TV News Nuggets

With the Television Critics Association tour going on in California, NBC has announced a slate of new miniseries, continuing the resurgence of the format in recent months. They include an updating of Rosemary's Baby and one about the Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock, from Survivor producer Mark Burnett. But the big news is the planned 4-hour miniseries about Hillary Clinton, set to chart the former Secretary of State's life from 1998 and the Monica Lewinsky scandal to present day. She's set to be played by Diane Lane and NBC plans for the show to be out before she announces her likely candidacy for president in 2016. What with the feature film and now this, it seems to me that people are in an awful hurry to be doing movies about Hillary's life before we even see what happens in the next election. I mean, they could be leaving out a pretty important event still to come, right? But I suppose there's already been enough drama to fill more than one movie.

In other news, Mitch Hurwitz has insisted that Arrested Development will be back for a fifth season. During a Q&A session at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal he says that he definitely plans on it and says the only question is between a series and movie, but promises it will be the whole cast back together on screen at once this time, and that if it is a movie, it will be produced by Netflix. Yay! I'm thrilled of course- they couldn't just leave it forever on the cliffhanger this last season produced.

Jason Sudeikis leaving SNL

After months of denials and wavering, Jason Sudeikis finally confirms to David Letterman last night his departure. That makes it something of an exodus in the last year, what with Kristin Wiig, and then Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Jason Sudeikis, and in the fall, head writer Seth Meyers. Looks like SNL is about to go through another one of their "reinvention" eras. I'm hoping this means more screentime for Jay Pharoah, who's  been criminally underused thus far, aside from his Obama of course.

REVIEW: "Orange is the New Black" Season 1

Without a doubt one of the best new shows of the year, and a fantastic character study with an almost entirely female cast, none of whom are bereft of screentime over the excellent first season.

From Weeds creator Jenji Kohan, this new show is loosely based on Piper Kerman's book about a year spent in a women's prison in New York. Taylor Schilling is the main character, also named Piper, who is sentenced to 15 months for drug smuggling, an act she committed more than ten years earlier while she was in a relationship with a drug dealer played by Laura Prepon. Now she's engaged to Jason Biggs, and heads off to  prison in the first episode, where she gets to interact with a host of colorful and crazy inmates, all of whom are played by character actresses giving funny and vivid performances, including Prepon as the ex-girlfriend who's in there with her.

While the show is more of a dramatic comedy and I don't think the intent is to show prison in the most realistic light necessarily, the place and the people become so alive and developed that it does feel as if we've gone to prison right along with Piper and are experiencing how it would feel to be cooped up with all these women every minute of every day. And while it is mostly comedic, the show explores the background of many of the inmates through flashbacks to their lives on the outside, similar to the way Lost worked with the castaways. This functions to humanize them, allowing you to identify or sympathize with the mistakes they've made and the lives they've lived, showing you how any so-called normal person can take a wrong turn, based on who they are and where they've come from.

The biggest and most welcome surprise to me was the fully realized exploration of women of all races. It's extremely rare for film or television to bother showing more than the token white privileged experience- and while Piper is our way into the prison and our protagonist, screentime is equally spread between all of the inmates, be they white, black, hispanic, from poverty, privilege or the middle class. The show works as an authentic commentary on race and class relations, female sexuality, and relationships with a frankness and candor that isn't afraid to touch on any subject with an observational approach and a joke to go with it. There's an occasional broadness to the comedy I suppose, but the performances are so good that most of these actresses pull it off with energy and zest; and it's incredibly refreshing to see that "hotness and body image" weren't the qualities used to cast the ensemble- most of them look as if they could be actual prisoners. The standouts are Kate Mulgrew as a Russian woman who runs the kitchen, Laverne Cox as a transgender inmate and Taryn Manning as an evangelical shrew (and who's just been made a regular for Season 2). And Taylor Schilling is a good lead as the narcissistic Piper, who is essentially the straight man, but holds it all together in the face of the nuttier characters surrounding her.

