Monday, January 01, 2018
Fox Mid-Season Pilot Review: LA to Vegas - Premieres Tuesday (Jan. 2)
LA to Vegas - Tuesdays at 9:00PM ET/PT on Fox
Premieres Tuesday, January 2, 2018 at 9:00PM ET/PT
Ed Weeks as Colin
Nathan Lee Graham as Bernard
Olivia Macklin as Nichole
Peter Stormare as Artem
Dylan McDermott as Captain Dave Pratman
Before getting into what's wrong with it, maybe it is worth pointing out the positives of the series. The individual cast members of the series make up a great are decent actors who could do well on a good TV series with good casting. But that long list of qualifiers already brings up the first problem with the series: it has a cast that doesn't seem to fit in with one another. In watching the first episode, you couldn't really see how they all fit together. So what we've got here is a case of a good cast that seems to be poorly matched.
I also couldn't really tell where the stories are going to go on this series. In the pilot, we got to see Ronnie losing out on a job opportunity and (possibly) opening a new door with a new relationship and the young couple who went to Las Vegas to get hitched. The possibilities with the main cast seem limited, though, as long as they're in the air, so this series will definitely need good guest stars with good stories, and the one in this pilot wasn't all that compelling of a story.
I had trouble finding the laughs in the pilot as well. I've always felt that not all sitcoms need a laugh every minute. In fact, some of the best sitcoms of all time won't necessarily make you laugh out loud at all. But they make up for that with solid storylines, which this series is lacking in what I've seen.
It is worth pointing out that one cast member that I sort of enjoyed that seemed to be underutilized in the pilot was Nathan Lee Graham. I had never really heard of him (although I've seen every episode of Scrubs, which he appeared in one episode, so I've undoubtedly seen him before), but some of the better scenes and somewhat funny (the comedy was still limited by the series itself) scenes came from him. Assuming this series doesn't work out, it would be nice to see him elsewhere, as he seems to have a lot of potential.
Preview:
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Monday, May 19
none scheduled
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of May 19)
Monday, May 19
- Seth Rogen (The Studio/Platonic/Undeclared) - Watch Seth on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Milly Alcock (Sirens) - Milly appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Bradley Whitford (Perfect Harmony/Trophy Wife) - Bradley is a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Tim Robinson (Detroiters) - Tim appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Owen Thiele (Overcompensating) and Amita Rao (Deli Boys) - Owen and Amita are guests on After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Meghann Fahy (Sirens) - Meghann talks about Sirens on Live with Kelly and Mark (check your local listings), NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am, and on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7pm.
- Sarah Jessica Parker (And Just Like That.../Divorce/Sex and the City/Square Pegs) - Sarah talks about And Just Like That... on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9a.
- Hugh Jackman (Human Resources) - Hugh discusses his Radio City Music Hall residency on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am.
- Jason Priestley (Call Me Fitz/Sister Kate), Vanessa Morgan (The Latest Buzz) and Giacomo Gianniotti (Backpackers/Selfie) - Jason, Vanessa and Giacomo talk about the dramedy Wild Cards on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
- Blair Underwood (Fatherhood/The New Adventures of Old Christine) - NBC's Today catches up with Blair in the 9am hour.
- Valerie Bertinelli (Hot in Cleveland/One Day at a Time) - It's the time management show on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
- Luke Kirby (Étoile) - Luke talks about Prime's Étoile on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
01/28 - Wait Till Your Father Gets Home - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/04 - The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series
03/11 - Frasier (2023) - Season Two
04/01 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Third Season
05/13 - The Drew Carey Show - The Complete Series* (missing 4 episodes and some music has been replaced or altered)
06/06 - Shoresy - Season 2
06/17 - Looney Tunes - Collector's Vault - Volume 1 (Blu-ray)
07/08 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD and Blu-ray Releases / TV Shows on DVD, Blu-ray and Prime Video / DVD Reviews Archive
Recent SitcomsOnline.com News Blog Posts