Yay! The teaser for the new season of Orphan Black shows us the new boy clones that were introduced in the finale last year. The show comes back on April 18th- I can't wait.
REVIEW: "Transparent" Season 1
Jill Solloway's Transparent is one of the very best new shows of the year, and Amazon's first real breakthrough series in the attempt to compete with its rival Netflix in terms of original programming. It's a family drama that's heartfelt, funny, moving and cynical all at the same time, and though it may share some characteristics of a show like Girls in the way some of its characters are annoyingly self-involved, at its center it boasts a real, unbreakable family connection, no matter how screwed up the members are, and that's the emotional hook that draws you in.
The great Jeffery Tambor stars as Mort Pfefferman, a 70-year-old father of three who's undergoing a brand new experience in life- he's becoming a woman. Or more accurately, he's finally fulfilling his wish to live as Maura, the woman that he really is and feels he has been all his life. This is a fine line to walk in a comedy-drama series, and it could have easily been a premise exploited for cheap laughs, but the feelings and experience here are very real and Maura's crisis is handled in a sensitive and genuine manner. Through the first half of the season she must deal with coming out to her three grown children, all of whom are mostly selfish narcissists in their own way, but all of whom also may have inherited this unflattering quality from two deeply flawed parents, which is occasionally explored in flashbacks to their childhood throughout the season as well.
The thirtysomething kids are perfectly cast, starting with Amy Landecker as the oldest, Sarah, a married mother of two who's dealing with her own bisexuality and engaged in a passionate affair with old college flame Tammy (a hilarious Melora Hardin, funny because she's playing it perfectly straight). Landecker is openly expressive about her doubts, feelings and confusion, yet so believable in her relationships with her siblings, father and children- she holds the screen so well I could watch her in anything. Jay Duplass is the angst-ridden brother Josh, a successful music producer and womanizer who seems to be in control, yet has a desperate longing to marry and/or have children with any new woman he meets- a desire borne out of his own troubled sexual history involving a longstanding inappropriate relationship with the much older woman who used to babysit him as a kid.
Finally, Gaby Hoffmann is the youngest, and she has the largest supporting role and the most difficult, as the seemingly straight Ali who Maura identifies with most, recognizing his own gender confusion in her tomboyish nature and complete ignorance of what she wants in her personal life, in a romantic partner, in a job, etc. That's a tough part to play, but as the show goes on I warmed up to Ali the most, as her inner struggles are revealed bit by bit, culminating in a beautiful late season episode told entirely in flashbacks that explains Mort's disappearance one weekend on the date of Ali's canceled Bat Mitzvah, and parallels the demons that have been plaguing Mort for years and that formed the basis for his kid's inability to function as adults themselves.
There's no show on television (or the internet I guess) that deals so perfectly with the fluidity and confusion of issues like gender identity, sexuality and relationships, and the fact that every character is compelling and interesting in the way their stories are explored and told is a triumph of episodic writing. The fact that it's funny on top of it is even more of an accomplishment. There are bits to complain about (I wasn't the biggest fan of Judith Light as the cartoonish Shelly, Mort's ex-wife and the kid's mom at first, but even her story is illuminated, and she becomes humanized by the season's end), but the acting is so great, the chemistry between the cast is immediately realized (you believe these people are family no matter how damaged they are), and I am effortlessly drawn into every family member's subplots, and interactions with the other characters. Even the guest actors who come in are instantly at home in the ensemble, including Bradley Whitford as a cross-dressing buddy of Mort's in the 1990's, Kathryn Hahn as the female rabbi Josh falls in love with, and Carrie Brownstein as Ali's best friend and secret admirer. The secrets and hidden emotions that are exposed and carefully peeled back layer by layer make this one of the most complex, emotional and intelligent shows on TV. I couldn't recommend it highly enough.
Grade: A
RECAP: SNL 12/13 "Martin Freeman"
An episode tonight marked by the highlight of the impossibly charming Martin Freeman trying as hard as possible...with C-level material at best. Sigh. To be quite honest, after an aggressively painful episode like last week's, it's kind of a relief when "only" lame skits are the majority and not god awful experiences like last week's entirety.
COLD OPEN: Taran opens the show as Charlie Rose interviewing Bobby and Kyle as the two "architects" of the Bush torture program- it's lame and stupid. You know, in political skits it probably helps to have some semblance of an edge or even a point to make, don't you think? Not just hey, let's mock the torture guys for being "bad consultants."
