My Journey to Save the Democrats in North Carolina: Part I

I am normally not a travel writer, but I thought I would share some of my work. I was able to raise $590 by crowd-funding to North Carolina this past week to work for the state's democratic party and wrote about my travels.

Post One:

The “organizer”* of our mission, Josh, has mentioned that this is a really unique grassroots movement because a lot of its members weren’t active in politics before Hurricane Trump. In fact, I’m not sure if I can remember much about my political leanings before November of 2016 and, to be entirely honest, I found people who posted about politics on their facebook walls to be irritating. But if the government is extreme enough and tangibly damaging lives, you have to react if you have empathy.

*Full disclosure, I don’t know who is organizing this mission. Josh just sent me the initial email and when I spoke with him, he denied being the organizer of anything almost as if it were a criminal liability. He attempted to explain me the hierarchy of how all this works but it was a snoozefest, so I tuned out, sorry.

At the same time, it’s another thing to get into. For about a dozen years I followed the NBA closely but as the players with whom I was most familiar retired and they kept having so many drafts where people who were younger than me kept entering the league whereas my ability to jump, dunk, and run got worse. Kind of depressing. Apparently, the people you’re voting for being younger than you will pretty much never be a problem in this sport.

In that same sense, I’ve devoted much of my energy in the past four years to learning the names of the 100 senators and familiarizing myself with where they stand, because: 1) Let’s be honest, 435 Represenatives is way too many so screw them and 2) We unfortunately couldn’t do anything about the executive branch for four years, but congress had the power to keep him in check. I also called, visited the offices of, and wrote emails to the offices of senators who sucked at their jobs (and wouldn’t you know it, they were all Republicans).

Fun fact: I was sort of kind of named for one of those 100 senators, Orrin G Hatch, and I had the pleasure of delivering a hand written letter to his staffers somewhere in 2017 about how I was ashamed to be named after him when he absolved filibuster rules to confirm a corrupt Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who (wouldn’t you know it) resigned in disgrace.

In all honesty, following the NBA and following the Senate isn’t actually that different. Instead of box scores, you can check voting records or polls or scores. It’s also interesting to note that there are several Senators like Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker, and Ted Cruz who the average person knows of because they make the news often, while there are several of them who get by under the spotlight. Have you heard of a guy named Ron Wyden or Deb Harris? Or maybe her surname is Fisher? She’s a Republican from Nebraska and I actually met her through Capitol Hill but I can’t remember.

In 2018, I was a member of the press club and surrounded by a more politically active group of people and one introduced me to a site called Real Clear Politics where you can follow the polls day-by-day and I started realizing that about eight states were in play in the Senate race (we ended up winning Nevada and Arizona while losing Florida, Texas, Indiana, North Dakota, Missouri, and Tennessee) and wanted to make a difference there. I originally decided to phone bank, but looking for creative ways to take vacations, I considered possibly getting employment in Tennessee or Florida and moving there temporarily. The getting-paid-to-go plans fell apart and I contemplated travelling to Florida anyway and staying in a hostel.

Not doing that was a big regret I’ve had over the past two years. And to think Floridian Senator Bill Nelson lost by 10,000 votes to a guy who distanced himself from Trump at the time and claimed bipartisan credentials but voted to deny even hearing evidence at the impeachment trial and has blamed the failure of things to get done in Washington on a leftist obstructionist agenda. Think of how the  Supreme Court battle or the impeachment trial or several other issues  would have changed in the last two years if we’d had one more Democratic seat in the house.

So I’m going to North Carolina this week. Everything is in play here. A close senate race, the governorship and more. I don’t have clear instructions of what I’m doing (I blame the orientation for being so boring) or how much of a difference I’m making, but it’s an adventure.

Darren Keeps His Distance From Us

Post Two:
If I’m going to attract people to my writings here, it behooves me to paint myself as a heroic crusader to protect the integrity of the vote, but so far I've felt pretty unheroic in the first two days.

A party organizer named Gary explained that a lot of the rural districts where things lean very red is where voter suppression is most likely to happen which is where I am not.

The main things to look for in voter suppression are lines being too long, rejecting ballots that shouldn’t be rejected, an unnecessary police presence, misinformation being given to voters, and intimidation. The “intimidation” call is a fine line that I’m not sure if I’m trained to make.

 

I’m not sure if it’s Southern hospitality or a small sample size but I didn’t seen too much of anything but civility.

On the first day, I encountered an African-American democrat named George and his white Republican counterpart Darren.

AJ told me that the Republicans lie and something like we’d be screwed if the Republicans win but he also said that Darren is fine people. I was too tired of wishing the Republicans dead at this point so I tried to make a peace offering to Darren by saying that I hope we’d have a more bipartisan country when the election is over, but he responded that he didn’t trust the other side. At the same time, he softened over time.

Because I was sitting farther away from the stream of people on the first day, I was left to hear the conversations of AJ and a security guard who had an hour break and went to go hang out with us. They talked about how the KKK was nearby and when I asked if there was a lot of fear of growing up black in this area, they said well, there is racism, but there’s just a lot of crime around here. Also, this is 2020 and the blacks have guns now. Touche!

