TV Diary
a) "Workaholics"
The bar seems pretty low for Comedy Central sitcoms but there's something I really liked about the first episode of "Workaholics," even beyond the fact that it featured a guest spot by Chris Parnell or that the bizarre plot involve him asking the main characters to murder him. The whole thing has a really odd freewheeling don't-give-a-fuck vibe and I'm interested to see where it goes.
b) "Breakout Kings"
It kind of surprised me that A&E had a new scripted drama since they seem to have gone pretty far down the rabbit hole of bad reality shows, and it turns out this was originally developed for FOX and man, it's really good, I'm glad a cable channel picked it up. It was created by a couple of "Prison Break" writers and centers around a team of feds that chase down fugitives with the help of prisoners who'd escaped and got caught themselves, and it kind of rides the fence between really gritty dark plots and a kind of light, funny character-driven show. Also, it was cool that Herc from "The Wire" is in it and some of the first episode took place in Baltimore. The standout of the cast, though, is the character played by Jimmi Simpson, an actor who I kind of disliked for a long time based on him playing the most unlikable character in one of the most unlikable movies of all time, Loser, but now everything I see him in I like him more.
c) "Eagleheart"
I grew up loving "Get A Life" and Cabin Boy so it kind of feels like a big deal to me that Chris Elliott finally has a proper starring vehicle that seems suited to his talents for the first time in almost 20 years. And once again I have to get over my hangup about live action shows on the Cartoon Network, because this is really funny, and in a weird way the episodes being like 11 minutes long totally works and they kind of plot it out like a 30 or 60-minute show and just compress it down to the basic storyline and as many jokes as they can fit in.
d) Thurgood
This is the HBO movie of Laurence Fishburne's turn on Broadway as Thurgood Marshall, and man, he just kills it, really brings to mind how impressed I was when I first saw him in What's Love Got To Do With It. It's kind of more light and humorous than I would've expected but it really helps offset the historical weight of the subject matter, makes it more human and approachable. I'd much rather watch a good play like this about a historical figure than a slick feature film biopic, for a number of reasons.
e) The Sunset Limited
Another HBO movie I really enjoyed, which seemed like a nice excuse for a couple of old pros like Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson to just go head-to-head for an hour with a nice barebones, intriguingly framed little premise. It was also refreshing to see such a wordy Cormac McCarthy adaptation, since seeing a couple others and reading The Road kinda made me wonder whether his minimalist style and terse characters were some kind of cover-up for an inability or disinterest in writing dialogue, which this has lots and lots of and is sometimes over-the-top but never dull.
f) "An Idiot Abroad"
I've never been big on the Ricky Gervais podcast/animated HBO show thing where he sits around and laughs way too hard at how dumb his friend Karl is, but I kind of enjoy this goofy travel show where they send him to different countries and let him just kind of be an ugly American (well, ugly Englishman, whatever). The comedy is a bit predictable and broad, but so many travel shows have these overly enthusiastic and open-minded hosts that it's kind of refreshing to see one through the eyes of someone who's a little bit sheltered and xenophobic and the occasional moments where he kind of enjoys himself.
g) "Face Off"
My wife really likes this SyFy show, which is basically a reality show competition for special effects makeup artists, and it's pretty neat because a) it's cool to see how that particular sausage gets made and b) it's not an especially high profile profession so they're able to get really major people in the field who've done Star Trek and Tim Burton movies to come on as guest judges. A lot of the actual show is typical reality show bullshit with backbiting and feuds, but it's still cool to see how people rise to or fail at the challenges, sometimes hilariously.
h) "Comedy Death Ray"
It's kind of neat that with all the billion comedy podcasts out there these days, IFC picked one up and used it as a format for interview bumpers between all the old Apatow-y '90s/early '00s shows they've been showing reruns of lately ("The Ben Stiller Show," "Larry Sanders," "Mr. Show," "Freaks & Geeks" and "Undeclared"). I kinda wish they'd just made it its own show instead of the bumper format, though, because these little 90 second interview snippets end up being kind of bland soundbytes whereas I assume the whole appeal of those podcasts is just letting the comics and actors unwind and shoot the shit.
i) "Fairly Legal"
This has kind of become an unlikely candidate for one of my favorite new shows of 2011 so far, I tuned in mainly for the eye candy of Sarah Shahi and Virginia Williams, but the whole cast is gelling and the writing is a little sharper and wittier than I'm used to from a fluffy USA dramedy.
