Nice guys finish last?

Source:Star Ledger
Date:July 16, 2006
By Alan Sepinwall

Though the members of the TCA share certain universal opinions ("The Sopranos" is brilliant, "Amazing Race: Family Edition" was awful), we're not a hivemind. There are certain TCA Awards nominations each year I'm not happy to be associated with, and sometimes a press conference takes on a tone so contrary to my own take on a show that I almost feel the need to apologize after. Yesterday's session for "Smith," a CBS drama starring Ray Liotta as a master thief hoping to get out of the game after a few more scores, was a classic example.

Produced by John Wells and Christopher Chulack from "ER," it's very dark and uncompromising by CBS standards, if not compared to similar stuff on FX or HBO. During the course of the heist in the pilot (minor spoilers to follow), Liotta and his sidekicks kill an innocent security guard. And in a scene that was a particular bone of contention, Simon Baker (from "The Guardian"), playing a sociopath marksman, is on a surfing holiday in Hawaii when two natives kick him off the beach and knock down his surf board. Smiling and whistling a jaunty tune, Baker walks back to his pickup truck, pulls out a sniper rifle and kills both guys for messing with his vacation. In a later scene, he even kicks a cat.

Personally, when I saw the surfing scene, my attention perked up and I said, "Now that's something you don't see every day on CBS." But where I saw that as a positive, a lot of the other critics had a problem with it and spent most of the session asking Wells and the actors questions about likability and relatability (Why should viewers root for these guys? Will viewers want to watch characters like these every week? etc.). Someone even asked whether they felt they were being held to a different standard than "Rescue Me" or "The Sopranos" because this is on CBS.

Everybody's entitled to their opinion, and there have been plenty of times where I'm in the majority on something and can be surprised when one or two voices in the room make it clear they disagree with what I think. But at an informal cocktail hour shortly after the session, I made a point of approaching Wells and Chulack to let them know that the uncompromising approach to the characters was something I had really enjoyed about the show.

As we stood around talking about different details in the pilot, Liotta wandered over, fuming about the way the session had gone. I can't quote most of it, but suffice it to say he felt the room was being a little harsh. So I said, "Well, not everybody. I was just telling John and Chris that the scene where Simon kills the surfers is the best thing in the whole pilot."

And in a half-second, Liotta's mood completely shifted as he said, "I wouldn't go that far!" and launched into the famous cackle that every "Goodfellas" fan knows by heart.

The moral of the story: actors prefer praise for their projects, especially when it's directed specifically at them.

From NJ.com: Weblogs.

Here a Pilot, There a Pilot, Everywhere a Pilot Pilot (Part the First)

Source:Pajiba
Date:Jul,24,2006

Smith (CBS, Tuesdays, 10 p.m.). I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I love me the heists and capers, so I’m very willing to embrace this show if it’s embraceable. After watching the pilot, the verdict’s still out. There is certainly potential here — the show has a very cinematic HBO/Showtime feel to it, which is obviously a good thing. It’s kind of like a sort of “Thief”-lite, trying to have a dark side without being too bogged down by its own darkness (i.e., trying to make itself network and viewer friendly). There are two things a show like this will generally live and die by, of course — the cast and the capers.

They should be alright on the cast side of things, at least from a performance perspective, which is helmed by Ray Liotta (dubbed the titular “Smith” by a Fed trying to track him down). As we all know, Liotta is at his best when he’s playing likeable-crazy, with a little bit of pathos and scare-the-shit-outta-ya thrown into the mix (see, e.g., Goodfellas). It’s hard to tell what we’re ultimately going to get from him here based just on the pilot, but all those aspects showed up at some point — there was lots of friendly Liotta, some lovey-dovey Liotta, one nice outburst-of-anger Liotta, and a quick glimmer of I’m-bitch-crazy Liotta. I have to admit that, for as long as I keep up with this show, I’ll actually be sorta rooting against Liotta and his crew, just to see Liotta have outbursts and tear it up. From an acting perspective, I think the show lives or dies on Liotta’s shoulders, and it looks like he’s up to the task.

He wasn’t the only one who showed the potential to carry their acting burdens, however, and I think just about everyone else is up for the challenge. Jonny Lee Miller, as a just-paroled member of the gang, was great. Ditto for Simon Baker (one of those guys whom I’ve seen in things but I could never tell you what, exactly, he’s done), who plays a charmingly twisted guy who’ll sniper-kill some surfers for no reason other than they got in his face. And then there’s Shohreh Aghdashloo, who’s been knocking it out of the park now for a couple of years and really deserves some acclaim; anyway, she appears to be a recurring character as Liotta’s bankroller/fence, and looks fantastic.