The men on the show are not given the short shrift either, as we get to see plenty of Jason Biggs as Piper's fiance Larry, who's our window into her family and would be life on the outside, Michael J. Carney as the villainous prison counselor, and Pablo Schrieber who's fantastic as the sadistic prison guard who simultaneously revolts and amuses us with his perverted proclivities.

Netflix has really managed to come out swinging with quality programming in the last six months, and could be the new HBO as far as TV is concerned. Although I will say that I don't think this is the type of show that benefits from binge-watching, as I would have been perfectly happy to watch this on a week by week basis. I even wonder had it played as such, would that have given it the opportunity to grow buzz and hype, as more people discovered it and spread the word? As it is now, I hope that they will discover it, because I have a feeling it could be the best new comedy of recent years and given the chance, be around for quite a while.

Grade: A

RECAP: The Newsroom 2x02 "The Genoa Tip"

Tonight on The Newsroom, the events of summer 2011 are briskly moving along into the fall, as Jim is now accepted onto the Romney campaign bus and following the candidate around the country, avoiding Maggie's calls as much as he can. He also seems to be making a new friend in the form of another reporter named Hallie, who I'm sure we'll be seeing much more of in the future. As of tonight she didn't seem to be doing much besides typing on her laptop in every scene she was in, but she appeared to warm to Jim by the end of the episode.

Maggie is focused on a bit more this week as she deals with the fallout from last season's freakout on a sidewalk being recorded and put up on youtube for everyone to see. This is what caused Don to break up with her last week, and she proceeds to move back in with Lisa after spending a night on the floor of Sloan's office. She tracks down the woman who put the video up and tails her to Queens to confront her in a laundromat, with Sloan tagging along for moral support. I suspect they're making Maggie and Sloan more buddy-buddy this year to set up the inevitable tension when Sloan and Don hook up, as looks likely to happen soon. When Maggie goes back to Lisa's apartment, Lisa is furious about the video and severs their friendship, scolding Maggie for lying to her for a year about her feelings for Jim. This comment reminded me that when it comes to the romances on this show, a lot more time is passing than you think, because in order to deal with the current events, months could be going by between (and during) episodes. So that "inevitable" Sloan/Don hookup I mentioned may actually be years in the making by now, which is kind of weird.

Thankfully, Maggie isn't just dealing with relationship drama- this episode sets up her eventful trip to Africa that was mentioned last week. As of the end of the hour she and Gary are headed overseas, to help her become the point person on a "serious" issue, which is something she complains to Mac about, saying she knows she's the most expendable on the team (probably echoing the thoughts of the audience on that point as well).

Meanwhile, drone policy is front and center again, as Anwar al-Awlaki is killed in this episode, the result of a direct assassination against an American citizen turned terrorist. Will and Mac are of opposing views on this, and it's clear to me that these kinds of policies are the kind where Aaron Sorkin has an easier time setting up "both sides" of an issue- despite Will's claim that he's taking the Republican position, there are plenty of Democrats who are for drone strikes versus ground troops, including those in the White House. This is the reason why the controversy has been mostly contained in libertarian circles. When it comes to matters of national security, the findings have been that voters tend to trust the person they voted for regarding a specific policy, especially when it does not directly affect them, which is how most see the drone strikes. Besides this, Will continues to be upset tonight about being pulled off the 9/11 anniversary coverage, and we see ten year old footage of his first day anchoring, which happened to be on 9/11, where we get to see him interacting with Charlie for the first time.

Don, meanwhile, is upset about the pending execution of Troy Davis, a Georgia man who was convicted 20 years ago for having killed a police officer. Focusing on this case was interesting to me, as I'll admit to not knowing much about this, and it was another reminder how shining a light on issues that were not as highly publicized can be just as, if not more enlightening than the ones we all remember from less than two years ago. And finally, Occupy Wall Street is starting to heat up just a bit, as Neal is arrested in a protest where the police have gotten unnecessarily aggressive with demonstrators, as we know is going to start happening more and more.

