A new teaser for Season 2 of Fargo is here, and for some reason I didn't realize this was coming out as soon as September. I hope it can overcome the sophomore slump that's befalling True Detective, which is garnering some pretty harsh reviews for the second season ahead of its premiere this Sunday. I actually preferred Fargo to True Detective the first time around anyway, so I hope the new season can live up to the last, but it may be tough without Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton. It could be harder than it seems to pull off effective anthology series, seeing as you may only get lucky with the casting once, and regular shows get to keep their actors around for years.
REVIEW: "Game of Thrones" Season 5
So, Sunday night ended the season of sadism on Game of Thrones, and if you're thinking that could technically be every season, then you haven't seen the finale yet. It was a pretty stark, brutal, depressing year, and though it was still consistent and in the GoT wheelhouse...I don't know, I think I might just be getting tired of it.
It was yet another year of "people getting from one place to another," as Tyrion and Varys left King's Landing to make the long journey to meet up with Danaerys (we get several episodes of them bickering on the road, which isn't too bad because a lot of the wisecracking King's Landing crew are the some of the better characters to spend time with), and then Tyrion gets kidnapped by Sir Jorah, who's also set on taking him to Dany, so he can get back in her favor after being outcast for his betrayal. And you guessed it, that also takes up a few episodes of Tyrion and Jorah on the road, bickering, before finally getting to face the Queen herself, and we get a whopping two episodes of Dany and Tyrion, together at last after five seasons. It's kind of cool that they finally met, and it looks like Dany will hire Tyrion to be her new advisor, but then Dany gets attacked by the former slaves of Mereen and her rebellious dragon Drogon comes whooshing in to fly her to safety. This ends up stranding her in yet another part of the world, where it looks like she's back with her original Dothraki people, while Jorah and others will have to go looking for her on yet another road trip that will likely last all season next year.
And if that all sounded tedious, it was probably the storyline that I was most interested in this year, if only because Peter Dinklage makes everything he's in watchable. If this show was allowed to have one main character instead of the mass, sprawling ensemble, there's no doubt Tyrion would be it, but truthfully he had something of a smaller role this season than usual, and that's too bad, because I realized as we spent so much time with the other Game of Thrones cast this year how little I really care for any of them. I've always liked the King's Landing characters more than the others, because their deviousness and manipulations make them more entertaining, but this season Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) spent the whole season traveling as well, all the way to Spain (okay, it's not really Spain, it's Dorne, but that's where they filmed and all the actors there are Spanish, so it's like the Spain stand-in), to rescue he and Cersei's daughter Myrcella, who it turns out was perfectly happy to stay there and marry her prince. This entire plotline was contrived and boring, and the Sand Snake women acting in revenge for Oberyn's death were the least interesting villains the show (or books I suppose) have ever created.
Back at King's Landing, Cersei's story was a little better, as she spent her time empowering a group of religious zealots so she could use them to imprison Margaery and her brother, but of course it backfires on her and she herself finally gets what's coming to her, as she's thrown in prison and forced to confess and atone for her sins, resulting in a literal "Walk of Shame," naked, through the streets of King's Landing. That was a pretty good payoff for one of the show's best villains- if they can actually make you feel sorry for Cersei Lannister, that's quite an accomplishment. But we've reached the limit on the stories I find interesting now, as we must go through a laundry list of characters whose plights aren't compelling enough to stop me from becoming distracted by other thoughts as I watch, which is always a bad sign.