MONOLOGUE: Martin Freeman of The Hobbit, the original (and best) Office, and Sherlock, comes out and endearingly mugs for the camera and makes self-deprecating jokes about British celebs all knowing each other, as well as William and Kate of course. It's cute and because he's so appealing it's the best thing of the night.
SUMP'N CLAUS: A pre-taped song bit about Kenan as alternate Santa, who gives out cash to the naughties for Christmas. Not exactly hilarious, but sorta amusing?
WEDDING: Martin is marrying Leslie and everyone in the cast has objections to the mismatched pair. Another one that's completely mild. Could have been funny, but there aren't any actual jokes to these objections, so again it just kinda sits there. But Martin sells it.
OFFICE HOBBIT: What starts out promising (Hobbit and LOTR characters in The Office setting) goes into a total misfire because instead of making jokes about the Hobbit characters, they decide to simply duplicate the exact (and I mean verbatim) greatest hits jokes of Ricky Gervais' Office, but said by Gandalf and Bilbo instead. I don't know why they took that approach- this could have actually been really funny if they'd gone in the opposite direction and used the actual characters they were working with and not just the costumes. You'd think that'd be obvious, but the writers are that blind to what's actually funny I guess.
MORNING SHOW: Taran and Cecily are talk show hosts that are a married couple, but Taran's obviously gay, so the jokes are all about his naughty sexual side. It's pretty tame. They also make fun of morning shows for constantly "teasing" segments. I do think Taran & Cecily have some decent chemistry here, maybe it could become something.
ST. JOSEPH'S CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR: Ok, I kinda liked this one. A pre-taped bit making fun of church traditions, which does seem to hit the mark. It even has a couple of good lines in it.
UPDATE: As per usual, some lame jokes from the terrible Colin and Michael, guests are Sasheer objecting to the lack of diversity in emojis, Cecily as the "one-dimensional female character in a movie role" (she really can't structure her jokes well), and Vanessa's Bar Mitzah boy again, presumably because they can't think of anything else and Jacob always works. He should have been retired by now, guys.
ASSEMBLY LINE: Random quick one with Martin showing nervous factory hire Taran how to work the assembly line. So insubstantial I forgot I watched it in about eight seconds.
TREE LODGE: A lazy one with Kenan doing a variation on his old What's Up With That skit, complete with musical interruptions and all. I'd have preferred to see that old one if this was all they had here.
WATERBED WAREHOUSE: Martin doing a local ad for waterbeds with wife Aidy selling herself as the star of the ad. If you like Aidy maybe you'll like this one, but as you know I don't, so it doesn't do anything for me.
So there you go. Why on earth did they not do a Sherlock sketch? Isn't that the really obvious choice? Otherwise, Martin is likable and morphs into any role that's asked of him- I could easily see him hosting a classic sketch show episode of something that had great material, but alas, that is not SNL. I give tonight a C-, but it was better than last week. Next up it's Amy Adams hosting for the second time before the winter break. Let's see if the Christmas episode can manage to give us something memorable for a change. I'll pretend to be optimistic since it's the season of perpetual hope and all. See you then!
TRAILER: "Broadchurch" Series 2
Detectives Miller and Hardy are back! Broadchurch was one of my favorite shows of last year and is returning for it's second season nearly two years after the first one ended. I didn't even know this was coming back so soon, and even though David Tennant is also currently starring in the American version, Gracepoint, he's back in this one to resume his partnership with Olivia Colman for what looks like a new mystery in the same town. I can't wait. It's coming back January 5th on ITV in the UK.
New Shows Nodded by the Globes include 'Transparent,' 'The Affair,' 'The Missing'
The TV nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press are always a bit of a joke, because it's sometimes hard to tell if these people even watch much television or not. They seat the TV actors way in the back and seem to mostly try their hardest to keep up with which new shows have "buzz" this year more than anything else. The new stuff they liked (or at least took note of) this time were Showtime's The Affair, Amazon's Transparent and Starz's The Missing, all of which are actually really good, so I'm happy to see them recognized, along with many returning favorites- for some reason, the HFPA is the one organization that refuses to let go of Girls, but let's face it, it's gotta be time to pull the plug on that one, right? Please?
