Friday Night Dinner

Another fun show that started last month is BBC America's Friday Night Dinner.  It is just what it sounds like; a family dinner each Friday evening with the normal (or abnormal) happenings.  The set up is pretty simple with the two sons arriving by car, the appearance of their half dressed father, a strange neighbor who tends to pop by unannounced, brotherly battles (and poisoning) at the dinner table, uncomfortable questioning about ever-absent girlfriends, and an over-taxed mother trying to hold it altogether.

One of the sons is played by Simon Bird, who you may remember from The Inbetweeners, another BBC comedy that follows the hi-jinx of four high school friends.  The rest of the cast is new to me but work well together.  And while I was afraid the formula would wear thin quickly, the introduction of visitors and odd topics (e.g., the secret storage of science magazines that are treated like porn), as well as the endearing qualities of this very strange family, keep it lively and interesting.  You could do worst than spend a Friday night dinner with this family (by the way, it is on BBC America each Saturday night).

Update:  If you like The Inbetweeners, or just want to see them for the first time, you can check our their new movie (click here for the trailer).  London's Guardian notes that the early returns on the movie are better than Hangover II. 

MTV Continues With Original Series: Awkward

As I noted earlier, MTV's remake of the British series Skins was a failure for a variety of reasons, including trying too hard to be controversial.  That said, this failure did not scare MTV away from producing new series for young adults.  In the case of Teen Wolf, the network finally hit the mark.  Of course, a show on high school werewolves was not completely new to America, but the show has promise and has already been renewed for a second season.  

I am even more impressed with MTV's latest entrant Awkward. The show follows the day-to-day high school miseries one a teenage girl as she navigates a boyfriend with attention-deficit issues, a snarky (and large) cheerleader, immature parents, and a clueless guidance counselor.  Pretty much wraps up the typical day many may remember from way back when.  The nice part is that this teenager, Jenna, is darn likeable while also somewhat accident-prone.  

The pilot episode has a great action sequence where a small slip in the bathroom puts Jenna on a suicide watch list and makes her an object of sympathy and dread in the school hallways.  As with Skins, the language and allusions can be pretty raunchy, but here it has more humor and less bored sarcasm.  At times it reminds me of other teenage comedy-dramas, such as 10 Things I Hate About You, with its sharp writing, witty (and all-knowing) comebacks, and dumb jock boyfriends.  However, Awkward still has a freshness that may give it a chance to succeed in the sea of teenage angst.  

No matter what, it shows MTV is able to create its own content and contend with the other networks.  This is another hopeful sign for American television.

Update:  A November 4, 2001 story in the New York Times had high praise for Awkward.  In discussing the show’s creator and principal writer, Lauren Iungerich,the article notes that she is a follower of filmmaker John Hughes: 

...she shares his ability to heighten and find the humor in teenage life without stretching it beyond recognition. A primary achievement in “Awkward” — one that may turn off some viewers — is to make a show that’s as drenched in sex as any on TV but that doesn’t feel smutty or lewd. This is what teenagers think about, after all.

The TV Survivors

I thought it was worth taking an inventory of the new shows I have covered so far this year to see which ones have already died and which ones thrive.  Here is a quick summary:

Canceled Shows:

-- ABC's The Cape
-- MTV's Skins
-- Fox's The Chicago Code
-- Starz's Camelot
-- NBC's Paul Reiser Show
-- BBC's Outcast

Picked Up for a Second Season:

-- PBS's Downton Abbey
-- Showtime's Shameless
-- HBO's The Game of Thrones 
-- Showtime's The Borgias
-- BBC's Sherlock
-- AMC's The Killing
-- ABC's Happy Endings 
-- MTV's Teen Wolf 
-- IFC's Portlandia 
-- TNT's Falling Skies 

Too Early to Tell:

-- FX's Wilfred
-- SyFy's Alphas

Update:  Both Wilfred and Alphas were picked up for a second season.  

The Killing: You Get One More Chance

I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of AMC's The Killing.  That said, like many others, I too was disappointed with the cliff-hanger at the end of the season.  While the producers may have thought it was cute to bring one more twist to this murder mystery, I was ready to learn the identity of the killer.  If the Danes could do it in their original production, why are we playing around with a great recipe?  So now the producers have been humbled and say they will reveal the killer of Rosie Larsen in the second season.  AMC's senior vice president of original programming, Joel Stillerman, stated, "For everybody who was frustrated, we hear you. We would have taken a different approach to managing the expectations about what was going to happen." He added, "It was never intentionally meant to mislead anybody. Our goal was to create a brilliant piece of character-based story telling. We think we got there, but we definitely didn't manage expectations the way they should have been managed."  Bravo for honesty. Now fix it!

