MovieChat Forums > The Equalizer (2021) Discussion > It's a CBS show through & through

It's a CBS show through & through


For good or ill, this show is made for a certain demo. The CBS audience. So, if you're a fan of the NCIS shows or the Hawaii Five-Os, Magnum P.I & MacGyver reboots, you'll probably like this.

It didn't really stand out for me personally. The only shows that I genuinely liked on the network for the past decade are The brilliant Person of Interest and the most recent one, Evil. Which I enjoyed way more than I thought I would

reply

CBS procedurals are all similarly generic in tone and style.Person of interest was good.Forgot they had Evil.That and the Neighborhood are the only 2 shows i watch on CBS

reply

Exactly. I honestly hadn't watched CBS since the cancellation of Person of Interest. Not out of protest or anything like that. I'm just really burnt out on procedurals

But as I said, really enjoying Evil. Turned out to be a great surprise

reply

Evil is a very good show, superb for a CBS show. I also very much enjoyed Elementary. I was shocked that the writers actually knew the Conan Doyle novels and short stories.

reply

I can't think of anything I've ever enjoyed on CBS. There's probably been SOMETHING but it's not coming to mind.

The only non-cable network that has shown any ability to turn out interesting shows with any degree of regularity is FOX, and even they usually mess it up after the first season.

reply

I was a huge CBS fan through my teen years. From early 2000s to the start of the new decade. That's when I started to get burnt out on the procedural stuff.

And they RARELY offer a variety of content. It's more or less the same genre. That's why I enjoyed Person of Interest. It was a smartly written, well acted show with decent action. The leads were great.

The other one I mentioned, Evil has been a breath of fresh air. It honestly doesn't feel like your usual CBS show. Which I'm really enjoying

reply

I've heard good things about Person of Interest but never checked it out. I am a big fan of Jim Caviezel so I may have to give it a look at some point.

I feel like, overall, we're in a downtime for TV. Or maybe I've just largely lost interest and prefer the shorter format of feature films.

The last thing I watched regularly on network TV was This Is Us, but it instantly lost me once it got political with all the BLM stuff. When I do watch shows now, they're almost always cable or streaming. The Right Stuff and The Mandalorian on Disney+ are both good. The Queen's Gambit on Netflix is also good. But I've finished those. Right now the only thing I'm watching is a show called Warrior that used to be on Cinemax but is now on HBO.

Overall, I am not very enthusiastic about today's television landscape.

reply

I RARELY watch network shows nowadays. I kinda fell of A LOT of the 20+ episode shows. Just like you, I'm really into cable & Streaming shows nowadays. 10-13 episode shows are just perfect for me. I get recommended A LOT of shows & I barely watch any of them. Honestly, the MAIN reason I even gave "Evil" a chance is cause it's just 13 episodes long.

I've been using the lockdown to check out some of the recommended shows. Better Call Saul(10 eps), Dark(8-9 eps) & Peaky Blinders(6 eps) have all been a greats watch. Next stop, The Expanse. Which is just 10-13 eps a season.

Also, Warrior is pretty darn great. I've not seen the second season yet but season one was awesome. The fight choreography is amazing. Hope it gets renewed for season 3

reply

I started both Better Call Saul and Peaky Blinders but didn't make it too far into either of them. I've heard of Dark but not checked it out. Same for The Expanse.

If you like chess, you should definitely check out The Queen's Gambit. And if you are interested in the Space Race then The Right Stuff is quite good.

Also, I've enjoyed every season of The Crown that I've watched, though S1 is still the best. Oh, and if you haven't already checked it out, and you liked the Karate Kid movies, Cobra Kai is a must-watch.

I'm almost done with S1 of Warrior and I agree that's been very good. I know Justin Lin and the cast are trying to get HBO interested in producing a Season 3. I believe there's also a petition floating around. I do hope it happens. It's a unique show and different from the usual, run-of-the-mill bullshit.

reply

I've been getting recommended The Queen's Gambit left & right. I'll definitely check it out soon. I've never seen The Karate Kids movies. At least not all the way through. I've seen bits & pieces of some of them. So I don't know if I'll be able to enjoy or appreciate Cobra Kai.

The Crown is definitely on my list. I'll get to it eventually. Glad it has short seasons.

I'm currently done checking out both Ozark & Narcos. Literally just finished this week. They've been on my list for a few years. I've only seen their first seasons & they're both solid shows. I've also been meaning to check out Mindhunter. Big Fincher fan.

reply

Wow, you definitely need to check out the Karate Kid films. Just watch the first three. You can feel free to skip the fourth one with Hillary Swank.

I loved the first season of Ozark but lost interest in the second.

