Top 12 Shows of 2023

 

Photo by Freestocks on Unsplash

Here is my annual Top 12 in TV (for past editions, see here and here). My list of honorable mentions is here:

1. Party Down (Starz)

Party Down

When it debuted in 2009, Party Down was one of the early runners of TV’s Golden Age with its strong ensemble, dripping ennui, and envelope-pushing humor. The show centers around six creative has-beens and not-quite-there-yet characters in Hollywood during their downtime at various catering gigs. In the original run, a status-quo-favoring Murphy’s Law kept the characters from getting too successful. To counter this depressing set-up, the characters fully embrace their purgatory with a sense of hedonism that rubs against the subculture of the week in hilarious ways.

To see Party Down return without a single change is worth celebrating, but the show opted for the more challenging route and allowed them to exit and find success. Or at least the possibility of it, however fleeting. The show’s hiatus lasted 14 years and a decade has passed in-universe. To keep the truth and fun in these characters amid such changing conditions is no easy accomplishment.

Stories are made and broken based on how they resolve. At the end of the day, Party Down resolved on the most pitch-perfect note for me.

2. Futurama (FOX)

Futurama (FOX)

Good news, everyone! Like Party Down, Futurama came back from the dead. For the third time, no less! The show continued to provide sharp evergreen humor balanced with seasonings of topicality: The show approached anti-vaxers, Amazon warehouse conditions, cancel culture, binge-watching, and a particularly clever cross-genre episode set in the old West amidst a Bitcoin mining rush. The show also continued to navigate the aftermath of the Leela-Fry relationship while keeping things fresh.

3. Killing It (Peacock)

Peacock’s ode to the bizarre scheme, Floridians is so popular that it grows in its sophomore season to cover more challenging moral implications while maintaining the sense of free-for-all fun. As the second season opens, the two protagonists (Claudia O’Doherty and Craig Robinson) are enjoying a brief respite of success as proprietors of a palmetto berry farm before getting entangled with a truant inspector (Beck Bennett); a white trash family (led by Dot Marie Jones) who are not above coercing our heroes for free health care); a mob boss (Tim Heidecker) and his adorably vicious daughter (Anna Mae Quinn); and the FBI because that’s where all these stories tend to end. The now well-established chemistry between Robinson and O’Doherty grows into the rare opposite-sex platonic relationship on TV that grounds the show with warmth. This is a season that establishes itself as next-level TV, however, by adding another layer to show their subtle moral differences and how unadulterated kindness can only take you so far in the business world.

4. Pain Killer (Netflix)

Limited series docudramas have made quite the dent in the TV landscape as of late with Inventing Anna, Drop Out, and the like. None have had the bite and emotional truth of Pain Killer. The show presents a tapestry of people involved in the opioid crisis. Matthew Broderick epitomizes the modern-day corporate oligarch who’s completely detached from the deathly consequences of his profit motive. He’s so slimy and aloof in this role, that he washes away any goodwill that used to come with his boyish features since the days of Ferris Bueller. Facing off against him and his corporation is a federal prosecutor in rural Virginia on the side of the righteous (Uzo Adoba). While the series is set with the proper gravity of the opioid crisis (AKA it can be a downer), there are glimmers of hope and pathos. It’s a thoughtful series, but also a kinetic one like a police procedural.

5. American Auto (NBC)

American Auto https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/american-auto-season-2-on-nbc-what-to-know

Justin Spitzer’s follow-up to NBC hit Superstore aims for a target in the upper-income bracket. Starring SNL alum Ana Gasteyer, the show takes place in the executive suites of a Detroit motor corporation. Our audience surrogates are put-upon communications officer Sadie (Harriet Dyer) and the blue-collar worker Jack (Tye White), who got promoted upwards through sheer dumb luck. As the series progresses, however, Jack and Sadie show signs of being more comfortable in their first-class digs than they do being among the common people. Rather than poke fun at rich and powerful people for simply being rich and powerful (the method of present-day satire like The Menu or Glass Onion), American Auto presents rich people as both being victims of their detachment but also a product of an ecosystem of enhanced scrutiny and increasing demands on the shareholders. Most of the time, however, it’s just a damn funny workplace sitcom.

