The Americans: Comrades

The Americans is back!  I'm going to write episode reviews for this season of The Americans.  I strongly suspect this is the next great television drama.  I don't know if it'll be of the level of Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, but it has that potential.  And so far so good if the first episode is any indication.  (Obviously spoilers to follow)

To start this season, it appears Elizabeth has been in Russia recovering for some, undetermined amount of time.  Phillip has been left to take control of the household and complete missions.  I'm not sure how much time passed, but I'm a little confused as to how he could both pretend to be married and raise his kids so it couldn't have been THAT long.

Nonetheless, it looks like less time will be spent on the marriage of the Jennings.  It seems like this season will focus more on their relationship with their kids.  So the pretty well-acted kids get more of a featured spotlight I presume in this season.  I'm intrigued and have seen enough good acting from the two to not worry.

To start the episode, Phillip poses as a Texas, country-loving American to two Middle Eastern men with similar interests in America.  It seems these two men hate the KGB and are working with Americans to help take them down.  But unfortunately, this trusting, kind man is Phillip so they get killed.

I strongly suspect Phillip was supposed to kill one of them, and leave the other to send a message.  But the man takes off his identity and he's forced to kill both.  And he's forced to kill an innocent bystander unfortunately.  I wish they would have taken more time to let his actions stew inside of him.  I understand these are agents, but I doubt they are forced to kill completely innocent people that often.  And also, we are supposed to sympathize with them!  So if they feel guilty of killing an innocent guy, it's cool with me.

To help propel this season's main storyline, we are introduced to another undercover KGB couple with kids.  I never caught their names (I didn't try to be honest), but they weren't necessarily important to know, just the idea of them.  They are basically a reflection of the Jennings in every way.

The creation of this KGB couple is brilliant writing in more ways than one.  For one, they show the price of being an undercover agent with a family.  The stark reality of what could possibly happen to not only them, but their kids.  They are putting their kids' lives in danger.  The promising daughter gets killed along with her parents.  And their son walks into that image of his three dead family members.  That scene was as painful to watch.  I know I'll be thinking about that for a few days.  I'm guessing Phillip saw him and desperately wanted to tell him to not go in there and he sprinted the fuck out of there so he didn't have to hear him scream.  I don't blame him.  That scream was pretty effective.

It's also brilliant because it separates the two right when it seems things are going smoothly.  They don't know if the FBI is involved or if they are discovered.  We know they aren't because this is the first episode of this season and we haven't seen anything said on the FBI front.  But they don't.  So Phillip has to back to Martha and get the information.  I'm still wondering how the hell he's going to juggle two lives at once.

Paige is still searching for information on her parents meanwhile.  This episode she can't find anything but apparently finds her parents 69'ing.  Oh my, between the image of walking into my dead family and this, this is not a good episode for Gabe.  A kid walks into a room with her parents having sex and guess what?  It's not even close to the most scarring moment for a teenager on this show.  Oh and also this clues the Jennings into the fact that Paige might be looking at the two closely.

On the FBI agent side of things, Stan Beeman is stuck between Nina and Sandra.  The latter two are season regulars so this is not a resolution he's likely to solve.  Sandra seems open to getting back together since she invited him to the movies.  She was crying at the movie they watched unlike Nina.  Stan looks disappointed though since he wanted to make Nina cry.  He seems to want Nina more than he wants his wife.  Maybe Stan is suspicious that Nina won't cry?  The double agent thing will add layers to each scene the two of them are together.  (Also Nina strategically wants Stan to say "I love you" first.  The person who says it first would seem to be more vulnerable at that moment so it makes sense that it was she seeks)

I think I caught everything.  I'm afraid I missed something so feel free to comment or tweet at me something I might have missed or misinterpreted.  I'm excited The Americans is back and as good as ever!  I'll enjoy following this season with you all.

The Sopranos: Commendatori

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.

Past Episodes
Season 1
Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist's Office
Do Not Resuscitate
Toodle Fucking-Doo

In an episode where Tony Soprano takes a trip to Italy, the best parts of the episode remain in Jersey.  The Italy parts feel slow, somewhat useless, and repetitive.  The Jersey parts are vintage Sopranos with many of the season-long arcs being pushed forward in addition to extremely compelling television.  It's a bit jarring when they switch back-and-forth since the quality is lopsided.  I don't think the Italy parts are even that bad in a vacuum, but they definitely pale in comparison to the Jersey scenes.