 

More than anything else, this is an economically depressed town. Racism is alleviated a fair bit through the military presence I’m told, but the military can’t fill all the empty storefronts.

Fayetteville doesn’t have a lot of local investment in industry like the nearby research triangle (Durham-Chapel Hill-Raleigh) so it’s struggling. It does have the largest military base in the country up the road and everyone loves the second amendment no matter who you are. This metropolitan area ranks among the highest in gun ownership. The security guard is on duty (which I’m presuming grants him a gun already?) and still his own gun in his car while Mike had eight guns.

A number of people at the polls who were first-time voters were very celebratory and were taking selfies. A group of four (three adults and one kid, I’m guessing two of the adults were a couple) came out of the polls asking a poll worker to take their picture because it was their first time voting. Wanting to commemorate the occasion is more than I’ve ever done but I can get that. What I don’t understand is if you have that much excitement about voting, why didn’t you do it before? Strangely enough, many of these people were older than 22. I’m not surprised that people aren’t passionate about politics; I’m more surprised they didn’t step up to the plate when  voting itself doesn’t require a lot of effort.

I asked these people a couple questions and the general consensus is that they didn’t vote before because they didn’t feel as strongly. The missing piece of information I had is which candidate roused you to action? I didn’t feel comfortable asking that piece of information (and it might have not been legal, anyway).

 

One young woman I spoke with was pretty defiant of her mother who said “I’ll take the Democratic literature, thank you” while her mom said “don’t worry her mama’s a Trump supporter.” For some reason, being at the polls made me number than I would have been in cyberspace to see an enthusiastic Trump supporter. Maybe knowing the polls favor Biden helps? The daughter said health care was the biggest factor in her vote.

George’s niece and her family came by and they were talkative (Southern charm?) with me which was pretty surprising not just because it seemed like an inappropriate place but because, well, I read as white. To the degree that I’m scared of white Republicans, I’m also a little weary of engaging in serious talks with black people with such a climate of micro-aggression policing.

 

What everyone could agree on was that I was “way out in the country” but I was within five miles of city limits. Apparently, if it’s a small North Carolina town, there really isn’t much in the way of suburbs. I could have run a 10K race to get back to Fayetteville and they treated me like I was on the movie Cast Away when I told them I had Ubered. At the end of the night, Darren, my enemy, kept worrying about me and telling me to get an Uber back.

First-time voters taking a selfie

Post Three:
Today I stopped by the makeshift headquarters and met Ronnie. She is a young, overworked desk jockey who will give you a free t-shirt and stickers if you’re nice.  

As Trump is saying more and more ridiculous things, I keep getting the motivation to want to work and beat him, but I had a thought: What happens when that motivation is gone? If he loses, where do we put our political energy? One certainty is that as I talk to people here who have a “what has government done for me lately” attitude, I realize that the solution is to have a public who knows exactly what government does and doesn’t do, and what it is currently doing. Then they won’t be willing to toss aside a very real functioning institution for an abstract vision sold to them by a madman who yells louder than anyone else.

Today, in my quest to know “what is voter intimidation”, I had to contend with a Vietnam veteran for Trump named Mike who I didn’t know how to classify. One of the first things he said was how he wanted to rip up those  Biden-Trump signs and had torn down 250 of them this past week. Exactly what you’re supposed to not be doing! It turns out that he and his democratic counterpart at this station, AJ, had been here for almost two weeks together and developed enough of a camaraderie that they could make jokes like that. I still cautiously sent a note through the reporting system.

If you’re not sure what constitutes voter intimidation, Mike is your worst nightmare. He also is a bit rough around the edges. He engaged in some “locker room” talk about the female voters passing by and made an off-color joke about San Francisco and gay people that was probably 15 years away from being considered acceptable.

But had an interesting history. Mike was a Vietnam War veteran who illegally voted four times against Ronald Reagan and is still a registered Democrat. He enthusiastically voted for Obama because he grew up with mostly black friends, but he was disappointed with Benghazi. When I pointed out that most prominent military leaders have broken with Trump, he said that he knew Mattis and John Kelly (the DHS Chief and Chief of Staff) and they were both not well-respected (which brings the follow-up: Why did Trump hire them?). At the very least, Mike could list me some prominent generals he liked.

When I said that maybe it was best to not discuss politics, he asked if it bothered him that he was smarter than me. I wasn’t really in the mood for argument and felt the need to try to talk about how I’m for bipartisanism and talk about stuff I might politically have in common with him.  

Eventually, I saw the good in Mike. As a sign of the camaraderie between AJ and Mike, the latter offered to give the former a lift when the banks closed and asked me to distribute pamphlets of both parties. In fact, Mike and AJ agreed to distribute each other’s pamphlets when the other took a break.

I had the feeling that Mike was just an elderly extrovert who really needed to talk to people for his own health. When I started ignoring him and putting on headphones, Mike talked harder to me in desperation to have someone to talk to and asked about bars in DC or if it’s easy to see the monuments in DC. Besides he knew the rules: He never explicitly campaigned for Trump and engaged both democrats and Republicans.

