With the final season of Mad Men returning at an undetermined date in April, I will re-watch the first four seasons and watch the following two-and-a-half seasons for the first time. After each season, I will share my thoughts on the show.
Before I begin, let me share with you my experience with Mad Men. Like most people I presume, I did not start Mad Men in 2007 when it aired its first episode. I started watching Mad Men sometime after its fourth season in 2010. I'm pretty sure I binge-watched through all four seasons, although I have the faintest memory of how or why I started watching Mad Men. Since then, I have not seen a single episode.
The final episode of season four aired on October 17, 2010 and the first episode of the next season wasn't until March 25, 2012. I got Netflix for the first time as a month-long free trial in October of the previous year and didn't have it full-time until January of 2012. At that point, there were only three seasons of Mad Men on there. By the time the fifth season reached Netflix - I don't know exactly when but I can speculate that it was probably around the beginning of its sixth season in April 2013 - it had been at least three years since I had watched an episode of Mad Men. I had become interested in other shows and by the time Mad Men had entered my mind, it had set an end date and I decided to just wait and watch the whole series before its final season.
So I obviously didn't quit watching Mad Men, because I disliked the show. But I feel I have never truly embraced the show and re-watching this series will give me a chance to remedy that. Either that, or hopefully I can convey why exactly Mad Men doesn't quite earn its status in my opinion. Mad Men is generally considered among the best shows of all time, and I've always found that perplexing even as I have enjoyed the show.
Mad Men is an interesting show, because for the life of me, I have very little memory of what actually happens. What little plot there is on this show is really hard to remember. I know it's been four years, but I may as well be a newcomer to this series who's been spoiled with some memorable scenes. But this isn't exclusive to seasons I haven't seen in years - I'd be hard-pressed to describe what happens in this season, which I've watched over the past week. Seriously, if my father asked me why he should watch this show, I'd tell him not to watch it because nothing happens.
To be honest though, that says more about my father than about Mad Men itself. Mad Men is about characters - what they do, why they do it, and all the little complexities that define who each individual character is. The period detail is a superficial reason to watch Mad Men. It draws you in. The reason to watch this show is undoubtedly about watching endlessly fascinating characters come to life. I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say Mad Men has some of the best characters of all time in television - Don Draper, Pete Campbell, Peggy Olsen, Joan Holloway.
In the first episode, Don Draper is the ideal self-made men all men aspire to be: he's charming, suave, cool under pressure, and always looking sharp. Then the show slowly strips away at that, making him literally a self-made man, in name and practice. (I actually think it was a bit much that he was the reason the real Don Draper died). John Hamm is amazingly adept at portraying all facts of his character.
The character that probably stands out second is Peggy Olsen. Some people consider her transformation of character throughout the series to be the best part. I don't remember enough in order to proclaim that, but it's clear the first season is her discovering who she is and what she wants to be. By the end that answer seems largely defined by work. But she tries out other things before finding herself and she's probably not completely done. But work is a much farther place than she was at the start of the season.
I'm not sure I like the pregnancy aspect that much to her. I don't know if it's because I know what Elisabeth Moss looks like, but the makeup on her to make her appear fat is pretty atrocious. Plus, she really doesn't realize she's pregnant until she has the baby?! (This isn't exactly an original complaint, but nonetheless it's ridiculous anyway on a show that largely strives for realism.)
Then there's Pete Campbell, who's equally parts despicable and sympathetic. I might argue Campbell's an even more interesting character than Draper. The difference is that most want to be Draper. Nobody wants to be Pete Campbell. Campbell wants to be Draper and every time he attempts, he fails miraculously. But he's also progressive and forward-thinking.
The character of Campbell is only possible in a world where masculinity reigns, or at least the popular image of it. Campbell so clearly wants to be an alpha male and he is so clearly not. He wants to be with Peggy, who seems to be her own person, instead of with his wife, who seems happy to be the doting housewife. (My sympathy extends so far: he's choosing between Alison Brie and Elisabeth Moss. You can't lose Pete)
Speaking of doting housewives, January Jones is better than I remember. I remember thinking somehow that Betty Draper worked as a character and that Jones was a terrible actress. I'll amend that to say that Jones is not a good actress, but works well within the limited range required of her in this season. But the acting never really gets in the way, because the stiff line readings work in favor of the character.
Betty doesn't have much of an arc. What is there is her inability to be happy and inability to figure out why. It's patently obvious why she's unhappy, but since her mother always emphasized the superficial aspects of happiness, she can't figure out why. She has a good husband, which seems to be the only thing her mother taught her - find a good husband. Now that that's done, now what? She wants more out of life, but doesn't appear to know it yet.
There's also Roger Sterling and Joan Holloway. Holloway isn't quite the great character she would come to be, but Christina Hendrick's performance probably shook the writer's room into making it happen in the future. She's still fascinating though because of her antiquated beliefs harvested by her ability to survive in the old way of thinking. She's both challenged by Peggy and confused by why she won't take her advice. Sterling is a character who doesn't realize he's too old to act like he's young until he has a heart attack. The rest of his character shines purely from the charm of John Slattery.
The other four - let's call them white advertising execs - don't really distinguish themselves too much with probably the exception of Salvatore Romano. It's pretty clear he's gay early on, but his confident demeanor belies the fact that he's never indulged on it. The others pretty much only have one defining feature: Ken Cosgrove is a good writer, Harry Crane is married, and Paul Kinsey is an insecure, jealous shithead.
So far, my opinion on Mad Men hasn't changed. Great show? Yes. Best of all time? It's not that I don't think it is, it's that I don't even think it's in the conversation. (I wish I was able to define why exactly I feel this why, but the jury's still out, because it would take more than one season anyway) Still don't mistake that for me not liking the show. It's an impeccably designed, expertly acted, and well-written series. I'm not sure I can ask for anything more than that.
Playlist (All songs featured in first season)
1. "On the Street Where You Live" - Vic Damone
2. "Band of Gold" - Don Cherry
2. "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" - Bob Dylan
3. "Great Divide" - The Cardigans
4. "I Can Dream, Can't I" - The Andrews Sister
5. "P.S. I Love You" - Bobby Vinton
6. "Manhattan" - Ella Fitzgerald
7. "Botch-A-Me" - Rosemary Clooney
8. "There Will Never Be Another You" - Bud Powell
9. "My Special Angel" - Bobby Helms
10. "Fly Me to Moon" - Julie London
11. "Agua de Beber" - Astrud Gilberto & Antonio Carlos Jobim
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Rewind: Star Trek: Next Generation S2
The first season of Star Trek: Next Generation was something of a disaster. There's very few kind things I can say about that season as it's genuinely one of the worst seasons of any purportedly good show that exists. The second season has generally been listed with the first season as seasons you should skip when watching Next Generation. So is it as terrible as its predecessor?
As Patrick Stewart would say, "Heavens no." (At least, I think he would say that. I feel like he's said this before, but I could be imagining it.) The problem with the first season is that there were hardly any actually good episodes. The best you could hope for was mediocrity. The second season is an improvement in that regard. The best episodes of this season are actually good episodes of television as opposed to "good for this season." Hell, I could be convinced this was a good season of television... if I was living in 1988.
But it's 2014, and I'm trying to grade it on those terms. I will be taking context into account at least a little bit - if I'm being honest, this is really not a good season if it aired today. (Of course, the second season has never had a great reputation). While it has raised the bar for what its best can be, it's still not exactly incredible television quite yet. Plus, this season has some episodes on par with the worst of season one.
All of the characters are starting to come into their own this year. Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner were the best at quickly defining their characters in the first season and that hasn't gone away. William Riker probably benefits the most from the change of seasons. Jonathan Frakkes strikes me as a William Shatner surrogate - but he actually works for me unlike Shatner in the original series. Frakkes seems to have way more fun with this role than Shatner did and it certainly shows in his performance.
The other standout character, who is ever so slowly growing on me, is Lieutenant Worf. He stands in stark contrast to the others for the better and his established characteristics make him particularly compelling. I'm a little surprised that Michael Dorn and Worf end up on another Star Trek series and he airs in the most Star Trek episodes of any actor, but I can sort of see why in this season. Plus, I don't want to leave out Geordi LaForge, who doesn't really get his own episode to shine, but nonetheless remains a consistent figure.
The two less well-liked characters, Dr. Pulaski and Wesley Crusher, aren't that bad in this season either. The writers seemed to learn from their mistakes somewhat from the first season with Crusher as he's mostly bearable. I won't be sad to see him leave the show when he does though. Not yet at least. Dr. Pulaski isn't great, and she's definitely a downgrade from Beverly Crusher, but she's not awful. She's mostly just annoying, but as with most characters on this show, she grows on you the longer she's on the show. (I forgot about Troi, who really hasn't changed at all and is still mostly useless.)
Unlike the first season, in which I wholeheartedly encourage you to skip some episodes, I probably would just recommend you watch this entire season. There are skippable episodes yes and there are awful episodes. There aren't actually that many bad episodes in this season, but if they're bad, they're usually AWFUL. On second thought you should probably skip those episodes. There's just much fewer episodes to skip.
I'm a little confused as to why the second season is lumped together with the first season. This season is noticeably better and I'd probably even go as far as to say that there's no reason to skip this season. This season might even work better as an intro to whatever the show will become (which I am excited to see in the future), because the first season barely fleshed out any of its characters. Now, they actually seem like characters!
This review may seem pretty optimistic about this season. It has everything to do with my expectations. I did not expect this season to be as good as it was, but I still wouldn't necessarily call it that good. Thus, the grade below will probably be incongruous with my relative praise. (And it is relative - the first season so far lowered my expectations, I am probably overrating this season.)
Grade - C+
As Patrick Stewart would say, "Heavens no." (At least, I think he would say that. I feel like he's said this before, but I could be imagining it.) The problem with the first season is that there were hardly any actually good episodes. The best you could hope for was mediocrity. The second season is an improvement in that regard. The best episodes of this season are actually good episodes of television as opposed to "good for this season." Hell, I could be convinced this was a good season of television... if I was living in 1988.
But it's 2014, and I'm trying to grade it on those terms. I will be taking context into account at least a little bit - if I'm being honest, this is really not a good season if it aired today. (Of course, the second season has never had a great reputation). While it has raised the bar for what its best can be, it's still not exactly incredible television quite yet. Plus, this season has some episodes on par with the worst of season one.
All of the characters are starting to come into their own this year. Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner were the best at quickly defining their characters in the first season and that hasn't gone away. William Riker probably benefits the most from the change of seasons. Jonathan Frakkes strikes me as a William Shatner surrogate - but he actually works for me unlike Shatner in the original series. Frakkes seems to have way more fun with this role than Shatner did and it certainly shows in his performance.
The other standout character, who is ever so slowly growing on me, is Lieutenant Worf. He stands in stark contrast to the others for the better and his established characteristics make him particularly compelling. I'm a little surprised that Michael Dorn and Worf end up on another Star Trek series and he airs in the most Star Trek episodes of any actor, but I can sort of see why in this season. Plus, I don't want to leave out Geordi LaForge, who doesn't really get his own episode to shine, but nonetheless remains a consistent figure.
The two less well-liked characters, Dr. Pulaski and Wesley Crusher, aren't that bad in this season either. The writers seemed to learn from their mistakes somewhat from the first season with Crusher as he's mostly bearable. I won't be sad to see him leave the show when he does though. Not yet at least. Dr. Pulaski isn't great, and she's definitely a downgrade from Beverly Crusher, but she's not awful. She's mostly just annoying, but as with most characters on this show, she grows on you the longer she's on the show. (I forgot about Troi, who really hasn't changed at all and is still mostly useless.)
Unlike the first season, in which I wholeheartedly encourage you to skip some episodes, I probably would just recommend you watch this entire season. There are skippable episodes yes and there are awful episodes. There aren't actually that many bad episodes in this season, but if they're bad, they're usually AWFUL. On second thought you should probably skip those episodes. There's just much fewer episodes to skip.
I'm a little confused as to why the second season is lumped together with the first season. This season is noticeably better and I'd probably even go as far as to say that there's no reason to skip this season. This season might even work better as an intro to whatever the show will become (which I am excited to see in the future), because the first season barely fleshed out any of its characters. Now, they actually seem like characters!
This review may seem pretty optimistic about this season. It has everything to do with my expectations. I did not expect this season to be as good as it was, but I still wouldn't necessarily call it that good. Thus, the grade below will probably be incongruous with my relative praise. (And it is relative - the first season so far lowered my expectations, I am probably overrating this season.)
Grade - C+
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Rewind: Dead Like Me S1
In lieu of the absence of Hannibal, I have grasped at Bryan Fuller's other, less successful shows. Dead Like Me was created by Bryan Fuller, but he only wrote the pilot episode and essentially had no input on the show past the pilot. After having watched the first season, I can't help but wonder what a Fuller-led Dead Like Me would look like, because this first season is kind of a missed opportunity.
Dead Like Me has an interesting premise - a young 18-year-old girl dies and becomes a grim reaper. Thus, the show follows a girl (and the other grim reapers) sending people off to their deaths every day. The show sometimes approaches greatness, but overall it's extremely mediocre and a lot of times, boring. What's disappointing is that the pilot is so good that it's somewhat easy to imagine a much better show being born if Fuller were involved.
This may sound unfair, but it struck me as peculiar that Dead Like Me aired on Showtime, and yet all of its episodes - with the exception of the pilot - were around 42 minutes long. While an interesting premise, I'm not totally sure there's enough material to make it an hourlong show. Hell, most episodes seemed stretched just to reach the 42 minute mark.
After Dead Like Me's pilot, the writers decided to spend the next few episodes with George Lass trying to cheat death. I guess it's understandable that a person will struggle with in some way causing a person's death (at least in their mind.) But it got pretty annoying that the only conflict in the show was the cause of the main character resisting something she couldn't resist.
And that's where my problems with George Lass end as nearly all of her storylines more or less work well. Helping matters is that Lass is both well-written and well-acted by Ellen Muth. Lass is an underachieving, asocial college-dropout. Muth plays her both as shy and sarcastic. It's surprising that Muth successfully holds down a series lead, but I guess that's what happens when the writers have a good grasp of your character.
Also a highlight is unsurprisingly Mandy Patinkin, who takes a character who we really don't find out much about and makes him the second most compelling character on the show by sheer force of his laid-back performance. In fact, the reaper side of the show was not my problem. I liked all the reapers, even if all of them were pretty one-note.
This is going to sound contradictory, but while I enjoyed the reaper portions, the show made very little effort to flesh out any of them. That's a little harsh. They had somewhat of a backstory to Roxy, a backstory I have nearly completely forgotten about it made so little of an impression. They don't really do much with Mason either, who's mostly comedic relief and the character himself seems to realize he's a joke.
Daisy Adair on the other hand is somehow the most one-note of them all and yet thanks to Laura Harris' performance, the most sympathetic. She's stuck up, 1930s movie actress who is always bragging about herself and putting down others. But Harris plays her like her whole shtick is a facade, that she's hiding something. The best thing that could have happened to this show was replacing Rebecca Greyheart with Laura Harris.
Another sign that the writers didn't really have 42 minutes of material is that they spent an inordinately large amount of time on two less successful locales: the Lass family and Happy Time. Both undoubtedly had their moments, but too much of it was either repetitive or wasting time. I could see what the show was going for: a pseudo Office Space and a family who needs to deal with the untimely death of their young daughter/sister.
