I'm not sure I'd want to meet the people who'd be excited by this, but Variety is reporting that Netflix is reviving Full House for a new, 13-episode season called Fuller House, set to star Candace Cameron as DJ and Andrea Barber as her best pal Kimmy. Original stars Bob Saget, John Stamos and Dave Coulier are being wooed to make guest appearances, and it will be a multicam format, which means bye-bye to that old laugh track. I guess there really is no limit to what can be resurrected these days, but if you're someone who suffers from misplaced nostalgia for that show, you should really go back and give any one episode a second look. It's pretty horrid- and not in a fun, campy Brady Bunch kind of way. It's really, really awful. And I'm somebody who used to watch it and vaguely remember kinda sorta liking it as a kid, but now? Yeah, it's atrocious. I'd only want to watch it if Bob Saget could play his true self, a brutally honest jerk who spends every episode insulting every member of that alien family with the truth about what he really thought of them all those years. Now that'd be good TV.
NBC's Next Live Musical is 'The Wiz'
I kinda thought they'd be done with this after Peter Pan Live! didn't do very well last year, but no, it looks like NBC's keeping the live musical going, this time with The Wiz, which will be broadcast on Dec 3rd and produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who've been producing the Oscar show for the last three years and finally announced they're stepping down from that gig (thankfully). This one might garner more casual interest actually, thanks to the diverse cast and the fact that it's been so long since anyone's seen a production of The Wiz (I have to admit, I've never even seen the 1977 Sidney Lumet movie). Maybe they'll strike ratings gold again with this one like The Sound of Music did in 2013.
Trevor Noah to take over 'The Daily Show'
Big news today, as Comedy Central announced that South African stand-up comedian Trevor Noah will be succeeding Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show. I have really no reaction to this, because I'm not at all familiar with this guy. Apparently he's only made three appearances as contributor to TDS since December, so I'm kind of surprised they chose this much of an unknown. And presumably someone with a lot less interest and/or knowledge of the American political/media system, so my guess is we can expect The Daily Show to now be completely different than Stewart's was (I guess that's not a bad thing, since it will invite less comparison).
Here's his first appearance back in December. What do you guys think?
RECAP: SNL 3/28 "Dwayne Johnson"
Very happy to say tonight that with Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson back to host for the fourth time, it was a pretty good episode that actually makes a case for best of the season. And not just by default either- most of the stuff tonight was genuinely funny, at least through Weekend Update. Mostly because the Rock (I can never think of him as anything else) is such an enthusiastic and charismatic host that he makes even subpar material work somehow.
COLD OPEN: Yay, the Rock Obama is back! We kinda knew it was coming, since this entire concept has been the only angle on Obama the show has ever managed to nail, and since it originally sparked from out host's last appearance, of course they had to do it again. I have to admit, it's more satisfying than it should be to see the Rock Obama throw Taran's John Boehner through a glass window. The Rock takes out his anger on the Republican assholes in Congress while She-Rock Obama makes an appearance when Sasheer's Michelle turns into Leslie. Nice touch!
MONOLOGUE: The Rock comes out and sings a song about how he's "franchise viagra" and name drops a bunch of sequels he could give new life to. It's all right for a singing monologue.
PEP BOYS: An ad that spoofs Starbucks' "race together" campaign by having Pep Boys workers start a gender/identity conversation with customers. Pretty on point, and funny enough.
WRESTLEMANIA PROMOS: The Rock and Bobby tape some promos for wrestling and Rock nails Bobby with personal insults and "psychological" destruction instead. It's actually hilarious, not least because of Rock's energy and how into it he gets by insulting Bobby with accusations of herpes and a secret love child. Love it.
DISNEY'S BAMBI: A spoof of Disney's live action remakes with a trailer for the new Bambi, which re-imagines it as an R-rated action flick with the Fast and Furious cast. Shouldn't work, but it kinda does in spite of itself.
DATE: Rock and Cecily are assholes who crash Kenan and Vanessa's restaurant date. This only works, again due to the Rock's incredible energy and commitment to the pushy jerk he's playing, and Cecily's annoying British bimbo is funny too. I'm in shock by how much of this stuff is actually working tonight, but I'm tempted to give the Rock all of the credit.
