American Horror Story Season 1

I don't even know how to start this post.  This show is odd.  No, that's not quite right.  Saying it's odd is like if I said Brian Wilson kind of likes attention.  No, saying it is odd is a gross understatement.

Is it good?  Hell no.  This show is disjointed, full of character inconsistencies, fake scares, and worst of all, not at all scary.  I mean it's not scary AT ALL.  

Is it enjoyable?  Hell yeah.  It's unintentionally funny (I think), it's shocking, and you can't help but keep watching what happens next.  I hesitate to recommend this show, simply because it is not a good show by traditional standards of grading television.  I mean I can't even describe the show, that's how weird it is.

I'll attempt.  There's a character named Rubber Man, who is dressed in a skin-tight black latex from head to toe.  It's some kind of weird sex thing.  But that's not the point.  There's a fucking character named Rubber Man on this show.

There's the Harmon family.  The family consists of Dr. Ben Harmon, the world's worst psychiatrist we later find out, Vivien, and their daughter, Violet.  

Connie Britton, who plays Vivien, is given almost nothing in the entire season, so I find it not surprising she left the show.  I'll sum up everything she does in the show.  She is always wanting to leave the house, and she always fails.  There's something else that happens, but I'd consider that a spoiler.  

Dr. Harmon, played by Dylan McDermott, cheated on his wife and the family moves to California for a fresh start.  The daughter is kind of an edgy girl who usually resists doing whatever her parents tell her to.  She inexplicably wants to stay in the house, because the writers need her to want to stay in the house.

The best part of this show, by far, is the history of the house.  I am compelled to figure out the history of the house.  That's the reason I tune in every time.  I want to see the murders, the history, the obvious references to famous murders.  If this show does one thing good, it's giving you a house that you can tell is haunted from the beginning and you want to figure out its history. Unfortunately, the more you figure out about the house, the less interesting the show becomes.

I chose ultimately not to do spoilers, because quite frankly, I can't take the risk that you read on past where I would indicate spoilers.  I am afraid you won't watch the show because of the spoilers or choose to watch it because of it, when those spoilers would be the reason the show is interesting.

Should you watch this show?  I'd at least suggest you watch the pilot.  It'll succeed in one of three ways.  One, you're drawn in to figuring out the history of the house.  (I'll admit no one really gives a shit what happens to the Harmons most of the show - They are the weak link).  Two, you think it's so bad, that you can't stop watching. (My experience) Three, you get to experience one of the worst pilots I have ever seen.  (I think it's one of the worst ever personally)

Whether you watch it, that's up to you.  I'm not going to recommend it though.  I'm not responsible for the actions of the readers.

House of Cards Season Review

Let me preface this with saying that I overall enjoyed the first season of House of Cards and will be tuning in to watch the second season, whenever that comes out.  Also, this review will contain spoilers for anybody who hasn't watched the show.

This show is frustrating to me, because I look at how well-shot it is and I see how well-acted it is across the board, and yet I find myself not enamored with the show.  Something is missing.  Something that isn't obvious with shows this well-acted and well-shot.  The answer is the writing.  Creator Beau Williamson is not that great a writer.

It snuck up on me, but the things that are seen on the surface hide the very mediocre writing.  And almost nothing on this show is surprising, with the exception of the big twist, which I hated (more on that later).

Here's an interesting point to think about: Frank Underwood, even if you have no knowledge he was derailing the presidency, is a terrible VP candidate.  He is in charge of a major education bill, which causes a month-long strike.  The bill eventually gets passed, but that wasn't kind of a failure?  He was supposed to keep both sides happy.

Also, he is basically the driving force behind Peter Russo's nomination, which also ends in a huge failure.  And lastly, he helps Russo develop a bill to obtain jobs, which also fails when the votes don't come his way.  In what world is Kevin Spacey's character even remotely considered?  I'll tell you.  The lazy writing of Williamson and staff.

Everything about the newspaper storyline was extremely outdated.  New journalism vs. old journalism. I figured that would be dead by now.  Williamson's about five years too late with that.  I'm pretty certain any credible newspaper has adapted to the online format by now and editors have accepted it.  It's only logical.

Also, it's not great that the two female journalists we know most both apparently slept with guys to get stories to further their careers.  Uh, that's not good and kind of sexist from the writers' perspective.

Lastly, here's the biggest failure: the big twist of Frank killing Peter.  I'm going to ignore the fact that Peter was in the passenger seat, which should, theoretically, set off a huge alarm that he didn't kill himself.  No, that wasn't a big issue for me.

Peter is literally the only likable character on this show that I rooted for.  And now he's gone.  I suppose his girlfriend is likable, but there's really nothing to root for in her storyline.  All of her actions are related to Peter, and I guess we should now root for her in season 2.  Root for what exactly?

This seems like a death where the creative team was like: "Ok, so we need to do something drastic and kill off a likable character.  Then we'll get credit for being willing to kill off major characters."  Oddly, I'm usually a person who would support the killing of a major character, cause then it makes it seem like anybody could die.

