First Impressions: The Grinder (Fox)
The Grinder’s “Pilot” is an abundantly familiar premiere with strong cast chemistry.
Category: First Impressions
Reviews of pilot episodes.
First Impressions: Moonbeam City (Comedy Central)
Moonbeam City is too familiar and half-baked to be worth investing in.
First Impressions: The Player (NBC)
The Player’s ridiculous premise never earns its own logic, leaving a pilot too preposterous and hollow to buy into.
First Impressions: Life in Pieces (CBS)
Despite its inventive format, Life in Pieces’ debut feels like a fairly conventional family sitcom.
First Impressions: Minority Report (Fox)
Minority Report’s “Pilot” squanders its source material’s ideas for a lifeless, generic crime procedural.
First Impressions: Fear the Walking Dead (AMC)
Fear the Walking Dead’s family drama sinks its shaky, familiar pilot.
First Impressions: The Whispers (ABC)
The Whispers is yet another paint-by-numbers mystery, in a television landscape already rotten with them.
First Impressions: One Big Happy (NBC)
One Big Happy is the latest in a growing line of major comedy misfires from NBC.
First Impressions: American Crime (ABC)
ABC’s John Ridley-led miniseries has an unbecoming sense of self-importance its pilot can never quite shake.
First Impressions: Secrets and Lies (ABC)
ABC’s soapy new drama has a few intriguing elements, but they’re obfuscated by the overabundance of tropes and cliches.