On the second night, Gary gave me a ride home and said Mike was harmless. There had really been one report of a legitimate threat in the 12 polling stations that day so I missed out.

Post Two:

If I’m going to attract people to my writings here, it behooves me to paint myself as a heroic crusader to protect the integrity of the vote, but so far I've felt pretty unheroic through two days of poll observing.

A party organizer named Gary explained, while shuttling me between polling stations, that a lot of the rural districts where things lean very red is where voter suppression is most likely to happen. The other poll observers didn’t really have much to report either except for a Trump.

The main culprits are lines being too long, rejecting ballots that shouldn’t be rejected, an unnecessary police presence, misinformation being given to voters, and intimidation. The “intimidation” call is a fine line that I’m not sure if I’m trained to make.

There was a military veteran for Trump who seemed kind of mouthy and obnoxious at first and I didn’t know how to classify him. One of the first things he said was how he wanted to rip up those  Biden-Trump signs and had torn down 250 of them this past week. Exactly what you’re supposed to not be doing! It turns out that him and his democratic counterpart at this station, AJ had been here for almost two weeks together and developed enough of a camaraderie that they could make jokes like that. I still cautiously sent a note through the system alerting them to him.

His name was Mike and he was a Vietnam War veteran who illegally voted four times against Ronald Reagan and described himself as a registered Democrat who voted for Obama but was disappointed with Benghazi. When I pointed out that most prominent military leaders have broken with Trump, he said that he knew Mattis and John Kelly (the DHS Chief and Chief of Staff) and they were both not well-respected (which brings the follow-up: Why did Trump hire them?). At the very least, Mike could list me some prominent generals he liked. When A.J. spoke about how he and Mike have a good system of respecting each others views, I’m not sure what he was talking about at first.

When I said that maybe the best way to do that was not discuss politics, he asked if it bothered him that he was smarter than me. I wasn’t really in the mood for much argument and felt the need to try to talk about how I’m for bipartisanism and talk about stuff I might politically have in common with him.  He voted for some Democrats but he had a lot of loud opinions including the congresswoman incumbent that was paying AJ. He also engaged in some “locker room” talk about the female voters passing by, but he knew the laws and was pretty careful to not break them. It turned out he was joking about tearing down the Biden signs because he knew that was against the law and how long he’d go to prison here.

For the most part, he and AJ had truly gotten along. When AJ lamented that he had to go to the bank before it closed, Mike offered to give him a lift and asked me to distribute pamphlets of both parties, and the two agreed to distribute each other’s pamphlets. I had the feeling that Mike was just an elderly extrovert who really needed to talk to people for his own health. He never explicitly campaigned for Trump and engaged both democrats and Republicans about anything and everything worth talking about, including military health plans, medics, what to do about when you get old and your bones fail you, tattoos, etc.

When I started ignoring him and putting on headphones, Mike talked harder to me in desperation to have someone to talk to and asked about bars in DC or if it’s easy to see the monuments in DC.


At least things were better here than on day one where I had almost no idea what I was doing. I am not a resident of Cumberland County, NC, so I can’t be put on the official poll watchers list received by the county board of elections. I can coordinate with inside poll watchers but I’m sort of a rogue free agent.


I was told before going down that this was a seamless operation but a lot of people (most of whom are volunteering) are simply playing catch-up to a logistical reality they were never that educated on. I’m not suggesting this means that Biden and the Democrats won’t perform awesomely on election day. Nothing that’s been messed up with my logistics has really impacted any voters because I’m not seeing much disenfranchisement at all. It’s just little details. Today I’ve been outside of the democratic headquarters for an hour typing this up because my two-step verification and password won’t go into the app that is supposed to contain the script and everything for me to go GOTV canvassing (knocking on the doors of the half million registered democrats who haven’t voted yet and trying to pump them into action).

 

Oscar Best Picture Nominees of the 10s by Setting

I often enjoy taking quizzes at Sporcle and sometimes I create my own. This is about the settings of Oscar-nominated films. The idea that the Oscars are more in love with the definite past than the indefinite present and the future is especially prescient in a listing like this.

Eight Observations about Cobra Kai

1.      Cobra Kai can best be thought of as a time capsule of the 1980s and that’s its appeal. Particularly in an era of endless reboots, Cobra Kai is carefully constructed to appear like something that would have been released in 1990. The way of drawing heroes and villains; the imagining of a school administration that hasn’t been re-educated post-Columbine to keep an eye on bullying; the synthesizer-heavy score and filming cues, are all very '80s. 

 

 

2.     Shows that are meant to preserve the old-school feel of their source material— I’m thinking prequels like Gotham (Tim Burton’s Batman universe) and Bates Motel (Psycho)—often attempt a middle ground by stripping away the modern elements like showing cell phones and other signs of 21^st century culture in the frame. This results in an odd anachronistic stew, whereas  Cobra Kai has the opposite (and I think better) approach of acknowledging that it is set in the present day while centering on two characters who are technologically stuck in the 20^th century. Of the pair, Johnny simply never learned to adapt technologically (and symbolically beyond) whereas Danny is aware that the 21^st century exists (particularly in the form of his bratty son) but wants to champion getting off the grid and sees karate as a means to that (a meta-commentary on how the show itself wants to celebrate karate)

3.       What might be best about the 80s fight scenes is the lack of special effects involved and distinct fighting styles. Again, popularity isn’t in a vacuum. When we have been inundated with special effects and CGI, watching fighting this pure is twice as appealing.

