A week-in-TV recap from January: Fresh Off the Boat (Liar Liar), LA to Vegas review, Good Place (Best Self, Leap of Faith), The Mick (Trip, Climb), Corporate (Void, Powerpoint of Death), Gifted

A very casually written (as in not something that should be used as a professional sample of my work) week-in-TV recap I do for the folks at the Ice Box that was posted back in January:

Fresh Off the Boat: Liar Liar
This TV show tries to have an A-plot and B-plot that thematically run together a little too consciously: Nicole wants to fit in with her crush and Louis wants to fit in with the guys. The only problem is that I cannot remember anything about Louis’s plot a few days after watching the episode. Some people would say I have a responsibility as a critic to rewatch so I can recap, but screw those people: If you can’t remember anything about a plotline, it must have sucked. It makes sense: Louis is an easy-going guy. He’s great at facilitating plots but he’s not particularly strong as the central conflict of an episode. In the A-plot, Nicole learns a lesson about love and Eddie follows the same pattern of being a good guy but having stumbling books en route. Eddie’s tastes have always been grounded in things that seem stupid in retrospect and here, he can’t get enough of Jim Carrey.
Two main discussion-provoking questions: 
1) Is Nicole’s courtship with the other Lesbian girl an accurate portrayal of teenage lesbian courting in that time period? I am one year younger than Eddie and at that time in the late 1990’, it was very common to be suspicious about other people being gay and it was definitely a bad thing or something that had to be explained away. Compound that with the teenage ostracizing and I’m wondering just how on the DL Nicole needed to be. The gay people I knew in my high school struggled enough to be recognized as gay, let alone have love lives. They generally assumed that if they went to a very liberal college or moved to a big city, they would be able to have them. Of course, it would help that Nicole was very badass (at least in the early episodes. Her first on-screen appearance was knocking a slushie out of a kid’s hands although she’s since been softened almost to the point of flanderization) and already popular in school when coming out?
2) Is "Fresh Off the Boat" intended to comment on the 90’s with appreciation for it or is it intended to comment ironically? Eddie’s obsession with gangstar rap is always played for absurdity. A number of these references, that the show thrives on, is treated without the distance that we have now. In the 1990s, we thought that Titanic would never be equaled in terms of storyline or special effects, that Shaq had a promising career as an actor and that Jim Carrey was high art.

LA to Vegas: First Two Episodes:
The attempt at a balls-to-the-wall lowbrow look at the airline industry (similar to “Airplane” but with slightly less scatological humor) follows Dylan McDermott (best known as Dermot Mulroney’s evil twin), Nathan Lee Graham (best known for playing stereotypical gay roles in films like “Zoolander” and “Sweet Home Alabama”), and Kim Mutola (no idea who she is but she can play standard vulnerable blonde protagonist serviceably) play our surrogate eyes and ears for what it’s like to work on an airplane. The two flight attendants are a bit more grounded in reality whereas Dermot Mulroney (ooops, I mean Dylan McDermott) conveys Leslie Nielsen levels of absurdity as his antics so far include whining about not joining the mile high club, having drinks with passengers, losing the muscle memory to land the plane, and doing jujitsu on a passenger.

Peter Stromare (seriously? This undervalued dramatic character actor has nothing better to do than do an imitation of  Bali from “Perfect Strangers”?) plays a gambler of Eastern European descent and Ed Weeks ("Mindy Project") plays an economics professor who serves as Ronnie’s (Mutola) love interest. These two (and the strippers that appeared in the pilot but not the second episode might also recur, who knows) [update: Several episodes in, it's now apparent that Olivia Macklin is regular on the show as the Nichole] are connected to the show through sitcom-logic which keeps characters together in the same space that otherwise might not be (“Community” and the 2006 Jason Ritter vehicle “The Class” would fall under this) if you consider that occasionally one of these two might book another flight.
[Update: This review should be extended to note that ]

The show, at this point, is adequate with some room for growth.

The Good Place-Best Self/Leap of Faith
Leap of Faith was a little plot-holey. Didn’t Michael play it a little close to the vest with their eternal damnation at stake? The script nicely patched in that hole with the workaround that Michael left them thousands of clues but they only get a few of them. It still felt like a work-around.
From our perspective, however, the episode delivered exactly what The Good Place does which provides comic suspense. The Good Place often seems like it only has one or two episodes left in totality and no idea what it will do next.