The biggest question mark on the acting side of things is Amy Smart. Now, I’m a fan of hers, but playing the sexy-cool college girlfriend in Road Trip is one thing, and I’m just not convinced yet that she can pull off the cold-as-ice/tough-as-nails criminal that this role seems to call for. But I guess we’ll see. The other question mark is Virginia Madsen, as Liotta’s wife who knows more than he thinks she knows and who has a little bit of a double life of her own. She actually seems like she’ll be great, from an acting perspective. But I’m very worried about the material she’s going to be given to work with. At the end of the pilot, I felt like we’d been given yet another television wife who’s been burdened with television contrivances to make the character feel as important and weighty as the boys. To me, it felt sort of lazy and manufactured, and I hope the writers are up to the challenge of giving Madsen good quality material that rises above the crap so many of the women’s roles seems to get these days, giving us viewers a strong and believable female character. But again, I guess we’ll see.

Looking to the other key for this show’s success, the caper, I feel pretty good. The heist that went down in the pilot was solid yet basic, although there was one aspect of the getaway plan that just didn’t make any sense (this could easily be fixed with one edit, however, so here’s to hoping it gets cleaned up prior to airing). The whole thing was also a little anticlimactic, as the episode played as a flashback — although the second time through the heist at the end filled in some gaps from what we saw at the opening, you’ve known the major bits for an hour already. But again, I suspect this can be fixed with editing, which they’re going to have to do anyway, since the pilot runs too long for an hour premiere but too short for a two-hour premiere. Anyway, the point is this — nitpicks aside, the caper was good enough. Now, I don’t know if they’re going to try to pull a one-per-episode like this, or do some more extended-type heists, but if they can keep them smart and clever, it will obviously go a long way towards the show’s success.

So the long and the short of it is, in my mind, this show is worth a shot. It’s going up against the respectable “Law and Order: SVU” and “Boston Legal,” but with “The Unit” as its lead-in, I suspect that it’ll initially be the king of the hill. If it wants to keep that position, it’s going to have to show us some strong and clever writing. Time will tell.

From Pajiba .

For fall, CBS gets sexy look

Source:TIMES-DISPATCH
Date:Jul 18, 2006
BY DOUGLAS DURDEN

Who says CBS isn't sexy?

Oh, wait, I say it all the time when explaining why I don't watch that many CBS series.

TVChat knows that CBS is very successful. It has the most viewers; it has the most viewers between ages 25 and 54. What's missing from this equation are viewers 18 to 49, deemed the most important demographic out there. (Not my rule.)

And that's where the to-be or not-be sexy comes in.

"Two and a Half Men," not sexy. "The Early Show," not sexy. "Numb3rs," not spelled right and not sexy.

I know there are people out there who are going to argue with me. I'm sure pictures of Dennis Haysbert and Kevin James are taped to somebody's refrigerator.

Not mine. (This is where I should point out, despite the first name, I am female. And also that TVChat is an open forum. Feel free to tell me just how wrong I am.)

But, I have seen the future, as in fall's new shows. And I have to tell you, CBS is getting sexier.

Skeet Ulrich in "Jericho": definitely hot. Has that whole 3o'clock shadow, open shirt, ripped jeans thing going on. Doesn't say much during the interview for his show with its "The-Day-After" scenario. Doesn't have to.

Ray Liotta, Jonny Lee Miller AND a post-"The Devil Wears Prada" Simon Baker: also hot.

They play career criminals in "Smith" - CBS has declared itself on the side of one-word titles this year; it also has "Shark." In addition, the series features blondes Virginia Madsen ("Sideways") and Amy Smart ("Just Friends") plus Franky G, whose last series, "Jonny Zero" (no relation to Jonny Lee Miller) was on Fox, making him the most unlikely member of this cast to be on a CBS show.

Liotta has made a career of playing charming criminals - except for that FBI agent who has the top of his head removed in "Hannibal." Baker, formerly of the network's "The Guardian," has graduated into full-fledged, scarf-wearing cad. And Miller simultaneously starred as Sick Boy in "Trainspotting" while being married to Angelina Jolie in the mid-'90s.

However, this being CBS, all that potential eye candy has been put into two glum series, one about the possible end of the world, the other about robbers who kill instead of banter.

For instance, here's what Jon Turteltaub, "Jericho's" executive producer, said when asked whether his series about a community surviving a nuclear holocaust would include such matters as radiation sickness and contaminated food.

