Continuing a busy time for TV (I reviewed no less than ten TV shows last week) comes even more season premiers from the likes of choice HBO dramas (Game of Thrones), cable shows with sinking fan bases (The Killing), and on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, yet another half hour comedy about citified white girls over on the broadcast networks (BFF).
Game of Thrones…Where We Left Off: All hell is breaking loose in the fictional world of Westeros, as King Robert is dead, Ned Stark is dead, what’s her face got ahold of some dragons, and everyone else is fighting over control of the seven kingdoms…What Happened in the Premiere: The bulk of the episode was about re-establishing all of the characters and kind-of reminding us of where everyone left off from last year’s season finale (and adding the dead king’s older brother Stanis into the mix). We now have FOUR dueling armies that want either independence or control of the iron throne, plus the woman with the actual dragons who’s on her way…Review: I like Game of Thrones, but I don’t love it like some people do. Is it one of the better dramas HBO’s got today? Sure. But on a schedule that no longer has The Wire/The Sopranos/Rome/Deadwood/Six Feet Under, but DOES have disappointing followups from those creators (True Blood, Luck, Treme), that ain’t saying much. I enjoy the lavish devotion that’s been placed into making GoT’s fantasy world seem as elaborate as possible, but sometimes the show risks getting swamped in its own mythology. [The backstory can be too much and the payoffs too little.] When entire episodes are spent just re-establishing all of the two dozen main characters, you can afford to start killing people off more than this show wants to do. The season 1 “twist” that killed Ned Stark was great and they shouldn’t be afraid to do more of that as the season progresses. Grade for the premiere alone: B
The Killing…Where We Left Off: The show did NOT solve the murder of Rosie Larsen at the end of season 1, infuriating fans and making me (a non-fan who hated every episode just a little bit more) wonder why AMC renewed this show instead of their far superior Rubicon…What Happened in the Premiere: Darren Richmond was set up for the murder of Rosie Larsen, and nearly killed by a mentally unstable friend of the Larsens (Belko, who committed suicide later in the episode), but was revealed to only be paralyzed from the gunshot. Lead detective Linden worked hard to uncover why Richmond was being set up and (seemingly) found out it was a plot by her commanding officer and the incumbent mayor’s chief of staff to ruin Councilman Richmond’s mayoral campaign. It seems like Holden (who we’d been led to believe was dirty) may not be so dirty after all. And Larsen’s family is still really, really depressing/angry and getting innocent people killed through vigilante justice…Review: Unlike GoT, there was a lot of developments in this two hour finale, but they still ultimately added up to stuff we already knew. Unlike GoT, The Killing is one of those shows that actually makes moves backwards as the season moves forward since for every one red herring it discredits, there are two more to pop up in their place. It’s not encouraging at all that the creator says we won’t find out who killed Rosie until the very end of this season, making it TWENTY SIX episodes to solve one case, and not twenty six people to care by the end of it. I’ll take the worst GoT episode over the best Killing episode any day. Grade for the Premiere: B-…with the understanding that the episodes will probably only go downhill from here.
Best Friends Forever or the obnoxiously titled “BFF”…What Happened: NBC decided to premiere this show a week early on-demand, so you can watch the show there now, or watch it when it premieres this Wednesday. Anyway, the show is about one white girl who gets dumped and has to move in with this other white girl who’s her best friend since, you guessed it, forever, and that white girl has a live-in boyfriend. There are jokes about Steel Magnolias, an inflatable Wolverines chair, Scoops chips, stoop kids, and co-dependent female friends…if all that sounds like this show could have been made anytime in the last thirty years, then maybe you get why it has a major relevance problem…Review: This isn’t my kind of show, but I’m always open minded enough to attempt to objectively review it. It’s definitely not the worst thing you could be watching (and is better than the horrible shows it’s replacing, Whitney, and Are You There Chelsea?) but is a tonal mess as the show veered wildly from sarcastic comedy to emotional sincerity to awkwardly serious to mawkish romance to sight gags about penises, all in a twenty minute time stretch. If NBC’s far-superior show Bent is going to get cancelled after six measly episodes, then this deserves the same fate. Grade: C