It's getting closer- the new season of The X-Files premiered at NYCC a few weeks back to very positive reception, so I'm getting more excited for this six-episode revival. Everything looks good and very X-Files-like, so I think it's okay to be optimistic for this one.
'Sherlock' Christmas Special Gets a New Trailer, Air Date and Title
We finally know, everyone- the Sherlock Christmas special, to be called The Abominable Bride, will be airing on January 1st in both the U.S. and the U.K. Looks like we won't have to wait for the months long delay over here for once. I'm psyched- but why is the Christmas special not airing until New Year's Day?
REVIEW: "Mr. Robot" Season 1
Mr. Robot, one of the most intriguing and confounding new shows of the year, comes from the brain of Sam Esmail, and when it comes to mindbenders, one of the issues is that you can never tell if what they’re doing is brilliant, or, well, stupid. It can very easily be one thing or the other, depending on who’s viewing the content in question, and whether that appeals to you or not. There’s a fine line between genius and madness, right? Well, I sort of fall in the middle on this one. Some episodes I thought were great, while others I wondered if the writing sort of veered off course with no direction whatsoever. Isn’t that all part of the plan though? Fans would say that- I’m not sold that there’s a specific endgame for this, despite Esmail’s claims that it was based on his original script for a movie, and the first season would have been the first third or so of the screenplay. Even so, that means a lot of filler along the way, doesn’t it?
One thing that is extremely consistent throughout the season’s ten episodes though, is Rami Malek’s phenomenal performance as the central character Elliot Alderson. A hacker with mental problems, he’s a twentysomething viligante of sorts, the kind that searches for bad people doing bad things so he can work his magic and take them down, but this is only to fuel his sense of aimlessness and disillusionment with the world around him. Elliot has a drug problem and is intensely disturbed, something he knows already but to what extent? And for that matter, to what extent are we being played by his delusions? Yeah, this is that kind of show, so to go into too much about the plot would be spoiler heavy on its face. Let’s just say that it involves a group of hackers taking down an evil corporation that rips off its clients and scams everyone of their rights, and at first I was far less interested in this overarching scheme than I was simply in Elliott himself. I thought throughout the first few episodes, that as atmospheric and well acted and directed as it was, that the show might work better as more of a character study than a wannabe corporate thriller.
Without giving too much away though, all I can say is that if you’re feeling anywhere close to where I was after the first four, keep going. For the first time in a while I was blindsided by the places this show took me, and the seeds of its eventual destination were planted inch by inch every step of the way, so I can safely say that I was wrong in my initial assumption that it wasn’t a character study. I’m normally a pretty firm believer in the idea that if you’re not hooked by four, you can go ahead and bow out. NOT so with this show, trust me. I would endorse sticking with this through at least eight, if you find any of it at all compelling. It will reward your patience and then make you want to go back and see it all over again to catch what you may have missed.
Rami Malek’s wide eyes and glazed over attitude holds the screen for every frame- you can’t take your eyes off him, really, no matter what he’s doing or saying. In a lot of ways he IS the show, but there are a couple of other important characters in the mix, who end up revealing their own roles and the part they play in Elliott’s world, in surprising (shocking, even) and in some cases, still not yet explained ways. Angela (Portia Doubleday) serves as his childhood friend and fellow employee at All Safe, the security tech firm where he works, Carly Chaikin is a fellow hacker involved in the big takedown efforts, and most intriguingly, Martin Wallstrom as Tyrell Wellick, the wannabe CEO of the corporation they’re attempting to infiltrate, and someone whose role goes from apparent smooth operator to hilariously inept cuckold in a performance that would rival Rami Malek’s for attention if Malek wasn’t so utterly dominant. Finally, there’s Mr. Robot himself, the head of the hacker group played by Christian Slater, and frankly he’s someone that I really can’t say anything at all about without giving away the mother load (although not really, since it’s safe to admit there’s a Fight Club thing going on here that is fairly predictable, but trust me, if you go in thinking you know the answers already, you’ll come out blown away, because the parallel to that film is the king of the red herring, if ever there was one).