Part of the problem is that I'm not a fan of the performance of Christine Willes, who plays Delores Herbig. The overly cheery because she's hiding how sad her life is seems to be what they were going for, but she just comes off as annoying. She's a one-off character, not a regular to a series. I wasn't sure if they were trying to make the character funny or sympathetic, but I didn't really find her to be either.
The Lass family was slightly better with moments that really hit you. The deteriorating marriage is probably the most affecting and well done. The comparison between the family trip when George was little and the present-day one now that she's gone is so well done it's hard to watch. I wish the show was able to do that more often, because the troublemaking daughter was never that interesting. The acting's fine with the family, it's just that their story seems so disconnected from what I actually want to watch, it's disconcerting.
Promisingly, the season's best episodes are in the back half. I didn't really like how the twelfth freaking episode of the entire series featured like 15 minutes of things I've already seen. It was frustrating because the actual meat of the story was well-written - I was just annoyed I was getting a clip show, but I can't deny it was a better episode than most of the season. But just as I was souring on the show, the second half raised my hopes that the second season will be better.
For some reason, I just have a good feeling about the second season. I don't know how they'll be able to make the Lass family and Happy Time aspects of the show interesting, but if they do, I'm looking at a vastly superior show. Dead Like Me was mediocre, but it wasn't like most mediocre shows - it showed flashes of brilliance. Combined with a premise dissimilar to most anything else on television and good performances across the board, it's still a piece of television worth watching.
Grade - B-
Playlist
1. "Love This" - Cosmo Jarvis
2. "Lisboa" - Mount Washington
3. "Sparklers" - Gemini Club
4. "Artsy" - Living Legends feat. The Grouch
5. "All Night" - Icona Pop
Dead Like Me has an interesting premise - a young 18-year-old girl dies and becomes a grim reaper. Thus, the show follows a girl (and the other grim reapers) sending people off to their deaths every day. The show sometimes approaches greatness, but overall it's extremely mediocre and a lot of times, boring. What's disappointing is that the pilot is so good that it's somewhat easy to imagine a much better show being born if Fuller were involved.
This may sound unfair, but it struck me as peculiar that Dead Like Me aired on Showtime, and yet all of its episodes - with the exception of the pilot - were around 42 minutes long. While an interesting premise, I'm not totally sure there's enough material to make it an hourlong show. Hell, most episodes seemed stretched just to reach the 42 minute mark.
After Dead Like Me's pilot, the writers decided to spend the next few episodes with George Lass trying to cheat death. I guess it's understandable that a person will struggle with in some way causing a person's death (at least in their mind.) But it got pretty annoying that the only conflict in the show was the cause of the main character resisting something she couldn't resist.
And that's where my problems with George Lass end as nearly all of her storylines more or less work well. Helping matters is that Lass is both well-written and well-acted by Ellen Muth. Lass is an underachieving, asocial college-dropout. Muth plays her both as shy and sarcastic. It's surprising that Muth successfully holds down a series lead, but I guess that's what happens when the writers have a good grasp of your character.
Also a highlight is unsurprisingly Mandy Patinkin, who takes a character who we really don't find out much about and makes him the second most compelling character on the show by sheer force of his laid-back performance. In fact, the reaper side of the show was not my problem. I liked all the reapers, even if all of them were pretty one-note.
This is going to sound contradictory, but while I enjoyed the reaper portions, the show made very little effort to flesh out any of them. That's a little harsh. They had somewhat of a backstory to Roxy, a backstory I have nearly completely forgotten about it made so little of an impression. They don't really do much with Mason either, who's mostly comedic relief and the character himself seems to realize he's a joke.
Daisy Adair on the other hand is somehow the most one-note of them all and yet thanks to Laura Harris' performance, the most sympathetic. She's stuck up, 1930s movie actress who is always bragging about herself and putting down others. But Harris plays her like her whole shtick is a facade, that she's hiding something. The best thing that could have happened to this show was replacing Rebecca Greyheart with Laura Harris.
Another sign that the writers didn't really have 42 minutes of material is that they spent an inordinately large amount of time on two less successful locales: the Lass family and Happy Time. Both undoubtedly had their moments, but too much of it was either repetitive or wasting time. I could see what the show was going for: a pseudo Office Space and a family who needs to deal with the untimely death of their young daughter/sister.
Part of the problem is that I'm not a fan of the performance of Christine Willes, who plays Delores Herbig. The overly cheery because she's hiding how sad her life is seems to be what they were going for, but she just comes off as annoying. She's a one-off character, not a regular to a series. I wasn't sure if they were trying to make the character funny or sympathetic, but I didn't really find her to be either.
The Lass family was slightly better with moments that really hit you. The deteriorating marriage is probably the most affecting and well done. The comparison between the family trip when George was little and the present-day one now that she's gone is so well done it's hard to watch. I wish the show was able to do that more often, because the troublemaking daughter was never that interesting. The acting's fine with the family, it's just that their story seems so disconnected from what I actually want to watch, it's disconcerting.
Promisingly, the season's best episodes are in the back half. I didn't really like how the twelfth freaking episode of the entire series featured like 15 minutes of things I've already seen. It was frustrating because the actual meat of the story was well-written - I was just annoyed I was getting a clip show, but I can't deny it was a better episode than most of the season. But just as I was souring on the show, the second half raised my hopes that the second season will be better.
For some reason, I just have a good feeling about the second season. I don't know how they'll be able to make the Lass family and Happy Time aspects of the show interesting, but if they do, I'm looking at a vastly superior show. Dead Like Me was mediocre, but it wasn't like most mediocre shows - it showed flashes of brilliance. Combined with a premise dissimilar to most anything else on television and good performances across the board, it's still a piece of television worth watching.
Grade - B-
Playlist
1. "Love This" - Cosmo Jarvis
2. "Lisboa" - Mount Washington
3. "Sparklers" - Gemini Club
4. "Artsy" - Living Legends feat. The Grouch
5. "All Night" - Icona Pop
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Rewind: 24 S4
Going into the fourth season, 24 was coming off a serviceably good season that nonetheless was suffering from repetitive storylines and increasingly stale characters. The showrunners smartly decided to change up 24 - not too much, but enough to make it feel fresh. Beginning the season, there was no President Palmer, Jack Bauer was working as a bodyguard for a senator, and CTU was comprised of completely unknowns.
More than any other season thus far, 24 is insanely ridiculous and absurd. The attempts to delve into the personal lives of the characters have never felt more perfunctory and fruitless. The terrorists' preparation and planning for one day is laughably improbable, made worse when each attempt fails and the show tries to play it off like that was the plan. And yet, somehow some way, it works.
The fourth season of 24 is my favorite since the first season*, because while I may not care about most of the characters, it delivers on the one thing expected most of it: exhilarating, action-packed television. The season starts with a train crashing off the rails - and with convincing special effects - and ends with Jack Bauer faking his own death and walking off into thesunset sunrise. In between, the show delivered a remarkable amount of action scenes and Jack Bauer steamrolling through his enemies with the ease and skill we've come to love about this series.
*The first season thus far is my favorite, which seems to be an unpopular opinion. I have an easy explanation: Kim drags down the second season by herself on what is an the otherwise good season, and the third season really seems repetitive. There's too much of a "been there done that" feel, which this season most certainly avoids even as it employs the same tricks.
The fourth season got better as the season went along, probably in some part due to Erin Driscoll and her daughter. Driscoll was the show's biggest misstep in an otherwise good season. She starts the season by making what are clearly portrayed as wrong choices and we find out she fired Jack Bauer. Making matters worse is the actress playing her, Alberta Watson has a stilted performance and unconvincing emotional scenes. She's also involved in the unquestioned worst plot point of the season, her increasingly unstable daughter who eventually commits suicide. When Driscoll was replaced by Michelle, the season got better.
This season introduces a hell of a lot of new characters. CTU is virtually unrecognizable with Chloe O'Brien as the only familiar face. None of the new CTU characters immediately stand out and it takes a while to register them as actual characters and not simply as plot devices. Some of them improve with time, such as Edgar Stiles and Curtis Manning. Some of them never improve, such as Driscoll and Sarah Gavin.
However, the most compelling new characters were Senator James Heller and Audrey Raines. This is hardly a surprise as they were both brought back for the reincarnation of this show in 24: Live Another Day. Both characters immediately stand out due to the performances of William Devane and Kim Raver. Devane, most well-known for Knots Landing, outshines everybody when he's on screen, which makes it disappointing when he disappears halfway through the season. Raver pretty much has to play upset and devastated the entire time, which she does so ably. While it did get a bit tiresome, a lesser actress would have made her character unbearable. Thankfully, she's sympathetic and relatable.
One of the things that bothers me most about this season though is how much it relies on torture. The senator even agrees that it's a good thing to torture his own kid! One way or the other, it's hard to tell whether the writers agree that torture is necessary, but it certainly seems like it. Considering that there's proof torture is ineffective not to mention inhumane, I just find a problem with how often the show resorts to torture and it works nearly every time. I really wish one time, the agents were good enough at their job to get information out of a suspect by good old-fashioned interrogation techniques. I don't know if it would be that successful if only because dialogue is easily the weakest part of this show, but it would be a refreshing change of pace.
The show takes a stab at analyzing whether torture is right or wrong, but it seems to argue it's justifiable. The government tortured terrorists for months after 9/11 to mixed results. This show's form of torture? Oh, just like break their hand and then they'll immediately give up everything despite being deeply committed to the cause. It may help if the characters ever tortured the wrong person. I mean sure the senator's son was the wrong person technically, but they made him such a piece of a shit, it was hard to sympathize and he WAS holding something from the government. I mostly just wish the writers weren't like "How to we get from Point A to Point B? Oh let's just use torture on a suspect and he'll lead us there." Seriously, torture is used way too often in this season. I don't remember it being as big of an issue for the first three seasons.
24 is a show that I go back-and-forth with on its quality. On the one hand, when it works it really fucking works. The tension is palpable, the characters seem genuinely at risk, and you can't take your eyes off the screen. On the other hand, this show has some of the most ridiculous technobabble nonsense dialogue I've ever heard, overuses torture of all things, and has so many episodes that just seem like stalling for time.
The end result though is an almost always entertaining show. The show is willing to take risks, which means it can deliver on the threats the story presents. The fourth season is one of the better seasons the show has had thus far and probably one of the best seasons of the entire series.
Grade - B+
More than any other season thus far, 24 is insanely ridiculous and absurd. The attempts to delve into the personal lives of the characters have never felt more perfunctory and fruitless. The terrorists' preparation and planning for one day is laughably improbable, made worse when each attempt fails and the show tries to play it off like that was the plan. And yet, somehow some way, it works.
The fourth season of 24 is my favorite since the first season*, because while I may not care about most of the characters, it delivers on the one thing expected most of it: exhilarating, action-packed television. The season starts with a train crashing off the rails - and with convincing special effects - and ends with Jack Bauer faking his own death and walking off into the
*The first season thus far is my favorite, which seems to be an unpopular opinion. I have an easy explanation: Kim drags down the second season by herself on what is an the otherwise good season, and the third season really seems repetitive. There's too much of a "been there done that" feel, which this season most certainly avoids even as it employs the same tricks.
The fourth season got better as the season went along, probably in some part due to Erin Driscoll and her daughter. Driscoll was the show's biggest misstep in an otherwise good season. She starts the season by making what are clearly portrayed as wrong choices and we find out she fired Jack Bauer. Making matters worse is the actress playing her, Alberta Watson has a stilted performance and unconvincing emotional scenes. She's also involved in the unquestioned worst plot point of the season, her increasingly unstable daughter who eventually commits suicide. When Driscoll was replaced by Michelle, the season got better.
This season introduces a hell of a lot of new characters. CTU is virtually unrecognizable with Chloe O'Brien as the only familiar face. None of the new CTU characters immediately stand out and it takes a while to register them as actual characters and not simply as plot devices. Some of them improve with time, such as Edgar Stiles and Curtis Manning. Some of them never improve, such as Driscoll and Sarah Gavin.
However, the most compelling new characters were Senator James Heller and Audrey Raines. This is hardly a surprise as they were both brought back for the reincarnation of this show in 24: Live Another Day. Both characters immediately stand out due to the performances of William Devane and Kim Raver. Devane, most well-known for Knots Landing, outshines everybody when he's on screen, which makes it disappointing when he disappears halfway through the season. Raver pretty much has to play upset and devastated the entire time, which she does so ably. While it did get a bit tiresome, a lesser actress would have made her character unbearable. Thankfully, she's sympathetic and relatable.
As the season goes on, they start to bring back old cast members. I was surprised at how effectively they managed to bring them back onto the show without it seeming too out-of-place. Tony Almeida's was the one that made the least sense, but come on I'm willing to forgo logic to get him back on the show. But Michelle replacing Driscoll and President Palmer needing to give advice to an utterly ineffective and clueless president works surprisingly well.
I also liked the show's upheaval of the presidential side of the show. While I enjoyed three seasons with President Palmer, there wasn't much new material to grind from an idealistic president who is also entirely predictable. So for the first half of the season, the president is almost ignored and in the background. Then in the latter half, 24 more closely follows the president, but they take a completely different route. They make a completely unprepared and incompetent president who takes advice from Palmer (who I was very pleased to see despite my complaints about his predictability). Gregory Itzin is so good in this role that you feel bad for him. But than the end happens and all the pieces of his character are put into place - he'll gladly take credit for something someone else did.
The show takes a stab at analyzing whether torture is right or wrong, but it seems to argue it's justifiable. The government tortured terrorists for months after 9/11 to mixed results. This show's form of torture? Oh, just like break their hand and then they'll immediately give up everything despite being deeply committed to the cause. It may help if the characters ever tortured the wrong person. I mean sure the senator's son was the wrong person technically, but they made him such a piece of a shit, it was hard to sympathize and he WAS holding something from the government. I mostly just wish the writers weren't like "How to we get from Point A to Point B? Oh let's just use torture on a suspect and he'll lead us there." Seriously, torture is used way too often in this season. I don't remember it being as big of an issue for the first three seasons.
24 is a show that I go back-and-forth with on its quality. On the one hand, when it works it really fucking works. The tension is palpable, the characters seem genuinely at risk, and you can't take your eyes off the screen. On the other hand, this show has some of the most ridiculous technobabble nonsense dialogue I've ever heard, overuses torture of all things, and has so many episodes that just seem like stalling for time.
The end result though is an almost always entertaining show. The show is willing to take risks, which means it can deliver on the threats the story presents. The fourth season is one of the better seasons the show has had thus far and probably one of the best seasons of the entire series.
Grade - B+
Monday, November 24, 2014
Hill Street Blues: Presidential Fever/Politics as Usual
Both because it'd be incredibly difficult to write 17 separate posts on Hill Street Blues episodes and because I don't think I am guaranteed to have that much to say about one specific episode, I'm doing two episodes per post. This would set me in line to do the finale by itself, which I'll probably have more to say about anyway.
Unlike my other episode review posts, this one does not have any general plan as to when I'll be posting. I'll post whenever I see the episodes basically, and that means it could be in the same week (though I doubt it) or months apart. But I will post them as long as I've seen the episodes, and I am highly interested in watching Hill Street Blues, so this will happen one way or the other. Unless Hulu stops making this show available for free, which seems likely. Anyway, let's get to the episodes.
