3/18/13

Oscar Producers Speak Out

Regardless of all the shocked press stories about this year's Oscars, the producers of the show unequivocally supported Seth MacFarlane's performance.  TVGuide reports Oscar producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan recently stated:

"We were really, really proud of Seth MacFarlane...He did the job at we wanted him to do. Seth is irreverent, he comments on things that happen in our culture, and that's what he did and we thought he did an extraordinary job."

I have to agree that this year's show was better than most, and the tongue-in-cheek "attack" on celebrities, as well as the supporting role played by William Shatner as a critical Captain Kirk, worked perfectly.  Sadly, the media finds it more useful to pretend shock than enjoy the show for what it is - a partial roast of pretty people who take themselves far too seriously.  While MacFarlane says he will not host again, I hope he reconsiders.

Bates Motel Returns

What would Alfred Hitchcock think of the return to television of his classic Psycho?  His 1960 film caused quite a stir and it is somewhat surprising that a well worn tale could take on a new life on A&E's Bates Motel, but that is the plan starting tonight (March 18).

A&E wants to tell us the prequel to Pyscho so that we have a better understanding of what made Normal do the things he did:
  
"Bates Motel,” serves as a contemporary prequel to the genre-defining film, “Psycho,” and promises to give viewers an intimate portrayal of how Norman Bates’ psyche unravels through his teenage years.  Fans will have access to the dark, twisted backstory and learn first hand just how deeply intricate his relationship with his mother, Norma, truly is and how she helped forge the most famous serial killer of them all.

Back in 1987, NBC tried a Psycho television pilot only to see it fail.  And of course we have already had a Psycho II, III, and IV (the prequel), so this is not a new idea.  So what can we expect?  Alessandra Stanley in a tepid New York Times review noted:

On one level the series explores the twisted steps that led Norman to his fate. The creators made “Bates Motel” less an exercise in “what if” than an “if only” — keeping viewers wondering whether, with some intervention or lucky break, the ultimate mama’s boy could come to a different end. But the series has to keep the narrative going and needs to add surprise turns that could affect Norman’s destiny...“Bates Motel” has a talented cast and a memorable back story that guides, but doesn’t limit, the narrative, and at its best it’s intriguing and enjoyably grim. But even more than Norman, the series itself has a split personality, a Hitchcock classic grafted onto a much more mundane brand of suspense.

What is even more interesting is that Hitchcock intended Pyscho to be a comedy, according to a recent story in England's The Telegraph.  In 1964, Hitchcock stated:

"I once made a movie, rather tongue-in-cheek, called 'Psycho'..."The content as such was, I felt, rather amusing and it was a big joke. I was horrified to find that some people took it seriously." 

So A&E has a lot of material to play with and now we have to see how it all comes together.  With all the fluff vampires and werewolves running around, maybe the retelling of a classic tale will add some gravitas to the genre again.  It's all up to Norman now.

3/17/13

Top of the Lake Starts Tomorrow

If you were worried about Elisabeth Moss and her part as Peggy Olson on Mad Men since she left the firm, don't worry.  She has shown up as detective Robin Griffin in New Zealand.  And if you thought the people were interesting and odd in the 1950s, just wait until you meet these folks.

The new 7-part series Top of the Lake starts tomorrow (March 1th) on the Sundance channel.  The show also stars Holly Hunter as a spiritual leader, Peter Mullan as the menacing father of a missing daughter, and David Wenhan as the more senior detective in the Queenstown Police Station.

From what I have read and taken away from the trailers, this is no longer the New Zealand of Lord of the Rings.  In fact, I doubt the New Zealand tourist board is pushing this new show.  Think of it as The Killing in another beautiful environment with less rain. 

Here is the basic premise of the show:

12 years old and 5 months pregnant, Tui Mitcham walks into a freezing lake ... then disappears. Detective Robin Griffin returns home to investigate, but it's not a simple missing persons case. In this breathtaking but remote mountain town, there are evil forces as powerful as the land itself. And those who offer a glimpse of paradise also provide a path to hell. Trapped where happiness and honest work are just out of reach, Griffin must not only find the girl but also face her own haunting past. With the men that she once left behind now standing in her way, every step closer to solving the case unearths a dangerous truth about herself. 

Nancy DeWolf Smith in The Wall Street Journal noted the show's brutality in a recent review. pointing out:

...we soon learn that every character here is damaged in some way. Most of the men are ignorant brutes who act like dogs that have been chained in a yard all their lives. Most of the women are victims, addicted to emotional or physical pain at the hands of men they recklessly pursue. Among those trying to recover at the lake with GJ is a woman still in shock after seeing her beloved chimpanzee kill one of her friends before being killed himself. But wait, says one of the local louts, "Was the chimp your boyfriend or a pet?" 