There's a lot of good things in this episode, but ultimately it feels slow even for The Sopranos.  Tony takes a trip to Italy to sell cars and then negotiates for Furio to come to America with him.  Angie Bonpenserio wants to leave Big Pussy, who's obviously affected by being a rat so much that he essentially ignores his wife.  And... that's pretty much it.

The most interesting character in this episode is Carmela, who goes from awful person to sympathetic and trapped.  She gossips about Angie after she said she thought about killing herself at a restaurant.  It's a different culture, clearly, but if someone shared that with me, I would keep that to myself.  Then, she encourages Angie to stay with Big Pussy being a generally unhelpful friend because she doesn't want Angie to escape while she stays with Tony.  Maybe she wants Angie to actually stay because the Church doesn't think highly of divorce, but I think she just wants to make herself feel better about her own situation.  (This is possibly influenced by later seasons where she is clearly jealous of Angie making it on her own.)

However, in that dinner conversation, Angie spoke about how when Big Pussy got home after disappearing, she wanted to vomit.  In that last scene in the episode, Tony comes home from Italy and Edie Falco lets the audience know that exact thing is happening to her.  It's a pretty sad and depressing scene.

Watching this episode now, Angie's story is now inspirational because of where she ends up compared to where she is in this episode.  Holy cow, those are two completely different people.  She is trapped in a life she doesn't want to be in or can escape.  Even the women make fun of her for it and encourage her to not get divorced.  That's a terrible position to be in.  And she escapes about as well as you can on this show.

Big Pussy on the other hand shows just how far he's wiling to go to not get killed.  He gets spotted by an Elvis impersonator at a Party City outside of Jersey.  He freaks out over this even though it'll probably lead to nothing.  But he wants to be sure it won't lead to anything so he goes to his house and beats him to death.  In case ratting on his friends wasn't enough information for us, Big Pussy has no will to either die or go to prison and will do just about anything to make sure that doesn't happen.

The episode opens with Tony and company trying to watch The Godfather II on an apparently broken DVD player that they illegally obtained.  That's an appropriate selection for a couple reasons.  One it helps set-up that this glorified life that they live is not as good as it seems.  These guys will never attain life as it was portrayed in The Godfather.  Also, Paulie mentions that his favorite scene is "I knew it was you Fredo" which parallels Big Pussy's season-long arc in a way.

While the Italy portion was lacking, Paulie never failed to be hilarious.  He is not respected even a little by the Italians.  He is seen as a pig and with little class (rightfully so to be perfectly fair).  Paulie sees an idealized mob that he likes to think he is apart of and that idealized mob looks down on him.  Then Chris talks about having to go visit certain places and then he just stays in his room and gets high the whole time.  These guys are pretty pathetic.  And yet when they get back, they act like they had a great time!

When I say this episode is repetitive, it's mostly because the show has gone to this well many times.  The guys go to a place where they are out-of-place and they stick out like a sore thumb.  Most of these are Chris and Hollywood stories, but this is almost the same.  I've never particularly liked these stories that much, because they are much less interesting than the rest of the show.

Meanwhile, Tony has to deal with a woman boss, something he's not comfortable with.  He's not willing to have sex with a business associate, much as he wants to.  However, she proves savvy and is able to get the better end of a business deal, possibly because she's a woman (in fact it's probable).  Tony may not think a woman boss is a good idea, and yet inadvertently he helps prove that a woman boss could actually use the fact that she's a woman to her advantage.

Strangely (in my opinion at least), this episode was written by David Chase.  It makes a certain amount of sense in that Chase really enjoyed showing how pathetic these guys are and the Italy scenes definitely achieve that.  Not to mention, the Jersey scenes, like I said, are fantastic.  I just wouldn't expect a below average Sopranos episode to be written by the creator.

It was directed by Tim Van Patten, a Sopranos regular.  He directed 20 episodes in this show's run.  When you see these two guys team up, you really would expect a better episode.  However, it makes sense because this is only Van Patten's second episode in the series and it's not clear he had quite became the favorite for big episodes.