However, Russo really didn't have to die.  I realize he's become a liability at this point, but he could have resigned his position as a candidate and then he's no longer a concern for Frank.  Frank's motivation for killing him is kind of unclear so using the fourth-wall, he could have explained why he needed to kill Russo.  It's just odd that a show that uses a fourth-wall doesn't explain a major event like that.

Now that Russo is gone, we, the viewers, are left with nothing.  Does anybody really like Claire?  Firing half her staff, then firing the person she fired half her staff for just because they disagree with her is really endearing.  Does anybody like Zoe?  If you say yes, I'm thinking you're letting Kate Mara's attractiveness overlook her general terribleness as a person.  Don't worry, I suffered that as well for a while.

Speaking of Zoe, her character development was poor.  At first, she's willing to get ahead, screw ethics.  Then out of nowhere, she just wants the truth, because her time as an unethical reporter had come and they needed a new storyline.  There was no transitional phase.  What's odd is they could have easily just had her want to destroy Frank and still remain true to character.  But it appears she wants the truth all of a sudden after not really caring as long as she went up in the world.

Does anybody like Stamper, Underwood's right-hand man?  Oh gee, helping that prostitute get a new life and then using her to destroy Russo makes him likable.  Then the only reason to like Underwood is because Kevin Spacey is playing him.

Man, and I haven't even gotten into the fact that there is no indication Spacey was willing to kill a guy for political gain in the first ten episodes.  He doesn't seem like a guy who would kill a guy and no hints are dropped that he's willing to. Then after he kills the guy, it's like it didn't happen.  Underwood is not deterred.  Remorse or taking the killing harshly would have achieved character consistency with a man who acted in a moment of weakness.

The plan to get Russo to self-destruct and then have the VP quit being the VP to run for governor is just a terrible plan and Frank was pretty lucky that it worked out.  I mean that hasn't happened in 200 years, it'd be pretty foolish to think he could pull that off.  I realize he did, but that's because the writer made it happen.  (At least, they made it clear early on that the VP was not happy being the VP)

I realize this review is almost exclusively on plot, but the acting and the camera work and everything that is usually a problem with a TV show were done beautifully.  The plot is the biggest weakness of this show in my opinion.

After all that, will anyone really believe me when I say I mostly enjoyed the show?  Season 2 might go a long way towards resolving some of these issues, but I was actively rooting for Peter Russo to succeed and then he died and now I have nobody to root for.  The Sopranos had good writers who made you root for Tony despite his awfulness as a person.  House of Cards just doesn't have the writing to make you care too strongly for Frank Underwood to succeed.

Grade: B

House of Cards Review

So I decided I will dedicate two posts to House of Cards.  One reviewing the show after just two episodes like most critics do.  The other will be a review of the first season.  I wanted to do a review immediately after it was put on Netflix, but at the same time I couldn't watch 13 episodes in three days.

Kevin Spacey plays Francis Underwood, a longtime politician who has paid his dues and is ready to become Secretary of State.  He helped get the current president into office and would be rewarded for his duties.  Except the president reneges on their deal and asks Underwood to be in Congress, where he would be more help.

And the premise of the show is Underwood slyly getting his revenge by ruining the administration and controlling their actions indirectly.  One flaw of the first two episodes is so how ridiculously easy everything fell into place for Underwood.  There is no way it's that easy to manipulate and gain access the way he does.

Spacey shines and relishes this role.  Spacey has a subtle Southern accent that works, because it's hardly noticeable.  With a worse actor, the moments where Spacey's character breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the audience could come off terribly.  They don't quite mesh with everything else that goes along, but it doesn't exactly hamper the show either.

Underwood's cold demeanor and calculating moves are only matched by his wife, played by Robin Wright.  They didn't give her much to do in the first episodes as her storyline is significantly less interesting than everything else going on, but she does what she can.

Corey Stoll plays Russo, a Congressman who parties and sleeps around a lot.  Underwood helps a drunk driving charge go away in return for Russo's loyalty, which he of course accepts.  Stoll's solid, but his relationship with his secretary is kind of hard to buy although not implausible by any stretch.  (The part that's hard to buy is that he seems to have had relationships with secretaries in the past) Basically I have no idea how he is still in office with the things we learn about him.

Kata Mara is phenomenal as an aspiring top journalist who really doesn't care about ethics or morals in her quest to the top.  Not exactly original, but Mara is really good in this role.  She's easily the second best thing about the first two episodes behind Spacey.

Overall, the first two episodes were great with some flaws holding it back.  It's clear it has enormous potential and I'm excited to see if it reaches that potential in the future.  If it never did reach the potential, I still think this show would be worth watching however.

(Side note: I get why they did the first scene, but that was a bit ridiculous.  Easily could have gone without it.  Seems like that was just for shock value.  If you've seen show, you know what I'm talking about.)

Next post: Classic Comedy, probably (I find half of these next posts end up inaccurate when I decide to write about a pilot so...)