Good But Not Bad: Conviction "Pilot" Series Premiere

Back in July, I wrote about my reaction to seeing the trailer for ABC's new series Conviction. I mention that for the first time that the trailer got my interested in watching this series, as it's been my first ABC drama series since The Practice was very good at the time.

The series premiered last week and after watching the pilot episode, I think it can be a lot better in a scene that it's looking like another sexy soap series.

Hayley Atwell plays Hayes Morrison, a daughter of a former President of the United States and future daughter of a Senator, who gets arrested for cocaine possession and is blackmailed by the current district attorney go head the new Conviction Integrity Unit. There her and the team takes on cases that have been wrongly convicted.

They take on the case of Odell Dwyer, a high school "good-looking black poster boy," who's in prison for murdering his girlfriend back when the two were in high school. The case seemed to be not going well into Odell's favor but within a couple of days til the he might not have a shot, the team looks at all directions and found out that the girlfriend dead in the evening during Odell's football game and that the girlfriend's journal had the word he as in Hector Esparia, a family friend that has been in all the photos.

The writing is pretty good as the case really takes its twist and turns as in it does the job of a good legal drama. The characters are really good. Atwell is amazing at Morrison with a balance of good and bad and wanting to stick it to the man. It's her best work since she played Agent Carter in the films and first season of the series. We do get to learn a little bit of each supporting character and that's something I liked as well.

The one thing that I don't like is how they're playing music at times and making it look so soap like Scandal or Grey's. ABC is really pushing the sex thing in their dramas these days and it's the one thing that I hate and haven't watched any other series on that network. One reason is when Morrison tells Wallace that she wants quit but he denies her and the two look at each other with tension,something that I don't feel it's real. Hell the music doesn't seem right for it either.

Do I like it, yeah. Could it be better? Oh yeah. Will I watch it, yes because Atwell is really good.

I give the pilot 6/10.

You can catch Conviction Monday nights at 10/9c on ABC.

Searching and Resurgence: The Blacklist "Miles McGrath (No. 65 )"

As the search for Agnus is on, Red gets a lead on the whereabouts on Kirk as Liz gets information about her mother. And someone isn't dead just yet....

Red is working alone to find Agnus but Liz isn't going to let him work alone. He tells her his lead of a man named Miles McGrath, a high profile entrepreneur who has created one of the biggest social media sites in the world, or as I can put it a psycho Mark Zuckerberg.

This Blacklist is working for Kirk to bring him something that he really needs, a deadly virus. And he does it by having a gang, that the leader knows Red, to steal it from a train. This virus is something that Kirk needs to help him survive with his blood disorder and needs to a bone marrow that doesn't seem to happen.

Liz sneaks out her mother journal and finds out that her job was to be with Red. But also learns about her father's illness. Red tells her after that he couldn't get Agnus that the real truth about Kirk that he wasn't in for a family reunion, it's for a family donation.

Also in this episode, Samar decides to request transfer to another department after Liz comes back to the FBI. She almost, I think, decided to stay when she called Aram and asked him to join her for a cup of coffee, but he had someone coming in his place for dinner. OUCH!!!

Also I fear the worst has yet to come and I mean that of Mr. Kaplan is still alive after Red shoots her in last week's episode. Her face is pretty messed up from what we could see in her reflection in the water. But she gets picked up from a mysterious man and his dog. I feel like she knows how this guy is, because she's not fighting for her life to get away.

This was a really good episode. The writing was good and the I find the character of McGrath to be interesting. I do feel like he's the psycho Zuckerberg version. The scene where Liz was reading her mother's journal and visual her at the table writing it was amazing and even seeing one another too.

Also I can't get enough of Brimley, even if it was just for one short scene asking Red for Dembe's help on a guy they're trying to information from on Kirk. Not to mention Tom being tested before joining the group to take the virus. Anyone think that Tom Keen would be an awesome Jason Bourne type of character? Just a thought.

Overall, I give this episode a 9/10.

Here's a promo for next Thursday's episode.

You can catch The Blacklist Thursday nights at 10/9c on NBC.

The Newspaper

Decisions and Conflicts: Chicago Med "Natural History"

This week's episode might have been better than last week's episode as it had two relatives on different sides a doctor still dealing with a new mentor.

At a family BBQ reunion of Maggie's, Halstead joins the party and meets everyone there. When Maggie's sister comes, she only stays for a few minutes and tries to fly back to Dallas, TX. Well, that flight will have to make a detour to Med when she crashed her car while leaving the party.

Maggie's sister doesn't want to get any tests or stuff, but after a talk with Maggie, Halstead runs some tests. It was then that one of the tests showed something that's not quite right as in she could have cancer. It was soon that Halstead had to run an ultrasound on her and soon saw something that was not right, but apparently, Maggie's sister had a prostate gland, and she told him that she was transgender. This doesn't come as a surprise to Maggie as she knew and didn't tell Halstead.