j) "Episodes"
The little thinkpiece I wrote about this show focused more on the subject matter than the execution, but this did turn out to be a pretty solid show, even if the kind of British farce aspect of it took some predictable silly turns by the finale. Would like to see this come back for another season.
k) "It's Effin' Science"
G4's attempt at making a hip, young "Myth Busters"-style science show is pretty sad, mainly because it's actually stiffer and dorkier than the actual "Myth Busters," in addition to not being as interesting with the science content and trying way harder to be funny. Even the token hot girl isn't as hot as the one on "Myth Busters," although she's still pretty hot, so there's that.
l) "Mad Genius"
FUSE has this weird niche of doing all the music-oriented programming you wish MTV would do but not necessarily doing them that well, and in this case they have a show profiling musicians and actually focusing on their art instead of just breaking down their drama and controversies on a "Behind The Music" tip. But a lot of times they're profiling some boring modern hard rock type, or some really overexposed rapper, so it's not as interesting as it should be.
m) "Parenthood"
I'm starting to sour a little bit on this show. One of the things I liked best about the first season was how plots and conflicts would unfold gradually over the course of several episodes. Now it feels like something's always coming to a head, to the point that there are sometimes multiple climactic shouting matches within a single episode.
n) "Parks & Recreation"
As I predicted last year, I'm warming up to this show a bit more now with Rob Lowe and Adam Scott in the cast, and Lowe in particular has become a good foil to allow Rashida Jones to actually be funny. But I dunno, the way this show leans on awkward silences and reaction shots is really irksome, especially the way every Aubrey Plaza scene is punctuated with her rolling her eyes at the camera.
o) "Being Human"
Now that I'm caught up with all the episodes aired so far of the SyFy version of this show, I'm now going back and starting to watch the original BBC version of the show. And I'm still not really sure which I prefer, or if watching them both so close together isn't going to kind of mush them all together in my head.
p) "The Dish"
Style's "The Soup" spinoff/knockoff never seemed especially necessary, especially given they were making fun of half of the same clips most weeks, but the show really grew on me over the last 3 years, and I came to realize that it wasn't just because I've been kind of in love with Danielle Fishel since the "Boy Meets World" days -- the show really was pretty well written and fun in an unapologetically goofy way. So it was a real bummer to turn it on this past weekend and find out it was their last episode ever, R.I.P.
The bar seems pretty low for Comedy Central sitcoms but there's something I really liked about the first episode of "Workaholics," even beyond the fact that it featured a guest spot by Chris Parnell or that the bizarre plot involve him asking the main characters to murder him. The whole thing has a really odd freewheeling don't-give-a-fuck vibe and I'm interested to see where it goes.
b) "Breakout Kings"
It kind of surprised me that A&E had a new scripted drama since they seem to have gone pretty far down the rabbit hole of bad reality shows, and it turns out this was originally developed for FOX and man, it's really good, I'm glad a cable channel picked it up. It was created by a couple of "Prison Break" writers and centers around a team of feds that chase down fugitives with the help of prisoners who'd escaped and got caught themselves, and it kind of rides the fence between really gritty dark plots and a kind of light, funny character-driven show. Also, it was cool that Herc from "The Wire" is in it and some of the first episode took place in Baltimore. The standout of the cast, though, is the character played by Jimmi Simpson, an actor who I kind of disliked for a long time based on him playing the most unlikable character in one of the most unlikable movies of all time, Loser, but now everything I see him in I like him more.
c) "Eagleheart"
I grew up loving "Get A Life" and Cabin Boy so it kind of feels like a big deal to me that Chris Elliott finally has a proper starring vehicle that seems suited to his talents for the first time in almost 20 years. And once again I have to get over my hangup about live action shows on the Cartoon Network, because this is really funny, and in a weird way the episodes being like 11 minutes long totally works and they kind of plot it out like a 30 or 60-minute show and just compress it down to the basic storyline and as many jokes as they can fit in.
d) Thurgood
This is the HBO movie of Laurence Fishburne's turn on Broadway as Thurgood Marshall, and man, he just kills it, really brings to mind how impressed I was when I first saw him in What's Love Got To Do With It. It's kind of more light and humorous than I would've expected but it really helps offset the historical weight of the subject matter, makes it more human and approachable. I'd much rather watch a good play like this about a historical figure than a slick feature film biopic, for a number of reasons.