All of these other characters morph into unexpected roles from the ones they’re introduced as- this is the kind of show where nothing is at it seems, not to Elliott or the audience. You may get frustrated by this kind of misdirection, or you may be dazzled by it, along with the very specific color pallette and direction the show employs, which has the effect of making it look unlike anything else on TV. Yet for all my enthusiasm for much of it, I still have reservations. Most come from my skepticism that every little thing in this hallucinatory universe can mean something significant (Esmail’s done a good job so far of making you think so, but you can’t fool me twice, people- I sat through all six seasons of Lost, and we all remember how Twin Peaks devolved). But if nothing else, this show has one thing those others did not, and yes, that’s Rami Malek. With a maddening yet fascinating character to play around with, I could seriously watch him for hours and not feel my time has been wasted. He’s that good, and I feel pretty confident he can carry this show through the mystifying elements it’s bound to journey through. I’m hooked, and I think you should at least give it a shot, since very few things surprise me by simply sticking with it to the end, and this was one of them. That counts for a lot.
Grade: B+
First Full Trailer for 'Jessica Jones' Lands
Finally, we have the full trailer for the first season of Jessica Jones and it looks pretty fantastic. This is officially my most anticipated show this fall- I can't wait till the episodes drop on November 20th. Krysten Ritter looks great in her first lead after so many years in supporting roles on TV.
Jimmy Kimmel Reunites Doc Brown and Marty McFly
Despite the silliness of Back to the Future day, I do get a kick out of movies that have become so ingrained in the cultural consciousness that people go nuts for the actors showing up in character thirty years later. Here, Jimmy Kimmel reunited our favorite time travelers for a bit about the real 2015 they showed up in.
RECAP: SNL 10/17 "Tracy Morgan"
Tracy Morgan came back to host SNL tonight, and the good news is he was just as energetic as ever in the skits. And it was one of the better episodes too, if only for the opening debate sketch, as you'll see below.
COLD OPEN: One of their best debate skits, lampooning Tuesday's democratic debate but bringing on Larry David of all people to do a brilliant and funny impression of Bernie Sanders. It's pretty awesome to see him on that stage and even funnier that you immediately buy him as Sanders. Love it. The best thing they've done in a while (Alec Baldwin shows up as an angry Jim Webb too).
MONOLOGUE: Tracy comes back! It's very sweet, because he's so grateful and happy to be there, and he also brings back his 30 Rock co-stars (so that's why Alec Baldwin was on earlier) to pay him a little scripted tribute from an "episode" that supposedly aired in 2012. It's more nice than funny.
FAMILY FEUD: A funny setup for this FF, which pits Leslie and her three kids against Tracy, her ex-husband with his new wife and stepkids he left her for. The setup is inherently funny, which carries it through. Kenan's Steve Harvey is good as always.
BRIAN FELLOWS: One of Tracy's old bits revived with a real camel brought on that kept getting in the way of the camera- that's the most memorable part of this, actually. That camel was huge!
FAKE COCAINE: An ad for fake cocaine to hide bowel movements at parties- Beck is the culprit who tries to hide his deeds. It's amusing.
UPDATE: Some more debate jokes and shots at outsiders Trump, Carson and Fiorina, then Tina Fey comes on to riff on the news of Playboy getting rid of their nude pictures- she's funny. Kenan's also funny as Willie the neighbor, waxing on about Halloween since there's no Halloween episode this year. A pretty good Update, which is rare.
MUSICAL: A weird, random skit that's set in the opening of a stage musical with Tracy interrupting the song to say inappropriate things. This one doesn't really work- I think the joke could have been executed better.
THE STANDOFF: Pre-taped bit with Tracy and Taran facing off in a bar, but Tracy wants to literally dance, not fight. Kinda funny, but not laugh out loud. Again, the execution could have made this work better.
WHERE JACKIE CHAN AT?: Kenan and Tracy host a show that asks where's Jackie Chan's been, a question no one seems to know the answer to. Not that funny either- the second half of the show has really gone downhill.
ASTRONAUT JONES: Another revived Tracy sketch that spoofs The Martian in a quick joke that mostly plays on the opening, as it always did in his old skits. Cute.
Well, the first half was much stronger than the second, but it was nice to see Tracy up and about, and hey, Larry David as Bernie Sanders pretty much made the episode no matter what came after it. I give tonight a B. That may be a little generous overall, but on the other hand I do think it's the best episode of the season so far. SNL's off for two weeks now, and it comes back on the 7th with Donald Trump (yikes) as host. I don't quite know how I'm going to stomach that (also not sure how the cast members will either) but I guess I'm going to have to try. It's going to be interesting. See you guys then!