TV Drama
The Affair
Downton Abbey
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
House of Cards
Best TV Comedy
Girls
Jane the Virgin
Orange is the New Black
Silicon Valley
Transparent
Best TV Miniseries or Movie
Fargo
The Missing
True Detective
The Normal Heart
Olive Kitteridge
Best Actress – TV Comedy or Musical
Lena Dunham – Girls
Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie
Gina Rodriguez – Jane the Virgin
Julia Louis Dreyfuss – Veep
Taylor Schilling - Orange is the New Black
Best Actor – TV Comedy
Don Cheadle – House of Lies
Ricky Gervais – Derek
Jeffrey Tambor – Transparent
Louis C.K. – Louie
William H. Macy – Shameless
Best Performance by an Actress – TV Drama
Claire Danes – Homeland
Viola Davis – How to Get Away with Murder
Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife
Ruth Wilson – The Affair
Robin Wright – House of Cards
Best Actor in a TV Drama
Clive Owen - The Knick
Live Schreiber - Ray Donovan
Kevin Spacey - House of Cards
James Spader - The Black List
Dominic West - The Affair
Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie
Maggie Gyllenhaal - The Honorable Woman
Jessica Lange - American Horror Story: Freak Show
Frances McDormand - Olive Kitteridge
Frances O’Connor - The Missing
Allison Tolman - Fargo
Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie
Martin Freeman - Fargo
Woody Harrelson - True Detective
Matthew McConaughey - True Detective
Mark Ruffalo - The Normal Heart
Billy Bob Thornton - Fargo
Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or TV Movie
Uzo Aduba – Orange is the New Black
Kathy Bates – AHS: Freak Show
Joanne Froggat – Downton Abbey
Allison Janney – Mom
Michelle Monaghan – True Detective
Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or TV Movie
Matt Bomer - The Normal Heart
Colin Hanks - Fargo
Alan Cumming - The Good Wife
Bill Murray - Olive Kitteridge
Jon Voight - Ray Donovan
I would expect True Detective and Fargo to likely pull off some wins, although the big movie star power of Bill Murray and Frances McDormand in Olive Kitteridge could give it some competition, especially since it seems like "old news" at this point. If there's anything the Globes hate, it's being labeled old news or behind the curve, so they may actually embrace a show like The Missing (below- which is set in Europe, another appealing factor to Globes voters). I also think Jeffrey Tambor has got to walk away with the award for Lead Actor in a TV Comedy for Transparent- he's great and he's Jeffrey Tambor. That one is probably the only flat out guarantee of these nominees.
2014 SAG TV Nominations
Almost forgot these happened today too, but the Screen Actors Guild also bestows nominations for television. A good morning overall for Benedict Cumberbatch, who got three nominations in one day after being nodded for Sherlock here too. These are mostly the same old contenders, but I am glad to see a couple of final nominations for Boardwalk Empire and Steve Buscemi, along with Tatiana Maslany (!!!).
BEST TV DRAMA ENSEMBLE
"Boardwalk Empire"
"Downton Abbey"
"Game of Thrones"
"Homeland"
"House of Cards"
BEST TV DRAMA ACTOR
Steve Buscemi, "Boardwalk Empire"
Peter Dinklage, "Game of Thrones"
Woody Harrelson, "True Detective"
Matthew McConaughey, "True Detective"
Kevin Spacey, "House of Cards"
BEST TV DRAMA ACTRESS
Claire Danes, "Homeland"
Viola Davis, "How to Get Away with Murder"
Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife"
Tatiana Maslany, "Orphan Black"
Maggie Smith, "Downton Abbey"
Robin Wright, "House of Cards"
BEST TV COMEDY ENSEMBLE
"The Big Bang Theory"
"Brooklyn Nine-Nine"
"Modern Family"
"Orange is the New Black"
"Veep"
BEST TV COMEDY ACTOR
Ty Burrell, "Modern Family"
Louis C.K.", "Louie"
William H. Macy, "Shamless"
Jim Parsons, "The Big Bang Theory"
Eric Stonestreet, "Modern Family"
BEST TV COMEDY ACTRESS
Uzo Aduba, "Orange is the New Black"
Julie Bowen, "Modern Family"
Edie Falco, "Nurse Jackie"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Veep"
Amy Poehler, "Parks and Recreation"
BEST TV MOVIE/MINI ACTOR
Adrien Brody, "Houdini"
Bendict Cumberbatch, "Sherlock: His Last Vow"
Richard Jenkins, "Olive Kittredge"
Mark Ruffalo, "The Normal Heart"
Billy Bob Thornton, "Fargo"
BEST TV MOVIE/MINI ACTRESS
Ellen Burstyn, "Flowers in the Attic"
Maggie Gyllenhaal, "The Honourable Woman"
Frances McDormand, "Olive Kittredge"
Julia Roberts, "The Normal Heart"
Cicely Tyson, "The Trip to Bountiful"
AFI Top 10 TV Shows of 2014
AFI's top ten list for the year includes three shows that will be high on my own top ten, Transparent, The Knick, and Orange is the New Black, so yay for those! Also, good on the AFI for not ditching Mad Men, which is still one of the very best shows on television, deep into its run as it may be.
