'Supergirl' Finds its Superman

Okay, so it looks like the Berlanti-verse resisted all calls to cast Smallville's Tom Welling in the role, and instead have gone with 28-year-old Tyler Hoechlin of Teen Wolf fame, who brings along a plethora of teenage fangirls with him, I hear. I never watched that show, so I can't speak to this guy's acting skills, but he does look the part at least. 

Couple things though. First, according to Supergirl's own timeline, the in-universe Man of Steel should be at least 36, and instead he's going to be just one year older than Melissa Benoist. Huh.Which leads into my next declaration, which is that this choice does absolutely nothing to convince me this isn't some planted pilot for a potential spinoff series next year. Don't be surprised at all when Legends of Tomorrow is canceled in 2017, to be replaced in the fall by a brand new Adventures of Superman-type show on the CW. At this point I'd bet money on it. I mean, come on, people are already asking for Lois and Lex, it's only a matter of time, right?

REVIEW: "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" Season 2

I was once worried that Tina Fey’s delightfully subversive, daring Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt would veer away from the strikingly dark themes its first season embraced and simply go all in with the satirical, wacky universe its characters inhabit, a universe marked by one visual gag and clever zinger after another while the various cast members fly in and out of the frame and around New York City, going on crazy adventures as Kimmy transforms herself into a person who can stand her ground after a traumatic experience. That wouldn’t have been a bad thing at all, as the show is hilarious enough on its own, and this world is creative, colorful and appealing enough to stand apart from the uncomfortable realities of the premise from which it sprung.

But Season 2 of Kimmy Schmidt far exceeded my expectations by living up to all those standards of hilarity while simultaneously and wholeheartedly diving into Kimmy’s scarred and wounded psyche, never once allowing the root of what happened to her to be ignored or to overwhelm who she is as a person. By doing all of that on top of being so outrageously hilarious, surreal and over the top, it becomes a wondrous mix of happily damaged characters who go about their nutty lives while overcoming the problems that actually make them feel human, in spite of living in a Looney Tunes version of New York where your boyfriend’s racist grandma is an actual decrepit puppet presiding over Sunday dinner (I literally choked on my soda, I was laughing so hard at that joke).

After her captor, the crazy reverend Wayne Gary Wayne (played by Jon Hamm) was put away last season, Kimmy continues to try to live her life anew, and the early episodes involve her job at the everyday Christmas store and her ongoing, start-and-stop romance with Dong (Ki Hong Lee), himself trapped in a green card marriage to the pester-y Sonya, while periodically helping her fellow bunkmates find ways to start their own crazy lives fresh from the tyranny reigned down on them by the reverend. Titus Burgess continues to excel as Kimmy’s roommate, as he must confront his own past and a wife he never wanted, tries out a one man show starring as his Japanese geisha alter ego, and eventually forms a relationship with sweet construction worker Mikey (Mike Carlsen), seemingly his opposite in every way, yet here the romance is adorable. Just about every episode is bright, sunny, filled with clever wordplay, out of nowhere musical interludes, blink and you miss it gags, and an all around zany vibe that plummets you into Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's New York City that’s more of a live action cartoon than actual reality.

And yet the show takes its time setting up the effects of Kimmy’s PTSD, as she can’t handle reminders of her years in the bunker, and flashbacks show us the mental wherewithal she undertook to keep herself strong and sane (one revelation devolves into an actual cartoon rendering of herself as a Disney princess slaughtering the reverend into bloody, gory pieces all over a hand drawn background of singing birds). The show then places Kimmy in therapy with Fey herself playing the alcoholic psychologist Andrea, who manages to help Kimmy somewhat face her past and confront her issues with the mother who abandoned her as a teen, while getting in her own not insignificant amount of verbal barbs as both the professional therapist and her evil, drunk alter ego who roams the bars at night with Kimmy as uber driver chauffeur to her exploits.

The show handles every area of focus with the same pitch perfect tone. It seems strange to think you can watch Kimmy and Dong playing Home Alone in an abandoned hotel and in the next scene make a joke about Kimmy’s involuntary violent reaction to the idea of intimacy with him. When Kimmy confronts her long lost mother (played by Lisa Kudrow) in the season finale, Kudrow becomes the first character to actually utter the word “rape” in regards to what Kimmy suffered in the bunker all those years, and yet it doesn’t shy away from that either, as we are told that Kimmy only feels safe with Dong when his hands are tied, and bursts into fighting stance when someone accidentally touches her neck.

