My blog entry about Dexter from earlier in the week, in which I expressed my gratitude for the show’s existence, got me to thinking about other series that are equally deserving of a spoonful of love. So in the spirit of the holiday, I thought I would shine a light on six gems that mostly fly under the radar, overlooked in favor of their more publicized network cohorts.
Breaking Bad (returns March 2010, AMC)
Overshadowed by: Mad Men
Why I’m Thankful For It: Two words—Bryan Cranston. The former Malcolm in the Middle dad (and two-time Emmy winner) completely transforms himself in the role of Walt White, a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with lung cancer who decides to provide for his family by cooking and selling crystal meth. This is the one show on TV that is guaranteed to surprise you each and every week. From Walt committing murder in the first season to the midair collision that rained down plane parts on Walt’s neighborhood in last year's finale, Breaking Bad represents the epitome of the phrase “leave them wanting more.”
Brothers & Sisters (Sundays, 10pm, ABC)
Overshadowed by: Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy
Why I’m Thankful For It: The current story line revolving around Kitty’s (Calista Flockhart) cancer diagnosis and treatment is rife with tragic optimism. Flockhart has been tremendous of late, capturing Kitty with a delicate combination of fear and hopefulness. Her scenes with mom Nora (Sally Field) in particular have been tearjerkers. Add to that a wonderful guest arc by Gilles Marini (from the Sex and the City movie) as Sarah’s French lover and you can forgive the show its frequent trips to Ojai Foods, the Walker family business that certainly has its share of drama, though it sometimes strains to be interesting.
Greek (returns January 25, 10pm, ABC Family)
Overshadowed by: The Secret Life of the American Teenager
Why I’m Thankful For It: One of the most flat-out fun shows on TV, Greek also has at its core an on-again/off-again relationship that surpasses Mer-Der. Casey (Spencer Grammer) and Cappie (Scott Michael Foster) are made for each other, but there’s so much temptation—not to mention future uncertainty—all around them on the Cyprus-Rhodes campus that it’s hard for them to stay together for too long. There's no reason to think that their current reconciliation, coming at a time when both will be forced to examine what their lives will be like after college ends, will be any smoother than their past attempts, but watching them try to sort it all out will still have the vicarious thrill of wanton youth.
The New Adventures of Old Christine (Wednesdays, 8pm, CBS)
Overshadowed by: The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother
Why I’m Thankful For It: If you’ve never seen Julia Louis-Dreyfus outside of Seinfeld’s Elaine, you’re missing out on a razor-sharp comic performance. Not all of Old Christine’s jokes hit (over the years, there have been way too many sexual punchlines hinging on the co-dependent relationship between Christine and her brother). Overall, though, the show has such a hangdog presence, you can’t help but laugh—and having Wanda Sykes in the cast doesn’t hurt. Old Christine is a throwback to a time when situation comedies put guffaws over self-conscious style.
Community (Thursdays, 8pm, NBC)
Overshadowed by: The Office, 30 Rock
Why I’m Thankful For It: With so many throwaway lines, Community is the kind of show that will pay dividends with repeat viewings. The cast is jelling nicely, with less emphasis now needed on Joel McHale’s Jeff to carry the show. That’s not to say that McHale isn’t still front and center; only that the writers have found more for the rest of the ensemble to do. How can you go wrong when Pierce (Chevy Chase) is tumbling over drum sets, Jeff and socially awkward Abed (Danny Pudi) move in together—if only temporarily, and Señor Chang (Ken Jeong) continues to terrorize his poor Spanish students? The simple answer is, you can’t.
The Good Wife (Tuesdays, 10pm, CBS)
Overshadowed by: NCIS, The Mentalist
Why I’m Thankful For It: The new hit drama nobody’s talking about (even though about 13 million people are watching), this already stellar legal drama is actually improving on its own quality. The best episode so far was the November 10 installment focusing on a personal injury case for which Julianna Margulies’s Alicia teamed up with a neighborhood lawyer to argue religious protection under the First Amendment. Margulies is understated yet powerful as a wronged woman using every ounce of goodness she can corral to stand by her adulterous, incarcerated husband.
If you’re not already watching these shows, do yourself a favor and check them out. But whether you choose to heed my advice or not, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. And when you’re going around the table listing the things you’re grateful for, take just a second to acknowledge the mountains of entertainment we so often take for granted.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Dexter's Killer Meal
Time and again, we’ve seen Thanksgiving used as a backdrop for bringing up all the dysfunction that lays dormant in a family. But how many of those holiday meals have culminated in one serial killer being strangled with the belt of another? So it was on Showtime's Dexter last night, where Turkey Day was about as messed up as it could get.
