Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Reviews: Ramy Season 2, Brockmire Season 2, Intelligence, Broke, Once Upon a Time Season 7, Where's Waldo (Peacock)


Ramy (Hulu)-One of the best shows of the year for sure. Review here: 

https://www.tvfanatic.com/2020/07/ramy-season-2-boasts-a-uniquely-introspective-character-despite/

Brockmire (IFC) -A lot of TV in the #metoo era is about men getting consumed by dark pasts. No one seemed more hopeless than the superhumanly aloof baseball broadcaster Jim Brockmire in the first season, but his redemptive arc that gelled in the final season makes such a light out of the tunnel not only seem possible but easy-peasy. 


The leap over a decade into our future is ambitious to say the least (especially for a show based on a Funny or Die sketch) and that's not counting all the emotional overtones. The show is now set at a time where global warming, automation, and split national interests have spiraled out of control and baseball is just one of the show’s casualties.

If you fell off this show due to any perceived dip in quality, that’s not a problem here.

Final Season Aired in 2020, Streaming on Hulu.


Intelligence (NBC Peacock)-The strokes are a little broad here but it’s essentially the egotistical elitist gets humbled by the peons office comedy formula. The gimmick of the show is that it takes place in the English CIA and the fish out of water is an American so it has a little bit of a satirical bent towards American arrogance from a Eurocentric lens.

If I’m complaining about the lack of originality it’s because Space Force just did this but, hey, it’s a good time as any to puncture the myth of American exceptionalism.

As a show, it’s mildly funny if a bit obvious. Whereas Space Force or similar shows about jerks in power (Newsradio, The Office) might have allowed some wiggle room for us not to hate the guy who’s taking up the majority of the screen time: Either he learned or got his comeuppance. In the three episodes I’ve seen, the consequences of this awful man’s actions are mostly sidestepped. Perhaps, it’s a British comedic sensibility to go darker?

The side characters have potential and if the Office improved, it’s possible that this one could go that route too.

Broke (CBS)-Natasha Leggero and her suave Latino husband Javier (Jamie Camil) are rich and out-of-touch people who lose all their money in a pyramid (not a scheme, mind you, but they buy a pyramid [cue laughter]). They have to move in with their lower-class sister (Pauley Perrette) and, like the dad-son combo in Frasier, there’s a class difference so enormous, it’s hard to believe the two are related and grew up in the same house. On the other hand, hey, they wouldn’t have a show if they seriously addressed this, so shhh.


This show has a laugh track which doesn’t disqualify it by being good for modern standards but puts it at a disadvantage. Watching this was an interesting exercise for me in studying just how much the laugh track has devolved; how weaker jokes might get into the script for the purpose of an immediate pay-off.

Still, as far as outdated laugh-track shows go, this one’s watchable. Javier’s wealth-based aloofness makes him a good scene-stealer and it helps that he has heart. His butler Luis (Izzy Diaz) is even funnier though he’s not used for as many punch lines.

 

On the whole, it’s comfort food.




Once Upon a Time, Season 7 (ABC)-There’s something that just clicks with this show. In the first couple seasons (and probably the ones after, I didn’t watch), the episodes alternate between two universes that are connected. There’s a small town in Maine with a corrupt mayor (Lana Pirella) and police sheriff (Jennifer Morrison) fighting over the soul of the town and influence over a young boy. The second is set in fairy tale land where a hodgepodge of fairy tale stories-Little Red Riding Hood, Rumplestilskin, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, even Aladdin and Princess and the Frog-interact in some variation on the land of Mother Grimm (based in the forests of Germany).

What makes the show work is that these traditional fairy tales are given a twist and then re-interpreted through a modern universe where, say, Snow White is a school teacher who hooks up with Jiminy Cricket, and Rumplestilskin doesn’t just want a first-born but control of the whole town.

Like most serialized TV, however, six seasons is a lot to keep up with multiple levels of mythology to sort through. Fortunately, season seven gives a fresh restart. Henry Mills (the little boy who knows about the alternate universe) is grown-up and is now not just an adult but also a skeptic. And the evil mayor is now just a bartender and one of the good guys in true American Horror Story fashion. As someone who missed some of the in-between seasons, a background detail here and there gets confusing, but for the most part, it’s a self-contained story that balances episodic and serialized elements well.

 

Streaming on Netflix

 

I’m Dying Up Here, Season 2 (Showtime)-Relatively watchable serialized comedy set in the 70s that focuses on the arts. Ari Gaynor (a poor man's Kate Hudson) stars with Oscar winner Melissa Leo and Michael Angarono (Will and Grace, The Knick), Clark Duke and Jake Lacy co-starring. Duke and Lacy were the two last-season additions to The Office as entry-level twerps and they've both been carving out impressive careers for themselves. There's also a couple token black guys with Erik Griffin making the bigger impression of the two. The characters sort of blend into another and there's a lot of cocaine and sex in a premium cable sort of way. The series is meant as a time capsule of the 70s but I'd rather re-watch Baz Luhrmann's Get Down or watch some more Glow. In other words, it's not that insular of a genre. The biggest mistake of the series is that Melissa Leo's character doesn't get more screen time.

Where's Waldo (Peacock)-I could totally see a faithful adaptation of Where's Waldo working. Waldo likes to hide and he's in exotic places so that's something to run with. Instead the series is a weak knock-off of Carmen Sandiego and Wizard Whitebeard is too cartoonish to feel like the adult of the group.


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