TV reviews of Derry Girls, Disenchantment, The Other Two, Russian Doll, Good Omens

Every year, I do a top 12 TV shows of the year list and because there are so many good shows to watch I often include some honorable mentions:

In this case, I looked at six shows that will likely make my honorable mention list. The fact that five of these TV shows are on screening platforms is reflecting a bigger trend of how I watch TV:

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

Critiquing Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz's Top 100 TV Shows of All Time

As someone who's written listicles, I know it's annoying to
have people on the comment section going "what about this?" but my
hope is to explain theories for the context of choices, suggest alternatives,
and entertain. I also hope to make history as the first person to critique
their work while bubble bathing.

I tried very hard to get it under 20 minutes before
giving up but you have my permission to click around as I count down from 100.
Around 2:00 is when I get to the inherent challenges of a TV canon and I
actually start the list at 4:48.

Alan and Matt's book is:

TV (The Book): Two Experts Pick the Greatest American Shows of All Time.

The authors of this book and I would likely agree that there isn't as established of a TV canon as there is in moviedom because most of the writing about television has generally been by TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly and it has been narrowed around "What to Watch This Week" until the past decade or so. In contrast, film has been seriously analyzed and different decades and auteurs have been matched up against each other since the days of Pauline Kael and the French New Wave.

One downside to this is that TV best-of lists have a lot less variation (everyone loves MASH, I Love Lucy, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cosby Show, etc) and a lot more reliance on ratings to establish what has been the canon (this book's list of shows matches up very closely to how well those shows dominated over their rivals in their ratings).

Another funny thing about a TV best-of list is that to get anything resembling a popular consensus, you need the public to have had some sort of accessibility to the list and entire generations have gone without seeing some of the classics of this list. I for one have never seen All in the Family or Moonlighting because it wasn't on in syndication when I was growing up (I'm generally in the school of thought that good art has to find its way to you and not the other way around).

Even then the socio-economic factors that make a show popular is more pronounced in this meeting because a lot of these shows weren't designed to appeal to broad audiences in the present and film (a director-driven medium) is somewhat more aimed at timelessness. Others might disagree but I'd argue that many shows like Roseanne, Family Ties, and Golden Girls don't particularly age well when watching them in the present day. The clips I've seen of All in the Family seem like a show about a very whiny and shrill family.

My suggestions for classic work that should be considered are: Looney Tunes, Threes Company, Get Smart and Beverly Hillbillies

Contemporary Shows which could have been interesting choices include: Homeland, Better off Ted, Party Down, The Good Wife, Modern Family, Orange is the New Black, Cougar Town, Scandal, Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Man in High Castle, American Horror Story, and Empire

Lastly, shows that took off after the book was released that could be worthy include: Lodge 49, BoJack Horseman, The Americans, Black Mirror, Lady Dynamite, Crashing, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Last Man on Earth, The Good Place, Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Derry Girls, Glow, Silicon Valley, and Review

My articles for Screenprism are now part of The Take

In 2016, I had the pleasure of contributing to a site called Screen Prism where I conferenced in with the creators of the site and they spoke with film writers to create content that answered an FAQ  about film or television with a deep dive. The essays were a great mix of academic and popular in style and I'm extremely proud of my articles for them.

The site morphed into The Take and eventually focused solely on video content so some of my work got buried under the new site design.

Were Movies in the 1950s as White-Washed as Pleasantville Suggests?

https://the-take.com/read/were-movies-of-the-1950s-as-white-washed-as-later-films-like-pleasantville-suggest

Hint: No. This essay was precipitated by noticing that films in the 1940s and 1950s were extremely risque. I often say "Duck Soup" or "Double Indemnity" are great exhibits for how classic movies used to go places that screenwriting often can't today.

How does Mozart in the Jungle Reflect Amazon's New Business Model?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-does-the-pilot-of-mozart-in-the-jungle-reflect-amazons-business-model

I noticed when watching this show that the pilot and the second episode had inconsistencies that got me thinking of Amazon's cross purposes in the creations of the pilot and the rest of the season.

Why don't Characters Never Change in Arrested Development and Seinfeld?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/do-the-characters-of-black-comedies-like-seinfeld-and-arrested-development
This one explored the concept of black comedy. I had never seen "The Peep Show" but the editor kept wanting to add that in.