Worried about the rage he’s seen bubbling under the surface of Arthur Mitchell’s (John Lithgow)—aka the Trinity Killer—home life, Dexter insinuates himself into the family’s Thanksgiving plans, at the cost of spending less time at his own home, where wife Rita (Julie Benz) is being hit on by a neighbor and sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter, doing better work than ever this season) is still grappling with the loss of her lover and the fallout from being shot herself. Dex originally thought he had something to learn from Arthur, who seemed to mirror Dexter’s own outwardly idyllic existence while harboring dark secrets to which the world is oblivious. It didn’t take long for Dex to figure out that Arthur is actually very different from him, an abusive husband and father willing to lock his daughter in her room and break his son’s finger if it means proving who’s boss. The moral quandary that Dexter has always presented—how do you feel sympathy for a killer?—is amplified here as we get a glimpse of the monster that Dex could easily have devolved into were it not for the code he was taught by his father Harry.
Everything comes to a head when Arthur is rejected at the dinner table, none of his brood bothering to say they’re thankful for him. Son Jonah erupts, smashing his father's prized urn, and is then hunted down by Arthur, prompting Dexter to react. He drags Arthur into the kitchen, belt around neck, butcher knife in hand, stopping only when he remembers that this is not how his work is done. Few moments on the show have ever been more heartpoundingly terrifying, perhaps no death more deserved, and yet you know it can’t happen like this, with Arthur's family registering a hint of relief under their horror. Arthur Mitchell will get his comeuppance, but is has to be on Dexter’s terms.
Arriving home from this nightmarish scenario to be with his own family, Dexter tries to avoid having anyone give thanks. Ineffectual, young Cody quickly chirps, “I’m thankful for Dexter,” a sentiment that I couldn’t help but second, especially after the episode-ending revelation that the female reporter Deb now suspects is the one who shot her is also the Trinity Killer’s daughter. Boy, am I ever thankful for Dexter.
Worried about the rage he’s seen bubbling under the surface of Arthur Mitchell’s (John Lithgow)—aka the Trinity Killer—home life, Dexter insinuates himself into the family’s Thanksgiving plans, at the cost of spending less time at his own home, where wife Rita (Julie Benz) is being hit on by a neighbor and sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter, doing better work than ever this season) is still grappling with the loss of her lover and the fallout from being shot herself. Dex originally thought he had something to learn from Arthur, who seemed to mirror Dexter’s own outwardly idyllic existence while harboring dark secrets to which the world is oblivious. It didn’t take long for Dex to figure out that Arthur is actually very different from him, an abusive husband and father willing to lock his daughter in her room and break his son’s finger if it means proving who’s boss. The moral quandary that Dexter has always presented—how do you feel sympathy for a killer?—is amplified here as we get a glimpse of the monster that Dex could easily have devolved into were it not for the code he was taught by his father Harry.
Everything comes to a head when Arthur is rejected at the dinner table, none of his brood bothering to say they’re thankful for him. Son Jonah erupts, smashing his father's prized urn, and is then hunted down by Arthur, prompting Dexter to react. He drags Arthur into the kitchen, belt around neck, butcher knife in hand, stopping only when he remembers that this is not how his work is done. Few moments on the show have ever been more heartpoundingly terrifying, perhaps no death more deserved, and yet you know it can’t happen like this, with Arthur's family registering a hint of relief under their horror. Arthur Mitchell will get his comeuppance, but is has to be on Dexter’s terms.
Arriving home from this nightmarish scenario to be with his own family, Dexter tries to avoid having anyone give thanks. Ineffectual, young Cody quickly chirps, “I’m thankful for Dexter,” a sentiment that I couldn’t help but second, especially after the episode-ending revelation that the female reporter Deb now suspects is the one who shot her is also the Trinity Killer’s daughter. Boy, am I ever thankful for Dexter.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Texas Forever
In a rare case of fixing what wasn’t broken and actually making it better, my beloved Friday Night Lights, now full swing into season four, has as part of its dramatic restructuring done something that few shows are capable of: adding characters who are so instantly vital and well-drawn that it’s difficult to imagine they haven’t been there along.
Last night’s episode was a showcase for the three fresh faces introduced over the past few weeks. Troublemaker Vince (Michael B. Jordan) stole recent East Dillon Lions transplant Luke’s (Matt Lauria) wallet, leading to roadside fisticuffs being broken up by the police. With Vince about to be carted off to juvie, it was Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) to the rescue, having Luke take the fall to avoid punishment, then dropping both of them off far from home and making them walk back together as they develop a better understanding of how to be civil. It might seem cliché for two guys to bond over fighting, but because FNL does it in such a subdued fashion, it doesn’t feel the least bit pedestrian. Both Vince and Luke carry a lot of weight on the Lions squad, so a mutual respect between the two will no doubt go a long way toward boosting the entire team's morale, maybe even getting them a little bit closer to scoring their first win (something that will also be aided by the effort Coach Taylor put into organizing a pep rally).