e) The Sunset Limited
Another HBO movie I really enjoyed, which seemed like a nice excuse for a couple of old pros like Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson to just go head-to-head for an hour with a nice barebones, intriguingly framed little premise. It was also refreshing to see such a wordy Cormac McCarthy adaptation, since seeing a couple others and reading The Road kinda made me wonder whether his minimalist style and terse characters were some kind of cover-up for an inability or disinterest in writing dialogue, which this has lots and lots of and is sometimes over-the-top but never dull.
f) "An Idiot Abroad"
I've never been big on the Ricky Gervais podcast/animated HBO show thing where he sits around and laughs way too hard at how dumb his friend Karl is, but I kind of enjoy this goofy travel show where they send him to different countries and let him just kind of be an ugly American (well, ugly Englishman, whatever). The comedy is a bit predictable and broad, but so many travel shows have these overly enthusiastic and open-minded hosts that it's kind of refreshing to see one through the eyes of someone who's a little bit sheltered and xenophobic and the occasional moments where he kind of enjoys himself.
g) "Face Off"
My wife really likes this SyFy show, which is basically a reality show competition for special effects makeup artists, and it's pretty neat because a) it's cool to see how that particular sausage gets made and b) it's not an especially high profile profession so they're able to get really major people in the field who've done Star Trek and Tim Burton movies to come on as guest judges. A lot of the actual show is typical reality show bullshit with backbiting and feuds, but it's still cool to see how people rise to or fail at the challenges, sometimes hilariously.
h) "Comedy Death Ray"
It's kind of neat that with all the billion comedy podcasts out there these days, IFC picked one up and used it as a format for interview bumpers between all the old Apatow-y '90s/early '00s shows they've been showing reruns of lately ("The Ben Stiller Show," "Larry Sanders," "Mr. Show," "Freaks & Geeks" and "Undeclared"). I kinda wish they'd just made it its own show instead of the bumper format, though, because these little 90 second interview snippets end up being kind of bland soundbytes whereas I assume the whole appeal of those podcasts is just letting the comics and actors unwind and shoot the shit.
i) "Fairly Legal"
This has kind of become an unlikely candidate for one of my favorite new shows of 2011 so far, I tuned in mainly for the eye candy of Sarah Shahi and Virginia Williams, but the whole cast is gelling and the writing is a little sharper and wittier than I'm used to from a fluffy USA dramedy.
j) "Episodes"
The little thinkpiece I wrote about this show focused more on the subject matter than the execution, but this did turn out to be a pretty solid show, even if the kind of British farce aspect of it took some predictable silly turns by the finale. Would like to see this come back for another season.
k) "It's Effin' Science"
G4's attempt at making a hip, young "Myth Busters"-style science show is pretty sad, mainly because it's actually stiffer and dorkier than the actual "Myth Busters," in addition to not being as interesting with the science content and trying way harder to be funny. Even the token hot girl isn't as hot as the one on "Myth Busters," although she's still pretty hot, so there's that.
l) "Mad Genius"
FUSE has this weird niche of doing all the music-oriented programming you wish MTV would do but not necessarily doing them that well, and in this case they have a show profiling musicians and actually focusing on their art instead of just breaking down their drama and controversies on a "Behind The Music" tip. But a lot of times they're profiling some boring modern hard rock type, or some really overexposed rapper, so it's not as interesting as it should be.
m) "Parenthood"
I'm starting to sour a little bit on this show. One of the things I liked best about the first season was how plots and conflicts would unfold gradually over the course of several episodes. Now it feels like something's always coming to a head, to the point that there are sometimes multiple climactic shouting matches within a single episode.
n) "Parks & Recreation"
As I predicted last year, I'm warming up to this show a bit more now with Rob Lowe and Adam Scott in the cast, and Lowe in particular has become a good foil to allow Rashida Jones to actually be funny. But I dunno, the way this show leans on awkward silences and reaction shots is really irksome, especially the way every Aubrey Plaza scene is punctuated with her rolling her eyes at the camera.
o) "Being Human"
Now that I'm caught up with all the episodes aired so far of the SyFy version of this show, I'm now going back and starting to watch the original BBC version of the show. And I'm still not really sure which I prefer, or if watching them both so close together isn't going to kind of mush them all together in my head.
p) "The Dish"
Style's "The Soup" spinoff/knockoff never seemed especially necessary, especially given they were making fun of half of the same clips most weeks, but the show really grew on me over the last 3 years, and I came to realize that it wasn't just because I've been kind of in love with Danielle Fishel since the "Boy Meets World" days -- the show really was pretty well written and fun in an unapologetically goofy way. So it was a real bummer to turn it on this past weekend and find out it was their last episode ever, R.I.P.
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on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 11:08 AM.
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