Presidential Fever
Technically speaking, Presidential Fever is part of the pilot. I'm not sure if it aired as a two-hour block when it premiered, but the pilot certainly works better with this episode included. The first episode of the series ended with two cops being shot. Hill Street Blues has aged very well, but there's no part that says 1980s more than the direction in that scene. It's very cheesy and melodramatic.
The second episode doesn't immediately address the cliffhanger of an ending to the pilot. Most shows probably begin the next episode with a rush for time, showing another cop discovering the bodies, and the whole precinct going to the hospital to see if they recover. That is not the case here. I wouldn't say that's because it isn't that kind of show, but simply because the show wanted to move on. They might want to tell that story at some time, but not right away.
Since there's very little characterization of either officers Andy Renko or Bobby Hill so far, it's probably the right move. So while it's of course devastating to see two people get shot, we don't actually know anything about them except that they can defuse a situation. Not helping is that both people are on the opening credits to the show meaning neither will die.
All of that is to say that instead of following up on the cliffhanger ending, the show jumps 6 months in time and doesn't even address what happened until halfway in the episode. Much like the first episode, this episode is a Captain Furillo episode with very little given to anybody else. That's not necessarily a problem, but there's so many characters and barely any of them have registered to me yet.
The president considers walking through Hill Street, presumably because of its high crime rates and racial diversity. It's a message: I'm not afraid and look at how many different types of people support me! This causes problems for Furillo, because the onus is on him to make sure nothing happens. If something bad happens, he gets blamed and it makes everyone involved look bad, mostly Hill Street.
Despite not seeming too enthused about the situation, the president's aide is convinced Hill Street is a distinct possibility. That's because Sgt. Henry Goldblume ends up saying all the right things, possibly because he's compelled to suck up to authority. So Furillo gathers all the different types of gangs and asks them to take a day off.
The gangs are so far easily the weakest part of the show. All of them are stereotypes who are played over-the-top by weak actors. The most screen time goes to Jesus, played by Trinidad Silva. While he seems fairly intelligent and willing to listen to reason, the performance is distracting. I'm pretty sure this is a 1980s thing as nearly every character plays more over-the-top than I'm used to seeing.
The lone exception (besides Furillo) is Goldblume, played by Joe Spano. Spano was sort of invisible in the first episode, so much so that I thought he was a one-off character when he was negotiating for hostages in the pilot. In this episode, he more closely works with Furillo, so he ends up being in most scenes. Spano's performance sticks out for how natural it is among a cast who seems to be competing for attention. And it works. He seems like more of a character than any character not named Furillo or Davenport.
The other major event happening is two officers seek out suspicious activity, and end up getting jumped. It's hard to say if they investigate the matter because it's racial profiling, but it sure seems like it. And it's definitely because of race when the white cop wants to check out the apartment. The Hispanic cop seems extremely reluctant and probably assumes the other is only checking out because of race.
Both officers get jumped. Towards the end of the episode, they get a group of officers to agree to go return the favor. There's sort of a cop code and when you fuck with one cop, you fuck with all of them. Furillo catches onto this in the middle of his gang meeting, and immediately puts a squash on it.
In that scene, we learn two things. One, Hill Street used to be corrupt. Furillo mentions that he doesn't want Hill Street to go back to what it was, and his solution is similar to The Shield's message: you can't slip on even one thing or it eventually cascade and it's a corrupt police force again. So it's clear Furillo will be a mostly perfect individual in things that matter. I figure his ex-wife is there to say he's not perfect, but it seems like they divorced because he works too much. So he's pretty much perfect.
The second thing we learn more about is Phil Esterhaus. He got a small, unimportant plot with an interior decorator, who he's supposed to play nice with, but eventually just brushes her off. Esterhaus is decently defined thus far in that he has a teenage girlfriend and seems genial. But in that scene, Esterhaus says that the cops need to retaliate to Furillo. He doesn't push too hard and the situation doesn't completely deescalate until Esterhaus politely asks for them to let this one go. Esterhause seems to represent the "old guard."
Unlike my other episode review posts, this one does not have any general plan as to when I'll be posting. I'll post whenever I see the episodes basically, and that means it could be in the same week (though I doubt it) or months apart. But I will post them as long as I've seen the episodes, and I am highly interested in watching Hill Street Blues, so this will happen one way or the other. Unless Hulu stops making this show available for free, which seems likely. Anyway, let's get to the episodes.
Presidential Fever
Technically speaking, Presidential Fever is part of the pilot. I'm not sure if it aired as a two-hour block when it premiered, but the pilot certainly works better with this episode included. The first episode of the series ended with two cops being shot. Hill Street Blues has aged very well, but there's no part that says 1980s more than the direction in that scene. It's very cheesy and melodramatic.
The second episode doesn't immediately address the cliffhanger of an ending to the pilot. Most shows probably begin the next episode with a rush for time, showing another cop discovering the bodies, and the whole precinct going to the hospital to see if they recover. That is not the case here. I wouldn't say that's because it isn't that kind of show, but simply because the show wanted to move on. They might want to tell that story at some time, but not right away.
Since there's very little characterization of either officers Andy Renko or Bobby Hill so far, it's probably the right move. So while it's of course devastating to see two people get shot, we don't actually know anything about them except that they can defuse a situation. Not helping is that both people are on the opening credits to the show meaning neither will die.
All of that is to say that instead of following up on the cliffhanger ending, the show jumps 6 months in time and doesn't even address what happened until halfway in the episode. Much like the first episode, this episode is a Captain Furillo episode with very little given to anybody else. That's not necessarily a problem, but there's so many characters and barely any of them have registered to me yet.
The president considers walking through Hill Street, presumably because of its high crime rates and racial diversity. It's a message: I'm not afraid and look at how many different types of people support me! This causes problems for Furillo, because the onus is on him to make sure nothing happens. If something bad happens, he gets blamed and it makes everyone involved look bad, mostly Hill Street.
Despite not seeming too enthused about the situation, the president's aide is convinced Hill Street is a distinct possibility. That's because Sgt. Henry Goldblume ends up saying all the right things, possibly because he's compelled to suck up to authority. So Furillo gathers all the different types of gangs and asks them to take a day off.
The gangs are so far easily the weakest part of the show. All of them are stereotypes who are played over-the-top by weak actors. The most screen time goes to Jesus, played by Trinidad Silva. While he seems fairly intelligent and willing to listen to reason, the performance is distracting. I'm pretty sure this is a 1980s thing as nearly every character plays more over-the-top than I'm used to seeing.
The lone exception (besides Furillo) is Goldblume, played by Joe Spano. Spano was sort of invisible in the first episode, so much so that I thought he was a one-off character when he was negotiating for hostages in the pilot. In this episode, he more closely works with Furillo, so he ends up being in most scenes. Spano's performance sticks out for how natural it is among a cast who seems to be competing for attention. And it works. He seems like more of a character than any character not named Furillo or Davenport.
The other major event happening is two officers seek out suspicious activity, and end up getting jumped. It's hard to say if they investigate the matter because it's racial profiling, but it sure seems like it. And it's definitely because of race when the white cop wants to check out the apartment. The Hispanic cop seems extremely reluctant and probably assumes the other is only checking out because of race.
Both officers get jumped. Towards the end of the episode, they get a group of officers to agree to go return the favor. There's sort of a cop code and when you fuck with one cop, you fuck with all of them. Furillo catches onto this in the middle of his gang meeting, and immediately puts a squash on it.
In that scene, we learn two things. One, Hill Street used to be corrupt. Furillo mentions that he doesn't want Hill Street to go back to what it was, and his solution is similar to The Shield's message: you can't slip on even one thing or it eventually cascade and it's a corrupt police force again. So it's clear Furillo will be a mostly perfect individual in things that matter. I figure his ex-wife is there to say he's not perfect, but it seems like they divorced because he works too much. So he's pretty much perfect.
The second thing we learn more about is Phil Esterhaus. He got a small, unimportant plot with an interior decorator, who he's supposed to play nice with, but eventually just brushes her off. Esterhaus is decently defined thus far in that he has a teenage girlfriend and seems genial. But in that scene, Esterhaus says that the cops need to retaliate to Furillo. He doesn't push too hard and the situation doesn't completely deescalate until Esterhaus politely asks for them to let this one go. Esterhause seems to represent the "old guard."
Returning to the shooting, Renko and Hill both start getting back to work after recovering from the gunshots. And while I wasn't impressed by either actor in the scene when they confronted each other about not calling when each were in a hospital, I did like that they were clearly effective and great partners before they got shot and should reconcile eventually due to that. That it was not immediately reconciled in one day both surprised me and pleased me.
Other Notes
- I didn't mention Joyce Davenport here even though she was in a fair amount of the episode. She and Captain Furillo go through problems because of work. None of it is that interesting, but both actors are good so it doesn't drag the story down. Plus, I'm fairly certain this will be a plot point which will return so I can talk about it more then if necessary.
- Mick Belker is still played with glorious delight by Bruce Weitz. He's still too over-the-top for me. He catches two rapists that begin the day. Not before everybody freaks out that he'll bite the suspect or something. I like the idea of a cop on this show who might cost them a conviction from police abuse, but I'm not sure how Belker still has a job if they keep up at the pace they're going. At least he's definitely good at his job though.
- Lt. Howard breaks a sink to begin this episode and is overly weird. Here's a character who really isn't working for me. So far he's nearly bungled a hostage situation and the scene in this episode mostly just exists for laughs, because they never address the flood in the bathroom.
- I almost forgot to mention the president's aide performance, which is played with enormous dickishness. If the intention was to want to punch that guy in the face (and I believe it was), well done.
Politics as Usual
The first two episodes were separated by six months, so I was surprised by the third episode directly following the events of the second. This show isn't merely kind of serialized, it's completely serialized. It's easier to separate these episodes personally, but I could theoretically write a combined review.
Anyway, lest a show miss the opportunity to make me look stupid, this episode is more of an ensemble effort than the Captain Furillo show. There's no real major storyline, although the story that makes the most effect is the Renko/Hill partnership. Obviously, neither of them have fully gotten over having gotten shot and are taking it out on each other.
What I'm impressed with about this show is how naturally the stories flow from episode to episode. There's no forced writing in making sure to talk about each character. This has inevitably led to some of the characters completely disappearing, but the cast is so large that I certainly wouldn't want them to go through each character. The presidency is still in action, and while I don't think it's a season-long event, it's not going away any time soon. The custody battles between Furillo and his ex-wife have continued each episode and his struggles to maintain a healthy relationship with Davenport. Then there's the shooting.
While I wasn't impressed by the acting between the Charles Haid and Michael Warren in the second episode, this one is a much better showcase. Their interactions didn't feel as stage-y as the previous episode. Last episode, it kind of seemed like it was required for them to fight, whereas this one I actually believed they were fighting.
In particular, I want to highlight the scene where Renko and Hill respond to the domestic fight. Their heightened emotions worked as they successfully conveyed their nervousness and apprehension about going after a guy with a gun. Renko's hesitation at kicking down the door and then every time Hill had to look around a corner where well played. The scene where both break down and cry was slightly less effective, but it still felt heartwarming when they hugged meaning that it worked well enough.
Of course, Furillo is involved where he has a short scene saying all the right things necessary for these two to resolve. Outside of that, he struggles in his personal life with two different women. His ex-wife is delivering him a letter sent by a lawyer about custody of the kids. He gets advice from his current girlfriend Davenport, who says "forget the letters, just talk with her and get this solved."
That situation isn't totally resolved, although Furillo does gain favor with his ex-wife when he bails her out of jail and says he still cares about her. Fay Furillo still isn't much of a character at this point and mostly exists to bother our main character, but at least she gets time to look like an actual person, instead of one who screams all the time. Perhaps this situation can get resolved amicably, although something tells me this won't be the end of Frank's problems with his wife.
The other ongoing storyline - well it will be ongoing, it's just getting started in this episode - is JD Larue's dalliance with being a crooked cop. He accepts quite a bit of money from Ralph Macafee in return for letting him go. He struggles with this decision all day, to where his partner and the captain notice it. Trouble is, Neal Washingon thinks it's because he let the perp go so he has no reason to suspect he's struggling with taking money. Happy to see Washington get more to do, and from his few scenes here, I hope he's not just the sidekick to LaRue for the show.
Eventually, LaRue decides to give back the money. Underlining how much it was a mistake to accept it in the first place, the crooked detective busts LaRue for being a crooked detective. LaRue looks none too pleased and I'm suspecting that things are going to go his way. Kiel Martin was so much better in this episode than the pilot. That may have had something to do with him not being way too focused on getting a woman through creepy and forceful flirting.
Then again, everybody's performances are better today. I think the show was just suffering pilot-itis. Mick Belker catches a pickpocketer - the same one as in the pilot actually - and has a nearly identical scenes as the pilot. He sits the felon down, gets a phone call from his mom, growls at a dog, and then growls at the felon when he starts laughing. It's eerily similar as I thought I somehow switched episodes. Anyway, Bruce Weitz is toned down from before and I can finally see why he got nominated for an Emmy for this show. I still find the growling weird.
Other Notes
- Lucille Bates has been literally invisible for the entire series. I read that Hill Street did 4-5 episode story arcs so I guess I'll have to wait until this story arc is finished to see her again. I'm only halfway joking, but seriously she's like not even on this show even though she gets main credits.
- Howard Hunter does something stupid, never seen for the rest of the episode. I guess I should be happy he's getting no screen time because if all he's gonna do is fuck up, then I'll wonder why he's even hired. I don't mind the actor, but his suggestion to clear out 18 blocks for the president is just stupid.
- I forgot to mention that Furillo settles a minor gang problem by negotiating half of a basketball court for a month in order to allow the president to enter certain zones. The gang leaders are better acted here, including David Caruso, who I did not recognize in his first appearance.
- Both episodes are written by co-creators Stephen Bochco and Michael Kozzoll and directed by Robert Butler. At this point I'm not worried about any of the episodes written by them, but I'm interested to see the episodes not written by them. These guys know what they're doing.
And for fun, because I'm interested to see how much this changes as the characters get better written, a ranking of the cast.
1. Captain Furillo - Not really fair, but Travanti's great and he gets ALL the screen time
2. Joyce Davenport - Pouring coffee on LaRue and a good marriage counselor?
3. Henry Goldblume - I think I just really like Joe Spano
4-5. Officers Andy Renko/Bobby Hill - Neither is noticeably better than the other - mostly for the meaty storyline
6. Neal Washington - He just seems so goddamn smooth
7. Phil Esterhaus - Hasn't really gotten much to do, but Michael Conrad is great
8. JD LaRue - He has some work cut out for him after his creepy flirting
9. Mick Belker - Him and LaRue are interchangeable really
10. Fay Furillo - Hard to be liked when you only complain - it's a credit she's not last really
11. Ray Calletano - He's not invisible and yet I wouldn't have known his name if not for IMDB
12. Lucille Bates - She IS invisible so this is unfair
13. Howard Hunter - Whenever he becomes more than comedy relief, he may rise.
Playlist
1. "Lovefool" - The Cardigans
2. "O-o-h Child" - The Five Stairsteps
3. "Rudeboy Jamaican" - YC the Cynic
4. "Cheep and Cheerful" - The Kills
5. "Careful You" - TV on the Radio
- I didn't mention Joyce Davenport here even though she was in a fair amount of the episode. She and Captain Furillo go through problems because of work. None of it is that interesting, but both actors are good so it doesn't drag the story down. Plus, I'm fairly certain this will be a plot point which will return so I can talk about it more then if necessary.