ESCAPE FROM JUNGLE ISLAND: An Indiana Jones spoof with Rock as "Dr. Bones," and Pete and Kate as his two sidekicks, but Rock keeps getting hit with poisonous darts in sensitive areas that Pete then has to suck the poison out of. Rock once again, commits 100% and it actually features a laugh out loud moment with Pete for the final payoff, but Kate is funny too as the salivating woman who wants in on the action. Good!
BROGAINE: Quick ad for Brogaine, which helps bald frat guys to grow hair- short but funny (they ought to take the opportunity to really slam frats in general though, with all the recent news they've been making, none of it good).
UPDATE: Colin and Michael do some good political jokes and actually deliver some of their best punchlines tonight, nearly all of them sharp and on point. Nice job guys, I'm tempted to say it's their best ever night of this. Kate comes on and nails it as Olya, the suffering Russian village lady, and then Kenan comes back as poor Willie, the optimistic homeless guy with terrible memories. They're both great, and it's actually too bad that Kenan just recently came up with Willie, because he's pretty awesome and it's unlikely we'll see him again, given that it's Kenan's final season.
COOKING WITH PAUL: Kenan is a chef and sex offender who has his own cooking show, while Rock is his probation officer. This one should be funny, but it doesn't really hit the mark. At least it's quick though.
IMPROV SHOW: For some reason the Rock isn't even in this sketch about an improv group that mocks Robert Durst, who Kate plays in another great bit (boy she's on fire lately, showing more versatility in this episode alone than most of the rest of the cast has all year). But since I didn't watch The Jinx, I kinda don't get the Durst stuff.
POLICE INTERROGATION: Rock and Vanessa interrogate Taran's drug dealer suspect, and Rock is a weirdo who screams non-sequiturs at him. Rock makes it kinda funny, but the punchlines are pretty weak. Only his enthusiasm saves this one.
RINGLING BROS: A Kyle video where he interviews kids visiting the circus- mostly awkward (It's supposed to be) but I guess you get kind of a chuckle out of it.
And that's it for tonight. The Rock was a fantastic host, fits in as seamlessly as a regular cast member, and really brought everything he was in to life. And the material was above average tonight, until it fell off a bit after Update, but hey that's a coup for this show. A really good episode- I'll be extra nice and give it an A-. Next weak it's Michael Keaton, back for the first time in over twenty years, so that should be interesting. See you guys then! I'm liking the run we're having this spring, let's hope it lasts until the end of the season, which is only five episodes away.
REVIEW: "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" Season 1
I'm always happy to find a new comedy that I completely fall in love with, all the more so because it happens so rarely. In the current television landscape that's filled with high quality drama series, it often goes unmentioned that the golden age of television comedy still belongs to bygone eras (particularly the 1970's, filled with sitcoms that still dominate lists of "greatest TV shows" alongside the more current dramas). But I'm thrilled that Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is such a delightful and endearing show that it can be devoured in under two days if you're into binge-watching. Netflix was lucky enough to pick up the Tina Fey/Robert Carlock created series that NBC rejected, and it's all the better for it, since a show this quirky and rooted in a premise this twisted would surely be canceled in three weeks if aired on network television.
It doesn't seem likely that a show based on the rescue of four women kidnapped and held prisoner by a crazy preacher for fifteen years would be the foundation of a whole lot of hilarity, but if anyone can pull it off it's Tina Fey, whose social satire and clever wordplay is as biting and sharp as ever. It also helps that the titular character is played by the adorable and incredibly winning Ellie Kemper, who I've liked ever since she first showed up on the later seasons of NBC's The Office and parlayed her screen presence into a rare bright spot in most of those hit and miss episodes. Since then she's been a bit part scene stealer in comedies like Bridesmaids, 21 Jump Street, and Laggies, but here she's finally found a role she seems to have been born to play, and it's a total star making performance.
Kimmy Schmidt was kidnapped as a 15-year-old by the Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne, and forced to live in an underground bunker for the next decade and a half with three other women, having been told the apocalypse had happened above ground and there was no alternative if they were to survive. Now, after having been finally rescued by the police, it's Kimmy's chance to live a "normal life" as a single gal in the big city (New York, where else?) and she goes about trying to do all the things she's missed out on, like having a job, a boyfriend, an apartment, and a flamboyant black gay roommate (Titus Burgess, a scene stealer himself with some of the very best one liners). It may sound like a dark premise, but the show skirts the boundaries of the issue well, turning Kimmy into a self-determined, unwillingly naive yet eager to learn woman-child who only wants to be as grown up as everyone else, while marveling at the new technologies and societal changes in 2015 America.
