A very casually written (as in not something that should be used as a professional sample of my work) week-in-TV recap I do for the folks at the Ice Box that was posted back in January:
Fresh Off the Boat: Liar Liar
This TV show tries to have an A-plot and B-plot that thematically run together a little too consciously: Nicole wants to fit in with her crush and Louis wants to fit in with the guys. The only problem is that I cannot remember anything about Louis’s plot a few days after watching the episode. Some people would say I have a responsibility as a critic to rewatch so I can recap, but screw those people: If you can’t remember anything about a plotline, it must have sucked. It makes sense: Louis is an easy-going guy. He’s great at facilitating plots but he’s not particularly strong as the central conflict of an episode. In the A-plot, Nicole learns a lesson about love and Eddie follows the same pattern of being a good guy but having stumbling books en route. Eddie’s tastes have always been grounded in things that seem stupid in retrospect and here, he can’t get enough of Jim Carrey.
Two main discussion-provoking questions:
1) Is Nicole’s courtship with the other Lesbian girl an accurate portrayal of teenage lesbian courting in that time period? I am one year younger than Eddie and at that time in the late 1990’, it was very common to be suspicious about other people being gay and it was definitely a bad thing or something that had to be explained away. Compound that with the teenage ostracizing and I’m wondering just how on the DL Nicole needed to be. The gay people I knew in my high school struggled enough to be recognized as gay, let alone have love lives. They generally assumed that if they went to a very liberal college or moved to a big city, they would be able to have them. Of course, it would help that Nicole was very badass (at least in the early episodes. Her first on-screen appearance was knocking a slushie out of a kid’s hands although she’s since been softened almost to the point of flanderization) and already popular in school when coming out?
2) Is "Fresh Off the Boat" intended to comment on the 90’s with appreciation for it or is it intended to comment ironically? Eddie’s obsession with gangstar rap is always played for absurdity. A number of these references, that the show thrives on, is treated without the distance that we have now. In the 1990s, we thought that Titanic would never be equaled in terms of storyline or special effects, that Shaq had a promising career as an actor and that Jim Carrey was high art.
LA to Vegas: First Two Episodes:
The attempt at a balls-to-the-wall lowbrow look at the airline industry (similar to “Airplane” but with slightly less scatological humor) follows Dylan McDermott (best known as Dermot Mulroney’s evil twin), Nathan Lee Graham (best known for playing stereotypical gay roles in films like “Zoolander” and “Sweet Home Alabama”), and Kim Mutola (no idea who she is but she can play standard vulnerable blonde protagonist serviceably) play our surrogate eyes and ears for what it’s like to work on an airplane. The two flight attendants are a bit more grounded in reality whereas Dermot Mulroney (ooops, I mean Dylan McDermott) conveys Leslie Nielsen levels of absurdity as his antics so far include whining about not joining the mile high club, having drinks with passengers, losing the muscle memory to land the plane, and doing jujitsu on a passenger.
Peter Stromare (seriously? This undervalued dramatic character actor has nothing better to do than do an imitation of Bali from “Perfect Strangers”?) plays a gambler of Eastern European descent and Ed Weeks ("Mindy Project") plays an economics professor who serves as Ronnie’s (Mutola) love interest. These two (and the strippers that appeared in the pilot but not the second episode might also recur, who knows) [update: Several episodes in, it's now apparent that Olivia Macklin is regular on the show as the Nichole] are connected to the show through sitcom-logic which keeps characters together in the same space that otherwise might not be (“Community” and the 2006 Jason Ritter vehicle “The Class” would fall under this) if you consider that occasionally one of these two might book another flight.
[Update: This review should be extended to note that ]
The show, at this point, is adequate with some room for growth.
The Good Place-Best Self/Leap of Faith
Leap of Faith was a little plot-holey. Didn’t Michael play it a little close to the vest with their eternal damnation at stake? The script nicely patched in that hole with the workaround that Michael left them thousands of clues but they only get a few of them. It still felt like a work-around.
From our perspective, however, the episode delivered exactly what The Good Place does which provides comic suspense. The Good Place often seems like it only has one or two episodes left in totality and no idea what it will do next.
“Best Self” was anti-climactic in the first act. The four needing to get on a balloon is a perfect conundrum you hope would take a whole episode to work through, but it was all a shame. Bummer. Then the episode devolves into a sentimental boozefest which is kind of fun from a hang-out perspective, but remember these guys are on the 800th reboot and don’t know each other as well as our out-of-universe perspective. The episode ends with its best bit of humor in Sean texting with the style of a teenager (autocorrect acknowledgements, lols) as he’s talking about hellfire. The episode ends with the one necessity it needs to move the plot forward (their new idea for how to get into heaven). This is a TV show with a long endgame, so having only one plot-relevant moment an episode and letting everything else fall under comedy is not necessarily bad.
The Mick: The Climb
“The Climb” has the kind of maneuvering between characters that epitomizes this show at its best. Ben has a twerp (autocorrect was not particularly generous with my first attempt at that word) of a friend that pisses Mick off until she realizes that her mom is former 90210 star Jenny Garth. Millions of 90’s children probably stared at the screen wondering: Where the hell has Jenny Garth been all this time? Very rarely have I ever seen such random stunt casting, so bravo! The pretentiousness of privileged kids is nailed so well in this episode as is the one-upmanship of Mick and Sabrina with Alba playing a wildcard of sorts (a job that generally alternates between Jimmy and Alba).
Chip is a brat that I’ve even called one of the few appropriate uses of the label “toxic masculinity” (I generally find it a non-sensical crutch): He’s just awkward around everyone. The entirety of the episode was a waiting game of cringe: At what point will Chip let down his father figure? Apparently the answer was never which was an odd half hour of sitcom TV. Sitcomdom depends on conflict: We’re not used to watching a character cook up a hair-brained scheme and succeed at it. I suppose I’m happy for Chip. The episode segues to some continuing search for Chip's father but asking us to be further invested for this plot line is dependent only on the comic payoff and we need to see more seed of something funny to come other than a mug shot.
Corporate-The Void/The Powerpoint of Death
Woohoo, fresh new TV shows for us to sink our critical teeth into and gnaw away. Following off “Idiotsitter” “Big Time in Hollywood Florida” and others that escape my memory at the moment, Comedy Central often takes chances on unknown comedic teams like this. I do not recognize a single person in the cast, but because it’s a lot like “Better off Ted” or “A to Z” or “Selfie” in its mockery of workplace drudgery, I keep thinking of the characters as Christina Kirk-light (“A to Z” but she also resumed the role of office straight man in “Powerless”) or David Harewood-light (“Selfie”). Maybe if your show lasts more than nine episodes, guys, I’ll learn your names.
The show has a darker current than the above-mentioned shows (it certainly doesn’t help that the bouncy salsa-esque score of “Better off Ted” isn’t used here to indicate sitcom cues) but still falls into the rhythms and beats of a modern sitcom as opposed to “Silicon Valley”, which is equally bleak, but puts less pressure on itself to make its laughs fit into a gift-wrapped half-hour box.
Gifted-The Last Three Episodes
Without spoiling anything, “The Gifted” (which I honored on My Year in TV best of the year list ) carries the same level of adrenaline to its conclusion with character allegiances being switched, other characters adapting on the fly, and lots of glorious chess-style (i.e. let’s use a power A against his power B, while sacrificing our hideout in response to power C) maneuvering that mutant-style shows make capable of providing excitement.
The show, more than anything, deserves credit for making late adolescent problems seem dramatically appropriate at the level that falls below melodrama.