As for the ongoing arc of the season, Jim's replacement producer keeps bugging Mac about the Operation Genoa story, and finally she talks to a soldier who claims he was there during the black op, which was an extraction mission where they supposedly used nerve gas on civilians.

This was something of a quiet episode, mostly setting up stories for future development, and I appreciated the looks we got at the newsroom in action. Mac is hugely improved in efficiency as a producer this season, and thankfully, Maggie seems to be at least attempting to head in that direction as well. The 9/11 look back at Will and Charlie was a bit odd (I think for me that was more of the awkwardness of very real life colliding with fictional people), but the continuing Genoa story is at least intriguing. We're led to believe News Night made a mistake on this, so I'm looking forward to seeing where it's going. But on the downside, no Jane Fonda tonight? Boo- come on guys, pay up and make her a regular. When she's on the air you can't go wrong.

Agents of SHIELD

Joss Whedon's Agents of SHIELD now has a premiere date. It's set for Sep 24th, 8pm on ABC, and is intended to be tied in with the Marvel movies, both past and upcoming. I'll be checking it out for sure. The premiere is being shown at Comic-Con today.

TRAILER: The Walking Dead Season 4

Presented today at Comic-Con, here's the 4 and 1/2 minute trailer for Season 4 of AMC's The Walking Dead. The season starts Oct 13th

REVIEW: House of Cards Season 1

With all the undue Emmy love this show has just received, I'm feeling a bit more dour on it than it probably deserves. But the truth is, there was just something about it that left me cold.

It certainly has the right pedigree, with David Fincher involved in directing the early episodes, and big movie actors Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright in the lead roles, and the production values on this thing can rival the best of HBO. And it's another show about a cynical male antihero (that I'm getting sick of), who's navigating through the dark, ultra cynical world of DC politics- this whole thing was a recipe for Emmy success that I'm now embarrassed I didn't see coming. But despite the fancy set dressing, in the end it all felt a bit hollow, and the pretension it wants to project is all surface and no substance.

That may be a little harsh, because it's not as if there's nothing of value in the show. The dialogue from head writer Beau Willimon is theatrical at times but usually smart and steeped in realistic sounding political jargon (although I'll admit that once again I prefer Aaron Sorkin's West Wing any day). And the lead performance from Kevin Spacey as Congressman Frank Underwood is always entertaining, but you know what? He's done this part before. The snarky, backstabbing, sarcastic used-car salesman act- he's done it so many times that it seems old hat for him. Robin Wright as his equally cynical and manipulative wife chose to play the part with a cold, steely reserve, and be unemotional throughout the season- it draws you in at first, thinking that she's a woman who may be hiding secrets, but by the end it feels like a fairly empty character who's made up of nothing but hollowed ambition. That was my problem with the two characters here- to me it felt like there was no real internal drama lurking below the surface after a while, just cold, cynical people being cold and cynical with not much else going on.

That goes for much of the supporting cast as well. Kata Mara plays the ambitious young reporter whose goals in life are solely to get ahead, seemingly making her a perfect match for Spacey's antihero, and yet she turns out to have nothing going on upstairs in the end either (not to mention that performance just doesn't work at all for me, and seems less like an acting choice to be unemotional and more like a January Jones-esque, can't-change-the-expression-on-my-face rigidity). The more that I look back on this show, the more I think what really saved the season was the performance of Corey Stoll, and his tortured, helpless Congressman Peter Russo, who became the victim of the Washington monsters who used him shamelessly. Stoll infused this character with a complex humanity and a vivid inner turmoil. He was the only person in the cast who felt alive at times and I often wished he could have been the focus of the series. Especially now that, SPOILER ALERT, he can't be on the show next season, I really wonder how it's going to fare without him.

And yes, there were some insanely complicated and unlikely plot twists involving Frank's machinations and ultimate goals throughout the season- you're going to have to suspend disbelief on a similar level as Homeland, which is asking quite a lot, considering that this show takes itself even more seriously than that one does. Still, I was willing to go along with all that by taking into account the fact that this show was being adapted from the early 90's British version starring Ian Richardson, and was more or less faithful in translating all the same events to US politics and spreading it out over 13 episodes (the original was 4). That takes some doing and Willimon was pretty impressive in accomplishing it.