- Mick Belker is still played with glorious delight by Bruce Weitz. He's still too over-the-top for me. He catches two rapists that begin the day. Not before everybody freaks out that he'll bite the suspect or something. I like the idea of a cop on this show who might cost them a conviction from police abuse, but I'm not sure how Belker still has a job if they keep up at the pace they're going. At least he's definitely good at his job though.
- Lt. Howard breaks a sink to begin this episode and is overly weird. Here's a character who really isn't working for me. So far he's nearly bungled a hostage situation and the scene in this episode mostly just exists for laughs, because they never address the flood in the bathroom.
- I almost forgot to mention the president's aide performance, which is played with enormous dickishness. If the intention was to want to punch that guy in the face (and I believe it was), well done.
Politics as Usual
The first two episodes were separated by six months, so I was surprised by the third episode directly following the events of the second. This show isn't merely kind of serialized, it's completely serialized. It's easier to separate these episodes personally, but I could theoretically write a combined review.
Anyway, lest a show miss the opportunity to make me look stupid, this episode is more of an ensemble effort than the Captain Furillo show. There's no real major storyline, although the story that makes the most effect is the Renko/Hill partnership. Obviously, neither of them have fully gotten over having gotten shot and are taking it out on each other.
What I'm impressed with about this show is how naturally the stories flow from episode to episode. There's no forced writing in making sure to talk about each character. This has inevitably led to some of the characters completely disappearing, but the cast is so large that I certainly wouldn't want them to go through each character. The presidency is still in action, and while I don't think it's a season-long event, it's not going away any time soon. The custody battles between Furillo and his ex-wife have continued each episode and his struggles to maintain a healthy relationship with Davenport. Then there's the shooting.
While I wasn't impressed by the acting between the Charles Haid and Michael Warren in the second episode, this one is a much better showcase. Their interactions didn't feel as stage-y as the previous episode. Last episode, it kind of seemed like it was required for them to fight, whereas this one I actually believed they were fighting.
In particular, I want to highlight the scene where Renko and Hill respond to the domestic fight. Their heightened emotions worked as they successfully conveyed their nervousness and apprehension about going after a guy with a gun. Renko's hesitation at kicking down the door and then every time Hill had to look around a corner where well played. The scene where both break down and cry was slightly less effective, but it still felt heartwarming when they hugged meaning that it worked well enough.
Of course, Furillo is involved where he has a short scene saying all the right things necessary for these two to resolve. Outside of that, he struggles in his personal life with two different women. His ex-wife is delivering him a letter sent by a lawyer about custody of the kids. He gets advice from his current girlfriend Davenport, who says "forget the letters, just talk with her and get this solved."
That situation isn't totally resolved, although Furillo does gain favor with his ex-wife when he bails her out of jail and says he still cares about her. Fay Furillo still isn't much of a character at this point and mostly exists to bother our main character, but at least she gets time to look like an actual person, instead of one who screams all the time. Perhaps this situation can get resolved amicably, although something tells me this won't be the end of Frank's problems with his wife.
The other ongoing storyline - well it will be ongoing, it's just getting started in this episode - is JD Larue's dalliance with being a crooked cop. He accepts quite a bit of money from Ralph Macafee in return for letting him go. He struggles with this decision all day, to where his partner and the captain notice it. Trouble is, Neal Washingon thinks it's because he let the perp go so he has no reason to suspect he's struggling with taking money. Happy to see Washington get more to do, and from his few scenes here, I hope he's not just the sidekick to LaRue for the show.
Eventually, LaRue decides to give back the money. Underlining how much it was a mistake to accept it in the first place, the crooked detective busts LaRue for being a crooked detective. LaRue looks none too pleased and I'm suspecting that things are going to go his way. Kiel Martin was so much better in this episode than the pilot. That may have had something to do with him not being way too focused on getting a woman through creepy and forceful flirting.
Then again, everybody's performances are better today. I think the show was just suffering pilot-itis. Mick Belker catches a pickpocketer - the same one as in the pilot actually - and has a nearly identical scenes as the pilot. He sits the felon down, gets a phone call from his mom, growls at a dog, and then growls at the felon when he starts laughing. It's eerily similar as I thought I somehow switched episodes. Anyway, Bruce Weitz is toned down from before and I can finally see why he got nominated for an Emmy for this show. I still find the growling weird.
Other Notes
- Lucille Bates has been literally invisible for the entire series. I read that Hill Street did 4-5 episode story arcs so I guess I'll have to wait until this story arc is finished to see her again. I'm only halfway joking, but seriously she's like not even on this show even though she gets main credits.
- Howard Hunter does something stupid, never seen for the rest of the episode. I guess I should be happy he's getting no screen time because if all he's gonna do is fuck up, then I'll wonder why he's even hired. I don't mind the actor, but his suggestion to clear out 18 blocks for the president is just stupid.
- I forgot to mention that Furillo settles a minor gang problem by negotiating half of a basketball court for a month in order to allow the president to enter certain zones. The gang leaders are better acted here, including David Caruso, who I did not recognize in his first appearance.
- Both episodes are written by co-creators Stephen Bochco and Michael Kozzoll and directed by Robert Butler. At this point I'm not worried about any of the episodes written by them, but I'm interested to see the episodes not written by them. These guys know what they're doing.
And for fun, because I'm interested to see how much this changes as the characters get better written, a ranking of the cast.
1. Captain Furillo - Not really fair, but Travanti's great and he gets ALL the screen time
2. Joyce Davenport - Pouring coffee on LaRue and a good marriage counselor?
3. Henry Goldblume - I think I just really like Joe Spano
4-5. Officers Andy Renko/Bobby Hill - Neither is noticeably better than the other - mostly for the meaty storyline
6. Neal Washington - He just seems so goddamn smooth
7. Phil Esterhaus - Hasn't really gotten much to do, but Michael Conrad is great
8. JD LaRue - He has some work cut out for him after his creepy flirting
9. Mick Belker - Him and LaRue are interchangeable really
10. Fay Furillo - Hard to be liked when you only complain - it's a credit she's not last really
11. Ray Calletano - He's not invisible and yet I wouldn't have known his name if not for IMDB
12. Lucille Bates - She IS invisible so this is unfair
13. Howard Hunter - Whenever he becomes more than comedy relief, he may rise.
Playlist
1. "Lovefool" - The Cardigans
2. "O-o-h Child" - The Five Stairsteps
3. "Rudeboy Jamaican" - YC the Cynic
4. "Cheep and Cheerful" - The Kills
5. "Careful You" - TV on the Radio
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Rewind: Wonderfalls
Forget Freaks and Geeks. Forget Firefly. The show that was the most royally screwed by FOX may be Wonderfalls, which aired for a whopping four episodes before being cancelled. The last nine episodes of the first and only season weren't even aired on FOX. It was so unsuccessful that the only reason there was a DVD of the series was that it was sort of a cult hit among its few fans.
With all that said, it's not surprising Wonderfalls was unsuccessful among the general public. This is a show about a girl who is talked to by stuffed animals and that's pretty much the premise of the show. It is extremely whimsical, almost annoyingly so at times. It was filled with a cast of unknowns. Of course, FOX knew all this and still picked up the show. And the network moved the show to the dreaded Friday slot after its premiere episode.
Watching Wonderfalls and Hannibal back-to-back is hilarious, because somehow those two shows were both created by Bryan Fuller. Both shows have beautiful cinematography and inventive direction on what were probably low budgets. But I'm not sure you could find two different shows stylistically.
Wonderfalls stars Jaye Tyler, a 20-something with a college degree with a dead-end job at a Niagara Falls souvenir shop. Her life is going pretty much nowhere, and she's perfectly okay with that as she wants nothing to do with people or to work hard. That is until animal heads start talking to her, telling her to do things. Admittedly, this show relates to me more than most I would guess as I'm a soon-to-be college graduate with little idea of what to do with it.
Anyway, she is talked to by "muses", whether they are stuffed animals, decorative lawn flamingos, or a fish mounted on a wall. They give her extremely oblique directions on what to do, usually confusing Jaye not only on what to do, but who to do it for (as they speak in pronouns). These conversations lead Jaye to be more proactive and most of the actions end up helping either her or someone else.
Tyler is joined in the cast by her family, best friend, and potential love interest. Her mother and father are supportive and loving, but overbearing. Her sister is a closeted lesbian lawyer and her brother is an atheist with a degree in comparative religions. And her love interest is a still-married technically bartender whose wife cheated on him during the honeymoon. The best friend isn't really distinctive except she's a cocktail waitress who mostly just gives advice to Jaye.
Jaye Tyler is played by the blue-eyed Caroline Dhavernas, probably better known as Dr. Alana Bloom in Hannibal. She plays a much different character here - sarcastic, witty, and an underachiever by choice. She is the woman of many faces, and those faces are always entertaining. She's in 95 percent of scenes on this show and she is the reason to watch the show. Without her great performance, this probably isn't a good show.
Despite being unknown, the cast is pretty great in general. The best friend is played by Tracie Thomas, and despite getting basically nothing to do, she makes it work. Again, despite the parents getting very little to do throughout the series, William Sadler and Diana Scarwid make you want more parents-focused stories. And Katie Finneran plays lovable bitch about as well as you can. (Here's a great quote from Finneran by the way. When asked if she's worried about playing a lesbian lawyer, she said "I'd rather have people think I'm a lesbian than a lawyer.")
Tyron Leitso, who's probably had the least success out of this cast, is serviceable and at times great. His main acting consists of puppy dog, which he excels at, and the few times he's asked to more, he doesn't fail. Besides Dhavernas though, the breakout star of this show is Lee Pace. Pace doesn't actually do much of anything for the first few episodes while the writers figured him out. But once they did, Pace was fantastic.
Interestingly enough, the show originally cast Kerry Washington as the best friend and Adam Scott as the brother. Neither could commit to the show so they went with Thomas and Pace. I find it hard to believe Washington or Scott would have done better in those roles, but Scott would have been perfectly cast as the love interest. (Not a slam on Leitso - I mean Adam Scott is awesome)
The talent behind the camera is also evident. Besides Fuller, who's also responsible for Pushing Daises, Wonderfalls was co-created by Todd Holland, a superb director. Holland has received three Emmy awards for his direction (one for The Larry Sander Show, two for Malcolm in the Middle.) He directs four of the episodes in this series, including the pilot which shapes the way the rest of the series will be directed. Much like Hannibal, I imagine directors got to experiment here because the direction is imaginative.
On the writing side, Bryan Fuller wrote three episodes. Somehow Fuller convinced Tim Minear, one of the most talented television writers around, to write for Wonderfalls. Minear has written for many shows including The X-Files, Angel, Firefly, Terriers, and American Horror Story. (He consistently has the best episodes on AHS)
Wonderfalls is a wholly unique show that, with a few "That's from 2004 moments" excepted, could still air today and still be totally different than anything on television. It is not defined by one genre as it genre-swaps more than any other show depending on the story the writers want to tell. They don't attempt to explain why Jaye is getting talked to by muses, because it's not that type of show. The muses are just an excuse to get to things the writers really want to explore.
The series is mostly self-contained until the last few episodes. This makes some of the series "hit-or-miss." Usually the writers are extremely creative in forming what the muses want Jaye to do. But since Wonderfalls underuses most of its supporting characters, that means it ends up depending on the strength of the case of the week. Sadly, the writers seemed to figure out what to do with all of its characters by the end, but it was way too late by that point.
Wonderfalls is a show that starts off strong and just when the formula started to get stale, it became a serialized story. The last few episodes are among the series' best, rewarding your patience. I wholly recommend the 13 episodes that are available on Youtube, especially if you like Bryan Fuller shows. (If you've only seen Hannibal from him, I'd recommend it just as a contrast) Wonderfalls was a tragically cut short show that I'm glad I got to see at least one season of.
Grade - B+
Playlist
1. "Give it to Me" - Ces Cru
2. "Scrape the Sky" - Can't Stop Won't Stop feat. Fresh Big Mouf
3. "Rock and Roll Queen" - The Subways
4. "Day Four" - Bloc Party
5. "Harlem" - Cathedrals
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Rewind: Supernatural S1
Back in 2005, I remember when Supernatural first went on the air on what was then WB11. I was a little kid then and I was much too scared of the potential to be scared. I hated scary movies. Still do. That was probably the right decision. Supernatural isn't exactly scary, but it employs enough of the horror movie tricks that I probably would not enjoy myself.
Now that I'm older, I can more easily watch these episodes. Helping the matter is that this first season lacks in scares, for better or worse. I'm not saying that as a bad thing either. I'm not watching Supernatural to be scared. The show did manage to have some freaky and unsettling moments though.
The first season shows enormous potential, but ultimately too many of the episodes have stock monsters. Whenever the show managed to make an episode about the season-long arc or an extensive look into the character, it was a much better show. To the show's credit, each episode contained something that contributed to the overall show past that episode.
The pilot episode was like nearly every other pilot: good and extremely rushed. In 42 minutes of screen time, Sam and Dean's mother gets killed, their father disappears, and Sam's girlfriend gets killed. One of the weaknesses to the season is that Sam understandably spends most of the first half of this season getting over Jess' death. That's only a problem because Jess was a nothing character. It wouldn't have made any difference if we never saw her on the show, because she had that much character development.
The only way I could think to fix that would be to have her appear in flashbacks in a few episodes following the pilot. Flashbacks aren't that great, but it would help us care about his struggle. Not only that, but it's not like the monster of the weeks were that compelling. They could probably have easily shed 3-4 minutes and not suffered at all. (Then again, I don't think Friday Night Light's Adrianne Palicki would be up for it anyway. She's not that great of an actress. There's like no chance she could have done what I want in 15 minutes of screen time spread across a couple episodes.)
The show took a little while to find its ground. After the pilot episode, brothers Dean and Sam mostly just visited the monster of the week, probably bickered, and then defeated it. The success of the episode largely depended on how good of actors the people they saved were. In most cases, they weren't great. Still, the show was finding out what worked and what didn't and all of them were still self-contained episodes. This paragraph is harsher on the first eight episodes than I intend. I mostly enjoyed them.
Then, creator Eric Kripke wrote "Home," his second episode after the pilot. Kripke seems like a good showrunner to me. He only wrote four episodes in the first season, and all of them were pretty important to mythology of the show. He didn't seem too interested in writing stories that were simply standalone. "Home" is technically standalone, but Sam gets his first vision. Kripke was quoted as saying the standalone episodes were "hit-and-miss," which is pretty much correct.
The show was surprisingly quick to play with its formula. In "Scarecrow," I was not expecting the show to actually separate the brothers for an extended period of time. Plus, it introduced "Meg Masters," played by Nicki Aycox. Aycox thankfully is very good in this role and provides a worthy opponent. In "Faith," Dean basically is condemned to die, but they unknowingly use supernatural forces to cheat it. Helping the show is the questions it raises about who deserves to die and casting Buffy's Julie Benz.
Other stand-out episodes include "Nightmare," where Sam gets a premonition of a man being killed. Not only do we find out where Sam's powers may eventually be, but we get to see a scenario where they could have ended up if their father took a different route to parenting. John Winchester isn't exactly the greatest parent, which he readily acknowledges later in the season, but things could have turned out worse.