6. Rough Diamonds (Netflix)

Rough Diamonds on Netflix.com

The issues of insularity, abuse, and lack of free will in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, have made a rife breeding ground for great drama in film and television. Rough Diamonds adds a European flavor to the mix as it is set in the shady world of the diamond trade in Antwerp, Belgium. The story centers around family pariah Noah who went straight from an insular, religious life into the criminal underworld of London. A dozen years later, he returns when one of his three siblings commits suicide. He soon learns that despite their holier-than-thou attitude (quite literally), his family isn’t much better at keeping their professional aims above criminal activity. The parallel compromises in morality that Noah and his brother must make, are a theme here. It is a tense pressure cooker of the show that provides a relatively even-keeled look at the issues surrounding the community.

7. The Class of 07 (Amazon)

The Class of 07

The 10-year reunion at an all-girls Australian school turns into a semi-apocalypse whereby all the participants’ old grudges resurface. If Crayola’s top engineers ever arrived at a color blacker than black, that would be the best description for this show’s brand of comedy. Few shows so tonally bleak have ever been played out for comedy like this — at various points, the characters resort to eating shoes, hold a town hall over which survivor they’ll be eating, and make their peace with intended murder. Yet, it’s all juxtaposed against the kinds of delights of long-lost friends reconnecting and working out their struggles. To the degree that the Bechdel Test still is a thing, this show deserves credit for adding so much weight to each of its female friendships and treating them as a means to their end.

8. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

In its fifth and final season, the show boldly incorporates several time jumps to show that there’s light at the end of the tunnel for our struggling Borscht Belt comedian and her cantankerous agent. Managing parental expectations, commercial success and lasting love will never be easy for someone who ventures so far outside of the bounds of her era’s norms, but that’s what makes Midge a character to root for. That, and she can work a room with such charm. In its final season, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was as sharp, funny, and warm as ever. In other words, it left us wanting more and that’s what any good performer would hope for.

Check out my interview with Caroline Aaron ahead of the final season

9. Schmicago AKA Shmigadoon Season 2 (Apple)

Schmicago AKA Shmigadoon Season 2 (Apple)

What do Sweeney Todd, Hair, Pippen, Annie, Godspell, Chicago, and Cabaret have in common? If you’re thinking “Virtually nothing”, you’re not wrong. This is why Schmicago (AKA Schmigadoon) deserves much credit for integrating such a tonally wide range of musicals and weaving them into a coherent story in just episodes. As with the best parodies, the production values and quality of the songs veer razor-thin to the source material while making notable departures when there’s an opportunity for a good joke. Cecily Strong and Keegan Michael Key play the audience surrogate and Strong in particular has to be given credit for her deadpan reactions. Several heavy hitters on Broadway (Aaron Tevit, Dove Cameron, Kristin Chenoweth, Jane Krakowski, etc.) set the bar even higher, and now how to add a winking dose of humor to an authentic show-stopping number.

10. Tiny Tunes Looniversity (HBO Now)

Tiny Tunes Looniversity (HBO Now)

Another reboot that hit some chords with me. The show re-imagines some of the beloved figures of our childhood (I’m assuming that everyone is a child of the 90s. If not, I apologize for your imperfections) as existing within a more coherent universe. In contrast to the original which struggled to maintain any geographical continuity in sketches that took place outside of the shared high school that the characters shared, this show takes place entirely within the confines of a university for toons, allowing for a lot more world-building. The five main characters (Babs, Buster, Daffy, Hampton, and an ascended extra in Sweetie Bird) all are dorm mates coping with the rigors of college. The strength of the show is how well they tweak the characters where needed: Characters like Bugs and Babs are the same, but Sweetie (who was only featured in one episode in the original) is maniacally bipolar; Shirley the Loon is more modern-day hipster than a clairvoyant Shirley MacLaine expy; and Dizzy Devil is a needy manchild with a kind heart.

11. Ghosts (CBS)

Ghosts (CBS)

Eight ghosts from different eras (the 60s hippie movement, the Guided Age, Wall Street excess, the Revolutionary War, etc) inhabit an upstate New York mansion with the ability to talk to just one of the home’s two owners. But as anyone can tell you, it’s the delivery that makes the difference. The eight actors (largely unknowns outside of Rebecca Wiscocky) create comically rich characters with rife potential for great comic dynamics (imagine a Victorian-Age snoot interacting with a free-wheeling Prohibition-Era jazz singer: You get the idea), and the dialogue never fails to exploit these possibilities. The eight ghosts provide the laughs while the couple at the center (Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar) provide the TGIF-ish heart.