So, ultimately, I'm going to keep watching because I am interested in seeing where it goes, but this is the one new show of the year that gave me serious reservations, and to see it showered with all this Emmy love over some far superior shows has me thinking they all fell for the pedigree more than anything else. So be careful with that when you watch this, because it almost fooled me too- it's only in the last few episodes when things are wrapping up that you begin to see all the false plot twists and unlikelihoods and the ultimate shallowness of these characters reveals itself more plainly. Shallowness on its own isn't a negative, but if the show doesn't realize they're shallow and thinks it's been treading in substance this entire time...then there's a bit of a problem.

Grade: B-

Thoughts on the Emmy noms

Well, that was a depressing morning. The total lack of love for Arrested Development, plus the the acclaim for the overrated House of Cards, and the continuing inexplicable Downton Abbey support. All the movie/miniseries nominations for Top of the Lake was my only saving grace this morning. Let's go through it, piece by piece. 

• I cannot believe Will Arnett and Jessica Walter were snubbed. I promised to throw a hissy fit if that happened, and I did when I did not see Arnett's name. They should have been locks to WIN, much less be nominated. I'm happy for Jason Bateman, but considering that AD was totally shut out elsewhere, it makes me think they just circled his name out of recognition. SO lame. The biggest disappointment of the day. I mean, how the hell did Jane Lynch make a comeback in Supporting Actress over Jessica Walter?

• Why on earth do the Emmys love Downton Abbey so much? It's a period soap opera and once again they have showered nods on some very undeserving people. Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter and Michelle Dockery again? Really? They just stood there this last season, people. Come on. 

• Amazingly, several of my wildcard wishlist nominations came through- Adam Driver, Tony Hale, and Anna Chlumsky in the comedy supporting categories. Like I said, Driver does stand out on that show, and the Veep cast strengthened its group dynamic this year, so that was a welcome sight.  And Emilia Clarke actually made it in for Game of Thrones (which led the nominations this year with 16!)

• No Tatiana Maslany, like I figured. Sigh. Hopefully she's going to keep pushing as the show goes on, and maybe she'll get some attention from the Golden Globes to make her case next time. Julianna Margulies being knocked out of Lead Actress in a Drama was surprising though, as I thought she and Claire Danes were the only locks here. Kerry Washington getting in is the first nomination for an African-American woman in this category since Cicely Tyson in 1995, so that's good news, but I think the nods here make it pretty easy for Danes to walk away with it again.

• Breaking Bad got writing nominations for the first time ever, knocking out Mad Men completely, and collecting directing, and supporting acting nods for Anna Gunn and Jonathan Banks. Even though Game of Thrones and Homeland remain strong contenders, I was right about it being BB's time. The Series win is theirs to lose.

• It looks like Modern Family will pick up its fourth straight win, with no real competition except for maybe 30 Rock, which had something of a resurgence in nominations for the final season. Despite all the support that Louie has, I still think it'll be hard for that show to win, and Veep looks stronger but still didn't land any writing or directing nods. Girls and The Big Bang Theory remained flat in support with no writing noms, so it looks to me like the alternative for someone who doesn't want Modern Family to win again is probably 30 Rock. 

I'll be making my final winner's predictions in the weeks before the Emmys are handed out on Sep 22nd, so stay tuned.