“Best Self” was anti-climactic in the first act. The four needing to get on a balloon is a perfect conundrum you hope would take a whole episode to work through, but it was all a shame. Bummer. Then the episode devolves into a sentimental boozefest which is kind of fun from a hang-out perspective, but remember these guys are on the 800th reboot and don’t know each other as well as our out-of-universe perspective. The episode ends with its best bit of humor in Sean texting with the style of a teenager (autocorrect acknowledgements, lols) as he’s talking about hellfire. The episode ends with the one necessity it needs to move the plot forward (their new idea for how to get into heaven). This is a TV show with a long endgame, so having only one plot-relevant moment an episode and letting everything else fall under comedy is not necessarily bad.

The Mick: The Climb
“The Climb” has the kind of maneuvering between characters that epitomizes this show at its best. Ben has a twerp (autocorrect was not particularly generous with my first attempt at that word) of a friend that pisses Mick off until she realizes that her mom is former 90210 star Jenny Garth. Millions of 90’s children probably stared at the screen wondering: Where the hell has Jenny Garth been all this time? Very rarely have I ever seen such random stunt casting, so bravo! The pretentiousness of privileged kids is nailed so well in this episode as is the one-upmanship of Mick and Sabrina with Alba playing a wildcard of sorts (a job that generally alternates between Jimmy and Alba).

Chip is a brat that I’ve even called one of the few appropriate uses of the label “toxic masculinity” (I generally find it a non-sensical crutch): He’s just awkward around everyone. The entirety of the episode was a waiting game of cringe: At what point will Chip let down his father figure? Apparently the answer was never which was an odd half hour of sitcom TV. Sitcomdom depends on conflict: We’re not used to watching a character cook up a hair-brained scheme and succeed at it. I suppose I’m happy for Chip. The episode segues to some continuing search for Chip's father but asking us to be further invested for this plot line is dependent only on the comic payoff and we need to see more seed of something funny to come other than a mug shot. 

Corporate-The Void/The Powerpoint of Death
Woohoo, fresh new TV shows for us to sink our critical teeth into and gnaw away. Following off “Idiotsitter” “Big Time in Hollywood Florida” and others that escape my memory at the moment, Comedy Central often takes chances on unknown comedic teams like this. I do not recognize a single person in the cast, but because it’s a lot like “Better off Ted” or “A to Z” or “Selfie” in its mockery of workplace drudgery, I keep thinking of the characters as Christina Kirk-light (“A to Z” but she also resumed the role of office straight man in “Powerless”) or David Harewood-light (“Selfie”). Maybe if your show lasts more than nine episodes, guys, I’ll learn your names.

The show has a darker current than the above-mentioned shows (it certainly doesn’t help that the bouncy salsa-esque score of “Better off Ted” isn’t used here to indicate sitcom cues) but still falls into the rhythms and beats of a modern sitcom as opposed to “Silicon Valley”, which is equally bleak, but puts less pressure on itself to make its laughs fit into a gift-wrapped half-hour box.

Gifted-The Last Three Episodes
Without spoiling anything, “The Gifted” (which I honored on My Year in TV best of the year list ) carries the same level of adrenaline to its conclusion with character allegiances being switched, other characters adapting on the fly, and lots of glorious chess-style (i.e. let’s use a power A against his power B, while sacrificing our hideout in response to power C) maneuvering that mutant-style shows make capable of providing excitement.

The show, more than anything, deserves credit for making late adolescent problems seem dramatically appropriate at the level that falls below melodrama.

Questions still persist about whether Reed (Stephen Moyer) and Kaitlyn (my crush Amy Acker who seems to always have her hair properly blow-dried) do much other than allow the show to be called a family story. A more heavy-handed example of this was the short-lived ABC show “No Ordinary Family” with Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz as parents (and superheroes themselves) who would often loudly proclaim things like “We’re not tearing this family apart!” or “We have to think about what’s best for the family!” Despite having no superpowers, Reed and Kate seem far more woven in the fabric of the mutant underground than I otherwise would have expected. Yes, they’re doting parents but they’ve also become part of the extended larger family.

The show concludes in a way that doesn't feel fully resolved but allows us to catch our breath. It's been a pretty wild ride.

Another Period Review

This is an admittedly slapdash review I'm posting here although I wouldn't classify it as my best content. Unfortunately, I'm saving my best content for HiddenRemote at the moment. 

