What's new

Red Band Society (FOX) (1 Viewer)

Adam Lenhardt

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2001
Messages
26,956
Location
Albany, NY
"The Breakfast Club" as a TV series, if it were set in a hospital. FOX clearly aims for this to be its new "Glee" for the The Fault in Our Stars/If I Stay set.Executive produced by Steven Spielberg and based on a Catalan telenovela, Octavia Spencer stars as the "scary bitch" nurse who rules over the a ward for teenage patients. All of the patients featured in the main cast require long-term care.The trailer for this one had me hook, line and sinker. The pilot didn't quite live up to the trailer's promise, but still set a decent foundation for a potentially terrific series. Spencer is predictably terrific as Nurse Jackson, conveying the character's deep investment in these children without softening any of the character's sharp edges. Of the younger cast, only Zoe Levin stood out as the cheerleader whose nasty, "mean girl" exterior belies the perceptive and caring person underneath.Don't know that I buy into the Ruben character, a wealthy donor to the hospital who lives on site due to his satisfy his hypochondria. I also don't think the narration from the boy in the coma quite works, especially the filter they use on the audio to remind the audience that he's in a coma.
 

schan1269

HTF Expert
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
17,104
Location
Chicago-ish/NW Indiana
Real Name
Sam
Zoe Levin might be the only reason I watch this. Never really paid attention to anything she's been in...but caught Palo Alto. Held her own against a good cast with a dour story along the same "speed" as Perks of Being a Wallflower(No...not saying PA is as good as PobaW...just a realistic movie and nowhere near an ABC Family Channel douchebaggery snoozefest)

She was in The Way Way Back...must be a short stay in the movie though...have to watch that again to see where she was...
 

McPaul

Screenwriter
Joined
Apr 1, 1999
Messages
1,801
Location
Vancouver
Real Name
Paul M
Was hoping for great things. I sort of got a glee vibe to it as well. But what kind of hospital is this? Where do they get the money and why so understaffed?
 

Malcolm R

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2002
Messages
25,081
Real Name
Malcolm
The ratings were pretty low. Unless it increases next week, I don't see this one lasting too long. From EW.com:
The Steven Spielberg-produced Red Band Society had only 4 million viewers and an anemic 1.3 rating among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m., slipping a tad from its Hell’s Kitchen lead-in.
 

McPaul

Screenwriter
Joined
Apr 1, 1999
Messages
1,801
Location
Vancouver
Real Name
Paul M
I think they may have started it a bit too early in the year. If they had a popular show to be lead in it might do a lot better. The trailers for the show are damn good and there are lots of them.
 

Jason_V

Senior HTF Member
Joined
May 7, 2001
Messages
8,950
Location
Orlando, FL
Real Name
Jason
I was bored by the first 10 minutes, interested for the next 30 and then bored again by the end. I'm not even sure how this happened, but it did. Maybe I'll give this one another week, but I'm not going to have room on my schedule for shows I don't absolutely love. Octavia Spencer isn't the problem. Dave Anabelle isn't the problem. Wilson Cruz isn't the problem. It's the kids: I just don't care about most of them.
 

Adam Lenhardt

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2001
Messages
26,956
Location
Albany, NY
I thought episode two was an improvement over the pilot. The more fanciful elements were toned down, and the show focused on the more human drama of these kids. Zoe Levin continues to be the standout among the younger cast. Part of that is a testament to her acting, which manages to convey a surprisingly wide spectrum of emotions though that petulant sulk. But part of it is because her character's gotten the most character development thus far. Hopefully we get to meet Emma and Leo and Dash's families soon. Kara's family situation has a specificity that cut through all of the culture wars baggage and zeroed in on reality of this situation, which is that she comes from an affluent but broken home, and has two very different relationships with the two women who are raising her... her biological mother and the mother who actually raised her.

Among the adult cast, Octavia Spencer wasn't given as much to do this week but still made the most of every moment on screen. I've loved Wilson Cruz since "My So-Called Life", and he's wonderful here as the nurse that's the just-right porridge between Nurse Jackson's biting intensity and Nurse Dobler's sing-songy naivete. Dave Annable's still playing the heroic handsome doctor that just cares too damn much about his patients, which I find rather boring.Griffin Dunne's wealthy hypochondriac works better in small doses, as this episode proved.

Hopefully the ratings don't keep dropping and Fox keeps this one around.
 

DaveF

Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Messages
28,670
Location
Catfisch Cinema
Real Name
Dave
I enjoy Red Band Society. It's not amazing, but it's pleasant. The Breakfast Club with terminally ill kids living Friends lifestyles plus a dose of Desparate Housewives mixed in. What's not to like?

I like the character of eating-disorder girl, but I find her the hardest to believe. Because this is network TV, and not a Christian Bale method-acting movie, she's not a dangerously underweight girl. She looks like a perfectly health, skinny 16 yo girl. She comes across to me as a high school girl who mistook a hospital for a boarding school.

But ok. I can get past that.

I too enjoy Wilson Cruz. He was so familiar, but I didn't recognize him until checking IMDB to learn he's from "My So Called Life".
 

DaveF

Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2001
Messages
28,670
Location
Catfisch Cinema
Real Name
Dave
Is Steven Spielberg a lousy TV exec? Terra Nova. Extant. Red Band Society. His shows are not doing well. And they're not up to the standards expected from his movies.
 

mattCR

Reviewer
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2005
Messages
10,897
Location
Lee Summit, Missouri
Real Name
Matt
What Red Band shows me is that I wish networks would commit to more 'limited series'.. hey, here's 12 episodes. That's it. There will never be anymore. We'll do something different.


AHS fiddles with this idea; but there are some great examples, and it is a popular method overseas.
 

Aaron Silverman

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 22, 1999
Messages
11,411
Location
Florida
Real Name
Aaron Silverman
Downton Abbey was originally intended to be a single series, but due to its popularity, they kept it rollin'. And rollin'. . .


I enjoyed the first episode of this. If the complete series has a satisfactory resolution, I may try to catch it On Demand or on disc sometime.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,710
Messages
5,121,108
Members
144,146
Latest member
SaladinNagasawa
Recent bookmarks
0
Top