4.       The show is being championed for the shades of gray with which it paints Danny and Johnny. TV is a medium that is now being recognized for its ability to develop characters at a multi-layered level that a two-hour movie won’t be able to achieve. What’s genuinely impressive is that two high school rivals who haven’t let go (to various degrees) of their glory days is a great set-up for a show’s central relationship and Cobra Kai keeps the circumstances realistic.

5.       The '80s component of this series is that pretty much everyone they (and their students) encounter turn out to be jerks worth beating up. Otherwise, how can you keep these characters root-able through several violent turns? It’s a lot of straw-manning and plot contrivance but, hey, I like the plot, so I’m not complaining. Part of the subtext of the universe, where they’re constantly running into thugs like an eight-bit Nintendo game, is that the (now discredited) war on drugs and other media messaging of the 80s had us believe that to survive in poor, urban parts of the country (like Receta), kids had to have fighting ability. Films like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Stand and Deliver, and the Terminator series seemed to enforce this narrative.   

 

6.       That being said, a lot of the main characters change at such lightning speed that it’s pure whiplash. Robbie suddenly turns from delinquent to All-American role model in five seconds? Moon bullied Asha in Season one without batting an eyelash and then her entire character backstory is that she’s all about peace and love? At least Hawk’s 180 from having too little to too much confidence were met with a self-awareness in-universe through Dimitri. Change in Golden Age TV is great and what keeps us going but generally shows like The Americans, Homeland, Ozark or Breaking Bad feature characters who are pushed to change through intense circumstances and those changes are gradual. Because the circumstances are far less extreme, it can come off as jarring. 

7.       The second season finale was just sublime. It bears so much resemblance to the conclusion of West Side Story that one has to wonder if the writers were conscious of that connection. Before the big (and extremely well-choreographed) fight, the stories were told from the melodramatic points of views of the characters. When actual damage was done, there was a major focus pull back to the real world as the kids woke up to the fact that kicking and punching can actually hurt people. Worth asking: Miguel was the obviously the biggest casualty of the fight, but how many others besides Sam landed in the hospital? I bet it would have been interesting to see the news coverage of that event. 

8.       Lively debates need to be had over whether Daniel LaRusso is a dorky or cool dad and whether the actors who play the LaRusso family have good chemistry with each other. There’s a certain schmaltzy, TGIF quality to the Amanda-Daniel scenes as well as the Daniel-Samantha scenes, but it’s genuinely convincing that Samantha is somewhat of a daddy’s girl. The dialogue in these scenes can seem a little stilted but Daniel is an impressive enough character to overcome it.

Reviews: Teenage Bounty Hunters, The Boys Season 2, Umbrella Academy, Schooled, Teenage Bounty Hunters, Transplant

Teenage Bounty Hunters (Netflix)-With 13 Reasons Why, Sex Education, The Society, Never Have I Ever, Lost and Found, Derry Girls, and The Politician (which began in high school), Netflix is really going all in on the CW formula of attracting teenage audiences. 

The story revolves around two twins, Blair and Sterling, who go to a strict Christian school in Georgia where a lot of the rules of teenage coolness are inverted. Being celibate, getting good grades, and showing your love of God are all in. There's a great deal of contrast between the twins in that Blair has a conscious urge to rebel against the establishment whereas Sterling is pretty much the establishment is fellowship leader of the Christian prayer group and begins the series as half of the school's royal couple.
In the pre-credits sequence in the first episode, Sterling loses her virginity with her long-time boyfriend while Blair has a hook-up that arrives at, shall we say, a lesser base and talks about how she's going to go all the way this year with a hint of pride that she's farther along than her sis. There's a friendly jealousy between the pair.

On top of that, the two have some family drama and deal with Sterling's bratty rival April.

Oh yeah, and they get a side gig chase down criminals. It's kind of jammed in premise-wise but it works as it ties in thematically to the pair having to live a double life as sexual beings in a society that encourages teenage sexlessness.

The show plays around with hypocrisy of religion with a nuance that doesn't necessarily damn the Christain characters on the show. In fact, the virtuous teacher Ellen is one of the bright spots on the show. 

Transplant (NBC)-A great pilot episode followed by diminished returns. A Syrian refugee in Toronto is relegated to cooking kebabs because immigration's a bitch. Until one day.... An ambulance drives into his kebab joint and he cleverly MacGuyvers his way through three life-saving procedures including the most prestigious head surgeon in Toronto. Kind of a coincidence, but whatever. The pilot is really exciting because the protagonist is this unknown guy going rogue in the hospital to give more medical assistance and evading police who want to racially profile the hell out of him for the crime. 

