Maya and Marty in Manhattan

Are you ready for a prime time variety show? NBC is at it again tonight with Maya & Marty, the Maya being Maya Rudolph and Marty being Martin Short. Both know comedy and therefore NBC is not going too far onto a limb with six planned episodes. When you add guests such as Tom Hanks, Larry David and Paul Rudd you have a promising start.

You may remember another NBC variety show that premiered last year with Neil Patrick Harris called Best Time Ever. It was fun as well as short-lived. That said, even one season of something new and fresh is okay, so let the show begin. 

A Fantastic Duo on Starz

No, I am not talking about super heroes, but rather fantastic actors.  Anthony Hopkins and Ian McKellen have teamed up for a one-night special called The Dresser, premiering tonight on Starz.  Hopkins plays a WWII-era stage actor playing King Lear, whereas McKellen is his assistant keeping together on and off the stage.  Of course, The Dresser itself was once a play and only later the BBC had the great idea of widening its audience. 

Seldom do you see a match up of this caliber, so you are in for a treat.  Take a look at this trailer for more.   

Discussing his role in this BBC production, Hopkins says he and McKellen would like more opportunities for such programs:

I’d like to do another one with the BBC. Ian said he hopes they do more of these classic plays. The audiences in London loved it, as did the critics. There’s not much going on, it’s all talk. But audiences like it. And American audiences will like it, too. You watch a film, and you don’t know who’s chasing who in a car scene. I can’t watch it. I try to watch these films and I’m so bored. Who cares? They have sex. Give me a break! I wasn’t born yesterday. And these car chases. God almighty! It’s all too much. It’s so boring. Everyone talks in a whisper now because it sounds so sexy. It doesn’t sound sexy. You can’t hear! I’m just an old grinch. You watch, and you can see the attitude of the actor. They think, “I am hot s–t.”

I am fine without car chases.  Good acting is an ingredient missing from many films these days.  Maybe I too can be a grinch.

The Return of Roots

You may have missed the Roots mini-series on ABC in 1976, Roots: The Next Generations in 1979, and maybe even Roots: The Gift in 1988, yet 40 years later it has been polished off again and is back for a four-night run on the History Channel. The original Roots ran over eight nights in January 1976, but this time it starts on Memorial Day Weekend (Monday night).  We tend to see this weekend as a time to remember struggles with other nations, yet slavery was all about a simmering civil war that went on for centuries only to be partly settled by a real Civil War and legislation 100 years later. 

If you are not familiar with the story, here is a trailer and what you can expect in the first episode, 

In 1750 in the river region of The Gambia in West Africa, Omoro Kinte and his wife, Binta, have their first child, a son named Kunta. Kunta is trained in Mandinka customs and is a dedicated student who dreams of traveling to the university. After being kidnapped and captured by the Koros, Kunta is sold to British slave traders in 1767 and is shipped to America. In Annapolis, Maryland, he is sold to a Virginia planter named John Waller and is given the slave name Toby. Kunta strongly resists his new name and enslavement. He relies on the wise counsel of Fiddler, an assimilated slave and sophisticated musician who has been assigned to train him. Malachi Kirby, and Forest Whitaker star.

London's paper The Guardian notes that in a time of films such as Djang Unchained, it may be harder to tell a dark story with little in the way of happy endings, but notes:

Roots hasn’t endured because of high-concept action, wish fulfillment or fancy prosthetics. In fact, it has survived in the cultural consciousness in spite of the limitations inherent in the medium of television. It’s also survived the failings of its author.  Alex Haley was sued and later admitted to plagiarizing an earlier work, plus the mislabeling of his work as more fact than fiction. Roots doesn’t have to be a true story to be powerful. It’s a fable – one with an origin in reality, but a fable nonetheless. It can stand for the millions of other stories just like it – stories of men and women in bondage, yearning to be unchained.

At a time when America seems to be falling for politicians who want to whitewash the past and make false promises about the future, maybe we need a fable that shows us the struggles it took to bring us to this point in time and the importance of learning from history before it is too late.

Amazon Presents Doctor Thorne

I am not sure why the creator of Downton Abbey put his latest project on Amazon rather than PBS, but we are lucky either way. Julian Fellowes's new series Doctor Thorne once again brings us stately homes, society dances, familial financial transactions, subtle intrigue, and repartee galore. It also brings us Ian McShane as the obnoxious Sir Roger Scatcherd, who gets the Maggie Smith lines this time. 