Meanwhile, Jess (Jurnee Smollett) is making Vince jealous by flirting with Landry (Jesse Plemons), which flirtation is sealed with a kiss by episode’s end. One of the things that FNL has always done so well is capture the interplay between men and women in the most natural manner possible; it never seems strained or contrived, and Landry and Jess are another shining example of this.
The episode was capped by the news that Matt’s (Zach Gilford) military father had been killed in combat, with The 101 Network’s promo promising that the next installment (airing December 2 after a week off for Thanksgiving) will be “the most powerful episode ever.” Anyone who’s been a loyal viewer of this magnificent show over the years knows that, in the world of Dillon, Texas, that’s saying an awful lot.
Last night’s episode was a showcase for the three fresh faces introduced over the past few weeks. Troublemaker Vince (Michael B. Jordan) stole recent East Dillon Lions transplant Luke’s (Matt Lauria) wallet, leading to roadside fisticuffs being broken up by the police. With Vince about to be carted off to juvie, it was Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) to the rescue, having Luke take the fall to avoid punishment, then dropping both of them off far from home and making them walk back together as they develop a better understanding of how to be civil. It might seem cliché for two guys to bond over fighting, but because FNL does it in such a subdued fashion, it doesn’t feel the least bit pedestrian. Both Vince and Luke carry a lot of weight on the Lions squad, so a mutual respect between the two will no doubt go a long way toward boosting the entire team's morale, maybe even getting them a little bit closer to scoring their first win (something that will also be aided by the effort Coach Taylor put into organizing a pep rally).
Meanwhile, Jess (Jurnee Smollett) is making Vince jealous by flirting with Landry (Jesse Plemons), which flirtation is sealed with a kiss by episode’s end. One of the things that FNL has always done so well is capture the interplay between men and women in the most natural manner possible; it never seems strained or contrived, and Landry and Jess are another shining example of this.
The episode was capped by the news that Matt’s (Zach Gilford) military father had been killed in combat, with The 101 Network’s promo promising that the next installment (airing December 2 after a week off for Thanksgiving) will be “the most powerful episode ever.” Anyone who’s been a loyal viewer of this magnificent show over the years knows that, in the world of Dillon, Texas, that’s saying an awful lot.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Glee: The Kids Are All Right
For this week at least, Glee rebounded from a recent string of increasingly silly plot maneuvers to focus on the reason it exists in the first place: the glee club. Having taken an unfortunate backseat to some truly ridiculous story lines involving the school faculty, the kids were once again in the spotlight in last night’s wonderful “Wheels” episode.
We didn’t have to sit through the nonsense that is Emma and Ken’s sham of a wedding or Will and Terri’s non-baby drama, and, most merciful of all, we weren’t subjected to another rap rendition by Matthew Morrison’s Will, who is growing more obnoxiously smug each week. (Did we really need to see him sing “Bust a Move” and “The Thong Song” in the last episode?) What we got instead was a terrific wheelchair-bound performance of “Proud Mary,” a worried Quinn (Dianna Agron) putting pressure on Finn (Cory Monteith) to help with her medical bills, and Sue Sylvester (the incomparable Jane Lynch) showing compassion for a student named Becky, who suffers from Down’s Syndrome. In a quiet but powerful revelation, we learn that Sue has a sister with Down’s, and the short scene the two shared during Sue’s visit to an assisted living facility was one of the surly cheerleading coach’s most human moments. This plot strand also provided Sue with the best line of the night, when Becky complained that Sue was pushing her too hard: “Try auditioning for Baywatch and being told they’re going in another direction. That’s hard.”
Sue didn’t provide the episode’s only heartfelt moment, though. There was some great stuff going on between freshly out Kurt (Chris Colfer) and his unexpectedly understanding dad Burt, played with such kindness by Mike O’Malley. Kurt’s sexuality isn’t Burt’s favorite thing, but that’s his kid, damn it, and nobody’s gonna keep him down. Burt sticks up for Kurt even when it means putting up with anonymous phone calls calling his son a fag. Colfer and O’Malley do a nice job of feeling each other out, a delicate father-son balancing act that produces some of Glee’s most touching scenes. If the show can keep delivering the way it did last night, the early potential that seemed destined to be squandered in desperate fits of absurdity may just be realized in all its glory.