This was kind of an unconventional Sopranos episode and it was basically the tale of two cities.  Perhaps the Italy scenes would look a lot better if it wasn't for how good the Jersey scenes were.  I'll never know and can only grade accordingly.

Grade - B+

Deaths
The Elvis impersonater

Quotes
"Fucking nosy!  Eat your manicotti!" -

"Ton, you give this guy a golf club, he'll probably try to fuck it." - Paulie

"And you thought the Germans were classless pieces of shit." - Random Italian guy

"Well I'll be dipped in shit." - Tony

"You know what the Church says about divorce." - Carmela to Angie

"There ya go.  Who said you're not a great conversationalist.  Fuckin twat (mutters under breath)" Ah Paulie

Playlist (First three are from this episode)
1. "Con Te Partiro" - Andrea Bocelli
2. "Blood is Thicker than Water" - Wyclef Jean ft. G&B

3. "Certamente" - Madreblu
4. "The Chain" - Amanda Alexander (I discovered this like an hour ago)
5. "Mind of a Beast" - The Glitch Mob

House of Cards: S2 Review

Let's ignore the merits of this particular television show for a moment.  There's not a doubt in my mind that House of Cards is a show that is ill-suited for binge-watching.  The second season takes place over a lengthy period of time, which is fine.  The show gives little indication of how much time has taken place from episode-to-episode, which is also fine.  But watching several months go by in a couple days is not really fine to me.  It's confusing.  It feels unnaturally rushed when you binge-watch.  Watching these episodes at a leisurely pace would be much preferred by me.

My original intention for this show was to watch the entirety of the show and review it by Thursday.  However, I watched a whopping seven episodes in one day and felt overwhelmed and like I missed far too many things.  Again, I don't blame the show for that, but it follows the conventions of your regular television program by having tightly-contained stories in each episode.  Some shows are meant to binge-watched such as Breaking Bad or the far more superior Netflix program Orange is the New Black.  House of Cards just isn't.  (The beauty of Netflix is that you can watch whatever pace you want, however I feel most will choose to binge-watch unfortunately)

With that complaint out of the way, I'll have to compliment the show on having about as perfect as a premiere episode as this show is capable of in my opinion.  The show neatly tied up two storylines from the first season that didn't really have anywhere else to go.  Zoe Barnes had reached her expiration date as a viable, interesting character a while back so her death is a gain for the show in my opinion, not a loss.  It had Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright owning people in their own evil, despicable way - pretty much the reason to watch this show.  And the ending with Spacey talking to the camera - it either really works for you or it doesn't at all, and it really works for me.  Spacey is one of those actors who can deliver extremely cheesy lines and sell the hell out of them.

The show's strong points remain whenever it's about politics.  Whether it's Frank Underwood's attempts to undermine Raymond Tusk's counsel, get his choice for WHIP leader elected, or manipulate his way into situations, it's fun to watch, if not always realistic.  My favorite scene may just be the scene where the two parties battle it out to have a quorum in session.  (I don't think the vice president has near as much power as the show makes it out to be, but alas that's a fairly easy thing to accept on this show).

On the other hand, pretty much anything not about politics is pretty weak and boring.  Lucas Goodwin trying to incriminate Frank Underwood?  Not only have we been there before, but they take this story in a weird, ridiculous place.  And through seven episodes, I'm still not sure why they are spending so much time on Rachel, the ex-prostitute who enticed Peter Russo back into drugs before his death.

I still think the writing on this show is subpar.  They know their politics - I assume - and they manage to make it very interesting.  But I don't really find myself that invested in any character not played by Kevin Spacey.  (I sort of care about Rachel, but her story is currently so irrelevant and disconnected that it barely counts).  And honestly Spacey says a lot of stupid lines that only pass because Spacey is the one delivering them.

The acting in this show remains excellent.  If you haven't noticed, I think Spacey is wonderful.  While my position on Claire Underwood as a character is ambivalent, Robin Wright is not the reason for that.  Newcomer to the show Molly Parker plays Jackie Sharp as a cold and calculating politician.  And in the few scenes he's in, John Scurti plays the same type of character he did in Rescue Me, but that is not a complaint.

