Tag Archives: Showtime

June 18, 2008 · 12:48 pm

Series Premiere: Secret Diary of a Call Girl – “Pilot”

“Pilot”

June 16th, 2008

Billie Piper, best known to audiences as the Doctor’s first companion Rose on the rebooted Doctor Who, took her time away from that series to take on a very different role. Secret Diary of a Call Girl, a British series, is airing on Showtime after their acquisition of the show’s first eight episodes. As the story of an upscale female prostitute, one could draw a number of similarities with its lead-in Weeds, where a mother is forced into the drug trade to support her family. Of course, those similarities would be seemingly off-base, but only at first glance and if we take the narrator’s word for it.

What sets Hannah (or “Belle”) apart from Nancy (at first) is that she likes what she does: she did it by choice, certainly seems to relish in the life she has before her, and as we’re introduced to the character she seems to have everything figured out. Of course, that’s a rather blatant simplification: while the show’s pilot is admittedly quite slight, it does turn around our whole notion of her character by at the very least letting us know that her self-defined lifestyle is not quite as sustainable as she makes it out to be. And the pilot, and the series it launches, is better off for it.

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June 17, 2008 · 1:45 am

Season Premiere: Weeds – “The Birds Are After Her”

“The Birds are After Her”

June 16th, 2008

If I were to make a list of the things I enjoy about Weeds, which began its fourth season tonight on Showtime, at the end of last season, it would have included a number of things. It would have included the most infectious theme song since The O.C., the no-nonsense attitude of drug maven Heylia James, the foul-mouthed criticism and blind romanticism of her nephew Conrad, and the narrative potential of a series set within the depths of American suburbia.

As Season Four begins, let’s take inventory: the theme song is played for one last time before being replaced by a new credits sequence, Heylia and Conrad are no longer series regulars and will rarely if ever appear, and the show has moved from its original setting to an oceanside border town. The end of the third season foretold these changes, in a way, but seeing them all happen is a whole other story. Yes, the show was perhaps getting complacent in its current setting, but such a drastic set of changes needs to be justified.

The course correction, however, comes with its benefits, including the introduction of Albert Brooks (Who rarely does television) as Nancy’s father-in-law, so the show is certainly surrounding itself with the right people to gain its footing. It also means that Silas, who got a bit of a short straw in the third season in that his love interest was a barely-used Mary-Kate Olsen, will slowly be able to emerge as a leading player in his own right, and it will also mean more screentime for the criminally underused Justin Kirk whose Andy has a new lease on life himself.

The premiere, like all episodes of Weeds is a total tease, barely even poking at whatever potential they’re creating for themselves. The result is that while I think the change will be for the best in the end, at this point it’s hard to know how all of the pieces will come together.

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January 2, 2008 · 1:05 pm

10 Shows to (Hopefully) Watch in 2008 – #4 – Dexter

Since I’ve got these put together, I figure I’d keep the content coming for the new year – It sets a nice precedent, after all. This is a piece that is really part of a series of larger rants I have regarding the second season of the show in question, but I’ll forget my concerns for a moment and focus more on the series’ intriguing future. Check back for #3 tomorrow, and the Top Two will follow over the weekend.

There has been a lot of talk about Dexter’s second season, and due to time constraints and an unfortunate inability to be able to watch the series live I wasn’t able to review it as often as I would have liked. Oddly, I remain somewhat ambivalent towards the series, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. I love Michael C. Hall’s performance, the concept of the series is as strong as ever, and there was a great deal of potential realized this season with a blistering series of episodes in the latter half of the season that were amongst the best on television this year.

And yet, every week I would watch Dexter on a strange schedule: I didn’t desperately watch it the second I had time, but would really only do so when I became bored. It sat unwatched for quite some time, and only when the action truly ratcheted up did I begin to actually anticipated what would happen next. I never stopped liking the series, but I can firmly say that I wasn’t loving what I was watching.

Despite these reservations, however, Dexter is most certainly on Cultural Learnings’ list of Series to (Hopefully) watch in 2008. Not only is it a potential strike replacement strategy for CBS, who plans to repurpose episodes by editing them for network audiences, but it is also at a creative crossroads heading into a third season with something to prove.

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December 17, 2007 · 1:34 am

Season Finale: Dexter – “The British Invasion”

“The British Invasion”

December 16th, 2007

I don’t quite have time for a complete analysis of Dexter’s 2nd season finale, but I was going to be making this argument anyways and felt that it would be best served here. In short, Dexter’s 2nd season was a strongly-conceived second season which features more fantastic acting from Michael C. Hall and a continued commitment to suspenseful television. Unfortunately, I was not wholly pleased with how the potential foreshadowed early in the season was lost.