Questions still persist about whether Reed (Stephen Moyer) and Kaitlyn (my crush Amy Acker who seems to always have her hair properly blow-dried) do much other than allow the show to be called a family story. A more heavy-handed example of this was the short-lived ABC show “No Ordinary Family” with Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz as parents (and superheroes themselves) who would often loudly proclaim things like “We’re not tearing this family apart!” or “We have to think about what’s best for the family!” Despite having no superpowers, Reed and Kate seem far more woven in the fabric of the mutant underground than I otherwise would have expected. Yes, they’re doting parents but they’ve also become part of the extended larger family.
The show concludes in a way that doesn't feel fully resolved but allows us to catch our breath. It's been a pretty wild ride.
Showing posts with label No Ordinary Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label No Ordinary Family. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Lilyhammer's Glaring Problem: "Out of Africa" and "Milwall Brick"
If you go through my Top Ten lists from past years, you'll see a lot of shows that either fell out of favor or soured on me within a year. In 2010, I was charmed by the exploration of the physics behind the characters' super powers, the slowly-building serialized arc, and the supporting turns of Romany Malco and Autumn Reeser in No Ordinary Family. In 2011, I couldn't stand the schmaltzy family drama that was overtaking the action. Similarly, my love affairs with Family Guy and American Dad! have both eroded to the point where I watch the shows but don't love them. In the latter, I placed it in the top 10 of 2011 on the basis that of the more grounded level of comedy for a Seth MacFarlane creation and the malleability of Roger. Shortly thereafter, Roger (and Stan for that matter) reached somewhat of a tipping point.
Last year, Lilyhammer made my Top 10 primarily because it has such a strong sense of place although I had reservations about the unlikable protagonist that I hoped could be ironed out.
The show centers around mobster Frank Tagliano who adopts the moniker Giovanni "Johnny" Henrikson as he relocates to the Norweigan city that hosted the 1994 Olympics. Henrickson fits squarely into the mobster genre as a man who's polished and charming but inwardly ruthless and amoral. He's not at Scarface-levels of depravity and shows occasional signs of decency, but he's essentially an unwavering bully.
In the pilot episode, Henrikson arrives in Norway and wants to open a bar but Jans, the local immigrant transition official, stands in his way with threats to drown him in paperwork and a 6-month waiting period. When Giovanni tries to bribe him, Jans reacts as anyone would and threatens to report him to the police. Giovanni lucks into some incriminating photos on Jans and manages to extort him into starting his bar license early.
In this manner, the show started out as a charming fish-out-of-the-water story as our protagonist has to navigate a different world where his usual bag of tricks won't work. The problem is that pretty soon into the first season, the fish and water started becoming pretty indistinct from one another and Giovanni starts getting away with everything with very little resistance from people who might realistically resist. In the first season alone, Giovanni physically threatens a long list of people including a a pacifist farmer, a kid on a train listening to music too loudly, an Arab immigrant named Yousef, a man with an ankle bracelet who ends up arrested through Frank, a couple store employees at a carriage store (who actually do activate a security alarm) and members of a night watch gang. Many of these people would directly benefit from their first instinct of reporting Giovanni to the authorities and those who were assaulted earlier in the season would have little to lose since Giovanni hadn't yet amassed any henchmen.
Ultimately, Giovanni is saved by a number of lucky coincidences (finding just the right piece of incrimination, having a possible tattle tale decide save himself the hassle and not report him, etc) as he takes steps to strengthen his power stronghold on Lillyhammer through forming strategic alliances with the town's power players and coercing anyone who stands in his way. One problem with this premise is that a lot of Giovanni's relationships work through coercion which leaves the loyalty in question. Why Jans decides to beg for his job UNDER the man (a partnership that in season 2 is revealed to be subservient) who, for all he knew, was responsible for getting him fired from NAV or why Julius would still be a voluntary business partner of a man who blackmailed him when the dirt disappeared (he was in remission) and made insensitive remarks about the kid's son (he calls him "Osama") are not sufficiently explained.
All of Giovanni's antics are done while attempting to stay under the radar of the local authorities which becomes an increasingly more tenuous plot point to buy when more and more people in the town are in on the secret that Johnny is a crook.When the local police chief, Laila, finally gets some dirt on Giovanni, things become downright anticlimactic: Upon seeing a dead body in the woods, Giovanni convinces her that she has two options "using up thousands of dollars of tax payer money to pursue justice" (um, doesn't she do that with every crook?) or just taking his word that the dead man in the woods was the guy who shot his fallen colleague and letting bygones be bygones. If there's a such thing as an unforgivable plot hole, it's that Laila would walk away at this moment.
Of course, happy coincidences and plot holes are forgivable if they ultimately favor the outcome you were hoping to see but it's hard to see Giovanni as particularly deserving of all the lucky twists of fate he receives. A show isn't automatically weakened if a bad guy is winning against the good guys, but the catch is that the show needs to be aware of who the good and bad guys really are, and it seems as if Lilyhammer isn't grasping that its show is about a bad man:
According to this interview in Rolling Stone, show co-creator and lead actor Steve Van Zandt:
"He's never going to be completely integrated into that society".... "But he is becoming a bit Norwegian and part of the culture."
In fact the show's moralistic and in-universe judgments are mostly reserved for everyone but Giovanni. When the man with the ankle bracelet gets his comeuppance from the police and Johnny sails away consequence-free, are we meant to see him as foolish? Is this a morally equivalent universe in which he gets what he deserves?
The show ended season one with a bittersweet note as his girlfriend (pregnant with his twin children) finally decided she had enough of him and threw him out and it seemed as if an amiable partnership was forming between, but the character hasn't grown and as a result, the show feels stagnant and its lucky coincidences less forgivable.
Last year, Lilyhammer made my Top 10 primarily because it has such a strong sense of place although I had reservations about the unlikable protagonist that I hoped could be ironed out.
The show centers around mobster Frank Tagliano who adopts the moniker Giovanni "Johnny" Henrikson as he relocates to the Norweigan city that hosted the 1994 Olympics. Henrickson fits squarely into the mobster genre as a man who's polished and charming but inwardly ruthless and amoral. He's not at Scarface-levels of depravity and shows occasional signs of decency, but he's essentially an unwavering bully.
In the pilot episode, Henrikson arrives in Norway and wants to open a bar but Jans, the local immigrant transition official, stands in his way with threats to drown him in paperwork and a 6-month waiting period. When Giovanni tries to bribe him, Jans reacts as anyone would and threatens to report him to the police. Giovanni lucks into some incriminating photos on Jans and manages to extort him into starting his bar license early.
In this manner, the show started out as a charming fish-out-of-the-water story as our protagonist has to navigate a different world where his usual bag of tricks won't work. The problem is that pretty soon into the first season, the fish and water started becoming pretty indistinct from one another and Giovanni starts getting away with everything with very little resistance from people who might realistically resist. In the first season alone, Giovanni physically threatens a long list of people including a a pacifist farmer, a kid on a train listening to music too loudly, an Arab immigrant named Yousef, a man with an ankle bracelet who ends up arrested through Frank, a couple store employees at a carriage store (who actually do activate a security alarm) and members of a night watch gang. Many of these people would directly benefit from their first instinct of reporting Giovanni to the authorities and those who were assaulted earlier in the season would have little to lose since Giovanni hadn't yet amassed any henchmen.
Ultimately, Giovanni is saved by a number of lucky coincidences (finding just the right piece of incrimination, having a possible tattle tale decide save himself the hassle and not report him, etc) as he takes steps to strengthen his power stronghold on Lillyhammer through forming strategic alliances with the town's power players and coercing anyone who stands in his way. One problem with this premise is that a lot of Giovanni's relationships work through coercion which leaves the loyalty in question. Why Jans decides to beg for his job UNDER the man (a partnership that in season 2 is revealed to be subservient) who, for all he knew, was responsible for getting him fired from NAV or why Julius would still be a voluntary business partner of a man who blackmailed him when the dirt disappeared (he was in remission) and made insensitive remarks about the kid's son (he calls him "Osama") are not sufficiently explained.