REVIEW: "The Strain" Season 2
Oh, The Strain. I wasn’t totally sold on this show last season, but now I think I’ve reached my limit. The second season has convinced me not to return, so this is the first time I’m reviewing a show that I’ve officially dumped. Good-bye Strain. You provided some adequately disgusting monsters at times, but no well-developed or interesting characters, so that in a nutshell explains why I’m dumping you, but I guess I’ve got to go a bit further here.
The second season started out with some bad developments right off the bat. First of all, they recast Eph’s (Corey Stoll) slightly annoying kid Zack with an even more annoying and much worse actor, for what reason I’m not exactly sure, but it sure as hell wasn’t to the benefit of the show. Zack proved to be a horrendous addition to the cast, both in terms of acting and character, seriously rising up to challenge the reigning queens of awful TV kids like Dana Brody and Tessa Johnson. But I think purposely endangering everyone you live with, over and over again, because you can’t accept that your dead mom is now a vampire puts you in contention for person who most deserves to die in your entire cast. Yeah, I hate him, but believe me I’m not alone.
The little shit was hardly the worst part of the season though. The Strain remains hamstrung a bit by its premise, which asks us to accept the idea that New York City could be so overrun that it’s essentially self-quarantined, but somehow without the government or the National Guard getting involved in any way. That’s bullshit right there- if you wanted a city the rest of the world would simply abandon to eat itself alive you should have chosen, I don’t know- maybe some place in Florida? This just makes no sense. What else makes no sense is the scale of the crisis at hand- sometimes people are perfectly fine walking around, eating in nice restaurants and continuing to work at their jobs and go to school. But other times? It seems to be the apocalypse, with vamps running around taking out whole neighborhoods and citizens occasionally fighting back to no avail. People are dying disgusting deaths around every corner, and then suddenly we’re in Happy Town, New York City with not a care in the world. Sorry, but that’s kinda distracting.
But now we move on to the real reason this show sucks, because let’s face it- there are all kinds of dumb genre shows out there, and you never get stuck on the logistical contradictions or the mythology not making sense, unless the characters on the show just aren’t compelling enough to keep you invested in them personally, so your mind starts wandering to what else is going on in the background. And that’s just about every character on this show, sadly. Eph is a whiny, annoying idiot, Nora is just as dumb and struggles a lot with simple line readings, and Zack...well, we covered him already. Pest control guy Fet (I finally started remembering these people’s names just in the latter half of the season) is pretty cool, but stuck in a horrible waste of time love triangle with British hacker girl Dutch and her suddenly re-appeared girlfriend Nicki- seriously, who thought that was a plot that deserved air time? The writing for these characters ranges from subpar to awful, with dialogue that actually had one cop state out loud that his officers were performing “decently well,” a phrase I had to rewind to make sure I’d heard right. Yeah, he said that.
Old Man Zatrakian’s ongoing battle with the Nazi Eichorst remains intriguing, were it not for the fact that these now seasoned vampire hunters can take out every vamp who comes at them except this dude, even when he’s by himself and outnumbered five to one. That’s a little bit contrived, and so was Zack’s dead mom Kelly continuing to track him down non-stop, except for the time when he was conveniently left alone in their hideout apartment for what must have been three days while the others were busy, and yes, Kelly knew exactly where he was but for some reason decided never to make a move. And did I mention how Eph managed to take the train down to Washington D.C. to try to sell his bio-weapon but still finds time to have a one-night stand while there (umm, wtf? Rethink your priorities dude), gets shot, and stumbles all the way back to New York on foot, a journey that while presumably bleeding out, seems to take only a few hours. I’m sorry but there’s TOO much stupidity and TOO many plotholes, contrivances and flat out dumb actions on this show to invest in what’s actually going on.
I forgot to mention my least favorite subplot of all this year- Eldrich Palmer’s affair with his secretary, a girl named Coco who’s about 50 years younger than him. BLECH. The less said about that the better, frankly. It’s not to say there weren’t some good moments scattered throughout- like Dutch’s Shining-esque adventures being trapped in Eichorst’s hotel dungeon nightmare for one episode. That was pretty scary. But these moments are few and far between, and there’s not enough good stuff in the interim to keep me interested. So, I’m out on this one guys. Hats off to those of you who want to stick with it, but The Strain has strained my last nerve.
Grade: D+
Bill Murray Hosts 'A Very Murray Christmas' for Netflix
This should be interesting, if nothing else. Sofia Coppola is directing a lot of actors in a Christmas special for Netflix starring Bill Murray, and the only precedent for this I can think of is those 70's variety shows with random people making cameos. I guess it's kind of a movie, but not really? Probably going to have to check it out to see.
