ABC's Conviction Has Got My TV Viewing Attention

For the first time since the debut of The Practice, I've never been interested in any drama series (or comedy) on ABC. They are  Practice was their best drama series, and after that, it was like watching Bear Grylls squeezing water out of poop. But all that changed when I saw the trailer for a new series, Conviction.

The series follows Hayes Morrison, played by Hayley Atwell, a lawyer and former first daughter, who is blackmailed into heading the new Conviction Integrity Unit in New York City, which was created to reexamine cases where there is credible suspicion of wrongful conviction. She works with lawyers, detectives, and forensic experts to identify those criminals convicted.


The series stars Atwell (Captain America: Winter Solider & Agent Carter) along with Eddie Cahill (CSI: NY), Shawn Ashmore, Merrin Dungey (The King of Queens), Emily Kinney (The Walking Dead), and Manny Montana.

Conviction was created by Liz Friedlander (Pretty Little Liars) and Liz Friedman (Orange is the New Black), who also serves as Executive producers along with Mark Gordon (Ray Donovan, Criminals Minds) and Nick Pepper.

Atwell's character seems to be very intriguing from the start. In the trailer, she's this badass person who goes from party bad girl to redemption hero with attitude. It's so interesting that it's on my list of new shows. I might not watch it live or DVR it. But it'll be on my download to watch.

Conviction premieres Monday, Oct. 3rd at 10/9c on ABC.

Checkout the trailer:

Coming to USA Network: Shooter

Coming to USA Network a new conspiracy thriller starring Ryan Phillippe, follows the courageous journey of Bob Lee Swagger, a highly-decorated ex-marine sniper who is coaxed back into action after he learns about a plot of kill the President. When Swagger's former commanding officer Isaac Johnson (Omar Epps, "House") solicits his expertise in a clandestine operation, Swagger re-emerges from exile only to discover that he is inextricably involved in a disastrous operation with ties to his past.

Based on the best-selling novel, "Point of Impact" by Stephen Hunter and the 2007 Paramount film starring Mark Wahlberg.

Shooter is a co-production with Paramount Television and Universal Cable Productions. Wahlberg sereves as executive producer of Closest to the Hole Productions, along with Stephen Levision of Leverage Entertainment and Lorenzo di Bonaventura. John Hlavin wrote the pilot and will also serve as executive producer. Simon Cellan Jones directs the pilot and Ryan Phillippe also serves as producer.

You can catch the series premiere of Shooter on July 19th
Checkout the trailer:

Rob Lowe joins Code Black Season 2

Former Parks and Rec star takes his talents to Angels Memorial.

It was announced on Tuesday from TVLine, that Rob Lowe will be joining the CBS retooling of Code Black as the medical drama's new co-lead.

Lowe, who's been fresh off his one and done run on Fox's The Grinder, will be playing Colonel Ethan Willis, a doctor in the U.S. Military's prestigious Combat Casualty Care research program who has been pulled out of a combat hospital in Afghanistan and embedded at Angles Memorial to teach what the military has learned about combat medicine.

His aggressive, role-breaking style is greeted enthusiastically by Dr. Leanne Rorish (Played by Marcia Gay Harden), but not by all the other doctors and nurses.

This isn't Lowe's first medical drama as he made his MD round on CBS back in 2004 as the star of a short lived series Dr. Vegas.

Lowe's casting is part of a big Season 2 overhaul on Code Black. Already the series as added Heroes alum Noah-Gray-Cabey, Flesh and Bone star Emily Tyra and One Life to Live alum Nafessa Williams in recurring roles. Lowe and others are intended to help fill the void that was left by the departing of series regulars Bonnie Somerville (Christa) and Raza Jaffrey (NEal).

You can look forward to seeing Lowe's Dr. Willis to make his Angels debut in season 2 of Code Place when it peremieres on Wednesday, Sept. 28th at 10/9c on CBS.

STRANGER THINGS Official Trailer #2 (2016) Winona Ryder Netflix

HOLY BLUE BALLS!!!!

On Thursday, Netflix released it's second trailer for their upcoming new sci-fi thriller Stranger Things.

The series tells when a boy disappears from a small town in Indaiana. His mother, played by Winona Ryder, searches for him and soon finds a child that's also been missing. Mysterious stuff happens in searching for the boy and oh my freaking god....all I have to say is watch the trailer.

It's really good.

Here's the 2nd trailer:

Double Feature: The Night Shift "Get Busy Livin'" & "Hot in the City"

"Get Busy Livin'"

In the first episode of a double-feature event, one doctor will learn from one of the patients that saving lives isn't the most important thing.

Shannon rides with the paramedics to a call of an overdose college student. Hearing his story gave her a sick reason not to feel bad for him. As they take the guy in the ambulance, someone else needs help, and she goes while the paramedics head off.