All of Giovanni's antics are done while attempting to stay under the radar of the local authorities which becomes an increasingly more tenuous plot point to buy when more and more people in the town are in on the secret that Johnny is a crook.When the local police chief, Laila, finally gets some dirt on Giovanni, things become downright anticlimactic: Upon seeing a dead body in the woods, Giovanni convinces her that she has two options "using up thousands of dollars of tax payer money to pursue justice" (um, doesn't she do that with every crook?) or just taking his word that the dead man in the woods was the guy who shot his fallen colleague and letting bygones be bygones. If there's a such thing as an unforgivable plot hole, it's that Laila would walk away at this moment.
Of course, happy coincidences and plot holes are forgivable if they ultimately favor the outcome you were hoping to see but it's hard to see Giovanni as particularly deserving of all the lucky twists of fate he receives. A show isn't automatically weakened if a bad guy is winning against the good guys, but the catch is that the show needs to be aware of who the good and bad guys really are, and it seems as if Lilyhammer isn't grasping that its show is about a bad man:
According to this interview in Rolling Stone, show co-creator and lead actor Steve Van Zandt:
"He's never going to be completely integrated into that society".... "But he is becoming a bit Norwegian and part of the culture."
In fact the show's moralistic and in-universe judgments are mostly reserved for everyone but Giovanni. When the man with the ankle bracelet gets his comeuppance from the police and Johnny sails away consequence-free, are we meant to see him as foolish? Is this a morally equivalent universe in which he gets what he deserves?
The show ended season one with a bittersweet note as his girlfriend (pregnant with his twin children) finally decided she had enough of him and threw him out and it seemed as if an amiable partnership was forming between, but the character hasn't grown and as a result, the show feels stagnant and its lucky coincidences less forgivable.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Top Ten Shows of the Year
As if there aren't already 8 million of these floating around, here's my TOP 10 OF THE YEAR!!
1. Boardwalk Empire, HBO-The creation of the mob during prohibition is one of the most formative chapters of American history and if edgy film and television is going to practically be synonymous with gangster stories, someone might as well get to the heart of the matter. With Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg among the producers, the show is in good hands. In addition, Steve Buscemi steps into a rare leading man role and deserves an Emmy for it.
2. The Choir, BBC, Office/Jamie Oliver's Food Food Revolution, ABC-Both those shows were insightful, educational, relevant and, ultimately, inspirational. One show involved a British chef's quest to fight America's obesity epidemic with Huntington, West Virginia as a starting point. Oliver, best-known as the Naked Chef (famous enough to be a punchline on Saturday Night Live), was supplied with his own ready-made villain in the form a radio DJ who believed Oliver was just out for fame and the town didn't care about lettuce. In winning the evil DJ and the town over, Jamie Oliver gave us some great tear-inducing drama and got us on board his cause and character. Consider me Team Jamie Oliver.
On the other side of the pond in England, choir master Garreth Malone attempted to tackle arts education in a coed school, a boy's academy and a community choir. Like Food, Food Revolution, it seems like an easy formula to mine some drama but then the tears start flowing and you're genuinely moved. Both shows were a reminder that reality TV doesn't have to be about artificial competitions when real life can be quite compelling.
3. Breaking Bad AMC-This is Breaking Bad's third year on my top 10 list but the first year in which it is considered the preeminent show on television which merits a bit more exploration:
Crime dramas are only effective to the extent that they can relate their universe to an audience comprised largely of people uninvolved in the criminal underworld who see meth rings, Mexican drug cartels and the like as largely abstract occurrences. Hence, films that deconstruct the gangster genre like Goodfellas, American Gangster and Scarface largely win the audience over if they can create enough of an arc where that violent gangster was once an ordinary Joe Schmoe.
Breaking Bad used two entire seasons to carefully lay the groundwork out for that ordinary Joe Schmoe to become a truly unsympathetic character (or would you argue he still retains his sympathy?? it's certainly a balancing act) which makes his moral demise all the more richer. What's more, he's paired with somewhat of a lowlife in Jesse Pinkman and as Aaron Paul's win at the Emmys demonstrated that character has morphed quite unexpectedly into a moral barometer of sorts.
The show's momentum can't be denied because it's the most ambitious on television. It sets characters on a collision course with each other and its as if the writers are on a dare to see how long they can keep the characters from colliding.
What I wrote about Breaking Bad 2 years ago on my 2008 list: http://bit.ly/eXUdIF
4. Futurama, Comedy Central-Whether I was Futurama's biggest fan or just a casual one before the show came back (I'd put myself somewhere in the middle), I fell in love with the show all over again during its run this summer. To be resurrected from the dead like Futurama is somewhat of a miracle in the world of TV, but the downside can be greater expectations. For me, the show met and exceeded the bar. The writing was sharp, the visuals were imaginative and the plots were consistently ambitious. If the episodes failed, you can at least say that they fell hard because they aimed high. The show also earns points for experimenting with new dynamics (i.e. Bender and Amy, Hermes and Bender, Amy and Nibbler, Fry and the Professor) between characters.
5. Modern Family, ABC-I enjoyed Arrested Development immensely but I also interpreted its success at the time to conclude that the traditional family sitcom couldn't exist unless it was being mocked and/or subverted. That changed when I saw Modern Family.
Modern Family went into new territory by bringing humor without a hint of irony. The show mines comedy out of the quirks of Dumphy, Prichett and Prichett-Delgado clans and mines drama of the forces that threaten to tear those family bonds apart. Is is significant that the comedy doesn't suggest that the family is worthless and the negative vibes in the family are always overcome (or at least ameliorated) by episode's end.
6. Party Down, Starz-I honestly have never heard of the Starz Network which is why it took me so long to discover this gem. Starring Adam Scott, Megan Mullally, and Lizzy Caplan (best known for this Jason Mraz video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oieBnV_HFB0), this show centers around a ragtag band of dreamers in Los Angeles working on a catering team together to pay the bills but hoping for bigger things. Their characters' varying degrees of disconnect from reality is contrasted with the very close proximity these people are to the people who nonchalantly live their lives. The show also manages to be edgy in bringing characters to the screen who aren't in love with their lives without being unnecessarily crude or depressing (a sin I find Weeds and Entourage guilty of).
7. Terriers, FX-There are so many procedural shows out there that it's hard for any one show to distinguish itself. So how does Terriers make the list? Likable protagonists that you can latch onto are a start. The pair of amateur detectives are mellow and easy-going (kind of functional versions of the Dude in Big Lebowski. The Dude did solve a crime over the course of the film but that was by pure coincidence. I do want to be specific in my comparison here, because Terriers isn't a stoner comedy) which is refreshing considering so many characters in cop procedurals take themselves so seriously. Like the characters, the plots also meander but in a good way: plots don't necessarily resolve themselves from episode to episode and the viewer can't really be sure where the show is going next.
The show also has noirish overtones and reminds me very much of Chinatown in the sense that a land deal becomes so much more than it seems on the surface.
8. Glee, FOX-Some critics felt that the show had a sophomore slump but I don't think that's the case with this show at all. Hot hits with the teenage demographic usually are the big fad one season and disappear pretty fast (i.e. The O.C., Gossip Girl, Everwood). At least for now, however, the show is strong enough to overcome the fact that it no longer has novelty working in its favor.
The episodes occasionally miss but I admire the show for trying to approach serious topics like anti-bullying, the limits of teenage aspirations, and prejudice, with a sense of gravity.