- THE AMERICANS
- FARGO
- GAME OF THRONES
- HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER
- JANE THE VIRGIN
- THE KNICK
- MAD MEN
- ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
- SILICON VALLEY
- TRANSPARENT
RECAP: SNL 12/06 "James Franco"
Congratulations SNL. You made me dish out the very first F I've ever given you guys. No more passes, people. The writing sucks, the sketches are awful, and this was a painful prison sentence to sit through tonight. You need to do some serious work.
COLD OPEN: Kenan is Al Sharpton on MSNBC to cover the Eric Garner grand jury decision, but it's not as funny as usual (or maybe only the first time ever he did it). It's actually pretty boring, and the one joke, that Al Sharpton can't read a teleprompter, has gotten stale.
MONOLOGUE: James Franco (with a newly shaved head) does a very short bit about the Sony hacking, and buddy Seth Rogen comes out to join him in making fun of their leaked 'nude photos' together. Meh. What's weird is how short the monologue is here.
PETER PAN: God. Awful. What should have been a super easy parody of NBC's weak Peter Pan Live production turns into a bit for Unfunny Aidy's 'Tonker Bell' character, which has never made anyone laugh, ever. Add to that James's pretty bad Christopher Walken impression and this is a dire sketch indeed.
STAR WARS: A spoof of the new Star Wars teaser, but it basically makes fun of the fact that the original characters are all old now, with Taran's Harrison Ford showcased. It's mediocre but short at least.
MTV JINGLE BALLERZ: A skit for celebrity impressions doing Christmas raps, basically. No one's particularly impressive in this, but the worst part is that we only get five seconds of Kate's awesome Justin Bieber. How do the people running this show not value her more, and seem unable to recognize her best stuff? That continues to baffle me.
GROW A GUY: A pre-taped bit from Mike O'Brien of all people (who was demoted from cast member to writer only last year), who comes back to do an odd sketch about a guy with no friends who grows a pod person (James). I don't know. I didn't laugh really, but I've never gotten his humor.
TROLL: Wow. Seriously one of the worst sketches I think the show has ever done. I don't even know what to say about it. James is a troll under a bridge and Cecily is his weird old lady friend- this thing is just dead in the water and it goes on SO long! WTF? How the hell did this get into the top of the show?
UPDATE: Another cringeworthy Update from the wonderless and chemistry free duo that is Colin and Michael. They go on for quite a bit with a rant over the Garner decision, but it's extremely awkward with the non-rapport between the two guys (especially over an issue like this). And frankly, the audience wasn't having it either, remaining noticeably quiet during this thing. As for guests, Bobby's Anthony comes back for secondhand news (a couple good lines), but Leslie Jones is also back for more stand-up (which I simply can't stand). Then Nicky Minaj comes on as Kim Kardashian but the punchlines are horrible. Damn. What a disaster this show has become.
JEREMY'S BRAIN: A sketch about clearing old thoughts out of 20 year old Pete's brain- which means this is nothing but a setup for 1990's nostalgia. They do realize when they do this that there's no actual joke about these references, right? We all remember them, but what's supposed to be funny about it?
SMALL TOWN MAYOR: A political ad that has James running against a 4-year-old mayor and yelling at the TV. I'm in such a bad mood at this point that I can't even foster much interest. It's lame.
PORN STARS: So, ordinarily this would be one of the better things of any show, but this one has gotten to the point where's they've overused it. I liked it at first, but now it's totally predictable and repetitive. Time to retire it, guys.
Well, that was a chore. The sketches were both bad and painful tonight, so I've got to give it an F. I'm pretty sure that's the first one I've ever bestowed, despite how terrible some of the recent episodes have been, but this show is in utter crisis mode right now. And frankly, the fact that Update is so bad is making everything worse- even in the Seth Meyers years, the center of the show could more or less be counted on to deliver, but when it's this far gone it's time to retool. Try Beck Bennett out, Lorne. Please, give him a shot. He seems suited to it, you can certainly afford to lose him in the sketches, and I have a hard time imagining he'd be worse than what you've got now. Come back next week for Martin Freeman's first hosting stint (with an appearance from Cumberbatch, perhaps?). See you then.