If you are not sure, here is a summary of episode one from the UK's ITV:

1855. When Doctor Thorne’s penniless niece, Mary, is excluded from the wedding preparations of her childhood playmate, she probes her uncle for the truth of her birth. 

She is devastated to learn that she is the illegitimate child of his late brother. It seems she has neither breeding nor fortune. This is a problem, as Mary and the heir to the Greshamsbury Estate, Frank, have fallen in love.

Frank is under strict instructions from his over‐bearing mother, Lady Arabella, to save his family from financial ruin by marrying money. Frank’s mother schemes to separate the two lovebirds, encouraging her son to woo the wealthy American heiress, Miss Dunstable. 

Meanwhile, Doctor Thorne acts as both physician and business advisor to railway millionaire, Sir Roger Scatcherd, in whose hands the fate of Greshamsbury lies, and who is rapidly drinking himself into an early grave.

I have enjoyed the series now available online, and I recommend it to fans of Fellowes. Sadly, the Anthony Trollope tale is in only four parts and then it is gone. Yet Trollope has more tales and Fellowes more energy, so we can hope for more. 

Update: If you are more interested in a book from Mr. Fellowes, you can buy Belgravia next month and get a preview on a downloadable app. Here is more on his new story:

Julian Fellowes's Belgravia is the story of a secret. A secret that unravels behind the porticoed doors of London's grandest postcode. Set in the 1840s when the upper echelons of society began to rub shoulders with the emerging industrial nouveau riche, Belgravia is people by a rich cast of characters. But the story begins on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. At the Duchess of Richmond's n0w legendary ball, one family's life will change forever. 

Don't Cross Claire Underwood

It was not that long ago I mentioned a salary dispute between the male and female cast on Netflix's Grace and Frankie. Well, another salary dispute has flared up on House of Cards, also on Netflix.

Robin Wright, who plays Claire Underwood, demanded equal pay with her co-star Kevin Spacey. It seems like a plot line from the show, but it is true. Though I am not sure her performance merits the pay. I guess $5.5 million a year was not enough.

I think both Lily and Jane had a better argument on Grace and Frankie. I also believe Claire should avoid subway stations in the future since one quick shove could give Netflix more money for future programming. Hey, it hasn't hurt Game of Thrones. 

AMC Brings You a Very Dark Preacher

Are you ready for another series based on a comic book?  AMC's Preacher, premiering tonight, brings to life a 1990s comic book series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.  The two authors created about 66 storylines, so this is a series with no end if that is how AMC wants to play it.  But what is it about, you ask.  Here is the outline and trailer:

Preacher is a supernatural, twisted and darkly comedic drama that follows a West Texas preacher named Jesse Custer, who is inhabited by a mysterious entity that causes him to develop a highly unusual power. Jesse, his badass ex-girlfriend Tulip and an Irish vagabond named Cassidy come together, and when they do, they are thrust into a crazy world populated by a cast of characters from Heaven, Hell and everywhere in between.

In fact, Cassidy is a vampire rather than a "vagabond" and the series is horribly violent, which may or may not bring you on board.  And another character has a very interesting face that may lead to laughs or looks of horror.

Critic Kevin Fallon in The Daily Beast had some trouble defining the show, noting:
 
It’s also impossible to describe succinctly. It’s at once a supernatural thriller, a meditation on spirituality, a portrait of life in the Deep South, a classic Western, horror camp, slapstick comedy, and comic book-inspired character study. It’s ridiculous and unsettling and provocative and perverse. The gore is grotesque. The humor is gut-busting.

Check it out if it piques your interest.  To me it looks like a cross between Supernatural, Dominion, and Justified.  All good shows, but I prefer each alone.  I may sit this one out.

HBO Brings us the Johnson Years

Tonight on HBO you get a glimpse into the administration of President Johnson, with the lead role played by Bryan Cranston who you may remember from Breaking Bad.  The program, All The Way, bring Cranston's Broadway act to television.

Here is a quick summary (and trailer) from HBO:

All The Way offers a riveting behind-the scenes look at President Lyndon B. Johnson’s tumultuous first year in office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  Staking his presidency on what would be an historic unprecedented Civil Rights Act, Johnson finds himself caught between the moral imperative of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the expectations of the southern Democratic Party leaders who brought Johnson to power.  As King battles to press Johnson while controlling more radical elements of the Civil Rights Movement, Johnson navigates the bill through Congress, winning a landslide victory against Barry Goldwater, but causing the South to defect from the Democratic Party.

