Ranking J.J. Abrams' TV Shows

Publish date: 2021-11-11
If there's one thing writer/producer/director J.J. Abrams can never be accused of, it's slacking. The man's had his nostalgic nerd fingers in numerous porridge pots for years and most recently made huge headlines by being tapped to write and direct Star Wars Episode VII - this of course coming on the heels of Abrams rebooting the Star Trek film franchise.Abrams also made huge impact over in the realm of television, first with the WB's Felicity and then with ABC's Alias. And over the past decade he's been involved with ushering in some of the most groundbreaking genre TV ever. Of course, they haven't all been ratings hits and/or critical darlings, as the more Abrams puts his name on things, the more the projects become "hit or miss."So with Almost Human (which Abrams executive produced) wrapping up its first season this past Monday, and with another Abrams production, NBC's Believe, premiering next week (the pilot directed by new Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuarón), we thought we'd take a look at Abrams' TV resume - and rank his shows from least to greatest. Let's get to it...

11. Six Degrees

Abrams' Role: Executive Producer

Remember Six Degrees? The cheesily devised show about six New Yorkers whose lives serendipitously intermingle? Starring Parenthood's Erika Christensen? And indie film darlings Campbell Scott and Hope Davis? Look, I'm just going to keep asking questions until you admit out loud that you've actively wiped it from your memory. Abrams executive produced this show for ABC, which ran for eight episodes back in 2006-2007 - right in the middle of Lost hysteria. And out of all of Abrams' shows, it left the most meager mark.

10. Undercovers

Abrams' Role: Executive Producer, Co-Creator, Director (Pilot)

There was a lot of hype and hoopla behind NBC's Undercovers, which is the most recent series to actually be co-created by Abrams, along with fellow Felicity alum Josh Reims. Abrams himself even directed the pilot episode. The trouble was that the premise would have us believe, at the outset, that "beautiful people" Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw were somehow in a sexual rut. Sure, they were married and it was supposed to reflect certain realities that befall all married couples. But they were both gorgeous former spies and it was just too hard to believe that they'd ever tire of banging each other. More seriously (perhaps), the show also lacked an underlying mythology that Abrams fans craved from Abrams shows, playing it more "mission of the week."

9. What About Brian

Abrams' Role: Executive Producer

Airing on ABC as a 2007 midseason replacement for another Abrams show (see Six Degrees above) was the romantic comedy, What About Brian. No question mark, thank you very much!

Starring 7th Heaven's Barry Watson, the show revolved around Los Angeles bachelor Brian and his circle of friends (including Matthew Davis, Amanda Detmer, Chuck's Sarah Lancaster). Hijinks of the romantic variety ensued. It wasn't must-see-TV by anyone's standards, but it did get a Season 2 pick up after its initial six episodes. So it survived that ever-tough first round on TV, unlike the rest of the bottom shows on this list.

8. Alcatraz

Abrams' Role: Executive Producer

People had high hopes for FOX's Alcatraz, which attempted to blend an over-arching mystery with a "case/prisoner of the week" format - something that NBC's The Blacklist is doing now with much more success (with Alcatraz's Parminder Nagra to boot!).

On the Lost front, Alcatraz featured island-vet Jorge Garcia, along with weekly uses of flashbacks. The show had plenty of action and occasional moments of effective suspense, but it failed to catch on. Perhaps linking the mysterious time-travel plot to Alcatraz itself alienated folks who weren't as enamored with or in awe of Alcatraz like Abrams was, admittedly. But yeah, the pedigree was all in place for this one - with Abrams executive producing, Lost's Elizabeth Sarnoff as co-creator (though she left due to creative differences), and Lost director Jack Bender involved. Ultimately though, it wasn't renewed after its first season.

7. Almost Human

Abrams' Role: Executive Producer

FOX's Almost Human, created by Fringe's J.H. Wyman and executive produced by Abrams, just finished up its first season and...well, it's anyone's guess as to whether it'll return for a second. The show's ratings have been teetering on that all-important fence you hear so much about. If it doesn't come back, fans can certainly throw a few stones at the fact that the show was aired all out of order - a taste of the old Firefly treatment. Though, to be fair, the series still lacked any sort of meaningful follow up to the potential series arc that was introduced in the pilot. Even when FOX did get around to airing the second produced episode of the show (it was broadcast as the 8th episode), that episode didn't pick up on the thread from the pilot. And neither did the third episode, which aired sixth.

But even within the mostly stand-alone episode structure came the fun "buddy cop"-pery between Karl Urban's John Kennex and Michael Ealy's Dorian. Nothing new, mind you, but entertaining exchanges nonetheless.