 Another student had jumped off the second floor, bleeding and with a broken bone sticking out of her leg. TC gets there and takes them back to Memorial. As soon as Scott sees her, they take her to the OR. The student's friend returns with her purse, hands it to TC, and finds a bottle of pills. After looking up the drug, a side effect causes suicidal thoughts. That pissed him off to talk to the pharmaceutical rep, Jessica Sanders, who is in the hospital to give Scott the heart veil that helps heart patients recover in half the time.

He should probably waited til talking with the patient before going after her because after a complication (puffing up like a balloon), he talked to her about the pills. She told him that she hadn't taken any, and she jumped off because she was just stressed out from college work. Later, after Sanders has been trying to sucker Topher and Jordan to switch drug reps to her company, TC apologizes to her on the spot. And there might be something with the way they looked at each other.

But the central part of this episode was about Jordan, who takes care of a cancer patient. The patient has spent most of her helping others and studying and has never been on a date. When Jordan tries to help her, she doesn't want any help but to die with dignity. Of course, Jordan can't take that and tries to get her to try a trial that Sanders' company had, but she tells her she'll do it unless Jordan talks to her about her.

Jordan opens up about her life, how after her dad died, she closed relationships and focused on work more and more. After opening up to her, Jordan talks to Sanders, and she's got the trial, but soon, her patient takes a turn for the worst. Jordan tries to save her, but when Topher comes in telling her that she's a DNR and the patient telling her to let her die, Jordan breaks down in tears and makes her comfortable with pain meds, and she dies.

Other things in this episode dealt with a lot of humor, from Sanders getting Topher the deal of a lifetime, a paid vacation away from his mother and kids. But also Drew and Kenny at Syd's kid karate tournament, which got weird looks from other parents as they cheered her on. And not to mention that Drew fell on her when showing her a move after a win and had broken her arm.

 Reflection will be below.

"Hot in the City"

The second episode of the double feature deals with the heat and relationships in a way.

The heat is on, and so are the relationships with some characters from Kenny and the nurse, TC and Sanders, Jordan and Sam, and Scott and TC's sister. 

TC and Topher take a female patient who seems to suffer from heat exhaustion. But when TC sees a rash on her chest and does some more tests, the diagnosis jumps to meningitis. But when her breathing became more and more of an issue, and at one point, she had a heart attack too. 

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As Topher and TC gathered their thoughts, TC rechecked her and found sink pealing on her hands and strawberry-looking tongue and came up with the diagnosis it was an infection in the heart and had to be operated on.

Jordan and Shannon had their hands full on their off day and out at a wrestling match. Jordan meets Victor and talks to her about his cousin, one of the masked wrestlers. But when a fight goes too far, things fly around, and it gets wild. Victor saves Jordan but gets hurt. And one of the ring ladies got injured, too.

As they get to the hospital, Jordan and Shannon take care of Victor as Drew takes the female who flew onto a chair and can't feel her legs.

Victor became the second biggest medical mystery of the episode as things kept getting worse for him. At one point, he was coughing blood and had to be rushed to the OR. There, they took out a tumor from his liver, but the patient kept getting worse after. Paul, Scott, and Jordan tried to figure it out before Victor died until Jordan figured out that it was parasites from the pork that he had eaten in Mexico.

On the other hand, with Drew, he had the most problematic case out of all. First, he promises the girl she'll walk again (big mistake!). After trying one thing that didn't turn out to work, they had to go into surgery. With no spinal cord specialist coming, Drew was the only one who had worked on the spinal cord back in Afghanistan.

Scott was a bit worried, but Topher trusted Drew to do it. After they went in, things became problematic from the back of the patient. Drew takes the risk to another level as he performs the surgery from her mouth. Yes, you heard me correctly, from the patient's mouth. HOLY CRAP!!

The kicker for this episode was that as soon as Jordan and Shannon get to the ER, the air conditioner shuts off on the hottest day of the year.  The episode ends with at least someone figuring out that one is dating someone. And Scott opens up to TC about dating his sister, which looks awkward!! Jordan seems to have broken up with Sam and is taking the dating world slow and social, too. TC and Jordan are on good terms, but I think they'll be back.

Reflection: 

For "Get Busy Livin'" I thought it was an excellent episode. I enjoyed Jordan's storyline in this one a lot more. She cares for her patients and tries to save them all, but for this one, she takes it very hard that she can't keep a patient. It's Flint's best performance. I also enjoyed the Kenny and Drew Odd Couple moment with Syd's daughter. That had me laughing and smiling. 

Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

For "Hot in the City," I thought that it was good as this one brought the heat. When I say heat, I mean the medical problems for the characters to solve. It is challenging for the characters of Jordan and TC but also us. I felt like each character brought in an excellent performance. I can't name a single person. It had an outstanding balance of humor and drama. 

Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

You can catch The Night Shift on Wednesday nights at 10/9c on NBC.

