June 16, 2009 · 11:57 am

Weeds – “Machetes Up Top”

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“Machetes Up Top”

June 15th, 2009

Weeds, perhaps more than any other half-hour “comedy”, follows a particularly serialized structure, where almost all of its characters are on separate and interconnected paths that always take a few episodes to get going. This is especially true early in the season, where everyone sets off on their own path until they slowly begin to return to their place of origin. When that origin was the community of Agrestic, you felt like there was a potential stabilizing force in the universe, the oppressive nature of the suburbs nonetheless offering something of a protection from the world of drugs, or gangs, or anything else you can imagine.

But when the Botwins moved to Ren Mar, the show and more importantly its characters lost that comforting sense of home, and in many ways the fifth season is about where they go to find safety and security in a situation that is quickly spiralling out of control. However, for various reasons, that security if proving difficult to attain, leaving nearly every character in a position to find themselves back in Ren Mar with Nancy waiting to see when the axe is going to fall.

For now, at least through “Machetes Up Top,” I think it works for the show, as the impending doom on one end is tempered by the comedy elsewhere, albeit all tinged with that sense that no one is going to escape the fallout – of course, at the same time, everyone probably is, considering that Nancy is unlikely to stop being alive anytime soon.

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June 15, 2009 · 11:59 pm

Nurse Jackie – “Sweet ‘n All”

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“Sweet ‘n All”

June 15th, 2009

If we look at Weeds, The United States of Tara and Nurse Jackie as similar shows (which, being half-hour, female-led, Showtime-airing dramedies, they really are), one of their most defining characteristics is that each of their pilots found them “in medias res,” as whatever story there is in the series has already been in progress for quite some time. We weren’t seeing an origin story, or a whole new situation that forms the setup for a series; rather, in each instance, we find women struggling from various ailments (supporting a family through selling drugs after her husband’s sudden death, coming off of medication for multiple personality disorder, and an addiction to painkillers and adultery, respectively), and we’re missing that point where their suffering (going broke, becoming numb, etc.) went so far as to bring them to their current position.

I think that sets Nurse Jackie apart from these two shows is that there is nothing funny or light-hearted about her current position: Jackie’s adultery appears to only be hurting her husband and children, and her drug dependency is certainly not something to be considered humorous. While not seeing that moment when Nancy turned to drugs, or when the numbness proved too much for Tara to handle, wasn’t a big deal, it’s kind of a huge deal that we don’t understand why Tara would betray her happy little family; the drugs we can understand as part of a broader physical addiction, but without linking the two together it becomes a problematic element of the series’ “in medias res” setup.

“Sweet ‘n All” does not really come close to resolving these concerns, but shows a subtle and nuanced approach to doing so in the long run. Through the power of the fabulous Edie Falco and the complexity of the Hadron Collider, Nurse Jackie has moved one step towards filling in its own gaps, even if the rest of the show didn’t really evolve much beyond the pilot.

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June 15, 2009 · 10:00 pm

Chuck Me Mondays: Season One, Episode Three – “Chuck vs. the Tango”

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“Chuck vs. the Tango”

Season One, Episode Three

In its pilot, Chuck was a show with a great deal of potential. In its second episode, it was a show that still hadn’t quite pieced together its dynamic. And, when it first aired in 2007, I won’t tell a lie: through two episodes I was not quite sold.

And then came “Chuck vs. the Tango,” an episode that is the earliest sign of the show that this would eventually become. It’s the moment when the Nerd Herd would come into its own as a legitimate source of comedy and antics, when Chuck would enter the field as Charles Carmichael, and when nearly every sphere of the series would come into its own simultaneously.

In revisiting the episode, and revisiting my own comments, it is clear that this is the moment that I officially made the leap from an interested party to an outright fan of Chuck Bartowski and the world that surrounds him.

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June 14, 2009 · 11:48 pm

Season Premiere: True Blood – “Nothing But the Blood”

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“Nothing But the Blood”

June 14th, 2009

I may not be a “real” critic, but there are times when I feel pressure to cover a particular show based on my position as a reviewer of television. There are shows that I don’t watch that don’t bother me in the least if I don’t discuss them, but there are others that present a particular challenge. When the entire internet, and many of my twitter followers/followees, became entranced by HBO’s True Blood, which was unexpected considering that I had watched the show’s pilot and had seen little reason to continue watching, I felt like I should at least be willing to give the show another shot. The first time around, I just wasn’t on board: the show was not living up to its admittedly intriguing concept, and that was enough during a busy fall for me to give up on the show.

But then some things changed: the show added a number of guest stars of interest (Alexander Skarsgaard (Generation Kill), Michelle Forbes (Battlestar Galactica), Lizzy Caplan (Party Down), amongst others), the ratings grew, and the hype for Season Two seemed to be legitimately beyond “It’s about vampires, so it’s awesome!” As a result, I spent part of this evening reading some recaps (although considering they were from Television Without Pity they weren’t so much about plot), and then watching the repeat of last season’s finale – yes, just earlier today I said I wasn’t going to blog about the show, but I grew bored and had some time to kill this evening.