My position on this show hasn't changed from the end of the first season.  It's not a great show, but it's certainly an entertaining one most of the time.  It's remarkably consistent so if you liked the first season, the chances are you will probably like the second season.  That said, I wasn't that high on the first season in the first place and I tend to consider this one of the more overrated shows that are currently airing.

This is somewhat of an incomplete review, but I will remind you that I have only seen seven episodes; I've re-watched the first four episodes to help get a better grasp on this show.  I plan to watch the rest of the season at a much slower pace, probably once a week or so.  In essence, House of Cards is pretty much the same as it has ever been: whether you consider that a good or bad thing is another matter.

Playlist
1. "Cruel City" - The Augustines
2. "Iron Pyrite"  Lemaitre
3. "It's Alright" - Bombay Bicycle Club
4. "Dark Horse" - Katy Perry ft. Juicy J
5. "Say It Ain't So" - Weezer

Star Trek: S2 Review

The more I read about Star Trek, the more fascinated I am by its history.  This may be the only show whose history is vastly more entertaining than most of their episodes.  Through reading about the show, I read a general consensus that the first season is the best and then it drops off somewhat significantly in later seasons while its budget was being reduced.

The show should have been cancelled after the first season, except the network had developed a new ratings method just a few years prior.  They should have been cancelled after the second season, except massive - MASSIVE - fain mail was able to get the network to concede.  However, they set the show up to fail for the third season essentially sealing its cancellation at that point.  The reduced budget will be something interesting to look for in the next season, but for this season at least I didn't notice.

I don't think the second season is noticeably worse than the first, or at least the differences are so small as to make it irrelevant.  The first season was good, but it took about half the season for it to hits its stride.  Even that good stretch had some clunkers.  Being a revolutionary television show is a tough gig.  They tried a lot of new things - too many for me to grasp because they have been ingrained into pop culture.  When you try new things though, things don't always work.  That's not really a complaint.  Think of Star Trek as a trial run for shows that came later.

I mentioned this in my first season review, but it bears repeating - in fact I'll probably say it in my third season review: this show had to write for 56 episodes in two years.  That's insane.  That's over four seasons worth of episodes of your typical cable drama nowadays.  If Star Trek was forced to cut down to 13 episodes a season, I think that it would have been a fantastic show even by today's standards.  Not only would they remove some of the lesser episodes, but they could spend more time polishing up the episodes they had.

Somehow William Shatner's acting is even more unbearable in this season.  He literally ruins this show for me.  The writing's pretty good, although laughably sexist.  The other actors are a little over the top, except for Leonard Nimoy, but they basically sell you the scenes.  Shatner on the other hand is infuriatingly terrible.  I actually looked for cases where I saw good acting for him and could find none.  But I don't even need to be paying attention to notice his bad acting.  Some people dig the line readings from Shatner, but I absolutely despise it.  And I realize that IS Star Trek, but Shatner is the only basic weakness of this show for me - ignoring 1960's attitudes - and boy it is a huge one because he is in just about every scene.

On the other hand, Nimoy is the saving grace of this show.  He has this character down pat and he can really act.  He's remarkably measured while everyone else seems to be in a stage play they overact so much.  I have found zero inconsistencies in his character throughout the show's run.  That's a credit to both Nimoy and the writing team who have seriously created one of the greatest characters of all-time.

Nothing exemplifies my opinion of acting on this show better than "Return to Tomorrow."  Shatner is at his hammiest.  Sargon "borrows" his body for a short time and the transfer scene is absolutely hilarious.  I don't think it was intended to be hilarious.  It kind of takes you out of the scene.  But then Nimoy comes to the rescue when Henoch takes over his body.  This is when you can tell he can actually act.  He instantly transforms into a different person and it's completely believable.  Nothing has held up better than Nimoy's performances.

The show built off last season's string of great episodes by having a few to start of this season.  Four off the first six episodes were genuinely still really great.  In the first episode, Spock needs to return to meet his future wife, and any Spock story thrust to the forefront of the episode I will probably love.  There's also a wonderful parallel universe storyline, a murderous intelligent probe who confuses Captain Kirk for his creator, and a guilt-stricken captain who wants to destroy the thing that killed his crew.