The additions in the second season have only made the show better. Dr. Carl (John Stamos) has been a much better rival for Emma Pillsbury's affections than Coach Tanaka and the additions of Sam combined with the expansion of Brittany, Mike Chang and Santana have been very effective at balancing out the melodrama stemming from the Finn-Puck-Rachel and Rachel-Quinn-Finn love triangles.
Further Reading on the Backlash and Continued Popularity of Glee
9. Parks and Recreation, NBC-This show has better characters and a better ensemble than most shows on TV. Amy Poehler, an SNL alum who gradually transformed into the show's MVP by her 8th season, is more than talented enough to lead a sitcom as bureaucrat. The supporting cast of players in the Pawnee parks department isn't just notable for being good: The writers and actors deserve credit for having the characters evolve as the show hit its stride. Despite being a polar opposite to Leslie Knope, Anne (Rashida Jones) has become the yin to Leslie's yang. Similarly, Andy (Chris Pratt) has gone from "the other guy" to a lovable hanger-on and Aubrey Plaza's unrivalled ability to deadpan has stopped overshadowing April's development.
The show is a welcome compliment to The Office and a great example of how to follow up something great without changing directions entirely.
10. No Ordinary Family, ABC-Think Heroes if the show were to compress all of the disparate storylines from Heroes into one family. There are also two sidekicks who make the show better with every minute of screen time they get. Romany Malco plays an impassioned district attorney and good friend of the dad (Michael Chilkis) and the other (Autumn Reeser) is an adorably nervous (and easy on the eyes) lab assistant of the mom (Julie Benz) and brings with her an overeagerness to live out her comic book fantasies through her. The show can get a little corny, but it has impressive special effects and an arc that's just now starting to considerably deepen.
Article of Best new fall shows of 2010 including Modern Family
Best show I discovered a year too late to put on my Top 10 List for last year and which I haven't seen this year because I couldn't find any bit torrent for it and HBO won't even allow itunes downloads for:
In Treatment, HBO-The raw drama, the power of the performances, the insight into the human psyche is, to quote Shawn Stockman on NBC' The Sing-Off (and if you saw his critique of Committed on that show you'd know what I was talking about), "What it's all about, man." The root of what makes drama good is right here. There's nothing but a room, a couch and a chair with a patient who we slowly learn about as the weeks go on and a psychiatrist who's pretty damn good at his job. More specifically, we're watching that guy pretty damn good at his job in four out of every five episodes. On that 5th episode, we learn how much of a basket case he is when he visits a psychiatrist of his own (Editorial note: I have restrained myself from watching the "Paul goes to therapy" episodes because I find it ruins the illusion).
[Ed. note: I since put it into my top 10 for 2009]
Runners-Up:
Sing-Off, NBC, Burn Notice, USA, The Office, NBC, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FX (my #1 last year), Archer, FX, Outsourced, NBC (Still a fan and avid defender!)
Other articles of mine:
The Evils of Craigslist:
http://bit.ly/etV1vJ
The Morality of the Characters on it's Always Sunny in Philly
http://bit.ly/g70Aka
Which Filmic Version of Washington Suits you Best:
http://bit.ly/h4i5n1
A Day on the Set with the Extras on How Do You Know?:
http://bit.ly/gUWO0r
1. Boardwalk Empire, HBO-The creation of the mob during prohibition is one of the most formative chapters of American history and if edgy film and television is going to practically be synonymous with gangster stories, someone might as well get to the heart of the matter. With Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg among the producers, the show is in good hands. In addition, Steve Buscemi steps into a rare leading man role and deserves an Emmy for it.
2. The Choir, BBC, Office/Jamie Oliver's Food Food Revolution, ABC-Both those shows were insightful, educational, relevant and, ultimately, inspirational. One show involved a British chef's quest to fight America's obesity epidemic with Huntington, West Virginia as a starting point. Oliver, best-known as the Naked Chef (famous enough to be a punchline on Saturday Night Live), was supplied with his own ready-made villain in the form a radio DJ who believed Oliver was just out for fame and the town didn't care about lettuce. In winning the evil DJ and the town over, Jamie Oliver gave us some great tear-inducing drama and got us on board his cause and character. Consider me Team Jamie Oliver.
On the other side of the pond in England, choir master Garreth Malone attempted to tackle arts education in a coed school, a boy's academy and a community choir. Like Food, Food Revolution, it seems like an easy formula to mine some drama but then the tears start flowing and you're genuinely moved. Both shows were a reminder that reality TV doesn't have to be about artificial competitions when real life can be quite compelling.
3. Breaking Bad AMC-This is Breaking Bad's third year on my top 10 list but the first year in which it is considered the preeminent show on television which merits a bit more exploration:
Crime dramas are only effective to the extent that they can relate their universe to an audience comprised largely of people uninvolved in the criminal underworld who see meth rings, Mexican drug cartels and the like as largely abstract occurrences. Hence, films that deconstruct the gangster genre like Goodfellas, American Gangster and Scarface largely win the audience over if they can create enough of an arc where that violent gangster was once an ordinary Joe Schmoe.
Breaking Bad used two entire seasons to carefully lay the groundwork out for that ordinary Joe Schmoe to become a truly unsympathetic character (or would you argue he still retains his sympathy?? it's certainly a balancing act) which makes his moral demise all the more richer. What's more, he's paired with somewhat of a lowlife in Jesse Pinkman and as Aaron Paul's win at the Emmys demonstrated that character has morphed quite unexpectedly into a moral barometer of sorts.
The show's momentum can't be denied because it's the most ambitious on television. It sets characters on a collision course with each other and its as if the writers are on a dare to see how long they can keep the characters from colliding.
What I wrote about Breaking Bad 2 years ago on my 2008 list: http://bit.ly/eXUdIF
4. Futurama, Comedy Central-Whether I was Futurama's biggest fan or just a casual one before the show came back (I'd put myself somewhere in the middle), I fell in love with the show all over again during its run this summer. To be resurrected from the dead like Futurama is somewhat of a miracle in the world of TV, but the downside can be greater expectations. For me, the show met and exceeded the bar. The writing was sharp, the visuals were imaginative and the plots were consistently ambitious. If the episodes failed, you can at least say that they fell hard because they aimed high. The show also earns points for experimenting with new dynamics (i.e. Bender and Amy, Hermes and Bender, Amy and Nibbler, Fry and the Professor) between characters.
5. Modern Family, ABC-I enjoyed Arrested Development immensely but I also interpreted its success at the time to conclude that the traditional family sitcom couldn't exist unless it was being mocked and/or subverted. That changed when I saw Modern Family.
Modern Family went into new territory by bringing humor without a hint of irony. The show mines comedy out of the quirks of Dumphy, Prichett and Prichett-Delgado clans and mines drama of the forces that threaten to tear those family bonds apart. Is is significant that the comedy doesn't suggest that the family is worthless and the negative vibes in the family are always overcome (or at least ameliorated) by episode's end.
6. Party Down, Starz-I honestly have never heard of the Starz Network which is why it took me so long to discover this gem. Starring Adam Scott, Megan Mullally, and Lizzy Caplan (best known for this Jason Mraz video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oieBnV_HFB0), this show centers around a ragtag band of dreamers in Los Angeles working on a catering team together to pay the bills but hoping for bigger things. Their characters' varying degrees of disconnect from reality is contrasted with the very close proximity these people are to the people who nonchalantly live their lives. The show also manages to be edgy in bringing characters to the screen who aren't in love with their lives without being unnecessarily crude or depressing (a sin I find Weeds and Entourage guilty of).
7. Terriers, FX-There are so many procedural shows out there that it's hard for any one show to distinguish itself. So how does Terriers make the list? Likable protagonists that you can latch onto are a start. The pair of amateur detectives are mellow and easy-going (kind of functional versions of the Dude in Big Lebowski. The Dude did solve a crime over the course of the film but that was by pure coincidence. I do want to be specific in my comparison here, because Terriers isn't a stoner comedy) which is refreshing considering so many characters in cop procedurals take themselves so seriously. Like the characters, the plots also meander but in a good way: plots don't necessarily resolve themselves from episode to episode and the viewer can't really be sure where the show is going next.