"Anything that you could think of or anyone would worry about should be in the show."

Oh, that should be fun. And, as if you hadn't already guessed, "Jericho" is one of several new serial dramas for fall, which led to our favorite one-word answer so far at the annual fall preview where the networks tell TV critics what they're doing right and TV critics write about what they're doing wrong.

Asked what he thought about his show being compared to "Lost" - also a serial drama about an isolated community trying to survive - Turteltaub answered, "Cool."

Later, he pointed out that the focus of his show is about the reality of coping, while he considered "Lost" more science-fictiony. And that led to my second favorite quote so far, this one from another executive producer about whether "Jericho" would stay reality-based.

"Let's put it this way, We're dealing with a reality base and real-world events until we run out of ideas," joked Stephen Chbosky.

For about a second, while watching the pilot of "Smith" with its attractive, well-dressed robbers, I thought, "This is supposed to be 'Oceans 11' or '12.' It's a crime caper. They rob, they steal. But in the end, it's OK because nobody gets hurt."

Then they kill someone. Then one of their own gets killed. Then Simon Baker's character kills two people just for the heck of it. Well, they did tell him to get off their beach.

So what's the deal, producer John Wells? Are we supposed to bond with these characters or hope there's a cross-over episode with "Criminal Minds"?

"The idea is that we are following people who are dangerous. And my hope is that the audience will be interested in seeing characters who were dangerous and what happens to them and how the risks that they're taking catch up with them," said Wells, who is a serious producer of such serious shows as "ER" and "Third Watch."

"You're making the assumption that there will be no eventual retribution for the acts that they commit, and that would be an incorrect assumption about where the series is headed."

Oh, great. You put Ray Liotta, Simon Baker and Jonny Lee Miller into one series - and I'm not supposed to like them?
What's on your mind - or your DVR? TVChat would like to know.

From TIMES-DISPATCH .

Looking for a few good 'Smiths'

In "Smith," Ray Liotta plays Bobby Stevens, the leader of a gang of criminals. Yet Tony Soprano-like, he manages to lead his own humdrum-appearing suburban life, with wife and kids, in his off-time.

"Smith" is one intense show, playing almost like a mini-movie, and as if to accent that, the drama's pilot is 90 minutes long. Execs say it's as of yet unclear how they'll handle the abnormally long pilot, but it'll either run commercial-free or in an hour-long slot with no commercials.

Executive producer John Wells, of "ER" fame, took most of the questions for his panel, bemoaning at one point that no one wanted to talk to the stellar slate of actors he'd brought along (Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, and Franky G among them.)

At least one writer wasn't thrilled with the show's bland title, but Wells said he'd never considered calling his show anything else. He'd learned from a law-enforcement officer that they refer to unidentified suspects as "Smiths," and it fit his idea of a criminal trying to live anonymously in the world, hiding in plain sight.

Writers seemed abnormally concerned with whether Liotta's character remains a likable chap or not, considering at least one completely innocent character is bloodily gunned down in the pilot. I confess to not relating to the concept that a main character must always be Ned Flanders (see J.R. Ewing example, above). I suspect most show creators are thinking: Love him or hate him, just watch him.

Virginia Madsen's character, Hope, Bobby's wife, has a bit of a Carmela Soprano feel to her: She benefits from her husband's criminal activities (and may have some secrets of her own), but she's willfully in a bit of denial, it seems. She won't remain that way, Wells promised.
When questioned about whether the group of criminals in the show met "in stir, or in a fraternity," Wells cracked that they'd met at "the Crime Fraternity at Criminal U."

From MSNBC.

Movie Star Names Fill TV's Anonymous 'Smith'

Source:Access Hollywood
Date:July 17, 2006

An unremarkable name belies the big-name cast that stars in "Smith," a new heist drama on CBS this fall.

Movie actors Ray Liotta ("Goodfellas"), Virginia Madsen ("Sideways"), Shohreh Aghdashloo ("The House of Sand and Fog") and Jonny Lee Miller ("Trainspotting") join Simon Baker, who starred in the CBS series "The Guardian" in the new project by creator and executive producer John Wells ("ER").

Wells told the Television Critics Association on Saturday that he came up with the show's title first.

"It was just something that I heard from a law enforcement officer who was referring to unidentified suspects as Smiths and it sort of stuck," he said. "The idea being that it's someone who's trying to live sort of anonymously in the world that other people are trying to find."

Madsen said the show's script drew her from films onto the small screen, and she recalled her first venture into television, a long-ago movie for HBO.