It's at this point that I wondered if I could unequivocally praise this season.  These were episodes I didn't have to like with reservations about a certain plot point or character.  It's probably not a coincidence that none of the stories involved Kirk and his women.  Oh how I hate those storylines.  Since I am obviously allergic to Shatner's charms, you can imagine how I feel when almost every significant woman of the week that appears turns into a girl with a high school crush.  There is so little time invested into the characters and their sole defining trait is that their inexplicably smitten by Kirk just because he gives them a sideways glance or a smile.  And when Shatner starts hitting on the females, it's cringe-worthy as hell.  It is so obvious men wrote these scenes because these blatant, inappropriate actions work every damn time.

Anyway, after "The Doomsday Machine," the season tails off a bit.  Harry Mudd makes an appearance in an ok episode, only really memorable because Harry Mudd is one of the few returning guest stars.  Spock's parents visit in another episode in an episode that is pretty good, except "women are always emotional" is a little too prominent for my tastes.  McCoy gets to be the one with a woman for once in "Friday's Child" and the results are amusing in a good way.  But the McCoy aspects are the only interesting parts of that episode.  "Obsession" has the potential to be great with Kirk questioning himself.  Of course, Kirk's irrational actions turn out to be completely justified in the most ridiculous way possible.  "Wolf in the Fold" suffers because there's never a sense that Scotty murdered anyone.  The episode with the tribbles was mildly amusing, although the episode itself is pretty average.  Anyway, episodes seven through sixteen are decidedly unimpressive and that's quite a long stretch of episodes.

Not to fear, the season gets back on its feet with "A Piece of the Action."  Once you can get past the ridiculous premise that this world copied 1920s Chicago based off a book, it's entertaining and completely different than anything the show had done.  At this point, any new episode that is radically different than its same basic formula - godlike being with a flaw, computers are evil, the merits of interfering with a foreign planet - that its welcome for me even when it doesn't work.

A fresh idea occurs in the next episode when the starship gets threatened by a giant, energy-sucking organism that is horrifying and appropriately scary in "The Immunity Syndrome."  "A Private Little War" tackles the merits of interfering with a foreign planet, but its pretty ambiguous on an easy answer (and apparently is a comment on interfering with Vietnam).  "Patterns of Force" is yet another episode about interfering with another's culture, and uh, features Nazis.  Between this and American Horror Story, I think I've had my fill of random Nazi appearances in shows where having Nazis makes no sense.

Unfortunately, the season kind of slowly simpers out with weak and/or extremely repetitive storyline.  There's an utterly ridiculous episode about some foreign country following the actual US Constitution that is taken completely at face value, a story about a computer with too much power that is entirely too predictable, an episode about the gang entering a culture that has adapted from the past very strictly, and then the finale that seems to come from a different show (because it does; it was meant as a pilot episode that didn't get picked up and they shoehorned the plot into Star Trek for some reason).

Overall, this season has nothing resembling "A City on the Edge of Forever" and that probably makes this season worse.  It also has a few downright awful episodes as well.  Despite the inconsistent quality of the episodes, the second season doesn't do anything to diminish the reputation of Star Trek in my mind (Shatner does that all on his own).

Playlist
1. "Holding on For Life" - Broken Bells
2. "Midland" - Arthur Beatrice
3. "Act Your Age" - Bliss n Eso
4. "99 Problems" - Jay-Z
5. "Loot My Body" - Man Man

American Horror Story S2 Review

*No Spoilers
*In between each paragraph is an actual quote from the season.

American Horror Story is a show which you literally have to see to believe.  In this season, there is a serial killer, the angel of death, a devil nun, a murdering Santa, Anne Frank, an exorcist, deformed mutants, and a Nazi doctor.  Oh yeah, and aliens of course.  (I'm really not kidding about any of that; that is all in this season)  Seriously, if you've never seen this show, you're probably thinking this is the worst show ever or the best show ever.

"Are you purposefully trying to make a murder baby?" - These are real quotes by the way

So, people who've never seen this show, you're not going to believe me when I say I actually liked this season for the most part.  Whether it's surprisingly emotionally affecting, hilariously awful, or bewildering, this show is always entertaining.  I don't know if I like what's going on or if I hate what's going on, but I find myself strangely entertained.  I can confirm though that you will be saying to yourself "What the fuck?" many many times.  Just go with it.

