The good, the bad and the ugly

James Woods, Alec Baldwin and 'Ugly Betty' look mighty pretty among this season's mostly been-there, done-that new crop

BY DIANE WERTS | Newsday Staff Writer

September 17, 2006

"Ugly Betty," starring America Ferrera, in glasses, as a plane Jane working for a fashion mag, could be a natural beauty for ABC. (ABC Photo)

Everything old is new again. Or maybe everything new suddenly seems old.

Single-camera comedy with no laugh track? Been there.

Ensemble drama unfolding its character back stories in serialized fashion? Done that.

When everybody decides some alternative approach to TV storytelling couldn't be more fresh and cool, guess what? It's not anymore.

Besides, bandwagon-jumpers rarely have the savvy of the original trend drivers. "Lost," "24," "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" - to name some recent cult faves/Emmy darlings - tell their stories in their distinctive manner because it's the best way to convey those particular tales. Not because some previous hit made it look chic.

Same with the best new fall shows. Each fresh gem is its own animal, not a cynical ratings grab gussied up in trendy technique.

That doesn't mean the most appealing newbies of 2006-07 have suddenly stumbled on hidden secrets of tube innovation. These shows just know what they are, and why they are, and they follow through with conviction on their own identities.

Take CBS' Thursday 10 p.m. drama "Shark," with which the eye network clearly aims to take that last bite out of NBC's dwindling "ER" dominion. James Woods lords his own dominance over this nail-the-baddies legal drama like some single-lead star in his very own 1970s vehicle, where the supporting players are so much wallpaper. Woods hits the screen with look-at-me elan and steps on the gas, simply trailing babe boss Jeri Ryan and their cute young assistant prosecutors in his wake. Woods is a galvanizing guy, with enough emotive meat to pull that entire train at warp speed. The show's structure might be eons old, yet "Shark" feels original. The cases explore today's topical legal and moral equivocations under the light of star-power fireworks we haven't seen for awhile.

"Ugly" Spanish translation

A similar sort of freshened-up flashback fuels ABC's "Ugly Betty." This one's a mutt of an underdog saga, both in its story - mousy but earnest brainiac gets the better of slick but shallow "sophisticates" - and in the Thursday 8 p.m. time period, where its network hasn't had traction with scripted series since the Carter administration. This show overpowers us, too, with the utter sincerity of its fairy-tale heart. Young heroine America Ferrera plucks that go-get-'em chord beautifully (or should we say effectively?) as a put-upon style magazine assistant, while evil queen Vanessa Williams leads sashaying fashionistas out to stomp on Betty's integrity. The concept is so not-original: It's an American adaptation of a hit Spanish-language telenovela. The series' power radiates from its core outward, its simple concept delivered with directness, affection, assurance and not a little gumption.

You can take anything to heart if the people dispensing it do. That's also true on what are less clear-cut favorites this fall. CBS' "Jericho" treads on plain territory with its Kansas small-town folk caught in the wake of nuclear disaster. They're everyday people in crisis mode, a la "Touched by an Angel." But they're also dealing with big-picture issues of the kind TV normally tends to address in a high-toned fashion. Even with a mystery/thriller element beneath the tale, it's unfussily focused on how the fundamental human spirit reacts when push comes to shove, either with or against its better instincts.

NBC's "Heroes" uses further flights of fancy to get inside the soul. Its varied characters discover they can fly, or time travel, or heal instantly, or foretell the future. Yet the story is much less about that specialty than how it affects the person so gifted. Suppose you could conjure the magic you always wished for. Would you really want it? What would it do to you? These people seem grounded, and that's the way this whimsy stays down to earth.

Tapping into humanity

A fundamental passion behind these shows sets them apart from the new pack of dramas that demand viewer attention weekly to follow an intricate, ongoing narrative. The better fall projects tap a well of relatable humanity in addition to well-executed eventfulness. There's a lot of just the latter around, too - smooth series that look sharp and move snappily, leaving you satisfied 'til you stop to wonder: what precisely was the point of all that? (Yes, "Vanished" on Fox, we mean you.)

Perhaps it's because so many of this fall's pilot episodes are so frantically setting up characters, relationships and situations that it's hard to tell how subsequent installments might behave.

At least with NBC's much-awaited "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," we can see this Aaron Sorkin show of smart cultural reflection will act much like that last Aaron Sorkin show of smart cultural reflection, "The West Wing," substituting TV network bees for those busy White House workers. But will the shaping of entertainment seem as stirring to viewers as conducting their government?

Abundant outlining also pervades the debut outings of CBS' heist hour "Smith," ABC's crime-hostage hangover "The Nine" and The CW's family-on-the-lam tale "Runaway," among others. Many of these narratives keep jumping back and forth in time, for reasons that come off less helpfully revelatory than simply copycat showoff-ish. (You loved "Lost"! Look at us!)

It's hard to instill a real feel when flashy construction reminds you every few seconds how the experience is being manipulated. Authenticity of place and people triumphs in NBC's "Friday Night Lights," with its small-town football-is-life scenario shot on Texas locations amid the actual pageantry and pressure of high school sports. Even though this drama telescopes a sprawling environment into weekly slices, it's done with organic ingredients whose pungent flavors easily survive the cook-down.

Danson ...again?

And then there's comedy, land of the artificial preservative. The flavor of the day here is the filmed single-camera study. But the people behind such frantic muddles as ABC's Ted Danson shrinkcom "Help Me Help You" are no more skilled at this "fresh" format than the supposedly "tired" live-audience formula. Having something worth saying about the subject is always a good place to start, yet many shows don't. Would you believe flashbacks are abundant even here? "The Class" kicks off CBS' Monday lineup with third-grade recollections from students reuniting 20 years later to sort out their long and winding roads.