The show also has noirish overtones and reminds me very much of Chinatown in the sense that a land deal becomes so much more than it seems on the surface.
8. Glee, FOX-Some critics felt that the show had a sophomore slump but I don't think that's the case with this show at all. Hot hits with the teenage demographic usually are the big fad one season and disappear pretty fast (i.e. The O.C., Gossip Girl, Everwood). At least for now, however, the show is strong enough to overcome the fact that it no longer has novelty working in its favor.
The episodes occasionally miss but I admire the show for trying to approach serious topics like anti-bullying, the limits of teenage aspirations, and prejudice, with a sense of gravity.
The additions in the second season have only made the show better. Dr. Carl (John Stamos) has been a much better rival for Emma Pillsbury's affections than Coach Tanaka and the additions of Sam combined with the expansion of Brittany, Mike Chang and Santana have been very effective at balancing out the melodrama stemming from the Finn-Puck-Rachel and Rachel-Quinn-Finn love triangles.
Further Reading on the Backlash and Continued Popularity of Glee
9. Parks and Recreation, NBC-This show has better characters and a better ensemble than most shows on TV. Amy Poehler, an SNL alum who gradually transformed into the show's MVP by her 8th season, is more than talented enough to lead a sitcom as bureaucrat. The supporting cast of players in the Pawnee parks department isn't just notable for being good: The writers and actors deserve credit for having the characters evolve as the show hit its stride. Despite being a polar opposite to Leslie Knope, Anne (Rashida Jones) has become the yin to Leslie's yang. Similarly, Andy (Chris Pratt) has gone from "the other guy" to a lovable hanger-on and Aubrey Plaza's unrivalled ability to deadpan has stopped overshadowing April's development.
The show is a welcome compliment to The Office and a great example of how to follow up something great without changing directions entirely.
10. No Ordinary Family, ABC-Think Heroes if the show were to compress all of the disparate storylines from Heroes into one family. There are also two sidekicks who make the show better with every minute of screen time they get. Romany Malco plays an impassioned district attorney and good friend of the dad (Michael Chilkis) and the other (Autumn Reeser) is an adorably nervous (and easy on the eyes) lab assistant of the mom (Julie Benz) and brings with her an overeagerness to live out her comic book fantasies through her. The show can get a little corny, but it has impressive special effects and an arc that's just now starting to considerably deepen.
Article of Best new fall shows of 2010 including Modern Family
Best show I discovered a year too late to put on my Top 10 List for last year and which I haven't seen this year because I couldn't find any bit torrent for it and HBO won't even allow itunes downloads for:
In Treatment, HBO-The raw drama, the power of the performances, the insight into the human psyche is, to quote Shawn Stockman on NBC' The Sing-Off (and if you saw his critique of Committed on that show you'd know what I was talking about), "What it's all about, man." The root of what makes drama good is right here. There's nothing but a room, a couch and a chair with a patient who we slowly learn about as the weeks go on and a psychiatrist who's pretty damn good at his job. More specifically, we're watching that guy pretty damn good at his job in four out of every five episodes. On that 5th episode, we learn how much of a basket case he is when he visits a psychiatrist of his own (Editorial note: I have restrained myself from watching the "Paul goes to therapy" episodes because I find it ruins the illusion).
[Ed. note: I since put it into my top 10 for 2009]
Runners-Up:
Sing-Off, NBC, Burn Notice, USA, The Office, NBC, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FX (my #1 last year), Archer, FX, Outsourced, NBC (Still a fan and avid defender!)
Other articles of mine:
The Evils of Craigslist:
http://bit.ly/etV1vJ
The Morality of the Characters on it's Always Sunny in Philly
http://bit.ly/g70Aka
Which Filmic Version of Washington Suits you Best:
http://bit.ly/h4i5n1
A Day on the Set with the Extras on How Do You Know?:
http://bit.ly/gUWO0r
Sunday, December 26, 2010
15 Favorite TV Characters of the Year 2010
Be sure to check out this list of top ten websites of the year
And another article to click on
List of my 20 favorite characters on TV:
1. Gus, Breaking Bad (Giancarlo Esposito)-This mysterious guy provides a voice-a rhyme and reason- to the forces across the border who previously were just standard thugs. Gus is very business-like but deceptively deadly. Much like Walter, he has a dual identity and even is a prominent member of the community. He voluntarily chooses to place himself a little too close for comfort to the local law enforcement (something which Walter doesn’t have the luxury to do) by becoming a prominent sponsor to the local department.
2. April, Parks and Recreation (Aubrey Plaza)-Much has been made of Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) as the breakout star of the Office, but April Ludgate won my heart from day one. Much like the comics of early and mid-20th Century filmdom, April’s humor comes from Aubrey Plaza's physicality: In this case her detached expressions and deadpan voice make you relish practically everything she says. Her deadpan makes the way she toys with men’s hearts (i.e. "Sister City") or prospective clients (“94 Meetings”) all the more delicious. It also makes her vulnerabilities or the times in which she’s genuinely invested in the world around her seem all the more surprising.
3. Erin, The Office (Ellie Kemper)-As a late comer to the proverbial party of Dunder-Mifflin, Ellie Kemper had her work cut out for her in order to stick out in such a large ensemble. I think she pulled it off with flying colors. In a world full of neurotic people, Erin’s unique idiosyncrasies (her naivette, eager-to-please attitude, etc.) command our attention because of the subtlety with which Ellie Kemper imbues them into the character. Kemper also commits to the littlest details in every scene. If you turn away while Erin is on screen, you usually miss some little gem that compliments the action.
4. Asha (Rebecca Hazelwood), Outsourced-As one of the few defenders of Outsourced, I gotta stack as many characters as I can in here. People criticize this show for being one-dimensional with its characters and falling on old clichés, but I’m pretty impressed with how the show was able to smooth out the rough edges of its supporting cast and give us distinct characters within the first 7 or 8 episodes. Each of these characters refutes stereotypes and each character's traits are contrasted by another character on the show (i.e. Manmeet's overconfidence is contrasted by Gupta's sense of self-shame) which illustrates the diversity of this culture in terms of personalities.
I like Rajeev's passive-aggressiveness and find that it adds a healthy dose of conflict to the show in comparison to other workplace comedies. I also like Manmeet and how he mines quite a bit of humor out of his sexual repression without ever seeming to be a downer.
But the breakout star is Asha. It’s easy to see why Todd would mistakenly fall for Asha: She’s smart and relatable and to this guy who’s lost in this foreign land, she feels less foreign than anyone else. She also makes the antiquated (at least by our standards) life choice seem pretty sexy.
5. Michael Weston, Burn Notice (Jeffrey Donovan)-Apologies to James Bond and Jason Bourne, but Michael Weston is my new idea of the perfect spy. Grounded, intelligent, unpretentious and most importantly, focused when he needs to be, Michael Weston is the guy I want at 3 AM coming to my rescue when the fate of the world (or at the very least, Dade County) is on the line
6. Kate Beckett, Castle (Stana Katic)-Castle works because of the interplay between Castle and Beckett and the reason and that's because Katic keeps the will-they-or-won't-they balance in check pretty well through her deadpan obliviousness to his charms. She's a strong and grounded character and is one of the few characters from the world of TV procedurals who's troubled past angle isn't terribly overdone.
7 and 8. George (Romany Malco) and Katie (Autumn Reeser), No Ordinary Family-The sidekicks of No Ordinary Family are really what make the show. Lab assistant Katie is such a delight because not only is she beautiful yet nerdy (every fan boy’s dream), but she’s so unashamed of said nerdiness. She’s also a little bit of a neurotic mess and a lot of humor is mined out of that.
