Has Your Favorite Show Aged Well?

The Guardian has an interesting piece on rewatching old series in the age of Netflix. The author was not impressed with some of her favorite old shows from the 1990s. Here is her take on Friends:

It is startling how clunky Friends looks now, a creaky old sitcom with a too-loud laughter track and copious overacting. One of the good things about the show was always the slapstick – Jennifer Aniston was great at pratfalls – but on the rewatch, it seems so overegged as practically to constitute mime. Phoebe is spookier and less funny than I remembered. The most shocking thing about the first episodes is Chandler smoking inside – not just in his apartment, but in Central Park.

However, not everything was showing its age.  The author was more impressed The West Wing.

The article made me think of other earlier shows we can watch again. But should we?  How about Magnum PI, BJ and the Bear, and The Dukes of Hazzard? 

As with the saying you can never step in the same river twice, you are unlikely to ever be in the same mindset again as you watch an old favorite. Context is everything. You are better off watching a old show you never watched originally. Though with hundreds of new shows appearing every year, many of great quality, the likely of such discovery has diminished.

GOT: Will Anyone Survive?

The season six paraphernalia for HBO's Game of Thrones includes various photos with the mounted heads of your favorite characters. Foresight or history? Dreams or warnings? Who know, but I am done hoping for a happy ending. Like all wars, you do not cheer at the end but rather collapse from exhaustion. The next battle begins April 24th.

Frank Underwood: A Taste of Trump?

The Smithsonian has a sense of history or a sense of humor with the unveiling of a Frank Underwood portrait at the museum's Portrait Gallery.  Kevin Spacey took it all in stride, stating:

I’m pleased that the Smithsonian continues to prove itself as a worthwhile institution. I’m one step closer to convincing the rest of the country that I am the president.

At least this is only a temporary display not to be confused with the real deal - some may confuse fact with fiction, including certain presidential candidates.  

Will we also see an orange-haired president on display one of these days? If so, I hope that too is a temporary display about how we dodged a bullet that could have wrecked the institution (White House, not museum) forever. 

Season four of Netflix's House of Cards will premiere on March 4th.  

Update: House of Cards has already been approved for a fifth season, so be prepared for at least one jerk staying in DC longer than necessary.

More Togetherness

The long-awaited Season two of HBO's Togetherness premieres tonight. While the Duplass brothers have been busy with other shows, such as Animals and Transparent, this is my favorite Duplass creation. It has heart and hope among all the craziness.

You can also see the fifth season of Girls tonight, but I plan to skip it. While the couple on Togetherness have issues, at least they are likeable. I cannot say the same for the characters on Girls.

Update:  In a recent interview the Duplass brothers discussed season two and how the project is longer than earlier efforts. Mark stated:

...there are negatives and positives to it. Like, you know, just like a marriage, where you're like, "Well, this... you know, is the sex still as exciting as it was two years ago?" — we've been sleeping with these characters for two years, but we know them so intimately and we love them and we've put so much time and energy into them and that's one of the big things we love, which is, like, no more exposition needed, you know? We get to get into the nitty-gritty and the minutiae of the way they relate now, and that's really valuable. We just have to make sure we don't repeat ourselves and we plot this thing so it doesn't dead end too much, and so that's the challenge really. It's like, how do you keep those balls in the air and make it exciting still?

The brothers are also planning for a third season. What a great idea!

Love on Netflix

Tonight you can start streaming the new Netflix series Love.  The story is simple enough:

Rebellious Mickey and good-natured Gus navigate the thrills and agonies of modern relationships in this bold new comedy co-created by Judd Apatow.

GQ has its own take, pointing out:

Love...lives in fine specifics. Over its ten snack-sized episodes, it monkey bars from small moment to small moment, living in the in-between instants that swell bigger tides.

The series is already slated for a second season, so it will be with us for awhile and waiting for you whenever you are ready. I will probably wait, but I'm glad to know it is there just in case.

Update: Okay, I watched the pilot episode. This is one depressing show.  I know, I know...it gets better. I believe it and will go back in, but not binge.  More later.

Join or Die

I am not sure why Join or Die with Craig Ferguson is on the History Channel, but I will watch the premiere tonight anyway.  

Here is the spin in the show:

Join or Die with Craig Ferguson features the comedian debating provocative and timely topics in his unorthodox and iconoclastic manner. Each episode features a panel of guests which will include celebrities, comedians and experts, as well as the American public through social media. Topics will include: biggest presidential campaign flop, greatest founding father and which invention was history’s greatest game-changer. 

Okay, now I get it. Some topics will cover history. Nice approach, yet I bet the average 5th grader will know more history than the "celebrity" guests. 

