This Week in Television - Sept. 19-23, 2011

The Playboy Club
The pilot was entertaining enough that I'll continue to give this show a chance, but it did feel like an hour-long brag-o-mercial about how Playboy was so revolutionary for empowering women, blacks, and homosexuals. Clearly there is some embellishment from Hef as he imparts this to us in his narration. Eddie Cibrian sounds way too much like Jon Hamm to avoid Mad Men comparisons, but I thought Amber Heard was good (or she just entranced me with her beauty?) and I find murder cover-up stories interesting. It will probably get canceled as everyone inevitably boycotts it for not being as good as Mad Men, so I guess I'll stick with it until then.

Glee
Well, the premiere wasn't too bad but it's likely downhill from here. At the end of last season I expressed concerns that it would be lame for Sue to be nice to the glee club, and I'm happy to see that she hates them again. Very happy. I also kind of liked the idea of Rachel and Kurt being humbled by people who are better than them, because their egos have always been too big. Zizes leaving the glee club was a good idea, because judging by her one and only solo song, she was never able to sing, and not in the same way that the actress playing Sugar in this episode was obviously trying to sound bad. Quinn's "reinvention" felt like typical high school soap crap, but then that's normal for Glee. At least this episode didn't heavily focus on the student romances.

New Girl
As reflected in the promos, Zooey Deschanel was really the only funny part of the show, but that's fine with me. I mean the other characters are clearly trying, but with comedy being so male-oriented I think it's perfectly fine to have a funny woman and three unfunny guys. And I think every household (or group of friends) should have a douchebag jar.

Survivor: South Pacific
I didn't see any evidence that Mikayla is as Brandon described, but then it's only episode two and there hasn't been much coverage of Mikayla. So far Coach is keeping the samurai and dragonslayer talk to a minimum, which makes him less funny but more respectable. Not holding my breath, though.

Up All Night
I liked this episode's depiction of stressing out over wanting people to like you. Sometimes we forget that you don't really need to try in order for someone who is already accepting to like you. Also I enjoyed Chris using "being ironic" as an excuse to have bad taste.

Community
Biology, eh? I'm interested to see what they'll do with that. The Pierce thing was wrapped up more quickly than I thought it would be, but I think a little role reversal with Jeff becoming Pierce was the way to do it, and I'm sure it will continue to pop up here and there throughout the season. The 2001 sequence was awesome, as well as "Cougarton Abbey" and "Inspector Space-Time". And it was cool to see Jim Rash added to the opening credits; I guess we get more Dean this year!

The Office
Really enjoyed the barrage of reveals at the beginning. Andy as manager feels like he's just a milder version of Michael Scott, though I guess the biggest difference is that he's less likely to be obliviously offending people. I don't know if this will be permanent, but I got a laugh out of the new opening credits, where Ed Helms mimics Steve Carell's statue-straightening at the end but accidentally knocks it off the desk. They had a lot on their shoulders, figuring out how to reformat the dynamic with Carell gone, but I think using Andy was the smoothest transition, as he is the most similar to Michael, and Robert California's odd genius provides opportunity for everyone to react to it in ways we haven't seen. At first I thought he was just using the list to mess with everyone, but it did have a point and his "winners, prove me right, losers, prove me wrong" speech was actually very fair. Don't know if I liked the subplot with Pam crying at everything, because crying isn't always that funny unless you're Troy on Community, but the payoff in the tag was kind of cute.

Parks and Recreation
Poor Ann and her penis-filled inbox. Perd Hapley's generic, non-committal interview with Leslie was hilarious. I saw it coming that Ben knew Leslie was running and they had to break up, because it's just the logical solution. But maybe if she wins then they can date again, since they wouldn't be working in the same department anymore. And it's always fun seeing "Woodsman Ron", though I think it was partly an excuse to have him in a beard to disguise the fact that his mustache hadn't completely grown back after Nick Offerman shaved it during the break (it looked weird in the opening scenes).