Eventually I'd also like to get around to Mindhunter. I also like Fincher. I wish he was more interested in making feature films than producing television these days.

reply

I didn't enjoy Mank as much as I thought I would. But since Mindhunter is cancelled... he's getting to work on films again. So that's great

reply

I doubled checked just now to make absolutely sure...

There was once something great on CBS....

Gilligan's Island.

reply

Genuine question, Is CBS or their shows like aimed toward an older audience? I once read somewhere that the network's target audience is usually the "older generation."

Is that true or just BS?

reply

I think this is true for network TV in general, aside perhaps for Fox, because older folk is primarily who actually watches network TV. I'm pretty sure the ratings will bear this out.

reply

Ha.

I just looked at a list of their previous programming and found a few things that were okay.

When I was a kid I liked Airwolf, and apparently that was on CBS. And they also had Murder, She Wrote, which I know is an old lady show but I liked it.

I also remember liking the Beauty and the Beast series, and I didn't realize this, but CBS was the home of Walker, Texas Ranger, and Chuck is always cool in my book.

reply

So, what you're saying is, you're old, huh? Got it! 😅🤣

But seriously though, I was a big watcher of Network tv until like this past decade. Started to drop them one by one. I can't pinpoint exactly when it I stopped altogether but I wanna say around the first few seasons of The Blacklist.

What hurts the network shows in my opinion is the longer seasons. You have to stretch a single storyline for 22+ episodes. After a few seasons, it just gets stale & really really repetitive

reply

Hi, I think I'm definitely getting old if I'm not already there yet, yeah.

I can't remember the last time I was ever a REGULAR watcher of network TV. It had to be when I was a kid. As an adult, I had basically written off TV completely and was an exclusive movie watcher until a friend turned me onto Dexter, and this let me know that a light had dawned in the television world. Since then, there have been plenty of cable and streaming shows that I've gotten into.

There have been the odd network shows that I enjoyed--the first season of Sleepy Hollow on FOX was pretty good and I liked This Is Us for a few seasons--but it's mostly garbage. I guess 9-1-1 on FOX right now is kind of interesting; I've watched a few episodes of it and didn't want to cut my wrists.

You're probably right about the long seasons, though I'd say this is less of an issue for procedurals since they're less reliant on arcing, serialized storylines.

reply

I just turned 30 last August. And I'm already to feel & act like an old man. I'm cranky all the time for one. 😅

Omg, Sleepy Hollow season 1 was absolutely amazing. Perfect amount of Dark for a network show & some good humor. Went downhill after that. Barely got through season 2.

The main problem with the "case of the week" procedural that I've noticed is that after a few seasons, the cases starts to get a bit repetitive.

I've been recommended FOX's Prodigal Son but it just looks like a toned down version of Hannibal to me

reply

I've got about 10 years on you. I WISH that I was your age, because I feel like the last decade was pretty much wasted doing nothing productive!

Agreed on Sleepy Hollow S1. It was excellent. The pilot episode stands with the pilot episode of another show I used to watch, Halt and Catch Fire, as being among the very best pilot episodes I've ever seen in my life. Just great television. Sadly, they couldn't maintain it, and THAT is probably a great example of a show that was killed by having to stretch the story to fit ~20-episode seasons.

I don't know if you like modern westerns, but if you do, and you haven't seen it, and you want to see one that has procedural elements but that always feels fresh--or at least it always did to me--then check out Longmire on Netflix.

reply

I feel the same way about the last 3-5 years of my life. There was a bunch of stuff I wanted to do/accomplish before I hit 30 but didn't. But I can be a lazy, unproductive bastard sometimes. 😅

Oh yes, Longmire was top notch. Watched it cause I've liked Katee Sackhoff since Battlestar Galactica. And I ended up enjoying the show way more than I thought I would.

Also, speaking of modern westerns, don't know if you've seen Justified. Excellent show. Highly underrated.

reply

So, a dull show, with acting that says, "Just give me my paycheck already"? Yeah, sounds about right.

reply

No, another woke show, rebooted w/ a minority woman in the role originated by a man...featuring a woman throwing men around with ease.

reply

The point of the original poster was to say how CBS is so stuck on boring procedurals. And, that certainly is the case here.

There are other threads that talk about the "woke" issue.

reply

YOU DIPSHITS THAT KEEP SCREAMING 'WOKE' OVER AND OVER ON EVERY THREAD ARE THE PROBLEM...

reply

No, you using all caps and posting 300 times a day are the problem, ass hole. Get a job and a hobby. And the next time you consider calling someone a dipshit, in all caps, for having an opinion...go fck yourself.

reply

LMAO...SOMEBODY GOT CRANKY.🙂

reply

Haha, Yeah, pretty much. They do get a genuinely good show every once in a while. But it usually doesn't last very long.

The tired procedurals on the other hand get to double digit seasons

reply