George is very much the opposite, but he adds the same elements to the show that Katie does: He provides loyal support to the hero. His presence provides a more serious take on the superhero genre: The seriousness of crime and how important it is to put a stop to it. George is a great improvement on Romany Malco’s previous TV role on Weeds.
9. Mr. Schuester, Glee (Matthew Morrison)-With many large ensemble shows and films, the protagonist is often little more than a piece of cardboard around which the rest of the cast can show off their trademark quirky characteristics. It’s the thankless straight men to all the funny men that populate the show. With that, it’s easy to gravitate towards the show’s main sources of drama (Kurt or Rachel), edginess (Puckerman), sex appeal (Emma Pillsbury) or humor (Sue Sylvester), but Mr. Schu's where it's at, folks.
Aside from giving into a few temptations when it comes to the ladies, Mr. Schu is not only a stand-up guy but he inspires passion in his students and, goshdarnit, I feel a little inspired by him as well.
Vulnerable characters are always attractive, and one of Mt. Schu’s vulnerabilities is Glee Club itself. He needs the Glee Club just as much as they need him because it becomes clear pretty early on that teaching people to sing is his life’s calling and not teaching Spanish or taking more paid vacation than your average employee. When it’s threatened (by Sue or Holly Holiday) then you feel sorry for him.
Mr. Schu has taken a lot of flack from the critics this year, so I feel an extra strong need to step in and defend him.
10, 11. Phil/Lem, Better off Ted (Jonathan Slavin and Malcolm Barrett)-When I referred to protagonists being carboard for the other characters to bounce off, Jay Harrington in BoT would be the perfect example of cardboard extroadinaire. Then again, you have to give credit to the four other cast members for being fantastic that anyone playing Ted would have a hard time keeping up.
If I made this list last year, it might be girl-next-door Linda (Andreas Anders) making the cut, but I’m going to use this space to explore the wonderfully peculiar creations known as Phil and Lem. These two are fundamentally out of touch with the rest of the office (and by extension, all of humanity excluding people who went to MIT or pretended they did) is hours of endless fun.
The apotheosis of office nerds, Phil and Lem are so lovable because they embrace their status as outcasts. Additionally, the way they worship Ted and are scared of Veronica indicates that the two will stay that way forever. The highlight for Phil and Lem this season was the episode where they tried to scientifically devise the perfect system of insulting someone. It's possible that Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation could have come up with insults more organically than those two.
12. Jay, Modern Family (Ed O'Neill)-Sofia, Haley, and Manny are all funnier but Jay really is at the heart of the show and I have to admire Ed O’Neill because in the 90’s, he single-handedly tarnished the image of fathers in pop culture with his negative portrayal of dads in the lazy, misogynist slob that was Al Bundy. Jay, on the other hand, is just a little rough around the edges, but he emanates such warmth. It’s a remarkable balance and a remarkable transformation.
13. Fa’ad, Running Wilde (Peter Sarifinowicz)-Creator of The Hangover and Old School, writer-director Todd Phillips referred to Zach Galifanakas in the Hangover and Will Ferrell in Old School as “That's the Third Lead, which is the best comic position you can have. Todd used Ferrell like that in Old School. We had it with Steve Carell in Anchorman. It's the guy who gets to break all the rules. He has no story responsibility. He just gets to fuck shit up.”
(source: GQ magazine)
Fa’ad falls under this newly coined trope. He is entirely unnecessary to the plot. The screwball romance between Emmy and Steve could play out just as well without him there, but Fa’ad works his way into the schemes nonetheless and always managed to punch up the action in interesting ways. He single-handedly made the episode "Trade-Off,"* simply because of Fa’ad’s mispronunciation of “A-list” and his discussion of his competition with his brother “Fazul.’
*Not sure, if that's the name of the episode. Don't make me have to look it up, people. "Trade Off" is an apt name for the episode. Just roll with it.
14. Andy, Parks and Recreation (Chris Pratt)-Parks and Recreation has a pretty strong ensemble, in fact. Andy is another guy worth singling out because he’s come around so much since the first season. He started out as basically “the other guy” for an eventual Mark/Anne romance with his unattractive immaturity. Along the way, he’s retained a certain naivette and youthful exuberance (much like Erin on The Office) but he’s definitely grown up quite a bit. I admire how Chris Pratt has been able to make the growth happen in a way that’s been convincing to the character while simultaneously retaining the humor in Andy.
15. Senor Chang, Community (Ken Jeong)-I'll give this year’s most inexplicably suddenly critically respected show it’s due by throwing in Senor Chang to my list.
What a wild card, huh? The guy is a brutal dictator of a teacher and then it turns out he’s not a teacher at all. Now, he wants to be friends with the group or possibly destroy them. It feels like the writers just stick him with whatever label they want whenever it’s convenient, but I don’t really mind because Ken Jeong can be entertaining with whatever circumstances you give him. You also relate to Chang: Teachers want to be popular and well-liked too and if they could get away with it, I could see them wanting to trade places with the coolest guy on campus.
16. Ron Donald, Party Down (Ken Marino)-Ron Donald spent the first few episodes of the season in a Shakespearean downfall from his throne as head of his own Soup 'R Franchise. Then he came back as team leader and entertained with his one-of-a-kind style of mangement. The Ron Donald Do's and Don'ts, people. That's what it's all about.
17. Manny Delgado, Modern Family (Rico Rodriguez)-Manny probably ranks in the top 3 in maturity among the entire Prichett/Delgado/Dumphy clan and he's only 11. A perfect foil to the ADD-riddled Luke as well as new stepfather Jay, Manny is a lovable lug.
18. Avery Jessup, 30 Rock (Elizabeth Banks)-Finally, a woman who can keep up with Jackie D. Her introductory scene on a news talk show in which she and Jack connect through their mutual rudeness to the third guest was pure comic gold.
19. Jamie Oliver, Food Food Revolution (Himself)-How I wish I had an enthusiastic grown man running around my high school cafeteria and trying to get me to eat my vegetables. A class act, Oliver was a man who was very easy to root for in this very moving reality show which brought the issues of obesity to light.
20. Kelinda Sharma, The Good Wife (Archie Punjabi)-This was a year in which Indian women proved more sexy than their caucasian counterparts. As investigator to Alicia's law firm, she really elicits a lot of attention whenever she's in screen.
And another article to click on
List of my 20 favorite characters on TV:
1. Gus, Breaking Bad (Giancarlo Esposito)-This mysterious guy provides a voice-a rhyme and reason- to the forces across the border who previously were just standard thugs. Gus is very business-like but deceptively deadly. Much like Walter, he has a dual identity and even is a prominent member of the community. He voluntarily chooses to place himself a little too close for comfort to the local law enforcement (something which Walter doesn’t have the luxury to do) by becoming a prominent sponsor to the local department.
2. April, Parks and Recreation (Aubrey Plaza)-Much has been made of Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) as the breakout star of the Office, but April Ludgate won my heart from day one. Much like the comics of early and mid-20th Century filmdom, April’s humor comes from Aubrey Plaza's physicality: In this case her detached expressions and deadpan voice make you relish practically everything she says. Her deadpan makes the way she toys with men’s hearts (i.e. "Sister City") or prospective clients (“94 Meetings”) all the more delicious. It also makes her vulnerabilities or the times in which she’s genuinely invested in the world around her seem all the more surprising.
