These are my thoughts on the pilot episode of Beggars And Choosers. Recorded while watching.

    I'm really looking forward to this. Brandon Tartikoff's name is on it, and I was a fan.

    The opening credits and theme tune are bland and forgettable.

    The opening scene has all these TV-types using their speaker phones to hear the overnight ratings. It's really cool. I love it. I'd love to be able to do that.

    Okay, a few scenes into the pilot episode and I'm enjoying it. The hero is very, very likeable. We've seen him deal with his kinky, arrogant boss, and we've seen him coping with early ratings on the new season. He's likeable. And, so far, the show is written with wry (make-you-smile) humour. Not laugh out loud HA-HA humour. I'm enjoying it.

    The transition from the TV world (from the world of show-business) to a charming office scene - wherein our hero awkwardly asks one of his staff to help arrange a hooker for business purposes - was smooth. The transition was smooth.

    The scene where he asked for the hooker was charming and funny, and wry, and could have been from St. Elsewhere, or any other quality though-provoking drama.

    I really, really love this. We've established that this network is a low-rated network. We've established that Mountain Men - their new show - has decent ratings, and we now see that even though the show is doing relatively well, the network (i.e. our hero) is interfering. Trying to change the content. I love that.

    The shows on the network are really good. Mountain Men, ICU, Bomb Squad (which we never see), and - the best yet - Unregistered Nurses. Which we saw in the form of a promo clip. It's really amusing.

    Again, none of this "laugh out loud" funny it’s just "sit-there-with-a-great-big-grin-in-your-face" humour. Nodding in agreement with what's on screen. It's wry. It's good. I like it.

    The fact is: I really care.

    Mountian Men is a dangerous show.

    And our hero has decided to let it continue to air unmodified. And I'm here, stopped in my tracks, as a viewer of this pilot episode, completely and utterly engaged. I'm dying to know what happens. I hope we find out in this episode if Mountain Men is doing better. If it's not resolved until next week, you can be damn certain that I'll be here next week. Watching to find out what happens with Mountain Men.

    At one stage during the pilot, our hero refers to "Freddy". No further explanation is given. Now, I know who Freddy is. And I love the fact, I passionately love the fact, that he's referred to as "Freddy" and no more info is given. As well as being a character-driven show about people in a tough job, this is a show for people "in the know".

    The pilot episode is drawing to a close. Our hero is back where he started: getting up in the morning, going straight to the speaker phone to hear the Nielson Ratings. Now, he's tense (he was awake long before the alarm clock) but what's important, is that here (sitting an hour into the pilot) I'm just as tense.

    They've engaged me.

    They've brought me in.

    I am absolute dying to know how Mountain Men did in the ratings.

    They won the night! I love it!

    Again, the pilot impresses me with the transition from television industry stuff to the office stuff.

    Our hero has no idea that his trusted side-kick/assistant is really gay. And here we have a wonderfully ironic conversation where our hero goes on and on about a particular star and how "every man wants her" and the - secretly gay - co-worker is forced into agreeing.

    And it's a really good scene. Really humorous. It's well acted by the two men. These are basically the two most compelling characters in the pilot.

    Well, in true confident style, the best scene was the last scene.

    Our hero's assistant is going to get a man to pose as a woman and show up at our hero's bosses hotel room, in place of a hooker.

    It's brilliant because it's setting up what we know - as viewers - is going to be a disaster. And then, just we you are completely reeled in… Boom! It's over. The credits are over and you're going: "*/&# No! I want to see what happens next!" That's the mark of a superb pilot.

    You know what, the theme tune sounds a lot better without all that stupid dialogue over it.