The supporting cast is excellent, from Burgess as her hilarious roommate, to Carol Kane as their landlady, and most of all 30 Rock vet Jane Krakowski in a similar role to the one she played on that show as Jacqueline Vorhees, Kimmy's rich employer with a singularly unique backstory of her own. Krakowski is a rock of dependability as a supporting player (I actually wish she was in more episodes), fusing her materialistic narcissism with a sense of actual compassion and affection for Kimmy as the two become fast friends despite their differences. The dialogue is witty and piercing and Kimmy's various big city adventures amusing, until a couple of the later episodes that bring in Tim Blake Nelson as Kimmy's long lost stepdad and spend a little too much time hanging around with him as he surprisingly does not deliver the comedic jabs that the rest of this cast does so well.
Guest stars include Martin Short, Tina Fey and Jon Hamm, who makes the most of his time as the creepy kidnapper Reverend, but even though he is funny, the amount of time spent on resolving the bunker backstory in the final few episodes may be a bit of a misstep, since it veers a little too close to the horrifyingly awful premise. Given that this show was so obviously inspired by the real life horror story of the Ohio women found alive in 2013, mixed with a cult influence so as not to seem overly dark, it's still hard to spend so much time on what went on in the bunker without directly addressing the only reason any man would kidnap three teenage girls and hold them captive for fifteen years in the first place- we all know why Kimmy suffers from nightmares, PTSD and subconsciously attacks Titus in her sleep, but since this is a comedy it's probably best not to dwell on that too much, don't you think?
On the other hand, if the show really wants to go dark (and maybe it does, since it certainly doesn't hide from the scarring event that's shaped Kimmy's life, with regular flashbacks and all) since it was developed originally for NBC, maybe the next season will embrace the lack of censorship restrictions on Netflix and really get into the elephant in the room regarding Kimmy and her three bunkmates' experiences- as it is, the only thing alluded to was the confirmation of "weird sex stuff"- uh huh. So it may go even darker with an un-compromised version of the show in a second season, which would also allow Fey and Carlock to further explore the themes that do recur over the course of this one regarding female strength, empowerment and the ability of women to overcome their tendency to be manipulated by male authority figures.
But even if it doesn't, I'd still be happy to stick with Kimmy's NYC life, her odd couple friendships with Titus and Jacqueline, her romantic mishaps, and far too many gags and punchlines to keep track of within a single episode (I know I missed at least half of them). This is a series I can easily rewatch and probably will before next season rolls around. Ellie Kemper shines brighter than any recent comedy star that I can remember and as a viewer you want to spend as much time with her as possible- a key component in an actor's ability to carry a series. I hope the Emmys are paying attention.
Grade: A-
David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson Back for More 'X-Files'
Big news for TV geeks! Fox has resurrected The X-Files for a brand new, new six-episode season with both stars intact, and creator Chris Carter back to helm it. I guess the success of the 24 revival last year paid off, because the new season will start filming this summer, to be aired at a later release date on its original network. There had been talk for a while about a revival of some sort, perhaps another movie, but with everybody on board, this seems to be the best possible decision, don't you think? Wow, first 24, then Twin Peaks, now X-Files...what other old show do you think could be revived in this new, limited event series format? Any suggestions?
REVIEW: "House of Cards" Season 3
I've never been the biggest fan of House of Cards in the first place, so when this new season can't even clear my, admittedly very low bar, you know there's a problem. And the problem was clear from the very first episode of the season, when we open on the disappointing discovery that Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), the world's most boring character on a show filled with extraneous ones, is still alive, after having been bashed in the head with a rock at the end of the last season, my expectations sunk still further. When we then go on to spend, and I'm not kidding, 90% of the first episode on his slow recovery in the hospital, barely bothering to check in with anyone else on the series, I started getting distracted by the temptation to actually do other things while watching a TV show (something that I never consider doing when I'm binge-ing a season).