If it goes the route of Jay Leno and his "person on the street" interviews it may be too depressing to watch. However, I am willing to give Craig a chance. He can make even the depressing fun. And as a recently minted citizen of this country I bet he knows his American history better than most.  

Update: The show is not ready for prime time. I don't think it comes on at prime time, but that's not the point. The pilot was Craig and three guests reviving dead stories about untrustworthy public servants. I get enough of that on the nightly news. You can do much better, Craig.

The Vikings Are Coming!

Season four of the Vikings premieres tonight on the History Channel.  Are you ready?  The popular series will have an extra 10 episodes this season to fill even more of your nights with adventure and battles.  As one of the actors states in this clip, the show is about relationships, culture, mythology, and more.  Oh yeah, and a bear attack.  

Season three is still available online at the series' homepage, so catch up if you need to, but do not miss this show.  

Here is a quick summary of season three from the History Channel if you do not have time to view the earlier 10 episodes:

Season 3 culminated with the extraordinary battle in Paris, where Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) seized victory from the jaws of defeat–but still returns to Kattegat dangerously ill. Thoughts of his death galvanize the forces who seek to succeed him as king, including his wife Queen Aslaug (Alyssa Sutherland) and his oldest son, Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig). Meanwhile, Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) continues power struggles with her calculating, former second in command, Kalf (Ben Robson); Rollo (Clive Standen) betrays his Vikings heritage by remaining in Frankia and Floki (Gustaf Skarsgård) is seized for his brutal actions to the Christian priest Athelstan.

Now you are ready.

The New Yorker Presents

The Amazon Original pilot, The New Yorker Presents, is finally coming out as regular series tomorrow (Jan. 16). This eclectic mix of skits from the pages of the magazine is an odd bird this TV season, but I'm glad Amazon is taking a chance. 

London's Guardian newspaper notes:

Much like Saturday Night Live sketches, the sections are rather hit and miss. Unlike that late-night staple, there are far more hits than misses. This is not a way to get informed about the current events of the day, but to have one’s curiosity satisfied about far-flung experiences and one’s intellect stoked by stories that aren’t plastered all over the front page. Yes, it’s exactly like reading the New Yorker.

I don't think you need to be a reader of The New Yorker to enjoy the series, but you may gravitate toward the magazine after seeing the variety of material provided. And the nice part is that the episodes will be released weekly - no binging (or at least right away). Smart.

Will We See More Into The Badlands?

The AMC series Into The Badlands appeared one day and sowed confusion with this strange combination of southern plantations with barons, a Roman-like gladiator school for teens, an alpha mentoring friendship (more like Teen Wolf than anything else), and bike-riding Kung-fu swordsmen (though only the lead is Asian). 

Yes, it was very odd. It lasted six episodes and then disappeared. And now, strangely, I miss it. Will we see more?

The good news is that the show's premiere, with 8.2 million viewers, was the third best in cable history. The bad news is that AMC is still silent on renewal. I hope the network takes a chance on season two. It is certainly a unique story with more tales to tell. 

Stephen King Returns with 11.22.63

I was not a fan of CBS's Under The Dome, the television series based on the Stephen King book of the same name.  While it started out well enough, it soon degenerated into a poorly-acted, silly mix of teen angst and unbelievable murder that may or may not have been what King desired.  Since I never read the book, it is possible that CBS did him a disservice.  

So are we to trust the roll-out of the last television series based on a King book?  I suppose it depends on the book.  This time it is King's popular President Kennedy assassination thriller 11.22.63.  Hulu decided to take on the task this time in an eight-part series, and was able to grab James Franco for the lead role.  Both of these are good signs - a clear ending and a real actor.  

In addition, J.J. Abrams is the executive producer, finding time away from Star Wars and Star Trek to assist with this project.  What is interesting is that James Franco was cast for the role after a he wrote a review of King's story noting how he wanted the rights to the story and criticizing Abrams for taking on the project.  Abrams read the review and decided to offer Franco the role. 

In selling the 11.22.63 series, Hulu asks "What if you could change the past?" and notes:

Imagine having the power to change history. Would you journey down the “rabbit hole”? This eight–part event series follows Jake Epping (James Franco), an ordinary high school teacher, who is presented with the unthinkable mission of traveling back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Jake is willing to live in the past in order to solve perhaps the greatest mystery of the 20th century — who killed JFK, and could it have been stopped? As Jake tries to rewrite history, he discovers that the past does not want to be changed and will do anything to stop him.

Of course, if I could change the past I would have removed Under the Dome from my TV list so I could get those hours back.  I am hoping my time will be better spent with this series.  

HBO's Vinyl

A music industry drama created by Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese.  Just soak in that thought, and then consider tonight's two-hour premiere of Vinyl on HBO.  You will be taken back to the drug-filled, sex-craved, bell-bottomed 1970s where the music was everywhere and not something you kept to yourself on your iPod.  Here is a trailer of what is in store. 