"I loved the movie, but it did some damage to my career," she said. "I crossed over from film, which was thought to have been a huge mistake, a huge step-down. Now it's not so much. People can go back and forth now, and it's really good."

From Access Hollywood .

Baker's guard down

Source:Sydney Confidential
Date:Jul 17, 2006

CRANKY Aussie actor Simon Baker has produced a performance Naomi Robson would be proud of, launching into a tirade of f-bombs at a media call for the new US series he stars in.

Annoyed at constant questions over the likeability of the character he plays in US show Smith - a career thief - Baker told a reporter what he really thought at the LA gathering yesterday.
"It's humanity. You're either interested or you're f...ing not," he said. "My character is likable. I also think my character is a good guy. I just think he's a f...ing nutcase."

Asked how he felt when he had been burgled himself, Baker continued swearing like a trooper.

"You just feel violated. Even with the smallest things, you feel like, f..., someone came through and went through my s... and stole that?! F...!," he said.

Baker's expletive-ridden spray revived memories of Today Tonight host Robson's infamous off-air rant last year, in which she dropped the f-word nine times in 15 seconds while losing her cool with an autocue technician.

While Robson has Baker beaten hands-down in the number of f...s used, the actor's display is noteworthy because it was said to the media, not behind closed doors.

Robson's effort was achieved in an ad break and only became somewhat of a record when a leaked tape did the rounds.

From NEWS.com.au

Making 'Smith'

Source:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Date:July 17, 2006
By Rob Owen

The pilot for CBS's heist series "Smith," which filmed a portion of its pilot in Pittsburgh this year, runs a hefty 60 minutes without commercials. Executive producer John Wells, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate, said the premiere episode won't be cut but will air as a 90-minute premiere with commercials or as a commercial-free, single-sponsor hour.

The show is set in Los Angeles with a band of thieves (led by Ray Liotta and including Simon Baker of "The Guardian") who travel the country staging commissioned heists. In the pilot, they steal art from Pittsburgh's fictional "Tanner Museum" (Oakland's Mellon Institute plays the exterior, while the Carnegie Museum was used for filming some of the interiors).

"We'll come back to Pittsburgh," Wells said. "I'm not sure it will be this year because we just did it, but it's a beautiful city to shoot."

Director Chris Chulack said he'd never been to Pittsburgh before "Smith," but he was impressed with the city visually and with the filming experience.

"We were moving fast and furious, setting off explosions, and I think the city treated us really well," Chulack said. "The crew we hired there was great. It didn't feel different from shooting in New York, Chicago or South Africa. For the stuff we did in the short time we were doing it, it couldn't have gone more smoothly."

Baker plays a cold-blooded killer in "Smith" who shoots two guys in the pilot when they throw him off a Hawaiian beach. Like his "Guardian" character, he doesn't say much in "Smith."

"Actions speak louder than words," Baker said, grinning.

While other cast members justified the likability of their characters at a news conference, afterward Baker said that was of less interest to him, saying he couldn't care less whether anyone likes him, because "I had fun."

Baker, who moved his family back to Australia before "Smith" and has since moved them back to Los Angeles, said returning to Pittsburgh, where "The Guardian" was set and occasionally filmed, was "weird."

"It was the same hotel, but a different time of year," Baker said. "Every time we were there for 'The Guardian,' it was summer, and this time it was freezing cold. It was just nice to see people in the lobby of the hotel, people who worked at the hotel, who I knew. I ran into familiar faces."

Baker, who just wrapped the film "Sex and Death 101" (starring Winona Ryder and written and directed by Daniel Waters of "Heathers" fame), said he doesn't miss "The Guardian."

"Three years was enough to get it out of my system," he said.

His time on "Smith" could be briefer. Wells envisions the series as one with the potential for a lot of cast turnover.

"The idea with this series is there will be a lot of actors in this show if it lasts five or six years," he said. "People get caught, people run away, people die."

From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette .

Smith's" Simon Baker on being a likable sociopath: 'You're either interested, or you're f---g not.'

Source:Seattle Post Intelligencer
Date:July 16, 2006
By Melanie McFarland


The CBS Stars Party took place in the Rose Bowl, or as I referred to it earlier on Saturday, when outside temperatures had reached broiling levels, God's Wok.

Though I feared we'd be stir fry minutes into the event, the air cooled off considerably between getting on the bus and reaching the stadium. For that I give credit to our driver, who got lost in the parking lot, delaying our arrival until the sun set a tad.

Be that as it may, I had to laugh as I walked onto field because a brass band heralded our entrance with -- and I kid you not -- a live rendition of Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It." Really. I set foot on the grass, the conductor went "Two! Three! Four!" and the horns kicked it out.

