June 2009

At the heart of Kings is a question of just how good our ostensible protagonist actually is. David Shepherd, like his biblical counterpart, doesn't quite fall on one side of the good/evil continuum. Though he's earnest and holds nobility in high regard, at least intellectually, the connection between his heart and mind is a tenuous one at best. Burdened with his reputation as a giant-killer, the truth behind David is that his supposed moments of courage are actually just attempts to avoid something he fears more deeply.

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True Blood Season 2Two weeks ago, 3.7 million people watched the premiere of HBO’s "True Blood," making the second most watched program on HBO since "the Sopranos" finale.  I was one of those people.  The thing is, however, I don’t know why. It's way too soap opera-y for the straight male that I am, the main vampire character Bill is kind of a drip, and the "mystery" part that made up last season's arc was neither compelling nor well done.  See Veronica Mars’s first season to see how it should be done.  Even more damning is that there’s no there there-- its got nothing, no allegorical goodness that's half the point of Vampire stuff.  Just compare it to Buffy, the Alpha and Omega Vampireness which started off as an allegory about adolescence and overtime also became one about love, sex, death, free will, and the dangers of musical demons, all wrapped in a sly feminist "Girl Power" manifesto.  Or, hell, even "Twilight" which has more depth to it despite its yucky purity proselytizing thirteen year-old girl mentality.  But I do swear that nothing brings the smiles more than hearing people in bad accents say the word “Sookie.”

So why, oh why the "True Blood" love?

Because it’s fun. 

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Michael Bluth is my favorite straightman character, period. Mitchell Hurwitz took all of the put-upon exasperation of the classic model and infused it with an acidic wit. This not only makes for some quick, almost imperceptible jokes, it also adds a dimension of believability to Michael as a character. If the entire Bluth family is somehow dysfunctional, it only stands to reason that Michael wouldn't be able to grow up with them entirely untouched by negativity and general malice. As I've noted in previous columns, Michael's basically stuck getting raw deals no matter what he does. When he's good, people take advantage of him. When he's bad, his misdeeds come back to haunt him.

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Oh, it does feel good to be back. After inexplicably labeling episode 7 a "season finale", ABC decided to air the remaining six episodes of Better Off Ted this Summer in preparation for the improbable but somehow real second season, slated to air midseason 2010. Presumably the show wasn't getting good enough ratings to keep it around in its original slot but it wasn't such a flop that ABC axed it outright. I'd like to think that the roundly positive critical response had something to do with this. So, Better Off Ted is back for six more episodes in the hot months. Let's dive in.

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Hollywood IconEd McMahon died this morning at the age of 86 from what is thought to have been medical reasons; he had been having health problems for the last few months.  Ed McMahon was well known for his sidekick spot on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson from 1962 till the early 90’s.  He was also known for the syndicated series, “Star Search” which first aired in 1983 and helped launched the careers of several actors, singers, choreographers and comedians, the show ended in 1995.

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In a very weird surprise, ABC has decided to air new episodes of Better Off Ted this Summer, starting tonight at 9:30 Eastern Time. I was a big fan of this series when it aired in the Spring and I was among the fans who cried foul when ABC took it off the air without cancelling it outright. The show is slated to come back as a midseason comedy next year, while the six as-yet-unaired episodes will run this Summer. I'll be picking up coverage again. So, hooray?

So, three episodes into its first series, the question on America’s lips is this:

Is Royal Pains any good?

It’s certainly popular, getting the USA Network around five and a half million viewers in its 10pm slot on Thursday nights. It follows the ever popular Burn Notice (which is definitely brilliant – I shall brook no opposition to this), so at least part of this audience is inherited. It features Mark Feuerstein (West Wing, The Hustler) as Doctor Hank Lawson, Paulo Constanzo (who was in, er, Joey) as his brother Evan, Reshma Shetty in her first major role as the sharp talking physicians’ assistant  Divya, and Jill Flint (Six Degrees, Gossip Girl) as Jill Casey, the head administrator of the local hospital.

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This next batch of Farscape episodes are some of the best of the first season. We get to meet two (infrequently) recurring characters and goof around with some weird science, plus Crichton macks on his very first, but certainly not last, alien chick. Seriously, Kirk has nothing on Crichton in the interstellar philandering department.

PK Teck Girl

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Letterman joke gone bad

David Letterman had made a joke about Sarah Palin and her daughter (who he thought was Bristol) at the Yankees game, but it happened to be her 14 year old daughter Willow instead.  His joke, “One awkward moment with Sarah Palin at the Yankees game, during the 7^th inning her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.”  He was referring to Bristol, the 17 year old daughter who is now a mother, not realizing she was at the game with her 14 year old daughter Willow.

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There's a particular brand of flashy, modern television production at which the folks with the BBC seem particularly adept. Using slick soundtracks, stylish editing and boatloads of clever details, these shows really capture the feel of 21st century television.

The big problem for us yanks is how hard it is to market these shows Stateside. J.H. Wyman tried to snag the style for his ill-fated Fox series Keen Eddie. As much as TV viewers complain about high-profile cancellations like Firefly, I was always much more heartbroken by Keen Eddie's unceremonious departure in 2003. It had a great cast, including a "before we knew her" Sienna Miller and an amazing visual style. Alas, the hair trigger on Fox's cancel gun squeezed back after only a few episodes.

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Getting into the middle of the first season. Let's sally forth.

In God We Trust

One of the most curious developments in television history is the strange evolution of Henry Winkler. The man who got famous for playing the epitome of cool has made a much longer-lasting career out of going against type. In a deeply ironic turn, Henry Winkler's bread and butter is being typecast as odd, ineffectual twerps who are past their prime. In essence, the anti-Fonz. Characters like his troubled lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn on Arrested Development are so much more interesting to watch than motorcycle-riding hipsters.

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Well, we can't really call the return of NBC's Kings "triumphant", at least in the traditional sense. As promised, the network is airing the remaining episodes of the show's one and only season this Summer, beginning with the seventh which ran Saturday night. I've decided to continue covering Kings despite its publicly known cancellation because a show of this caliber deserves some recognition.

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Why Kathy Lee Gifford still has a "career"(though it could hardly be called a career to be on the 4th hour of the Today Show) in television is beyond me. And is it just me, or is she looking kinda "hammered"(and bloated) in this clip? Not that that's any excuse for her complete, utter lack of tact when asking MC Hammer about his former life as a millionaire, in front of his 10 year-old no less.

Way to castrate the guy in front of his son, and the whole Today Show- watching audience, Kathy Lee. What a bitch! No wonder her husband cheated on her. MC Hammer, was a total gentleman about the whole thing, but you can see the hatred in his eyes as he tries to salvage the interview.

Please Hammer don't hurt her!!

 

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A. DickOutta all the MTV comedians that came and went during the '90s, Andy Dick as much as any other performer seemed to have risen to an oft thought of difficult height in the media's eyes. The constant attention - which he adroitly parodied on his show - is probably to blame, in part at least, for Dick's subsequent disappearance from the spotlight.

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For much of the past decade, Edie Falco wiled away her TV hours playing America's favorite mob wife on HBO's The Sopranos. As good as she was in that role, Carmela was never going to show Falco's full range as an actress. That's one of many reasons why her new show, Showtime's Nurse Jackie, has promise. But that's just it, it has promise. I can't say it completely delivered right out of the gate.

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Tomorrow on TV World, we're going to be debuting a new Summer feature. I'll leave the details for tomorrow's post, but one element of the new column got me thinking about a controversial topic. Namely, the debate about Internet vs. Television as the primary medium for network programming.

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