We didn’t have to sit through the nonsense that is Emma and Ken’s sham of a wedding or Will and Terri’s non-baby drama, and, most merciful of all, we weren’t subjected to another rap rendition by Matthew Morrison’s Will, who is growing more obnoxiously smug each week. (Did we really need to see him sing “Bust a Move” and “The Thong Song” in the last episode?) What we got instead was a terrific wheelchair-bound performance of “Proud Mary,” a worried Quinn (Dianna Agron) putting pressure on Finn (Cory Monteith) to help with her medical bills, and Sue Sylvester (the incomparable Jane Lynch) showing compassion for a student named Becky, who suffers from Down’s Syndrome. In a quiet but powerful revelation, we learn that Sue has a sister with Down’s, and the short scene the two shared during Sue’s visit to an assisted living facility was one of the surly cheerleading coach’s most human moments. This plot strand also provided Sue with the best line of the night, when Becky complained that Sue was pushing her too hard: “Try auditioning for Baywatch and being told they’re going in another direction. That’s hard.”
Sue didn’t provide the episode’s only heartfelt moment, though. There was some great stuff going on between freshly out Kurt (Chris Colfer) and his unexpectedly understanding dad Burt, played with such kindness by Mike O’Malley. Kurt’s sexuality isn’t Burt’s favorite thing, but that’s his kid, damn it, and nobody’s gonna keep him down. Burt sticks up for Kurt even when it means putting up with anonymous phone calls calling his son a fag. Colfer and O’Malley do a nice job of feeling each other out, a delicate father-son balancing act that produces some of Glee’s most touching scenes. If the show can keep delivering the way it did last night, the early potential that seemed destined to be squandered in desperate fits of absurdity may just be realized in all its glory.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
V is for Vexing
I was seven years old when the second V miniseries aired on NBC and I can remember going to school the next day not being able to get the image of an alien lizard baby out of my head. That kind of nostalgia had me particularly excited for ABC’s remake of this seminal sci-fi event. It is with a heavy heart that I report that the new series, which is airing four episodes during the November sweep before returning to finish its first season in the spring, is leaden, ultra-serious, and borderline dull.
Now, I’m not quite ready to write the show off just yet, but if things don’t pick up by the end of this four-episode introductory period, the likelihood of my coming back later on will be minuscule. For the uninitiated, V starts with the appearance of a series of spaceships hovering over major cities across the globe, from Paris to Rio de Janiero to Los Angeles to New York, which is where most of the action takes place. Or rather doesn’t, because so far there’s been very little action (more on that later). On board these vessels are Visitors, or Vs, a human-looking alien species with a hidden lizard core who claim to want a fair exchange: we give them some of our water and minerals, they share with us their advanced technology.
The Vs’ duplicitous mantra—“We are of peace, always”—charms some, while others simply aren’t willing to buy into their message, and herein lies one of the show’s biggest problems. Too many people are way too accepting of this sudden unearthly manifestation. The general population doesn’t seem all that concerned by the fact that giant spaceships have arrived. There are a few protests here and there, people carrying picket signs and whatnot, but nobody looks to be overly unnerved or scared by the Vs presence. Hell, the Visitors are even offering tours of their ships and people are more than willing to go, no questions asked. With no indication of brainwashing, this just doesn’t seem all that plausible, especially in post-9/11 New York (and, yes, I realize I just chided the plausibility of an alien invasion story).
Perhaps the whole enterprise would be less quizzical if the actors were capable of selling it better. Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell is FBI agent Erica Evans, who has just discovered that her partner of seven years is really a V, meaning they’ve actually been living among us for some time. Mitchell is unconvincing at playing FBI, but at least she’s able to display some emotion. That’s more than can be said for the rest of the cast, which also includes The Nine’s Lourdes Benedicto, and Joel Gretsch from The 4400, many of whom are too stiff to evoke any real feeling. While this makes sense for the Vs, who are only pretending to be human—their leader is Firefly’s Morena Baccarin—why are so many others walking around listless and sapped of energy? Scott Wolf (Party of Five) is a saving grace as a slick TV newsman interested in using the Vs to advance his career; if only the show spent more time on his quandary between moral obligation and journalistic necessity.
In general, I don’t have much patience for sci-fi product that is nothing more than a series of action pieces strung together without a story. Yet I find myself longing for some of that in this new version of V. The excitement that should be inherent in this kind of story is being superseded by a talky, almost cheesy show that does nothing to replace my affection for the ‘80s original. Judging from the second week’s ratings, I’m not alone in this assessment; the show lost nearly four million viewers from its premiere, still enough to be considered an early success but an alarming dropoff, especially for a show that’s going to be taking a three-month hiatus. Only time will tell whether these Visitors are here to stay.
Now, I’m not quite ready to write the show off just yet, but if things don’t pick up by the end of this four-episode introductory period, the likelihood of my coming back later on will be minuscule. For the uninitiated, V starts with the appearance of a series of spaceships hovering over major cities across the globe, from Paris to Rio de Janiero to Los Angeles to New York, which is where most of the action takes place. Or rather doesn’t, because so far there’s been very little action (more on that later). On board these vessels are Visitors, or Vs, a human-looking alien species with a hidden lizard core who claim to want a fair exchange: we give them some of our water and minerals, they share with us their advanced technology.