3. Erin, The Office (Ellie Kemper)-As a late comer to the proverbial party of Dunder-Mifflin, Ellie Kemper had her work cut out for her in order to stick out in such a large ensemble. I think she pulled it off with flying colors. In a world full of neurotic people, Erin’s unique idiosyncrasies (her naivette, eager-to-please attitude, etc.) command our attention because of the subtlety with which Ellie Kemper imbues them into the character. Kemper also commits to the littlest details in every scene. If you turn away while Erin is on screen, you usually miss some little gem that compliments the action.
4. Asha (Rebecca Hazelwood), Outsourced-As one of the few defenders of Outsourced, I gotta stack as many characters as I can in here. People criticize this show for being one-dimensional with its characters and falling on old clichés, but I’m pretty impressed with how the show was able to smooth out the rough edges of its supporting cast and give us distinct characters within the first 7 or 8 episodes. Each of these characters refutes stereotypes and each character's traits are contrasted by another character on the show (i.e. Manmeet's overconfidence is contrasted by Gupta's sense of self-shame) which illustrates the diversity of this culture in terms of personalities.
I like Rajeev's passive-aggressiveness and find that it adds a healthy dose of conflict to the show in comparison to other workplace comedies. I also like Manmeet and how he mines quite a bit of humor out of his sexual repression without ever seeming to be a downer.
But the breakout star is Asha. It’s easy to see why Todd would mistakenly fall for Asha: She’s smart and relatable and to this guy who’s lost in this foreign land, she feels less foreign than anyone else. She also makes the antiquated (at least by our standards) life choice seem pretty sexy.
5. Michael Weston, Burn Notice (Jeffrey Donovan)-Apologies to James Bond and Jason Bourne, but Michael Weston is my new idea of the perfect spy. Grounded, intelligent, unpretentious and most importantly, focused when he needs to be, Michael Weston is the guy I want at 3 AM coming to my rescue when the fate of the world (or at the very least, Dade County) is on the line
6. Kate Beckett, Castle (Stana Katic)-Castle works because of the interplay between Castle and Beckett and the reason and that's because Katic keeps the will-they-or-won't-they balance in check pretty well through her deadpan obliviousness to his charms. She's a strong and grounded character and is one of the few characters from the world of TV procedurals who's troubled past angle isn't terribly overdone.
7 and 8. George (Romany Malco) and Katie (Autumn Reeser), No Ordinary Family-The sidekicks of No Ordinary Family are really what make the show. Lab assistant Katie is such a delight because not only is she beautiful yet nerdy (every fan boy’s dream), but she’s so unashamed of said nerdiness. She’s also a little bit of a neurotic mess and a lot of humor is mined out of that.
George is very much the opposite, but he adds the same elements to the show that Katie does: He provides loyal support to the hero. His presence provides a more serious take on the superhero genre: The seriousness of crime and how important it is to put a stop to it. George is a great improvement on Romany Malco’s previous TV role on Weeds.
9. Mr. Schuester, Glee (Matthew Morrison)-With many large ensemble shows and films, the protagonist is often little more than a piece of cardboard around which the rest of the cast can show off their trademark quirky characteristics. It’s the thankless straight men to all the funny men that populate the show. With that, it’s easy to gravitate towards the show’s main sources of drama (Kurt or Rachel), edginess (Puckerman), sex appeal (Emma Pillsbury) or humor (Sue Sylvester), but Mr. Schu's where it's at, folks.
Aside from giving into a few temptations when it comes to the ladies, Mr. Schu is not only a stand-up guy but he inspires passion in his students and, goshdarnit, I feel a little inspired by him as well.
Vulnerable characters are always attractive, and one of Mt. Schu’s vulnerabilities is Glee Club itself. He needs the Glee Club just as much as they need him because it becomes clear pretty early on that teaching people to sing is his life’s calling and not teaching Spanish or taking more paid vacation than your average employee. When it’s threatened (by Sue or Holly Holiday) then you feel sorry for him.
Mr. Schu has taken a lot of flack from the critics this year, so I feel an extra strong need to step in and defend him.
10, 11. Phil/Lem, Better off Ted (Jonathan Slavin and Malcolm Barrett)-When I referred to protagonists being carboard for the other characters to bounce off, Jay Harrington in BoT would be the perfect example of cardboard extroadinaire. Then again, you have to give credit to the four other cast members for being fantastic that anyone playing Ted would have a hard time keeping up.
If I made this list last year, it might be girl-next-door Linda (Andreas Anders) making the cut, but I’m going to use this space to explore the wonderfully peculiar creations known as Phil and Lem. These two are fundamentally out of touch with the rest of the office (and by extension, all of humanity excluding people who went to MIT or pretended they did) is hours of endless fun.
The apotheosis of office nerds, Phil and Lem are so lovable because they embrace their status as outcasts. Additionally, the way they worship Ted and are scared of Veronica indicates that the two will stay that way forever. The highlight for Phil and Lem this season was the episode where they tried to scientifically devise the perfect system of insulting someone. It's possible that Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation could have come up with insults more organically than those two.
12. Jay, Modern Family (Ed O'Neill)-Sofia, Haley, and Manny are all funnier but Jay really is at the heart of the show and I have to admire Ed O’Neill because in the 90’s, he single-handedly tarnished the image of fathers in pop culture with his negative portrayal of dads in the lazy, misogynist slob that was Al Bundy. Jay, on the other hand, is just a little rough around the edges, but he emanates such warmth. It’s a remarkable balance and a remarkable transformation.
13. Fa’ad, Running Wilde (Peter Sarifinowicz)-Creator of The Hangover and Old School, writer-director Todd Phillips referred to Zach Galifanakas in the Hangover and Will Ferrell in Old School as “That's the Third Lead, which is the best comic position you can have. Todd used Ferrell like that in Old School. We had it with Steve Carell in Anchorman. It's the guy who gets to break all the rules. He has no story responsibility. He just gets to fuck shit up.”
(source: GQ magazine)
Fa’ad falls under this newly coined trope. He is entirely unnecessary to the plot. The screwball romance between Emmy and Steve could play out just as well without him there, but Fa’ad works his way into the schemes nonetheless and always managed to punch up the action in interesting ways. He single-handedly made the episode "Trade-Off,"* simply because of Fa’ad’s mispronunciation of “A-list” and his discussion of his competition with his brother “Fazul.’
*Not sure, if that's the name of the episode. Don't make me have to look it up, people. "Trade Off" is an apt name for the episode. Just roll with it.
14. Andy, Parks and Recreation (Chris Pratt)-Parks and Recreation has a pretty strong ensemble, in fact. Andy is another guy worth singling out because he’s come around so much since the first season. He started out as basically “the other guy” for an eventual Mark/Anne romance with his unattractive immaturity. Along the way, he’s retained a certain naivette and youthful exuberance (much like Erin on The Office) but he’s definitely grown up quite a bit. I admire how Chris Pratt has been able to make the growth happen in a way that’s been convincing to the character while simultaneously retaining the humor in Andy.
15. Senor Chang, Community (Ken Jeong)-I'll give this year’s most inexplicably suddenly critically respected show it’s due by throwing in Senor Chang to my list.
What a wild card, huh? The guy is a brutal dictator of a teacher and then it turns out he’s not a teacher at all. Now, he wants to be friends with the group or possibly destroy them. It feels like the writers just stick him with whatever label they want whenever it’s convenient, but I don’t really mind because Ken Jeong can be entertaining with whatever circumstances you give him. You also relate to Chang: Teachers want to be popular and well-liked too and if they could get away with it, I could see them wanting to trade places with the coolest guy on campus.
16. Ron Donald, Party Down (Ken Marino)-Ron Donald spent the first few episodes of the season in a Shakespearean downfall from his throne as head of his own Soup 'R Franchise. Then he came back as team leader and entertained with his one-of-a-kind style of mangement. The Ron Donald Do's and Don'ts, people. That's what it's all about.