I cover this show weekly, so please check it out here at TV Fanatic:
https://www.tvfanatic.com/2020/09/transplant-season-1-episode-1-review-medicine-and-immigration-mi/



Schooled (ABC)-There have been other high school sitcoms  comedies focusing on teachers at a school, this one is a bit more sweet than snarky (Judy Greer was in a short-lived series called Miss Guided) with a female protagonist who has a lot of doubts about her life that she voices in voiceover. She has a long-distance boyfriend and a manic pixie dream guy at the school she falls for. Tim Meadows is a principal who's main trait is being too eager to please but he plays it well. 

Since the success of Modern Family, ABC has milked the genre into a new brand of edgier TGIF fare featuring families, nostalgic irony, and humorously tinged fables. Fresh off the Boat, the Real O'Neals, Speechless, Suburgatory, Blackish and two others I haven't seen (Middle and The Goldbergs).

Unlike some of those shows, however, the characters here are very static and their actions in each episode are predictable. There's also something just a little off-putting about the lead that I can't put my finger on. 

Lower Decks (CBS All-Access)-Both Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Lower Decks") and Star Trek: Voyager ("The Good Shephard") devoted an episode to people in the lower ranks of the ship which did wonders for filling out the character of each ship's crew. However, the TNG episode (which this series is reported to be based on in particular) highlighted the holes of Star Trek's supposed post-capitalism society more than it presented us with deep characters.

Those guys were all biting their nails for promotions but what motivated them to want them when there's no actual pay raise? My theory is we get attached to Star Trek as kids where we think of money in abstract terms and dream of status (AKA being one of the cool kids in school) so the motivations of those ensigns makes sense. However, as adults with real fiscal responsibilities, episodes like "Lower Decks" don't hold up as much on rewatch.

Wouldn't there be some slackers on board?

In the world of "Lower Decks" (which I believe it still canon), this is question is answered. Hallelujah!

Tawny Newsome plays Beckett Mariner who is among the most competent crew members on the ship but doesn't want to get involved with all the bureaucratic hassles of a promotion. She is quite probably the most competent member on the entire ship and most of the plots revolve around her saving the day without pesky protocols. 

If there's one person who can challenge her, it's the ship's captain (Dawnn Lewis) who also happens to be her mom. How appropriate. 

Another foil for her is her good friend Ensign Boimler (Jack Quaid, The Boys) who exaggerates the conflictless (and oftentimes boring) world of TNG by angling so hard to be a promotion-loving goody two shoes that his number one motivation in life is to follow the rules. This goes double for Noel Well's Ensign Tendi who wants to be liked so badly, she's in-your-face about it. 

Aside from this, the show takes no prisoners in skewering Star Trek across the board and is so well-entrenched in the minutia of Star Trek, that a small niche of the coverage of the show has simply been  pointing out the Easter Eggs of each episode to the delight of fans. 

The show is easily one of the best parodies out there because, above all, it's extremely funny and extremely consistent with its jokes.

Umbrella Academy (Neflix)/The Boys (Amazon)-(through two episodes) Both superhero shows keep chugging along in second seasons that manage to keep the momentum going from the first despite massive shake-ups.

"The Boys" has lost a few key players to the mortal coil but has managed to add some interesting additions (particularly Aya Cash's Stormfront who speaks her mind to say the last). Unlike the first season, there's a sense here that Hughie isn't the central character but just one member of "The Boys" (perhaps the most privileged). On the Vought side, the focus is more on the psychotic Homelander and what it might take to stop in (so far, the boss of the company is keeping him in check).  

"Umbrella Academy" with all seven characters jumping through time to Dallas in the 1960s. Like much other speculative pop culture literature, this focuses on the "What if" of John Kennedy's assassination. The show is more of a stylistic extravaganza than something I watch for plot but that's the basic gist. 

25 Best TV Characters of 2018

Again, check out my patreon  to keep me in business. Don't worry. Though I'm posting this in 2020, I have a 2019 edition of this list lined up too. I also did these lists between 2012 and 2015 if you click on the top 25 character tab.

1.       Pete Holmes as himself, Crashing (HBO)-As opposed to most comedians (or the fictionalized TV versions of themselves) who just want to get ahead, this show has a protagonist who’s sincerely trying to navigate the changing boundaries of integrity as he gets a taste of success in the world of stand-up. The apologetic Holmes is gangly, awkward and sometimes wrong but there’s an underlying sweetness to him.

2.       Giovanni Ribisi as Marius Josipovic/Pete Murphy, Sneaky Pete (Amazon)-Watching genius at work is why we’re attracted to a character like Pete whose extroadinary abilities to think on the fly, read people, and work a con make him almost like a stateside Sherlock Holmes on the wrong side of the law. With a supreme expertise in his field, Pete is in the mold of the procedurals of the aughts (particularly Burn Notice but also House and Monk) but his backstory and the progression of his relationship to the Murphy clan make him fit into the serialized mold as well.  

3.       Julie Garner as Ruth Langmore, Ozark (Netflix)-Ruth feels like she wouldn’t fit in anywhere other than the Missouri/Arkansas border and that’s great for the show. She’s pragmatic and tough-as-nails but she doesn’t shy away from showing her emotions with her allegiance to her boss or her hope for a better future for her cousin.