Fringe
So it looks like it wasn't just Walter crossing over that set everything in motion, but also saving Peter, because it sounds like the observers were implying that he was supposed to die in both universes. I guess that was already apparent a long time ago. But given what we've seen mirrors do on this show, it's almost like the visions of Peter in reflective surfaces are showing that he's over in the other universe. It's also looking like Olivia and Lincoln might hook up, which would be a setup for Peter returning and finding them together, turning the tables after the Peter/Fauxlivia relationship while Olivia was away. Which is a worse excuse, "I thought she was you" or "I forgot you existed"?

Hero of the Week: I think the first hero award of the season goes to Andy Bernard from The Office, for sticking up for his co-workers and impressing Robert California. Go get 'em, Nard Dog!

Douchebag of the Week: And our first douchebag is Schmidt from New Girl. He already has a jar proclaiming him as such, but also he did bother me.

Louie - Season One

Louie is not quite the show I was expecting it to be, but at the same time it is. Coming from comedian Louis C.K. it is of course a comedy, but I would actually classify it as a dramedy. More accurately I would say that Louie is a show not trying to be anything except honest. Louis's stand-up material is exactly that, so it's appropriate that his TV series would reflect as much, but it's surprising - in a good way - when an episode goes to a serious place. And again, it's not trying to make you cry or anything when it breaks out the drama, it's merely reflecting reality and presenting Louis's real views on touchy subjects like homosexuality, bullying, health, religion, awkward dating, and loneliness. Louie himself isn't really even a funny character much of the time; he is an average schlub reacting to the weirdness of other people with confusion, righteousness, and a sort of dispirited acceptance. Louie is not so much a sitcom as an essay on life, and in my opinion that is its best and most unique asset.

That being said, it does have its share of funny moments. Not nearly as many as other comedy series, but enough. Like Seinfeld, there are some interstitials of Louis performing stand-up comedy, and Louis plays a version of himself (who, according to the show's title, spells his name differently) getting into situations that are probably based on real life most of the time. Unlike Seinfeld, there is barely a supporting cast. Louie has two daughters, a brother, some other comedian friends, and the mother of his daughter's playmate that he befriended, but these characters are all semi-regulars and not permanent castmembers. It might seem like that wouldn't work, but it does. Ricky Gervais also makes more than one appearance as Louie's doctor who likes to mess with him and make fun of him constantly. But even funnier is Louie's therapist, who clearly has no idea what he's doing and quietly says the weirdest and most inappropriate things, never failing to make me laugh out loud. As a testament to the show, I have to say this: I don't usually "marathon" a TV show, because I don't always have the attention span for it and I like to make it last, so for a lot of shows I end up doing only one episode a day, but when watching Louie I went through two or three at a time. This show is different things at different times, but it's always entertaining and true, and I really, really like watching it.

Best Episode: Every episode contains something to love, but I guess I'll go with "Heckler/Cop Movie", where Louie deals with a heckler while on stage, and then plays a cop (badly) in a movie directed by Matthew Broderick. Honourable mentions: "So Old/Playdate", with Louie's hilarious therapist, and "Night Out", a nice, effective ending to the season.

Hanna

Impressions before seeing it
It looked like a cool assassination thriller, and my buddy Corey said it was good.

How was it?
To be honest, Hanna isn't really that original of a film on paper. It's kind of a mix of story elements we've already seen elsewhere. For example, Hanna and her father, their relationship and their lives, are similar to that of Hit Girl and Big Daddy in Kick-Ass; Hanna has been training to be a killer and a survivalist her whole life, living in isolation and not taking the time to have a normal childhood and enjoy things the way normal children do. But parts of this movie are devoted to giving Hanna those moments, when she finally goes out into the world seeking her target, and along the way discovers wonderful things like music and friendship.