This opened both Maggie and her sister to the topic that Maggie misses her brother. But after the two argued they've never been closer than before. After getting the right test results, it showed that Maggie's sister had cancer and she decided to stay in Chicago and get treated.

Rhodes deals with a patient that is in desires to get into surgery when the patient is a high-profile businessman. The patient needs surgery and his wife can't wait for a second opinion so Rhodes takes the case and has a plan, something that Downey would do.

But when Goodwin doesn't like what Rhodes is doing, she tells him to get Dr Latham to perform the surgery even though it's a Jewish holiday.  Latham didn't like the idea of what and how Rhodes decided to perform this kind of surgery but it shows that when Latham ordered Rhodes to step back when time was getting close to call.

The two settled and it seems that things are back to the way they were. Hopefully, Rhodes would think of other options down the road instead of just using what Downey would have done.

Choi gets a patient who's pregnant but later comes to find out that she's not. He goes to Charles and Reese about it and Reese thinks it's hysterical pregnancy. Even though she might look pregnant and feel pregnant, there's no baby in there.

It was Reese who had to break the news to the couple and that didn't turn out well for her at all. But that only made Reese find a way to prove that she's not really having a baby, but Choi and Charles believe that the best is to let them leave under their will.

She doesn't take the defeat too well but she does have a chance to talk to the mother and she gives Reese some thought about looking into one of the psychologist's theories and giveCharliees something to think about...taking a couple of chips from her.

I thought this episode was wonderful. We got to meet Maggie's family for a little bit but also her sister too and the fact that the two have a bit of a conflict over her sister's transgender was a good storyline. Every time I see Reese doing something and it doesn't go well I just feel bad instantly but that's how it's done. I've really never seen a pregnancy like that before.

I also feel that Jeff might be pushing it a bit much to Natalie with the comments and other things. And not to mention Rhodes and Latham is a really good character storyline this season. Rhodes is likely to go over Latham's head from time to time and using what he learns from Downey isn't gonna help him get through this year, so maybe he might need to be better at learning too from Latham.

Overall I give this episode an 8/10.

You can catch Chicago Med Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC.

The Newspaper

The Newspaper

Space and Attention: The Good Place "Category 55 Emergency Doomsday"

In what turns out to be another hilarious and probably one of my favorite episodes out of the five that the show has aired so far.

As Michael treats everyone with an all kind of flavor frozen yogurt, due to last weeks sink hole. As Eleanor couldn't figure out what she wanted, she let another person cut in line, which was a good thing and ran back to Chidi to tell him what happen.

After class, Eleanor feels that after what she had done that Chidi could teach her more. But she doesn't pick up the signs that he's pretty tired of teaching for the day. Later she picks up his excuses, Chidi tells her that she's been a full time job and that he wants to take a break and not teach all the time.

That kind of put their friendship and soulmate relationship to the test. At the same time, that sink hole has grown bigger and causing a Category 55 Emergency Doomsday Crisis for Michael and Janet to handle. At that time, Michael orders the people in The Good Place to stay inside their homes or anyplace that they're in and not to go outside.

Michael takes a couple that lives where the sink hole has grown and placed them with Eleanor and Chidi. That caused them a little tension til that couple could read their non-verbal gestures and for which they talked to them about their problem. One guy notice that one of them was hiding something and that was Chidi, for which he tells that he had never had a soulmate on Earth and thought it was going to be what he had thought about, but not with someone like Eleanor. That lead to them two going to bed together.

But  Eleanor and Chidi worked things out as Eleanor gives Chidi his fantasy paradise, drinking wine and reading french poetry while on a boat, Yuck!, right?

Meanwhile, during this episode, Tahani snooped into Michael's files and saw that she's in the second to last on the neighborhood list rankings. That drew her to trying to become a better person, for which we understand why during a few flashbacks with her family. Seeing that she's always the second best than her sister at what she does. But Michael gotten it straightened out with her that the rankings are the official numbers after they died.

The next day, the sink hole has been recovered and back to it's solid ground. That cheers everyone expect for Michael and tells Eleanor that they are going to busy dealing to whatever has caused this no matter what it takes.

As I said at the beginning, this might be one of my favorite episodes of the five so far in this series. Loved the relationship between Chidi and Eleanor, that's the one thing that made me loving this episode. I also enjoyed Tahani's storyline as we understand why she always had to be amazing around people and getting their approvals.

And I don't know about you, but I would love to see the list of what kind of flavors they got in the shop. The Full Charged Battery sounds like a relaxing flavor to try.

Overall, I give this episode a 10/10.

You can catch The Good Place Thursday nights at 8:30/7:30c on NBC.