Comments on: ABC’s ‘Forgotten’: Solid Crime Drama with Values

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:43:23 +0000

I don't have cable, so I depend on Netflix for my TV fix. As for crime dramas, I have to say I am hooked, HOOKED on the BBC production called Foyle's War. It takes place throughout WWII in a small town on the southern coast of England. The acting is superb, the settings are authentic. I'm not much for murder mysteries, but this has the added feature of seeing what day to day life was like for the British during this time.

I highly recommend it to anyone who is tired of the same formulaic crime dramas.

By: rlaWTX

rlaWTX — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:17:43 +0000

I saw the anti-gun thing in the last one, but I have learned to look past the propaganda… maybe that makes me an enabler? after all, I kept watching The Unit (often praised show here on BH) even after they went all -conspiracy theory, top brass out to kill the operatives- on us. After all, liberal writers need to eat too .

Anyway — I like The Forgotten. I had decided NO NEW SHOWS this season, and nealy managed it, but Forgotten got my attention (I like Christian Slater – prefered his character over Costner's in Robin Hood – but the surprise appearance of King Richard at the end was the best) and is now on my "record-if-not-at-home" list. (w/ NCIS and a few others). Hope the rumors about cancellation are wrong… I thought his acting when they realized that their John Doe search was really about saving a little girl was awesome! and the surprise about his ex-wife — way cool, and sad.

By: Stergeye

Stergeye — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:40:18 +0000

I dunno, I'm starting to see shades of Jack Lord in David Caruso's overly-stylized Horatio Caine. If it wasn't for the presence of Emily Procter's enigmatic Callie Ducaine, I'd quit watching CSI Miami altogether.

By: JOD

JOD — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:33:21 +0000

Yep–& almost every crime is either sex related and/or involving a child (or of course, there's some anti-religion bent). I stopped watching the first season it was too depressing.

By: JOD

JOD — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:30:54 +0000

Here, here. I'm naturally drawn to procedurals & this one is interesting but the dialogue definitely needs work. I think that's its biggest weakness.

By: Stergeye

Stergeye — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:27:14 +0000

LOATHE "Cold Case" with its smarmy PC attitude and its ludicrous depiction of the eeeevilll America of the 1950's and 60's.

By: kadaka

kadaka — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:42:41 +0000

Clumsy people are not sent out with bucket trucks to work right next to high voltage power lines while using testing equipment that can cost a thousand bucks or more a piece, where delicate work may need to be performed in small junction boxes to ever-increasing high standards for today's high-speed communications and mistakes can be very expensive and lead to very many upset customers.

Although it is natural to assume he's clumsy since he's the fat guy.

By: Dave Rooney

Dave Rooney — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:00:54 +0000

Fair enough Whiskey. I'd go a little farther than USA/TNT/TBS and say go 'commercial free' please.

The mere fact that numerous positive posts are from the Pro-Breitbart world is the ONLY reason I'd consider watching. But the 'hard and fast' reality is that ABC is still ABC. It may not be MSNBC but it is ABC. After (pardon the pun) years of deprogramming away from network TV it's going to take more than one "atta boy" to get this viewer back.

Sucks for them that they can't re-brand sans their news divisions. Well no. They made their beds.

By: Driefromseattle

Driefromseattle — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:41:13 +0000

I'll have to check it out. I haven't really watched ABC in a long time. Same for NBC. Thanks for the heads up.

By: whiskey

whiskey — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:08:42 +0000

The show is doing poorly and is widely expected to be canceled shortly.

Reality check: TV is now a female/gay ghetto, excepting USA and a few other cable outlets. So the Forgotten is doomed on a broadcast net known for female-gay shows, such as Witches of Eastwick or Desperate Housewives or Lost. Women have not found the show appealing, and men don't know it is on or that they might like it.

The Forgotten is like say, the Dodge Challenger. An intriguing if flawed car that some might like to own, but put out by a company whose reputation is in such tatters that few will make an investment in time, money, and emotional connection. Indeed the liberal tell which is reflexive is simply alienating to the half of viewers who are not liberal. Thus the show fights for the audience which watches "Biggest Loser" or Law and Orderen, where the criminals are all rich White guys who are conservative.

For this show to succeed, it needed to be on USA or FX or TNT or TBS, push the populist angle harder, and show the "defeat" of official non-caring, brutal criminals, and conflict avoiding "get along" people by that network of ordinary people. Too much deference given to the PC-driven police (a black female detective as the liason) is the "liberal tell" that undermines the populist message. Populism is fine as long as it is deferential to the politically correct multiculturalism of officialdom.