I am okay with derivative parts because all of them go together to make an enjoyable experience (i.e. the whole is greater than the sum of its parts). Even though I don't think Hanna actually traveled around the world, it has that worldly, Bourne Identity feel to it because of its exotic European locales and espionage intrigue. And it has a No Country for Old Men feel because of the way Hanna and Marissa (Cate Blanchett) pursue each other without actually meeting while the tension builds for their ultimate face-off. Those are two great movies, so it's not a bad thing to be reminded of them. But as I was saying before, Hanna stops to make a friend on her journey, and that is important not only for her as a character and person, but for us as the audience to know that we are following someone human and not just a killing machine, even if initially being a victim gives her a sympathetic angle. We need to know she's capable of love and joy, that she's still a young girl, or else we're just watching a robotic murderer, and some viewers would have a problem with that. I have to give kudos to Saoirse Ronan, who is not even 18 yet and already becoming a character actress. I've seen her in three movies now, and if I recall correctly she did a different accent in each one, none of them her native Irish. I'm going to call it right now: this girl will win an Oscar someday.

Recommendation
Hanna is a very cool and slick piece of intelligent action. You'll probably have a good time if you liked the other movies I mentioned, The Bourne Identity (and its sequels) probably being the most similar. I liked it.

This Week in Television - Sept. 12-16, 2011

Survivor: South Pacific
Coach and Ozzy is kind of a mismatched pair to come back. It should have either been two players who know each other and have a grudge, like Rob and Russell last season, or Coach vs. Phillip in a battle of the crazies. Kind of annoying that, in Survivor's true exploitative, Russell-loving fashion, they have to put "RUSSELL HANTZ'S NEPHEW" next to Brandon's name instead of his occupation, because they still have to mention Russell as much as possible. And while Cochran is a dweeb, I will support him because so am I.

Up All Night
Overlooked this one when I was listing the new shows I might watch this season, and since there's not much else on this week I decided to check it out. I liked it, it has a similar sense of humour to the other NBC comedies, though they should've put it in their Thursday block instead of Whitney, which looks terrible and doesn't fit with the others at all because it's a laughtrack show. But anyway, I like Will Arnett and Christina Applegate, and they have good chemistry and both get to be funny. That's always a plus since wives tend to be "the straight character", but then this show was created by a woman, so the stereotypes of both "the unfunny woman" and "the stay-at-home mom" have been nicely subverted/modernized (the father stays home all day while she is the career woman). Maya Rudolph is also fun as an obvious Oprah/Ellen hybrid. Bottom line is that it was funny enough to have future potential, and in my opinon is a better alternative to what I've seen from Raising Hope, last year's other breakout dysfunctional baby-raising sitcom.

This Season in Television - 2010-2011 (Part 2)

I meant to include this in part one, but I didn't get the chance and it would've made that post super long anyway. Since the new TV season will be starting up soon, I think this is a good time to go back and name my favourite episodes of last season. (Note: Survivor is not included, because it's a reality show and all of the episodes are too similar for any of them to ever stand out.)

The Cape
Probably the pilot episode, because it's the only one I didn't really have any problems with.

V
"Mother's Day", the series finale bloodbath that was actually kind of fun and fulfilled my wish to kill off the worst character on television. Yay!

Glee
Glee is pretty much always flawed, but I watch the show for the comedy of Sue and Brittany, and "A Very Glee Christmas" was an enjoyable enough episode that heavily featured both of them doing what they do best.

Running Wilde
"Into the Wilde" was probably the funniest of the series, but "It's a Trade-Off" was the most entertaining, where Steve and Emmy trade lives for a while and begin to take on each other's mannerisms.

Community
This is the most difficult show to choose a favourite episode for, because it's all over the map and does a lot of awesome things in different ways. "Cooperative Calligraphy" (the "bottle episode") might have been the most memorable because it was purely character and nothing else, and still stands out as one of my favourites. But there are multiple runners-up that gave us great genre parodies: "Basic Rocket Science", "Epidemiology", "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design", "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas", "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons", "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", "Paradigms of Human Memory", and "A Fistful of Paintballs". Told you it was hard.