Eventually we do get back to the power scheming of Frank and Claire Underwood, but that temptation resurfaced many, many times this season, and that's because so much of it was spent on incredibly dull, obvious time-wasting filler, occasionally checking in with characters no one cares about (and way, way too much time spent watching Doug stare at the walls in his apartment). So, Frank and Claire are in the White House, and that immediately puts a big damper on the entire premise of the show, which is watching them crush every bug in their way in their inevitable rise to power. So, now that they're there, what happens? Well, real world politics happens. Frank has to deal with international crises and the fact that Congress does not roll over for his domestic agenda the way he often forced them to when he was in the legislative branch, while Claire attempts to find some role for herself besides simply being the First Lady, which grows more and more unsatisfying to her over the course of the season.
But here's the thing. None of the actual sausage-making is interesting, at all. Figuring out how to push Frank's "America Works" program (something that resembles nothing no Democrat or Republican would ever propose- how the hell is this man a Democrat?) through Congress is like watching paint dry. Dealing with the Vladimir Putin stand-in Victor Petrov (Lars Mikkelson) as he threatens relations between the U.S. and Russia over a UN peacekeeping mission, asks you to make some completely and utterly ridiculous lapses in logic, especially if you know anything about foreign policy whatsoever (yes, I know this is an alternate universe, but the show takes itself SO seriously that you're essentially asked to believe all this could really happen, and there's just no motherfucking way any of this is plausible). Finally, when Frank has to battle for the primary nomination in the next election against two female candidates it gets kind of interesting again, but that doesn't really kick in until the last few episodes. And to get there we're saddled with a really awful subplot involving a journalist Frank hires to write a book about him, and this guy is played by an unappealing actor named Paul Sparks, who suddenly gets so much screentime and means so much to Frank that you'd think he'd known him since childhood, and the truth is we just. don't. care.
The bright spot of the season is Robin Wright, who finally gets more screentime than she's ever had, while she wrangles her way into becoming Ambassador to the UN, and then proceeds to make a muck of everything she touches, and while it doesn't make a lot of sense for Claire to spend thirty years at Frank's side to only now realize she doesn't want to be the "woman behind the man," at least it gives Wright a chance to shine and be given more emotions to play as she finally decides to leave Frank in the season finale. But really, everything else this year screamed that the season is placeholder only, until everything around Frank comes crashing down, as I assume it's going to, right? I didn't figure that they'd change the ending of the original British miniseries (which this has already lasted longer than) to the point where Frank ultimately wins, but now I'm starting to wonder if the show likes his character too much to want him to face his fate. As entertaining as Kevin Spacey is, I'd like nothing more than for Frank to go down in flames (Claire too for that matter- I don't really care at all about her crisis of conscience, the woman's sanctioned murder and needs to pay), and that's pretty much the only reason I'm still watching at this point. But the truth is, this is by far the most hollow and empty of the original Netflix shows to premiere in the last couple years, and as classy as it looks and feels, at its core there's not a whole lot there. And someone needs to tell me where Beau Willimon took his civics courses, because I honestly think I have a stronger grasp on the American political system and international foreign politics than he does. I can only imagine the howling that goes on in the real White House when they watch this at night.
Grade: C
REVIEW: "Downton Abbey" Season 5
At this point, after all these years, Downton Abbey has become for me, the show that I will watch to the end, simply because I've been doing so for this long already, and when I've invested this much time I've got to make it to the finish line. And this season, like most Downton seasons, had some good moments sprinkled in amidst some very draggy storylines, particularly so this year.
The "big dramatic event" that seems to take place once a season (Mary killing Pamook, Edith's wedding, Matthew's death, Anna's rape), happened this time in the first episode, which was the fire that engulfed Downton and forced everyone out of the house, but frankly, I think the big dramatic event ought to be saved for the middle of the season or closer to the end on this show, because after that early climax, everything else seems a bit of a comedown. Especially because this year in particular seemed to spend a lot of time on dragging out lagging arcs left over from last year, the worst of which was the ongoing saga of the Bates' quest to find (or not find) Anna's rapist, Mr. Green, who may (or may not) have been killed by Mr. Bates at the end of last year.
What made this storyline drag so hard was the fact that neither Anna nor Bates had any idea what really happened to this guy, but wouldn't talk to each other about it, and so spent almost the entire season in non-communicative, what-if glances and worries that frustrated any audience member who really wanted this thing to be over with. With the police on the trail of obviously putting together false evidence that would implicate Anna in his death, you almost wanted them to cut to the chase just so that we could get on with her inevitable arrest and his inevitable sacrifice in order to save her from a fate in prison (a place where no one wanted to see this show go again, if you remember Bates's horribly dull time there in season 3). Funnily enough, some of the other characters are now starting to put together the endless misery of the Bates's and seem to be tiring of it almost as much as we are, so at least the show's aware.
