble around her. Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond from “Lost”) returns to the television screen as Stephen Finch, one of the lawyers who is not a lawyer. He works alongside Abby Whelan (Darby Stanchfield) who has been hinted as the token Rhimes character pining after a taken man, in this case Finch.

Pope’s team is finished off with the 28-year-old “not-baby” lawyer, Harrison Wright (Columbus Short), and an ex-CIA hacker named Huck (Guillermo Díaz). Outside of the office is David Rosen (Joshua Malina), a local district attorney who constantly, and humorously, finds himself at odds with Pope’s current clients.

The strength of the show lies in these characters, their work, their undying loyalty to Pope, and their relationships.

And that is also where my problem with the show begins. Because rather than focus on these interesting people and how they came to work together and why they chose this over another career course, “Scandal” instead focuses nearly all of its attention on Olivia’s complicated history with the White House.

Coming from someone who just finished idolizing “The West Wing” for the past several months, it may sound somewhat biased. But the scenes in which Pope barged into the Oval Office or any part of the West Wing for that matter played out as unrealistic and melodramatic.

We enter the high ranks of Washington politics after learning that Pope’s career strength was built as she worked on the campaign for the current President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) alongside now Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry). Pope then suddenly quit her job with the White House and began the firm she currently works with. Her complicated history with the Commander-in-Chief of the United States puts her in the interesting and compelling position of a fixer who needs fixing herself.

Washington does a remarkable job carrying herself with poise, gumption, and strength in every scene inside and outside of the West Wing. Goldwyn as President Grant however, is less believable as the leader of the free world, therefore making me dislike him a little more in every scene.

The fast paced repertoire of the dialogue and the overwhelming presence of the presidential seal make me long for Sorkin and President Bartlet, which is why I far prefer the cases outside of the White House and the characters that are at least an arm’s length away from President Grant.

Washington’s screen presence along with Rhimes’ natural knack for mixing business with pleasure keep me optimistic that “Scandal” will figure out how to balance the two sides of the pendulum. ABC has put together a talented cast with a veteran creator behind it. I would like to see it succeed.

Once Pope’s trusted team is brought in on the secrets she’s hiding, I expect “Scandal” to go from acceptable to addictive.

“Scandal” airs on Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.

Rosenberg is a member of the class of 2012.

Photo courtesy of blog.zap2it.com

Do you know any female in her early 20s that calls herself a woman? Chances are, probably not. Most of us are still just girls.

Lena Dunham captures that exact premise with her young comic voice as the writer, director and star of HBO’s new half hour comedy “Girls.” At 25, Dunham certainly seems to be living the dream, but this is not true of her character, Hannah Hovarth.

The pilot episode, which aired on Sunday, April 15, opens as Hannah’s parents decidedly cut her off from their bank account. As a struggling artist and unpaid intern, Hannah believes that her parents are committing an act of cruel and unusual punishment.

“I can last in New York for three and a half more days, maybe seven if I don’t eat lunch,” she says. This is not a woman speaking. It is a girl.

What is immediately recognizable throughout the pilot is that Hannah is not the most likable of characters. Nor is her best friend Marnie (Allison Williams) or her other friends, Jessa (Jemima Kirke) and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet). They are each distinctly flawed characters who, when given a decision to make, have a tendency to chose the wrong one.

Hannah is self-destructive, a writer incapable of finding her way around her own life. Marnie is self-involved and uninterested in a boyfriend that throws every ounce of his attention her way. Jessa doesn’t care if she’s hours late for a dinner thrown in her honor and Shoshanna still wears Juicy tracksuits and claims to be Carrie with a bit of Samantha once in a while.

The inevitable comparisons to “Sex and the City” have been made, but are seemingly ill-informed. Yes, “Girls” is about four friends trying to make it in New York City. But these are girls in their early ’20s, fresh out of college. Dunham has created a brutally realistic comedy about the modern generation of girls entering the so-called real world. The apartment is cramped. The jobs are far from glamorous. There is a distinct lack of high-heels. And the sex is not good. It is really not good.

Hannah’s friend with benefits is not really much of a friend and the sex doesn’t appear to be a benefit. Adam Sackler (Adam Driver) attacks Hannah for her appearance while squeezing the fat on her back and taunts her personality all in the course of an afternoon post-sex. And she still doesn’t understand why he won’t text her.