The Office
"Goodbye Michael" was a perfectly wonderful send-off for a beloved character, and is a close second, but it doesn't quite match the epic "Threat Level Midnight", which was quite possibly the most hilarious and entertaining episode of the entire series, let alone the season. People should start doing the Scarn dance at parties and weddings.

Parks and Recreation
Every episode was solid this season, so this is also difficult. Stand-outs include "Flu Season", "Harvest Festival", "Fancy Party", "Soulmates", "Eagleton", and "Li'l Sebastian". If I was forced to choose one... I guess I'd say "Harvest Festival". It had such a big, climactic feel to it and featured a few of the recurring supporting characters, making it very true to the show's own nature because it had everything that is Parks and Recreation.

30 Rock
Whenever I think back on season 5, the episode that always seems to come to mind first is "Brooklyn Without Limits", guest-starring John Slattery as a crazy congressman. It's also kind of hard to choose a favourite for 30 Rock, but for yet another different reason, which is that for me the jokes are often more memorable than the storylines, so really I would just be choosing my favourite joke(s). And Congressman Steve Austin was one of my favourite jokes, but it was an ongoing one that lasted most of the episode. Runner-up jokes include the Mel Gibson montage at the telethon in "Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning" and Jack and Liz's cold opening in "Double-Edged Sword".

Fringe
To be honest, I don't think I really found season 3 to be all that memorable. I mean I can easily say that my favourite season 2 episode is the one with Peter Weller, but there isn't a lot that stands out this time around. Maybe "Os", because I liked the idea of using a floating agent plus weighted boots to allow crippled people to walk (or at least stand up). And it was the first instance of Anna Torv doing her amusing Leonard Nemoy impression.

TV returns this week, and the full schedule is up and running next week! See you back here for "This Week in Television"!

Dexter - Season Five

Season five starts out kind of slow (I don't even think he kills anyone in the first two episodes), but picks up steam once Lumen (Julia Stiles) enters Dexter's life. Every season has one big villain that he doesn't catch until the end, and it's not Lumen but she is the catalyst and his partner in crime. What bothered me about that was that Dexter's voiceovers kept talking like it was his first time working with a partner. What about Miguel in season three? I know he turned out to be the villain, but still, they did tackle some team kills together before turning on each other. I would've thought it would make him more wary of trying it again. But Stiles was really good in the role, and is probably a lock for the Emmy. Peter Weller, the second of the season's three big guest stars, was also fun to watch as a kooky agent spying on Dexter.

The later half of the season really cranks up the tension, as Dexter feels pressure from about four or five different sources all trying to nail him in some way. I might even say it was more exciting than season four, and I didn't think that would be possible. Jordan Chase (Jonny Lee Miller, big guest star #3) is no Trinity Killer, but whereas Trinity was the main attraction last season, Jordan is only one cog in a large, fascinating machine.

Well, one not-so-fascinating aspect: all of the B stories featuring Batista and LaGuerta's relationship. I used to like Batista until he married her, which was probably the worst decision anyone's made since Deb dated Rudy in season one. I don't know if the writers thought "Hey, Batista's a nice guy, let's pair him up with LaGuerta for some nice tender moments," but if it was another attempt to make her more likable, it sorely backfired. I only end up hating her more every season, and it makes me dislike Batista for loving her. Why do they play the sappy music every time BaGuerta (that's my new couple name for them) embraces? Does anyone actually care about this relationship? I know I don't. But yeah, ignoring that aspect it was an enjoyable season, built like a roller coaster with a slow climb at the beginning that becomes a screaming descent in the second half.

Best Episode: The last two were especially exciting, but I'd have to give the edge to the finale, "The Big One." Not only was it a solid, entertaining resolution, but I also thought it was brilliant and touching how Deb and Dexter did each other HUGE favours without Deb being fully aware of either one. Though with Dexter being closer than ever to getting caught, it was almost disappointing when everything went back to normal at the end. Dexter could go on forever if they keep resetting every season, but it's not the kind of show that needs to. Not that I wouldn't stick with it until the end either way.

