Fall TV is back, and so is cramming in a lot of reviews for new shows and season premieres alike…
Boardwalk Empire’s Season Three Premiere: It’s funny the way we like some characters and not others, isn’t it? Breaking Bad’s Walter White is my absolute favorite character on TV, and I acknowledge that he’s a multiple murderer, and yet I’m left cold by other characters who are no worse and possibly better (like Kelsey Grammar’s mayor in Boss). Well, Boardwalk Empire’s Nucky Thompson is definitely a leading character I don’t like…at all, and that’s only been compounded by him killing his rival and one-time protege Jimmy in the season two finale. [Again, a character that is technically WORSE than Nucky, yet one I like better.]
It’s no secret that most people enjoy this show’s excellent supporting cast more than its lead, and so the premiere is slightly disappointing as we’re reminded of all the old favorites we’ve lost (Michael Pitt’s Jimmy, Dabney Coleman’s Commodore) and don’t see others that are still very much alive (Nucky’s brother Eli, and Chalky White). And then new villain Bobby Cannavale shows up as a recently arrived Sicilian gangster that kills a guy for nothing in the first scene…I guess to get us to root for Nucky more this year, even though he may no longer be much better. Still, the ending (where Margaret, frustrated by being a woman of that time period, cheers on a female pilot) was touching and it’s nice to see possibly intriguing story lines for the (literally) two-faced WWI veteran and the great Michael Shannon’s disgraced ex-regulator Van Alden, who may switch to gangsterism in the very near future. Grade for the Premiere: B
Revolution: NBC’s most promising (looking) new show is this one about a near-future where electricity stops working entirely, and civilization regresses into times of horseback riding, sword fights, and militias. Still, I had a weird feeling watching the pilot, thinking “Why are there so many post-apocalyptic shows?” Figuring out that some viewers would probably prefer to live in the world Revolution depicts.
And the show is hamstrung at every turn by being on broadcast television, where things never get too dark or intense (this would be a very different show on FX or AMC), so the tension never rises to the level it should. Plus, it’s more than a little depressing to see a great actor like Giancarlo Esposito (giving one of the all-time great TV performances as Gus Fring in Breaking Bad) slumming it in what, so far, looks like a one-dimensional role as a militia commander. It’s too early to really grade this show, and if I gave a piece of shit like The Event a full season, this one deserves at least a few episodes, but right now this show is no Lost (the gold standard of sci-fi show’s first episodes) and I feel skeptical that it’s even trying for that level of depth…Grade for Premiere Only: B-
SNL: Seth MacFarland is one of those talents you either love or you don’t, and I’m pretty firmly in the “don’t” category. I don’t think he’s a truly funny performer so much as someone that can mimic (knowing the words but not the rhythm) very, very well. There’s something creepy about his plastic Mormon smile, wholly insincere face, and desperate pace, sweating bullets if a joke takes longer than ten seconds. And you could feel his signature style (heavy pop-culture references pretending to be solid jokes) all over sketches like the terrible one involving the Korean pop YouTube sensation PSY
BUT, you could also feel his biggest strength (a willingness to mix childish absurdity with much darker and grittier punchlines) play out in the deliriously original muppets sketch, stolen outright by Bill Hader’s PTSD suffering war veteran/puppeteer. And now that Kristen Wiig is gone, the show is finally forced to allow its other female cast members speaking roles in key sketches which really helps mix up a formula that was getting extremely stale. I know that Lorne Michaels and all of the show’s older guys (who, like Kristen, have also been there forever) thought Wiig was the “quarterback” but by developing a stronger team, SNL is finally able to run some different plays. [And Frank Ocean sang, nervously, the musical numbers and, at the end of the second one, played an arcade game onstage while John Mayer went into an awkward guitar riff…no, I’m not kidding.] Grade for the Premiere: B-…with the understanding that I give most episodes a C.
Guys with Kids: This show really, really, really sucks. The first, last, and only joke is right there in the title, and there’s something painfully dated (seriously? “a live studio audience” instead of letting us decide when to laugh?) about the style as well as the jokes. This seems like a show that would be a better fit for TBS…where I would never watch one episode. Plus, I know that the female demographic is the one advertisers covet the most, but are women really inclined to watch a show strictly because babies/little kids are in it (Raising Hope/Ben and Kate/Up All Night/The New Normal)? You’d sure think so judging by all the comedies that think you can squeeze 100 episodes of laughs out of dirty diaper and “boy aren’t we tired parents?” jokes. For a better take on men (and women) raising kids, check out NBC’s Parenthood. Grade: F+
The New Normal: The show that the Utah TV affiliates won’t air because there’s a gay couple at the center of it, and they’re trying to become parents through a surrogate. The show certainly has a more believable gay couple than Modern Family (meaning, they look like two people that would actually be together in a million years) and is a lot braver than that show about the issues they’re facing, including the extremely bigoted grandmother of their surrogate, played by Ellen Barkin in a performance that feels good now but will need to pick up a couple extra dimensions quick.
Still, I didn’t really laugh during the first two episodes. And sometimes you can respect a show’s courage but feel like something’s missing. I’ve seen two episodes, will probably watch two more, but I don’t see it going much further than that in terms of interest. Grade: B-