Mick Jagger, whose son James plays a lead singer in the series, is not a fan of all the music during the period, as noted in this Billboard magazine interview:

It seemed anything was possible at that point. Creating any kind of music and mixing up any kind of music and making it into something that people wanted to hear was possible then. Of course, there was a lot of dreck. When I go through all the songs of the period, there are a lot of wonderful things, but there's also so much crap it's unbelievable. And that was one of the things we debated: how much crap music are we going to have in the show because we want to represent the period. We don't want to make out that the '70s was only Marvin Gaye and James Brown and Bob Marley. It wasn't. It was full of rubbish.

Hank Stuever at The Washington Post seems to be fan of the new series, though he sees the strong hand of producer Terrence Winter, stating:

Substitute the jazz age for glam rock, switch out the bootlegged hooch for endless lines of blow and “Vinyl” could very well be headed for a similar fate. “Vinyl” and “Boardwalk Empire” are in many ways the same show, even though “Vinyl” has a much lower body-count — so far.

Fox's Empire is no longer the lone story on the music industry.  We will see is Vinyl can catch the same level of excitement and viewership.

Update: Vinyl has already been approved for a second season after only one (long) episode, so someone likes it.

Horace and Pete

I miss my dose of the TV series Louis, and yet it seems Louis C.K. will not commit to another season. So I was resigned to a Louis-less future until I downloaded a copy of Louis C.K.'s new "series" Horace and Pete.  Created by and starring Louis C.K. (Horace), it also includes performances by Steve Buscemi (Pete), Alan Alda, Edie Falco, and others.  

The first episode is available for download for $5 on LouisCK.net, and as of today there are two additional episodes.  Hence, it appears Louis has gone his own route for distribution rather than relying on FX. 

Watching the pilot, I felt as though I was an audience in a quiet theater witnessing something fresh yet ancient - the ongoing plight of struggling families.  With no soundtrack or music, the episode seems far removed from television. And even the bigotry of Alan Alda seemed shocking yet familiar, like Archie Bunker on All in the Family, where the truth in all its ugliness was once allowed on regular television.  

All in all, it is a depressing view of family life tied to a struggling bar, yet authentic as well.  It is also very current, discussing this year's political race with the characters in various camps trying to understand the national situation.  I should also add that the production is far from perfect, with dull patches, wandering scenes, and other flaws indicating Louis did not want to polish a diamond but rather hand you a pail of gravel and let you find the gems on your own.  I did not expect anything less from Louis C.K. who likes to put the camera in the most uncomfortable places to talk about commonplace issues.  And I want to see more of it, as do others.  

I think Aaron Bady got it right in the Los Angeles Review of Books:

History makes it interesting, of course; Horace and Pete puts the O’Neill back in the Irish pub show, making the gang at Cheers into the vicious group of sad alcoholics that they should have been. What if Coach was a vicious bigot? What if Woody had a serious mental illness? What if Sam Malone was played by Louis CK? What if women could be lost in their cups too? These are interesting things because they tear the gloss off of one of the great genre-defining television shows, reminding you of all the things that — in order to become such a lovely fantasy — the show had to forget. Cheers had a certain darkness and occasional drifts into melancholy, but it also had jokes and a laugh track and a comic romance plot to keep things on track. 

Check it out for yourself.  If you are a Louis fan, you do not want to miss his latest creation.

More Teachers on Television

Those Who Can't premieres tonight on truTV.  And yes, TVLand recently premiered Teachers, and don't forget NBC's Mr. Robinson, so this is not new ground.  

Do we have room for another school series that focuses on the adults, this time set in Denver? I suppose so.  Most school-based shows, be it Glee, Teen Wolf, Awkward, or Faking It, have been oriented towards the kids rather than the adults, so this is still a different twist. 

Take a look at the trailer of the show as well as this summary:

Those Who Can't is truTV's first foray into full-length scripted comedy. The half-hour show follows three trouble-making teachers, played by show creators Adam Cayton-Holland, Andrew Orvedahl and Ben Roy of the Denver-based comedy troupe The Grawlix. More inept than the kids they teach, they're out to beat the system as they struggle to survive each day on their own terms. Joining them is Maria Thayer (Eagleheart) as the school librarian with an insuppressible passion for life.

I still miss Boston Public, a terrific series from David E. Kelley that focused on the teachers. It ran from 2000 to 2004. With all the revivals of older shows, it is a show I would like to see back on TV.

High Hopes For Samantha Bee

I am looking forward to tonight's premiere of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee on TBS. As another refugee from the long gone, heydays of The Daily Show, she represents a hopeful start to more great comedy. 