12. Jury Duty (Amazon)

Jury Duty (Amazon)

This one’s gonna take some explanation, so bear with me. This show is a reality/comedy hybrid in which everyone in a Los Angeles court trial is an actor except one unsuspecting sweetheart named Ron. The goal of the actors is to A) Convince Ron that they are real at whatever they’re supposed to be (judges, lawyers, fellow jury members, etc.), B) Create comedy by adding bizarreness through the proceedings, and C) Give opportunities to show Ron as a good guy. Also, mid-level actor James Marsden is here and he plays himself. Only a little more conceited. Again, it’s one of those things It’s nowhere near the first reality show in the medium’s history to give its contestants or contestants a skewed version of the truth, but few have engineered the story arc in such a heart-warming, funny, and clever way. Credit where credit is due: Showrunners Gene Stupinsky and Lee Eisenberg were big forces behind The Office, and their next project looks to be equally promising.

For video reviews, check out my YouTube channel.

Honorable Mentions (covered in a separate article):

The Afterparty (Apple), Captain Fall (Netflix), Florida Man (Netflix), Hello Tomorrow (Apple), History of the World Part II (Hulu), Krapopolis (Fox), Mulligan (Netflix), Night Watchman (Netflix), Poker Face (Netflix)

Everything I watched:

After Party (Apple), Agent Elvis  (Netflix), Alaska Daily (ABC), Alex Borstein: Corsets and Clown Suits (Amazon), American Auto (NBC), Animal Control (Fox), Animaniacs (Hulu), Based on a True Story (Peacock), Big Door Prize (Apple Plus), Black Mirror (Netflix), Captain Fall (Netflix), Carol at the End of the World (Netflix), Class of 07 (Amazon), Cleopatra (Netflix), Cunk on Earth (Netflix), Cruel Summer (Freeform), Disenchantment (Netflix), Diplomat (Netflix), Florida Man (Netflix), Futurama (Hulu), Ghosts (CBS), Good Omens (Amazon), The Great (Hulu), Hello Tomorrow (Apple), History of the World Part I (Hulu), House Broken (Fox), It’s Always Sunny (FX), Jury Duty (Amazon), Killing It (Peacock), Krapopolis (Fox), Mrs Davis (Peacock), Mayfair Witches (AMC), Miracle Workers (HBO), Mubar (Netflix), Mulligan (Netflix), Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon),Not Dead Yet (ABC), Night Watchman (Netflix), Night Court (NBC), One Piece (Netflix), Pain Killer (Netflix), Party Down (Starz), Praise Petey (Freeform), Righteous Gemstones (HBO), Rough Diamonds (Netflix), Poker Face (Peacock), Saturday Night Live (NBC), Scott Pilgrim vs the World (Netflix) (very little), Schmigadoon (Apple Plus), Shrinking (Apple), Studio C (BYU TV), That’s My Jam (NBC), Tiny Toons Looniversity (Toon Network/HBO Now), Transatlantic (Netflix), Unstable (Netflix), Welcome to Flatch (Fox), Working Moms (Netflix), What We Do in the Shadows (FX),Yellowjackets (Showtime)

Reviewing TV show Party Down while partying

Party Down ran for two seasons in 2009 and 2010 and is one
of the best shows to be cancelled too soon. The features a six-man team of
caterers who work a different event every week allowing the characters to be
audience surrogates to a variety of bizarre subcultures (a young
republicans convention, a pricey pre-school auction, a mob celebration, a
same-sex wedding, a pork industry awards party, etc).





Rewatching the TV show recently, I found it to
be a show about dreamers (three are actors at various stages of their career
life span, one's a stand-up comic, one's a writer, and one dreams of owning a
restaurant franchise) who are making due in a purgatory of sorts. More so, I
found it to be about the price of giving up on your dreams as shown through
Henry. At times, Henry was the saddest character on the show because even
though the other characters could be considered sad through delusion, marital
frustration, an inferiority complex, or social awkwardness, they at least had
hope

My Response to 6 AV Club Q & A Prompts

The pop-culture website AV Club has a fun Friday feature where they ask their writers a broad question and have them riff on pop culture with differing answers and writing styles. I noticed that I have some pretty detailed answers from the comments section, so I thought I'd elaborate a little and paste some of them over here. 