To say the show "Another Period" is rich with talent is an understatement. David Koechner is the family patriarch, underrated character actress Natasha Leggero lends her talents in a rare staring role as one of the two sisters Brian Huskey, Paget Brewster and Brett Gelman are all excellently cast in character roles. Christina Hendricks (who's mostly known for period drama) dives into her role as a scheming servant with an unexpected amount of enthusiasm. Michael Ian Black really sticks out (even in poor episodes) as a character who really puts the "serve" in "subservient" with the character of Peepers.

Peepers is a rich character and fully-formed but seeing him on screen only serves to remind about how deficient all the other characters. Peepers' desire to serve the other characters in the story makes little sense because pretty much everyone else is an extreme caricature. Either that or they're the most inhumane collection of people in history. Watching Michael Ian Black as Peepers is like watching Peter O'Toole act opposite third graders or evil scamps determined to ruin his scene.

The main drawing point of the show (and what keeps it watchable) is that it's a fun period piece and it's very rare to see "fun" and "period piece" in the same sentence of a synopsis. Although "Another Period" doesn't have the production values of a grandiose epic, there is a superficial veneer that shines through. Like any unfocused take on history that is trying to say as much as possible about its setting, nearly every important figure from the 1900's makes their way to the Bellacourt manor with juicy stunt casting. Matt Besser plays Leon Trotsky, Kate Flannery plays Annie Sullivan, Ben Stiller plays Charles Ponzi and Chris Parnell plays Sigmund Freud in clever historical twists although it's fairly clear that these historical figures aren't researched beyond what will earn an easy laugh. Similarly, the show also presents us with a hyperactive Gandhi and though Clone High already went down that road a dozen years ago, it's good enough for a chuckle. 

The show is too sloppy to be taken as much of a satire and its characters are too cruel to be taken sympathetically or even seriously. The bloated ensemble also leads to episodes that are overly crammed for the thirty-minute running time. Despite these flaws, the show is still watchable and worthy of a laugh here and there.

2014 Review Sans Fall Season

A moderately exhaustive catch-up of pretty much everything I've seen this year before the Fall Season rolls around and I cover those shows. Some reviews will be very brief or I'll link you elsewhere. The shows are broken into categories:

Top tier: Shows that are firing on all cylinders

1. Archer, FX-Even by today’s standards, Archer did something pretty bold by flipping the entire premise of its show. The ragtag spy agency previously known as ISIS (they allegedly sold the naming rights to a real-life band of Jihadists in Iraq or something like that) got disbanded and the characters became criminals for a full season. Comic possibilities quadrupled. (longer review)
2. The Bridge, FX-The Bridge-Last season, "The Bridge" was a suspenseful ride, but the two aimless episodes between the conclusion of the first season and the actual season finale had me wondering where the show would go once the bad guy was put away. What I didn’t anticipate was that the show’s rich characters and sense of place were more than enough to carry the show regardless of the villain. What’s more, the second season nicely wove the aftermath of the David Tate plot along with the disparate side plots into a larger picture. The show continues to have a lot going for it: A well-paced plot, a touch on topical issues, and some of the most underrated characters on TV (Daniel Frye is who I now want to model myself after as a journalist. I even plan on going to the nearest bar and developing my own drinking problem after I finish writing this)
3. Orange is the New Black, Netflix-As Piper became more comfortable with her environment and even began to take command of her surroundings, the show took on a more self-assured tone that could even be called optimistic. In the first season, pretty much everyone Piper bumped into at Litchfield was some version of your worst nightmare. The second season got interesting in the way it kept redirecting audience hatred towards a number of temporary villains (Mendez, Fig, Healy, Alex, Crazy Eyes all did despicable things at some point or another) before making themselves sympathetic once more and eventually redirecting us to one big bad. This show has also written and rewritten the textbook on ensemble pieces, both from the narrative (balancing focus on several characters) and the acting sides. (longer review)
4.  Review, Comedy Central- Starring straight-man extraordinaire Andy Daly, the premise posits the show as a distant cousin of the "Truman Show" in the way that presenting a man's life choices being driven entirely by the demands of a media audience leads to some very deep satire. In this case, Daly is TV show host Forrest MacNeil who will review any life experience anyone tells him to without question. The cleverest thing about "Review" is how it drops clues towards the genesis to the show-within-a-show and the larger storyline about a somewhat overeager broadcaster being manipulated by a ruthless producer. Viewers are challenged to decipher these clues and it's not until the end of the season that some of the blanks are filled in a season finale, which makes for **SPOILER** a cathartic ending.  (longer review)
5. The Knick, HBO-Every medical procedural (from Grey's Anatomy to E.R.) should just be set back 100 years in time where medicine was more like alchemy than an exact science. "Patient is not responding! I want some leaches and epoxy salts under his nose stat!" That Clive Owen only got nominated for one Oscar astounds me.
6. Quick Draw, Hulu-It’s understandable that this TV show would be underappreciated considering: 1) It is on a network that really hasn’t had any visible hits, and 2) the creator’s last show was on TBS during an era when they proved just how little they know about comedy with those annoying “very funny” commercials. It’s worth believing in second chances because while John Lehr’s previous show “10 Items or Less” was a mixture of slightly inventive and bland, “Quick Draw” is in that sublime zone of comedy where the comic climate is so well-established that as long as the characters stay reasonably in character, every attempt at humor is a joke that hits and every joke that hits is a home run.