Her new show will follow The Daily Show format with local reporting on current events. And she will be joined by her husband, Jason Jones, and others from the old Daily Show.  What a deal!

In discussing her show with the Seattle Times, she noted:

With comedy, you can’t start a piece saying, ‘We’re going to make a change happen, we’re going to change the world with this comedy,’ because then nothing would be funny at all...But we’re definitely attracted to stories that …. shine a light on something. Somebody should be paying attention to these things.

I will be paying attention and expect she will do just fine.

Check Out Chelsea

I was not familiar with Chelsea Handler's late night show, Chelsea Lately, but I bumped into her four-part series on Netflix titled Chelsea Does...  The documentary premiered at the Sundance File Festival and covers four topics: marriage, Silicon Valley, racism, and drugs.  

I watched the marriage episode and thoroughly enjoyed her approach to the topic, from Las Vegas weddings and dating services to bondage and cheating.  She covered it all and was not afraid to throw in her opinion, which often caught the others off guard.  I also enjoyed her disgusted looks at the camera more than her comments as she was clearly thinking to herself "What is wrong with these people?"  And in the marriage episode she spent a fair amount of time with her family, including questioning her father about his marriage.  Throughout the show Chelsea was open with her life and opinions.  

I strongly recommend you check out the new series.  I may need to go back and check out her talk show.  I saw a few clips, such as this one with Drake and another with Justin Bieber, that gave me a sense of what I was missing.  She has a nice way with guests.

What is HBO's Animals?

This is what HBO has to say about tonight's new series Animals:

Created by Phil Matarese and Mike Luciano and produced by Duplass Brothers Television, Animals focuses on the downtrodden creatures native to Earth’s least-habitable environment: New York City. Whether it’s lovelorn rats, gender-questioning pigeons or aging bedbugs in the midst of a midlife crisis, the awkward small talk, moral ambiguity and existential woes of non-human urbanites prove startlingly similar to our own.

Bedbugs with angst? That does sound like the Duplass brothers.  However, with everything else on piling up in my DVR, I may put this one aside for another day. 

Update: So now I know. And I think one episode will be enough. I'm not sure a cartoon with animals can truly mask the disturbing events happening on screen, from death by sex to other themes, but I think the witticisms of The Simpsons will suffice for me. 

Why I Dropped The Flash

That's it! First The Flash started crossover episodes with Arrow and now next month we will see the first Supergirl crossover episode. This is getting tiring. It was interesting in the beginning, but now it is clearly product placement rather than good storytelling. If I wanted to watch Arrow or CBS's Supergirl I would tune in, but I do not.  But now I have to record these shows as well if I want both sides of the episode.  And I expect this will shortly happen again with DC Legends since the characters on that show emerged from The Flash and Arrow.  This incestuous relationship between all these men and women in tights is too much.

I hope Netflix does not go this tiresome route with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and the new Luke Cage. I don't like my peas touching my mashed potatoes, so keep my super heroes to their own hours. 

And don't get me started with this Glee crossover. That's right, The Flash's Grant Gustin was a private school brat Sebastian Smythe and Supergirl's Melissa Benoist played Marley Rose.  I wonder when Darren Criss will become TV's Aquaman.  Just kidding.  Or am I?

Madoff: Another Series on Another Real Crook

If you sat out on O.J. Simpson, you still have a chance to see another real American crime, this time financial rather than passionate, in ABC's two-night miniseries Madoff.  Richard Dreyfuss plays the part of the pyramid-scheming Bernie Madoff, while Blythe Danner plays his wife Ruth.  His misdeeds and others like him helped to trigger the Great Recession that started under the Bush Administration. 

In discussing his character in an interview, Dreyfuss pulled no punches:

He was amoral...Most people don't realize that there's moral, immoral and amoral. He was not only amoral, he was a sociopath, which means that ultimately, if you scratch the surface, he didn't give a hoot in hell about anybody including his family.

I like Dreyfuss yet cannot get excited about one more film bemoaning the financial losses of that period.  I suppose this story is easier to tell than the complex array of thievery at Enron, but that is the miniseries I want to see.  Luckily, that too had a happy ending with the crooks in jail.  Unfortunately, most of the Wall Street corruption tales do not end so happily.

I Will Skip OJ

Some may be tuning into tonight's premiere of FX's The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, but why live through that again? It only shows the murder trial of a sad man in a dysfunctional society defended by soulless lawyers.  We can watch that every night on every channel and still call it entertainment.

I think I will tune into CBS's Super Bowl Greatest Commercials. At least then I can watch the American passion for sports , celebrity, and sex directed toward a funny and more beneficial outlet (that is, beer and potato chips).