I hope Supernatural continues its emphasis on season-long arcs, because it was easily the strongest part of the first season. Sam gets the brunt of character development as he gets over Jess' death gradually throughout the season, learns to forgive his father, and discovers his powers. "Provenance" does a good job of somewhat allowing Sam to get over Jess by having him date for the first time. He's not completely over it, but it's a step. Also, I admire the show's restraint as it's close to a year in the show's time when he does that.
I also liked how the father-son dynamic between Sam and John worked. John opened up to Sam about his parenting, and Sam seemed to finally understand he's more like his father than he thought. It was also a nice touch for Dean to question his father at the end, as he seemed more like a loyal soldier. Sam helped him to not just blindly follow. These characters were pretty well fleshed out by the end. Other problems with the show aside, that's kind of my most important aspect of a TV show -character.
Lastly, I really liked the show's restraint with Sam's powers. He only really telekinetically moved one thing and that was because he foresaw his brother's death. In the finale, his "father" dares him to move the gun, but he can't. I was fully expecting him to move it, and I applaud the misdirection as instead John is just that strong of a guy.
Pretty much the only way this show works is if the two leads have believable chemistry as brothers. Boy, do Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki manage that. Ackles probably IS Dean in real life, because he pretty immediately shines. I had some issues with Padelicki to begin the series, but he got stronger as an actor as the series went along. One thing I don't understand is that Dean seems to pretty much get any girl he wants - which is believable to a point - and yet Sam is virtually ignored. Some of that has to do with will - Dean seeks out girls, while Sam does not. But is Padelicki really that less attractive than Ackles? I actually have no idea, but it was a bit distracting. (I'm obviously more of an Ackles fan and it was still weirdly one-sided to me.)
And while I did have some problems with the guest stars - probably a budget issue - the important guest stars could act. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is fantastic in very little screen time. The aforementioned Aycox is basically the only recurring villain and justifies it. I also liked appearances from Benz, Amy Acker, and Jim Beaver, who I'm thrilled is in many more episodes of this.
What I find interesting is that Supernatural is molded by X-Files veterans, yet does not in any way evoke that show. The first two episodes are directed by David Nutter, who directed quite a few episodes of The X-Files in its first few seasons. Kim Manner, who directed 52 episodes of The X-Files, directed five in this first season. And it's not only the directing as writer John Shiban plays a prominent role in this season. Shiban is one of only four writers who write more than two episodes n this season, with Kripke and the team of Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker being the others.
I hope Kripke assembles a more consistent writing team in the second season and I don't even mean that as from episode to episode. The first season features a TON of writers, some good and some not so good. Less writers means a more consistent voice and hopefully a better season.
The first season has its problems, but there's no question I feel more confident in committing to this show than before I started. The show nailed the important aspects that I care about - character development and a good story arc - and its weaknesses can definitely be improved. I'm looking forward to the next season.
Grade - B+
Playlist
1. "Found a Job" - Talking Heads
2. "White Unicorn" - Wolfmother
3. "Bang Bang You're Dead" - Dirty Pretty Things
4. "Holiest" - Glass Animals feat. Tei Shi
5. "Weekend" - Priory
Now that I'm older, I can more easily watch these episodes. Helping the matter is that this first season lacks in scares, for better or worse. I'm not saying that as a bad thing either. I'm not watching Supernatural to be scared. The show did manage to have some freaky and unsettling moments though.
The first season shows enormous potential, but ultimately too many of the episodes have stock monsters. Whenever the show managed to make an episode about the season-long arc or an extensive look into the character, it was a much better show. To the show's credit, each episode contained something that contributed to the overall show past that episode.
The pilot episode was like nearly every other pilot: good and extremely rushed. In 42 minutes of screen time, Sam and Dean's mother gets killed, their father disappears, and Sam's girlfriend gets killed. One of the weaknesses to the season is that Sam understandably spends most of the first half of this season getting over Jess' death. That's only a problem because Jess was a nothing character. It wouldn't have made any difference if we never saw her on the show, because she had that much character development.
The only way I could think to fix that would be to have her appear in flashbacks in a few episodes following the pilot. Flashbacks aren't that great, but it would help us care about his struggle. Not only that, but it's not like the monster of the weeks were that compelling. They could probably have easily shed 3-4 minutes and not suffered at all. (Then again, I don't think Friday Night Light's Adrianne Palicki would be up for it anyway. She's not that great of an actress. There's like no chance she could have done what I want in 15 minutes of screen time spread across a couple episodes.)
The show took a little while to find its ground. After the pilot episode, brothers Dean and Sam mostly just visited the monster of the week, probably bickered, and then defeated it. The success of the episode largely depended on how good of actors the people they saved were. In most cases, they weren't great. Still, the show was finding out what worked and what didn't and all of them were still self-contained episodes. This paragraph is harsher on the first eight episodes than I intend. I mostly enjoyed them.
Then, creator Eric Kripke wrote "Home," his second episode after the pilot. Kripke seems like a good showrunner to me. He only wrote four episodes in the first season, and all of them were pretty important to mythology of the show. He didn't seem too interested in writing stories that were simply standalone. "Home" is technically standalone, but Sam gets his first vision. Kripke was quoted as saying the standalone episodes were "hit-and-miss," which is pretty much correct.
The show was surprisingly quick to play with its formula. In "Scarecrow," I was not expecting the show to actually separate the brothers for an extended period of time. Plus, it introduced "Meg Masters," played by Nicki Aycox. Aycox thankfully is very good in this role and provides a worthy opponent. In "Faith," Dean basically is condemned to die, but they unknowingly use supernatural forces to cheat it. Helping the show is the questions it raises about who deserves to die and casting Buffy's Julie Benz.
Other stand-out episodes include "Nightmare," where Sam gets a premonition of a man being killed. Not only do we find out where Sam's powers may eventually be, but we get to see a scenario where they could have ended up if their father took a different route to parenting. John Winchester isn't exactly the greatest parent, which he readily acknowledges later in the season, but things could have turned out worse.
I hope Supernatural continues its emphasis on season-long arcs, because it was easily the strongest part of the first season. Sam gets the brunt of character development as he gets over Jess' death gradually throughout the season, learns to forgive his father, and discovers his powers. "Provenance" does a good job of somewhat allowing Sam to get over Jess by having him date for the first time. He's not completely over it, but it's a step. Also, I admire the show's restraint as it's close to a year in the show's time when he does that.
I also liked how the father-son dynamic between Sam and John worked. John opened up to Sam about his parenting, and Sam seemed to finally understand he's more like his father than he thought. It was also a nice touch for Dean to question his father at the end, as he seemed more like a loyal soldier. Sam helped him to not just blindly follow. These characters were pretty well fleshed out by the end. Other problems with the show aside, that's kind of my most important aspect of a TV show -character.
Lastly, I really liked the show's restraint with Sam's powers. He only really telekinetically moved one thing and that was because he foresaw his brother's death. In the finale, his "father" dares him to move the gun, but he can't. I was fully expecting him to move it, and I applaud the misdirection as instead John is just that strong of a guy.
Pretty much the only way this show works is if the two leads have believable chemistry as brothers. Boy, do Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki manage that. Ackles probably IS Dean in real life, because he pretty immediately shines. I had some issues with Padelicki to begin the series, but he got stronger as an actor as the series went along. One thing I don't understand is that Dean seems to pretty much get any girl he wants - which is believable to a point - and yet Sam is virtually ignored. Some of that has to do with will - Dean seeks out girls, while Sam does not. But is Padelicki really that less attractive than Ackles? I actually have no idea, but it was a bit distracting. (I'm obviously more of an Ackles fan and it was still weirdly one-sided to me.)
And while I did have some problems with the guest stars - probably a budget issue - the important guest stars could act. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is fantastic in very little screen time. The aforementioned Aycox is basically the only recurring villain and justifies it. I also liked appearances from Benz, Amy Acker, and Jim Beaver, who I'm thrilled is in many more episodes of this.
What I find interesting is that Supernatural is molded by X-Files veterans, yet does not in any way evoke that show. The first two episodes are directed by David Nutter, who directed quite a few episodes of The X-Files in its first few seasons. Kim Manner, who directed 52 episodes of The X-Files, directed five in this first season. And it's not only the directing as writer John Shiban plays a prominent role in this season. Shiban is one of only four writers who write more than two episodes n this season, with Kripke and the team of Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker being the others.
I hope Kripke assembles a more consistent writing team in the second season and I don't even mean that as from episode to episode. The first season features a TON of writers, some good and some not so good. Less writers means a more consistent voice and hopefully a better season.
The first season has its problems, but there's no question I feel more confident in committing to this show than before I started. The show nailed the important aspects that I care about - character development and a good story arc - and its weaknesses can definitely be improved. I'm looking forward to the next season.
Grade - B+
Playlist
1. "Found a Job" - Talking Heads
2. "White Unicorn" - Wolfmother
3. "Bang Bang You're Dead" - Dirty Pretty Things
4. "Holiest" - Glass Animals feat. Tei Shi
5. "Weekend" - Priory
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Rewind: The Simpsons S7
When I started this feature, I had certain preconceived expectations about the quality of each Simpsons season - when it was promising, when it was best, and when it showed its cracks. I expected the best two seasons to be the fourth and fifth seasons. I had this vague impression that the later golden era seasons were still hilarious, but showing its cracks. Interestingly enough, neither of those expectations held true to me.
It's a little difficult to pick out the best seasons for me among the golden era seasons, but it's shockingly easy for me to leave out Season 4. I was under the impression that the fourth season was the perfect mix of comedy and heart. I think that was overstated as every season I've watched has heart in at least a couple episodes and it's not nearly as funny as other seasons. I only mention that because I present the true season that is the perfect mix of comedy and heart: Season 7.
Season 7 has all of the heart of the fourth season, but it's also just funnier. My opinions comparing the fourth and seventh seasons, fair or not, is perfectly reflected in the two clip shows. The fourth season clip show is good in its own right, compared to other clip shows, but the 138th Episode Spectacular is good compared to regular episodes. The clip show is just brilliant in its execution and the way it is structured.
The clip show is reminiscent of the entire season in another facet: it's endless creativity and experimentation. Despite the show having been on the air for 128 episodes and for being responsible for 25 in this season alone, the show has mostly completely fresh new ideas for each episode. There's the obvious "22 Short Films About Springfield," but I mean even in its more grounded storylines. Something as simple as the family encountering a rich club in "Scenes from the Class Struggle" was still a wholly new idea the show had yet to write about. (You can go ahead and correct me if I'm wrong about that)
The seventh season takes full advantage of its wide arsenal of characters. Again, there's the obvious "22 Short Films" which is basically the writers showing off about how many great characters they have. There's maybe Sideshow Bob's best episode (which is saying something) and Abe Simpson improbably being an action hero (not a complaint). Apu gets a worthy sequel to "Homer and Apu" in an episode that may just be the most politically on one side the show's ever been. Lastly, Troy McClure is seen for the first time "live" because he needs to be shown with a woman because of his weird fish fetish. Going to characters such as Abe and Troy McClure for full episodes - who really work best in short doses - may reek of a desperation to fill out 25 episodes, but somehow all the episodes hold together really well and it never feels padded.
No other character benefits more from this season than Lisa. If it's true that Lisa is a hard character to write an episode about, the multitude of effective and heartwarming Lisa episodes are perhaps their best achievements in the season. Specifically, there's just something about Lisa and Homer's relationship that strikes a cord. "Lisa the Iconclast" and "Bart on the Road" both feature some of the sweetest moments on the show. "Lisa the Vegetarian" finds her at odds with Homer (and all of Springfield) and lastly Lisa finds new friends in "Summer of 4 ft. 2." It was a good season to be Lisa basically.
But the sentimental episodes aren't limited to just Lisa. Most of these episodes surprisingly end on some emotional level. There's the obvious "Mother Simpson" which finally answers the question about Homer's mother. "Marge Be Not Proud," about Bart and Marge, is probably one of the few Simpsons episodes that can make you cry. Even an episode as silly as "Homerpalooza" ends with Homer realizing he shouldn't die just to be cool, which really doesn't sound as affecting as it is when written into words.
There is not a single bad episode in this seventh season in my opinion, so much so that I'm surely forgetting a classic. There's the yearly Treehouse of Horror, the sequel to "Who Shot Mr Burns," and "King Size Homer," where Homer aspires to work on disability by gaining weight. (How had they not done this episode yet is beyond me - I similarly feel the same about "Homer the Smithers")
It probably goes without saying, but the voice work is still elevating the material given to them. Mediocre lines became funny and funny lines become instantly quotable because of the fantastic voice work. Similarly, I don't usually comment on the animation, but this season seems to have some of the most impressive animation yet. This is truly a show that was firing on all cylinders.
Season 7 went for both the crazy like Season 5 and 6, but brought back the heart held in the first four seasons. I don't know if I'd call this season the best season, but it's probably the best representation of The Simpsons in my opinion. It's got heart, laughs, experimentation, and some of the most original ideas the show had ever done.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "White Lies" - Milo Greene
2. "Electric Man" - Rival Sons
3. "Heroine" - Dwntwn
4. "Don't Wanna Be Your Girl" - Wet
5. "Swimsuits" - The Cool Kids feat. Mayer Hawthorne
It's a little difficult to pick out the best seasons for me among the golden era seasons, but it's shockingly easy for me to leave out Season 4. I was under the impression that the fourth season was the perfect mix of comedy and heart. I think that was overstated as every season I've watched has heart in at least a couple episodes and it's not nearly as funny as other seasons. I only mention that because I present the true season that is the perfect mix of comedy and heart: Season 7.
Season 7 has all of the heart of the fourth season, but it's also just funnier. My opinions comparing the fourth and seventh seasons, fair or not, is perfectly reflected in the two clip shows. The fourth season clip show is good in its own right, compared to other clip shows, but the 138th Episode Spectacular is good compared to regular episodes. The clip show is just brilliant in its execution and the way it is structured.
The clip show is reminiscent of the entire season in another facet: it's endless creativity and experimentation. Despite the show having been on the air for 128 episodes and for being responsible for 25 in this season alone, the show has mostly completely fresh new ideas for each episode. There's the obvious "22 Short Films About Springfield," but I mean even in its more grounded storylines. Something as simple as the family encountering a rich club in "Scenes from the Class Struggle" was still a wholly new idea the show had yet to write about. (You can go ahead and correct me if I'm wrong about that)
The seventh season takes full advantage of its wide arsenal of characters. Again, there's the obvious "22 Short Films" which is basically the writers showing off about how many great characters they have. There's maybe Sideshow Bob's best episode (which is saying something) and Abe Simpson improbably being an action hero (not a complaint). Apu gets a worthy sequel to "Homer and Apu" in an episode that may just be the most politically on one side the show's ever been. Lastly, Troy McClure is seen for the first time "live" because he needs to be shown with a woman because of his weird fish fetish. Going to characters such as Abe and Troy McClure for full episodes - who really work best in short doses - may reek of a desperation to fill out 25 episodes, but somehow all the episodes hold together really well and it never feels padded.
No other character benefits more from this season than Lisa. If it's true that Lisa is a hard character to write an episode about, the multitude of effective and heartwarming Lisa episodes are perhaps their best achievements in the season. Specifically, there's just something about Lisa and Homer's relationship that strikes a cord. "Lisa the Iconclast" and "Bart on the Road" both feature some of the sweetest moments on the show. "Lisa the Vegetarian" finds her at odds with Homer (and all of Springfield) and lastly Lisa finds new friends in "Summer of 4 ft. 2." It was a good season to be Lisa basically.