The Vs’ duplicitous mantra—“We are of peace, always”—charms some, while others simply aren’t willing to buy into their message, and herein lies one of the show’s biggest problems. Too many people are way too accepting of this sudden unearthly manifestation. The general population doesn’t seem all that concerned by the fact that giant spaceships have arrived. There are a few protests here and there, people carrying picket signs and whatnot, but nobody looks to be overly unnerved or scared by the Vs presence. Hell, the Visitors are even offering tours of their ships and people are more than willing to go, no questions asked. With no indication of brainwashing, this just doesn’t seem all that plausible, especially in post-9/11 New York (and, yes, I realize I just chided the plausibility of an alien invasion story).
Perhaps the whole enterprise would be less quizzical if the actors were capable of selling it better. Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell is FBI agent Erica Evans, who has just discovered that her partner of seven years is really a V, meaning they’ve actually been living among us for some time. Mitchell is unconvincing at playing FBI, but at least she’s able to display some emotion. That’s more than can be said for the rest of the cast, which also includes The Nine’s Lourdes Benedicto, and Joel Gretsch from The 4400, many of whom are too stiff to evoke any real feeling. While this makes sense for the Vs, who are only pretending to be human—their leader is Firefly’s Morena Baccarin—why are so many others walking around listless and sapped of energy? Scott Wolf (Party of Five) is a saving grace as a slick TV newsman interested in using the Vs to advance his career; if only the show spent more time on his quandary between moral obligation and journalistic necessity.
In general, I don’t have much patience for sci-fi product that is nothing more than a series of action pieces strung together without a story. Yet I find myself longing for some of that in this new version of V. The excitement that should be inherent in this kind of story is being superseded by a talky, almost cheesy show that does nothing to replace my affection for the ‘80s original. Judging from the second week’s ratings, I’m not alone in this assessment; the show lost nearly four million viewers from its premiere, still enough to be considered an early success but an alarming dropoff, especially for a show that’s going to be taking a three-month hiatus. Only time will tell whether these Visitors are here to stay.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
We Need to Talk (Or Do We?)
Falling under the heading of “just what we needed,” two new late night talk shows made their debuts this week. First up was Fox’s The Wanda Sykes Show (Saturdays, 11pm), a marked improvement over the show it replaces, the self-satisfied and laugh-free Talkshow with Spike Feresten. And while better is, well, better, don’t look for Sykes to pose any kind of threat to Saturday Night Live anytime soon, even though her premiere ratings were literally 100% higher than Feresten’s numbers last season.
From the first episode, it appears that Sykes’s stock in trade is going to be political humor. It’s nice to see that she’s not being asked to steer clear of harping on her corporate brethren over at Fox News—she and those conservative pundits certainly don’t see eye-to-eye—but a full nine minutes of politics in her opening monologue grew tiresome, mainly because none of it was all that funny, a shame given how gifted a comedian Sykes really is. Things perked up a bit during the “Wandarama” segment, her attempt at a “Weekend Update”-type newscall, which was capped by a bit about recycling sex toys and had more uses of the word “dildo” than I think I’ve ever heard on network television.
What about the guests, you ask? This week's trio—Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan, 24's Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Daryl "Chill" Mitchell from Brothers—showed up during a panel discussion at “Wanda’s Bar,” where topics included spanking children and a space hotel set for 2012 (according to the new movie, won't we be in the middle of an apocalypse by then?), all served up with a smart cocktail. This format has been done on Chelsea Lately for years (minus the on-camera booze), but it’s nice to get away from celeb appearances where all they want to do is plug their latest project; here they have to engage in talk about current events. Sykes herself has said that she’s not trying to reinvent the talk show, and that lack of inventiveness in itself is surprisingly refreshing. More than anything, though, The Wanda Sykes Show benefits from the looseness of its star. Sykes is clearly having a good time (can you say that about Letterman?), doesn’t seem nervous in the slightest (hello, Jimmy Fallon), and is comfortable enough in her own skin to make her audience sit back and relax.
George Lopez, on the other hand, seems to want his audience to be anything but relaxed. He’s got an ebullient crowd with him in the studio and spent much of last night’s debut of Lopez Tonight (TBS, Monday-Thursday, 11pm) trying to yell over them, though he was still using his outside voice even when interviewing his guests, if you call letting Eva Longoria Parker talk about how she got a year’s supply of M&Ms an interview.