The success with which the show navigates those thorny issues is an impressive feat, never sacrificing its outrageous comedy for the heartbreaking tragedy that Kimmy suffered, while at the same time also never seeming insensitive in the way it regards survivors of trauma and sexual assault. And Kimmy’s not the only unbreakable one, as Jane Krakowski’s Jacqueline also stages a comeback, returning to the city after spending time with her native american family, intent on reclaiming her roots and re-entering high society, this time as a non-trophy wife. The friendship between her and Kimmy is unique, in that it never returns to employer/employee status, and the two women genuinely help each other to move forward, as Jacqueline gets a pretty surprising amount of character development this season, further separating her from the character Krakowski played on 30 Rock. She’s still somewhat shallow and focused on superficiality, but with an inner core and new depth revealed through each triumph, from her hilarious feud with fellow society wife and rival Deirdre (a superb Anna Camp, who should be Emmy nominated for guest actress for this), her final repudiation of Julian’s fortune, her eventual newfound connection with son Buckley, and her golddigging turned genuine relationship with sad sack lawyer Russ (an always excellent David Cross, whose own comedic timing fits perfectly with Krakowski’s).

Just about every story beat worked this season, although Carol Kane’s Lillian, who can be funny when used as a snarky, sarcastic deliverer of one liners and hardened, sage advice, is still a little uninteresting when propped into her ongoing personal battle against the gentrification of her neighborhood, but the core cast and supporting characters are lovably wacky, and the outstanding guest stars are never wasted (from Jeff Goldblum as a reality show “doctor” to Joshua Jackson popping up out of nowhere to deliver a screed against Dawson’s Creek, and Fred Armisen as Bobby, Lillian’s former Fred Durst lookalike boyfriend). No less than three quotes per episode instantly get stuck in my head, and the show comes with a built-in re-watchability factor simply so you can be allowed to catch every joke you may have missed the first time around. Ellie Kemper anchors it all with her oddball, very physical, very manic performance that captures all of Kimmy’s excitability, determination, optimism and childlike nature along with the lit fuse of repression and anger that simmers under the surface of her outward expression, just waiting to explode. Her enduring and affectionate friendships with both Titus and Jacqueline provide something of a heart in the center of all this madness and sadness creeping in on the fringes of the world. This remains undoubtedly one of TV’s best comedies, and if the madcap humor’s not for you, all I can say is that’s too bad. Because you’re missing out.

Grade: A

Recap and Preview for Season 2 of 'UnREAL'

 I'm very happy to report that the new season of UnREAL is getting fantastic reviews and apparently hasn't missed a beat from its nasty and delightfully dark first season. It premieres Monday night at 10pm on Lifetime. Can't wait. Check this out for a preview of the new season.

REVIEW: "The Flash" Season 2

The Flash was one of my favorite shows in its first season, and even ended up in my top ten for last year- that's how much I enjoyed the light, fuzzy, pure comic book tone that made it feel so bright and sunny and stand apart from the other superhero shows. This year, I'm sad to say it will not end up in my year end list (at least I doubt it- it'd have to be a pretty bad TV year for that to happen, which has not been the case of late). Unfortunately, it really seemed to suffer from a bit of a sophomore slump this season, in two easily identifiable (and hopefully fixable) ways. Oh well. I guess that's to be expected, especially with 23 episode seasons on a network like the CW.

Let's start with the story that turned out to be the biggest flop of the season- the Big Bad. The show takes its cues from the old Buffy formula of having one major villain per season, but you really need to get creative with that concept to justify it lasting all year long. Tom Cavanagh's Reverse Flash/Eobard Thawne/Harrison Wells of Season 1 was a far superior villain, carefully crafted to reveal his secrets at all the right moments to our hero Barry Allen and his friends, and the motivations behind his nefarious goals that connected him to Barry were never less than compelling, thanks to Cavanagh's delightfully sinister and downright gleeful performance.

This time around, the show basically decided to repeat the storyline full stop, by introducing another mentor figure in the form of Teddy Sears' Jay Garrick from Earth-2, along with the introduction of the multiverse as a yearlong theme. But Jay turned out to be a total drip who had less connection to Barry and more of a deadly dull, chemistry-free, sometime romance with Caitlin of all people (Danielle Panabaker, by far the weakest actress on the show), and though his real identity turned out to be someone else (Hunter Zolomon, aka the evil speedster Zoom from the Flash comics), his motivations and goals changed about a thousand times throughout the season, so that no one watching could ever explain to you what it was that Zoom really wanted, and introducing him to the team so early made it so that he kept coming and going at seemingly random intervals just to drag things out to the very end, which finally culminated in a fairly underwhelming and predictable finale.