But the sentimental episodes aren't limited to just Lisa. Most of these episodes surprisingly end on some emotional level. There's the obvious "Mother Simpson" which finally answers the question about Homer's mother. "Marge Be Not Proud," about Bart and Marge, is probably one of the few Simpsons episodes that can make you cry. Even an episode as silly as "Homerpalooza" ends with Homer realizing he shouldn't die just to be cool, which really doesn't sound as affecting as it is when written into words.
There is not a single bad episode in this seventh season in my opinion, so much so that I'm surely forgetting a classic. There's the yearly Treehouse of Horror, the sequel to "Who Shot Mr Burns," and "King Size Homer," where Homer aspires to work on disability by gaining weight. (How had they not done this episode yet is beyond me - I similarly feel the same about "Homer the Smithers")
It probably goes without saying, but the voice work is still elevating the material given to them. Mediocre lines became funny and funny lines become instantly quotable because of the fantastic voice work. Similarly, I don't usually comment on the animation, but this season seems to have some of the most impressive animation yet. This is truly a show that was firing on all cylinders.
Season 7 went for both the crazy like Season 5 and 6, but brought back the heart held in the first four seasons. I don't know if I'd call this season the best season, but it's probably the best representation of The Simpsons in my opinion. It's got heart, laughs, experimentation, and some of the most original ideas the show had ever done.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "White Lies" - Milo Greene
2. "Electric Man" - Rival Sons
3. "Heroine" - Dwntwn
4. "Don't Wanna Be Your Girl" - Wet
5. "Swimsuits" - The Cool Kids feat. Mayer Hawthorne
Sunday, November 9, 2014
The Sopranos: Bust Out
This is a returning weekly feature. I cover each individual episode going from the beginning. I've already covered Season 1 and will post a weekly post on the second season every Sunday.
Happy Wanderer
Past Episodes
Big Girls Don't CryHappy Wanderer
D Girl
Full Leather Jacket
"Bust Out" begins with a witness identifying Tony near the scene of Matt's shooting. It is a smart writing decision even though we know Tony will not get caught. For one, there's a tension on whether that witness will be killed before the end. We want to like Tony and killing innocent people tends to make that hard. For two, it allows us to see Tony scared and genuinely afraid. Lastly, it forces Tony to want to spend more time with his family while he can.
The killing of Matt does weigh on Tony. Matt's a dumbass sure, but he's a stupid, naive kid who was in over his head. Obviously, it's a not a death that will stick with him for very long - shooting at your nephew tends to do that - but it's nice that it affects him from an audience point of view.
The onset of an indeterminate prison sentence forces Tony to look at his relationships with his children. Tony tries to connect with AJ. He also has hands down the best scene of the episode with Meadow. He's sitting alone in the kitchen, drinking when Meadow walks in. He tells Meadow it's all for her and AJ. It's really beautifully played by James Gandolfini - no surprise there.
Tony has another fantastic scene earlier in the episode with Dr. Melfi, when he tells her that he may be going away for a while. It's one of the better acting moments from Lorraine Bracco, who plays that scene with restrained terror. Those two scenes alone make this episode an easy A for me.
It's sort of horrible that while Tony may be going a way for a while, Carmela gets tempted to cheat on him. I'm not saying that as an indictment on her character given Tony's misgivings. Anyway, she's tempted by this impossibly good guy - hard-working, loyal, only single because his wife died. Clearly, the tandem of Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess, and Frank Renzulli were trying to make a situation where it would almost be unbelievable to not cheat.
And fittingly, the resolution doesn't disprove this either: they only don't cheat because Vic finds out what Tony has done to David Scatino. Scatino provides some depressing laughs with how bad he's treated and how uncaring they seem to be that they are destroying his business. It's almost a reminder to the audience that while he may care about his kids, he's also a monster who absolutely deserves to go to jail.
Meanwhile, Richie is still being influenced by Janice, who is telling Richie about how much Tony is disrespecting him. Richie tells Tony he wants more of the garbage business. This slow trickle of a season-long plot is increasingly making it clear this will not be resolved easily.
Things I would like to have expunged from my brain: Richie pointing at a gun at Janice while having sex with her with her saying "Baby you're the best." That is one of the most horrifying scenes in the entire run of The Sopranos for me.
Grade - A
Surprise Guest Appearances
Not a surprise, but I've been watching Louis Lombardi (who plays Skip) on the fourth season of 24, and he's a better actor than I originally thought. Two somewhat similar, but absolutely differently played characters.
Deaths
Surprisingly none
Quotes
"On your way out, you think you can roll the garbage cans down the hill? Tomorrow's pick-up day." - Tony to the police - The humor is all in the delivery by Gandolfini
"You're a cute prick, Pus, I'll give you that." Skip's underrated
"GET THE FUCK BACK IN YOUR FUCKING HOLE! NOW!" *few seconds of silence "Davey, you're doing a good job!" - Gandolfini is just the best
"Well I knew you had this business here Davey. It's my nature. The frog and the scorpion, you know?" - Tony to Davey confirming he intentionally ruined Davey's life
"Sometimes, we're all hypocrites." - Yeah, especially you Meadow in the later seasons
"I can't not notice he's fucking you." - Richie's approach to getting Junior on his side was funny
"Ok so I wanted to fuck her." - Tony getting to the point about how Melfi reminds him of Isabella
Playlist (first two from this episode)
1. "Wheel in the Sky" - Journey
2. "You're Still the One" - Shania Twain
3. "Urban Photograph" - Urban Cone
4. "Cousins" - Vampire Weekend
5. "Mr. Quiche" - Wildcat! Wildcat!
Full Leather Jacket
"Bust Out" begins with a witness identifying Tony near the scene of Matt's shooting. It is a smart writing decision even though we know Tony will not get caught. For one, there's a tension on whether that witness will be killed before the end. We want to like Tony and killing innocent people tends to make that hard. For two, it allows us to see Tony scared and genuinely afraid. Lastly, it forces Tony to want to spend more time with his family while he can.
The killing of Matt does weigh on Tony. Matt's a dumbass sure, but he's a stupid, naive kid who was in over his head. Obviously, it's a not a death that will stick with him for very long - shooting at your nephew tends to do that - but it's nice that it affects him from an audience point of view.
The onset of an indeterminate prison sentence forces Tony to look at his relationships with his children. Tony tries to connect with AJ. He also has hands down the best scene of the episode with Meadow. He's sitting alone in the kitchen, drinking when Meadow walks in. He tells Meadow it's all for her and AJ. It's really beautifully played by James Gandolfini - no surprise there.
Tony has another fantastic scene earlier in the episode with Dr. Melfi, when he tells her that he may be going away for a while. It's one of the better acting moments from Lorraine Bracco, who plays that scene with restrained terror. Those two scenes alone make this episode an easy A for me.
It's sort of horrible that while Tony may be going a way for a while, Carmela gets tempted to cheat on him. I'm not saying that as an indictment on her character given Tony's misgivings. Anyway, she's tempted by this impossibly good guy - hard-working, loyal, only single because his wife died. Clearly, the tandem of Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess, and Frank Renzulli were trying to make a situation where it would almost be unbelievable to not cheat.
And fittingly, the resolution doesn't disprove this either: they only don't cheat because Vic finds out what Tony has done to David Scatino. Scatino provides some depressing laughs with how bad he's treated and how uncaring they seem to be that they are destroying his business. It's almost a reminder to the audience that while he may care about his kids, he's also a monster who absolutely deserves to go to jail.
Meanwhile, Richie is still being influenced by Janice, who is telling Richie about how much Tony is disrespecting him. Richie tells Tony he wants more of the garbage business. This slow trickle of a season-long plot is increasingly making it clear this will not be resolved easily.
Things I would like to have expunged from my brain: Richie pointing at a gun at Janice while having sex with her with her saying "Baby you're the best." That is one of the most horrifying scenes in the entire run of The Sopranos for me.
Grade - A
Surprise Guest Appearances
Not a surprise, but I've been watching Louis Lombardi (who plays Skip) on the fourth season of 24, and he's a better actor than I originally thought. Two somewhat similar, but absolutely differently played characters.
Deaths
Surprisingly none
Quotes
"On your way out, you think you can roll the garbage cans down the hill? Tomorrow's pick-up day." - Tony to the police - The humor is all in the delivery by Gandolfini
"You're a cute prick, Pus, I'll give you that." Skip's underrated
"GET THE FUCK BACK IN YOUR FUCKING HOLE! NOW!" *few seconds of silence "Davey, you're doing a good job!" - Gandolfini is just the best
"Well I knew you had this business here Davey. It's my nature. The frog and the scorpion, you know?" - Tony to Davey confirming he intentionally ruined Davey's life
"Sometimes, we're all hypocrites." - Yeah, especially you Meadow in the later seasons
"I can't not notice he's fucking you." - Richie's approach to getting Junior on his side was funny
"Ok so I wanted to fuck her." - Tony getting to the point about how Melfi reminds him of Isabella
Playlist (first two from this episode)
1. "Wheel in the Sky" - Journey
2. "You're Still the One" - Shania Twain
3. "Urban Photograph" - Urban Cone
4. "Cousins" - Vampire Weekend
5. "Mr. Quiche" - Wildcat! Wildcat!
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Hill Street Blues: Pilot
Back in 1981, Hill Street Blues debuted on NBC to dismal Nielsen ratings. It however was critically acclaimed immediately, winning a record eight Emmy awards. In fact, it became the lowest rated show to ever get renewed for a second season. When I noticed that Hill Street Blues was available for free on Hulu for an indeterminate amount of time, I knew I had to watch it.
I decided halfway through the pilot that I was going to talk about each episode. Because the pilot is incredible. It's also not a surprise the show got bad ratings from the public. The show immediately drops you in on the precinct, bombarding you with a million characters that are mostly distinguishable by one trait at first.
In the pilot, not a whole lot happens on a plot level except to get the viewers used to the setting. Captain Frank Furillo needs to negotiate a hostage situation, a detective hits on a public defender, and two officers help calm down a domestic situation. There's also a shocking shooting of two main characters at the end, but the majority of the pilot is simply to drop the viewers into a completely new world.
Furillo, the unquestioned star of the show so far, gets most of the development and screen time. He's got an ex-wife who hounds him for alimony money, a probably underfunded department with high gang activity, and relationship problems with his girlfriend. Furillo is the traditional archetypal lead: he's sensible, rational, and good at his job.
As played by Daniel J. Travanti, Furillo easily gets the audience's good graces with his weary, yet highly effective attitude. We're told Furillo is the only person in the department respected by everyone, even the gangs, and it's not hard to see why. He simultaneously deals with an ex-wife and a hostage situation, made further complicated by the apparent incompetency of Lt Howard Hunter. (There's much more evidence he's good at his job in the second episode. In fact, the pilot on Hulu is actually the first two episodes of the series. I'd recommend having two available hours and watching that. I just had too much to write so I split the episodes up.)
Easily the best part of the pilot is how quickly and effectively it establishes its setting. It's constantly in action, with a ton of extras, and nearly filled to the brim with people. There are a lot of scenes of just the criminals and the officers who are too busy to control all of them at once. While some of it is a bit disorientating, it's better that way than to handhold the audience.
Easily the worst part of this episode is that most of the characters take a back seat to Furillo and are purely defined by one or two traits. The aforementioned Esterhaus is mostly established as having a teenage girlfriend, which is a sign of the times I suspect, but still creepy. Michael Conrad comes off as a lovable grandpa, which makes the fact that he's dating a teenager all the more wrong.
Detective Mick Belker is defined by one thing: insanity or perceived insanity. Bruce Weitz plays him way over the top, but it kind of works anyway. He's for some reason extremely tempted to bite a felon and actually does in another case. On the other hand, he does spot a pickpocketer so he seems good at his job. It's amazing how much characters can get away with the audience if they are good at their job. He's poorly defined so far, but you could do worse than insane and competent.
Hunter gets defined by one trait: overaggressive. He's a comic relief at this point in the run, but he's problematic to me because he seems ridiculously incompetent. So with a room full of hostages, he just wants to go guns a blazing? What? I'm not too worried yet, because hello one episode, but Hunter does not seem like an actual human being the way he acts. So far he seems clinically insane, which would be a problem.
There's Detective JD Larue, whose one trait is horny. He tries to hit on the public defender, Joyce Davenport, to hilarious results. He seems pretty confident in himself and I can't tell if he's a successful womanizer or not, because he comes on way too strongly to Davenport. Detective Neal Washington, his partner, seems to play the role of funny black sidekick, which admittedly he does well.
Speaking of Davenport, she's probably the only other character well-formed from the beginning. She quickly establishes herself as awesome when she rejects Larue by pouring coffee on him. She also seems to be a persistent thorn in the side of the department because she's good at her job. She's basically an independent woman, which I suspect was something rarely seen in 1981 pop culture.
There are so many characters, some of them largely just fill up space. Officer Lucile Bates, the only female officer or detective, gets nothing to do yet. Lt. Ray Calletano gets plenty of screentime, but he's nothing but an annoying stereotype.
Despite both of them getting shot, neither Michael Warren or Charles Haid makes much of an impression until they get shot. (They make a stronger impression in episode two) I liked how both of them defused the situation when the mad black wife threatened to kill her husband for cheating on her. I didn't so much like that the conclusion was that the wife needed to try harder to get her husband's affections. There's 1980s gender politics for you.
Lastly, Sgt. Henry Goldblume, played by Joe Spano, has a decent amount of lines and screentime in the first episode, but he doesn't really make an impression until episode two. He spends most of the first episode trying to deal with a hostage situation, to little effect although he's certainly not helped at all by Howard Hunter interfering. So he ends up looking good in comparison.
I can't possibly go back in time to catch the trends and the regular portrayal of groups, but Hill Street Blues most likely was ahead of its time. The cast is ethnically diverse with two black main cast members and one Hispanic one. Plus, the guest characters and extras are full of ethnic diversity to help realistically portray the setting, which it does. It seems very much in its time with its gender politics unfortunately, but I can't expect this show to age perfectly.
The acting is something I've learned to deal with in older shows. It's not bad, but I'd call it "good over-the-top acting." A good example is Weitz. Weitz is good, but through two episodes, it is absolutely shocking he was nominated six times. It's just a preference of style I guess, but I like toned-down performances rather than "in-your-face" acting. (While the main cast is good at acting, I the performances of the guest stars have me already worried the acting will be distracting.)
I don't know exactly what I expected from Hill Street Blues, but the show surprised me. It fits into the section of shows that helped mold the way for later shows. Hill Street Blues makes The Sopranos possible, it makes The Shield possible, etc. In fact, what I see most in Hill Street Blues is The Shield actually. Obviously Hill Street came first so it's the reverse, but The Shield owes a whole hell of a lot to Hill Street Blues, which I'm sure the creators, writers and directors of The Shield are well aware of. In fact, I think some of the people involved worked on Hill Street Blues in one capacity or another.
