TEASER: Homeland Season 3

It's not much of a teaser really, but of all the voices you hear, it's an awful lot of Brody, so if anyone was worried about him not coming back to the show this season, this should ease your fears.

Speaking of Homeland ( and this is somewhat spoiler-y), the cast and producers recently appeared at the TCA press tour, and showrunner Alex Gansa stated that there WILL be more focus on Brody's family, even with his limited screen time in the beginning of the season. Another journalist noted that Dana is very important to the season, after having seen the first two episodes- and can I just say, I don't know what the writers are smoking that makes them think people want to see more Dana, but if I have to see her off on her own separate subplots throughout this entire season (and without any Brody to make up for it) I may have to throw in the towel. That is a very BAD idea, Homeland writers. I'll take anything, I'd rather have more Chris stories if it means less Dana, just please, do not force her to be on my TV screen any more than she has to.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: this kid is the worst character combined with the worst actress I've seen on TV in a long, long time. She's a dead weight around this show's neck, far worse than any over the top plot developments, and she's sucking the life out of the show with all the screen time she gets. The apparent love for her in the writer's room is completely inexplicable. Please get rid of her. 

RECAP: The Newsroom 2x03 "Willie Pete"

This episode picks up the pace a bit, as we start off with a very Keith Olbermann-esque rant from our man Will at the news desk, replaying that infamous clip from one of the GOP debates in 2011 when a gay soldier asked the candidates what they would do to help improve the lives of gays and lesbians in the military, and the audience booed the service member with no reprimand from the stage. Will is of course outraged and offended, as many were by the ever increasing sideshow those debates had become at that point- but it serves to remember that these were (and are) the kinds of people that Republicans need to vote for them, which explains a lot about how that party has degenerated over the last decade.

Will and Mac are starting to flirt again tonight, with Mac continuing to bug him about what he said in that voicemail he left her last season on the night Bin Laden was killed (and while he was high). He won't tell her of course, and insists that he hasn't let go of his hurt from her affair with her ex-boyfriend while they were together, but we the audience finally get to find out, because Nina Howard is back in the picture! Excuse me for getting excited, but I really liked Hope Davis on the show last year, and tonight she returns, as Will meets with the gossip reporter to find out how she has apparently gotten the information that he did not in fact, have the flu on the 9/11 anniversary coverage. He hilariously sets up a faux "date" to tell her the truth in the nicest way possible and hope that she won't run the story and much to his surprise, it works and she agrees not to. She also seems to find him charming now and apparently has since last year's New Year's Eve party where she threw her drink in his face. Will jumps at the chance to ask her out, but she refuses because she thinks he's still in love with Mac..since it turns out that IS what he said to her on the voicemail, and Nina did actually listen to the whole thing. By the end of the episode, Mac calls Nina to find out what Will said on the tape, but she lies and tells her she can't remember....and in the least surprising reveal of all time, turns out to be in Will's apartment, gasp, seemingly post sex. Ok, so I kinda like these two together, but I do seem to remember a pretty high level of hostility between them all last season, that ended with Will insulting her, her job, and her life in pretty spectacular fashion- and that all seems to be brushed away like that in just one episode. I can only assume it's because the show likes Hope Davis as much as I do and wants her to stick around a bit longer, so- yeah, I guess I'm okay with it.

Meanwhile, on the Romney campaign bus, Jim is having a hellish time and most of his scenes are of him asking questions about Romney's uber-vague policies and flip flopping positions, while continually being spurned with talking points from the indifferent Romney spokespeople (which now includes Constance Zimmer from House of Cards and numerous other TV shows), but most of his scenes tonight were old hat to me. I guess because the last thing I want or need is to be reminded of what a shitty candidate Romney was- I like to forget a dark time and move on as quickly as possible (I was never one for reliving the Sarah Palin farce in TV movies either). But there is a major development near the end of the ep, as Jim does make friends with Hallie, who is disillusioned by covering political campaigns as well, and gives a big rousing speech on the bus to all the reporters about standing up for themselves and banding together to demand real answers to their questions...only to be roundly kicked off the bus in the middle of the night with Hallie and one other straggler, left on the street to fend for themselves, which is pretty great.

In the many sideplots that are being woven together better and better lately, we go back and forth in the interactions between office staff. One is Don and Sloan, who have a couple of funny scenes together that serve mainly to establish Don's jealousy at Sloan having gone on a date with a book agent who invited her to a wedding ("book agents beat their wives" is a fun fact we learn tonight from him), and Neal and Mac have another debate about OWS, where Neal finally gets to land a blow with his shot that Mac's mockery is easily dished out due to her being of the 1% status the Occupiers are against.

Meanwhile, Maggie is again more comic relief (I thought she was already gone to Africa but I guess not), dealing with the side effects of the wrong pills she's taking for the impending trip, and Will goes barreling around the office, yelling at people over the person who leaked his non-flu status to Nina Howard. Turns out though, that it was Reese Lansing himself who did the leaking, in a retaliatory act over Charlie and Will's blackmailing of him and Leona last season, when they'd recorded him confessing to phone hacking. This little subplot seems to have been completely dropped however, when it's discovered either Charlie or Will has accidentally deleted the recording and no longer hold the leverage over them- but I think Leona and Reese have become less antagonistic forces this season, so the storyline itself is no longer useful (again no Jane Fonda tonight- again, boo.)

Finally, the Operation Genoa story keeps plugging along. Jerry and Mac meet with the soldier who tells them white phosphorous gas was used on civilians in the mission, and while Mac and Charlie are still skeptical, they allow Jerry to pursue it, and the episode ends with them finding tweets from the Pakistani area at the time of the raid that appear to refer to the gas as "willie pete" and indicate more confirmation of the story.

A good episode tonight, ratcheting up a lot of momentum and giving nearly everyone something interesting to do. I personally want to see more Don and Sloan, who continue to be awesome (especially Sloan) and cute together- I think that's the only relationship I'm actually interested in, although Will and Nina is sure to cause some conflict in the coming weeks. And I love the way Mac is being portrayed this year, at the center of everyone's research in some way and totally efficient, while still holding that light comedic touch on the material- Emily Mortimer has been great so far. Keep it up guys! Until next week.

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.

 

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.

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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.

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-

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