2013 Emmy Nominations

DRAMA 

Drama Series: 

• Breaking Bad
• Downton Abbey 
• Game of Thrones 
• Homeland 
• House of Cards 
• Mad Men 

 Drama Lead Actor:

• Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) 
• Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) 
• Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom) 
• Jon Hamm (Mad Men) 
• Damien Lewis (Homeland) 
• Kevin Spacey (House of Cards) 

Drama Lead Actress:

• Connie Britton (Nashville) 
• Claire Danes (Homeland) 
• Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) 
• Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel) 
• Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) 
• Kerry Washington (Scandal) 
• Robin Wright (House of Cards) 

Drama Supporting Actor: 

• Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad) 
• Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire) 
• Jim Carter (Downton Abbey) 
• Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) 
• Mandy Patinkin (Homeland) 
• Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) 

Drama Supporting Actress: 

• Morena Baccarin (Homeland)
  
• Christine Baranski (The Good Wife) 
• Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) 
• Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad) 
• Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) 
• Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey) 

COMEDY 

Comedy Series: 

• 30 Rock
• The Big Bang Theory 
• Girls 
• Louie
• Modern Family 
• Veep 

Comedy Lead Actor: 

• Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) 
• Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) 
• Don Cheadle (House of Lies) 
• Louis C.K. (Louie) 
• Matt LeBlanc (Episodes) 
• Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) 

Comedy Lead Actress: 

• Laura Dern (Enlightened) 
• Lena Dunham (Girls) 
• Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie) 
• Tina Fey (30 Rock) 
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) 
• Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation) 

Comedy Supporting Actor: 

• Ty Burrell (Modern Family) 
• Adam Driver (Girls) 
• Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family) 
• Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live) 
• Tony Hale (Veep) 
• Ed O'Neil (Modern Family) 

Comedy Supporting Actress: 

• Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory) 
• Julie Bowen (Modern Family) 
• Anna Chlumsky (Veep) 
• Jane Krakowski (30 Rock) 
• Jane Lynch (Glee) 
• Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) 
• Merritt Weaver (Nurse Jackie) 

TV MOVIE/MINISERIES 

TV Movie/Miniseries: 

• American Horror Story: Asylum
• Behind the Candelabra 
• The Bible 
• Phil Spector 
• Political Animals 
• Top of the Lake 

TV Movie/Mini Lead Actor: 

• Benedict Cumberbatch (Parade's End) 
• Matt Damon (Behind the Candelabra) 
• Michael Douglas (Behind the Candelabra) 
• Toby Jones (The Girl) 
• Al Pacino (Phil Spector) 

 TV Movie/Mini Lead Actress:

• Jessica Lange (American Horror Story: Asylum) 
• Laura Linney (The Big C: Hereafter) 
• Helen Mirren (Phil Spector)
  
• Elisabeth Moss (Top of the Lake) 
• Sigourney Weaver (Political Animals) 

TV Movie/Mini Supporting Actor: 

• Scott Bakula (Behind the Candelabra) 
• James Cromwell (American Horror Story: Asylum) 
• John Benjamin Hickey (The Big C: Hereafter) 
• Peter Mullan (Top of the Lake) 
• Zachary Quinto (American Horror Story: Asylum) 

TV Movie/Mini Supporting Actress: 

• Ellen Burstyn (Political Animals) 
• Sarah Paulsen (American Horror Story: Asylum) 
• Charlotte Rampling (Restless) 
• Imelda Staunton (The Girl) 
• Alfre Woodard (Steel Magnolias) 

VARIETY 

Variety Series: 

• The Colbert Report
• The Daily Show 
• Jimmy Kimmel Live 
• Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 
• Real Time With Bill Maher 
• Saturday Night Live 

RECAP: The Newsroom 2x01 "First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All the Lawyers"

So, tonight marks the return of Aaron Sorkin's much criticized The Newsroom, as many wondered if he would respond to all the complaints and critiques the show received in its first season. Well, I would say based on the first episode, the answer is...maybe. Somewhat, even. But it's more or less the same show.

To me, that's not such a bad thing- I always thought that while some of the criticism was accurate, a lot of it was overblown. Watching an Aaron Sorkin show, you're always going to be subjected to a certain amount of preachiness, smugness, and speechifying that is clearly Sorkin using characters as mouthpieces for the thoughts that he wants projected onto the world, and that's no different from any writer with a very strong and unique voice, like Quentin Tarantino or even Billy Wilder (not to go back too far). And Sorkin is so talented and holds such an ear for snappy, intellectual dialogue that a lot of times I could just listen to it for hours (I'm such a Sorkin-ite I even watched all of Studio 60). On top of that, I'm also a political junkie with a lot of the same opinions as him, so complaints that this show was like a fictional MSNBC station, kinda didn't bother me at all, although I can understand others thinking it was too much. I mostly found it amusing- and I think the real reason for all the annoyance was the decision to base the storylines on actual political events from the recent past, rather than setting it in a fictional universe, ala The West Wing.