This is what we get in a generation that lacks in-person conversation. As Marnie puts it, our generation plays by the rules of the “totem of chat.”

“The lowest, that would be Facebook. Followed by Gchat. Then texting, then email, then phone. Face-to-face is of course ideal, but it’s not of this time,” she says.

“Girls” manages to capture an honest and candid openness about the 20-something girl. Dunham has brought her vision to the television set and she isn’t about to hold your hand while walking through the abyss of post-college life. This is what has everyone talking about the new HBO comedy.

“I don’t want to freak you out, but I think I may be the voice of my generation,” Hannah says to her parents while trying to convince them to reconsider the cut off. “Or, at least, a voice of a generation.”

They don’t take her quite seriously and neither does the audience. Nor should they. Hannah says this while she is completely high on opium tea and trying her very hardest not to pass out. She may be an artist, but she’s an artist that doesn’t quite know what to do with herself yet and the audience can feel that in all its ugliness.

To some, this may be the most relatable show they’ve ever watched. To others, they might have no idea how these girls could treat their bodies and emotions in such a way. Either way, Dunham has created a conversation. For years, flawed male characters have been heralded as icons of television. I’m talking about Don Draper, the men of “Entourage,” even Big from “Sex and the City.” But a female character steps out of line and she’s a bitch. This is not true of all shows or all characters — however, it is a stereotype that has persisted.

The recent landscape of television is changing that. You don’t have to look far for all the “girl”-dominated works. “New Girl” and “Two Broke Girls” along with the movie “Bridesmaids” have begun to shape a new horizon for females in television. Dunham has developed a show that looks at characters whom you don’t immediately love, but ones that you may recognize bits and pieces of in your friends and in yourself.

They are characters that are lost. And aren’t we all on the verge of being lost when we teeter off that cliff after graduation? But when we do step off the edge, we have friends alongside us. Hannah and Marnie are those friends, clinging to each other for dear life while they try to make their own way.

The profoundly talented cast alongside Executive Producer Judd Apatow has propelled “Girls” into a spotlight, with only one episode aired to the audience thus far. But, with an outlook as strong as Dunham’s, I think we can expect more unfiltered wit, intelligence and humor to come. Dunham’s voice may not be the voice of all girls, but it’s the voice of some girls, and it’s definitely all her own.

Rosenberg is a member of the class of 2012.

Courtesy of Marquee.blogs.cnn.com

Everyone has problems. There’s school. There’s family. There’s boyfriends, girlfriends, just friends and/or friends with benefits. We’ve got money problems, emotional problems, physical problems, etc. But most of the time, most of the time, the problems can be fixed.

In other words, we are “bent, not broken.”

Or at least that is what the main character’s father would say on “Bent,” NBC’s new half hour romantic comedy from creator Tad Quill (“Scrubs”).

Pete Riggens, played by the handsome David Walton, is a recovering gambling addict trying to piece his life back together aided by his charm and wiles with women.

Alex Meyers (Amanda Peet), a lawyer freshly divorced from a white-collar criminal and uptight and anxious as ever, hires Pete’s construction crew in an effort to rebuild her life with her daughter Charlie (Joey King) and start anew.

Therein lies the meet-cute. Pete, meet Alex. Let the sexual tension begin.

But what is so blissfully refreshing about “Bent” is that no one denies the attraction. Screwsie (Margo Harshman), Alex’s sister, blatantly points out Pete’s good looks and the construction team sighs in knowing despair when they see their new project is for an attractive woman whom Pete is undoubtedly trying to woo. Not even Alex’s new boyfriend Ben (Matt Letscher) denies the witty rapport between the two.

The honesty and deliberate truth in each of the characters gives birth to a cast that has an undeniable chemistry. Walton plays well with everyone as the chillaxed surfer dude completely aware of his gift with women.

As he leaves Alex’s house after a day of work, she rolls her eyes saying, “You’re delusional, and you’re not pulling off that jacket.” He looks down at his leather jacket while sitting on his motorcycle, smiles with dimples and responds, “I think we both know that’s a lie.”

