TNT’s New Series Promo: Looks 10, Dance 3
A few weeks back I received an unusual mailing from TNT. The box, styled to look like a slightly oversized cassette tape holder, turned out to be a promotion for the new series “Men of a Certain Age.”
I opened it to find a USB drive shaped like a mini cassette, positioned next to a photo of series stars Andre Braugher (where do I know him from?), Scott Bakula (loved “Quantum Leap”) and Ray Romano (everybody loves him, right?).
Was the mailing a success? Let’s see.
It took me about two weeks to get around to popping in the drive. I did show it to my husband last week, to see if he’d like to watch the preview with me, but no luck. While he thought the USB was cute, he’s not into watching TV on the small screen.
“Why the hell did they send that to you? Is it a work thing?” he asked. Nope, I said, vaguely remembering an e-mail from Entertainment Weekly a while back asking if I wanted to receive a preview of a new comedy. Maybe this was it?
I finally watched it this week. It was okay, for what there was of it—only about 19 minutes of the pilot episode, which will run on TNT on Dec. 7 for an hour, including commercials. We’ll likely DVR it and see if it’s worthwhile.
And was there any bonus material, to engage me with the brand? Not so much. A link to the TNT.com site was perfunctory, and the included audio of three songs one assumes the lead characters listened to in their youth (Styx’s “Best of Times,” Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ” Up Around the Bend” and Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”) seemed pretty uninspired. C’mon TNT, you couldn’t even get revved up enough to create a video to go with these songs? No games or additional info about the series.
In the words of the wise Willow Rosenberg, “bored now.”
The packaging was great, but the contents were so-so. Here’s hoping the storyline for the series is a little more pulled together.