Our Peggy is no longer in Manhattan.

Note:  Interestingly enough, The Killing was filmed in Vancouver.  According to The Seattle Times, the show's creator Veena Sud decided to use Seattle as the setting for a few reasons: 

"The graphic beauty of Seattle was so compelling; it reminded me of Copenhagen in the Danish series, incredibly brooding and tragic," said Sud..."As I started to research more about Seattle, it became clear it's one of the most liberal cities in America and one of the most literate ... and yet it's also a city with a dark underbelly," she said. "It has a huge runaway population that's very striking when you're a visitor to the city and see so many of these lost kids."

3/15/13

Comedians and Coffee: Fun and Serious Talks

Jerry Seinfeld has put together 10 interviews as part of his series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (go here for the promo and better digital output) I have enjoyed each one, but my favorites are Alec Baldwin in terms of pure fun and Michael Richards (Kramer from Seinfeld) for honesty. In the final episode with Michael Richards, Seinfeld brings up the incident from 7 years earlier where Richards fired racial remarks back at the audience, effectively ending his career.  Richards discusses how the incident "broke him down" and he has not done any comedy since.  He also thanks Seinfeld for sticking by his side during the turmoil that followed. 

The good news is that Seinfeld has agreed to do a second season, this time with 24 interviews.  I look forward to more fun and, at times, revealing discussions.

Note:  It is hard to get the video to pull up on Crackle.com.  Just go the main Crackle page, find the list of series videos below, and pull up the one you want to see. 

3/10/13

Supernatural Does the Harlem Shake

I have always liked the way the CW's Supernatural cast and crew have a funny bone that does not take things too seriously.  In this vein, Jensen Ackles leads Jared Padalecki and the rest of the team in the Harlem Shake.  Check out the clip.  


Zero it Out: ABC Cancels Zero Hour

All one can say to its credit is that ABC's Zero Hour lasted one episode longer than NBC's Do No Harm, but that is not saying much when you are pulled after only three episodes.  ABC cancelled Zero Hour not long after its premiere, which was reported to be the lowest-rated ABC premiere for a scripted show during the regular TV season ever.

I had high hopes for Zero Hour after the first episode, but by the second episode I had already lost interest and decided a third episode was not worth my time.  The story became too wacky with Edwards running around the globe followed by a multi-lingual FBI agent who never heard of the word sequestration.  We have good people in government, but the bottomless budget supporting this over-talented agent was more incredible than the Catholic Church hiding a secret from the Nazis.

Would the show have worked as a two-hour television movie?  Probably, but only because one would have felt invested (or too lazy) after an hour to change the channel.  But 13 hours?   In the end, I was not interested trying to follow the story of 12 clocks while pretending to care about the fate of Anthony Edwards' wife who we only saw for 5 minutes in the first episode.  ABC asked us to invest too much time in a complex tale that started to go off the rails.  

If you are still interested in the show, ABC will mostly likely show the remaining episodes over the summer.  I think I will pass.

Catch the New Dwight Pilot This Thursday

As I noted in an earlier entry, we will not see The Farm as a new series starring our friend Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) from The Office.  Nonetheless, in The Office episode this Thursday at 9pm ET/8pm CT we can see the pilot and learn more about what could have been. 

And if you are a Dwight fan, you have an opportunity to display it by wearing this "Schrute Farms Beets" shirt available at NBC.  Dwight also has some final words on the Schrute family in this clip from NBC.  Can you imagine 10 little Schrutes running around?  It is too scary to imagine.

3/1/13

More on March 3rd: Christians and Mobsters

If the premiere of Vikings is not enough to keep you satisfied this Sunday (March 3), you may want to check out these new shows instead:

-- The Bible, History Channel: This is quite an adventure covering both books of the Bible and just in time for the approach of Easter.  This 10-part series started as a documentary and morphed into a drama.  The Christian Science Monitor, in writing about the series producers Mark Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey, opined:

Burnett and his wife have produced a mini-series that is not only "not disappointing," but actually rises to the top of the "Wow" scale. Attempting to take on the whole Bible in 10 hours is pretty much an impossible task for just about anyone, but apparently not for the Burnetts. They really have produced something of epic proportions.

-- Red Widow, ABC:  This is a remake of the Dutch series Penoza.  This can be good or bad, depending on the quality of the effort.  In the case of The Killing, Shameless, and House of Cards it was a great success.  The new show sounds like a grittier version of Showtime's Weeds.  Here is the plot from ABC:

Marta Walraven seems to have an idyllic life. A stay-at-home mom in tony Marin County, just north of San Francisco, she is devoted to her three children and her husband. Behind this perfect façade, however, is a more complicated story: Evan, Marta’s husband, supports the family by exporting marijuana. Marta is familiar with the world of organized crime: her father, Andrei Petrov, and his loyal bodyguard, Luther, are Bratva – Russian gangsters – in San Francisco. It’s a world from which she and her sister Kat always wanted to escape, though they never quite did.
But when Evan is brutally murdered in their driveway, everything changes. Marta’s first concern is to protect her children – and yet when FBI Agent James Ramos promises Marta justice in exchange for her cooperation, she cannot go against the Bratva code. She refuses his help.

