Two new shows that are doomed for failure

Most of the time I give a new show a few episodes to grow on me. It offers a chance to get used to the format of the show - like the characters talking to the camera on "The Office" - and a chance to get to know the characters. But sometimes the networks come up with shows that just seem like they are destined to be a bomb from the very first episode.

There are two new shows that make the list so far this season for me. The first is "Three Rivers," yet another hospital show. But this one is focused on transplants. The only reason I started watching it is because my mom heard the main character would be played by Alex O'Loughlin, who starred in the short-lived vampire series "Moonlight."

The show was supposedly so bad that the creators reshot the pilot and added in a new character. The one review I read said that the whole episode showed about a hundred close-ups on Alex O'Loughlin's bright blue eyes.

Now my first issue with the show is that at the beginning of the episodes viewers watch people get sick or get into accidents. It's a little like Sesame Street's "one of these things is not like the other" skit because one of the people gets into a much more serious accident. And guess what? That's going to end up being the organ donor for all the rest of the sick people. And that's probably my second problem with the show - that somehow this one organ donor just happens to match blood types and markers with multiple people awaiting organs in the transplant unit.

The other issue is that the dialogue is sooooo bad it's hard to stomach. Instead of creating characters and letting us get to know them, the directors give up too much time to gazing into O'Loughlin's earnest eyes. Case in point: When one man finds out there is a kidney donor match for him, he tears up and says "I've been connected to this dialysis machine three days a week for eight hours a day for years" and I guess we are supposed to get from that how happy he is and how crappy his life has been. It just isn't very sincere.

The next problem is that since the pilot was reshot, the second episode repeats tons of things from the first episode. It reintroduces characters and seems to backtrack on other things we already know about the characters. It was a little bit like reading the second book in a trilogy and then going back to the first one. After epsiode two of this, the season pass is getting deleted. Better luck on the next series, O'Loughlin.

The other show that will probably get the ax is "Flashforward." It is an interesting sci-fi premise and it stars Joseph Fiennes who is adorably British (though he doesn't have his accent on this show.) On the first episode all the characters are going through their lives when suddenly EVERYONE on the planet suddenly blacks out for two-plus minutes. But it turns out everyone wasn't blacked out - they were all having visions of the future. Now the FBI is trying to investigate what caused the black outs and is looking into how to keep them from happening again. And everyone is dealing with what they saw in their blackouts - a relapse into drinking, cheating on a spouse, or not seeing anything at all.

The problem with the show is that it is likely to go the way of "The 4400" and "Heroes" as shows that get so overwhelming that viewers can't keep up. It's just not a premise that can be carried over multiple seasons. It would have made a better movie than TV series.

I will watch one more episode, just to see dreamy Joseph Fiennes, who has been absent from the movie and TV scene for far too long. But I don't have much faith that the show will last long.