Jon Snow and his quest to recruit the Wildlings for Stannis. I yawn just thinking about it. I've never been enamored by Snow, even if I have grown to like him more, if not his storylines at the Wall, which I've never been exactly thrilled by. He went out like a champ though, as one of the season's big deaths in the finale, so hats off to Kit Harington for sticking around this long. Stannis and his quest to march through to the Iron Throne- all for naught apparently, and since I've never liked him either, I wasn't sad to see him finally struck down by Brienne of Tarth, after losing the battle to retake Winterfell. He was also the topic of one of the most controversial moments of the season, when he chose to sacrifice his daughter to the gods, burning her alive at the stake in one of the most awful moments in the show's history- after that, I guess he had to go fast and he did, so bye-bye Stannis. Sansa returning to Winterfell- horrible. This is mostly because after seeming to want to empower Sansa at the beginning of the season, with Littlefinger training her to become devious and manipulative, aware of the power she possesses, it comes to nothing when Sansa marries resident sadist Ramsey Bolton, who immediately rapes her (the other galling, controversial scene of the season) and keeps her as his prisoner wife, which so shocked fans that many wanted to stop watching altogether. My biggest beef with the storyline was that it ended up being a catalyst to gain Theon Greyjoy his agency back, after being tortured by Ramsey himself, and by the end of the season when he finally wakes up, it all ended up having more to do with him than Sansa, which is a little insulting, considering she was the one being abused this year. Also, Ramsey is the most disgusting, purely evil asshole on the show, which seems to be using him as the King Joffrey replacement for character you most want to see die a gruesome death. I'm sure we'll get there, but it doesn't happen yet, unfortunately.
Finally there's Arya, who met up with her pal who works for the Many-Faced God and spent the season attempting to be his apprentice and become a no-face herself. More yawns. I've never totally loved Arya's storylines, which have become more and more tangential to the plot, although I'm sure it'll come back around eventually, and her big revenge moment this season came on a character who apparently was on in the first or second year, but who I have virtually no memory of, which made his death less impactful than I think it was supposed to be. The one good thing about this year was that there was no Bran, who was last seen in the magic underground elf lair (I think, right?), and to be honest, he wasn't missed at all. The show is diverging from the books now, and by the time the next season comes out, the sixth book may or may not even be published. I'm not sure what that means for the quality of the episodes going forward (George R.R. Martin is still a consultant, so he of course knows what's going to happen), but I'm all but ready to start spending all my time with Dany and Tyrion as they finally make their way to King's Landing and take back the Throne, aren't you? I think it's time to start wrapping things up and getting rid of a lot of subplots that aren't going anywhere. This season was okay, but nothing wowed me, and when I feel the tediousness creeping in I start getting restless and thinking about something else to watch.
Grade: C+
Full Trailer for Will Ferrell's 'A Deadly Adoption' on Lifetime
I guess I jumped the gun on that teaser the other day. Funnily enough, the trailer doesn't even look much like a parody of a Lifetime movie- it could pass for the real thing. Is it me or are Ferrell and Wiig playing it pretty straight here? If it's just the tawdriness of the subject matter, this could well be an average Lifetime movie with two comedians in it. I'm still there for it though. It airs June 20th.
Aden Young Returns in Trailer for 'Rectify' Season 3
Yay! My favorite show on TV, the one I'm pretty sure I'm the only person watching, comes back July 9th for Season 3, and I can't wait. I've heard conflicting rumors about whether or not this may be the last season, but I do know that the order was reduced from ten episodes to six, which doesn't bode well. Still, I'm excited. You should try catching up with the first two seasons on Netflix if you can. It's soooo good. When it comes to abstract surrealism on television, I actually prefer this to Hannibal. The characters are more emotionally affecting.
Teaser for Will Ferrell/Kristen Wiig Lifetime Movie 'A Deadly Adoption'
Everybody thought it was some kind of April Fools joke when the rumors were flying that Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig had starred in a Lifetime movie, but lo and behold, the teaser for it is here, and it looks like it could be hilarious. My biggest shame is that I can sometimes be sucked into a regular Lifetime movie, as nutty and awful as they always are, so I'm so there for the parody (although Lifetime movies are pretty much parodies of themselves anyway). A Deadly Adoption airs on Saturday, June 20th.
REVIEW: "iZombie" Season 1
Boy is it nice to have Rob Thomas dialogue back on TV. If that was the best thing about his new show iZombie, it would be enough to keep me watching it, but luckily the whole premise and the casting is good enough to launch what was a very entertaining first season of a show I could easily see going on for quite a while. The 2014-15 season turned out to be quite the banner year for the CW, with the critical and commercial successes of Jane the Virgin, The Flash and now iZombie leading the way to a new, more critically lauded era for the network, which seems to finally be finding itself.
iZombie is set in Seattle, Washington (represent!), and loosely based on a DC comic book that was just begging to be made into a television show. Created by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, it was about a girl who got turned into a zombie and must survive on the brains of homicide victims, which give her visions of the victims' memories, which she then uses to solve their murders. Perfect, right? It almost could have been a weekly series in the 1960's, when weird fantasy shows were all the rage. Olivia Moore is the newly minted zombie here, played to a tee by Rose McIver, who gets scratched at an out of control boat party and wakes up in her new form, hungry for brains and desperate to get them. Luckily, when she was alive she was a doctor, and so now she uses her position to get a job at the local morgue with every day access to the brains she needs to survive.