If Sykes’s hot-button topic of choice is politics, Lopez’s is race. That makes for an edgier monologue than Leno would ever deliver, but I can’t shake the feeling that Lopez is pandering to a segment of the population he thinks wouldn’t get the joke if he dared to give them something smarter. (Here’s a sample punchline re: the slogan for 50 Cent’s fragrance: “Manly, yes, but the bitches like it, too.”) It’s one thing to be able to make ethnocentric jokes, and another thing altogether to dumb yourself down for it. Like Sykes, Lopez isn’t trying anything groundbreaking with the format of his show. And also like Sykes, who is the first black woman to host a late night network talk show, sometimes simply being a groundbreaking individual (Lopez is the first Latino to host a late night show) can be enough. But I wouldn’t fault either of them if they brought a little more funny to the proceedings.
Definitely delivering the comedy goods last night was CBS’s How I Met Your Mother. What do you get when you put Alan Thicke, a Storm Trooper, a guy dressed as the Lost in Space robot, a porno called “Archisexture,” and a ballooning Neil Patrick Harris together? Easily one of the funniest episodes of the season, that’s what.
After realizing that Robin and Barney are miserable as a couple, Ted, Marshall, and Lily set out to break them up by culling things that would remind them of their biggest fights. They needn’t have gone to so much trouble, though, as Robin and Barney—whose relationship has turned them ugly and fat, respectively—see their sorry reflections in a restaurant window and decide that this just isn’t working for them. It’s sad that something Barney spent the majority of last season pining for ultimately didn’t work out, but how great will it be to have the merry womanizer back to his old tricks? Thankfully, since he and Robin are “back together as friends,” there’s no damage to the core quintet. The best thing to come out of the episode, however, is the promise of another Robin Sparkles video. If you haven’t seen the hilarious video for “Let’s Go To the Mall,” click here and soak up the kitschy goodness that is undoubtedly one of Mother’s series highpoints.
From the first episode, it appears that Sykes’s stock in trade is going to be political humor. It’s nice to see that she’s not being asked to steer clear of harping on her corporate brethren over at Fox News—she and those conservative pundits certainly don’t see eye-to-eye—but a full nine minutes of politics in her opening monologue grew tiresome, mainly because none of it was all that funny, a shame given how gifted a comedian Sykes really is. Things perked up a bit during the “Wandarama” segment, her attempt at a “Weekend Update”-type newscall, which was capped by a bit about recycling sex toys and had more uses of the word “dildo” than I think I’ve ever heard on network television.
What about the guests, you ask? This week's trio—Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan, 24's Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Daryl "Chill" Mitchell from Brothers—showed up during a panel discussion at “Wanda’s Bar,” where topics included spanking children and a space hotel set for 2012 (according to the new movie, won't we be in the middle of an apocalypse by then?), all served up with a smart cocktail. This format has been done on Chelsea Lately for years (minus the on-camera booze), but it’s nice to get away from celeb appearances where all they want to do is plug their latest project; here they have to engage in talk about current events. Sykes herself has said that she’s not trying to reinvent the talk show, and that lack of inventiveness in itself is surprisingly refreshing. More than anything, though, The Wanda Sykes Show benefits from the looseness of its star. Sykes is clearly having a good time (can you say that about Letterman?), doesn’t seem nervous in the slightest (hello, Jimmy Fallon), and is comfortable enough in her own skin to make her audience sit back and relax.
George Lopez, on the other hand, seems to want his audience to be anything but relaxed. He’s got an ebullient crowd with him in the studio and spent much of last night’s debut of Lopez Tonight (TBS, Monday-Thursday, 11pm) trying to yell over them, though he was still using his outside voice even when interviewing his guests, if you call letting Eva Longoria Parker talk about how she got a year’s supply of M&Ms an interview.
If Sykes’s hot-button topic of choice is politics, Lopez’s is race. That makes for an edgier monologue than Leno would ever deliver, but I can’t shake the feeling that Lopez is pandering to a segment of the population he thinks wouldn’t get the joke if he dared to give them something smarter. (Here’s a sample punchline re: the slogan for 50 Cent’s fragrance: “Manly, yes, but the bitches like it, too.”) It’s one thing to be able to make ethnocentric jokes, and another thing altogether to dumb yourself down for it. Like Sykes, Lopez isn’t trying anything groundbreaking with the format of his show. And also like Sykes, who is the first black woman to host a late night network talk show, sometimes simply being a groundbreaking individual (Lopez is the first Latino to host a late night show) can be enough. But I wouldn’t fault either of them if they brought a little more funny to the proceedings.
Definitely delivering the comedy goods last night was CBS’s How I Met Your Mother. What do you get when you put Alan Thicke, a Storm Trooper, a guy dressed as the Lost in Space robot, a porno called “Archisexture,” and a ballooning Neil Patrick Harris together? Easily one of the funniest episodes of the season, that’s what.
