My Week in TV Part I: Carmen Sandiego "Opera in the Outback", The Orville "Deflectors"

My week in TV: In early 2018, I did a series on a Disqus channel where I chronicled my week in TV. It's been difficult to keep track of all the offerings out there, so I'm tackling a single week of what i'm watching in detail. The problem is that by the time I finish and proof these episodes they'll probably be several weeks old. 

Credit: Netflix

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (Netflix)-"Opera in the Outback"-I was a geography major and grew up on the computer game, the game show and the cartoon. So I was especially excited for this series even if I’m not the target audience. The visual look is sleek with a largely 2-d feel that evokes the computer game and the trademark red fedora and coat don't disappoint. In this case, it's somewhat of a plot point that Carmen re-invents herself through the wardrobe itself.

Along with effectively teaching your kid about geography, unfortunately the series will teach your kid about the broadest of stereotypes. Why the Japanese instructor hasn’t been called out by anyone for his Chinglish or why Gray (AKA Crackle) is acceptable as a walking bundle of clichés, is beyond me.

Fortunately, we have an Australian who loves opera this week and not didgeridoo music so that’s a start. This episode has Ivy and Zach (two Boston chowdaheads without any nuance) which is rarely a plus considering Carmen is so well-developed. The episode’s plot takes some surprising turns which is more than I’d expect for a kid’s show:  The whole “launch the boomerang” was quite sophisticated.

One problem that often plagues serials is that the good guy always wins at the end. Even adult-oriented procedurals like “Monk” had the good guy winning in the end, whereas better shows like “Burn Notice” and “The Good Wife” teased out serial plots with the protagonist hitting peaks and valleys. This is a kid’s show but it ingraining it with a bit more sophistication would do wonders.

Credit: SBS.com

Orville (Fox)-“Deflectors”-One of the reasons that TV sitcoms with celeberatory plotlines of romance aren’t as sex positive as you might think is that these shows often imply that singlehood is a state of incompleteness and everyone needs to be paired up (ditto romantic comedy genre). You know Orville is becoming Star Trek: Love Boat when Star Trek when the show is trying to get a robot with no feelings laid. This week, we know next to nothing about the new security chief yet it initially appears it’s going to be another romance-of-the-w eek. The unfortunate thing is if you’re only casually familiar with “The Orville”, you might have noticed the casting change which is why it’s often recommended that casting directors go for physical contrasts when trying to differentiate people (according to a book I read on casting, at least).

Fortunately, the episode becomes significantly more than just a romance story as it morphs into a murder mystery with capable twists. The episode highlights a heavy reliance of “The Orville” on the Moclan for the alien of the week. While the Moclan can be a little one-note and present fairly obvious social commentary, their contrast is good for the show’s humorous edge. It’s also slightly more realistic for the viewer than Star Trek’s M.O. of having differing aliens each week to the point where it was impossible to get a sense of scale for this. In an era of TV that places more emphasis on world building as opposed to the 1960s this is pretty forward-thinking.

What is also a positive here is a natural progression to the romance. If a healthy relationship is when the pursued takes the lead to show the pursuer how she wants to be courted, it certainly sparks the imagination to think of the confusion and sense of discovery that must be going through the Moclan’s head when she leads her to a holosuite recreation of post-World War II Paris and teaches him how to dance.  Considering this show’s main advantage over Trek is its more light-hearted approach to the material and the way it can poke through tropes (i.e. the officers are going to drink real alcohol, why wouldn’t they), it’s disappointing people are still stuck in 20^th Century Earth. No one wants to see a version of 2060 where Florida is under water?

The show’s attempts to tackle social issues are generally in need of a bit more tonal calibration but I was personally surprised by how well it earned its final dramatic moments. It was mostly sold in the actress’s delivery. It’s not particularly often in happy future land when someone is legitimately pissed off to the point of cutting off contact.  It helps a little that the security officer is new so it’s not a plot invention within this hour-long arc that she has decided she’s had enough of Klyden. Like an audience surrogate, her lack of experience with the people on board makes a very negative impression far more credible.

Notes on Netflix's "Sex Education"

There are so many new series I've felt like getting into including "Lodge 49" (which would have made my top 12 had I watched it earlier), "Russian Doll", "The Orville", "Those Who Can't" and "The Other Two" but alas, I haven't had the time.

I did, however, make notes on the TV show "Sex Education" which is much like "Derry Girls" in showing awkward adolescence on the other side of the pond:

-The show starts to get seriously Dawson’s Creekesque in the last couple episodes as the weight of these characters starts to finally kick in. The show moseys through much of the season with a certain emotional detachment from its characters. It’s not entirely comedic but it’s insight into sexually confused adolescence is observational. Towards the end, we (AKA me) really start to care about the primary love triangle, the general well-being of Eric, and the mother-son dynamic, Maeve fending off her brother’s decadent influences and at some point the emotion sneaks in. It’s hard to say whether that’s better but it does set up season two quite well if they can tread the line between drama and melodrama.

-Just like “Burn Notice” is entertaining because it reveals wayward insight into how an espionage agent would think or “Monk” reveals insight into how a detective would solve crimes, there’s something light-bulb-inducing about being presented with a  dilemma and seeing a 16-year-old solve the problem. “In Treatment” was equally satisfying as a drama but to watch a 16-year-old come up with such insight has a certain underdog quality.

-French horns, yeaahh! I’m a proud French horn player through one and three-quarter years of high school and this might be the most visible use of the instrument in a teenage drama. What a thrill. And the instrument wasn’t used for sexual purposes like “American Pie.”  Even better!

But from the expert: It’s hard to play the French horn that badly. I was something like the last chair trumpet in my high school then switched to French horn where I was, within a few months, fourth chair out of seven horns.  I found it relatively easy to stay on the same tone as opposed to Eric who wobbles a lot. I generally found if I picked up a French horn years later without practice then I would wobble between notes a lot more, so I’m left to believe Eric doesn’t practice enough which is indicative of a slacker.

-Before the final episode, the headmaster came off as stuffy and any antagonistic airs he had were simply attributable to how Americans like us can be put off by upper class British accents. Then he becomes evil with a capital “e” after he reneges on Jackson’s deal but there wasn’t much build-up to it. He was sorely undeveloped as a character but from what little I glimpsed, I saw him as a man trying to maintain a stiff upper lip in the wake of an encroaching tide of puberty-driven chaos and that was an interesting interpretation of him.

-The TV tackled nearly every teenage issue under the sun but they were surprisingly lax on bullying. As characters matured and went through various forms of self-enlightenment, they still fed into a culture that felt unusually harsh for the school. In particular, the untouchables paid relatively little for their casual cruelty. On the other end of the spectrum is “Mean Girls” and “Glee” where the bullying popular crowd softened up towards the end of high school. Which is a truer reflection of reality? To some degree people mature as they get older, but at the same time you’re personal enlightenment in adolescent into a more receptive person doesn’t mean that the outside world necessarily changes. 

-Why didn’t Maeve and Otis trade their therapy for favors beyond cash? In the opening episode, Otis negotiates with Adam for Eric’s safety. Afterwards, they seem content to exchange for cash. Perhaps, they could

-If I was going to analyze this show as socially responsible (and I try to avoid such precedent since this show doesn’t represent all teen drama), the idea that Eric’s tormentor would also be secretly gay seems like a horrible generalization and “Glee” didn’t look any better when it tried that storyline with Karofsky