Second Tier: Shows that are getting it done in style:

1. House of Cards Season 1, Netflix-Lots of interesting tension and great characters. I soured on this show on Season 2 so I'll cover that more there (longer review)
2. John Oliver-When he took over as host of the Daily Show last summer, it was a breath of fresh air that led me to believe he should take over the show. The second best thing happened: Oliver's carved out a niche for his comedy on HBO. Due to the novelty factor, John Oliver is my favorite late night comedian to watch at the moment.
3. Manhattan, WGN-The show isn’t groundbreaking but is certainly watchable. It’s an intelligent historical drama that has a firm grasp of what makes its designated period of history interesting and utilizes that for some good juicy drama. The show manages to touch on social issues from a bygone era from an ironic distance without coming across as overly preachy. The show’s ensemble has mostly unknowns outside of Rushmore/Dollhouse’s Olivia Williams but there are a lot of interesting characters and the ensemble has enough tension so that there’s enough inter-group conflict for a tense World War II pic without a single Nazi. 
4. Legit, FX-The aimless life of an Australian comedian with too much free time on his hands could rival Seinfeld in terms of low-impact storylines (or as Seinfeld called it “nothing”). with  The second season has Jim becoming no worse or better than before, but relatively succeeding at growing up by virtue of the fact that his two roommates have become far more depraved by comparison.
5. Bojack Horseman, Netflix-"BoJack Horseman" isn't particularly easy to get into, but a few episodes in, the show's pathos and interesting character dynamics shines through. Like Will Arnett's previous work, "Arrested Development," the show features characters who aim to be dynamic and get out of their ruts in life. Unlike "Arrested Development" however, the show dares to give them, and us, hope at actual improvement. Either way, there's a definite investment to the characters by season's end that gives the show life. The satire also starts getting sharper once the hidden jokes and the parallels to ABC's TGIF line-up of the 1990's start to reveal themselves. People might not notice on first viewing how spot-on "Horsing Around" gets (longer review)
6.   Royal Pains, USA-I have always maintained that even if “Royal Pains” isn’t the most ambitious show on television, Hank Lawson is one of TV’s most relevant heroes considering the healthcare crisis that’s only intensified since this show premiered in 2009. As medical procedurals go, few are more uplifting than this one. There are no McSteamys and McDreamys here: Just a desperado concierge doctor, a scalpel, lightning-quick diagnosing abilities and the mysterious ability to constantly be around some of the rarest medical emergencies ever recorded (OK, maybe it’s a little more than a scalpel he has). This season’s main thru-lines—The discovery of the Lawson clan’s long-lost sister, the navigation of newlyweds Evan and Paige through a rocky first year, the desire for Jeremiah to step out of his comfort zone—all gibe well and pleasantly focuses on underrepresented dynamics (i.e. siblings, adult-father-and-son) in television. It should also be noted that the series is total scenery/lifestyle porn: People might be falling into comas and strokes in Hank’s presence but they’re having near-death experiences in style. 

Third Teir: Pretty Alright

1. Key and Peele, Comedy Central

2. Crossbones, NBC-Thoroughly enjoyed this pirate saga that has many of the elements of “Pirates of the Caribbean”: beautiful shots of exotic Caribbean locales, swordplay, and the kind of plot twists that come from a pair of mischievous Jack Sparrowish characters who both possess a near-endless capacity for on the fly.