4.       Kristin Chenoweth as Lavinia Peck-Foster, Trial and Error (NBC)-To fill in the shoes of John Lithgow’s unapologetically weird professor and carry the momentum of a sitcom into a second season with entirely different, Chenoweth had a high bar to meet. She’s not just a great caricature of disconnected rich privilege, but she also is a great example of the bunny ears lawyer trope (someone who shouldn’t be as effective professionally as they are) as killers go considering she seems to have so little awareness of reality.

5.       Manny Jacinto as Jason Mendoza, Good Place (NBC)-There is now depth to the stupidity of Jason Mendoza that can’t be mined for comedy. This year’s Jason-centered episode “The Ballad of Donkey Doug” proved quite a bit of impressive backstory for a guy who’s Jacksonville upbringing has sounded too ridiculous to be true.

6.       Wyatt Russell as Sean “Dud” Dudley, Lodge 49 (AMC)-Think of how great the world would be  if we had more people as open to other people (of all generations) and as curious about the world around them as Dudley. The seemingly dense surfer has had some bad breaks with the death of his dad and the decline of his pool business but he never stops seeing the glass as half full.

7.       Carla Jiminez as Alba, The Mick (Fox)-The opening scene of the pilot shows us a protagonist who saunters into a grocery store and uses the cosmetics aisle for her morning routine without even paying. But even then, she’s not the most id-driven character on the show. That would be the nanny left over from a past regime who will happily shirk responsibility and go on a bender if the situation calls for it. She’s also body positive.

8.       Juliett Lewis as Jandice, Camping (HBO)-Most suburbanites probably know a soccer mom or HOA member who resembles Jennifer Garner’s uptight camping trip organizer Kathryn. Likewise, most of those people wish that those Kathryns in their lives could be paired up with a foil like the boundary-pushing hippyish Jandice.

9.       Wilson Bethel as Ben “Bullseye” Pondexter, Daredevil (Netflix)-A fitting doppelganger to our title character, Daredevil’s powers are more fully spelled out than in any other iteration of this story which makes his fight scenes both cool (duh) and menacing within the context of this higher-stakes story.  

10.   Allisyn Ashley Arm as Heather, AP Bio (NBC)-Heather started as one of about  dozen students in  fraudulent teacher Jack Griffin’s teacher through which limited screentime has been divided. But Arm used every opportunity when the camera was on her and every line delivery to be spectacularly eccentric and a treasure in her own right.

11.   Dale Soules as Frieda Berlin, Orange is the New Black (Netflix)-The focus of the show’s sixth season was on two feuding sisters who turned the rest of the prisoners into competing gangs. The squirrelly Frida managed to show how far her survivor instincts had gotten her by quietly outsmarting the show’s main villains in Rube Goldberg fashion.

12.   Jordana Spiro as Rachel, Ozark (Netflix)-The kinds of characters in these high-pressure dramas (like Breaking Bad or The Americans) that get caught between conflicting sides with no way out are generally the innocent bystanders worth rooting for. Rachel is a resilient firecracker with good instincts and it’s wonderful to see her make it out alive.

14.   Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Daredevil (Netflix)-In my previous iteration of this list, I felt I had to make room for Foggy, Matt, and Karen as all three big something to the team besides being well-drawn characters themselves. As the stakes felt higher and the story became more gripping, Karen was the one who was most transparent with her dread and resolve. She also made the list the last time I did this.

15.   Nick Sandow as Warden Joe Caputo, Orange is the New Black (Netflix)-Obviously the main storyline of Season 6 is Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson but to see an ally say he’ll do something and then put his money where his mouth is, is quite cathartic. Yes, the white savior trope can be debated but that doesn’t necessarily mean Taystee’s story has been diminished or Caputo’s stepping up isn’t insignificant.

16.   Tony Shalhoub as Abe Weinberg, Marvelous Mrs Maisel (Amazon)-Poor Abe. Certainly not the most stringent and unreasonable of old-world Jewish fathers from the era but he’s been dealing with a world that’s changed too fast for his comfort. He should have given his wife more agency, and he should have been  less stubborn about his university , but Amy Sherman-Palladino’s shows aren’t built around tragedies: Hopefully, there’s room for Abe to grow in later seasons.

17.   Brandon Flynn as Justin Foley, 13 Reasons Why (Netflix)-While 13 Reasons Why can be tonally inconsistent and come across more like a typical high school show than something worthy of the topics it broaches, Justin has been written surprisingly strong this season. He’s dealt with guilt and remorse over enabling rape, a broken family, a drug addiction, threats from a step-mom and a betrayal by his best friend and it’s all been handled in such a way that I can’t take my eyes off the guy.

18.   D’Arcy Carden as Janet, Good Place (NBC)-Janet can literally do anything, but it’s the moments when she chooses to deal with the mundanities of, say, getting over an ex or dealing with people who aren't at her speed (like Michael typing at 6 wpm) where she shines. And bonus points for that bar brawl that she impulsively starts against Sean's demons in her dress and high heels. And even more bonus points for the creation of the second best character on the show in Jason Matzoukas’s Derrick.