Pete has romantic chemistry with Alex and a friendly and charming connection with her daughter Charlie. He plays a patient son to his father Walt (Jeffrey Tambor), a struggling actor and tag-along father. Pete puts up with a lot, but he also is a lot to put up with.

If the show were resting solely on the shoulders of the will-they, won’t-they story of Pete and Alex it might fall short. Instead it embraces the supporting cast. Each of the episodes finds a new dynamic, whether it’s between Screwsie and Gary (Jesse Simmons), the new guy constantly being hazed on Pete’s team or between Pete and Ben as they knowingly and enjoyably challenge one another for Alex’s attention.

They all call each other out for their flaws, make fun of one another in public and clearly care for each other as friends and family. Just like Quill’s characters, we’ve all got problems. We might not have fixed them yet, but we’re working on it. So are they.

Now here’s the kicker. We might not get the chance to see these smart characters even attempt to fix up their lives.

When “Bent” was ordered, NBC picked up six episodes. Only six episodes. And after absolutely no promotion or advertising, the network is rolling out the episodes two at a time on Wednesday evenings against Modern Family repeats. The final two episodes planned were aired last night. This comedy — that is one of the strongest new half hour comedies to come out of the crop of sitcom pilots this season — has been burned before it even has a chance to prove itself.

“Bent” is witty and smart and has just enough “rom” to balance out the “com.” It has a great cast with natural chemistry that most shows only wish they had.

Watch the six episodes. I know I won’t be alone in wanting the chance to watch Pete and his crew mess up Alex’s kitchen over and over and over again if just to see the rest of the stories that Quill and his staff can delve out to the bent, but not broken, characters of this quirky show.

Watch episodes of “Bent” on nbc.com or purchase them on iTunes.

Rosenberg is a member of the class of 2012.

Courtesy of Awaketvshow.com

There are lots of successful shows with complicated premises. “Lost” kept viewers enticed over its six-season span despite fans having no idea what was really going on. “24” spent years attracting viewers with complex characters who switched between good and evil on a weekly basis. “Homeland” has largely been considered one of the most successful shows on television’s newest season.

So now that NBC has launched their new show, “Awake,” those fans who lean towards the complicated, twisting and turning plots can come out of their slumber for something new.

NBC chose to utilize the marketing strategy that was set in place for shows like “New Girl” and “Smash” by releasing the pilot of “Awake” online several weeks before tonight’s premiere. It’s a smart move, especially for a show as complicated as this. It gives the audience time to warm up to the premise before jumping on the bandwagon week after week.

If you can follow along here, then you can probably follow along with the brilliantly sharp pilot. The opening moments of “Awake” depict Detective Michael Britten and his wife Laura and son Rex in a brutal car accident.  But the show doesn’t pick up right after this tragedy, instead it moves ahead in time and we see Britten has refigured himself in his lives.

That’s right, plural lives. In one life, Jason Isaacs (also known as Lucius Malfoy) portrays Britten in a world in which his wife survived and his son Rex was buried at the funeral.

In his other life, Britten stood by his son’s side watching as his wife is lowered into a grave.

He is living out two lives simultaneously. At this point in his story, Britten has already accepted that after a day spent with Laura he will go to sleep, open his eyes and wake up to find his son in the room across the hall. We skip over the discovery of this gift, which allows the audience to just accept it rather then endlessly question its validity.

The pilot does a good job of establishing key signifiers for each universe. Rex’s universe is represented as green, Laura’s is red. In the world where Rex is alive, Britten sees a kind and empathetic female therapist, Judith Evans (Cherry Jones). The male therapist, John Lee (B.D. Wong), whom Britten sees in the reality with his wife, is far more pushy and strong-handed.

The first episode, written and created by Kyle Killen and developed with Howard Gordon (“24” and “Homeland”), invites the audience to invest in the stories of the living characters. Yes, it is a show about grief, but it is a show about living with grief as opposed to letting it take your life away. And for those not pumped about character drama alone, the plot is nicely wrapped together with Britten conducting detective investigations in each world that somehow connect with each other, allowing him to make connections that others couldn’t. So, there you go, character, drama, procedure, mythology — it all seems to be there.

