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
Sunday, July 6
none scheduled
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of June 30)
Friday, July 4
- Ayo Edebiri (Big Mouth/The Bear) - Watch Ayo on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Jay Pharoah (White Famous/Champaign ILL) - Jay is a guest on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Frankie Grande (Henry Danger/Danger Force) - Frankie appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Mark Hamill (The Texas Wheelers) - Mark is a guest on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Cristin Milioti (The Resort/Made for Love/A to Z/How I Met Your Mother) - Cristin appears on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger (FUBAR) - Arnold is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Rob Riggle (Rob Riggle's Ski Master Academy/Golan the Insatiable/Gary Unmarried) - Rob appears on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Marsai Martin (black-ish) - Marsai chats with the ladies of The View on a repeat on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Brooke Shields (Suddenly Susan) - Brooke guest co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Mario Cantone (And Just Like That.../Sex and the City) - Mario talks about And Just Like That... on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Billy Bob Thornton (Hearts Afire) - Billy Bob opens up about being married six-times and is sharing all about his new show Landman on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
- Justine Lupe (Nobody Wants This/Cristela) - Justine is telling Drew about her viral wardrobe moment with Kathy Bates and shares behind the scenes moments of filming Succession, revealing the cast member she had a crush on, on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
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