After realizing that Robin and Barney are miserable as a couple, Ted, Marshall, and Lily set out to break them up by culling things that would remind them of their biggest fights. They needn’t have gone to so much trouble, though, as Robin and Barney—whose relationship has turned them ugly and fat, respectively—see their sorry reflections in a restaurant window and decide that this just isn’t working for them. It’s sad that something Barney spent the majority of last season pining for ultimately didn’t work out, but how great will it be to have the merry womanizer back to his old tricks? Thankfully, since he and Robin are “back together as friends,” there’s no damage to the core quintet. The best thing to come out of the episode, however, is the promise of another Robin Sparkles video. If you haven’t seen the hilarious video for “Let’s Go To the Mall,” click here and soak up the kitschy goodness that is undoubtedly one of Mother’s series highpoints.
Friday, November 6, 2009
White Collar Needs More Color
Just like most of USA’s other original series—Monk, Psych, Royal Pains, Burn Notice—new entry White Collar (Fridays, 10pm) is three parts case-of-the-week, one part lighthearted romp, with a minor dollop of character on top in an attempt to keep things from getting too stale. Like those other shows, though, White Collar is also about as disposable as a paper towel, leaving viewers with no compelling reason to come back for more.
Sure, Matt Bomer (Chuck) works his good looks and natural charm for all they’re worth as Neal Caffrey, a white collar criminal who escapes from prison only to find himself strapped with an ankle bracelet and working as a consultant for the FBI in exchange for not going back behind bars. And Tim DeKay, who, in addition to a lead role on HBO’s short-lived marital drama Tell Me You Love Me, has guest-starred on everything from Seinfeld to The Practice to NCIS, holds a nice middle ground between loose and uptight as Neal’s captor and FBI handler, Peter Burke.
But as with so many shows that rely on this format, there’s no there there. Neal and Peter run around New York, using Neal’s inside intel and Peter’s law enforcement skills to catch forgers and counterfeiters. They banter with an easy chemistry (far better than that between DeKay and Tiffani Theissen, who plays his somewhat neglected wife), manage to get their man in the end, and, as ever, we get to watch them do it all over again next week. Where’s the substance? Unfortunately, there isn't much of it on display, but there are hints of a better show lurking in here somewhere: Diahann Carroll showed up in the pilot as a wealthy widow who gave Neal a place to stay, Willie Garson (Sex and the City) is an intriguing presence as an old friend of Neal’s, and there’s an ongoing story line involving Neal’s ex-girlfriend and his obsession with finding her. More time allocated to any of these things would be a welcome break from the crime aspect (two episodes in, I'm already bored with white collar crime).
There’s an irony to the fact that USA’s slogan is “Characters Welcome,” and yet the network seems to keep churning out the same show in different locales, ultimately putting character on the back burner to solving some kind of mystery. (To its credit, the network does allow its shows to spotlight their locations nicely, for example, the Hamptons in Royal Pains and Albuquerque in In Plain Sight.) How about giving us a show that actually puts character first and plot second? I’m not talking about some guy with a lot of quirks like Monk has, either; tics don’t equal character. I’m talking about an honest-to-God person, someone we can all relate to and care about, someone who doesn’t have to flash a badge or carry a gun to make themselves seem more interesting than they really are.
Sure, Matt Bomer (Chuck) works his good looks and natural charm for all they’re worth as Neal Caffrey, a white collar criminal who escapes from prison only to find himself strapped with an ankle bracelet and working as a consultant for the FBI in exchange for not going back behind bars. And Tim DeKay, who, in addition to a lead role on HBO’s short-lived marital drama Tell Me You Love Me, has guest-starred on everything from Seinfeld to The Practice to NCIS, holds a nice middle ground between loose and uptight as Neal’s captor and FBI handler, Peter Burke.
But as with so many shows that rely on this format, there’s no there there. Neal and Peter run around New York, using Neal’s inside intel and Peter’s law enforcement skills to catch forgers and counterfeiters. They banter with an easy chemistry (far better than that between DeKay and Tiffani Theissen, who plays his somewhat neglected wife), manage to get their man in the end, and, as ever, we get to watch them do it all over again next week. Where’s the substance? Unfortunately, there isn't much of it on display, but there are hints of a better show lurking in here somewhere: Diahann Carroll showed up in the pilot as a wealthy widow who gave Neal a place to stay, Willie Garson (Sex and the City) is an intriguing presence as an old friend of Neal’s, and there’s an ongoing story line involving Neal’s ex-girlfriend and his obsession with finding her. More time allocated to any of these things would be a welcome break from the crime aspect (two episodes in, I'm already bored with white collar crime).