You can learn more about the series in this HBO clip where Bryan Cranston and others talk about their characters and the period being portrayed. 

It is about time we get a profile of a great man rather than being forced to relive the O.J. Simpson trial and other "docu-dramas" on television these days.  And maybe Americans will learn more about what it takes to be president in a season where reality TV seems to be more important than the everyday realities of a dangerous world.  Character matters in difficult times.

Damnable News!

Okay, it wasn't the best show on television, but I enjoyed the A&E series Damian. Yet after only one season the network has decided to call it quits. 

It was still fun seeing The Omen in the present day, but the competition for eyes is too much these days.  As a result, the viewership was very low.

Bradley James did a nice job with the show and I hope we will seem more of him, be it with or without his British accent.  Executive Producer Glen Mazzara had this to say about Mr. James in a recent interview: 

Bradley is one of the kindest, hardest-working actors I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, but his work is so subtle, that I think many critics dismissed it at first. Bradley brought Damien Thorn to life in a way that I don’t think anyone expected, and he deserves a tremendous amount of credit for that.

Mr. Mazzara also hoped for a season two before the cancellation was announced:

I’m very hopeful for a Season 2. I watched the [season finale] with the cast and the writers at my house and everyone’s dying to get back to work. What I would want to address—when we first meet Damien, he’s stepping out of the shadows of his life and it’s a very personal story. It initially starts small and is centered around him, and these other elements are dragged into his orbit. Now he finds himself as the head of a dark church that he didn’t even really know existed. Who were those people stepping out of the shadows? Are they of one mind or do they have many agendas. We see that the Vatican hit squad is in motion. That’s bringing a lot of power. Things have escalated, and there’s a certain amount of scope and scale surrounding Damien being a leader on a world stage.

I guess we will be stuck watching other devils take the world stage for now. 

Netflix: Lady Dynamite

Netflix keeps pumping out new shows with some sticking, such as The Ranch, and others flopping, such as Marseille.  And now we have Lady Dynamite premiering today.  Take a look at this trailer if you want a fair warning.  

Here is how Netflix describes its new series:

This is the true story of a woman who loses -- and then finds -- her shit. Lady Dynamite is a 12-episode half-hour comedy from Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development) and Pam Brady (South Park) starring comedian-actress Maria Bamford. Based on what she has accepted to be “her life,” the semi-autobiographical, semi-surreal series is a truthful look at the highs and lows of Bamford’s life -- as an actor on the rise, during her hospitalization for bipolar disorder, and through her present life in LA, where she’s reached a middle ground and found love.

I never watched Ms. Bamford's comedy on stage, so this is all new to me.  However, I did watch some of her YouTube episodes of The Maria Bamford show from about 10 years ago.  She made the YouTube series in her parent's home while still trying to figure out her life.  If this new series indicates she has figured things out and wants to share her stories, then we are all very lucky.

The Status of ABC Shows

According to USAToday, ABC is killing off quite a few shows, some of which I mentioned earlier. The list includes: 

-Blood & Oil

-Castle

-The Family

-Galavant

-Marvel’s Agent Carter

-The Muppets

-Nashville

-Of Kings and Prophets

-Wicked City

Not too many superhero stories have died, though a few more deaths might be a good thing. The fact that Galavant had more than one season is surprising. And not even puppets and Bible stories can please viewers these days.

The good news is that the remaining shoes are diverse and fun. Renewals include:

-Fresh Off the Boat

-The Middle

-The Goldbergs

-Modern Family

-Black-ish

-Grey’s Anatomy

-Scandal

-How to Get Away with Murder

-Quantico

-Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

-Once Upon a Time

-Dr. Ken

-American Crime

-The Catch

-The Real O’Neals

-Last Man Standing

ABC has done well portraying diverse families, whether they are black, Asian, Jewish, or simply struggling with a variety of issues (such as a gay son and a pilfering daughter in The Real O'Neals). 

As far as drama goes, while I'm not a fan of Quantico, it is a different show with plenty of twists (too many at times).  However, I am a new fan of American Crime and I look forward to future stories.

So, all in all, ABC has held its own as a solid network for the whole family and the recent changes won't hurt its  reputation in this area.