What is the real-life story of the Hollywood Blacklist Depicted in Trumbo?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-did-the-real-life-hollywood-blacklist-shown-in-trumbo-affect-the-histor

As a student of film history, this one was fairly simple to write up and topical because of the release of the film at the time

Did the Writers Initially Intend for Mac of It's Always Sunny to be Gay?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/has-the-character-of-mac-on-its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-always-been-ga

There have been long discussions on message boards that inspired me to want to talk my own stab at writing this with both my own pet theory and a collection of what a lot of internet contributors were saying about the topic.

How does Ball of Fire Reveal the Themes of a Classic Screwball Comedy?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-does-ball-of-fire-reveal-the-themes-of-the-classic-screwball-comedy
I was recently reading about screwball comedies and class in an old college textbook so this fit right in.

Who really wrote Citizen Kane?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/who-really-wrote-citizen-kane-why-was-there-controversy-over-the-screenwrit
I was fascinated by the fact that Herman Mankiewicz's descendants felt the need to take up the mantle in defense of him decades later. I checked out three books from the library and wrote an article for Nostalgia Digest and reused some of the material here.

How did Cleopatra Destroy a Director and a Studio?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-did-hollywood-disaster-cleopatra-almost-destroy-its-director-and-20th-c
This was from the same Mankiewicz brothers article as above as it was Joseph Mankiewicz who directed "Cleopatra".

American Horror Story: 1984 Review

As I start to utilize YouTube more, it's becoming increasingly easy to post here. This is my review of American Horror Story 1984. AHS is one of the most unpredictable and strange creations on television and occasionally it works, so it's ripe for commentary.

12 best episodes of 2017

"Juan Likes Rice and Chicken" Documentary Now-An absurdist take down of high-end dining involving a Colombian restaurant in the middle of nowhere and the half banana, rice, and chicken dish that drives people wild

"Chadwick’s Angels" Making History-"Time travel with idiots" was the basic gist of this under-rewarded series and few plots were as superfluous as a guy traveling back to the 1980's just to complete an ice cream challenge he failed as a middle schooler. The episode ends with some impressively heavy time travel conundrums.

"Kimmy Goes to College" Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt-The episode features Kimmy Schmidt reuniting with her one true frenemy Xan and surreptitiously finding herself in college while Titus and Mikey end their relationship on the sweetest of terms. 

"Real Secrets" Real O’Neals-The season finale is a high stakes episode with a possible marraige proposal and pregnancy scare. More importantly it ends with Eileen using all her collected wisdom as a recovering homophobe to win over Allison's disapproving parents. Like many of the show's episodes, it ends with the appropriate "aw" moment

"Always an Oscar Bridesmaid" Documentary Now-Fred Armisen's love of quirk combined with the show's love of milking out little details of derivation from the original story result in a a great season finale about a man who Forrest Gumps his way through the last 50 years of Hollywood Awards history.

"The Gang Tends Bar" It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia-Of all the adventures the gang has tried, they've never done one where the gang simply does their jobs.

"Jason Mendoza" Good Place-The cliffhanger for the last episode is that the buddhist monk is, in fact, Jason Mendoza but we had no idea he was this stupid and fun. One of the season's big shockers.

"Eight Mile High"Those Who Can’t-Abby joins a gang and Loren enters the world of freestyle rapping. It's about as hard-core (and oblivious) as these characters. Also earns points for being so politically incorrect it comes back to satire (either that or dumb fun)

"Prince and the Pauper" Another Period-A prince comes to Bellacourt manner seeking a bride. The episode's an excuse for Lillian and Beartice to unleash their most awful traits and for Peepers to get schooled in the art of butlership. And poor, poor Blanche.

"Michael’s Gambit" The Good Place-AKA The episode with the big twist

"That’s Too Much Man" BoJack Horseman-BoJack's demons become completely unhinged in this time-skipping episode that pairs BoJack with old costar (and on-again off-again) friend Sarah Lynn. It's an episode where BoJack reaches some odd level of self-discovery with a person who has always been important to his life in an odd way that appropriately ends tragically. Happiness is fleeting indeed.

"Fish Out of Water" BoJack Horseman-The visually splended underwater episode that was talked about everywhere on the blogosphere.

