Here are my first impressions of “Undercovers” (7 p.m. Central Wednesdays, NBC) and “My Generation” (7 p.m. Central Thursdays, ABC).
1. Both shows should be in my wheelhouse. “Undercovers” is from J.J. Abrams, who also launched “Fringe,” my favorite TV show of the moment; and “My Generation” chronicles post-college young people, and such shows are so rare that I am predisposed to like all of them. But I don’t like “My Generation.” Or “Undercovers.”
2. Every second of the “Undercovers” pilot (husband-and-wife caterers get back into high-stakes crime investigating) felt unnecessary, like if you took “Alias,” “Nikita” and “Chuck” and stripped out all the mythology and just retained the punches and quips. I’m not a fan of those three shows, but I can see they have more depth than “Undercovers,” which is a classic example of a show where the actors seemed to be having a lot more fun than I was.
3. The female lead in “Undercovers” is Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and “Glee” featured a Lady Gaga song this week. So, on back-to-back days, I watched Gaga and Gugu on my TV.
4. “My Generation” is a cliché-filled soap opera with a faux-hook: In documentary style, we catch up with nine members of the class of 2000 today and see how their lives were changed by the major events of the Aughts. Like many pretend documentary shows or films, it doesn’t stay true to the documentary format at all: Sometimes you can hear people through glass windows, sometimes a second or third camera angle pops up, sometimes the camera is shooting when nothing is happening — and then, conveniently, something does happen. Occasionally, a character — caught in an emotional moment — will curse the camera operator. Sometimes they’ll answer questions from the documentarian, because it’s easier for the writers to tell the story than to show it (but less fun for us). This documentary “hook” is nothing but an distraction, but of course they want you to be distracted from the dull characters.
5. Every character who wants a job has a job on “My Generation,” a show that supposedly chronicles young people’s contemporary struggles. Um, just a thought, but high unemployment is kind of a big issue right now. Maybe it should’ve affected one of the characters. But if you want a guy suddenly finding out he’s a dad, or a wife missing her soldier husband, or a woman who feels she married too young, this is the show for you (then again, so are dozens of superior shows and movies).
6. The best actor on “My Generation” is the charismatic Mehcad Brooks, who played Eggs on “True Blood.” Best actor, I said, not best character (he’s the college basketball player who joins the Army on Sept. 12, 2001). None of them pops out as “best character.”
Verdict: Although neither show is unwatchable (both get worse the more I think about them), neither adds anything original or fun to the TV landscape. I’m one-and-done with both of ’em.
Any defenders of “Undercovers” or “My Generation” out there?