19.   Carol Kane as Lily Kaushtupper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix)-The final half-season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was a great showcase for the whole cast but count me in for more of the unattached Lily who has Tracy-Jordan-like namedrops to past chapters of past badassery. Kane gives the monologue of the season

20.   Hillary Anne Matthews as Diedre, Alex Inc (ABC)-An example of how an otherwise forgettable show can be watchable just to see a scene-stealing side character. Deidre is a scatter-brained assistant whose clinginess to her boss (Zach Braff) overtly borders on obsession.

21.   Cedric the Entertainer as Scott Joplin, Another Period (Comedy Central)-Part of the fun of this show has been the exaggerated cameos of historical figures who inexplicably make their way into the lives of the Bellacourt clan like Sigmund Freud (Chris Parnell), Albert Einstein (Matt Bessar) and Thomas Edison (Stephen Tobolowsky). Perhaps none of these comic characters is as cleverly constructed as the show’s version of Scott Joplin who’s presented as an aughts version of Kanye West (complete with self-worship and an Armenian bride).

22.   Libe Barer as Carly Bowman, Sneaky Pete (Amazon)-The Brendon de Wilde to Alan Ladd’s Shane, Carly is the kid of the family (if you can believe a 27-year old actor passing as 16) who stars agape at her older cousin who fascinates her with hints of a less provincial life. What’s interesting behind Carly is that she’s one step behind the others but you can never count her out as she has traces of Bowman ingenuity herself.

23.   Connie Britton as Abby Clark, 9-1-1 (Fox)-No harm in adding a pollyanna to a procedural. Abby is middle-aged and single with an aging parent to care for but there’s a certain upbeatness to her that makes her a quiet sort of stand-out. Her scenes, set apart from the rest of the cast, make her an interesting narrator of sorts.

24.   Jonah Hill as Owen Milgrim, Maniac  (Netflix)-One of the best portrayals of a depressed character to appear on TV. Jonah Hill does an excellent job at portraying the quiet surrender and numbness as he goes about his every day life and eventually enters into the world of fantasy.  

25.   Dania Ramirez as Jacinda/Cinderella, Once Upon a Time (ABC)-When introduced in her featured episode, Jacinda is a femme fatale disguised as a typical Cinderella. It matches well with her real-life persona who’s down on her luck but refuses to play damsel in distress with the two men vying for her affections.

Honorable Mentions:

Armen Weitzman as Garfield, Another Period; Beth Dover as Linda Ferguson, Orange is the New Black; Charlie Cox as Matt Murdoch, Daredevil; Danielle Brooks as Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson; Dascha Polanko as Daya, Orange is the New Black; David Koechner as The Commodore, Another Period;  Henny Russell as Barbara Dennan, Orange is the New Black; Jane Adams as Maggie Murphy, Sneaky Pete; Jayma Mays as Carol Anne Keane in Trial and Error;  Kristen Bell as Eleanor Shellstrop, The Good  Place; McKenzie Phillips as Carol Dennan, Orange is the New Black; Parker Posey as Dr. Smith, Lost in Space; Rachel Brosnahan as Midge Masel, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel; Sally Field as Dr. Greta Mantleray; Sophia Black-D’Ella as Sabrina Pemberton, The Mick; Scott MacArthur as Jimmy, The Mick; Ted Danson as Michael, The Good Place; Tituss Burgess as Titus Andromedon, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

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.

The Eleven Films I've Seen This Year So Far Ranked from 1 to 11

Well, it's no secret that this has been a challenging year for a film viewer. I've previously complained about Marvel, Avengers, and sequel coming close to the point of ruining Summer. Last year, extremely unnecessary remakes of The Lion King and Aladdin; a bloated Avengers finale, a third Toy Story sequel, and a Men in Black reboot with diminishing returns was a tipping point for me. 

But with this temporary apocalypse having canceled Summer, I'm kind of missing the frivolous blockbusters. Nearly everything I've seen from the 2020 slate has been quirky indie fare. This kind of stuff would normally get drowned out in the Summer calendar and, at least, it has a chance to shine?


1. Palm Springs-As I wrote at TV Fanatic, I think this might have the makings of a classic on some future day. It operates on multiple levels: Charming, fun, sweet, and riotously funny on one level. On another level, it's poignant, thought-provoking, full of memorable moments, and laden with Easter eggs. Like Groundhog Day, it's endlessly rewatchable. Expect this to be a cult classic down the road.
2. 7500-Whatever happened to the days of Air Force One and Executive Decision? It's a shame tense airline thrillers have gone out of style (was it 9/11 sensitivity?). Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes every part he's given with great care and in his hands, this isn't just a psychological thriller but an existential tale of loss.
3. Blow the Man Down-I'd hesitate to use the word noir for something that doesn't have noir's stylistic elements but this tale of murder in a Maine brothel and two sisters who get caught up in the vice is a bit Fargo-esque in that it highlights the underbelly of the seemingly quaint. Few films have casts that are almost entirely old women and aren't romantic comedies (i.e. First Wives Club, Book Club) so let's celebrate June Squibb, Margo Martindale, and Annette O'Toole.
4. Radioactive-Standard fare biopic but the irony that these two (Marie and Pierre Curie) are discovering something that will kill them makes for pretty good drama and there is a courtship between the two that is kind of gripping. Too bad it on lt takes up the first half-hour of the film.
5. Buffaloed-A film of two low-lifes who try to one-up each other (Barry Levinson's Tin Men is an apt comparison) in the debt collection trade. Except that one of them is the spritely and cute Zoey Deutch so we know who to root for, don't we? The tough-as-nails chick isn't particularly new but it feels fresh coming from Deutch (just as she made the go-getter female lead in a rom-com fresh with Set It Up in 2018). The film's romance is somewhat sloppy but as a con film, it has lots of twists and turns. As an indie film, this is something with a lot of flavor as well.

