TV Diary
I know that after "The People v. O.J. Simpson," we're doomed to get a prestige television miniseries about every major scandal of the 1990s, and "Pam & Tommy" may not be the worst, but it definitely feels like they're scraping the barrel. In the first episode, as the guy who stole their sex tape gets a backstory and even a flashback to his childhood, and an actor wears a big fake chin and does Jay Leno monologue jokes, it just felt so clear that there is not enough story here to fill 8 episodes of television. And after 5 episodes, it feels like they may eventually give Lily James's Pamela Anderson an empathetic three-dimensional portrait, but for now the tape thief, played by Seth Rogen, is a more fleshed out character. Sebastian Stan, who I didn't want to pass judgment on as an actor based on a bunch of Marvel movies, really feels like a non-presence who doesn't know how to play Tommy Lee -- it's a bad sign that even Machine Gun Kelly was far better in the same role in the middling film adaptation of The Dirt. Even the big hyped up scene where Sebastian Stan has a conversation with his prosthetic penis, voiced by Jason Mantzoukas, kind of falls flat. And obviously the music in the show didn't need to be all flop era Motley Crue or anything, but the particular strain of '90s nostalgia they mine with the music choices in "Pam & Tommy" just feels off, sometimes deliberately so but mostly in a kind of irritating and incoherent way that illustrates who the whole tone of this isn't quite right.
Of course, alongside the miniseries about '90s scandals, there's a whole wave of these shows about recent "scammers" in the news like Anna Delvey. "Inventing Anna" is kind of a mess, though, at least the first couple episodes I've seen. Julia Garner does a good job portraying this odd person and speaking in their unusual accent, but I think the story is being told badly, and not even entertainingly. I also don't like that so much of the show is a how-the-sausage-gets-made account of the New York Magazine article that made Delvey famous, but the fictionalized version of the writer is struggling to get their career off the ground while the real author of the piece was already successful and one of her other articles was being turned into a J.Lo movie at the time.
It's cool to see someone who's been kind of Twitter-famous for years and years like Quinta Brunson get a shot at creating and starring in an ABC sitcom and totally kill it, "Abbott Elementary" has only been on for 2 months but they just hit the ground running in a way that very few sitcoms do. And another internet-famous person, Zack Fox, has stolen some scenes in a recurring role, but the entire cast is great, especially Janelle James and Lisa Ann Walter. Mostly I just love that they've managed to make a show about elementary school from the teachers' perspective that's relatable and universal as a workplace comedy but isn't shying away from addressing what's going on in public schools right now. I do find it a little irritating that a lot of online people are acting like this is the first good network sitcom in 5 or 10 years, but at least the show is worth the hype.
"Somebody Somewhere" feels like the most HBO Max show that HBO Max has ever made: a comedian's semi-autobiographical half hour dramedy, produced by the Duplass brothers, where they go back to their midwestern hometown after a death in the family and reconnect with people they went to high school with. But it's a pretty great little show, Bridget Everett and Jeff Hiller have had a lot of bit parts in things and it's fun to see them as the leads.
e) "Bel-Air"
The idea of a serious dramatic modernization of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" was met with a lot of derision when it was first announced, but people have started to turn around and accept it now after watching an episode or two. And they do make a decent effort at making it good, but the whole premise just feels a little too ludicrous to me, it's like "Riverdale." Will pulling a gun at the basketball game, Carlton doing xannies, it's way too much.
This British miniseries is an odd little story about this big, beautiful, unique house that the architect/owner lets people rent for a low, affordable if they follow all of his rules. But the two applicants who he picks, as we see in parallel stories 3 years apart, look like each other, and we eventually find out that both women resemble his dead wife. Gugu Mbatha-Raw and David Oyelowo are great in it, but I'm not sure where this story is really gonna wind up, need to finish the last episode.
g) "Reacher"
In the Jack Reacher books, he's this big 6'5" tough guy, so fans of the novels understandably had a problem with the movies where he was played by Tom Cruise. But it feels like this new Amazon series is almost too self-congratulatory about Alan Ritchson fitting the description, there is so much dialogue in the first couple episodes of people commenting on his size. It's a good show, though, great fight scenes and a pretty engaging story, and Ritchson has great chemistry with Willa Fitzgerald. I'm kind of amused how Malcolm Goodwin is almost playing the exact same character he played in "iZombie," though.
A really good comedy on Freeform exec produced by Leslye Headland ("Russian Doll," Bachelorette) about an alcoholic getting sober. I especially liked the first episode where Sofia Black-D'Elia's character hits rock bottom, and then manages to hit rock bottom again immediately after 30 days of rehab, so you kind of are constantly expecting the worst but still rooting for her.
Netflix's "Murderville" is based on a BBC series and has a pretty fun concept: Will Arnett plays a detective, and in each episode his partner is a different celebrity guest (Conan O'Brien, Marshawn Lynch, etc.). Everyone has a script except the guest, who has to go around talking to suspects and witnesses with Arnett and collecting clues, and then at the end of the episode they try to correctly guess who the murderer is. As improv comedy it works surprisingly well, with Arnett just playing a ridiculous character and giving the guest something good to bounce off of, and the game/mystery aspect is fun too.