"What do you say we blow this pop stand, savage a few elves, then suck on each other, hmm?" - Delivered by Ian McShane!

American Horror Story is unlike any other show I've ever seen and probably any show I will ever see.  It's daring, it's exploitative, it's beautifully shot, it's got some of the worst dialogue ever, and it somehow gets some of the better actors out there.  It's a show that you pretty much need to watch if you are interested in television.  The first season left me confused on what to think of this show, but this season has sealed it for me.

"You must understand, these so-called Nazi Hunters are nothing but self-loathing, self-seeking, money grubbing JEWS! (Delivered by James Cromwell!)

I bet this is the type of show directors love to work on.  Every episode creates a pretty visually interesting shot.  Sometimes, the show veers to close to show-off directing - in fact, it pretty much does that every episode, but a lot of it works.  The directing pretty much reflects the entire show in general - they are swinging for the park and it's either a home run or a strikeout.  I don't think anything about this show can be described as mediocre.

"I have a rocking body and a titty full of milk, let me help you forget her." - Her being his mom of course

This show remarkably lands pretty great actors.  2-time Oscar winner Jessica Lange basically carries episodes by herself she's so good.  Yes, this show has an actress who has been nominated for six Oscars.  It also has five-time Emmy nominee Frances Conroy, Oscar-nominated and four-time Emmy nominee James Cromwell (including one for this season), Ian McShane, Chloe Sevigny, Zachary Quinto, and Joseph Fiennes.  It also has the lesser known Evan Peters and Lily Rabe who display acting talent comparable to that onslaught of respected and acclaimed actors.  I think great writing can carry mediocre actors, but the is the first time I've seen evidence that great actors can carry a bad script.  (Also, the third season has Kathy Bates and Angela Basset so I'm glad my "How the fuck did they land them?" quota will be filled for next season.)

"Slowly, show me your mossy bank" - He's referring to her vagina just to be clear - didn't want there to be any confusion.

This show is also set in the 1960s so the show can delve into issues of woman's rights, LGBT issues, the treatment of mental patients, and of course have period details.  This show isn't subtle at all so the a lot of the 1960s stuff is "HEY LOOK AT THIS IT'S FROM 1965, DO YOU GET IT?" of course, but I'm a sucker for period pieces.  Also, not particularly subtle, is the show's portrayal of how a lesbian would feel back then - but hey it doesn't really make it any less effective.

"A sexual deviant, a Mexican, and a pinhead won't get far in this storm.  I hope they drown." - This line is said by a fucking nun

Also, this show is actually a good reflection on the treatment of the mentally disabled.  It's remarkably affecting in its portrayal of the hopelessness and mistreatment that the patients suffer.  Undoubtedly, it's probably the best thing the show's ever done.  So hidden beneath the alien plotline and the mutant humans is a touching story on people losing their sanity.

"I'll have to keep you around to breast-feed that baby for at least the first year.  The health benefits are myriad." - There's no way to explain this line without spoiling, but it's even weirder in context.

I could refer to this show as good or poor television, but American Horror Story needs a different grading scale.  If I watch a poor season of American Horror Story - which I haven't yet - it's going to mean a totally different thing than if I watched a poor season of anything else.  This show is fun to watch because one moment it's good, and the next it's awful.  But my requirement for it to be good is simply for it to be interesting and for it to entertain me.  Part of the charm of this show is that even when it's bad - and it's definitely bad at some points - it's still different.  For American Horror Story to be good, it simply has to be not boring.  Well that and the good parts have to at least surpass the bad parts.

"Hey Sister, I have a cucumber in my room, but not because I was hungry." - Oh yeah, there's also a nymphomaniac in this season.

Well, thanks for reading.  I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing this.  I'm not going to recommend this show to you - I mean after this review, you're either in or you're out and that was basically my purpose of writing it this way.  You have to have a relatively high tolerance for weird shit though.  I think for my next season review, I will write in an a completely disjointed and nonsensical fashion in the spirit of this show.

Playlist
1. "Young Blood" - Sophia Ellis-Bextor
2. "Who Are We" - Switchfoot
3. "Step Masters" - Step Brothers
4. "Remurdered" - Mogwai
5. "Tracks of My Tears" - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles