Catching up
Catching up?! I’m barely staying afloat on what’s new!
What’s new?
Five new seasons of TV that debuted in a roughly 24-hours period– let’s not waste time.
The Chair Company, “Life goes by too f**king fast, it really does” is funny and a good start to this show. I suppose, if you’ve seen I Think You Should Leave and Friendship, it will slot in exactly where you would expect a Tim Robinson-starring (and Robinson / Zach Kanin-written, and Andrew DeYoung-directed) conspiracy thriller / comedy to land. Ron has some things in common with Friendship‘s Craig, particularly in their careers, although Ron generally seems more liked and respected at the office. But he still has a similarly self-absorbed perspective, the kind that thinks everything that happens is being done to him. He’s also got the same absurdly fragile ego that takes personal offense needlessly that so many Robinson characters have, and the incident of professional embarrassment that sends him spiraling is entirely in character. (This, however, may be the rare case of a Tim Robinson character actually being onto something.) That said, much like Friendship might be described as “some men are lonely for good reason,” so far The Chair Company seems like “chasing down a conspiracy theory can end up ruining your life, but some people are given enough to obsessive and paranoid thinking that they were on the verge of ruining it at any given moment, and this is just their opportunity.” But whether Ron ruins his life remains to be seen, I suppose. He hasn’t after one episode.
Also there are some very funny side characters. Jim Downey is a great presence here, but also, there’s the janitor who seems like he came directly from an I Think You Should Leave sketch. (Ron’s argument with the waitress in the opening scene is very ITYSL as well, as is the woman who explains to Ron that she thinks she should go to HR.) Plus, I don’t think “Between the Bars” or “I Got a Name” have ever been so funny.
Moving on, one quick thing I was wrong about our next two shows: I thought Sunday was a sneak preview of the season premieres before they aired again in their proper slots on Thursdays. Well, it was a sneak preview, but they’re not re-airing the premieres tonight, but moving on to their second episodes. Anyway, onto Sunday’s sneak preview of CBS’s Thursday procedural block…
Matlock, “The Before Times” – Well, before we get into the show, let’s talk about the recent news. David Del Rio, who plays Billy, was recently fired after co-star Leah Lewis (Sarah) reported an incident of alleged sexual assault that happened in her trailer (and from what I gather, to her). The studio was swift and decisive, launching an internal investigation the day of Lewis’ report that led to Del Rio being fired and escorted off the Paramount lot the same day. Good for CBS Studios for taking this seriously, and it must have been serious and incontrovertible; I don’t recall any show ever acting this quickly and decisively on someone so high on the call list (Del Rio and Lewis are basically joint #4/#5). However, the show is only now wrapping up the first half of filming for season 2, so Billy will be on the show a while, and how they write him off– and whether they do that or simply recast him– remains unclear. We left Billy’s plot at the end of season 1 on a cliffhanger that his ex-girlfriend Claudia (previously seen rejecting his marriage proposal) was pregnant, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a Poochie-esque “I have to go now. My child needs me” exit. (Okay, I would be surprised if it’s that blatant, but it would also be really funny.)
In the meantime, the actual episode is quite good. We left the end of season 1 on a couple of cliffhangers– Olympia’s discovery of the missing Wellbrexa documents and who has them, and a man showing up to the Kingstons’ doorstep who thinks he may be Alfie’s father– and we push full steam ahead into both of them. I won’t necessarily tell you what happens, other than there’s also a case of a week involving two teenagers and a theater fire that may or may not be arson, but I will say that, after a long summer break, I had forgotten how much this show conceals from us until its ending twist is revealed. Glad to be back, even if Kathy Bates didn’t win her deserved Emmy.
Leah Lewis so far wins “best suit on TV” this week.
Elsbeth, “Yes, And…” kicks off season three with a trio of notable guest stars. Stephen Colbert is a late-night host; Amy Sedaris is his head writer; Andy Richter is his sidekick– why, it’s practically the roles they were born to play. Sedaris murders Colbert, which I assume she’s wanted to do for 35 years or so. I kid, although I couldn’t help but think “the role of Paul Dinello will be played by Andy Richter.” Maybe it’s time for me to watch some Strangers With Candy again. Anyway, fun start to the episode, with some behind-the-scenes of a late-night show (funny bit as the writers are still doing bits and don’t realize they’re being questioned as part of a murder investigation). Elsbeth also has to get used to working with new supervising officers, in this case Officer Hackett (Lindsay Mendez) while Kaya is off doing undercover work / Carra Patterson didn’t fit in a reduced budget. Speaking of reduced budget, I wonder if the B-plot is a snarky comment on that, in particular with the whole mess around Paramount right now.
DMV, “Pilot” – CBS’ new sitcom about, well, see title, had a pretty funny pilot largely on the strength of its main trio. Colette, Vic, and Gregg are the three driving examiners, played by Harriet Dyer (American Auto, Colin From Accounts), Tony Cavalero (everyone’s favorite from The Righteous Gemstones), and Tim Meadows (that one episode of The Office). Meadows immediately had me thinking of David Alan Grier on St. Denis Medical as a curmudgeonly comparison (hey, they’re both actors in their 60s with significant sketch and scripted comedy backgrounds who are from Detroit, and that’s it), and they fill similar roles, but Meadows’ Gregg seems less prickly and more like he some time ago reached the amused / bemused point toward all the goings-on. Dyer’s Colette is a bit too stock in the pilot, the easily-flustered and awkwardly embarrassing type, but there’s more there than that suggests, as we get some hints of her having more wit and being able to brush off the embarrassment better than is typical. Cavalero’s Vic got the two funniest scenes of the pilot, for my money, but they were so funny that even if the rest had been relatively bland, it’d have enough potential to keep going. But the rest was generally pretty funny as well, even as I elide literally everyone else in the main cast because I’m trying to keep this as short as possible and already failing.
Oh, and, of course, DMV, like Superstore before it, gives us an opportunity to see the workers here dealing with the ridiculous-ass public. This is quite the promising pilot. Looks like we’ll be sticking with it for the foreseeable future.
Solar Opposites, the only show here that released its entire season at once, is on its sixth and final season. We watched two episodes so far, and it’s the same show as it ever was– quite funny, in our opinion. The last season left us on a bit of a cliffhanger with the Opposites’ original captain both being revealed to exist and on a course for Earth. Well, the first episode largely deals with that, and the Opposites’ increasingly ridiculous “going native” lifestyle. The second episode returns us to the Wall, which picks up on the ending twists we saw there in season five, as well as a side plot where the Opposites try to raise money with an estate sale. Nothing much more to say without just recounting plots and jokes; it’s the same show you’ve come to know and love (or should have by now).
Onto shows that have already aired an episode this season…
Smiling Friends, “Le Voyage Incroyable de Monsieur Grenouille”, as the title suggests, brings back Mr. Frog. He’s facing an existential question that perhaps only the Smiling Friends can answer: What do you when you have everything (and also you’re preternaturally strong and can win a UFC fight against dozens of people at once by simply standing there)? Creed Bratton guests as Mr. Frog’s dad.
Only Murders in the Building, “Cuckoo Chicks” – Cue the Kool and the Gang, because it’s ladies’ night. Camila throws a ladies night at the casino, and Thé gets Mabel on the guest list… and she (along with Det. Williams and Loretta) decide to investigate and see if they can uncover the truth about what happened to Lester and Nicky. Meanwhile, the guys stay upstairs and work on convincing Arconia residents not to sell to Camila. This also ends up descending into a therapy session for Charles and Oliver, something they’ve long needed. There are a lot of threads in this season so they don’t all get addressed, and even the episode-ending reveal still leaves us in the dark of some of the whos and whys… but the elements that are in this episode are pretty fun. So, solid entertainment even if the mystery is still, um, mysterious.
The Lowdown, “This Land?” once again takes us another step in the mystery by filling in some local color and backstory. In this case, it’s Wendell, played by Peter Dinklage. Wendell is Lee’s former co-owner of the bookstore and possibly the only person more chaotic than Lee. Most of the episode is an incredible two-hander for Hawke and Dinklage; Wendell is there because he still meets up with Lee once a year… on their dead friend Jesus’ birthday, to celebrate him and go on a bender and get up to general mayhem. With everything Lee’s got going on, he ropes Wendell into helping him track down some information on a land deal involving the Washbergs… and so, the show really does a seamless job of weaving together the advancement of the plot and the detail-filling of Lee and Wendell’s relationship, without one taking a back seat to the other or the latter feeling expository. The scenes away from Lee provide some clarity on Donald Washberg, who he’s involved with, and what he’s capable of; Keith David’s Marty goes on a date, which his work makes difficult, and leaves an open question as to what his motives are for the decision he makes at the end of the episode. If you aren’t watching yet, I’d still recommend this show – fun, colorful, compelling, with a great cast.
High Potential, “Content Warning” – In the midst of adjusting to a new captain, Morgan and Karadec are called in for a body of a woman who was shot and her car dumped in a pond. They quickly uncover a lot of detail that spins this case into more than they initially thought; I enjoyed the episode, but I almost don’t want to tell you more, as even from the earliest scenes the case continually goes to unexpected places. I guess that’s the nature of a reviewing a procedural for people who haven’t seen it, right? I thought it was a good episode; that’s what you need to know.
How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge) is airing weekly on BBC, but thanks to a tip from our intrepid(ly British) vomas, I learned the entire release was on streaming. So in the last week we’ve managed to get through three more episodes and are greatly enjoying it. Alan’s adventures in these episodes, among other things, lead him to a book club where he drinks too much wine, a visit to a dog shelter, a stay in the countryside and a hike where he gets to fancy himself a hero, and a continuing series of efforts to ignore the increasingly obvious evidence his girlfriend Katrina is having an affair. We’re quite enjoying it, though we’re easy sells for just about any flavor of Alan. (“Flavor of Alan” is probably what Alan would call his pitch for a Flavor of Love-type dating show. Or a cooking show. Or a Bourdain-type travelogue show. Really, to come up with a title for an Alan Partridge pitch, just think of a reasonable title for the show being pitched, then insert “Alan” in the most awkward way possible.)
In last Wednesday’s shows, which we’ll save for last because you had a whole week to read about them elsewhere or otherwise forget about them, we’ll start with Abbott Elementary, “Cheating.” Tariq shows up again and is funny as always; Melissa gets a good story about adjusting to middle school, with her discovering belatedly that her students cheated on an exam, then figuring out how to get them to actually learn and what she can teach them. The Barbara-Jacob plot, on the other hand, was a bit broad and cartoonish for them.
Beavis and Butt-Head, “Depositors / Nacho Shake” involves our teenage duo making a visit to a bank (put it together yourself) and then inventing a new and wildly unsafe food item at Burger World. There’s also a very funny Tom Anderson War Story from his brief time home from Vietnam during the Summer of Love. Good episode.
Bob’s Burgers was off this week, which is fine, because look how long this list is already. Next week might just be a list of shows with no commentary, or some other sign your author has cracked up.
Falling behind
Futurama – We’ll finish the season at some point.
Chad Powers – We’ll return to it at some point, but when and for how long remains to be seen. Anyway, both of these shows are lower priorities right now than *gestures wildly* everything up there.
Old favorites
Who even has the time? I haven’t even had the time to write up the movies and the Onion features I’ve watched in the last month or so for our daily discussions.
Just ended
God, I wish.
Coming up
Well, one more to add to the November slate: I was trying to find release dates for a few shows I hadn’t yet, and I learned that NBC released a trailer for Stumble, a mockumentary comedy about competitive cheerleading starring Jenn Lyon (recently of English Teacher; you may also remember her from Justified) and Taran Killam (Nobody’s Watching). And then I learned its November 7 release date was announced four weeks ago. (NBC’s other remaining comedy debut, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, appears to be headed for a midseason release.)
Also, if you don’t have Peacock, The Paper will be airing weekly on NBC starting November 10, after St. Denis Medical (which returns the week prior).
Hooray, I helped. I’m up to the same point with How Are You and having a great time, definitely enjoying this series more consistently than “This Time” which I found a little patchy.
Gonna give The Lowdown a shot. Ethan Hawke? Peter Dinklage? Keith Motherfucking David? My god, man, the sheer character actor joys on display here!
Also where is Alan Partridge streaming?
the Partridge show is streaming on BBC, which as far as I know is not available in the States, but per our recent conversation, I’m pretty sure you can find it!
We’ve been revisiting OG King of the Hills at the end of our busy days. I was a little leery of visiting something from the “good old days” of American conservatism, but the show holds up incredibly well, with the Texas way mostly being depicted as pragmatism with no forethought that the more fringe elements (embodied usually by Dale or caricatures of clueless out-of-town lefties) would be amplified and curdled by the Internet. It’s also entirely character-based humor, and really hilarious character-based humor, so even plots stuck in 90s concerns still work. Bobby Hill may be one of the great all-time TV characters.