The question to ask is, which path will Killen and Gordon take? Following the pilot, will the show be a mythology-driven plot where we are constantly wondering why is he experiencing this? Who is to blame? Why can’t he remember the crash? Or will we take the road leading to a show that explores a character’s gift — if that’s what you want to call it — in terms of his everyday life and learning how to move on?

I’m in favor of a balance of the two, working on week-by-week cases and delving deeper into the characters while also trying to unravel the mystery underneath the surface.

But what worries me about a show such as this is that it leaves me wondering if the audience will stay alert enough throughout the pilot and subsequent episodes to facilitate a successful show.

I like shows that make you think. I like it when you get to the end of an episode and have to wrap your head around what’s going on. You have to actively use your imagination and reasoning to put yourself in the place of the characters. That is smart television.

I just hope the complexity of the show doesn’t deter audiences from what could be a truly compelling series. If I were you, I would stay awake for this one.

“Awake” premieres on NBC Thursday night at 10 p.m.

Rosenberg is a member of the class of 2012.

Spoilers for recent episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” ahead. You’ve been warned.

Way back when the first episode of “How I Met Your Mother” premiered in 2005, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) fell in love with Robin Sherbatsky (Cobie Smulders). It was love at first sight. Radnor and Smulders had that intense chemistry that you come across only once in a while on television, that one in a million chance that mimicks real relationships.

But Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the creators of the show, quickly threw a pail of ice-cold water on that relationship.

In the final moments of the pilot episode, it was revealed that Robin was the kid’s aunt  (whether by blood or as a friend, we are still unsure), and most definitely not the mother.

In spite of this revelation we spent the majority of the first two seasons of the show following Ted as he fought for Robin’s love. And we kept watching once he had won her over. And kept watching until things fell apart. It was great.

The first three seasons of the show had energy and humor. We didn’t care about finding the mother so much, because our characters were happy and they were growing.

But then, seven seasons later, we get the episode “The Drunk Train” which aired Feb. 13.

The episode as a whole was actually one of the better ones of the season.Ted joins Barney on the last train to Long Island looking for lonely and depressed girls to hit up while Lily and Marshall go away for the weekend with Robin and her current boyfriend Kevin. It was the final moments that put a controversial spin on the typically un-offending show.

Robin reveals to her friends that she is unable to bear children and expresses confusion over possible having wanted kids.

This turns out to be the honest and a bit heartbreaking moment that Kevin and Robin’s relationship comes to end, even after he proposes multiple times.

In a moment of weakness, and perhaps friendship, Robin confesses everything to Ted, who has just spent the majority of his time hitting on women he has no interest in. And that’s when it happens. Ted boldly tells Robin he is still in love with her.

That’s where they lost me. I fully support character development, which I think has been very strong this season. I am just not sure how going backwards to a story that has already been dealt with can help the show to move forward.

I do not need to know who the mother is right now. I don’t think that is what this show is about, despite the title. It’s about friends and about love. “How I Met Your Mother” is about getting through the independent years of your life when nothing is a sure thing. The show is strongest when it just tells stories about the strong characters they have built and their relationships with one another.

We have already seen Ted and Robin’s relationship play out. And yes, their chemistry was strong. But that’s just it, it was strong. Past tense. So much has happened, and so much has changed, that I find it hard to believe these two characters could fall back in to something.

I hope that the purpose of this story turns out to be something unexpected. Or maybe it will be that tipping point we were warned of early on the season by Victoria, the unexpected visitor. Maybe this is where the triangle of Ted, Robin, and Barney cracks and breaks.

But no matter what happens, I hope Ted and Robin do not get back together. Nostalgia is ok, but I don’t want to see the characters living in the past. I want to see them making the way for their future.

How I Met Your Mother airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBS.

Rosenberg is a member of the class of 2012.

Courtesy of blog.zap2it.com

The beautiful summary of a show that can’t be summarized in mere words, “Chuck,” the little show that could, came to a perfect end last Friday evening.

For five seasons “Chuck” has been a show of spy gadgets. It has been an hour of comedy each week with nerdy and nostalgic 80s callback jokes. “Chuck” is a family drama for the Bartowski’s, for Casey and for Sarah. But at its heart, the story of Chuck has been a romance.
The series finale paid respect to the action, humor, family and love that was found throughout five seasons of the show.

