For some unknown reasons, Vicki Dummer, the whiz-bang exec at ABC programming land, and her team in charge of current series programming has “opted not to renew for a second season” of their new drama “The Company You Keep,” as reported in Deadline Season.
Given its entry at 10pm EST Sunday nights, it was up against the final season of the beloved NBC series “The Blacklist,” so it was barely given a flying chance of survival from the onset. The cast of “The Company” is solid: Milo Ventimiglia has the lead, William Fichtner, Catherine Haena Kim, Polly Draper, and Tim Chiou. However, the competition is really tough: "The Blacklist" has (said in William Shatner voice ala Denny Crane: "James Spader." so there's that.
But they're concluding the series run after 10 years, and at the exact right time. Spader himself knew when to close the doors: I think if the show went beyond this year, it would turn into a very different show, and I think the thing that has been nice about this show was that we've never really had a clear paradigm for the show. Tonally the show shifts a lot from episode to episode, and I think even the show has taken strange turns, and I suspect that the show, if it went much further, would just become something that would be less recognizable to me." Ah, if only the "NCIS" folks were self-aware of where they are.
WILLIAM FICHTNER, SARAH WAYNE CALLIES, POLLY DRAPER, MILO VENTIMIGLIA, FELISHA TERRELL, CATHERINE HAENA KIM, TIM CHIOU, FREDA FOH SHEN, JAMES SAITO166161_PR_Comp_V4 THE COMPANY YOU KEEP – ABC’s “The Company You Keep” stars William Fichtner as Leo, Sarah Wayne Callies as Birdie, Polly Draper as Fran, Milo Ventimiglia as Charlie, Felisha Terrell as Daphne, Catherine Haena Kim as Emma, Tim Chiou as David Hill, Freda Foh Shen as Grace Hill, and James Saito as Joe Hill. [Photo: ABC/Brian Bowen Smith]
The plot is fresh, albeit as an American adaptation of an already hit show (“My Fellow Citizens”) on South Korean television. You have an Italian American family with a skill for working as a family on high-level con jobs while running the neighborhood favorite bar. No staffing issues required for the job to hire out, just immediate family, down to the youngest teen. Young adult male falls for a model-lovely young female CIA agent, from “an Asian American political dynasty.”
The plots are fresh, the writing is solid, and the pace is strong. Scene to scene, you don’t flip the channel during commercials as you might miss something when you return late. The acting is strong from all cast members, major to minor. Action sequences abound at breathtaking pace, and then you relax at the corner bar; no. the bar owned by the Nicoletti family really is called “The Corner Bar” in the show. Kudos go to Ben Younger, who serves as director and executive producer for the 20th Television show.
Writer and Executive Producer Julia Cohen brings together a great cast, solid sets, and just the right blend of scripts, serving as showrunner, to keep audiences coming back each week. Co-showrunner and co-Executive Producer is Phil Klemmer ("DC's Legends of Tomorrow" for seven seasons). This is Cohen’s largest task to date, but she earned her stripes after years as co-executive producer for a season of “Quantico” and “A Million Little Things” for three seasons. Given the nature of shows being posted and pulled as quickly from prime time slots as a teenage fisherman learning to cast with rod and reel, having one season of a solid show should indicate potential. And the fact that you can stream the show on Hulu is an added bonus for those with busy schedules. It has all the right elements but is just waiting until "The Blacklist" concludes its tenth and final season this month.
Yes, there’s Amazon and Sony Pictures and other independent venues out working for viewing time. I have to confess to waiting for another season of “Leverage: Redemption” to appear on Freevee television. The successful reboot of the old TNT original “Leverage” is actually stronger than the first, thanks to Dean Devlin’s fresh take on the show he created. Again, plots were fresh, bright and the actors were dynamic in their approach to what could have been predictable dialogue. There was a family atmosphere there as well. Waiting for hopefully more shows with "the hitter, the hacker, the grifter, and the thief," and if you want to know what that means, just visit Freevee.
Another Freevee original is the Canadian “Pretty Hard Cases” that pairs two previously unknown actresses as an unlucky pair of detectives and it works. The show has humor, brains, and they get it all done neatly, thanks to strong writing by Tassie Cameron and Sherry White, and two actresses, Meredith MacNeill and Adrienne C. Moore, who bring the energy to each episode. Still waiting on more shows to drop, if they're in production yet. That happens with non-prime-time network shows where they don't tell you on every media outlet they own what's going on behind the scenes.
It is that same fresh-show quality that “The Company You Keep” has, in a dramatic procedural where audiences meet, learn, know, and grow along with the show. Donald Bellisario was a genius at developing these shows that featured humor along with detective work, action sequences, some aspect of military life, and yes, family. Bellisario brought us “JAG,” “NCIS,” “Quantum Leap” and then spinoffs happened. Some were good; others, without Bellisario involved, were and are dreadful.
The starpower that Milo Ventimiglia brings to any show shouldn’t be in question. After all, his was the character you recall best from “This is Us,” the NBC staple that gave them a ratings win for the slot each week from 2016-2022 and won four Primetime Emmys among their awards. No one should be comparing Milo’s acting to “Gilmore Girls” any longer, which they could have done had they only known that show and missed out on “This is Us.”
It's doubtful that anyone watching “The Company You Keep” thinks of “Team Jess” once during the show. Actors can morph into anyone you need them to, and Ventimiglia and Kim do a great job in carrying the load.
Kim already had experience as a fed—she played Special Agent Emily Ryder on a season of “FBI” shows. A strong supporting cast is the great addition to the mix and this show has something special that doesn’t bore you to death the way so many other series can. No one is tired of their role or has been permanently cast into predictability. It's another trip back to childhood to see recurring guest Geoff Stults (remember the hearthrob with the almost twin lookalike brother in "Seventh Heaven" who wound up with the sisters?).
You’d think that summer would be a great time to re-introduce the show and meanwhile order some more episodes for fall. Everyone is about “American Idol”-ed, “The Voice”-ed and “America’s Got Talent”-ed out at this point and Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon are sitting there with fresh programming just waiting to be enjoyed. Come on ABC, think about it.
If not, CBS you are overdue for fresh shows. Look at the mess they made of “NCIS,” keeping the original (now sleep-inducing) show for the 21st year, cancelling the still interesting one (“NCIS: “LA”), and renewing the banal “NCIS-Hawaii” for reasons known only to them.
Is that your final answer for “The Company You Keep,” ABC? Change your mind and perhaps be pleasantly surprised. It would also be good news for Ventimiglia, who together with his company, DiVide Pictures and Russ Cundiff and Deanna Harris are co-producers. That was very "Jess" of him to be smart enough to invest in his own work from the beginning.
Who knows? It could happen.
[photos Friends and Seinfeld: NBC Universal; NCIS: Paramount Press]
