Don't Hate "The Player", Hate the Game

     As I predicted in September, NBC's The Player has been cancelled, which once again means Must-See TV has fallen by the wayside at the peacock network. I didn't follow the show after episode 1, but I think a big part of their downfall was showing on Thursday nights opposite ABC's "Shonda Thursdays," specifically the gut-wrenching, heart pounding triumph, How to Get Away With Murder.  I did see Alex Kane as a sympathetic character, after all, he did just rekindle his relationship with his sobering ex-wife Ginny, only to have her murdered hours later. On top of all that, he was considered as a suspect in the murder, and playing "the game" was his only hope to get himself cleared and kind out what really happened to Ginny.  But the show had a lot of action packed into each scene and some very layered conceits set up, so it was not helped by things like Thursday night football or an earlier lead in of Heroes:Reborn and James Spader's retirement fund, The Blacklist. In a eperate post, I have to explore how this show is still on air because I'm pretty baffled. The show's 9 episodes ended with several twists and many questions, which can be found here.

Players Gonna Play

     In my humble opinion, don't bother spending your time watching NBC's The Player, a.k.a. Endgame. It seems that it work better as a movie plot. If you like the action adventure of " 24 " and the glamour of "Las Vegas" with the crime fighting of everything else on NBC/CBS, maybe this show is for you. In my advanced screening, people cheered when Wesley Snipes appeared in the first scene as Mr. Johnson, "the pit boss". He employs a pretty blonde (Cassandra) to be "the dealer" and offers Alex a chance to be "the player" in a life or death game of chance. Phillip Winchester's Alex Kane is offered 24 hours to stop a crime, allowed to only receive help from Cassandra and her online network of phone taps and cameras. Rich people around the world be on whether Kane can stop the crime, or if it will go down. Kane begins the journey because his estranged wife Ginny was a murdered as part of a crime that was part of the game. I give it two months...