The result is that I went into “Nothing But the Blood” still somewhat confused about what people are seeing, a lot confused at just how whacked out this universe is, but intrigued enough to be willing to see how this premiere would turn out. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, I leave just as confused about everything, and just as disappointed that this isn’t the show I wanted it to be when it first premiered.

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June 14, 2009 · 3:17 pm

Some Cultural Updates

Hey everyone,

I realized the other night that it’s been a long time since I’ve posted something more general and personal, which is really the consequence of using Twitter quite heavily. If you follow me on Twitter, you likely know many of these things, but I figure I’ll put them here as well since not everyone is on the bandwagon quite yet. I’ll also try to include some blog exclusives.

General Updates

  • In case you missed it earlier this week, I had the pleasure of being a guest on the People You Don’t Know podcast, where Eugene Ahn interviews, well, people he doesn’t know. He isn’t a total stranger, as he’s been a reader/commenter for a while now, but it was still an honour to be a guest, and the interview offers some insights into the blog that go beyond the “About” page. So check that out over at his site, as the podcast (far beyond my involvement) offers some very broad and fascinating insights – there’s even a back episode featuring friend of the blog and /Filmcast co-host Devindra Hardawar, so there’s plenty of interesting stuff going on.

Summer Backlog Updates

  • The “Summering in Deadwood” series is not dead, but rather I’ve delayed in starting the second season in earnest. As it was I had to commit more time to a research project and to my other duties, so my thoughts on the two-part premiere remain unfinished and to be completed at a later date.I
  • It also doesn’t help that I arrived home to newly ordered Sports Night DVDs, in order to catch up with Alan Sepinwall’s reviews of the series that he’s doing this summer. I’m about 2/3 of the way through the first season, and am really enjoying it, so I’ll probably drop some thoughts on this in a blog post once I complete the first season (and when I likely take a break before digging into season two).

Summer T.V. Updates

  • In case anyone was curious, as I know I’ve gotten a few questions on the subject, I won’t be keeping up with True Blood Season 2. Not only am I not caught up (watched the pilot back in the day, was fairly nonplussed, never kept going), but I don’t particularly know if I want to catch up – the show just isn’t capturing me, and while there are some critics who are big supporters there are others who are quite dismissive and I don’t quite have the time to properly wade into that discussion at this time. If the Season Season represents a major turnaround, and if enough readers request it, it might be something to consider for the fall leading into a likely Season Three.
  • Otherwise, I’m currently watching Weeds and Nurse Jackie on Mondays, Burn Notice and Royal Pains on Thursdays, and So You Think You Can Dance on Wednesdays. I don’t know if people are really looking for SYTYCD posts, but I might keep doing them for a few weeks since I don’t have anything else mid-week otherwise. Upcoming shows of interest include HBO’s Hung, as well as the return of Better Off Ted on June 23rd (so there’s a Tuesday show, at least).
  • I’ll also likely keep doing some Chuck Me Mondays posts, since I’m enjoying revisiting the show’s first season and I actually reviewed quite a lot of the upcoming episodes and can refer back to them for some more material.

Cultural Requests?

  • Considering all of this, anything you want more of? A show you think I should blog and catchup on? A summer show I am unfairly refusing to watch? Leave a comment below, either way.

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June 13, 2009 · 11:59 pm

Series Finale: Pushing Daisies – “Kerplunk”

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“Kerplunk”

Series Finale – June 13th, 2009

I should have known this day would come.

No, I don’t mean that I was actually in denial that, after the show struggled to regain its ratings foothold towards the end of Season One and bombed out the gate during season two, the show was short for this world, and that its final episode would be tossed aside in a ridiculous Saturday timeslot by ABC. Rather, I should have known when I first watched and fell in love with this pilot, but struggled to convince people I talked to that the show was worth watching, that it would never get the ending I knew it deserved.

When I reviewed that pilot (oh, sorry – “Pie-Lette”), I said the following:

…Pushing Daisies is as much a fairy tale romance as it is a dramatic television series. Unrequited love is one of those concepts that you see a lot of in television, but never has it been so whimsically (and maturely) portrayed. The entire pilot is about love and loss, and how mending those fences can be more difficult than you realize.

We, of course, don’t have Ned’s power to bring things back to life, but if we did I think all of us who watched until the end would, in an instant, touch this show and rescue it from the television graveyard as Ned did with Chuck. However, we can’t do that (although, presuming Lost would be protected, I’d be totally willing to let fate choose which ABC show has to die as a result of keeping it alive), and we’re left with a finale that we know shouldn’t be the end, that promises more than it concludes and that captures in its aquacades and elaborate disguises the whimsy that has set the show on a well-deserved pedestal that ABC chose to knock down late last year.

But I will give ABC credit for inadvertantly assisting in my ability to mend the fences of love and loss, delaying the airing of this episode until the show’s cancellation was no longer fresh. It may still hurt, certainly, but it’s given me a less angry and more celebratory perspective. While not everything you want a finale to be, and ending on a cliffhanger that seemed poised to breathe new life into the series, this finale finds the show joyously entertaining in a scenario and an environment that could only exist in the world of Papen County, the mind of Bryan Fuller, and, as fate has decided, the fond memories of viewers.