This is not to say that “The British Invasion” was bad, but rather that it did nothing to resolve the problems with one key storylines, or make me feel like another decision was necessary to the development of the season. While it may have been visceral, Dexter’s second Season Finale ultimately lacked the complexity and depth of its first.

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October 21, 2007 · 10:57 pm

Dexter – “See-Through”

“See-Through”

October 21st, 2007

The second season of Dexter is based on a basic irony: its title character walks through Miami while people offer opinions of the Bay Harbor Butcher without knowing he’s right in front of them. I’m glad that in this episode Dexter finally admitted how annoying it’s getting, because I would tend to agree. It was engaging for one episode, maybe, but now it’s simply getting repetitive.

Actually, a lot of things are getting repetitive with Dexter. La Guerta’s replacement remains a true incompetent, almost becoming a parody of herself in her quest to reveal her husband’s indiscretion. Deb continues to face her Ice Truck Killer hangups, and Rita continues to be socially awkward with relatives or anyone other than Dexter. I worry that the drug addiction parallel is already getting repetitive after just a single episode, as the sponsor’s speeches were almost groan inducing.

This is not to say that Dexter is losing all of its quality: certain elements of the show remain intact. But the concern right now is that in providing us a greater window into Dexter’s mind, beginning to have other characters relate to him in new ways, the show is going for the easy kill as opposed to the subtle development.

[For more results and Cultural Observations…]

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October 16, 2007 · 2:29 pm

Cultural Catchup – Comedies – October 16th

[Oy vey. So much TV, so little time. This will be part one of a two-part series at this point, so we’ll start the comedies and move onto the dramas tomorrow (I’ll be covering Gossip Girl and Pushing Daisies this evening, barring unforeseen circumstances).]

How I Met Your Mother – “Little Boys”

There were some funny moments, sure, but the show’s focus is falling apart. The end of last season was a fantastic series of episodes because it was focused on Marshall and Lily’s wedding with Ted and Robin’s relationship taking a backseat. What happened at the end of last season was that Marshall and Lily became that “married couple” who no longer had any real comic potential…and Ted and Robin became the focus.

Ted has had some decent episodes (“Lucky Penny” was an example), but there is something about Ted that just doesn’t make for good comedy. The show has tried various perspectives: We went into Ted’s office for a span, and the result was mediocre comedy. Right now, Ted and Robin are both single and dating, and it just…isn’t entertaining. There’s some great jokes, and the structure of this week’s episode was interesting, but it just isn’t memorable.

I’m almost expecting them to throw Robin into the workplace any day now.

Samantha Who? – “Pilot”

The final new comedy of the fall season, Samantha Who? debuted to some solid numbers last night…and I’ll admit that I enjoyed it quite a lot. There are some fantastic elements to Samantha Who? that keep things interesting: a fantastic cast is first and foremost, with pretty well every performer nailing their respective character.

The comedy itself isn’t all that interesting, but the structure of the pilot had a lot of potential. There was some nice reveals of her “fake” best friend and her boy issues, and the mysterious hit and run driver is certainly of concern. As a pilot, it was well constructed to introduce us to these characters, as an Amnesiac makes a great tabula rosa upon which to write.

The concern, obviously, is that they’ve played out their amnesia jokes and that the rest of the series won’t be able to live up to this pilot structure. I enjoy the characters, from Jean Smart’s fantastic mother to Barry Watson’s awkward and short-haired boyfriend, but she can only learn so many things about herself each week before this gets extremely old. Will she get amnesia again? Will another character get amnesia? Where can this go, exactly?

Chuck – “Chuck vs. The Wookiee”

I will concur with the general sentiment on this episode: it just wasn’t as good as last week. It was still engaging, but it had some issues with balancing comedy and drama. In other words, it wasn’t quite funny enough, and the drama didn’t quite play as well as it could.

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September 11, 2007 · 9:01 am

Review: Weeds – “Bill Sussman”

Weeds Review

“Bill Sussman”

September 10th, 2007

What last night’s episode of Weeds did well was deal with the problems it had set up for itself in the weeks previous. It ended Andy’s ridiculous and unfortunate army storyline, it further immersed us in Majestic’s realities, and it gave U-Turn and the Three 6’s a context and a storyline. It was the right kind of perspective for the series as it heads into its core storylines, while also providing some strong comic foil for Mary-Louise Parker.

