Tag: Philip Winchester

NBC’s The Player: Gone too soon?

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Strike one, Wesley Snipes.

The former cinematic action star got his first red pen “x” placed on his television resume last week when NBC trimmed the order on The Player to nine episodes instead of 13. That is a nice way of canceling a show. It will air its final episode on November 19th, tentatively. That is when networks shows start to take that midseason break and let reruns fire up or possibly new shows, like Shades of Blue, bloom a bit. The Jennifer Lopez cop drama will take over the coveted Thursday Blacklist exit spot at 9pm central in January, effectively ending Snipes first foray into the tube. Was it too soon?

No. The show was entertaining at times but far too often, repetitive and with a plot more flimsy than Snipes’ acting chops or overly choreographed fight scenes. It carried zero juice, the thing that gets people to stick around and see where your story goes. The Player was flat. A dud. Every week it came on, you though to yourself, “Will this episode reveal anything new or just produce an exciting shootout?”

In the Strikeback NBC showdown, Philip Winchester lost out to Sullivan Stapleton. The latter’s show, Blindspot, has been wildly successful and got picked up for a full 22 episodes. Sullivan got a better show than his former co-star. Blindspot has a sharper premise, a better cast and a lot of avenues for its story to grow. It’s also not as contrived. It’s still network familiar but it’s intriguing.

What happens to Snipes now? A few more direct to DVD action fests before another chance presents itself. If Christian Slater can get three chances at a TV series, Snipes can get a couple. He should just bring Blade to TV. Get it over with.

Did you like The Player? Are you sad to see it go?

The Player: 5 Things We Learned

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Don’t think. Just sit and be entertained by NBC’s The Player. It’s a guilty pleasure. An action adventure built to thrill and not boggle viewers down with complexity. There are some juice in these dice if you care to watch and be sucked in every Thursday night. Here are the five things we learned from Episode 2, “Ante Up”.

*Philip Winchester is a bona fide action star built for the 1980’s but doing fine here. Every time I see him swing into action as Alex Kane, the man of mystery thrust into a different “game” every week, I see a shade of Dolph Lundgren mixed with a young Kurt Russell. He’s got the goods, and he showed it on Cinemax’s Strikeback. Here is an actor who won’t win an Emmy award but will make action junkies like myself feel a wave of nostalgia for the old action heroes. The men who said little and punched harder. Winchester makes this show go. Built like a brick house and carrying more charm than needed and an edge, he does more than enough here.

*Point Break tributes are still legal, right? This week, Alex was matched against an old war buddy and opened up a chase that started on the strip and ended in the desert.  In particular, a scene where Winchester’s Kane jumps out of an airplane sans parachute after his guy. If that doesn’t get you feeling the firepower goosebumps, I am not sure what will.

*The lingering question of whether Kane’s wife Jenny is dead is a boiling pot, and something that Wesley Snipes’ Mr. Johnson will help Kane track down and solve. The minute she was shot in the pilot, I smelt something cooking that wasn’t ready to eat yet and could add a layer of intrigue to an otherwise procedural type series. Jenny is alive and Alex and his handler will solve it.

*You can’t trust anyone on the show and that will continue week to week. Something about Johnson’s assistant and tech savvy pretty lady Cassandra makes me think she has a few dirty skeletons in her closet. Her relationship with Jenny, her quick to trigger handle nudge in her home and her overall ability to control the game. Keep some eyes on her.

*Snipes offers a few coats of paint on Johnson and that’s fine. While his face and name are plastered all over the hype of this show, Snipes is a supporting character and it’s a good thing. He gets his one little quick fight exchange and that’s enough to propel Alex’s story. That doesn’t mean the audience doesn’t want to know how deep Johnson’s connections go and how his past steered him to Vegas.  Keep an eye on him as well.

Winchester muscle. Snipes flavor. Dangerous ladies. Easy to digest plots with above average network action. This NBC cheeseburger is tasting more well done with each hour. “Ante up” was better than the pilot. Let’s hope hour three just keeps getting better and better.

I’m in for more Player. Are you?

The Player: Flawed yet entertaining

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The first frame of NBC’s new show, The Player, encases Wesley Snipes on the outskirts of Las Vegas standing over a dead body. Yeah, that Wesley. Formerly known as Blade among other action hero roles, Snipes has taken his talent to the smaller screen in hopes of kicking the dust off a once strong career that got rerouted by ego, taxes and bad decisions. Does it work? Is this Thursday cheeseburger undercooked or decent tasting?

Yes and no. The show co-stars Philip Winchester(who just finished off Cinemax’s Strikeback) and pairs the two man up as two parts of an elaborate “game” where Vegas billionaires place bets on “true crime”. As Snipes’ character says when first uttered, “Be ready to not believe me when I say it.” It’s not a bad idea. True crime, predicted by gamblers, and being held in check by Snipes’ mystery man in a suit and another woman Cassandra who may have ties to Winchester’s security analyst. Winchester’s Alex is their “player”, a man who must prevent crime and other than the lives at stake, there is also a wager hanging over his adventures.

This show suffers from a ton of coincidence(things happening right in time and characters predictability) and far fetched plot. It’s a show you have to buy into if you are going to like it. It also depends on the likability of Winchester, a man trained in the theater who folks may only know from the relatively underwatched Strikeback series which just concluded. He is new to network television and given a large chunk of this pie to eat. It may also depend if you like Snipes, who is the cover man for the show, the face you will see on posters and ads.

While flawed, The Player is entertaining in parts and sets up a riddle at the end of its pilot that may suck you in for a couple more hours. Is this show going to get picked up or last past 10 episodes? It’s so hard to tell. It doesn’t do anything particularly well or present a new premise but it’s got decent action and Vegas behind it.

Like it’s main face, Snipes, The Player is fun to look at but you question its longevity and ultimate goal. Is he enough? Can the thin plot hold our attention and will Winchester be anything more than a muscled hero to get behind? Lots of questions that 42 minutes can’t answer. I will tell you this. Next Thursday, I will be watching. Will you?