September 12th, 2017
NBC’s The Brave starring Mike Vogul and Anne Heche will premiere on Monday September 25th at 10PM. The show was green lit in early January and picked up to series on May 4th before NBCUniversal’s upfront on May 15th. The pilot is written by Dean Georgaris and directed by Brad Anderson. The show is produced by Universal Television and Keshet Studios. The show was originally called ‘For God And Country’ and changed names between the time the show was picked up to series and presented at the upfronts. Production of the show started at the end of July in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico and will continue to the beginning of December. The Brave will compete with CBS’s Scorpion and ABC’s The Good Doctor during the Monday night time slot. It will also compete with a variety of other military shows such as CBS’s SWAT, CBS’s Seal Team and CW’s Valor. The Brave however sets itself apart from following both a special operations unit on the ground and a intelligence office in the United States.
September 19th, 2017
Deadline’s Dominic Patten reviewed all the new military series that are about to air earlier this week. The competition between “SEAL Team,” “The Brave,” and “Valor” is strong due to every show premiering their first season this fall and encompassing the similar military storylines. While Patten praises SEAL Team, he says that the only bravery one can attribute to NBC’s The Brave, is that “you have to be very brave indeed to sit through it with any level of excitement.” In another Deadline article, it was reported that when asking Executive Producer and Showrunner Dean Georgaris about the competition among military shows, he said “We’re not worried about standing out… We’re focused on doing the best job with our approach, which is immersive.” The show does not have an ongoing plot line and focuses on a new subject being rescued each week. In the interview, the showrunner also mentioned that The Brave is supposed to be a tribute to the military men and women who fight for our country every day. The show is supposed to be an immersive and realistic representation of what these people go through. As the show premiere’s next week, hopefully the reviews will mirror that intention.
September 27th, 2017
The Brave premiered this past Monday with disappointing and bleak reviews. Variety called it “as generic as broadcast piltots get… its characters are bland and even the action sequences have nothing special to set them apart.” Indiewire also commented that there was poor character development in the first episode, claiming that the episode would have been much more interesting had the network killed off many of the major characters and instilling fear that The Brave deserves. “Nothing about the first episode makes us think The Brave is any different than most case-of-the-week fare built for mass appeal… it sure feels like The Brave is happy playing it safe.” However, Indiewire’s opinion of The Brave may change as the ending of the episode had the main characters playing on the beach when a suicide bomber crashes near them. The pilot ends with an explosion, leaving the viewers to wonder who is going to survive in next week’s episode. Hopefully next week’s episode will provide more character development and thrill for the military drama.