Monsters of Television

“That’ll do, pig.  That’ll do.”

Let’s just give up the pretense and call it the Peter and Mozzie Show.

For a show that likes for Neal to operate in such a moral gray area they really don’t like their good guys to be bad, do they?

After yet another false cliffhanger from last episode (Diana having the music box locked away), I’m not sure if the show is just going to constantly pitch me on their good guys going rogue (even if they never do) or if it’s setting me up, crying “villain” until I don’t believe it then flipping the script when Peter takes off his mask and reveals that he’s really Kate or something.  For now, however, the good guy characters are very much good guy characters, no matter how much they try to fake me out.

In fact, everyone in the series is pretty much a white hat right now.  Neal operating in his gray area of the law has almost evaporated with the “death” of Kate.  There is no seasonal villain now that Fowler has gone underground, just a mystery left from the detritus of last season’s botched music box hand-off.  Neal has stopped his search for what happened and just works for the FBI now, nothing extracurricular.  The only connection he has to his past life is Mozzie, and even Mozzie is warming to the suits.

So even this show, once upon a time steeped with the story-world-consuming (if completely annoying) seasonal search for Kate, is kind of becoming the thinly-plotted but character-heavy fare summer USA is known to do and do well.

And we’re kind of fine with that.

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Way to take a step back, Food Network Star.

After a very solid two weeks, the show backslid with Sunday’s episode, an episode that misses the mark for a whole slew of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the Star Challenge had no business being on this show. What the star challenge, an underground supper club for LA foodies (“The first rule of supper club is that you do not talk about supper club. The second rule of supper club is that you do not use saffron. It is so 2005.”), tells me is that Food Network wants to extend its brand to foodies. Too bad Food Network doesn’t really scream foodie to me. Or anyone. Read more »

“He is Michael Westen! There are only four of us!“

This week’s episodes of Covert Affairs (“Walter’s Walk”) and Burn Notice (“Past & Future Tense”) were both very good. Covert Affairs is still having to do legwork, fleshing out the characters and the world, but it’s doing an admirable job of that. Meanwhile Burn Notice has the luxury of being an established show, with its format and characters firmly in place and ready to go for anything.

What both shows touched on this week, however, was about something more than just how a new show develops or how an established one keeps itself fresh. This week, Covert Affairs and Burn Notice tackled the notion of spyhood in their own specific ways. Unsurprisingly, both shows dealt with the issue of spyhood from their particular vantage points: new spy and old spies. Read more »

“Oh, good. I got you while you’re vulnerable.”

I don’t like to read the advance reviews of a show, not necessarily for the spoilers but because I don’t like things to skew my perspective, making me pay attention to things that are within the bias of a reviewer that gets paid to consume. That’s not to say anything bad about professional reviewers. It might end up that I become one someday for all I know. This is mostly a warning for you, the reader. I did not receive an advance copy of this episode like so many did weeks ago, as evidenced by some hub-bub over a reviewer’s responsibility with spoilers, so my thoughts on the episode might be rudimentary and not as thoughtful as those who have been able to ruminate on content of season premiere.

Did that come off spiteful? I didn’t mean for it to come off spiteful.

Although there is a lot of spite in this episode so maybe it’s rubbing off on me. With the divorce and Betty and Don sniping at each other plus everyone in the office being angry with Don for a botched PR opportunity compounded with Don getting angry with clients for being prudes, and we can even say the new agency itself is in spite of their former corporate owners, this is an episode based in spite. Even the actresses Peggy and Pete hire for a publicity stunt are spiteful toward each other.

Oh, did I mention that, with all the hype going on about and around Mad Men that I assume you don’t mind a spoiler or two if you’re reading this review? I didn’t? Oh well. You should be watching it live anyway since it probably is the best show on television never to get above a 1.0 in Male 18-49. Let that be your lesson.

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“Dude, all your permanent teeth are in, okay?  You’re playing for keeps now.”

Smooth criminal detective.

Ah, much better.

Last week’s pooch was rectified by this week’s return to form, or at least the form we recognize. Our characters are back in the slots we recognize (Juliet, of course, is totally over her touch of PTSD) and, even though they switch the dynamics a little in the first half-hour, the comedy and timing seems to be back.

Troubling, however, is Henry’s reduced role to a “nose to the grindstone” boss as opposed to his more involved auxillary role in the Psych agency. My hope was to see him more involved with cases rather than just barking for the detectives and sleuths to get back on track. Instead he’s kind of like Lou Grant but wears a suit better.

But the season is young, yes?

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“I am currently having a drinking problem.”

How mad do you think this guy was when Phillip Seymour Hoffman made it big?

I seriously just about gave up on this series.

