Article first published as THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA Review on Seat42F.
NBC
has a new drama this fall called THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA. After viewing
the pilot, here are the mysteries I found: Why would anyone think it’s a
good idea to cast Debra Messing as a cop? Why in the world did her
titular character ever marry her soon-to-be-ex, Jake (Josh Lucas, The
Firm), a full-blown man-child? How is Jake competent enough to rise
through the ranks of the police department? Can Laura be a mother and a cop at the same time? Isn’t that premise totally tired and dated in 2014?
In
case you didn’t catch the tone of the first paragraph, THE MYSTERIES OF
LAURA is not a good show. It’s a procedural, first and foremost, which
means it’ll be the same rote story every week. The characters are all
familiar types, overplayed into cartoonish parodies of their
personalities. The set up feels like it is randomly cobbled together
from improv comedy suggestions. There is little original going on,
basically just copying bits of lots of other shows, most of them
mediocre.
Broadcast networks are
facing a crossroads. There is more and more competition these days, not
just from cable networks, but also Netflix, Amazon, Yahoo, and others.
Not only are there a greater number of options, but the overall quality
of the offerings keep getting better and better. Yet, in spite of a few
brave, bold moves (i.e. Hannibal, Sleepy Hollow), most of what the Big
Four keep putting out is repetitive schlock. No wonder they are
hemorrhaging viewers, and THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA will not do anything to
stop that.
Look, Messing is a fun
actress to watch; I don’t think many people will disagree with that. Her
Lifetime series, The Starter Wife, didn’t do it for me, but that’s
because she spent too much time being sad, not her strength. Smash and
Will & Grace used her more appropriately, playing up the humor in
her characters’ pathetic failures, and that’s what Messing does best.
She can consistently elicit a smile, at minimum, from her antics. THE
MYSTERIES OF LAURA uses that element, which is smart, but in a totally
inappropriate setting that just doesn’t work.
The
supporting cast is also wasted. Janina Gavankar, who has been getting
tons of work in series such as True Blood, The League, Arrow, and The
Vampire Diaries, is just a run-of-the-mill rival co-worker for Laura.
Max Jenkins (pretty much a Tom Lenk stand-in) and Laz Alonso (Breakout
Kings) don’t get any focus, either, other than perhaps a one-liner or
two. Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars, Person of Interest) is underused
as her boss, stuck behind a desk. When he gets the chance to come out of
his office, it gets worse, going in to a plot that is far removed from
believability.
The “twist” at the end
of pilot, which I won’t reveal here in case it’s supposed to be a
surprise, but if you check out the cast page for THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA
and consider the type of series this is, won’t be at all, is even worse
than the other complaints I’ve had. It basically reveals the first
episode to be treading water as it waits for the ‘real story’ to begin,
and again, is completely unrealistic and groan-inducing.
So
who may want to watch THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA, despite my panning of it?
Women who haven’t seen enough female empowerment to separate the good
stuff from the bad. People who want something mindless they don’t have
to think about. Stressed-out mothers and ex-spouses who need to see
someone else suffer at the hands of menacing young boys and an awful
husband, if only to feel good about their own lives by comparison. And
that’s about it. Everyone else, feel free to skip this one.
THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA premieres Wednesday, September 17th at 8 p.m. ET.
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