17. Manny Delgado, Modern Family (Rico Rodriguez)-Manny probably ranks in the top 3 in maturity among the entire Prichett/Delgado/Dumphy clan and he's only 11. A perfect foil to the ADD-riddled Luke as well as new stepfather Jay, Manny is a lovable lug.
18. Avery Jessup, 30 Rock (Elizabeth Banks)-Finally, a woman who can keep up with Jackie D. Her introductory scene on a news talk show in which she and Jack connect through their mutual rudeness to the third guest was pure comic gold.
19. Jamie Oliver, Food Food Revolution (Himself)-How I wish I had an enthusiastic grown man running around my high school cafeteria and trying to get me to eat my vegetables. A class act, Oliver was a man who was very easy to root for in this very moving reality show which brought the issues of obesity to light.
20. Kelinda Sharma, The Good Wife (Archie Punjabi)-This was a year in which Indian women proved more sexy than their caucasian counterparts. As investigator to Alicia's law firm, she really elicits a lot of attention whenever she's in screen.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
No Ordinary Family: "No Ordinary Anniversary" and "No Ordinary Sidekick"
First off, some new articles, I've published out and around:
Which Hollywoodized Verison of Washington suits you best
Morality of the Characters on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
World's Most Dangerous Sports
No Ordinary Family is a show that's been plagued by TGIF-style sappiness when portraying family stories. The dad, awkwardly played by Michael Chiklis, does a lot of preachy moralizing about the importance of family and doing good. There's a slight disconnect between the PG-rated level of talk and the PG-13-rated level of action. Some kids' shows or light-hearted action shows (USA's Monk and NBC's Chuck are two examples off the top of my head) don't really show a lot of murder on screen (Monk does so in the opening credits but no further murder usually takes place. Monk solves the case and the villain surrenders his weapon to an oncoming barrage of cops seconds before anyone's at risk of dying). No Ordinary Family mixes very sappy family melodrama with serious serial drama and the tone is something that needs a little tweaking. I'm starting to think with the last couple episodes, "No Ordinary Anniversary" and this week's episode, the episode is finding its groove a little better.
It's quite possible that the creators of this show now are aware of the sheer corniness of their show, but the episodes were already in the pipeline before the feedback rolled in that would otherwise have made them aware of the problem. Whether that's the case, I knew it was too much to expect that the tone would change significantly over the last couple weeks. The corniness is here to stay and I have to take the good with the bad (I had the same experience with Studio 60). The best I can hope for is minor tweaks and the existing tone fits into better situations.
If the family is melodramatic, it helps if there's a palpable sense of danger. I'd say the looming threat of Katie's new boyfriend (aka The Watcher) certainly raises the drama and the plot escalated in a way that was well-handled. Daphne first suspects something because she can't break into the guy's thoughts. This development simmers for a while before the next inevitable step. Daphne and JJ come to the realization that he took over JJ's dating profile. Before we know it, Daphne finds herself in a very compromising position.
The pacing is really starting to improve on all fronts. Mini-parables of the week are starting to segway to stories with larger themes and the unresolved endings make for a tone that's slightly darker. Previously, Daphne and JJ's stories were as important as the plots involving their parents. Now it seems like, the show knows that the kids' stories are best served as B-plots meant to break up the action. The serial stuff that made shows like Lost and Heroes so popular and with Dr. King and the Watcher, we have two good villains to drive things along. The Watcher is far from the antisocial Skylar-type villain we've seen on these kinds of shows and his charisma works directly on us.
On the subject of action, there's not any improvement in the action scenes. Interactions between people with different powers (i.e. X-Men, Fantastic Four, Heroes) can lend themselves to all sorts of creative chess-type pairings where one person's power cancels out someone else's power but makes him vulnerable to a different type of superhuman. The battles (the fire-shooting villain in the last episode, for example) appear to be checkpoints en route to advancing the plot. I get the sense that the show isn't even interested in the notion that action scenes can be fun and exciting in their own rights.
Lastly, RIP Francis. Sorry to see the poor guy go, considering he was one of the few side characters who wasn't painted with such a broad stroke of cartoonish smugness. Francis practically was marked for death considering he kept involving himself in the middle of things against very powerful people with whom he had no superpowers to defend himself against.
Would love to write on Glee (this week: Sappy and a very blatant excuse to sell a Christmas Album) or Running Wilde (last week: the limitations of the Andy-Emmy-Steve love triangle really started to show and the plot felt entirely gratuitous as a result, this week: considerably more creative with a plot it has told three times already in the last 8 episodes), but must go to bed.
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No Ordinary Family is a show that's been plagued by TGIF-style sappiness when portraying family stories. The dad, awkwardly played by Michael Chiklis, does a lot of preachy moralizing about the importance of family and doing good. There's a slight disconnect between the PG-rated level of talk and the PG-13-rated level of action. Some kids' shows or light-hearted action shows (USA's Monk and NBC's Chuck are two examples off the top of my head) don't really show a lot of murder on screen (Monk does so in the opening credits but no further murder usually takes place. Monk solves the case and the villain surrenders his weapon to an oncoming barrage of cops seconds before anyone's at risk of dying). No Ordinary Family mixes very sappy family melodrama with serious serial drama and the tone is something that needs a little tweaking. I'm starting to think with the last couple episodes, "No Ordinary Anniversary" and this week's episode, the episode is finding its groove a little better.
It's quite possible that the creators of this show now are aware of the sheer corniness of their show, but the episodes were already in the pipeline before the feedback rolled in that would otherwise have made them aware of the problem. Whether that's the case, I knew it was too much to expect that the tone would change significantly over the last couple weeks. The corniness is here to stay and I have to take the good with the bad (I had the same experience with Studio 60). The best I can hope for is minor tweaks and the existing tone fits into better situations.
If the family is melodramatic, it helps if there's a palpable sense of danger. I'd say the looming threat of Katie's new boyfriend (aka The Watcher) certainly raises the drama and the plot escalated in a way that was well-handled. Daphne first suspects something because she can't break into the guy's thoughts. This development simmers for a while before the next inevitable step. Daphne and JJ come to the realization that he took over JJ's dating profile. Before we know it, Daphne finds herself in a very compromising position.
The pacing is really starting to improve on all fronts. Mini-parables of the week are starting to segway to stories with larger themes and the unresolved endings make for a tone that's slightly darker. Previously, Daphne and JJ's stories were as important as the plots involving their parents. Now it seems like, the show knows that the kids' stories are best served as B-plots meant to break up the action. The serial stuff that made shows like Lost and Heroes so popular and with Dr. King and the Watcher, we have two good villains to drive things along. The Watcher is far from the antisocial Skylar-type villain we've seen on these kinds of shows and his charisma works directly on us.
On the subject of action, there's not any improvement in the action scenes. Interactions between people with different powers (i.e. X-Men, Fantastic Four, Heroes) can lend themselves to all sorts of creative chess-type pairings where one person's power cancels out someone else's power but makes him vulnerable to a different type of superhuman. The battles (the fire-shooting villain in the last episode, for example) appear to be checkpoints en route to advancing the plot. I get the sense that the show isn't even interested in the notion that action scenes can be fun and exciting in their own rights.
Lastly, RIP Francis. Sorry to see the poor guy go, considering he was one of the few side characters who wasn't painted with such a broad stroke of cartoonish smugness. Francis practically was marked for death considering he kept involving himself in the middle of things against very powerful people with whom he had no superpowers to defend himself against.
Would love to write on Glee (this week: Sappy and a very blatant excuse to sell a Christmas Album) or Running Wilde (last week: the limitations of the Andy-Emmy-Steve love triangle really started to show and the plot felt entirely gratuitous as a result, this week: considerably more creative with a plot it has told three times already in the last 8 episodes), but must go to bed.
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