Earth-2 Barry and Iris were one of the highlights of the season

So Zoom was a big miss (even though he was voiced by Candyman's Tony Todd, which was a cool effect before he was unmasked), but I can sort of forgive convoluted plot stuff, especially as it involves comic books and sci-fi and all that, as long as the characters and relationships remain strong and the actors sell their chemistry with each other in such a way that you just want to keep watching them hang out no matter what they're doing. This cast was particularly excellent in that regard, as I mentioned last year (Panabaker aside, but she's basically a background character much of the time), and for the most part that remains true, but for some strange reason the show decided (whether consciously or not, I'm unsure) to drop what was by far the reason I originally loved it so much, and that was the bright and sunny tone. It was the modern equivalent of the Christopher Reeve-era Superman movies, a show that proved you could do light and funny with superheroes for the modern age, and yet still have an enormous amount of real emotional connection to these characters, especially because Grant Gustin's Barry was a such a sweet, smiling puppy dog that you just wanted to take home with you.

This year the show made Barry down in the dumps from the start, in response to everything that happened at the end of the last season, and boy, oh boy was that a mistake. I praised Gustin to the high heavens last year because of his natural likability, but man, can he not do "brooding" well. Forcing Barry to be miserable and depressed made him whiny and annoying, which is the clear opposite of what he's good at, and it actually made him downright unappealing at times. In fact, the Barry that showed up on the hyped Supergirl/Flash crossover episode in March suddenly reminded Flash viewers what we'd been missing since Season 1- the smiling, funny sweetheart who loved and enjoyed every moment of being a superhero. I'm kind of shocked that the show forgot to maintain that tone this year in favor of darker, angstier, frankly Arrow-like misery for the most part, because it just isn't what the show does well. Perhaps the loss of co-creator, developer and writer Geoff Johns this season left a bigger impact behind the scenes than anticipated, but I'm telling you right now, they need to fix that and they need to fix it fast. And with the unnecessarily dark finale that saw the murder of Barry's dad Henry (John Wesley Shipp) and the startling cliffhanger that promises more of this dark avenue in the future, all I can do is cross my fingers and hope these guys are listening to some of the criticism about this less than stellar second season.

With that said, it wasn't all bad. The very weak first half that was mostly devoted to waste of time episodes dedicated to setting up spinoff show Legends of Tomorrow, along with the incredibly pointless subplot of Barry's throwaway two-second romance with Patty Spivot, designed to stall the inevitable union with soulmate Iris (which is hilariously practically stated on the show, as a reluctant Barry has to be pushed into this temporary relationship), at least gave way to some much better episodes in the second half once those obligatory storylines were jettisoned. The two-part sojourn to Earth-2 led to the best episode in the show's history, as we got see doppelgangers of every character in another world, and see Barry and Cisco interact with them in various, entertaining ways (even Panabaker improved a bit with her performance as Killer Frost, who at least isn't as painful to watch as Caitlin).

Killer Frost was a welcome relief from Caitlin

Iris got to be a kick-ass cop instead of a reporter, a profession the show clearly doesn't know how to integrate with the team, so I say make this occupation change for her permanent somehow. And the Kevin Smith directed episode "The Runaway Dinosaur," where Barry gets lost in the speedforce, was excellent and another contender for best in the show's history, as debut Flash writer Zack Stentz clearly knew exactly how to balance the humor, lightheartedness and emotion that made the first season so fun and really fueled that episode (not to mention gave our Earth-1 Iris the best role within the action and the team that she's ever gotten). Overall, the cast is still immensely fun to watch, with Cavanagh and Jesse L. Martin doing their parts as the veterans to the team of younger actors, Carlos Valdes is still superb as the scene-stealing Cisco, who happily remains not overused (unlike his character equivalent of Felicity over on Arrow, who was always a comic relief bit player and never should have been upgraded to female lead), and the improvement in Iris's character from the first season was hugely significant and showed that Candice Patton is clearly the best actress in a series that favors the men for some reason (use her more, guys, she's good).

As always, I'm a big hater of any kind of "will they, won't they" subplot (in my opinion, that trope is decades out of date by now), so as far as I'm concerned, Barry and Iris need to be together yesterday, and the really irritating romance stalling is getting on my nerves to the nth degree at this point. It's a superhero show, guys, and this couple was supposed to be permanently married anyway, so what are you waiting for? Pull the trigger already and just keep 'em together, for god's sake. Waiting around for that (for absolutely no credible reason) annoys me and makes me angry more than it does anything else, so I'd like to tell them to just get on with it. Finally, the introductions of Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) and Jesse Quick (Violett Beane) actually turned out to be fairly well-executed, as Wally's initial "angry rebel" addition to the family as Joe's long lost son seemed eye-roll worthy at first, but by season's end, he actually turned out to be a pretty good dude who I'm now looking forward to see get his own powers and become Barry's sidekick, as the West-Allen blended family remains the strongest element of the show, essentially its beating heart, and that it never lost.