I’ve already talked about how confused it is, hiring comedic actors to play dramatic roles on a series sold as a dramedy leaning more toward the “edy” than the “dram.” One week it’s all about the city being important as setting and the next week we switch to Mayberry instead of a unique metropolitan area. “Love Me Tender” starts off Dwight’s intuition running rampant as he observes a jumper (yes, apparently detectives get called on the scene for negotiation scenes, too) and, from his mismatched socks and still wearing a ring, calls that the guy wants to kill himself over a woman. I mean, the dude’s socks might as well have lit up non-diegetically after a quick push-in. So on top of this mess, we’re going to throw a little bit of Psych and The Mentalist (the Psychalist?), too? The episode goes on to half-assedly imitate a police procedural (specifically SVU without the charisma) and, somehow, make Southerners looks soft on crime (I’ll get into the details after the jump).

What’s more frustrating is that my hypothesis from my review of “Baby, Let’s Play House” doesn’t really pan out here since the lyrics of “Love Me Tender” don’t apply. There is a couple and, possibly, they might like the song. That’s about all the nuance this episode could muster.

I watched this with someone that hadn’t seen an episode before and felt compelled to apologize for that mess.

But then “Polk Salad Annie” showed me a glimmer of hope. A faint glimmer but some shiny bit of possibility all the same. It was like a show that finally coalesced, the puzzle pieces fitting together from all angles. It felt like they might actually be in Memphis. The detectives were investigating a case they belonged on. And it had comedy. And not just comedy but comedy that utilized the peculiarities of the comedic actors properly (for the most part). It wasn’t perfect but it was something. I’m looking for anything now.

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“What if they tell me I only have a month to live? That would totally ruin the rest of this month for me.”

Ah modern medicine. Nowadays you can take a pill or a shot or a laser treatment for just about everything. But all that can get awfully expensive. According to Thugnificent (nice to see you back prominently in an episode, dawg) the ultimate panacea for all that ails you is ganja. Reefer. Mary Jane. Hemp. Nuggies. Skunk. That’s right: a Boondocks episode all about weed.

Now before we go and get all racist, this isn’t an episode just about a bunch of black people sitting around smoking weed and neglecting to pay their child support. It’s a satire of the pharmaceutical companies as well as a push for the legalization of marijuana. May the state of California and those kids that lived down the hall from me in college rejoice.

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“Scariest 5-year old party ever.”

While Karen is encouraging you watch Hell’s Kitchen instead of Top Chef, I’d kind of nudge to marathon The Next Food Network Star, and this is something I really didn’t think I would ever say. Part of this is just how boring Top Chef has been this season (painfully so), but another part is now that FNS has a smaller group of competitors, well, the show has a chance to actually breathe and be interesting, as opposed to a mad dash to cover every dish and contestant.

This week’s episode, while not as entertaining as last week’s lunch truck challenge, is still considerably better than any of the earlier episodes. In those episodes, both the contestants and the show seemed fairly lost in exactly what needed to be done for a successful program, whereas now, with a smaller group, the show can actually focus on developing ideas and personalities, and I think it’s a format the show should consider for its future seasons. Read more »

“I am very offended.”

The little girl in the front might soon regret being a part of this contribution to stereotype and tired chicanery.

When I first watched this episode, I had very little to say about it.  I knew the concept of “rules” and “breaking them” would be the subject of my post but I had very little else to discuss.  And that disturbed me a little.

I love Psych.  If there was any team I would like to support/hang out with/get paid to work with, they would be at the top (maybe tied with Chuck).  So, like many of us, I looked forward to the return of the USA summer season (a subject receiving quite a bit of media and academic buzz recently) and watching Shawn and Gus quickly put to bed the dramatic ending of last season.  And they do.  The effects of the Yin-Yang plotline appear thinly in this episode and are resolved at the end (more or less), predictably in a way that we don’t have to worry about them again until, oh, let’s say the fall hiatus.  Not that that’s necessarily a bad or good thing.  But, if you watch the show, you know that’s just what they do.  Psych is not a soap opera and emotional crises don’t last long.  This is a show that pops in the summer.  Who wants heavy emotional intrigue in June-July-August?  This is beach reading, my friend.

That being said, the show has also matured over the last few years (now being the veteran series in USA’s stable) and has introduced new elements into the dynamic between characters (namely Henry becoming officially responsible for Shawn’s actions rather than working pro bono and making Shawn free to officially woo Julliet).  Although, with so many things trying to happen in the opening episode (sweeping the old under the rug while establishing the new), the season premiere didn’t have the pop that Psych is known for.  Instead, we get thinly-veiled stereotypes (with a dash of minor racism) and a lot of set-up.

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“There’s complexity, and then there’s lying.”

Here’s a fun bit of trivia for you: Covert Affairs was the topic of the first post on this blog.  (Note how article totally gives away the ending of the pilot? Yeah, kind of killed the suspense for me.) Happily, I was correct in my general assessment of the show when the pilot was picked up by USA. The show is Burn Notice and White Collar, with obvious dashes of Alias sprinkled into the mix.

As a result, like most of USA’s programming, Covert Affairs is a solid, promising, and entertaining  show. It’s stylish, briskly paced, well-staged action sequences, and deft humor. What makes me worried is that those words also describe how I felt about White Collar at its start, and then it began a decline that led to a shoddy betrayal.

I’d really prefer that Covert Affairs not do that, but I see the potential for it to happen. Read more »