Crackle: Talking with Louis C.K.

You may want to check out the third season of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in a Car Getting Coffee.  The new season starts off with an interview with Louis C.K. where he talks about this TV show, new movie, and family adventures.  This show was different than some of the other I watched in that they moved the action to a boat and added animation. I have yet to watch the new one with Patton Oswalt, but I look forward to this interview as well.  Only two of the third season shows are available, but stay tuned for more.

S3 E1: Louis C.K.: Comedy, Sex and The Blues Numbers

Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld) and his special guest, Louis C.K. (Louie), drive a 1959 Fiat Jolly to Louie's boat for some coffee.

 

S3 E2: Patton Oswalt: How Would You Kill Superman?

Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld) and his special guest, Patton Oswalt (The King of Queens), drive a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 to The Handsome Coffee Roasters for some coffee.

Favorite Shows of 2013

I know I am late to the party, but I cannot move onto 2014 without first discussing my favorite new shows of 2013.  I selected them for a variety of reasons, including good story-telling, innovative ideas, good actors, and/or just plain fun.  While they are not necessarily going to win awards, they won a spot on my regular TV schedule.

Science Fiction/Fantasy:  My favorite new entry was the Fox's Sleepy Hollow, a show that seemed like a dumb idea.  I gave it a chance and found it was a fun and well-played tale with sufficient dry wit to keep you guessing about which episodes of American history may have been a cover up for something more important (you know, like that diversion called the "Tea Party").   Other fun new shows included Defiance, The Dome, Davinci's Demons, Atlantis, and Almost Human.

History:   My favorite in this genre was History's Vikings.  This retelling of a well-known story of  Ragnar Lodbrok and his brother was captivating throughout and showed again that the History Channel is a serious contender in TV drama (though the earlier Hatfields & McCoys mini-series was the real eye-opener).  Other good dramas included The White Queen and Reign (yes, it is a sappy teen drama in many ways, yet it may also introduce young adults to a bit of history without it being retold by a vampire). 

Family Shows:  Far and way, ABC Family's The Fosters was the break-out hit in this genre, with two lesbian moms raising natural and adopted children.  It was a risky move for a "family" network, yet it was also a simple family drama with a little twist (as was The Brady Bunch years back when two divorced parents raised a new family together - yes, that was very controversial in its day).  Other favorites were the now-cancelled Camp and A&E's Bates Motel (okay, its an odd family). 

Comedy:  I have only one favorite in this category, Fox's Brooklyn Nine-Nine.  I was not sure if Andy Samberg was ready to carry his own show, but he is great as is the supporting actors.  My favorite is police Captain Ray Holt, played by Andre Braugher.  When he and Samberg get together the show is at its best. 

Political Drama:  On the top of my list is NBC's The Blacklist, followed by House of Cards and Alpha House.  We have plenty of FBI and terrorist-related shows on TV these days, but The Blacklist has James Spader, which makes all the difference.

Update:  Brooklyn Nine-Nine and House of Cards were both award-winners at the Golden Globes ceremony over the weekend.  Ray Donovan and Top of the Lake, other new series in 2013, also took away awards.  In fact, the vast majority of the TV awards went shows that premiered in 2013.  Go here for the complete list.  

More Shows This Week: You Decide on the Level of Intelligence

If you are looking for something to do other than shovel snow, the networks are releasing a number of new shows that can keep you pretty busy.  Here is a sampling:

-- Intelligence (January 7 on CBS):  Josh Holloway (Lost) plays an agent with a chip in his brain, making him part machine.  And he is mourning the loss of his wife.  And he has a partner that watches over him.  And the show centers on the role of humanity versus computers.  Why is this beginning to sound an awful lot like Almost Human?

-- Chicago P.D. (January 8 on NBC):  Since Chicago Fire has been such a success, let's give the police another chance (and step over the bodies of the earlier attempts, such as Chicago Code).

-- The Spoils of Babylon (January 9 on IFC):  A little bit of humor added to the line-up.  Toby Maquire leads a cast including Val Kilmer, Haley Joel Osment, Tim Robbins, Molly Shannon, Michael Sheen, David Spade, and Kristen Wiig, as they re-enact the bad drama miniseries from the 1970s.  The question is whether they created anything better here. 

--  Enlisted (January 10 on Fox):  We have not seen a military comedy in awhile, and we shall see if this remains the case after this premiere.  The show is a comedy about three brothers at Fort McGee in Florida.  Reviews to date have been mixed, but it may be worth checking out. 

-- Helix (January 10 on SyFy):  You have probably seen the movie ten times - a team of researchers travels to the Arctic and finds something that endangers all of humanity.  Are you ready to go back into the (frozen) water again?

More Werewolves in the Coming Weeks

Season three of MTV's Teen Wolf continues Monday night (January 6, 2014) after a four month hiatus. Here is a trailer to get you started.  You can also catch the full last episode at the MTV website, which should bring you somewhat up to speed (it even circles back to the very first episode of the series). 