Four Rooms

Impressions before seeing it
I'd seen parts of it before over the years, but never the whole thing. I always thought the concept was kind of cool.

How was it?
Four Rooms is four short films, each taking place in a different room in the same hotel on the same night and connected by the bellboy (Tim Roth) performing his duties in each of them. Also, it's New Year's Eve and the bellboy is the only employee in the building.

The first room involves a group of women practicing witchcraft, attempting to revive an ancient goddess in the hot tub. Turns out they need the bellboy's sperm to finish the deal, but he doesn't want to be unprofessional by boning on the job. This one was weird and cartoony, and I don't think there has ever been a witchcraft story anywhere that interested me, so this was my least favourite.

The second room involves a husband and wife doing some bizarre and borderline sadistic roleplaying where she is gagged and bound to a chair, and he is crazy and wields a gun toward anyone who enters - which of course happens to be the bellboy. I didn't really "get" the roleplaying aspect, but the scene did manage to create tension and be entertaining, so it was better than the first one.

The third room involves a husband and wife who go out and leave their two kids unattended, asking the bellboy to check in every once in a while. "Don't misbehave!" the father warns them, as they proceed to do pretty much everything a kid shouldn't do and dragging the bellboy into the middle of it. This one, directed by Robert Rodriguez, was a funny and crazy "disaster comedy". Very enjoyable.

The final room, in the penthouse, involves a famous director (played by Quentin Tarantino, who also directed the segment) and his friends wanting to reenact a scene from the Alfred Hitchcock TV series. In short, they want to pay the bellboy a large tip to potentially cut off someone's finger. This one was my favourite, being a Tarantino fan, because it just has his recognizable dialogue and nuances. He knows how to write people hanging around doing nothing and still make it interesting. It's mostly one long (in terms of the whole short) setup for a really funny payoff at the end. A lot of critics apparently say the third room was the best one, but I would say they are already arranged in order from worst to best.

Recommendation
So to summarize, this is a fun movie with a unique concept, and Tim Roth plays the bellboy with a sort of lively but nervous energy, almost like he's strung out on drugs, that makes his participation welcome. The first two segments are too weird even for my taste, but it's worth sticking it out for the last two, and for the amusing interstitial between the last two that I neglected to mention above. Four Rooms bombed at the box office, just as Grindhouse did, which is a shame because both were experimental cult hits from Tarantino and Rodriguez. These guys should be better rewarded for their originality.

Eastbound and Down - Season Two

After the events of season one, season two has Kenny Powers taking some time out in Mexico. He refers to it as a "spiritual journey", but really he was just too embarrassed to go back home, so he went the other way. I said in my season one post that his character didn't have any redeeming qualities, but now I think he in fact has two: his love for April, and his perseverance in pursuing both her and his baseball career. He's still sort of a jerk, but at least he cares about something.

I think I probably found season one funnier overall, but this season still had its share of hilarious moments. Having a whole new setting and almost a whole new cast, it almost felt like a spin-off series rather than a new season, so it's understandable if it feels somewhat different, though it's still told from Kenny's point of view so the tone is the same. Stevie also ends up tagging along, and he can be annoyingly needy at times (I suspect he has Dependent Personality Disorder), but he is also incredibly loyal and that's worthy of some respect, and his naivete does provide the occasional laugh. It was interesting seeing these two in the Mexican setting, Kenny being an uncultured redneck and Stevie having the innocence of a mentally challenged person, but I have to admit I was kind of relieved when they returned home at the end of the season. No need to keep drawing it out - everything Kenny did in Mexico was basically a substitute for everything he did in the United States, so he had to go back to the real thing eventually. And the next season is going to be the last one, so he's got about 6-7 episodes to tie everything up. Good luck, Flama Blanca.

Best Episode: I think I would have to go with "Chapter 11", where Kenny stays with his father (Don Johnson) in Mexico and considers living there permanently. That one was probably the funniest for me.