6. Troop Zero-McKenna Grace (I, Tonya) stars as a Girl Scout in 1977 Georgia with ambitions to win some scouting award so she can send a message to space. But the man (in the form of a stern Allison Janney) won't let her do her thing for bureaucratic reasons that don't really matter if you think too hard. Also, this is Georgia in 1977 and maybe they don't like that Viola Davis is their scoutmaster. Like Blow the Man Down, the film has a strong sense of place as indies are known to do. Although there are some awkward moments, I can appreciate how it doesn't take the Disneyesque route.
7. Eurovision-Based on a true competition, the Netflix film takes place in Iceland and is a decent odd couple pairing between Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as idiosyncratic Icelandic yokels. Remember the days when Will Ferrell had two or three starring vehicles every year? Our appetites haven't abated for his aloof brand of manchild comedy just yet, but he doesn't always have the right scripts to work with. This comedy is a bit broad.
8. Wrong Missy-David Spade is an underrated comic presence for his generation of Saturday Night Live and he's done some amazing supporting work over the years. Still, it's definitely hard to find the right niche for him. Even though the real-life David Spade is a decent human being, his comic persona is that of a snark-master who probably wouldn't fit into a mature relationship unless they were matched romantically with an equally immature person. It's not hard to conceive of a storyline where David Spade realizes that he's not cut out for the corporate ladder and decides to become a stand-up comedian with a goofy woman who helped her alongside that life realization. Unfortunately, the film went the other way with the goofy love interest (Lauren Lapkus) being meaningless.
9. Sonic the Hedgehog-The only blockbuster I saw this year. As someone who grew up playing Sonic the Hedgehog and actually read the manual, I had the advantage of having some source material to work with. And to the degree that you can be faithful to a video game, yes, this is true to the source. But, come on, that's not really saying much. The film wasn't awful but it was uninspiring at best and forgettable at worst when dealing with certain plot lines. 
10. Horse Girl-Allison Brie (Community, Glow) stars as a sensitive girl with possibly some disorder. She wants companionship and love but seems to repel people and is averse to a deeper relationship. It's not particularly clear and neither is anything else about this film. The third act goes all Ingmar Bergman and at that point, it's no thank you!
11. Late Time Adolescence-Pretty much the same plot as King of Staten Island but, silly me, I watched this first and I don't have the patience for two Pete Davidson movies in one year. Sorry, Judd Apatow. Davidson was a decent addition to Saturday Night Live when he joined the cast in 2014 after resident stand-up Brooks Whelan got short-changed but in the last couple of years he's either coasted, complained about not getting enough screen time or simply been absent. I'm wondering if new hires like Chloe Finneman have even met the guy.

Now writing at TV Fanatic!

I wrote for TV Fanatic for a while in 2014 and 2015 but it didn't work out. I'm thrilled that I've recently been given a second chance to contribute editorials to the website and that's where a lot of my work has been going to leaving me less time to update this blog.

I wrote this essay about the TV show Ramy and how I felt like *spoiler alert* it dropped the ball at the end of a near-perfect season. The essay touches on how shows with comedians are a dime a dozen and it's hard to break away from that. It also touches on how shows (BoJack Horseman and Orange is the New Black as well) are reveling lately in male characters coping with past sins without much of a path forward or sense in-universe:

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

This essay is about how shows maintain a distance from the current political climate even when they have something political to say. Why do they maintain such distance and how do they affect viewers if they're avoiding the issues? I touch a lot on Space Force and The Good Place here.

https://www.tvfanatic.com/2020/07/space-force-the-good-place-and-the-art-of-making-the-political-a/

This is essay came about because I was watching the Parks and Recreation reunion and remembering that the show in its later stages is just unwatchable to me. I found it too saccharine and artificially happy. So I posed the question: What if it stayed truer to its original tone? True, the first season was awkward but it had some good things going for it.

https://www.tvfanatic.com/2020/07/what-if-parks-and-recreation-had-stayed-closer-to-its-original-t/

Do the recent blackface and voice over controversies mean we should restrict art? I have written a lot of essays critical of the identity politics movement and wokeness and as that school of thought has accelerated beyond repair in the past two months, I felt the need to add my voice once more.

https://www.tvfanatic.com/2020/07/do-the-recent-blackface-and-voiceover-controversies-mean-we-shou/