What Pop Culture Screams 1997 to You?

The summer of 1997 reflects a time when the Summer blockbuster was trying to transition into the tent pole (so called because they hold up the profit line from all the riskier projects) industry we know today. Natural disaster films like “Volcano” and “Anaconda” and the annual film starring Harrison Ford as a gruff hero of sorts (i.e. "Clear and Present Danger", "The Fugitive", "Patriot Games"), “Air Force One” took up their spaces on the calendar. Efforts to sequalize big hits were burning into the ground with epic failures like “Lost World” and “Batman and Robin.”

It was at this time when the formula was more of a prototype than a sure thing that Barry Sonnenfeld released "Men in Black" from a comic book that was not a well-known existing property. Carrying the biggest budget of the year on a movie this (for lack of a better word) weird might not make sense in retrospect, but it was on the heels of a time when visually idiosyncratic film makers Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton had their biggest commercial successes ("12 Monkeys" for the former;  Batman series and "Edward Scissorhands" for the latter). It was as good a time an effort in the vacuum of a working formula to try a blockbuster that was visually weird and stylistically unique. It also had Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones who always seem to epitomize the 90s for me. 

Which Pop Culture Party Would you Like to Attend?

I like to think of myself as a reluctant extrovert, although I am likely not the only person with a duality between getting energy from personal interactions and being exhausted by all the complications therein. As a human-interest journalist, I love the opportunity to dive into unique subcultures what's the luxury of not having to declare myself a part of any of them. That's why being a caterer on the "Party Down" crew seems like a perfect fit. Every gig I take will, at the very least, be eventful for starters. I will be at liberty to partake in the event (the show's in-universe rules will find a way to stretch my fifteen-minute break into full-on party mode) should I desire, but if I'm feeling reticent, my uniform will allow me to stay in wallflower/observer mode without fully committing to being part of the scene. I would also get a lot of enjoyment out of watching my slightly depressed coworkers alternate between flirting with each other and destroying one another's egos.

What Romantic Comedy Couple Shouldn’t Have Ended up Together?

Credit: Rogerebert.com

Romantic comedies are a viable genre when handled with care, but there is no narrative trope that is more sorely in need of reexamination than the penchant to romantically pair off any two characters who make googly eyes at each other as the standard happy ending. Aside from how it bears little  resemblance to real life and encourages unhealthy expectations, it really dilutes the magic of a romantic ever after if it’s already a foregone conclusion. Nowhere does this seem more of an egregious mistake than the 2012 indie film “Safety Not Guaranteed.” Aubrey Plaza plays emotionally detached young adult Darius (in other words, Aubrey Plaza in full snark mode), on a quest with two other journalists to uncover the truth behind a strange man (Mark Duplass as Kenneth) who thinks he can time travel. Darius’s casual cynicism gets put through the blender, as she makes her way into Kenneth's circle of trust only through empathizing with him. In and of itself, this should be enough to make a great story. Furthermore, because it’s an indie film, it would have been a great opportunity to buck the oldest trend in the book and not pair the characters up. After all, they have no chemistry, the age difference between the two characters borders on gross, and it’s quite possible that Kenneth is mentally ill. Instead, the predictable end result takes down the movie a couple pegs to forgettable.

Which Film do You Wish You’d Seen When it First Came Out?

The easiest way to answer this question is to scroll down my all-time list of favorite films, cross-reference with the proper time period, and voila! But watching a brilliant movie I know will be brilliant and that I also know (with a few exceptions) my fellow movie watchers will also appreciate, will be a foregone conclusion.

Therefore, my criteria has to be brilliant yet baffling: Trying to predict audiences’ conflicting reactions to something as full of raw anger and as adeptly staged as “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff” would be a hoot. Films like “Five Easy Pieces” or “The Graduate” are great films I have trouble fully grasping the thematic context of because of my distance from the counter-culture movement and experiencing these films during their times could be enlightening.