The Grinder Rests...In Peace

Fox has decided to kill The Grinder along with its other new comedies this year, including Grandfathered and the animated Bordertown. 

I can understand some adjustments,  but dumping The Grinder, an original comedy with Rob Lowe and Fred Savage, seems shortsighted. And I'm not certain what Fox thinks will be better in these time slots. 

Rob Lowe plays a character who left his own television series while continually looking back. I expect Rob will also look back and scratch his head. He should be happy with what he produced. It is Fox executives who should lose sleep at night.

Too Much of an Okay Thing

Prepare yourself. We have a new superhero whose greatest feat is leaping the hedges to get his Social Security check. That's right, SyFy found it necessary to give us the story of Superman's grandfather. The pilot is called Krypton and its a prequel to the Superman story by about 200 years.

Okay, I expect this will not be set in an elderly gated community near you, but let's be serious. We have gone from regular superheroes to the childhood version of superheroes (Gotham) to superhero battles with one another (Batman v Superman) to superhero grandparents. 

I am getting off this train and I hope the networks start thinking for themselves one of these days. Successful shows such as The 100, Mad Men, Justified, Fargo, Mr. Robot, and others illustrate the sky is the limit for the networks even when optioning the stories of others. We are somewhat infantilized by our need for men in underwear (and some women) to save us daily.

Time to grow up and change out of those Batman pajamas. 

Marseille: The New Boss

Last week Netflix premiered a new French-language series Marseille.  Starring legendary French actor Gerard Depardieu, the plot involves a mayor of 20 years hoping to leave a legacy and protege behind as he steps into the sunset. Of course, this all falls apart or we would have a boring series. 

What I found most interesting (outside of it being French series) was the use of dubbing. I am not sure why Netflix trusted us with Occupied, a subtitled Norwegian series, but thought French was too much. I would have preferred an option at least. 

The first episode of this eight episode series reminded me of the Starz show Boss, where Kelsey Grammer also played an ill mayor with a beautiful wife and troublesome daughter who could not hold together his political "allies" or his changing city.  I enjoyed the acting on Boss, yet it is harder to see the acting in this new series given the dubbing. Instead a great actor is only half there. 

Boss lasted for two seasons, which may be more than we will see of Marseille. While this is Netflix's first foray into local French content, the French do not seem to care for the series. I do not always agree with the French, but they may have a point.

Maybe a series about Depardieu's real battle with French authorities over high taxes would be a better series. His emigration to Belgium and Russian passport certainly raised eyebrows yet might be more entertaining to viewers.  

Grace and Frankie Return

Today marks the start of the second season of Netflix's Grace and Frankie. This comedy about a gay relationship emerging from elderly friends (Sheen and Waterston) to the surprise of their wives (Fonda and Tomlin) is both fun and revealing about a segment of the population often ignored on television.

I recommend you take a look if you have been to busy with other shows. You seldom have such talent in one room. Netlix has already approved a third season. In fact, one cast member is lucky he will be around for a third season. 

Martin Sheen had to get a physical when the show was extended. This test revealed Sheen had health issues that needed to be addressed immediatelyoo. 

In a recent article, Sheen stated:

And thank God for that, because I found out that I was in really bad shape. I could have been dead on a sidewalk somewhere.

You might remember Sheen had a heart attack 40 years ago while filming Apocalypse Now, also due to neglect of his health. I'm glad he is still with us.

More on Jon Snow, Of Course

I will keep it short since too much ink (okay, smartphone screen time) has been spilled. Kaitlin Thomas on TV.com is spending a lot of time downplaying the events with Jon Snow in the second episode of Game of Thrones because too many people have studied it already and ruined it.   She notes in her piece (Spoiler alert!):

We're living in a time where TV is dissected and inspected under a microscope, where various plot points are broken down into their small, individual parts and discussed at length until they no longer have any meaning. This story is probably one of thousands that will be written about Jon Snow in the coming weeks, and so knowing this, knowing how many millions of eyes were watching and waiting when Game of Thrones returned, one has to wonder if there was ever going to be a world in which Jon Snow's resurrection was going to be completely satisfying, because it was definitely never going to be surprising.

Folks, it's a television show! Enjoy the story and get back to life. Real people are being squashed in real time all around the world. Winter is truly coming and you are in your pajamas yelling at a television program

Breath...