6. Revolution

Abrams' Role: Executive Producer

Created by Supernatural's Eric Kripke, with Abrams serving as EP, Revolution has been chugging along over at NBC - having barely eked out a second season after a critically murky first outing. And out of all the shows, even the Lost-saturated Alcatraz, its got the most Lost-iness to it - using flashbacks not only to show us bits of plot that took place in the years following the global power blackout, but also to show all the characters in their old lives, before the lights went out.

Though the show has vastly improved in quality this season, finding a much more enjoyable tone, the ratings are still down from Season 1 - though on NBC, in its current "rebuilding" state, that may not matter, as four to five million viewers is still four to five million viewers.

5. Felicity

Abrams' Role: Executive Producer, Co-Creator, Showrunner, Director (two episodes)

Entering the top 5 here, we get into the better stuff. Abrams' first TV show helped the WB shape its demo and find its voice back in the late 90s. Both a critical and ratings hit (by the WB's standards), the story of Keri Russell's young Felicity Porter derailing her education plan and following her high school crush, Ben (Scott Speedman), to New York City struck a romantic nerve with many a young adult. Many a young adult who freaked the frak out over Russell's post Season 1 haircut...

...Though not as many seemed to mind when the show went bats*** right at the end, and Felicity time-traveled back one year in order to fix her love life.

4. Alias

Abrams' Role: Executive Producer, Creator, Showrunner, Director (Pilot and two additional episodes)

Three years after Felicity came another Abrams creation - one that he's perhaps most lauded for, in fact, as far as it being completely his show, at least for the first couple of years. Alias, another star-making vehicle, featured hands-on Abrams in both writing and directing capacity. It also represented his first collaboration with writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who would go on to work with Abrams on Fringe, Mission: Impossible III, and the new Star Trek movies.

Alias, the story of Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) and her spyquest to topple a covert fake-CIA branch called SD-6, while also recovering precious visionary artifacts by a Renaissance inventor, helped reinvigorate not only the spy drama but the action heroine drama as well. Looking back, it's still hailed as one of the best shows of the past 20 years, even if the first two seasons were notably stronger than what followed (but damn those two years were good).

3. Person of Interest

Abrams' Role: Executive Producer

As a perfect example of Abrams' executive producer role being used to guide the path of a show into a major network primetime slot, Person of Interest's true spark belongs to creator Jonathan Nolan and showrunner Greg Plageman. But it's still an Abrams series, so it gets to be on the list - despite feeling very very Nolan. Meaning there are definite signs on the show, stylistically and thematically, that harken to the Dark Knight film trilogy. In fact, many viewers see the crime-fighting combo of Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Finch (Lost's Michael Emerson) as Batman-esque, as the show itself comes complete with a fantastic rotating door of recurring villains and evil organizations.

Now rounding out its third season, the biggest surprise of Person of Interest, which was designed to be a mostly "case of the week" series, is its very deep and complex back-mythlogy. A mythology that's all but gloriously taken over this year, bumping the show up and out of its more procedural beginnings. It also packs pretty powerful punch, emotions-wise - something I don't think any of us saw coming from a show about two guys using a semi-sentient surveillance system to stop crimes before they happen.

2. Fringe

Abrams' Role: Executive Producer, Co-Creator

Created by Abrams, Orci, and Kurtzman, and then run by J. H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner, FOX's Fringe took big, bold sci-fi risks while also giving us a trio of characters who we deeply cared about (played by Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, and John Noble). Alternate universes, mind powers, monsters, the disruption of the space-time continuum, visitors from the future all created a wildly involving tapestry of high-tech madness. But at the heart of Fringe was the love between a father and son, who were destined to lose each other and find each other over and over again on a perverse cycle of sacrifice.

Fringe didn't manage to answer all of the questions it raised during its five-season run, but many out there feel it did a better job tying off mysteries than Lost had, despite not having as big a cultural (or ratings) impact. But like Lost, Fringe proved that the journey ultimately was an emotional one and not based in hardline answers.

1. Lost

Abrams' Role: Executive Producer, Co-Creator, Director (pilot)

Whether or not you felt betrayed or enlightened by the final season and the final episode of Lost, you can't deny that it was a TV phenomenon. So big and bright in fact that many networks (and Abrams himself) tried desperately to instantly recapture the magic and find "The next Lost."

Due to the fact that Lost slowly built up to being a full-blown sci-fi series over time, it also helped open up genre TV to those who wouldn't normally, say, watch a time travel series. Or even, in the case of a mainstream genre hit like The Walking Dead, watch a zombie show. It also used episodic, character-specific flashbacks ingeniously, creating a TV drama format staple that still exists today.

Abrams remained mostly detached from Lost after the first season, aside from his executive producer role - with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse assuming head writer/showrunner duties. But he co-created it and directed and co-wrote the incredible pilot episode (and would later co-write the Season 3 premiere), helping pave the way for some truly gripping television.Believe will have a special preview at 10pm on Monday, March 10th, before premiering in its regular time slot of 9pm Sundays on March 16th.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/Showrenity.

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