In the US: Mondays, 10/9c, ABC In the UK: Not yet acquired
Does comedy translate? Does romance translate? The answers to those questions might seem obvious, but with The Baker and the Beauty, a US remake of one of Israel’s highest ever rated scripted shows, להיות איתה (Beauty and the Baker), it seems those answers are ‘a little but not really’.
Translation, after all, is an art and the biggest problems with The Baker and the Beauty aren’t so much with the original text as with the way it’s been translated.
The princess and the pauper
The basics of the plot of the first episode are more or less unchanged. On the night of his four-year anniversary with his girlfriend (Michelle Veintimilla), Daniel Garcia (Victor Rasuk) runs into Noa Hamilton (Nathalie Kelley), a famous model, shortly before his girlfriend Vanessa dumps him when he refuses her marriage proposal. Noa, claiming she feels bad for him, picks Daniel up and offers him “three wishes” for the night. Soon, they realise they’re both attracted to one another.
In itself, it’s a classic ‘different worlds collide and find love’ story, which has worked thousands of times over hundreds of years. That’s not the problem.
All through ‘upfronts’ week, TMINE will be revealing the new shows that are going to be hitting US TV screens from September 2019
It’s that time of year again – the ‘upfronts’. What’s that, I hear you ask?
What are the upfronts, TMINE?
It’s when all the US networks reveal to advertisers the new shows that are going to be hitting the TV screens some time from September 2019 through to nowish 2020. However, this isn’t the same as the international screenings, where buyers from TV networks around the world turn up to see what they’d like to acquire, so we won’t know what will be heading our way for quite some time.
This weekend, US TV networks killed off a whole bunch of existing shows (prompting howls of protest from their fans) and are about to commission a whole bunch of new shows (prompting howls of ‘you cancelled x for this rubbish?’ from said-same fans).
3. ABC’s upfronts
NBC and Fox have come and gone – now it’s the turn of ABC. ‘The alphabet network’ traditionally ends each year’s schedules with mass cancellations of all its new shows from the previous year, pick-ups of numerous identikit replacements of dubious quality and continuing renewals of its tired out regulars.
Which is actually better than both NBC and Fox in terms of longevity and a lot better than ABC has done for the past few years. As a result, for a change, ABC isn’t actually commissioning that many new shows. Just three for the Fall:
Emergence
Mixed-ish
Stumptown
And for mid-season:
The Baker and the Beauty
For Life
United We Fall
Can you spot the spin-off and the identikit replacement of dubious quality?
Still, want to know more and exactly when these (and the surviving old shows) will be airing? And do you want to get TMINE’s hottest of hot first takes? Follow me after the jump if at least one of those things interests you…
CBS green lights: series of female LA police chief drama Tommy, with Edie Falco
…red lights: Under the Bridge and The Republic of Sarah
Fox green lights: series of 911 spin-off 911: Lone Star, with Rob Lowe…
…and soap southern Gothic family drama Filthy Rich
NBC green lights: series of newly widowed dad comedy The Kenan Show, with Kenan Thompson and Andy Garcia…
…Jeffery Deaver’s Bone Collector adaptation Lincoln, with Russell Hornsby and Arielle Kebbel; church choir comedy Perfect Harmony, with Bradley Whitford, Anna Camp, Tymberlee Hill et al; and live-in grandparents comedy Indebted, with Adam Pally, Abby Elliott, Steven Weber and Fran Drescher