CBS made a football theme out of the evening complete with heart attack food (hamburgers, ribs and pizza) and field goal kicking area. Not exactly a fan of any of that. What I did like, however, was "Smith's" pilot, particularly because it had Simon "Hot, Hot, Hottie McHotterson" Baker in it.

To ensure that the evening had a point, I cornered Baker for a 10 minute conversation, not only because he's lovely to gaze upon, but because he shifted uncomfortably in his chair throughout most of "Smith's" panel, which reporters turned into a long, prickly discussion about likability. Had to ask him about that.

Discussing the likability of a character can be a dangerous game because the definition is a little weird and gray these days. What, exactly, are the qualifications for persuading viewers to like a character? We like Tony Soprano, and he's a philandering murderer. Vic Mackey's OK to root for on "The Shield," and don't even get me started with his list of problems.

Yet many guys had problems envisioning audiences getting into Baker's Jeff, a handsome, athletic fellow who will put a bullet in your skull if you look at him wrong. In fact, that's how we first meet Jeff in "Smith's" pilot. A couple of tough guys threaten the surfer boy, and his response is to calmly walk to his car, pull out his rifle, mount a scope, and sent them off to that great luau in the clouds.

A fantastic, cinematic scene, and one that touched off several mild but unmistakably apoplectic fits during the session.

Back to the party, where a friend and I cornered Baker, who looked less than enthusiastic about chatting at first. Then it registered in his brain that he was looking at two women who probably paid full price to see "Something New" at the theater -- trust me, not many people did -- and he proceeded to charm us for more than 10 minutes of friendly, funny conversation.

The highlight was when the topic turned to the debate concerning Jeff's you-know-what.

I mean his "likability," of course. (What did you think I meant?) The fuse was lit.

"What was that about? Who was asking that, someone from the fundamentalist Christian right?" he said with a smirk. "We're not trying to save the world here, we're just making an entertaining TV show. I don't know if you could tell, but I was getting quite annoyed with all of that."

Let's see -- tense adjustment of eyeglasses, stiffened torso, pouty mouth -- yeah, we could tell. "Contrary to whoever it was that was concerned about it, I think my character is likable. I also think my character is a good guy. I just think he's a f----g nutcase."

By the way, although Baker knew I worked for a newspaper, he had no problem f-bombing with abandon. For instance, here's his take on being burglarized, something that's happened to him a few times.

"You just feel violated. Even with the smallest things, you feel like, f--k, someone came through and went through my s--t and stole that?! F---k!"

Baker was a bit more delicate when I asked him if he drew upon any caper films to build his character. "No, but I like the genre. When it's done well, I like it. When it isn't done well, it sucks. Just like anything else, I guess... When it's done well, you can see all facets of the character.

"And that, kind of, was sort of something I wanted to say today. People were just polarized. If it's done well, you're looking at the nuances of the character -- not, 'Is he good,' or 'Is he bad.' How do you articulate that in five words or less? It's humanity. You're either interested or you're f---g not."

That's nine, but we'll take 'em.

From Seattle Post Intelligencer .

Pilot Watch: CBS "Smith"

Source:What's Alan Watching?
Date:May 30, 2006
By Alan Sepinwall

"Smith"
Who's In It: Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Simon Baker, Amy Smart, Jonny Lee Miller, Franky G
What It's About: A master thief and his crew try to pull off a few more jobs so he can retire before his ex-con wife figures out he hasn't gone straight yet.
Pluses: Have you looked at that cast list? Okay, subtract Franky G and add Shoreh Aghdashloo, who has what I hope will be a recurring role as Liotta's fence, and that's as talented and pedigreed an ensemble as I've seen in a while. (Then again, ABC has a show that somehow features both Campbell Scott and Hope Davis, so maybe this is just a season where a lot of indie character actors got mortgages.) Cool setting and some nice moments, particularly an early scene that establishes Baker's sniper as the kind of amoral sociopath you usually don't see on network TV. (Fienberg is convinced it will be cut before September; I'm more optimistic.) Smart is also really strong as a damaged woman of a thousand identities, all of them involving low-cut tops.
Minuses: It's by John Wells, so you know it's going to be competent but glum. What's there so far isn't nearly as much fun as an "Ocean's 11" and not nearly as stylish as a Michael Mann caper story. However, the pilot runs almost 60 minutes without commercials, so there's plenty of room to add some scenes to tip it one way or the other. (Either they pad it out to two hours or they cut off all the fat.)

From What's Alan Watching?