The one that keeps sticking in my head is “Brazil." Terry Gilliam’s dedication to visual purity often overshadows his extremely inventive storylines and this is one where the balance between the two really shine. Opinions will vary, but this is his first film which could be considered a classic and I would enjoy seeing people discover the idiosyncratic storyteller ascending to a new level of coherence, appeal and complexity in his work. It’s also a film that takes a while to get so the post-film discussion would consist of a lot of “huh”s but it would be a lot of fun piecing the puzzles and symbolism of the film together.

What TV Series do You Love but will Never Revisit?

I get confronted with this question every time I desire some comfort TV and tune in to find “Seinfeld” and “The Simpsons” (who the Gods of syndication have been eternally kind to) are pretty much always on. While this wouldn’t be an unpleasant use of a half-hour,  I have some strange resistance to revisiting either of the series that came to culturally define the decade in which I came of age. Maybe, it’s an act of rebellion against the perceived quality of these shows: While I tend to rail against hipsterish attitudes of consciously defining your tastes against the mainstream, I can’t help admitting that the high placement of both these shows on best-of-all-time lists drives me to want to define my tastes from this decade differently.

Beyond that, there’s plenty of pedestrian reasons to resent these shows. How can I not resent The Simpsons like a privileged child for being cancellation-free when every other show (including superior sister show “Futurama”) has to contend with the axe? How can I not blame the show’s success for Jerry Seinfeld’s leverage to get away with passive-aggressive behavior or Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s frustrating lockhold on lead actress awards in the present day? There’s a myriad web of reasons not to like these shows and while I find it difficult to put my finger on exactly what keeps me from turning to channel five, I know that I’ve been able to resist the urge for a decade.

What Pop Culture Becomes More Meaningful as You Get Older?

 Credit: Readthespirit.com

I've gradually gone from liking "Dead Poets Society” but not understanding the ending, to thinking it is a perfectly realized film. As a child, Robin Williams’ character of John Keating was so right and the stuffy administration so wrong that I found the film’s “Oh Captain, My Captain” scene to not make up for all the tragedy that had been happening in the third act. As I’ve grown into adulthood and learned firsthand the myriad of ways in which an employer can screw you over (including some not particularly well-received stints in the education sector), I’ve come to appreciate the “Oh Captain My Captain” scene as a pretty solid outcome for an anti-establishment type in an employment landscape that discourages such free thinking and isn’t necessarily fair. Besides, what is the job of a teacher other than to impart a lesson onto his students? He might not have stayed until the end of the school year, but he can rightfully say "Mission Accomplished".

The Guild

Much has been written on the paradox of how actresses cast in romantic comedies are usually among the most beautiful women on the planet, yet they have to convince an audience that they would have any problems finding dates (until Mr. Right comes along, that is). Not only is a beautiful woman bound to get the attention of any man with a functioning pair of eyes she walks past, her ego will naturally be inflated by it to the point where she couldn't possibly see herself at home among socially-awkward nerds.

AV Club writer (and a friend of this blog*) Nathan Rabin went so far as to coin a popular term-"Manic Pixie Dream Girl"**-to express a theory that girls only really exist as a vehicle to help the male protagonist achieve his goals and are too quirky to exist in real life.

That might go toward explaining why Felicia Day is something really special: She more or less looks like she belongs in Hollywood but she really is a nerd and that gives her an edge with the "painfully shy and nerdy" quality that beautiful women always have trouble nailing down. She really did have the gaming addiction and pulled from those experiences when writing the web series "The Guild." And yes, not only is she a true nerd and a relatively beautiful lady, but she is a very talented writer.

TV and movies focusing on pathetic people leading lives that seem bleak to the audience (ie Party Down, Weeds, Misfits, The Good Girl, Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State, American Beauty, an internet comedy by Front Page Films I just saw called Kid Farm) usually falls into two categories with little middle ground: life-affirming or depressing. In terms of patheticness, The Guild sets the bar pretty high: the web series centers around a team of six role-playing gamers who are devoted to some team mission at the expense of sextet of role-playing gamers who play on some form of a team together and devote themselves to the team's quests at the expense of any healthy semblance of reality due to the 6-8-hour-a-day time crunch that this hobby acquires.