At the morgue, each new brain gives her those crucial visions, but also the victims' personality traits, which give McIver the chance to stretch her flair for comedy as she inhabits an alcoholic, a cheerleader, a gamer (hilarious), or a military sniper, while she teams up with Detective Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin), to solve the case of the week. I said this was perfect material for a weekly procedural, and to be honest, that might be my one complaint, as seeing Liv take on the random personalities is often the best part of these cases, many of which are kind of forgettable. Veronica Mars, Thomas' last series, had many cases of the week, but the fact that they involved the 1% teenagers of Neptune and were not always murders, put a necessary spin on it that felt fresh. Here it veers pretty close to cop procedural territory.
But not to worry- the cast sells all of it, from McIver's confident pluck and wit (which remind me eerily of Kristen Bell, right down to her narration and inflection- could that be why she was cast?), to Goodwin as the bemused Clive (who thinks she gets visions because she's a psychic), and Ravi (Rahul Kohli), her boss at the morgue, who immediately figures out she's a zombie and spends his time trading quips and trying to find a cure for her condition. You wouldn't think being a zombie and dealing in murder could be so entertaining and amusing, but Rob Thomas and longtime co-writer Diane Ruggiero-Wright find the perfect tone for this world that makes every moment enjoyable, yet emotional in the character's plights. You feel for Liv, as she keeps her identity as a crime fighting zombie secret (she's kind of doing the female superhero thing), while her former friends and family think she's flipped and gone either goth or crazed (the deathly white skin and hair, plus the new cravings for hot sauce being odd tip-offs).
And even though most of this first season is the case of the week stuff, there's a serialized arc that begins to take shape, involving fellow bad zombie (and the one who turned Liv) played by David Anders (always Sark of Alias to me), perfectly cast as the devilishly villainous Blaine, who procures his brains through much more murderous means, and ends up turning other Seattle-ites into zombies for the benefit of his small brain business. Anders has a way with the dialogue too of course, that makes him an especially entertaining bad guy, one I'm glad they figured out a way to keep on for next season, even if I think they made him a little too evil too quickly. It's hard to bring someone back from killing homeless teens for their brains, even if he's played by the charismatic Anders (but hey, they did it all the time with the vampires on Buffy- monsters be monsters and all). The one other quibble I had with this season, which for the most part was a lot of fun, was Robert Buckley as Major, Liv's ex-fiance and supposed true love- he's not terrible, but he's unfortunately saddled with the role, usually reserved for the female love interest on these kinds of genre shows, of being kept in the dark about everything that's going on, and his resulting actions due to this situation make his level of stupidity a little too high to sustain itself. Thomas seems to want to figure out how to make his "decent guy" characters compelling, and he hired a better actor here than he did with Teddy Dunn's Duncan , my least favorite Veronica Mars character ever, but there's still nothing inherently interesting about Major that the show couldn't live without, to be honest.
Despite some growing pains, I loved where the season ended up and I'm looking forward to Season 2 come this fall, hopefully with the full 22-episode order. Having the humor and the fast, snappy dialogue of Thomas and Ruggiero on TV again is such a treat it makes me want to jump up and down in glee just hearing it. It's not quite as stellar as that first season of Veronica Mars (then again, few things are), but this could be its sister show in so many ways that I'm there in a heartbeat for whatever they've cooked up next. Welcome back, guys.
Grade: B+
Behind the Scenes of 'Orange is the New Black' Season 3
With the third season dropping tonight at midnight on Netflix, here's a featurette on the new episodes, which look like they're going to be giving us a lot more Piper and Alex, since Piper made the call that got her thrown back in prison with her. I'm not sure exactly why Laura Prepon bowed out of the second season in the first place, only to apparently change her mind and jump back on board, but she was always good on the show, so I'm not complaining.