Unfortunately, I don't have a good context for shows in 1981. I can search them, but I can already tell you I've seen hardly any television shows from that period. So without that, all of have to go on is how it looks in 2014 and how I imagine it was in 1981. And I got to say, this show has aged really well and still would be a good show in 2014. I did not expect to immediately get drawn to it.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "Fever" - The Black Keys
2. "Middle of Nowhere" - Hot Hot Heat
3. "Get Over It" - OK Go
4. "Cold Hard Bitch" - Jet
5. "Gasoline" - Alpine
I decided halfway through the pilot that I was going to talk about each episode. Because the pilot is incredible. It's also not a surprise the show got bad ratings from the public. The show immediately drops you in on the precinct, bombarding you with a million characters that are mostly distinguishable by one trait at first.
In the pilot, not a whole lot happens on a plot level except to get the viewers used to the setting. Captain Frank Furillo needs to negotiate a hostage situation, a detective hits on a public defender, and two officers help calm down a domestic situation. There's also a shocking shooting of two main characters at the end, but the majority of the pilot is simply to drop the viewers into a completely new world.
Furillo, the unquestioned star of the show so far, gets most of the development and screen time. He's got an ex-wife who hounds him for alimony money, a probably underfunded department with high gang activity, and relationship problems with his girlfriend. Furillo is the traditional archetypal lead: he's sensible, rational, and good at his job.
As played by Daniel J. Travanti, Furillo easily gets the audience's good graces with his weary, yet highly effective attitude. We're told Furillo is the only person in the department respected by everyone, even the gangs, and it's not hard to see why. He simultaneously deals with an ex-wife and a hostage situation, made further complicated by the apparent incompetency of Lt Howard Hunter. (There's much more evidence he's good at his job in the second episode. In fact, the pilot on Hulu is actually the first two episodes of the series. I'd recommend having two available hours and watching that. I just had too much to write so I split the episodes up.)
Easily the best part of the pilot is how quickly and effectively it establishes its setting. It's constantly in action, with a ton of extras, and nearly filled to the brim with people. There are a lot of scenes of just the criminals and the officers who are too busy to control all of them at once. While some of it is a bit disorientating, it's better that way than to handhold the audience.
Easily the worst part of this episode is that most of the characters take a back seat to Furillo and are purely defined by one or two traits. The aforementioned Esterhaus is mostly established as having a teenage girlfriend, which is a sign of the times I suspect, but still creepy. Michael Conrad comes off as a lovable grandpa, which makes the fact that he's dating a teenager all the more wrong.
Detective Mick Belker is defined by one thing: insanity or perceived insanity. Bruce Weitz plays him way over the top, but it kind of works anyway. He's for some reason extremely tempted to bite a felon and actually does in another case. On the other hand, he does spot a pickpocketer so he seems good at his job. It's amazing how much characters can get away with the audience if they are good at their job. He's poorly defined so far, but you could do worse than insane and competent.
Hunter gets defined by one trait: overaggressive. He's a comic relief at this point in the run, but he's problematic to me because he seems ridiculously incompetent. So with a room full of hostages, he just wants to go guns a blazing? What? I'm not too worried yet, because hello one episode, but Hunter does not seem like an actual human being the way he acts. So far he seems clinically insane, which would be a problem.
There's Detective JD Larue, whose one trait is horny. He tries to hit on the public defender, Joyce Davenport, to hilarious results. He seems pretty confident in himself and I can't tell if he's a successful womanizer or not, because he comes on way too strongly to Davenport. Detective Neal Washington, his partner, seems to play the role of funny black sidekick, which admittedly he does well.
Speaking of Davenport, she's probably the only other character well-formed from the beginning. She quickly establishes herself as awesome when she rejects Larue by pouring coffee on him. She also seems to be a persistent thorn in the side of the department because she's good at her job. She's basically an independent woman, which I suspect was something rarely seen in 1981 pop culture.
There are so many characters, some of them largely just fill up space. Officer Lucile Bates, the only female officer or detective, gets nothing to do yet. Lt. Ray Calletano gets plenty of screentime, but he's nothing but an annoying stereotype.
Despite both of them getting shot, neither Michael Warren or Charles Haid makes much of an impression until they get shot. (They make a stronger impression in episode two) I liked how both of them defused the situation when the mad black wife threatened to kill her husband for cheating on her. I didn't so much like that the conclusion was that the wife needed to try harder to get her husband's affections. There's 1980s gender politics for you.
Lastly, Sgt. Henry Goldblume, played by Joe Spano, has a decent amount of lines and screentime in the first episode, but he doesn't really make an impression until episode two. He spends most of the first episode trying to deal with a hostage situation, to little effect although he's certainly not helped at all by Howard Hunter interfering. So he ends up looking good in comparison.
I can't possibly go back in time to catch the trends and the regular portrayal of groups, but Hill Street Blues most likely was ahead of its time. The cast is ethnically diverse with two black main cast members and one Hispanic one. Plus, the guest characters and extras are full of ethnic diversity to help realistically portray the setting, which it does. It seems very much in its time with its gender politics unfortunately, but I can't expect this show to age perfectly.
The acting is something I've learned to deal with in older shows. It's not bad, but I'd call it "good over-the-top acting." A good example is Weitz. Weitz is good, but through two episodes, it is absolutely shocking he was nominated six times. It's just a preference of style I guess, but I like toned-down performances rather than "in-your-face" acting. (While the main cast is good at acting, I the performances of the guest stars have me already worried the acting will be distracting.)
Unfortunately, I don't have a good context for shows in 1981. I can search them, but I can already tell you I've seen hardly any television shows from that period. So without that, all of have to go on is how it looks in 2014 and how I imagine it was in 1981. And I got to say, this show has aged really well and still would be a good show in 2014. I did not expect to immediately get drawn to it.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "Fever" - The Black Keys
2. "Middle of Nowhere" - Hot Hot Heat
3. "Get Over It" - OK Go
4. "Cold Hard Bitch" - Jet
5. "Gasoline" - Alpine
Monday, November 3, 2014
Rewind: The X-Files S2
At the end of the first season, The X-Files had disbanded the x-files. Agents Mulder and Scully were separated and the entire format of the show was in question. Sort of. Look, it was pretty obvious the show was returning to normal sooner rather than later, a fact which somewhat hurts the show. But at the same time, it seems a little much to expect the show to completely change the status quo after one season.
As opposed to the first season, which was only serialized in the sense of character growth and development, the second season is serialized much more heavily. It probably didn't hurt that the writers needed to work around Gillian Anderson's pregnancy. Unless they wrote the pregnancy into the show - and at this point in the show's run that seems unlikely - they needed to either hide her pregnancy or have her go away for a few episodes.
So hamstrung with limited options, the writers created a first six episodes worthy of the status that The X-Files has achieved. In the first episode, Fox Mulder goes through a crisis of faith and a non-believing Mulder is just weird. But it's necessary. Deep Throat had just been killed and he was removed from his pet project.
The next two episodes see Mulder on his own, without Agent Scully. Mulder does his best to contact Scully and it's hard not to wonder at the time of watching these episodes, how they could possibly maintain the show without getting them together. These episodes suffer ever so slightly from the diminished presence of Anderson. It's a necessary evil to reduce her screen time rather than explain her pregnancy (something I happen to agree with), but Anderson is just light years ahead of David Duchovny as an actor. (Unpopular opinion: I don't think Duchovny's that great of an actor. He tries to cry later in the season and its painful. He may not be a bad actor, but his range is certainly limited)
The diminished presence continues for Scully, but they add a new player to the game in the fourth episode: Alex Krycek. As played by Nicholas Lea, he seems like a by-the-book, earnest employee with strong ideals. Instead, he's a badass killer, spying on Mulder. I wish there could be more of an arc with Krycek and Mulder as partners, played nearly completely straight. The show reveals much too quickly that Krycek is a bad guy.
Nonetheless, we get what we get and what we get is still very good. Not hurting the show is good mysteries independent of what's happening with Mulder. A sleepless man goes around murdering his Vietnam buddies for what they did in Vietnam and thanks to Tony Todd, it's freaky. Then Duane Barry, a former FBI agent who was abducted, goes kind of crazy and holds a travel agency hostage.
At first, Barry seems to want to bring his psychiatrist back to the aliens, because if he finds a replacement, they won't want Barry anymore. Or so the theory goes. He changes his plans when he's captured by escaping and kidnapping Scully instead. Barry's kind of clearly crazy, but he also seems to have been genuinely captured by aliens and the ambiguity works in the episode's favor.
All of these episodes reveal the true potential of The X-Files, which makes the next few episodes disappointing. The jump down in quality from "Ascension" to "3" is enormous. Scully returns quickly in "One Breath" somewhat abruptly, but I'm not complaining if "3" is any indication of what The X-Files looks like in Anderson's absence.
At this point, the show returns to the old structure with Mulder and Scully visiting monsters-of-the-week. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, although they are unquestionably inferior to the beginning of the season. The positive and negative thing about MOTW for The X-Files is that usually it's still entertaining television, but normally it doesn't exceed anything approaching greatness. That is until "Die Hand die Verletz," which is awesome. Mulder and Scully are mostly just witnesses to what's happening and don't really have much effect on what's happening, but the story is so great it doesn't matter.
In this whole season I was impressed by the show's added emphasis on Mulder and Scully's history. Scully's sister is introduced and I instantly wanted to see more of her in this show. Similarly, while Mulder's sister isn't exactly his actual sister, the two-parter "Colony" and "End Game" lets us see the relationship that motivated Mulder's career path. The ending result is a bit frustrating and seems largely symptomatic of the show's path - heroes come close to uncovering a mystery only to not end up making any ground up at all - but it's not worrisome yet.
Plus, making Mulder's father in cahoots with the federal government goes a long way towards explaining why he's allowed to do everything he does. Plus, it makes the quest more personal for Mulder. And it's always better to make a threat more personal than unknown, generally speaking - at least if it's well done.
Like the middle of the season, after "End Game" the show mostly goes back to the MOTW format. But for whatever reason, these episodes are just better. "Humbug" is from the acclaimed Darin Morgan, who's got an amazing reputation purely on the basis of six television episodes. This is the first one I've seen and it's certainly off-the-wall and creative. Looking forward to his next The X-Files episode personally.
"F Emasculata" is related to the entire mythology in a way and it's another very strong episode. "Soft Light" is intriguing and was Vince Gilligan's first script on the show. I've read that Gilligan was the most consistent X-Files writer in later seasons so I'll be looking for his credit in the future.
Lastly, the show ends on a major cliffhanger with Mulder in an underground something with a bunch of dead alien bodies. Oh yeah and he's not found and the place is burned. Previous to this we saw Mulder see no openings so the cliffhanger is pretty effective at making you wonder what the fuck exactly happened and how will Mulder come out alive. (I suppose this is a benefit of having a character you know you won't die. If it was an expendable character, there would be a threat of death but it'd feel like a cheat if they made it alive. Whereas in this instance, it's kind of understood he'll survive.)
The X-Files second season is a definite improvement over the first season. There's more genuinely great episodes, less outright stinkers, and more serialization making it worth it to watch it in order. The show starts and finishes the show as good as it has ever been and the mythology still makes a certain amount of sense - in that it doesn't seem overly convoluted and ridiculous. I'm hoping that the third season can continue that momentum.
Grade: A-
Playlist
1. "Seconds" - Ghost Loft
2. "Mother & Father" - Broods
3. "Superstar" - Sonic Youth
4. "Soul Food" - Logic
5. "Changing" - Airborne Toxic
As opposed to the first season, which was only serialized in the sense of character growth and development, the second season is serialized much more heavily. It probably didn't hurt that the writers needed to work around Gillian Anderson's pregnancy. Unless they wrote the pregnancy into the show - and at this point in the show's run that seems unlikely - they needed to either hide her pregnancy or have her go away for a few episodes.
So hamstrung with limited options, the writers created a first six episodes worthy of the status that The X-Files has achieved. In the first episode, Fox Mulder goes through a crisis of faith and a non-believing Mulder is just weird. But it's necessary. Deep Throat had just been killed and he was removed from his pet project.
The next two episodes see Mulder on his own, without Agent Scully. Mulder does his best to contact Scully and it's hard not to wonder at the time of watching these episodes, how they could possibly maintain the show without getting them together. These episodes suffer ever so slightly from the diminished presence of Anderson. It's a necessary evil to reduce her screen time rather than explain her pregnancy (something I happen to agree with), but Anderson is just light years ahead of David Duchovny as an actor. (Unpopular opinion: I don't think Duchovny's that great of an actor. He tries to cry later in the season and its painful. He may not be a bad actor, but his range is certainly limited)
The diminished presence continues for Scully, but they add a new player to the game in the fourth episode: Alex Krycek. As played by Nicholas Lea, he seems like a by-the-book, earnest employee with strong ideals. Instead, he's a badass killer, spying on Mulder. I wish there could be more of an arc with Krycek and Mulder as partners, played nearly completely straight. The show reveals much too quickly that Krycek is a bad guy.
Nonetheless, we get what we get and what we get is still very good. Not hurting the show is good mysteries independent of what's happening with Mulder. A sleepless man goes around murdering his Vietnam buddies for what they did in Vietnam and thanks to Tony Todd, it's freaky. Then Duane Barry, a former FBI agent who was abducted, goes kind of crazy and holds a travel agency hostage.
At first, Barry seems to want to bring his psychiatrist back to the aliens, because if he finds a replacement, they won't want Barry anymore. Or so the theory goes. He changes his plans when he's captured by escaping and kidnapping Scully instead. Barry's kind of clearly crazy, but he also seems to have been genuinely captured by aliens and the ambiguity works in the episode's favor.
All of these episodes reveal the true potential of The X-Files, which makes the next few episodes disappointing. The jump down in quality from "Ascension" to "3" is enormous. Scully returns quickly in "One Breath" somewhat abruptly, but I'm not complaining if "3" is any indication of what The X-Files looks like in Anderson's absence.
At this point, the show returns to the old structure with Mulder and Scully visiting monsters-of-the-week. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, although they are unquestionably inferior to the beginning of the season. The positive and negative thing about MOTW for The X-Files is that usually it's still entertaining television, but normally it doesn't exceed anything approaching greatness. That is until "Die Hand die Verletz," which is awesome. Mulder and Scully are mostly just witnesses to what's happening and don't really have much effect on what's happening, but the story is so great it doesn't matter.
In this whole season I was impressed by the show's added emphasis on Mulder and Scully's history. Scully's sister is introduced and I instantly wanted to see more of her in this show. Similarly, while Mulder's sister isn't exactly his actual sister, the two-parter "Colony" and "End Game" lets us see the relationship that motivated Mulder's career path. The ending result is a bit frustrating and seems largely symptomatic of the show's path - heroes come close to uncovering a mystery only to not end up making any ground up at all - but it's not worrisome yet.
Plus, making Mulder's father in cahoots with the federal government goes a long way towards explaining why he's allowed to do everything he does. Plus, it makes the quest more personal for Mulder. And it's always better to make a threat more personal than unknown, generally speaking - at least if it's well done.
Like the middle of the season, after "End Game" the show mostly goes back to the MOTW format. But for whatever reason, these episodes are just better. "Humbug" is from the acclaimed Darin Morgan, who's got an amazing reputation purely on the basis of six television episodes. This is the first one I've seen and it's certainly off-the-wall and creative. Looking forward to his next The X-Files episode personally.
"F Emasculata" is related to the entire mythology in a way and it's another very strong episode. "Soft Light" is intriguing and was Vince Gilligan's first script on the show. I've read that Gilligan was the most consistent X-Files writer in later seasons so I'll be looking for his credit in the future.
