SERIES PREMIERE: This new series comes from Jason Katims, one of my favorite TV creators, who’s given us both Friday Night Lights and Parenthood. Those are two adaptations of existing properties – one a book and movie, the other a movie and sitcom – that Katims somehow turned into original TV masterworks. So the fact that Rise is, like Friday Night Lights, based on a true story didn’t concern me. What concerns me, after watching the first half of this first season of Rise, is that so many characters are stock, and virtually every plot point is easily and disappointingly telegraphed and predictable. I came from a high school performing arts group like the one depicted in Rise, and it was every bit as inspirational and formative as depicted in this TV show. But Rise doesn’t quite rise to the occasion. I still recommend it, because TV presents too few dramas about regular people and situations, but Rise doesn’t rise, at least initially, to the level of Katims’ previous TV triumphs. For full reviews, see Ed Bark’s Uncle Barky’s Bytes and David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.

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