Part 2 of 2 of summer TV shows that may have slipped underneath the radar…
Halt and Catch Fire…I’ve seen every episode of every scripted show AMC has produced (meaning more “Rubicon” than that reality show about competitive arm wrestling), and it’s become clear that the network is in something of a creative rut these days. Worse still, it seems like they’re more eager to advertise their own legacy more than any of their current shows. [Right now Breaking Bad reruns are occupying that plum Sunday night time-slot while actual new episodes of Hell on Wheels are banished to Saturday nights.] Anyway, “Halt and Catch Fire”…
Yeah, this show isn’t going to do much to lift the sagging fortunes of AMC. It was largely buzz-less and unsatisfying, and it suffered from the increasingly-common problem of would-be-“choice” cable dramas: you always feel like more is going to happen than really does. The show—-about the innovation of more personal personal computers in the 80’s—-had occasional flashes of brilliance, and I loved the performances of Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy, but it suffered from sigh-inducing subplots (like pretty much anything involving McNairy’s wife) and a real a-hole of a lead character. I’ve always liked Lee Pace (of Pushing Daisies fame), but his lead character just comes across as a buffoon’s version of Don Draper, a temperamental blowhard who is more successful at burning bridges instead of actually doing anything. Grade for First Season: B-
Gang Related…This show started off so-so but gradually got worse. It has a somewhat interesting set-up (a Hispanic cop in a gang unit is actually a mole for L.A.’s biggest gang leader, but has genuine emotional ties to his Corleone-esque adoptive crime family), and for a while you think you’re going to be watching a Latino Godfather-meets The Departed-meets The Shield enjoyable summer show, and for a while you are. The pace is fast enough to keep you from groaning too loudly at the increasingly large leaps of logic the show takes, and the mounting intrigue (every character seems to have an agenda of their own, and the plot dynamics only grow more dense when the L.A. gang has to try to outsmart both the cops and their cartel suppliers) does a good job of pulling you in.
Still, the show starts stalling out somewhere around the season’s halfway point, and several prominent subplots go nowhere (pretty much anything involving the rest of the undercover-cop’s cardboard squad team is a waste of time). And the biggest problem is that the anti-hero lead isn’t enough of an anti-hero. Just like with “Tyrant” (another initially promising anti-hero drama where the lead is too conscientious and turns on his family), the hero isn’t layered or morally gray enough to be interesting or believable. By the weak season finale, I was just wanting it to be over. Grade for Season: B-…Grade for Season Finale: C-
Falling Skies…Speaking of wanting a show to be over…sigh, why am I still watching this? Why can’t I stop watching a show I have no interest in, and long past the point where everyone else has given up? Who knows…but the next season of Falling Skies is going to finally, finally, f-i-n-a-l-l-y be its last one, and I’m sure I’ll be there for that one too. Of course, I can imagine a version of hell where Falling Skies never gets cancelled and I never quit watching it. Grade for Season 4, That’s Right, Season F-O-U-R and I’m Still Watching: D
Longmire…A&E’s neo-Western is another show that not many people watch, and I can’t blame them if they don’t, but I’m not going to say it’s a complete waste of time like Falling Skies. Season 3 was more serialized than previous seasons, and I would wholly encourage the show to keep heading in that direction. Still, they headed a bit too far from the Cheyenne Indian reservation where the majority of the most interesting things happen, and this season had no real standout episodes nor new characters. Plus, it saw a decreased role for the show’s most interesting character: a wily Native American casino mogul with a morality so ambiguous, we still don’t know if he’s good or bad even three seasons in. Grade for Season 3: B-