Fox entertainment President Gail Berman recently acknowledged that her network's ratings are in the toilet. American Idol notwithstanding, the network's erratic scheduling and overreliance on cheap reality shows have eroded much of its popularity. Since well-written dramas are all the rage now (think Lost and Desperate Housewives), Fox's latest offerings are neither cheap nor reality shows. They're definitely dramas, although whether they're well-written is another story.
The first to premiere was Jonny Zero (Fox, Fridays, 9 p.m.), a self-consciously "gritty" drama from John Wells (ER, The West Wing). With its ex-con hero and slang-spouting sidekick, the show is trying way too hard to make up for its creators knowing nothing about street life.
The sidekick, annoyingly named Random, says things like "yo" and "dawg" in what the writers must think is an accurate portrayal of urban youth, but it really just makes him sound like American Idol's Randy Jackson. The show is shot and edited as if by a spastic monkey, again with the hope that this makes it gritty. Star Franky G gives Jonny—a parolee trying to get his life back on track while working as a sort of street-level PI—a certain roguish charm, but the rest of the characters are one-note and the writing is amateurish.
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Faring better is the supernatural drama Point Pleasant (Fox, Thursdays, 9 p.m.). Created by Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), the show follows the child of Satan (in the form of a hot teenage girl, naturally) as she arrives in the titular New Jersey town. Some blurb-hungry critic called it "The Omen meets The O.C.," which is accurate in theory if not practice. Neither as scary as The Omen nor as fun as The O.C., Point Pleasant suffers from a crushing lack of subtlety (the devil's daughter has "666" etched into her eye) and bland actors playing the central teens.
The adults have a little more personality, but the only one who really stands out is Grant Show, who plays an emissary of the Dark Lord. Show puts all of the conniving and smarming skills he learned on Melrose Place to excellent use and delivers his wonderfully evil lines with humor and zest.
Speaking of underappreciated actors, Numbers (CBS, Fridays, 10 p.m.), the latest police procedural to put a new spin on the CSI formula, is full of them. Former Northern Exposure star Rob Morrow plays an FBI agent who teams up with his mathematician brother (David Krumholtz) to solve crimes using mathematical formulas. Other recognizable faces in the cast include veteran curmudgeon Judd Hirsch, Sabrina Lloyd (Sliders, Sports Night) and Navi Rawat, recently of The O.C.
This season has been littered with shows copying CSI's successful procedural format and emphasis on technical details, each with its own spin. We've had medical CSIs—Medical Investigation and House—earlier this season, and NBC's new Medium—CSI with visions instead of science. Numbers substitutes math for forensics, and while the police procedural basics remain intact, the show takes enough unique turns to make it worth a look. Krumholtz has plenty of charisma as the nerd with the heart of gold, and the supporting cast is surprisingly strong. Even the math is interesting—complex enough to seem realistic, but lucid enough that you can follow what's going on.
I'll make only a brief mention of The Entertainer (E!, Sundays, 10 p.m.), Wayne Newton's stab at ripping off The Apprentice and American Idol, since Vegas-based reality shows are almost common enough now not to be noteworthy. Newton tries his best in his search for the next Vegas headliner, but the contestants, including singers, comedians and a magician, can't live up to their ends of the bargain. The comics aren't funny, the singers are sub-Idol and melisma-obsessed, and the drama is rote. It's hard to imagine anyone paying money to see any of these losers headline at a casino; don't waste your time watching them on TV, either.