In one ring, we have Blackbeard (John Malkovich), who in this alternate take on history, faked his death and is now living large as a semi-peaceful ruler of an off-the-grid pirate kingdom of his own making. His main foil is combination doctor/spy/ tactician/lover Tom Lowe (Richard Coyle) who is originally sent to expose/kill Blackbeard but ends up in an uneasy alliance with the semi-erratic despot.  There’s also a love triangle between Lowe, free-spirited quartermaster Kate Balfour (I could easily write another paragraph about how enchanting Claire Foy is here) and her handicapped husband (Peter Stebbings).

As for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” comparison (a compare/contrast angle is inevitable considering that is the only other pirate film I have seen), this isn’t the movies but an NBC show that’s relegated to the summer schedule (AKA low-key filler) so adjust your expectations accordingly. It is worth pointing out, however, that while Johnny Depp anchored the Pirates series with a meticulously crafted iconic comic character in Jack Sparrow Jon Malkovich’s humor is unintentional: His interpretation of Blackbeard’s accent is suspiciously Malkovich-like (worth mentioning other than the accent, Malkovich is fine here). But hey, written history can only tell us so much about the accents of 18^th Century pirates. Maybe Blackbeard did sound like John Malkovich?

3. Portlandia, IFC-A solid sketch show about the art and science of looking cool. Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein still find ways to reinvent themselves and refine their concept four seasons in. The show is also a great haven for guest stars whether Steve Buscemi, Bobby Moynihan, Kumail Nanjiani, Kyle MacLachlan, and the Portland Trailblazers. (longer review)

4. Colbert Report, Comedy Central-The announcement that he was going to take over for David Letterman alerted me to the fact that he's been on the air nearly ten years. That's a long time to stay in one character and I have full confidence that he could do another 10 if he wanted. 

Also the Third Tier: Shows That Took Me By Surprise (in a good way)

1. Suburgatory, ABC-After sporadically watching in Season Two, I caught onto the back end of the third season and found a more satisfying and complex entity than I had previously seen. When the show premiered, it had bite to it in its satirizations of suburbia in the form of city folk George and daughter Tessa, who had moved from Manhattan to the uber-suburban town of Chatswain. As sitcom characters are prone to do, Tessa and George found love interests, friends and frenemies which resulted in a dampening of the edge as George and Tessa were no longer outsiders and overly connected to the town they were supposed to be making fun of. I was highly pleased to find a happy medium between these two poles in Season 3 and all the more heartbroken that the show was cancelled.

2. About a Boy, NBC-The pilot episode and the difficulties of adapting a TV show gave me plenty of doubt, but the show was successfully stretched to a longer-term format. These characters are worth investing for in the long run and from an episode-to-episode perspective, it's  nice charming low-key comedy that offers the same thing the book and movie did: unique character dynamics. (Longer Review)

3. Playing House, TBS-The female-centered comedy initially seemed like chick flick territory, but the two leads are charming and have enough chemistry together to sell the show. (Longer Review)

4. Gravity Falls, Disney-It's difficult to put my finger on what makes the show work considering it defies categorization in this animated TV landscape. It's not really a show for kids (thematically too dark) which is especially bizarre considering its on the Disney Channel which is the new Nickelodeon. At the same time, "Gravity Falls" isn't a direct satire of kid's shows and is unironically steeped in the style of a classic kid's show itself. It will take me some thinking to figure out exactly why this show is working for me, but in the meantime, let me report: This show has hooked me and it's seeming to hook quite a few of my peers. Also, let me report: The spunky protagonist Mabel (Kristen Schaal AGAIN) Pines is one of my favorite characters on TV.

5. Glee, Fox-Its been a while since Glee's heyday when it was water cooler talk. That's understandable as the show cycles through characters, romances and plots at high velocities. In that sense, the show is more about style than substance and inevitably the novelty factor wears off without substance. This past season, some of the substance came back into the show as the character development decelerated. Sam, Tina, Artie and Blaine's senior year was split in two giving the cast a bigger chance to gel. (Longer Review)

To be covered in more detail:
I'll Watch It if It's On:
Bad Teacher, CBS; New Girl, Fox; Modern Family, ABC; The Awesomes, Hulu; Fugget About It, Hulu; Parks and Recreation, NBC; American Dad/Family Guy, Fox; Broad City, Comedy Central

What Was I Thinking??: Shows I've Soured On
Under the Dome, Fox; House of Cards (Season 2), Netflix; Deadbeat, Hulu; Halt and Catch Fire, AMC; Mindy Project, Fox

Shows I just never got into:
Hannibal, NBC; The Strain, FX; Turn, AMC; The Middle, ABC