The only things that did bother me about the first season, Sorkin seems to have made some attempt to correct, at least in the premiere. Last season there was a tendency to make most of the female characters into bumbling idiots who were bad at their jobs and needed the men to correct them in their foolish ways- and tonight we get to see News Night producer Mackenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer) in an extended sequence where she fixes an audio and sound problem on the show at the last minute, and pretty much all on her own too, so good for her! We'll get to see in future episodes how poor Maggie fares on the "stupid" front, seeing how she wasn't spotlighted much tonight and was probably the worst victim of that offense all last year. And the romantic triangle between Don, Jim and Maggie last season was handled very clumsily and dragged on for way too long with nothing much happening at all as far as developing it, and so thank god- tonight it looks like it's finally over, as Don swiftly and efficiently breaks up with Maggie at the end of the episode and they agree to move on.

As for what else went on tonight...well, it looks like we're set in August 2011 at the moment, with the fall of Gaddafi in Libya and the beginnings of the Occupy Wall Street movement the current hot topics being approached for news coverage. Jim starts the episode spurned by Maggie and tells Mackenzie he wants to go cover the Romney campaign in New Hampshire, but the Romney peeps are not happy to see him and won't even let him on the bus when he gets there, due to the uproar that has ensued since the finale of last season when our hero Will McAvoy called the Tea Party the "American Taliban" on the air. This has sparked a major backlash from Republicans in Congress, which has Leona Lansing (Jane Fonda, who IS a kickass woman on the show, but come on, how are you going to have her on and make her weak?) and her son Reese upset and blocked from access to congressional lobbying. So Charlie decides he has to ban Will from the 9/11 anniversary coverage, which a chastened Will agrees to, and then proceeds to make himself look tough on terror by taking the pro-drone strikes position in an on-air debate over the controversial foreign policy, upsetting both Mac and Sloan.

Speaking of Sloan, Olivia Munn was the sole woman in the newsroom last season who was allowed to be savvy and smart at work, so it's a little disconcerting that she now seems to be pining and quivering over Don while in the office, but I'll give it some time before attacking that new aspect of her character. Neal (Dev Patel) is already on the bandwagon with Occupy Wall Street, which Mac doubts is even news yet and sends him to a meeting to find out. This gives Aaron Sorkin a chance to make fun of the Occupiers for their hand signs and lack of leaders, as Neal lectures one of them over everything that's wrong with their movement, conveniently before it ever even starts- the one instance in this episode of the "benefit of hindsight" complaint launched at the show last year for characters knowing all kinds of things about news events the second they happened and sometimes even before, which is obviously impossible, and yet for me it was another thing that was kind of just amusing to watch, knowing how ridiculous it was.

The episode starts and ends with what looks to be the framing device of the season- a deposition all of the News Night employees are involved in, where lawyer Marcia Gay Harden is questioning everyone about their coverage of "Operation Genoa," which we don't know much about yet, but is apparently a black ops scandal that has them in trouble with the Department of Defense. And here is where the show would REALLY benefit from being set in a fictional universe. Whatever this scandal is, obviously it's made up- but the show revolves around news stories that actually did take place, so it's going to keep hitting that disconnect, no matter how interesting or intriguing this story may turn out. In fact, a fictional universe with parallel topical plots would fix an awful lot of the criticisms, but that ship has sailed, which is why The Newsroom remains more or less, the same show as last season. But for me, Aaron Sorkin dialogue combined with good actors and politics talk of any kind hits my sweet spot, so even if it's a bit of a guilty pleasure (it's no West Wing) I'm with this thing all the way. Until next week, everyone!