Another Super Duo: Houdini and Doyle

If you have had enough of superheroes and find you are looking for something a little more real, you might want to take a look at Fox's new show Houdini & Doyle.  The new series starts tonight and as the name suggests it starts with the real friendship between escape artist Harry Houdini and author Arthur Conan Doyle, but that is where it ends.  Fox will say it is "inspired by" the friendship, but that is quite a stretch.  It is basically a Victorian-era Supernatural where the duo work with Scotland Yard to solve a variety of mysterious crimes.  Here is a clip showing what you can expect.  

You can check out Wikipedia for more on the actual relationship, but this is what I found:

Doyle was friends for a time with Harry Houdini, the American magician who himself became a prominent opponent of the Spiritualist movement in the 1920s following the death of his beloved mother. Although Houdini insisted that Spiritualist mediums employed trickery (and consistently exposed them as frauds), Doyle became convinced that Houdini himself possessed supernatural powers—a view expressed in Doyle's The Edge of the Unknown. Houdini was apparently unable to convince Doyle that his feats were simply illusions, leading to a bitter public falling out between the two. A specific incident is recounted in memoirs by Houdini's friend Bernard M.L. Ernst, in which Houdini performed an impressive trick at his home in the presence of Conan Doyle. Houdini assured Conan Doyle the trick was pure illusion and that he was attempting to prove a point about Doyle not "endorsing phenomena" simply because he had no explanation. According to Ernst, Conan Doyle refused to believe it was a trick.

 It is an interesting way to sell another police procedural and I may tune in for an episode or two, yet I expect Supernatural and Penny Dreadful will give me my dose of ghost hunting without the need to play with history. 
 

Penny Dreadful Returns for a Third Season

Tonight you can watch the third season of Showtime's Penny Dreadful, a show that is the Justice League of monsters.  Set in Victorian England, you can get your fill of witches, vampires, Frankenstein, werewolves, and more, including Dorian Gray and, new this season, Dr. Jekyll of the well known duo.  You will need to start for the beginning if you are new to the series, but I have thrown in a few season reminders below from the Showtime site.

SEASON 1

Vanessa Ives wages a personal battle against an evil demon determined to possess her; Sir Malcolm Murray tries to save his daughter from a fate worse than death; Ethan Chandler becomes enmeshed with a group of London vampire hunters and falls for a doomed local prostitute, even as his own mysterious past threatens to catch up with him; Dr. Victor Frankenstein must face the consequences of his successful death-defying experiments; Dorian Gray falls for the unapproachable Vanessa Ives; Brona Croft confronts her imminent demise from consumption.

SEASON 2

Vanessa Ives and her allies find themselves locked in epic battle against an unholy evil; Sir Malcolm falls under the spell of a bewitching temptress; Ethan's big secret becomes known as his past comes back to haunt him; Dr. Frankenstein's newest creation breaks hearts and then some; Dorian Gray falls for an unlikely woman.

SEASON 3

Confronting new horrors in dangerous new lands, Ethan Chandler, Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, Sir Malcolm, the Creature, and the ravishing but deadly Lily must each face -- and embrace -- their own most truly monstrous selves. But for Vanessa Ives, accepting her demons could exact a terrible cost and plunge the world into unending darkness.

If you need more to prepare for tonight's show, the International Business Times has put together more details leading up to and including this evening's show.  It is worth a look.  

Dylan O'Brien: It Sounds More Serious

You may have read that Dylan O'Brien, one of the starring actors on MTV's Teen Wolf, was injured when making the third film in the Maze Runner trilogy.  It now seems as though the injuries were more serious than originally thought, with the Maze Runner production being shut down for the time being.  

At the time of the injury, the author of the "Maze Runner" novels, James Dashner, tweeted the following:

I just want to let everyone know that yes, Dylan was hurt, but that he's going to be okay. Not life threatening in any way.

— James Dashner (@jamesdashner) March 18, 2016

That said, it sounds more serious now when you are shutting down a whole production with now indication when things will start up again.  Reports indicate O'Brien suffered "concussion, facial fracture and lacerations" in the vehicle accident on the set.  

No word yet on how this will impact filming of the sixth season of Teen Wolf.  We can only wish Dylan O'Brien a speedy recovery.  And even if he looks a little beat up when he comes back to Teen Wolf that can be added to the plot.  Maybe he can skip the heroics for awhile and be the lovable dorky Stiles we love on Teen Wolf.