One thousand percent agreement on Bobby Hill. I think Nancy Cartwright gets a ton of (extremely deserved!) acclaim for Bart Simpson and she may have paved the way in this regard, but I think Pamela Adlon does even better work, maybe because of the more naturalistic vein. I really need to rewatch this but it’s my recollection that Hank starts off a lot more aggressive and likely to be “wrong” in a classic sitcom dad sense, before the show figures out his put-upon pragmatism (and then somewhat overbalances into Hank nearly always being right); in a similar sense I think Bobby starts out as being nice but a bit low-key (and of course “ain’t right”), Adlon finding his enthusiasm unlocks the character and makes him indelible.
What did we watch?
M*A*S*H, Season Two, Episode Twenty-One, “Crisis”
“Radar will be the Housing Officer. Now before, this is over we may have to double-up or triple-up to save heat. Radar will decide who sleeps with who.”
“Radar, I’d like to see you right after the meeting.”
“This is where the Ritz hit the fan.”
Every week, I’m shocked at how heavily this show influenced my sense of humour. The casual wordplay and faux-serious comments; one that gets me is when Radar lists the resources that won’t get through because of the crisis, ending with “shuttlecocks”, and Hawkeye and Trapper immediately act with mock horror. Importantly, they do it completely straight faced; any idiot could do it loudly and sarcastically, but Hawk and Trap commit.
This is largely a basic theme of the show: joking through suffering. This has the characters told to rug up and preserve resources (including sharing sleeping quarters, which makes up the bulk of the episode), and they’re assured that wounded also won’t come in, which they definitely do. This is the attitude of a professional; doing the job and griping the entire time.
“Humour, too, is one of His creations.” I like that.
The X-Files, “Hell Money”
Off the top of my head, I’d say this is the strongest “Mulder and Scully investigate a case in a culture not their own” episode so far. It helps that the case, while weird, isn’t actually mystical, and its extremes are the product of desperate circumstances; it’s also a story that hangs together without our leads, creating a vision of an even more episodic X-Files, with Mulder and Scully as our passports, our means of access, rather than our protagonists. (It wouldn’t work every time, but I’m happy to have it happen on occasion: it makes for more narrative-driven episodes with better closure.)
The episode also features well-defined characters and an incredibly strong guest cast, with especially good work from James Hong and BD Wong. In particular, Hong’s Hard-Faced Man feels like he’d be a natural fit for a recurring role–he’s even another X-Files Descriptor Antagonist!–and I’m annoyed that that didn’t happen.
I’m against burning people alive, and I’m not afraid to admit it.
Controversial stance here. It was fun to watch this and Big Trouble In Little China in tandem for two very different roles with James Hong and Dennis Dun.
Play Dirty – Dave, I watched this so you and all the other Parker fans never have to. This is not a Parker movie. Shane Black and RDJ might be fans of the books, but either Black really doesn’t get Parker, or cannot change his approach to writing movies to work with a character so silent and sociopathic. Or maybe a serious heist film is not allowed anymore since everything seems to be action comedies. Whatever the reason, whoever Mark Wahlberg is playing, it’s not Parker. Maybe maybe once in a while we see glimpses of the real Parker but never for long.
But judging this purely as a Shane Black film, it’s still not very good. The plot is implausible, the caper is absurdly complicated, the humor is only fitfully funny, the violence is unpleasant in that way that violence in comedies has become, and the FX are at times hideous. Most of the cast is decent, especially LaKeith Stanfield as an almost successful reworking of Grofield and Tony Shalhoub as the head of the Outfit. And it’s also nice to see movies with scenes shot in Queens. But this is bargain basement Black. Kiss Kiss Bore Bore? The Mediocre Guys?
The Practice, “Judge and Jury” – Helen, still obsessed with how wrong euthanasia is, tries the producer of a 60 Minutes like show for being accessory to a Kevorkian-type doctor helping a woman with ALS end her life. And wins. I am not sure there is enough evidence to convict the doctor, let alone the producer. Roger Corman of all people plays the producer, and looks uncannily like Bill Moyers. Meanwhile, Bobby discovers that Judge Kittelson has the hots for him, and doesn’t know what to do, especially when she refuses to recuse herself. And he has no idea she’s sitting in chambers blotting out a photo of Lindsay. This plot is really kind of tawdry, and not the last tawdry thing we’ll get with Kittelson, but Holland Taylor still manages to give dignity to this role.
Altruistically taking a bullet for others, how un-Parker of you! And this confirms all of my fears but “maybe a serious heist film is not allowed anymore since everything seems to be action comedies” is adding a new one — as you note, I don’t think Black is capable of a straight heist anyway but it’s disturbing to think the genre itself is in trouble.