The series has been getting more complex with time but more interesting with the addition of new characters and ideas.  For instance, this season plays on Japanese folklore and the Kitsune myth (as if werewolf folklore was not enough).  You can read more about the myth here. 

And if this is not enough you can try out Canadian werewolves.  And we thought the Canadians were such a pleasant lot (except for that Toronto mayor). The new series, Bitten, premieres on SyFy the following Monday (January 13, 2014).   Here is the quick summary from SyFy:

Based on the Women of the Otherworld novels by #1 NY Times best-selling author Kelley Armstrong, Bitten is an emotionally charged supernatural thriller starring Laura Vandervoort (Smallville, Ted) as Elena Michaels, the lone female werewolf in existence. Desperate to escape both a world she never wanted to be part of and the man who turned her into a werewolf, Elena has abandoned her pack and taken refuge in a new city. There, she works as a photographer and hides her werewolf existence from her new boyfriend. When bodies start turning up in her pack’s backyard, Elena finds herself back at Stonehaven, the werewolves’ ancestral domain. Torn between two worlds and two loves, she quickly realizes that – when push comes to shove – she’ll stop at nothing to defend her pack.

According to Deadline, SyFy acquired the rights to the first 13 episodes late last year.   By the way, the story is set in Toronto, but don't expect a walk-on role for the major in the same way Mayor Rahm Emanuel dropped in on Chicago Fire.  And if you want to read more about the story itself, you can check out the book and related comments on Amazon. 

A Return to the Manor

Tomorrow (January 5, 2014) is the US premiere of the fourth season of Masterpiece's Downton Abbey.  And while the Brits (Upstairs) have already viewed the entire new season, we here in the States (Downstairs) get the warm-over remains.  Okay, it is not so bad, and we do it to much of the world as well with our movies and television shows.

So what can we expect after the loss of so many favorites, from the driving death of Matthew Crawley to the birthing death of Lady Sybil to the departure of Mrs. O'Brien?  Julian Fellowes, the creator of the series, does not give away much in his recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, "The Real Lord of 'Downton Abbey'," but we do get some additional context to the program.   For instance, regarding the hapless Lady Edith, Mr. Fellowes notes less than optimistically,

People come up to me all the time and say, "Please let Edith be happy!" I think I do believe there are people who are unbelievably lucky and there are people who are unlucky and they don't always deserve it, but somehow the first group always catches the bus. The second group always just misses it.

And where would the Crawleys' descendants be today?  Mr. Fellowes has his own ideas,

Mary is a practical businesswoman. I think there were some families who just sold and sold and sold [land], and eventually it just caved in. But I feel that Mary wouldn't allow that to happen. My own belief is that they would survive, but they would be living in a back wing—and you could buy a ticket to visit and they would only come out in the winter.

It is also good to read that Mr. Fellowes is working on a second series to take place in the late 1800's New York City called The Gilded Age.  Soon enough the State will have its own wealthy family to follow, and maybe we will get to see it before the Brits.

More Washington Drama

  The Chicago Tribune’s Clarence Page had a few comments on political TV in his January 1, 2004, column titled  “Why I Hate Watching Fake Washington on TV.”  He has his own take on the value of the Washington drama as he cites a number of political shows, including The Blacklist, Hostages, The Americans, Homeland, Scandal, Veep, Netfix’s House of Cards, and Amazon’s Alpha House.  Of these, I am partial to The Blacklist (due to the solid acting skills of James Spader) and House of Cards (since it is a very creative and eye-catching remake of the British original).  I am also starting to take a liking to Alpha House (I will give Goodman another chance after HBO’s Treme).  But if you need to escape the Washington blues, I can think of no better antidote than Denmark’s Borgen, which just finished its third season.  As I have noted in earlier posts, the perils of a coalition government far surpasses any of the drama in DC.  And Borgen actually covers meaty issues without the persistent threat of a government shut down.  The real Washington drama has lost its way.  Give the Danes a chance.

Update:  If you want more on these political shows, check out T.A. Frank's New Republic article, "America's Least-Favorite City Has Become Television's Favorite Subject."  In discussing the new interest in Washington, DC, he notes, 

So when we look at our wealthy capital city and see a group of people getting everything wrong, sometimes lying, and generally turning into that mean pimp, we want someone to show us why this is happening. We want a story that will impose some explanatory order on Washington’s horribleness. Each new show about Washington—one after the other after the other after the other—does that. Each says, “Let me be your guide and explainer. Here’s how Washington really works. Here’s the real story behind that awful place.”

Time to Begin Again

With the arrival of 2014, I thought I would restart my blogging on television programs.  I did so until early last year when other events began to occupy my time (of course, I did not stop watching television). 

I look forward to sharing comments about new television and online programs.  We have no shortage of contents these days.  If we have a problem, it is sifting through all the poor quality programming to find the worthwhile jewels.  And I certainly have my own biases.  That said, I hope that my ideas and suggestions help to navigate the morass as I too learn from you.