Lastly, the show ends on a major cliffhanger with Mulder in an underground something with a bunch of dead alien bodies. Oh yeah and he's not found and the place is burned. Previous to this we saw Mulder see no openings so the cliffhanger is pretty effective at making you wonder what the fuck exactly happened and how will Mulder come out alive. (I suppose this is a benefit of having a character you know you won't die. If it was an expendable character, there would be a threat of death but it'd feel like a cheat if they made it alive. Whereas in this instance, it's kind of understood he'll survive.)
The X-Files second season is a definite improvement over the first season. There's more genuinely great episodes, less outright stinkers, and more serialization making it worth it to watch it in order. The show starts and finishes the show as good as it has ever been and the mythology still makes a certain amount of sense - in that it doesn't seem overly convoluted and ridiculous. I'm hoping that the third season can continue that momentum.
Grade: A-
Playlist
1. "Seconds" - Ghost Loft
2. "Mother & Father" - Broods
3. "Superstar" - Sonic Youth
4. "Soul Food" - Logic
5. "Changing" - Airborne Toxic
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Fall Pilots Part 3
Part 1
Part 2
Today, I'm review two sitcoms based off annoying premises and one show based off a superhero. So that's apparently not a great start. However, the superhero show is genuinely good and the annoying premise pilots aren't as bad as you'd expect!
The Flash
Well, this show is fun. I'll admit I'm kind of burned out on the superheroes, a trend that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. But The Flash has a different tone than the other superhero shows. Besides Nolan's films and The Avengers, the films are at best mediocre and worst boring. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is simply uninteresting. Gotham doesn't really know what it's doing. (I have not seen Arrow, which may be the exception and I've in fact heard it is)
Welcome to The Flash. This show is immediately good. The pilot gives us the origin story plus a villain plus introduces us to all the characters so obviously this episode is rushed. But it sure as hell acknowledges how fun being The Flash would be. Grant Gustin is well-cast as the lead playing The Flash in a "Wow is this really happening to me? Awesome" way. Which not enough superhero projects do because the seems like the natural response.
The early returns on the supporting cast are promising. Law and Order vet Jesse L. Martin has something not many actors can claim about their roles and that is 10 years experience of being a cop on TV. Tom Cavanagh is good as the genius scientist who probably is hiding something. And I already like both Danielle Panabaker and Carlos Valdes as the scientists who presumably will help Flash along the way.
Another cool thing is that the origin story seems to be directly tied to how exactly so many supernatural villains will pop up in the future. He got struck by lightning, but other people were also affected including the villain this week. Overall, I'd highly recommend this show even to anybody feeling burnt out by superhero shows.
Verdict: Absolutely watch
Grade: A-
Marry Me
Unfortunately, a sitcom nowadays a sitcom needs to have some sort of hook to its pilot to distinguish itself from every other sitcom. This one, for mostly worse, is that the two leads cannot seem to get engaged to each other. Like both want to get married, but hey something keeps getting in the way! Because that's how life works I guess. (To be fair, it's based on creator David Caspe and Casey Wilson's attempts in real life so I guess it does work like that).
With that said, I really liked this show. Casey Wilson is the star of the pilot making a character who demands to be married now likable. She basically screams at Jake (Ken Marino) for a solid three minutes while he's down on one knee trying to propose to her. She's screaming about how she can't believed he hasn't proposed yet. So you can see the challenge, but Wilson somehow pulls it off.
Ken Marino isn't playing a Ken Marino character, which is strange. I'm sure he'll get crazier as the show goes on, but in this first episode he's normal. There's also Tim Meadows in this as Wilson's gay dad (she has two gay dads). Meadows doesn't get anything to do in the pilot, but he's IN this show so there's a reason worth watching in the future. The show looks promising.
Grade - B+
Verdict: Watch
Selfie
I did not expect to be reviewing this show, but next thing I know I'm watching an episode of Selfie. I mistakenly watched the third episode of this show instead of the pilot. I really don't think that makes much of a difference, and in fact could help a show with a premise like this.
I'm not sure I can get into this show. For one, I just don't find it all that funny. Then there's the obvious fact that this show will be sooo dated in 10 years. I suppose that's an invalid criticism of a show in the present, but it's always in the back of my mind with most of the jokes. The show almost survives solely on the acting ability of Karen Gillan and John Cho, but I'll be cautiously waiting for this show to get good - if that ever happens - instead of watching it while it airs.
But this show is nowhere near as bad as you would expect gathering from the title so there's that.
Grade - C+
Verdict: Safely skip
Playlist
1. "Forgive & Forget" - The Kooks
2. "Fame" - David Bowie
3. "Run the Jewels" - Run the Jewels
4. "A Hard Day's Night" - The Beatles
5. "Fantasy" - Breakbot feat. Ruckazoid
Part 2
Today, I'm review two sitcoms based off annoying premises and one show based off a superhero. So that's apparently not a great start. However, the superhero show is genuinely good and the annoying premise pilots aren't as bad as you'd expect!
The Flash
Well, this show is fun. I'll admit I'm kind of burned out on the superheroes, a trend that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. But The Flash has a different tone than the other superhero shows. Besides Nolan's films and The Avengers, the films are at best mediocre and worst boring. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is simply uninteresting. Gotham doesn't really know what it's doing. (I have not seen Arrow, which may be the exception and I've in fact heard it is)
Welcome to The Flash. This show is immediately good. The pilot gives us the origin story plus a villain plus introduces us to all the characters so obviously this episode is rushed. But it sure as hell acknowledges how fun being The Flash would be. Grant Gustin is well-cast as the lead playing The Flash in a "Wow is this really happening to me? Awesome" way. Which not enough superhero projects do because the seems like the natural response.
The early returns on the supporting cast are promising. Law and Order vet Jesse L. Martin has something not many actors can claim about their roles and that is 10 years experience of being a cop on TV. Tom Cavanagh is good as the genius scientist who probably is hiding something. And I already like both Danielle Panabaker and Carlos Valdes as the scientists who presumably will help Flash along the way.
Another cool thing is that the origin story seems to be directly tied to how exactly so many supernatural villains will pop up in the future. He got struck by lightning, but other people were also affected including the villain this week. Overall, I'd highly recommend this show even to anybody feeling burnt out by superhero shows.
Verdict: Absolutely watch
Grade: A-
Marry Me
Unfortunately, a sitcom nowadays a sitcom needs to have some sort of hook to its pilot to distinguish itself from every other sitcom. This one, for mostly worse, is that the two leads cannot seem to get engaged to each other. Like both want to get married, but hey something keeps getting in the way! Because that's how life works I guess. (To be fair, it's based on creator David Caspe and Casey Wilson's attempts in real life so I guess it does work like that).
With that said, I really liked this show. Casey Wilson is the star of the pilot making a character who demands to be married now likable. She basically screams at Jake (Ken Marino) for a solid three minutes while he's down on one knee trying to propose to her. She's screaming about how she can't believed he hasn't proposed yet. So you can see the challenge, but Wilson somehow pulls it off.
Ken Marino isn't playing a Ken Marino character, which is strange. I'm sure he'll get crazier as the show goes on, but in this first episode he's normal. There's also Tim Meadows in this as Wilson's gay dad (she has two gay dads). Meadows doesn't get anything to do in the pilot, but he's IN this show so there's a reason worth watching in the future. The show looks promising.
Grade - B+
Verdict: Watch
Selfie
I did not expect to be reviewing this show, but next thing I know I'm watching an episode of Selfie. I mistakenly watched the third episode of this show instead of the pilot. I really don't think that makes much of a difference, and in fact could help a show with a premise like this.
I'm not sure I can get into this show. For one, I just don't find it all that funny. Then there's the obvious fact that this show will be sooo dated in 10 years. I suppose that's an invalid criticism of a show in the present, but it's always in the back of my mind with most of the jokes. The show almost survives solely on the acting ability of Karen Gillan and John Cho, but I'll be cautiously waiting for this show to get good - if that ever happens - instead of watching it while it airs.
But this show is nowhere near as bad as you would expect gathering from the title so there's that.
Grade - C+
Verdict: Safely skip
Playlist
1. "Forgive & Forget" - The Kooks
2. "Fame" - David Bowie
3. "Run the Jewels" - Run the Jewels
4. "A Hard Day's Night" - The Beatles
5. "Fantasy" - Breakbot feat. Ruckazoid
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Rewind: The West Wing S1
I'll start this review with a necessary disclaimer: I don't like Aaron Sorkin dialogue all that much. I'm not really a fan of the style personally. I couldn't pinpoint exactly what it is that annoys me: the overly fast talking, the constant repeating of words, and the nearly always moving camera. I guess I don't mind the fast talking really: I mean I've never seen people talk so fast in my life, but given the setting I can accept that. The camera usually works and is creative, although sometimes I consider it a bit of a distraction.
There's something about how he constantly has characters saying something, the opposing character repeating that line, and then the original character repeating it back and so on in some cases. Who does that? It probably wouldn't bother me as much if he didn't use it - oh - every single episode. I'm not even sure I'm exaggerating. So anyway, I felt it necessary to point out that I'm not really an Aaron Sorkin fan.
I feel the same way about The West Wing's first season as I did about Sports Night: a weird state of neither disliking a show or really liking it that much. Both shows had great casts and good writing that I nonetheless had to struggle to watch. It's not that I disliked the episodes - I just had very little desire to watch a new episode. At the end of the episode, I'd leave pleased, but not overly so and with little desire to watch the next one.
Even as I say that, I can also say there is not a single bad episode in the first season. I would argue the show didn't really surpass it's B+ to B range - and I'm positive people would disagree with me on this - until the latter half of the season. On episode nineteen, I was slightly converted to this show and every successive episode seem to build on that. The finale had a hell of a twist and I could leave the first season optimistic as I've ever been about the show.
The West Wing is both made for me and not made for me at all. In terms of politics, I probably hold every viewpoint that the Bartlett administration does. However, I'm also not into politics. I'm not apathetic, but averse to politics in general. I can't honestly follow along if I don't believe a word anybody is trying to sell me. So what I'm saying is that I'm not passionate about politics which seems to be helpful in loving this show.
You're probably wondering why I kept watching the show if I couldn't muster up any feelings about it for the longest time. The answer is simple: the cast is phenomenal. It's difficult to single out any one performer as pretty much all of them are fantastic. Bradley Whitford is probably the break-out star of the first season. But that's being a little unfair to Rob Lowe, who basically reinvented his career with The West Wing... but that's being unfair to Martin Sheen and well you get the idea.
Don't think I forgot about John Spencer or Allison Janney, who both create fully-formed sympathetic character. Richard Schiff is sort of underrated among this cast as his character first appears one-note, but soon becomes an actual character. Lest I forget, Dule Hill is extremely underutilized, but when he does get a noteworthy scene, he knocks it out of the park. (I'm a Psych fan so perhaps I'm biased on this one)
The one exception to this wonderful cast is Moira Kelly, who I'm not sure is to blame. She's poorly written at first, then underwritten, and by the end basically disappears. Sorkin has a lot of strengths as a writer, but writing women is not one of them. Speaking of which, by far my least favorite part of this show is the potential, hinted, or actual romances. Sorkin is TERRIBLE at writing those scenes. I'm probably alone on this, but I don't like the hinting of a potential relationship between Josh and Donna. But since it's really obvious it's going to happen, I guess I better just deal with it or hope it gets better.
Lastly, for those of you wondering, I did happen to continue onto the next season for just the two-parter and if that episode is any indication, the second season will get a way better outlook from myself. Because that episode is the best in the show's run so far in my viewing.
I'll preemptively explain my grade and say that my feelings toward the first eighteen episodes would warrant a C+, but I'd push that up to a B purely because of the acting and writing. The last four episodes naturally elevated that grade. Which is to say that this was an above average season of television that took a little longer than normal to click for me.
Grade - B+
Playlist
1. "14th of July" - Shout Out Louds
2. "Hunger of the Pine" - alt-J
3. "Get Me Golden" - Terraplane Sun
4. "Astronomy (8th Light)" - Black Star
5. "She Bad" - Bad Rabbits
There's something about how he constantly has characters saying something, the opposing character repeating that line, and then the original character repeating it back and so on in some cases. Who does that? It probably wouldn't bother me as much if he didn't use it - oh - every single episode. I'm not even sure I'm exaggerating. So anyway, I felt it necessary to point out that I'm not really an Aaron Sorkin fan.
I feel the same way about The West Wing's first season as I did about Sports Night: a weird state of neither disliking a show or really liking it that much. Both shows had great casts and good writing that I nonetheless had to struggle to watch. It's not that I disliked the episodes - I just had very little desire to watch a new episode. At the end of the episode, I'd leave pleased, but not overly so and with little desire to watch the next one.
Even as I say that, I can also say there is not a single bad episode in the first season. I would argue the show didn't really surpass it's B+ to B range - and I'm positive people would disagree with me on this - until the latter half of the season. On episode nineteen, I was slightly converted to this show and every successive episode seem to build on that. The finale had a hell of a twist and I could leave the first season optimistic as I've ever been about the show.
The West Wing is both made for me and not made for me at all. In terms of politics, I probably hold every viewpoint that the Bartlett administration does. However, I'm also not into politics. I'm not apathetic, but averse to politics in general. I can't honestly follow along if I don't believe a word anybody is trying to sell me. So what I'm saying is that I'm not passionate about politics which seems to be helpful in loving this show.
You're probably wondering why I kept watching the show if I couldn't muster up any feelings about it for the longest time. The answer is simple: the cast is phenomenal. It's difficult to single out any one performer as pretty much all of them are fantastic. Bradley Whitford is probably the break-out star of the first season. But that's being a little unfair to Rob Lowe, who basically reinvented his career with The West Wing... but that's being unfair to Martin Sheen and well you get the idea.
Don't think I forgot about John Spencer or Allison Janney, who both create fully-formed sympathetic character. Richard Schiff is sort of underrated among this cast as his character first appears one-note, but soon becomes an actual character. Lest I forget, Dule Hill is extremely underutilized, but when he does get a noteworthy scene, he knocks it out of the park. (I'm a Psych fan so perhaps I'm biased on this one)
The one exception to this wonderful cast is Moira Kelly, who I'm not sure is to blame. She's poorly written at first, then underwritten, and by the end basically disappears. Sorkin has a lot of strengths as a writer, but writing women is not one of them. Speaking of which, by far my least favorite part of this show is the potential, hinted, or actual romances. Sorkin is TERRIBLE at writing those scenes. I'm probably alone on this, but I don't like the hinting of a potential relationship between Josh and Donna. But since it's really obvious it's going to happen, I guess I better just deal with it or hope it gets better.
Lastly, for those of you wondering, I did happen to continue onto the next season for just the two-parter and if that episode is any indication, the second season will get a way better outlook from myself. Because that episode is the best in the show's run so far in my viewing.
I'll preemptively explain my grade and say that my feelings toward the first eighteen episodes would warrant a C+, but I'd push that up to a B purely because of the acting and writing. The last four episodes naturally elevated that grade. Which is to say that this was an above average season of television that took a little longer than normal to click for me.
Grade - B+
Playlist
1. "14th of July" - Shout Out Louds
2. "Hunger of the Pine" - alt-J
3. "Get Me Golden" - Terraplane Sun
4. "Astronomy (8th Light)" - Black Star
5. "She Bad" - Bad Rabbits
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)