I’m more of a Murch than a Parker. Even though I don’t drive. But ask me the best route from Canarsie to Hoboken.
Crimes and Misdemeanors — For the first time in this retrospective I was somewhat disappointed, as this didn’t hit me as strongly as it has in the past. Martin Landau is a successful and respected ophthalmologist who is confronted with how far he will go to deal with the ex-lover (Angelica Houston) threatening to expose his infidelities. Meanwhile Allen plays a struggling documentary filmmaker who gets a gig shooting a film about his otiose brother-in-law (a very funny Alan Alda as the blowhard sit-com writer) and falls in love with one of the producers (Farrow). The two stories are both strong, but the bifurcation works less well here than in Hannah and Her Sisters, which had a similar structure, possibly because (unlike in Hannah) the two stories are so starkly dramatic or comedic and so don’t fit comfortably in the same work. (I wonder what I’ll think revisiting Melinda and Melinda, which handles the same bifurcation more formally.) Also, Landau’s story is just more interesting, so I was disappointed whenever we got a cut to the Allen plot (even though Alda really is such a putz). I do like Farrow’s role here, though, playing a character similar to Hannah or the beaten-down Lane from September but not at all mousy or retreating.
Eta: Still, what a decade. Has any auteur ever had a period with this much depth, success, and creativity? 9 and a third features in ten years!
Think Ebert pointed out that Alda, much as he’s a blowhard Allen compares to Mussolini, is also charming, cares about his sister, makes an effort to court Farrow, and can quote Dickinson just like Allen.
Finished Peacemaker, and I have to admit that while I enjoyed a ton of this season on a minute-to-minute basis, I’m left feeling dissatisfied about the overall arc.
A big part of this show is the hang, and I respect and enjoy that, but you can’t leave this much dramatic power on the table and not do anything with it. (I guess it could be deferred to a later season, but I’m not convinced of that.) Why do we spend so much time fucking around in the parallel universe, and so little time dealing with the reality of what it actually is? Why bother setting up that Rick Flag Jr. is alive one (Nazi) universe over but never have his grieving, revenge-driven father in our universe actually discover that information? It goes nowhere! It’s not even like Peacemaker develops any kind of relationship with him in the parallel universe to add pathos to the discovery that he’s still alive.
In retrospect, I can’t help feeling like over half the season exists purely to set up a fake-out–and delaying that fake-out so that it’s not in the initial episodes sent out to critics–and there’s almost no time left for exploring what the situation actually means. Does Harcourt have an easier time giving up on a career in government agencies after seeing her alternate self hew so closely to the powers that be that she’s a devout Nazi? Does Adebayo worry at all about her alternate self’s presumed fate? Does anyone, in a finale partly devoted to establishing that our characters are setting themselves on a more heroic path, even briefly rue the fact that they can’t help the situation in the dystopian parallel universe they were just in? I don’t know! None of this is explored!
It suffers a little in comparison to S1, where the plot and the emotional arc were much more closely intertwined.
Again, though, the minute-by-minute stuff was often lovely. Economos and Eagly were an unexpected emotional force this season, and Economos trying to get Eagly out of his funk and Eagly eventually returning the favor by giving him a one-winged hug stirred up some genuine feelings. Adebayo’s divorce conversation was great. The Foxy Shazam cruise boat was a total delight, and I loved getting to see them rock out after I’d spent a season loving that theme song. It’s nice! I just wish it all held together more on a storytelling level, and that it hadn’t connected itself up with mainline DC movies to the extent that I spent some time wondering if Lex Luthor had somehow possessed Rick Flag Sr.
Wait a minute — you’re telling me a James Gunn comic book entertainment favors cheap emotional uplift and audience pandering instead of fully exploring its story implications and overall conceit? I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
Year of the Month update!|
And this November, you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, et al from 2018!
Nov. 10th: Bridgett Taylor: Aquaman
Nov. 12th: Ben Hohenstatt: Bark Your Head Off, Dog
And there’s still time to sign up this mont to write about any of these 1973 movies, albums, books and TV !
TBD: Patrick Mio Llaguno – The Long Goodbye
Oct. 16th: John Bruni: Shotgun Willie/Sweet Revenge
Oct. 17th: Bridgett Taylor: Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road
Oct. 22nd: Lauren James: The Wicker Man
Oct. 26th: Ben Hohenstatt: Mind Games
Oct. 29th: Lauren James: Don’t Look Now