There’s an irony to the fact that USA’s slogan is “Characters Welcome,” and yet the network seems to keep churning out the same show in different locales, ultimately putting character on the back burner to solving some kind of mystery. (To its credit, the network does allow its shows to spotlight their locations nicely, for example, the Hamptons in Royal Pains and Albuquerque in In Plain Sight.) How about giving us a show that actually puts character first and plot second? I’m not talking about some guy with a lot of quirks like Monk has, either; tics don’t equal character. I’m talking about an honest-to-God person, someone we can all relate to and care about, someone who doesn’t have to flash a badge or carry a gun to make themselves seem more interesting than they really are.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Dance: The Good, the Bad and the Ugh-ly
Certainly a mistake from a ratings standpoint, it’s still too early to say whether this first-ever fall edition of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance was a good idea or not. In last Monday’s pre-competition introduction to this season’s top 20, the dancers were grouped according to their areas of specialty and, boy, what a show that was, truly some of the best dancing I’ve ever seen. In the two performance shows since then, however, the results have been hit or miss. And with this show being so much about breaking dancers out of their comfort zones, it would appear that many of this season’s contestants have some tough work ahead of them.
Suffering the most so far have been the ballroom routines, particularly last night’s clunky samba, performed by the sunshiny Channing and the now eliminated Phillip, a tap dancer who, in my opinion, didn’t have what it took to make the top 20 in the first place; and a Viennese waltz from Ashleigh and Jakob that was more sleepy than romantic. Things ended on a high note, though, when Ryan and Ellenore took the stage for an Argentine tango, with Ellenore not missing a step even as her dress was caught on her heel for nearly half the dance.
Where SYTYCD always excels is in the worlds of jazz and contemporary dance, which allow for a greater emphasis on artistic expression and less scrutiny of posture and toe pointing. The standout last night was a breathtaking contemporary routine from choreographer Stacey Tookey, danced brilliantly by early frontrunners Kathryn and Legacy, a b-boy completely out of his element; the way these two contorted and entwined their bodies was truly something to behold. Also interesting was a jazz number from the wonderfully warped and imaginative mind of Wade Robson. Dancers Peter and Pauline were given the characters of two people seeking revenge on Van Gogh after being excised from his original version of “Starry Night,” an inventive idea that went further in concept than it did in execution. And I can’t forget to mention another terrific Bollywood routine performed with the utmost confidence and maturity by the show’s youngest pairing, Mollee and Nathan.
The judges took a risk this season and invited three tappers to be in the top 20 (previously none had made it that far). Unfortunately, that risk didn’t pay off, and two of them, the aforementioned Phillip, along with Bianca—who couldn’t get a rise out of the judges with a gospel-inspired Broadway number—were sent home. With any luck, the remaining dancers will find themselves growing and improving their skills. That is the whole point of the show after all; it just may take a little longer than usual to get there. While fewer viewers are devoting their time to the show than they do in the less competitive summer months, So You Think You Can Dance continues to be an exciting showcase for an art form that has seen a truly worthy renaissance.
Suffering the most so far have been the ballroom routines, particularly last night’s clunky samba, performed by the sunshiny Channing and the now eliminated Phillip, a tap dancer who, in my opinion, didn’t have what it took to make the top 20 in the first place; and a Viennese waltz from Ashleigh and Jakob that was more sleepy than romantic. Things ended on a high note, though, when Ryan and Ellenore took the stage for an Argentine tango, with Ellenore not missing a step even as her dress was caught on her heel for nearly half the dance.
Where SYTYCD always excels is in the worlds of jazz and contemporary dance, which allow for a greater emphasis on artistic expression and less scrutiny of posture and toe pointing. The standout last night was a breathtaking contemporary routine from choreographer Stacey Tookey, danced brilliantly by early frontrunners Kathryn and Legacy, a b-boy completely out of his element; the way these two contorted and entwined their bodies was truly something to behold. Also interesting was a jazz number from the wonderfully warped and imaginative mind of Wade Robson. Dancers Peter and Pauline were given the characters of two people seeking revenge on Van Gogh after being excised from his original version of “Starry Night,” an inventive idea that went further in concept than it did in execution. And I can’t forget to mention another terrific Bollywood routine performed with the utmost confidence and maturity by the show’s youngest pairing, Mollee and Nathan.
The judges took a risk this season and invited three tappers to be in the top 20 (previously none had made it that far). Unfortunately, that risk didn’t pay off, and two of them, the aforementioned Phillip, along with Bianca—who couldn’t get a rise out of the judges with a gospel-inspired Broadway number—were sent home. With any luck, the remaining dancers will find themselves growing and improving their skills. That is the whole point of the show after all; it just may take a little longer than usual to get there. While fewer viewers are devoting their time to the show than they do in the less competitive summer months, So You Think You Can Dance continues to be an exciting showcase for an art form that has seen a truly worthy renaissance.
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