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June 12, 2009 · 2:45 pm

Royal Pains – “There Will Be Food”

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“There Will Be Food”

June 11th, 2009

Ah, the ol’ sophomore check-in. Entering its second week, I still wasn’t entirely on board with Royal Pains, as its pilot was clumsily competent in a way that seemed as if it would set up an interesting show but didn’t yet give an indication (outside of our ability to extrapolate from its setup) of how that show might operate.

It’s really a question of pacing more than anything else, along with how it will handle its recurring elements intermingled with new “cases.” The tension from Hank’s life is pretty much gone at this point; he has a place to live and a job to do, and that lack of stress allows him to sort of float along both noble and romantic paths in “There Will Be Food,” an episode certainly devoid of any blood or any serious ailments. This isn’t surprising, as this is a procedural series without murders or anything of that nature, but there will be a point when the “Robin Hood” of the Hampton’s is going to have to face something legitimately threatening.

Overall, though, it was a solid second outing. I have some concerns over the use of romance, but considering how much I prefer it to some of the show’s other options I’m ultimately content, if not wholly satisfied, with the show’s direction.

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June 12, 2009 · 2:04 pm

Burn Notice – “Question and Answer”

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“Question and Answer”

June 11th, 2009

Moving into its second episode of the season, Burn Notice is no longer a show that needs to prove itself – the second season did more than enough to convince me that the show understand that works and what doesn’t, so the introduction of a new antagonist for Michael Westen isn’t something that raises any sort of alarm bells.

This isn’t the case with all shows, of course. House, in particular, is a show that insists on introducing short term rivals for its lead character, only to have them absolutely take over the show to the point of both distraction and devolution. I don’t think I can quite explain why Burn Notice does this so much better, but it’s an impressive feat: while House slows to a crawl during those sections, Burn Notice manages to pull off both tension and humour with the arrival of Moon Bloodgood’s Detective Paxson, someone who has drawn a line from Michael’s arrival in Miami with a sharp increase in explosions and the like.

(And based on the twitter responses, including one from Alan Sepinwall who discusses Bloodgood’s arrival in his own review, the humour might be a major part of how these characters work, as they fit into Michael’s world of calculated yet quippy and therefore don’t seem as contrived).

As a result, “Question and Answer” doesn’t let this new arrival slow things down, as the thing that works so well about Burn Notice is that not every episode needs to be about explosions, and that there are more than enough tricks up their sleeve to keep the show one of the most entertaining on television.

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June 11, 2009 · 8:34 pm

Showcase or Showdown?: So You Think You Can Dance and the First Round Elimination

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Showcase or Showdown?

June 11th, 2009

I don’t really hide the fact that as far as summer shows go, So You Think You Can Dance? is one of my personal favourites. There’s simply something about its mix of glossy spectacle and talented dancers that makes it just downright enjoyable, whether you know something about dance or whether you, like me, know absolutely nothing about it outside of what you’ve learned from dance-related television programming.

What is perhaps funny about the show, though, is that last night’s first performance show of Season Five was problematically fantastic. Of the 10 couples who performers, eight of them earned raves from the judges, and the way the show works there will be three couples who find themselves in danger of being eliminated. SYTYCD has a unique relationship with the notion of viewer democracy, but it’s not particularly foolproof, and there is every possibility that tonight’s first elimination show could end up with three couples the judges loved placed into the Bottom Three.

And I’m wondering if that’s something that could be, at least somewhat, fixed with a fairly subtle decision that would allow viewers a better sense of these dancers that, before last week, they may have never seen before.

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June 9, 2009 · 9:09 am

Season Premiere: Weeds – “Wonderful Wonderful”

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“Wonderful Wonderful”

June 8th, 2009

There are not many cool things in Nancy Botwin’s life.

This isn’t something sudden: as each subsequent season has gone forward, things have become more and more tense. The show’s fourth season was yet another shift in a direction where things are decidedly uncool for Nancy Botwin, a suburban mother who has been removed from suburbia and in many ways was no longer a mother as one son grew up and the other drifted into his own awkwardness. It resulted in a different sort of show, one where we are asked to laugh at situations removed from our own experience and, in all honesty, that are actually quite dangerous. The threat of the Mexican mafia was almost entirely without the humour of Marvin (during the U-Turn arc of Season Three), or the injection of Conrad and Heylia to keep the business from seeming quite that dangerous.

I don’t think this is inherently a bad thing: I thought the fourth season was a strong one for Nancy’s character, even if it took her away from the show’s original intention or purpose, and we can’t begrudge a show evolution moving into its fourth season. The problem is that the show is as schizophrenic as ever, with Nancy’s storyline proving so dire and dramatic that the absurdist comedy feels dichotomous, splitting the show into two separate parts. I like both of those parts, depending on who’s involved, but the show goes out of its way in “Wonderful Wonderful” to emphasize that, at least at first, there’s no room for the two to interact, a problem that will need to be rectified sooner rather than later if the season is to get off to a strong start.

For now, it remains poignant and capable of some strong humour, which makes it an ideal dark comedy on paper if not quite in practice – now it just needs to build on that.

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