'Masters of Sex' Teases Threeway Marriage
Another promo for the new Masters of Sex season shows us the new "normal" for Bill, Libby and Virginia, while Masters and Johnson get ready to become national celebrities in 1966. Can't wait. July 12th is the premiere of Season 3.
Stephen Colbert Shaves His Beard for 'The Late Show'
It's nice to see Stephen back. In his first Late Show promo, he makes an appearance to shave off his Kris Kringle-esque beard (note to the guys- if your beard's coming in all white, it's probably never a good look). I'm on the lookout to see if his new comic persona sans the Colbert 'character' is actually going to be all that different from what we Colbert fans already know. I'm starting to suspect it won't be- Stephen did plenty of non-political silliness on the Report all the time, and this little vid fits right in with all of that already. I guess what's going to be new is his take on politics in general, especially with the next election coming up. Will he take that typical, politically neutral stance the other late night guys all line up behind? That'd be a shame, since we know he can do better- here's hoping he's brave enough.
TCA Noms Embrace New Shows 'Empire,' 'Transparent'
So here's the second and final group of pre-Emmy nominations wannabe precursor awards, but again, don't expect the Television Critics Association, just like the Critics Choice, to have any impact on those nominees whatsoever. Still, they made some interesting choices here. Funnily enough, Silicon Valley was snubbed across the board after winning at the Critics Choice just the other day (and still with The Big Bang Theory instead? Really?). And for the record, "Program of the Year" is kind of like, show with the most cultural impact that season, so expect that to be Empire this year for sure.
Program of the Year
"The Americans" (FX)
"Empire" (Fox)
"Game of Thrones" (HBO)
"Mad Men" (AMC)
"Transparent" (Amazon)
Outstanding Achievement in Drama
"The Americans" (FX)
"Empire" (Fox)
"Game of Thrones" (HBO)
"Justified" (FX)
"Mad Men" (AMC)
Outstanding Achievement in Comedy
"The Big Bang Theory" (CBS)
"Inside Amy Schumer" (Comedy Central)
"Jane the Virgin" (The CW)
"Transparent" (Amazon)
"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" (Netflix)
Outstanding New Program
"Better Call Saul" (AMC)
"Empire" (Fox)
"The Flash" (The CW)
"Jane the Virgin" (The CW)
"Transparent" (Amazon)
Individual Achievement in Drama
Viola Davis, "How to Get Away With Murder" (ABC)
Jon Hamm, "Mad Men" (AMC)
Taraji P. Henson, "Empire" (Fox)
Bob Odenkirk, "Better Call Saul" (AMC)
Matthew Rhys, "The Americans" (FX)
Individual Achievement in Comedy
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Veep" (HBO)
Gina Rodriguez, "Jane the Virgin" (The CW)
Amy Schumer, "Inside Amy Schumer" (Comedy Central)
Jeffrey Tambor, "Transparent" (Amazon)
Constance Wu, "Fresh Off the Boat" (ABC)
Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials
"Bessie" (HBO)
"The Honorable Woman" (Sundance TV)
"The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" (HBO)
"Olive Kitteridge" (HBO)
"Wolf Hall" (PBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming
"The Amazing Race" (CBS)
"The Chair" (Starz)
"Dancing With the Stars" (ABC)
"RuPaul's Drag Race" (Logo)
"Shark Tank" (ABC)
Outstanding Achievement in News and Information
"CBS Sunday Morning" (CBS)
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" (Comedy Central)
"Frontline" (PBS)
"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" (HBO)
"60 Minutes" (CBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming
"Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" (PBS)
"The Fosters" (ABC Family)
"The Legend of Korra" (Nickelodeon)
"Sesame Street" (PBS)
"Switched at Birth" (ABC Family)
Heritage Award
"Friends" (NBC)
"Late Show/Late Night with David Letterman" (CBS/NBC)
"The Shield" (FX)
"Star Trek" (NBC)
"Twin Peaks" (ABC)
Looks like I really need to catch up with Jane the Virgin, huh? It was actually quite a year for the CW overall, as it landed four nominations here, even The Flash for best new program, beating the wrap that befalls all superhero shows of not being taken seriously by critics/awards bodies. I also like how comedy performer is Jeffrey Tambor versus four actresses. That's right ladies, bring the heat!