My New YouTube Video Channel on Films Where'd You Go Bernadette, Late Night, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

This past Sunday, I woke up extremely lethargic and stayed in bed until a little past noon so I decided I needed a project. At the start of 2018, I thought I'd review every film I'd seen in 2017 but that never got off the ground so I thought I'd start again and I didn't even get out of bed. Over the course of the next 24 hours whether taking a bath, waiting for a restaurant or switching metros, I reviewed all but three of the films I'd seen in 24 hours.

The first was "Where'd You Go Bernadette" which was my third favorite film of the year because it managed to squeeze in complex issues of mental health with a light comedic tone in what was kind of a PG movie. 

The second was "Late Night" written by Mindy Kaling about her own experiences as a diversity hire in many writer's rooms including "The Office." For a film that likely begins with a an agenda about visibility and how the world is all smiles and rainbows if we include POC and women, it has a surprisingly good amount of nuance.

I did "Zombieland" and "The Good Liar" before I got out of bed. I haven't uploaded those ones but I also did "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" the next morning as I was leaving for upstate New York the next morning.

 

5 Movie Reviews: Zombieland Double Tap, Dolemite is My Name, Laundromat, Honey Boy, and Terminator Dark Fate

Zombieland Double Tap: "Zombieland" is innovative in its special effects and in an era when one out of every three movies has people shooting at people in some form, that's quite a compliment. The film is littered with clever narration and on-screen text but the use of both treads the fine line between additive and cloying.

More importantly, the film has chemistry between its quartet who form a found family and the introduction of Zoey Deutch as a valley girl along with cameos by Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch are comic highlights.

For someone who has no inherent attraction to the zombie genre, I thoroughly enjoyed this film and that's saying a lot.




Terminator Dark Fate- After three extremely underwhelming sequels, it’s pretty miraculous alone that James Cameron and company managed to make something halfway decent. Like “Logan”, a future-leaning genre is given n post-modern Western feel by setting it in the desert landscape of Mexico. While the return of Linda Hamilton’s  Sarah Connor character was hyped up as the missing ingredient, she’s a disappointing straw man, and it’s really Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mellowed-out performance (as opposed to his annoyingly silly performances in “Terminator: Genysis”) that steals the show. The high-water mark of the franchise was “Terminator 2” which combined the state-of-the-art action and novelty factor with a Spielbergian story of a kid and an unconventional parent figure. Although McKenzie Davis and Natalia Reyes have their pluses, this film doesn’t capture that magic from “Terminator 2” but the action is a non-stop adrenaline rush.


Dolemite is My Name-The “film behind the film” genre can get pretty tired but Rudy Ray Moore was such an audacious anamoly (I was planning to use the word “original” until I realized he stole his act and still remained a likeable protagonist) that his biopic is worth exploring. The rags-to-riches rise of Moore is a tale of perseverance, adaptation to the times, and is laced with underlying racial commentary without being preachy. The show boasts a strong ensemble but no one overshadows Eddie Murphy which is the way it should be: His performance needs room to  shine.


The Laundromaut-The film will garner comparisons to “The Big Short” because of the fourth wall devices, focus on financial fraud, and the loose cobbling together of different plot threads. This film is a bit more stylized (the typography is quite heavenly) but it’s a pretty apt comparison. Because “The Big Short” came first, this one’s going to look fairly derivative by comparison, but it also is a film that feels a bit pretentious and uninspired outside of its gimmickry. For an ensemble film, the film seems to put its focus in the wrong places as well. Some of the subplots don’t seem to have a suitably meaty arc and (some are going to differ from me) Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas’ characters are underused here. The two are treated as emcees to tie together the string of events rather when they could be more deeply involved in the story themselves. Still, the cast is rather impressive and the film has its moments.


Honey Boy-The film is difficult to take because it portrays parental abuse so barely, but it is an assured work of art. Shia LaBeouf has been a very unconventional star and this is a culmination of much of his grappling with himself that’s happened in public. He faced the same hurdles of growing up under the limelight that has befallen other child actors and he's been charged with drunk driving, plagiarism, bad relationships with co-stars, concealing on-set relationships, and and misbehaving so badly during a Broadway performance that he got thrown out of a theater and sent to jail. Rather than follow the script during his rehabilitation,his form of damage control in these situations, he used transparent honesty. This resulted in one of the funniest interviews I've ever seen on Jimmy Kimmel, the I'm Sorry Tour, and the thing where he watched his own movies. And now this film.