Syfy Renews 12 Monkeys for a Third Season

Great news for us fans of the hit Syfy series 12 Monkeys.

It was announced Wednesday that the time travel series is getting renewed for a third season containing 10 episodes. It's set to debut in 2017.

Based on the 1995 film of the same name, the Syfy series follows weary time traveler Jame Cole (Aaron Standford) and virologist Cassandra Railly (Amanda Schull) as they attempt to save the world from the Army of the 12 monkeys, who release a plague that kills off most of humanity. In the current second season, the show has moved past the plague storyline and developed deeper into the true motivations of the Army and to destroy time by killing of Primaries under orders from the Witness.

The show also stars Barbra Sukowa, Kirk Acevedo, Todd Stashwick and Emily Hampshire, who's been receiving critical acclaim for her performance as Jennifer Gomnes. The series is shipped by executive producers Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett.

"Syfy and UCP have been incredible creative partners, and I'm thrilled that we are going to tell the next- even more twisty and emotional-chapter of this time travel adventure," Matalas tells Entertainment Weekly.

"This season of 12 Monkeys has proven to be a breakthrough," Says Jeff Wachtel, chief content officer of Universal Cable Production (that produces the series). "From its epic storytelling to its grand aesthetic, Terry and the cast and crew have invested boundless energy and passion, and it showed. New legions of fans will discover what devoted viewers already know: It's one of the best shows on television."

You can catch 12 Monkeys Monday nights at 9/8c on Syfy. New episodes will return July 11.

Spire Headed Discussion: The Night Shift "Three-Two-One"

It's one of The Night Shift's best episode of the season so far. So I'll just leave it like that and get down to the recapping.

It's the trail of the year in San Antonio, as a white man will get the verdict of whether he is guilty or not guilty in a shooting of a black man. Chaos as ruled the city with people on different sides. When the verdict gets to be announced the  suspect collapses in front of the judge and jury and soon taken to the Medical Center.

Topher, in a bit of a bad mood due to this event, has everyone on deck to help out. Kenny comes in late due to a cop pulling him over for speeding. He takes it out on mostly Paul, who doesn't see his point of view.

When the suspect gets to the hospital, Jordan and Kenny are assigned to treat him. Jordan tries to find the cause of his collapsing. After finding nothing wrong from the test that they perform, there is still something that Jordan thinks is wrong. When the suspect goes into a seizure. Topher comes in and ask about blood sugar and when he tested it it came up undetected. It turns out that the patient has a tumor in his pancreas, not cancer, but he wishes it was.

Meanwhile, TC is out in the field with the police, being the medical adviser if someone gets shot or injured. Soon, a white cop and a black kid both get shot and TC being the only one needs some help. Topher sends Scott and Paul out in he field. TC takes care of the cop while Paul and Scott treat the black kid. At one point a decision was made on which had to go first to the Medical Center. TC's went first, which didn't quite go well with Paul who thinks the kid deserves to go.

TC and the cop head towards the Medical Center and there Drew helps him in surgery. There they find three bullets in the chest and soon after the cop goes cardiac arrest and never recovers. But the bullets left TC wondering that the gun the kid had was a .38 but the bullets he found were from a .40. He talks with the cop's partner about it and she admitted to shooting him.

Back on the streets, Paul and Scott have their hands full with their patient. The crowds deserved the ambulance so they had to move the kid into a closed jewelry shop where Scott had to clap an artery. Soon the crowds get closer and causes a scene. This upset Paul even more along side that the kid should have gone first. After a trash can break the window, Paul goes out and ask for help. At first it didn't go well but than Paul really stepped up made the leader of the group help them make room for the chopper to land.

While this was all going on, Topher wasn't much having fun at all. Dealing with reporters isn't his thing and when they kept asking about the cop and kid situation, he tries to clear it up but doesn't. Shannon comes up with a perfect plan to shine the spotlight on a little boy who was separated from his mother and saved Topher from more embarrassment.

Paul and Scott gets to Medical Center, but can't go upstairs to surgery so they did it in the ER. Soon the kid seems that he will make it but needed more surgery when he had to go upstairs.

After that he tells Jordan that he doesn't regret shooting the guy, that he says was coming at him violently, that happen to be black. He tells her that he had not trouble talking to Kenny. But as he's released from the hospital and taken back to jail, someone comes up to him and starts shooting him in the chest and head. Jordan and Kenny rush him back to the ER but there was nothing that they could do as brain matter was on the bed.

I'll say this again, this happen to be one of the best episodes of the season so far. We got to see Kenny and Paul deal with this issue that were both in the opposite opinions until they realized what they have saw. This was Robert Bailey, Jr and JR Lemon's best performance. It really felt like one of those TV movie of the week kind of thing.

Overall,  I give this episode a 9.5/10.

NOTE: June 29th will be a special event episode at a special time 9/8c.

You can catch The Night Shift Wednesday nights at 10/9c on NBC.