Each week, I take a look back at a pilot from the 2011-12 season, first reviewed on my blog during that season. This week, I am looking at ABC's failed remake of Charlie's Angels!
The Details:
Premiered: September 22, 2011 on ABC
Starring: Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly, Rachael Taylor and Ramon Rodriguez
Created by: Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts
What I Thought Then:
"I never watched the original show and have never seen the movies... but my guess is the flashiness is stronger but the heart and quality may be lacking."
"Well it's not the next Emmy Award winner for Outstanding Drama Series, but it is fun."
"Despite the fun of this show, it is hard to get past some terrible writing and mediocre acting. Lines like 'I never thought my heart could hurt this much' don't really belong on any show."
"This is a show that needs to be accepted for what it is and honestly, that's ok with me. We need a few campy action shows on TV."
What Others Said:
"Whoever reads those stilted lines, it won't make a difference. These angels never take flight." - Mark A. Perigard, Boston Herald
"From shows like Alias to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Nikita, it has become commonplace to see hot chicks action stars. So a Charlie's Angels reboot has to offer something else in order to work. And it doesn't." - Andrea Reiher, Zap2It
"Charlie's Angels is proof that angels exist in hell, because that's where it felt like I was during most of this hourlong drivel." - Lori Rackl, Chicago Sun-Times
"It's not just a lazy idea, it's atrociously executed, pathetically acted and cynically conceived." - Matt Roush, TV Guide Magazine
"It's a much bigger mess than 70s critics ever accused the original of being." - Alan Sepinwall, HitFix
What I Think Now:
It was true in 2011 and it's true now. I have never seen the original Charlie's Angels series or the movie franchise from the early 2000s. Obviously I knew enough about it culturally to know its general vibe but I don't have anything to compare it to, then or now. This pilot was inoffensive but it was not good. Truthfully, I am a little embarrassed that I gave it a mixed-positive review in 2011. It was so bland and just didn't have any spark anywhere. It tried to have a spark - it certainly looked more expensive than network TV dramas do today. But the writing and performances were doing nothing to help the look of the show. There were multiple times where they said with complete sincerity "we're angels" and my eyes rolled to the back of my head. The director must have told them to give a long pensive look after many lines because it happened so many times in the pilot. And the angels, while they looked the part, were having absolutely no fun at all. Like zero. I might have been Minka Kelly-pilled back when this first aired because I was just working my way through Friday Night Lights and was obsessed with that show and everything on it. But she is stiff as a board here and the others aren't any better. I could have been fine with mindless thrills and fluff. It was how boring it was that made this a miss.
What Happened to the Show:
Almost every year, there seems to be at least one reboot on a network's fall slate (even now with NBC's The Rockford Files coming in the spring). Rarely are they creatively strong but sometimes they can turn into successes on their own right. That had happened in 2010 with CBS's successful launch of Hawaii Five-0. For Fall 2011, ABC decided it was time to bring Charlie's Angels back. While the original show was very old even by that point, the 2000s movies were still relatively fresh in everyone's heads when this series came along. ABC hoped it would be a self-starter and launched it in a slot where they had been having trouble for a few years: Thursdays at 8pm. The series was savaged by critics with some of the worst reviews of the fall season (30 on Metacritic). It debuted to passable but underwhelming numbers before dropping like a rock over the next couple weeks. After the fourth episode aired, ABC pulled the plug on the series though it let it air a few more episodes in the slot. I definitely watched more than the pilot but I have no memory of subsequent episodes and I don't think I kept watching once it got the ax. The Charlie's Angels IP laid dormant for awhile before a 2019 movie directed by Elizabeth Banks rebooted the franchise again but did poorly at the box office. It feels like a streamer will try again at some point even if the last several attempts haven't worked.
Final Episode: November 10, 2011
Episode Count: 7 + 1 unaired
Where to Watch: The Roku Channel, Tubi
I'm excited to be contributing to The TV Ratings Guide! You can read my regular work at Benjamonster's TV!