2014 WGA TV Nominations
The Writer's Guild follows suit with the producer's guild in announcing their nominees for TV writing this past year. I'm excited to see several of my new favorite shows (Transparent, Last Week Tonight, The Knick, Rectify) make it in here, along with a couple of nominations for Boardwalk Empire's excellent final season:
DRAMA SERIES:
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
House of Cards
Mad Men
True Detective
EPISODIC DRAMA:
"A Day's Work" - Mad Men
"Devil You Know" - Boardwalk Empire
"Donald the Normal" - Rectify
"Friendless Child" - Boardwalk Empire
"The Last Call" - The Good Wife
"The Lion and the Rose" - Game of Thrones
COMEDY SERIES:
Louie
Orange Is the New Black
Silicon Valley
Transparent
Veep
EPISODIC COMEDY:
"The Cold" - Modern Family
"Landline" - New Girl
"Low Self Esteem City" - Orange Is the New Black
"So Did the Fat Lady" - Louie
"Three Dinners" - Modern Family
"The Wilderness" - Transparent
NEW SERIES:
The Affair
The Knick
Silicon Valley
Transparent
True Detective
COMEDY/VARIETY SERIES:
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Inside Amy Schumer
The Colbert Report
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Saturday Night Live
Real Time with Bill Maher
REVIEW: "Boardwalk Empire" Season 5
Fans of Boardwalk Empire who were committed enough to stick with it until the end should be happy that their devotion paid off in spades. The show always had a knack for wrapping things up in satisfying fashion during each individual year- it only makes sense that this would be a handy talent for a final, truncated season of just eight episodes that took its time to give meaningful ends for almost every one of the characters that viewers have followed for five years now.
The approach in this final year was to go at it Godfather II-style, meaning of course that the present day storylines were intercut with the rise of young Nucky in the late 1800's, from poverty to power, wealth and control. It played out a bit slow at first, but as with all Boardwalk seasons, the setup led to an inevitable and dramatic payoff, where after it's over you can think back to and recognize all the pieces that were so carefully put in place for the final showdown. The casting was especially brilliant for this particular part of the story- in flashbacks, Nolan Lyons plays adolescent Nucky with appropriate wide eyed ambition, but then Marc Pickering as young man Nucky is so spot on mimicking Steve Buscemi's voice and mannerisms (no easy feat) that I became entirely involved in the backstory and completely believed that he simply was the Nucky Thompson I've grown so used to all these years. Young versions of Dabney Coleman's Commodore and Gretchen Mol's Gillian were also inspired and utterly believable characters, which fueled the drama of Thompson's early life, as it informed the present.
In the present, eight years had passed since the last season, which unfortunately necessitated some early and offscreen deaths of fan favorite historical characters (we hardly knew ye, Arnold Rothstein), but Terence Winter made sure that certain others, like Michael Shannon's crazed Nelson Van Alden and Michael Kenneth Williams' doomed Chalky White, received satisfying and very final sendoffs. Van Alden's run as a hired goon for Al Capone could only have ended badly for him, as you'd expect, but the show finally made the most use they ever have out of Michael Shannon's particularly nutty sense of humor and cynicism, which actually led to this being one of the funniest and most entertaining arcs Boardwalk has ever done.
Capone himself also played out his date with history, leading the excellent Stephen Graham (who seriously could have starred in his own spinoff show all about Capone) to revel in the alternately horrifying, comedic, violent and drug fueled nature of one of America's most famous gangsters as we meet up with him at the height of his powers, before he's brought down by the feds for tax evasion. Other storylines followed Lucky Luciano as he fulfilled his own rise to power with associate Meyer Lansky, and the sturdy Kelly MacDonald's Margaret finally came into her own as a scheming and cheating Wall Street broker who shares a final farewell with her husband to put closure on a relationship left lingering in a kind of limbo for the past couple of years.
Performances were excellent as always, but the way Boardwalk Empire played itself out in such style and commitment to the truth of the characters made me sad that it had to end here, as there was clearly story enough for at least two more seasons (what I wouldn't give to see more shenanigans with Van Alden and Eli as the bumbling Capone cronies, or Margaret's dealings with the late Rothstein that apparently turned her into such a high class crook). But they did the best they could with what they were given, and their best was good enough to place the show in the pantheon of HBO series that will hopefully live on for years, because as underrated as it was for most of its run, Boardwalk Empire remained a damn good show until the very end. I'm just glad I got to be one of the few who stuck with it.
Grade: A