The episode wasn’t complicated: Sullivan bribes Doug and Celia, the army disconnects from Andy, Shane goes to school, Silas deals, and Nancy deals with U-Turn’s life a little more. It was an episode about immersion: taking the scenarios set forward in the first four episodes and reminding us that they are realistic and adaptive.

In the case of Majestic, we gained a better understanding of just what goes on at their non-denominational, inter-faith church. Shane’s murder mystery scenario looked innocent at first: it showed he was fitting in, and allowed for some great family interaction between Nancy, Silas and Shane. And then, of course, it was really all an anti-abortion talk. It was well-handled, and a smart reveal.

The build is slower for Nancy’s dealings with U-Turn, however, as she is finding herself involved at the cusp of gang warfare. Her poor Prius became a drive-by ambulance of sorts, and she was made accessory to such a shooting. Conrad, in his token scene, made note that the shit was hitting the fan…and we got a rather ominous shot of a gun in his drawer.

Nancy ended the episode with a trunk of Three 6 heroin in her garage, so it appears that she will be wrapped up in this for quite some time. And this puts her at her neurotic finest: facing great trauma, dealing with new situations, and clearly uncomfortable in her setting even as it “brings out the best of her.”

Gang warfare tends to do that, I hear.

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August 22, 2007 · 10:54 am

TV on DVD: Dexter – The First Season

While it technically released yesterday, I figure that today is as good a day as any to suggest that any TV fan out there should get their hands on Showtime’s Dexter. The show’s first season debuted on DVD yesterday, at a fairly reasonable price for its 12 episodes, and the show’s second season premieres on September 30th.

The show’s first season, perhaps out of any series that aired last year, feels like a cohesive piece of storytelling. Based on Jeff Lindsay’s novel, the series take the characters and over-arching plot of that book and expands it into something I personally feel is far superior.

Amazon.com: Dexter – The First Season

It tells the story of Dexter Morgan, who according to press for the series is America’s most lovable serial killer. I think this is perhaps an oversimplification: if anything, I think that Dexter isn’t lovable at all. Michael C. Hall’s award-nominated performance is unsettling, as it gets under your skin. He isn’t someone you like, necessarily, but someone you’re rooting for even in his creepy, creepy way.

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August 14, 2007 · 9:00 am

Mixed Feelings: Why ‘Californication’ Is Too In Love With Itself and Boobs

A show, to me, needs to earn its quality through a variety of things: writing, acting, directing, plot, etc. And it seems to me that the best series are those that truly earn it: the writing is sharp, the acting is nuanced, the directing is innovative, the plot treads new ground. And, if they don’t have these elements, I want to be able to see a series grow into them: something like Friday Night Lights, as an example, started small and built these elements through hard work and dedication.

I say all of this because Californication, the David Duchovny comedy that aired last night on Showtime, is a show that, like its lead character Hank, is in love with itself. It doesn’t appear to earn any of its quality, which is in fact quite present, but rather appears to just assume that its elements come together. I laughed a little, I felt the dramatic gravitas a little, but I never felt overtly compelled. And thus, I leave the pilot with mixed feelings: as much as I want to like the show, I do not feel I can ever like it as much as it likes itself.

The pilot is peppered with attempts to be either witty or provocative: references to film adaptations of novels and theme park rides, “Tom and Katie,” and America’s Next Top Model seem forced, attempting to remain relevant for no reason other than to be relevant. And then, as if they couldn’t do that enough to stand out, they found the secret recipe:

Boobies.

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August 13, 2007 · 9:45 pm

Reviewing the Season Premiere: Weeds – “Doing the Backstroke”

Weeds Season Three Premiere

“Doing the Backstroke”

While Cultural Learnings provided an extensive preview of the season’s first four episodes a few weeks ago, it is important that we view tonight’s third season premiere of Weeds as just that: a premiere. For a majority of viewers for Showtime’s dark comedy series, this was the first time they returned to the world of Agrestic and the cliffhangers left behind last season. And, well, it’s important that we view it as a premiere, and judge it accordingly.

The verdict? “Doing the Backstroke” is an episode that is entirely incapable of satiating our desire for finality, and certainly doesn’t wrap any of last season’s cliffhangers in a clean fashion. And yet, despite all of this, it is a smart half hour of television that blends comedy and drama to complicate the series’ dynamic even further.

And, well, I think that’s what we’re looking for from the series. From the moment the episode opens cold with the invasion of innocence into the second season’s dire cliffhanger, you know that the show’s tone isn’t changing: while driven by drama, this is ostensibly a dark comedy series.

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