One of the members, Vork (not his real name: his game name), has no income outside of his deceased grandfather's social security checks and is more concerned with acquiring in-game gold than he is with earning actual money. He also gets his electricity through a rather ingenious scheme at the expense of his alzheimers-ridden neighbor.  Another character, Clara, is a mother so neglectful of her three kids that if not for the sheer hilarity of her situation, you could more easily picture her as the villain in a movie of the Kramer vs. Kramer genre with her overly-appeasing husband as the protagonist.

Then there's Felicia Day's Cyd (aka Codex). She's a former concert violinist with social anxiety who's turned to gaming for refuge against what we assume was a career-ending traumatic experience (later revealed that it either might have to do with a dad who turned gay, or that she set her ex-boyfriend's cello on fire because he turned out to because he was either canoodling an oboist*** or turned out to be gay himself). The opening scene shows Cyd being dropped by her therapist via phone because she's not committed enough to leaving gaming behind. As cold as being dumped by your therapist over the phone is, Cyd barely cares enough to get off the phone and do something about it (among the the show's strengths is how economical it is with providing exposition).

The catalyst for change for Cyd and the rest of the group is the arrival of one of the other players, Zabbu, to her apartment because he mistook a flirtatious exchange ("I accidentally typed a semicolon" she insists, to which he responds "it was a Fruedian slip") for a physical relationship. A manchild among man children, Zabbu comes off as a little extreme (his mom bathed him until age 15) but the show seems to be able to find a good mix of characters in various stages of stunted development. In contrast to Zabbu, there's a teenager in the gang, Bladezz, who seems less caricatured as sheltered teenagers go.

It's through trying to get rid of Zaboo that Cyd concocts the idea that they should all meet up in real life and just like that everyone's out of their bubble. It's an unlikely group of friends that forms and that's why the show is so uplifting when it could easily fall flat.

Definitely,  a strong entry among web shows.
 
*Did I say friend? I meant someone who I've exchanged pleasantries with on twitter once or twice several years ago. This blog, however, has a looser definition of friendship. Its a bit of a friend whore.
**If anything, I resent Rabin achieving my longtime dream of coining a word AND coining the idea I already had in my head and was vaguely aware of
***And really, who wouldn't want to leave a violinist to canoodle**** an oboist.
****"oboist canoodling"=is that a coinable term?

Misfits

Oh, the disappointment in watching a highly-regarded program just to get in on the cultural zeitgeist and discovering said show hits me the wrong way. I watched three and a half episodes from the first season of Misfits which is a pretty sufficient amount of time to decide you hate the show and don’t want to see it again.

Is the show awful and everyone’s* blind to it? Am I the one that’s off?

Misfits is one of the pioneers in the trend of content distributed through an online TV-watching platform.

The show is supposed to be in the vein of a superhero-genre-meets-ordinary-world show akin to Heroes. The superheroes, in this case, are five juvenile delinquents in the UK and the show is set during their period of community service.

The superheroes, however, are not just unusually ordinary. Their adolescent angst is in full force and some of them might easily be classified as depressed. Watch people brood over what they see as a bleak existence is generally not something that will appeal to your average TV viewer looking for some escapist fare. However, this perhaps more honest approach has been done well a few times before (I’m thinking “Weeds” as the moderately good example and “Party Down” as the holy grail of this subgenre).

In most cases, however, depressed characters don’t bring a profound realism. In this case, the characters aren’t just depressed. They are depressing to watch. Not to mention, somewhat bland and unremarkable: I’d be hard-pressed to argue that the five characters are more substantive or well-rounded than your average one-hour CW drama.

I could see how the characters might have been intended to be more. Simon, the shy one, spends all his time brooding about what must be something significant, but the hints of something greater never manifested into anything interesting in what I saw. Similarly, Nathan the loud and obnoxious one, is occasionally fun but mostly just obnoxious and loud (I’d give Nathan's obnoxious/funny ratio a 95/5 split and that’s still generous).

Lastly, if I haven’t written much about the superhero aspect of the show, it’s because it doesn’t dominate much of the screen time. Characteristic of the UK version of The Office, the show doesn’t center around people doing work so much as sitting around on talking when they’re supposed to be on the clock. Again, this tends to work better with interesting characters and interesting conversations.

With the Incredibles, Heroes, Watchmen, and Sky High playing on the Disney Channel every other week, simply deconstructing the Superhero genre is nothing novel anymore. One needs to have good characters and this show isn’t it.