First Look at Elektra and Punisher in Teaser for 'Daredevil' Season 2
This teaser for the second season of Netflix's Daredevil was shown at New York Comic Con the other day, and fans went nuts for the first tiny little glimpses of comics faves Elektra and the Punisher, both of whom will be joining the new season. You don't see their faces yet, but the show promises to be just as dark and enticing as ever. Although I recently learned that despite Marvel's allowance for their TV properties to go "darker" than the movies, apparently they still placed two restrictions on the content, which applies to the upcoming Jessica Jones as well. That's no f-words and no nudity, apparently. Which I call massive bullshit on, first of all, because the darker comics lines had both, but also because why is it okay to show someone's head being literally crushed into a pile of mush, like what happened in the first season of Daredevil, yet the line is drawn at the word "fuck" and bare body parts? Fuck you Marvel. Netflix has zero content restrictions and you still can't bring yourselves to grow up entirely.
RECAP: SNL 10/10 "Amy Schumer"
So, unfortunately Amy Schumer came in with high expectations and hosted a pretty bad episode tonight, even if she herself went balls out on the mediocre (at best) sketches. I don't know if she had anything to do with the writing of the skits this week, but the live stuff especially was pretty lame.
COLD OPEN: Fox & Friends is back to have the three idiots harp on about the Speaker of the House chaos and the faked Planned Parenthood videos, but nothing in this is funny, really. It's all just a meh opener.
MONOLOGUE: Amy comes out and like most of the comedians, does a stand-up bit with her usual raunchy sex jokes, but while I chuckled a couple time, this wasn't a total riot. I've heard much better opening bits from the stand-ups.
PLANE: Amy and Vanessa (who we saw a lot of tonight, probably due to her being in Trainwreck with Amy) are flight attendants on a Delta plane who keep getting sucked out of the plane while trying to sing their Spice Girls song to the passengers. I feel like this should be funny somehow, but it just isn't. Not enough of a joke, except falling out of the plane over and over again.
HOT FOR TEACHER: This one I didn't get at all- it's shot with grainy video, so I think it's supposed to resemble like a 70's porn movie or something, with Amy as a slutty teacher trying to have sex with Kyle's teenage student, but they keep getting interrupted by Aidy as a genuine student in the class who needs help. Again, maybe should be funnier, but its execution doesn't succeed in that way. Amy's going for it though (as she should with her vast sketch show experience and all).
GUNS: Now this one I liked. It's an ad for giving and having a gun for every meaningful moment in life, and it's exactly the kind of thing to help kickstart a gun control movement so desperately needed right now. A ridiculous satirical bit that seems all too true.
UPDATE: A bunch of jokes about the House GOP chaos again, and gun control (SNL hit that topic hard today, which is good at least). Jay comes on as new travel correspondent character Solomon, and he may have some potential with it, but as of now it looks like it needs some fine-tuning. Then Kate comes out as the delightfully angry neighbor lady, and she's amusing as always, but boy does it feel like Update goes on FOREVER tonight. I think Colin and Michael are desperate to show they can riff off each other, but dude, it's never gonna work out.
LINCOLN RE-ENACTMENT: This may be the only live sketch of the night that I kind of liked, where Amy is a re-enacter with Taran of Lincoln's assassination for D.C. tourists (that's not a real thing, is it?), and she keeps interrupting the moment with inappropriate Mary Todd Lincoln ad libs. She really gets into it here and she kinda made me laugh, I'll admit, just for her energy.
HANDS FREE SELFIE STICK: Another good pre-taped bit for a selfie stick inserted in your butt- this one's funny, and also short and sweet.
CITIZEN'S FORUM: A city council meeting that has to put up with wacky local complaints, but Amy stands out again as the only funny one- a creepy conservative Honey Boo Boo-esque 6 year old. Nothing else worked here.
BABY SHOWER: Once again, Amy steals the show in a mediocre bit about a baby shower guest, Cecily, who brings her uninvited and boarish bartender best friend (Amy) to the party and she causes a scene by freaking out at everyone. But she's the only mildly funny bit about this.
So that was it guys- a bland show with a couple of good gun control zingers, a gutsy performance from Amy Schumer, but bad writing and subpar material, with which one can only do so much. I give tonight a C-. Fairly disappointing considering the hype, but I do wonder how much Amy participated in the writing of this one. Next week it's Tracy Morgan, making his return to the SNL stage, which should be interesting and emotional, if nothing else. See you all then!