There was an infamous "How I Met Your Dad" pilot with Greta Gerwig right after "How I Met Your Mother" wrapped, but now we've got Hulu's sequel series starring Hilary Duff. I loved "HIMYM" at the time but will be the first to admit it hasn't aged spectacularly well, and it's kind of depressing that the things that they get right about emulating the writing/tone of the original show feel cheesy now. But I do like that they don't make an effort to gender swap the whole cast (I mean, maybe you could do a female Barney Stinson and make it less problematic, but it's probably best not to try). It's not good per se, but Francia Raisa's in it, so I will probably keep watching.
k) "Euphoria"
I was a big "Euphoria" skeptic from the beginning, but I liked the standalone Rue episode between seasons enough to tune in for the new season. And there are occasional great moments (the 'Oklahoma' bathroom scene!), but it feels like the prolonged break has just made Sam Levinson itchier to stuff way too much into every episode, every scene, all these flashy camera angles and endless music montages and goofy fantasy sequences. I couldn't even tell if the "menacing lowlife dancing to a Gerry Rafferty soft rock tune before getting violent" scene was a deliberate Reservoir Dogs homage or if Levinson just can't help throwing in these flashy derivative scenes. Plus I'm old enough that I'm watching this more as a dad than as a former teen, I'm not outraged by it but I find it exhausting. I'm ready for a 'Euphoria parents' spinoff since two of the moms are my '90s crushes Paula Marshall and Alanna Ubach.
I have had a lot of mixed feelings about Danny McBride's shows and movies, and while "The Righteous Gemstones" occasionally annoys me in the same ways (the extended projectile vomiting scene in the latest episode is a good example), it continues to be by far the best thing he's ever made. The cast is amazing, especially Edi Patterson and Walton Goggins, there's been a great run of guests this season, including Eric Roberts and Joe Jonas, and it just feels like they keep scaling things up in insanely entertaining ways like Adam DeVine's army of musclemen.
m) "Dollface"
"Dollface" was a slight letdown in its first season, but I'm still happy that Kat Dennings and Esther Povitsky are in a show together and either it's growing on me or the writing is getting stronger in season 2.
I love the first season of "State of the Union," ten quick, snappy 10-minute episodes scripted by Nick Hornby, of Rosamund Pike and Chris O'Dowd as a couple with a troubled marriage, meeting in a coffee shop to pregame before each week's couples therapy session. Season 2 is the same formula with a different couple, played by Brendan Gleeson and Patricia Clarkson, and it's had some good moments so far but I'm not enjoying it as much. Partly it's that Gleeson is playing kind of an oafish conservative guy and there's a lot of predictable 'un-woke' banter, plus some unpleasant echoes of his depiction of Trump in "The Comey Rule."
The biggest different between "Disenchantment" and predecessors like "Futurama" and "The Simpsons" is a lot more continuity and big story arcs, to make it more true to the whole epic fantasy genre it's parodying. But I don't necessarily care about the story, so every time they come back with new episodes, my wife and I are kind of like "huh, what the hell is going on again?" But the characters and the jokes are still pretty enjoyable.
I've come to the conclusion that the format of turning these Reddit "two sentence horror stories" into an anthology series just doesn't work, fleshing out these simple intriguing premises almost always falls flat, save for a couple episodes in the first season. Plus the "bad two sentence horror" Twitter account is way more entertaining than the show.
An Italian 'erotic drama' on Netflix, watched a bit of it but got bored of it easily.
Kind of a charming, soapy Arabic show on Netflix about a woman whose husband leaves her.
This Portuguese series is by far my favorite recent Netflix import, some really sharp dialogue and playful storytelling, engaging cast.
People tend to think of me as this hypercritical Kanye West detractor or someone who wants the "old Kanye" back, and honestly I have been over him, as a person and as a musician, for over a decade, a lot longer than other people have started to sour on him. But I was just a huge fan in the early days, I can still remember reading his name in Jay-Z liner notes, becoming a fan of his beats and then getting the Get Well Soon mixtape and rooting for him as a rapper, and seeing it all get weird after that. So this 3-part Netflix doc, which the duo Coodie & Chike have been filming since 1998, is pretty fascinating and comes at an especially weird time in Kanye's life. And there are things in here that I didn't even know about, like Dug Infinite dissing him on the radio, that really breathe new life into the familiar story of Kanye's rise. I don't know what kind of emotions the next 2 installments will bring up, but the first one is pretty bittersweet.
Apparently the all-Black comedy night on Tuesdays at the Comedy Store really launched a lot of standups' careers in the '90s and was a big influence on things like Def Comedy Jam. And this 3-part Amazon miniseries has a lot of great stories about that era, and interviews with most of the big comics that were starting out back then.
I've never been much of a fan of Jimmy Fallon's "Tonight Show," and the way he's turned a lot of it into a series of mini-game shows. But some of those games are pretty fun, particularly the music-oriented ones, and I like the way they've spun them off into a show unto itself (with Fallon also hosting, which again, not a huge fan, might like this more with someone else in the gig). The first episode of "That's My Jam" with all the current "Voice" judges was the best one, because Ariana Grande and Kelly Clarkson are the perfect people for a show like this, but all the episodes are pretty entertaining, even when some celebs don't have much musical talent or knowledge (cough cough, Taraji P. Henson).
Steph and Ayesha Curry host this show that's kind of a celebrity couples game show, sort of a very chill and casual "Newlywed Game" sort of thing. It's fun, interesting to contrast the kind of HBO show Steph made with LeBron's less scripted but more serious "Uninterrupted."
I haven't read Shea Serrano's book Basketball (And Other Things), but I guess this Hulu series is kind of a television version of it, lots of basketball players and celebrities talking about different topics involved to NBA culture and NBA history and the different sort of issues that players encounter.
Gordon Ramsay's latest show is sort of an "American Idol"-style tournament to find good mid-level chefs and pick one to really elevate to stardom. But in practice it's kind of just like all the other Ramsay shows, which is fine if you're into that kind of thing, I occasionally find it entertaining to see how different cooks handle the various challenges.
I'm always kind of amused when cutesy cartoons aimed at young children have these actors that are just moderately famous even among adults. Like, why do we need dachsunds to be voiced by Mark Duplass and Nasim Pedrad? It's just weird that professional voice actors are always getting pushed out for screen actors even when they aren't super-famous.
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