There’s television, and then there’s the CW. We’ve already showed the big four’s offerings for Fall 2011, and NBC, Fox, CBS, and ABC have their share of stinkers, but as usual, the CW is in its own category. There’s a specific brand of awful addictive television that only this flashy network can serve up and from the looks of these clips and trailers, that’s exactly what they plan to do. Just as we did with the big four, here’s a rundown of the CW slate and a few of our own humble predictions.
Hart of Dixie
Starring: Rachel Bilson, Jamie King
Basics: A well-to-do big city doctor loses it all and moves to Alabama where she takes over a small practice and finds herself butting heads with the locals. Her only allies are a bunch of arbitrary attractive dudes and of course her main enemy is a peachy Southern Belle.
Potential: Not so much
Why: This show looks like Lifetime and the CW had a baby. It’s overly sentimental, overly dramatic, and it’s led by an actress whose time has passed. Bilson worked on The OC because the drama surpassed her stiff acting, but here, she has to lead the show as a believable strong-willed, take-no-bull doctor and from what we can see, she’s just not doing it. Plus, it doesn’t take place at a school and no one’s having a bastard child or returning from a mysterious absence, so I’m not sure this is actually a CW show.
The Secret Circle
Starring: Britt Chamberlain, Thomas Dekker
Basics: Cassie loses her mother and moves to live with her grandmother in a small town, but it’s not long before she finds out she’s a witch and that she’s not the only one.
Potential: Not bad
Why: The type of folks who loved Charmed have been feeling a void for quite some time and this small town version seems like it just may the perfect fit to fill that gaping hole. That being said, we didn’t say it looked good. It looks like television crack with a witch theme, which is pretty much a recipe for a decent enough following…for the CW.
Ringer
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kristoffer Pohala, Ioan Gruffudd
Basics: When her twin commits suicide, Bridget takes over her life in an attempt to escape the police who are after her for witnessing a murder. However, her twin, Siobahn, didn’t have it as easy as she’d thought and Bridget finds herself in even deeper trouble that she was as her former self.
Potential: Probably
Why: It’s Sarah Michelle Gellar in a show that could have easily been on the CW, with a big mystery and hot guys. CW viewers are going to get hooked in a second.
H8R
Starring: Mario Lopez, (featuring) Snooki and Kim Kardashian
Basics: Lopez hosts this hidden camera show that finds celebs confronting the regular folks who hate them. That’s it.
Potential: Pretty good
Why: Okay, this is a crappy reality show, but as long as they have celebs who are actually worthy of the hate these regular people are spewing (like Kardashian and Snooki) then it may actually work for a little while. And I feel ashamed for saying that, but people will watch it for the same reason people watch America’s Next Top Model, or the Jersey Shore, or any awful reality show: TRAIN WRECK.
Source: CW