Slowly, the truth about her husband’s murder begins to emerge: Evan’s business partners – Marta’s scheming brother, Irwin Petrov, and their best friend, the hapless Mike Tomlin – were involved in the theft of millions of dollars of cocaine from the formidable international crime boss, Nicholae Schiller. Evan paid with his life, but as far as Schiller is concerned, his debt is not clear. It falls to Marta, as Evan’s widow, to navigate the criminal underworld in order to repay this debt – in whatever way Schiller sees fit.

Hounded by the FBI on the one hand and by Schiller on the other, while also trying to raise three grieving kids on her own, Marta discovers a tenacity she never knew she had. As she hunts for the truth about her husband’s death and struggles to keep her children safe, she’ll rely on her resourcefulness, determination and her Bratva DNA like never before. But just how far is Marta willing to go in order to beat her adversaries at their own deadly game? 


I will probably watch Vikings, record The Bible, and hold off on Red Widow until some later time.  Who knew Sundays could be so busy?

Update:  I think I chose my viewing schedule well.  Vikings turned out to be an excellent choice.  While I was worried in the first few minutes when I saw Odin lifting bodies from the battlefield, the story quickly came together and the acting was fine throughout.  The Bible, on the other hand, did not work at all.  Seeing Ninja angels in Sodom was a little too strange.  And while the show may work for the thoroughly devoted who know their bible stories backward and forward, I do not see the show bringing on any new followers.  Maybe doing a documentary with some acting in the background would have been better.  Finally, it seems Red Widow was off to a slow start in the ratings and may not last too long, so I am glad I did not become committed to this new show.

The Vikings are Coming!

What happens when the channel that brought you the award-winning Hatfields & McCoys (History Channel) joins the creator of The Tudors and The Borgias (Michael Hirst)?  Hopefully, you will get another great show and we shall see if that is the case with the new series Vikings, premiering on March 3rd.  This will be the History Channel's first scripted series and it is already ready to commit to three more seasons should the premiere go well. 

Here is a quick summary of the show from the History Channel:

Vikings transports us to the brutal and mysterious world of Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel), a Viking warrior and farmer who yearns to explore—and raid—the distant shores across the ocean. His ambition puts him at odds with local chieftain Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne), who insists on sending his raiders to the impoverished east rather than the uncharted west. When Ragnar teams up with his boat builder friend Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard) to craft a new generation of intrepid ships capable of conquering the rough northern seas, the stage is set for conflict.

But for all its warfare and bloodshed, Vikings is also a story of family and brotherhood, capturing the love and affection between Ragnar and his wife, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick), a respected warrior in her own right. It is the tale of Ragnar’s brother Rollo (Clive Standen), a fierce fighter who simmers with jealously; of Earl Haraldson’s wife Siggy (Jessalyn Gilsig), a dutiful beauty who may be less than loyal; and of the monk Athelstan (George Blagden), whose Christian morals clash with the Vikings’ pagan society. As ambition and innovation rattle a civilization, these characters will be put to the test—and their way of life will never be the same again.

You may remember Australian Travis Fimmel from his time on A&E's The Beast, a Chicago cop show also starring Patrick Swayze (who died before a second season was possible).  At that time I wrote how Fimmel reminded me of a young Brad Pitt.  As a result, I have high hopes for his part in this new series.  I am also interested in seeing the acting chops of Sweden's Gustaf Skarsgard, brother of Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood).  If he is anything like his brother then we have quite a set of actors on our hands. 

In an interview with ManJr, Fimmel describes his character Ragnar:

Well Ragnar is based on a historical character. He is very adventurous and he is one of the first people to sail west and discover England and do what Vikings do when they discover places. Say good hey to the ladies and beat up people...He is so curious. He thinks he is a direct descendant from a god named Odin, who was a god of slain warriors and curiosity. Legends say that the god Odin killed himself just to see what death felt like. Ragnar has that same curiosity about stuff. Nothing is good enough for him. He wants to know what is out there. It is not just for the raping and pillaging stuff. He wants to learn about people and the gods they worship, what the look like, and their customs. He is just a curious person and his curiosity doesn’t end.

The nine episodes of season one were shot in rustic Ireland.  From the few scenes I have watched, the setting and production values are terrific.  And I look forward to seeing the viking longboat in action.  We shall see if it all holds together as another great TV epic.