More Damages, Luckily

The fourth season of Damages started on DirectTV last week (July 13).  The first three seasons were well-made thrillers with plenty unexpected twists and turns, and I expect nothing less from the latest season.  And while I have always found Glenn Close to be scary as a character as well as in real life, she is the perfect star in this psychological (if not pathological) thriller where her law firm is in the middle of high stakes drama.  Sadly, this season will not run on network TV as has been the case with the past DirectTV-created episodes, but I expect the new season will be available on iTunes and Netflix down the road.

Damages has also has the ability to breath life into actors we had taken for granted while also identifying new talent.  For instance, his part in the first three seasons of the show caused me to reevaluate my opinion of Ted Danson, who I had previously viewed as a has been sit-com actor.  His role as Arthur Frobisher, a ruthless corporate owner, later somewhat daft reformed soul, was fun to watch and a solid piece of acting. Of course, as I tuned into Mr. Danson again I found he was still quite funny in Curb Your Enthusiasm while also the essential ingredient in a three-way friendship on another great HBO program, Bored to Death.

Timothy Olyphant also showed his stuff as a dark hero primarily in season two of the program.  While he met a gruesome end, his nuanced character added depth and mystery to the show.  Of course, Mr. Olyphant went onto to great things with his own series Justified.  Season two also brought William Hurt onto the show as a suffering scientist, husband, and father who recently lost his wife.  His character was difficult to watch since he was always holding something back.

Season three brought Martin Short onto the cast and allowed us to see him in a whole new light as a power-grabbing, manipulative lawyer defending a Bernard Madoff-like businessman and his family.  He also had a chance to act with Lily Tomlin, who played the businessman's wife.  As is always the case, the show was completely ruthless and both Short and Tomlin were in the thick of things until the bitter end.

Season four brings John Goodman to the forefront.  I have not seen him on anything since Treme, where his character was a little over the top, so I hope they provide him with a more subtle role.  Damages has a way of showing us a new side of an actor and I look forward to this new season.

July Premiere - Alphas

Tonight the SyFy network premieres Alphas, a story about a group of individuals who learn they have super powers.  Yes, another super hero program at a time the TV and movie landscape is littered with the products of this genre.  Remember The Cape, which crashed and burned earlier this year?  The problem with The Cape was its pale imitation of the Batman movies.  Well, read this bit on the mad doctor who leads the Alphas and tell me it does not sound similar to Patrick Stewart's Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men movies:

Dr. Lee Rosen is a preeminent neurologist and psychiatrist with a long history of hands-on work with patients suffering from neurological disorders. His fascination with Alphas -- ordinary people with very extraordinary abilities known as Alpha Skills -- has led to the formation of a group of highly evolved humans specializing in solving Alpha-related cases. Though not an Alpha himself, he has become the unconventional leader of the team and his nurturing personality and fatherly wisdom are instrumental in holding the group together when stresses and personality conflicts threaten to tear them apart.

Of course, I will keep an open mind and view the pilot.  This could be the start of something interesting, though I remain skeptical for now.

Update:  I did not care for the pilot.  The "special powers" of strength, persuasion, hearing, and autism where not all that magnificent or interesting.   I would much rather watch something such as Lie to Me or Leverage where an understanding of human tics or technology can win the day.  I liked the review comments on Guy Gab since they were similarly unimpressed:

Since there isn’t much on television these days that is worth viewing, I gave Alphas a shot as it’s a show about ‘ordinary’ people with extraordinary abilities. Sadly, it only has one thing going for it and that’s the story so far. I’ll admit, they hooked me with the intro, but the disappointment came after the first commercial. I’m terribly vexed that Hollywood still hasn’t moved past the stereotypical characters and casting that make up a lot of their failures. I did get a chuckle though when I realized this show is little more than a live action Scooby Doo Mystery.

More Sci Fi in July - Haven

I am glad to see Haven is returning to SyFy on July 25th.  While I was not originally its strongest fan (see my earlier review), it grew on me as I got to know more about each character.  Set in a small Maine town (though really filmed in Nova Scotia), a semi-retired FBI agent (Emily Rose) and small town detective (Lucas Bryant) investigate the strange happenings among the local population.  Eric Balfour offers a fair amount of comic relief in his role of a local troublemaker/pirate recently turned concerned citizen/businessman.  The awkward relationship between the three of them also keeps the show interesting when the mystery du jour is not too fascinating.  Again, it is not Fringe with its parallel worlds, high tech weaponry, and complex storytelling, but that's okay.  It has its own small town charm.