It could have centered on one of the many creative villains Josh Schwartz, Chris Fedak and the rest of the writing team dreamed up over the years. But instead, they chose to make Chuck’s final mission to save Sarah and win her heart all over again after her memories of the past five years were erased.

Before watching the final hours of the show, it felt a bit like a cop out. What would happen to the growth that Sarah experienced throughout the series if she forgot everything and reverted to her former spy self? How could the show possibly reconcile five years of memory lost in a two-hour finale?

The most powerful moments weren’t conveyed with needless or cheesy flashbacks.  Instead, Chuck and Sarah’s mission took them back to a restaurant all too familiar to where they had their first date.

And then, as if the show had dragged us back in time, we found ourselves in Weinerlicous once again.

Each of these homages to the five-year romance of Chuck and Sarah pulled her one step closer to remembering their relationship. And if you didn’t laugh, cry and hold your breath until the last minute, I am convinced you have no heart.

“Chuck” has never been a supremely dark show. It has gone to dark places, but it is appropriate that every character of the “Chuck” family was given a happy ending. Jeff and Lester head off to become German rockstars after their impeccable Jeffster performance of “Take on Me,” that incidentally saved the world.

Big Mike finally has his two loves in life combined, with Subway taking over the Buy More. Morgan, the once annoying dork, moves in with Alex while Casey heads out to save the world one bad guy at a time with Verbanski, the steely spy that captured his heart. Ellie and Awesome leave for Chicago to start a family home with respectable jobs.

And Chuck and Sarah sit on a beach at sunset and kiss in the hopes of restoring all of Sarah’s memories. A true fairytale ending.

Rosenberg is a member of the class of 2012.

Courtesy of landon-liboiron.com

The pattern of new television shows this season seems to be that none of them have a wow factor. They all fail to grip the audience in the way that successful shows in previous years have — whether this is from lack of creativity, follow-through or me just being picky, I am not sure. But every show that has had a built up hype has failed to become a show that I look forward to each week. Fox’s new drama, “Terra Nova,” is no different. Is it good? Yes. Is it great? No.

“Terra Nova” starts in the year 2149, in a world that is rapidly disintegrating. The air is so polluted that every person must wear a re-breather when stepping outdoors. The population has grown to such catastrophic numbers that a law has been put in place that every family is only allowed two children at most. The world looks gray and full of smog.

It’s a world that the audience is allowed to see for only 20 minutes before disappearing into the repopulation project of Terra Nova. That’s too bad, because the post-apocalyptic civilization looked like a fresh take on an old storyand one that I wouldn’t mind seeing more often.

Instead, we are transported back 85 million years to a time when dinosaurs walked the Earth. If you’re going to give the show credit for anything, it has spectacular production value. With scenes filmed on-location in Australia combined with movie-quality special effects, “Terra Nova” looks great. The dinosaurs lurking beyond the fence of the civilized compound are truly threatening, not just fake graphic art. When the velociraptors come racing towards your screen, you might just find yourself looking away.

But where the entire spectacle succeeds, the drama tends to bust.

colony, we learn about a group of rebel colonists known as the “sixers.”

The mythology of the growing civilization over generations is intriguing. Everyone else seems to know a hell of a lot more than the Shannons — who are the newbies — and their stories seem to be a little more interesting. I want to see the “sixers” departing from the camp led by their kick-ass leader Mira (Christine Adams).

I would have at least liked a flashback to Taylor’s arrival in Terra Nova by himself, fending for his life for 118 days before help arrived — even a quick montage would have done the job. Mostly, I want the history of Taylor and his runaway son, who now carves indecipherable images into the sides of waterfalls about the true plans for Terra Nova.

All of these are a part of a show that claims to be a “family drama.” It’s not, and it shouldn’t advertise itself as such. “Terra Nova” is following the wrong family, or at least it appears that way right now. There are many directions the show could take to allow the Shannons to become a more integrated and interesting part of the series. Right now the dinosaurs and mystery are keeping me along for the ride -— not the characters — except perhaps the elusive Commander Taylor.

“Terra Nova” airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. on Fox.

Rosenberg is a member of the class of 2012.