Another annoying story this year was Edith's continuous stalking of the neighbors she gave her illegitimate child to, as she constantly stuck her nose in and attempted to become a godmother, only to eventually, finally kidnap the kid and take off to London, where at long last her indiscretion was finally revealed to the rest of the family (sans Mary of course), and little Marigold taken in as a child "adopted" by Edith to live at Downton with the rest of them, unacknowledged by her mother, even though everyone knows she's really hers. The frustrating part about stories like this is how incredibly simple the resolution becomes, and it feels like a wast of time to have spent seven out of the eight episodes wondering how they will solve this problem, only to have it be solved in the most obvious manner possible. For Edith to just take the kid back to Downton in the end...why couldn't she have done this from day one again?
The brighter parts of this season came from Mary's slightly more salacious storyline, as she becomes more of the adventurous 1920's progressive woman she was always meant to be, getting a makeover and going on a weeklong roll in the hay with suitor Tony Gillingham, which of course makes her tire of him immediately and dump him as a simple conquest. You go girl. And the older actors on the show also provided some more entertaining moments, as Lord Grantham and Cora go through a marital riff while she indulges the flirtations of a handsy art broker, Isobel accepts and then rejects the proposal of a kind widow with two despicable sons, and the Dowager Countess is wooed by a Russian aristocrat and revealed to have a mildly juicy backstory of her own. It was quite a good season for Maggie Smith actually, getting what I'm pretty sure was her most amount of screentime ever and showing what an asset she is to the series as a whole, which probably couldn't survive without her, which is why I'm guessing next season will be the last.
The downstairs cast continued to do their thing, with Daisy's attempts to educate herself still proving as boring and uninteresting as always (seriously, give Daisy a boyfriend or something), but happily this year, my beloved Thomas got quite a bit to do, once they dumped his unnecessary shakedown attempts of newbie Miss Baxter (whose criminal record was exposed), and started using him as the comic relief bad boy that he is. They ought to use him that way as much as possible, since he always delivers on a sarcastic zinger, nearly as reliable as Dame Maggie Smith in that regard. Also happily jettisoned this year was the stupid Miss Bunting, who got the boot after a couple of overtly rude and confrontational lectures at the Downton dinner table, insulting the entire clan (although why they kept inviting her to dinner is a mystery on its own- did they secretly enjoy the outbursts?), and two characters made their exit off the show, as Tom finally made good on his resolve to move to America with his and Sybil's daughter, and Rose married into a Jewish family that at first seems to hate her, but ultimately is won over by her good nature.
I was mostly just okay with the season as it ended, but the supremely enjoyable Christmas special renewed my faith in the series. With all the frustrating ongoing storylines finally over with (no more Bates and Edith drama, woo-hoo!), it was classic Downton that made use of all its best characters in the ensemble and seemed to bring in heartthrob Matthew Goode as yet another suitor for the man-eating Lady Mary (although if Goode's coming on the show, my guess is he's "the one"). I still have to mark this year down in total, because it's probably the season I'd least like to watch over again, but with the Christmas special rejuvenating the series with a lot of squee-worthy moments (Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes got engaged!!!), I'm once more looking forward to the sixth, and presumably last season, which I'm sure will wrap things up for our favorite 1920's pals with at least one adorable old-person wedding, and some final nods to the ever changing days ahead.
Grade: B
TRAILER #2: "Game of Thrones" Season 5
The new trailer for Game of Thrones is action-packed as usual, but I'm really not looking forward to the seemingly neverending Wall storyline. I'm more excited about Tyrian teaming up with Khaleesi this season, since it's obvious that's what's going to happen there.
TRAILER: "Daredevil" Season 1
The full trailer for Netflix's Daredevil is here. I like how dark and gritty it looks, as opposed to how the other Marvel movies and shows so far have all had to tow the PG-13 line. Being on Netflix allows them to do and show whatever they want with this, so let's hope showrunner (and Buffy vet) Drew Goddard took advantage of it. I guess you run the risk of becoming depressing when you go darker, but I don't necessarily think a more "adult" approach couldn't work, especially if the material is supposed to be darker anyway.