So as you can tell, my investment in this show and these characters remains strong, despite all the things I can nitpick and complain about in regards to this season. Not the least of which is that ridiculous cliffhanger that seemed to negate any character development on Barry's part at all this year in favor of introducing a famous comics storyline (Flashpoint Paradox) that readers may be excited to see happen, but I remain deeply skeptical of, since it would appear to involve erasing both seasons of the entire show so far. Yeah, not feeling good about that, but if it's quickly dispensed with it could theoretically be used to restore Barry's happy, cheery, Season 1/Supergirl self. And that's my biggest wish for next season, one that I really hope the writers adhere to. I loved The Flash it because it was fun and warm and fuzzy. Cisco shouldn't suddenly be (and wasn't last year) the only person allowed to be funny on the show. Please bring that back and don't make Barry a miserable mess anymore, despite whatever plot machinations take place. That's all I ask. But I'll keep watching anyway, because, well...frankly, I'm hooked no matter what at this point.

Grade: C+

Mopey Barry needs a Season 3 attitude adjustment, stat- where's the dorky goofball of Season 1??

New Look at Cameron Crowe's 'Roadies'

I was mildly intrigued by the first trailer for this Showtime series starting June 26th, but even more so with this new one. The cast looks great and if I don't quite trust Cameron Crowe's recent output, J.J. Abrams and Winnie Holzman (creator of My So-Called Life) as producers are a good sign. So I'm really crossing my fingers for this one, but will wait for reviews to land before checking it out.

Conan Plays Overwatch with 'Game of Thrones's Tyrian and Cersei

Okay, so these Clueless Gamer bits Conan does have started to get more attention recently due to his bringing celebrities in to play along. I kinda blame the insanely popular Carpool Karaoke segments from James Corden for this (I have to duck and admit to liking those), and I guess the games that Jimmy Fallon does with nearly every celebrity guest as well- mostly the lip synch stuff, which has now spawned its own TV show. People just cannot get enough of celebs goofing around, can they? I can't stand Fallon and refuse to watch just about anything he does, but my beloved Conan always cracks me up, and so do Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey here as well. Crap. I think I've been hooked.

RECAP: SNL 5/21 "Fred Armisen"

Whew. The return of Fred Armisen fortunately leads to a pretty decent episode, which stands in stark contrast to the dreadful run the show's had since March. At least now they can go out on a relative high note, so kudos to Fred for bringing it to a finish.

COLD OPEN: A great opening tonight, as Kate's Hillary trades barbs with Larry David's Bernie in a bar, as they roast each other about the primary contest winding down, despite the fact that Bernie refuses to drop out. They end up dancing through the studio, as Hillary tosses him into an elevator at the end. You have to notice how ironic it is that the show's Hillary and Bernie skits ended up so much funnier than their Trump ones this season. You'd have thought it'd be the other way around.

MONOLOGUE: Fred Armisen comes back to do his "one man show" parody of his SNL audition. It goes on a little too long, although I know that's part of the joke, since Fred hates one man shows. I wouldn't say it's wildly funny, but I get it.

LEWIS & CLARK THEATRE: Fred, Kyle and Cecily do a Lewis & Clark skit in front of a high school class that ends up with Lewis trying to trick Clark into having sex with him while Sacajewea watches. I thought this bit was going to be painful at first, but where it winds up going makes me giggle a little bit, so it's okay.

DIGITAL SHORT: Andy's back! I knew Fred would bring some cast members of his era along with him, and Andy Samberg's the first, who of course pops up with a home run digital short, that has him rapping about a girl (Vanessa) who wants him to fuck her like the "US fucked Bin Laden." It's great!

DINNER PARTY: And another one, as Jason Sudeikis brings new girlfriend Regine (Fred) to a dinner party and she freaks out the guests with her crazy reactions to Jason touching her in random places. It's one of those weird characters, but it's actually funny because several people break in this sketch, including Vanessa, who I don't think I've EVER seen break before, so that's pretty fun to watch.

FAREWELL, MR. BUNTING: Okay, so, for the first time in a long time, I think SNL actually produced an instant classic sketch here. It's a pre-recorded bit, but it starts out as a really straight spoof of the final scene in Dead Poet's Society, only to lead up to a completely unexpected payoff that turns out to be totally worth the wait. See it for yourselves. Bravo, guys. I have to wonder who came up with this.

UPDATE: The final Update of the season includes the last (for a while anyway) of the Trump jokes, which mock the NRA and Hillary, and an appearance by Maya Rudolph as the ousted president of Brazil, but that goes on way too long. Then Jost and Che do their annual "jokes that didn't make it to air" and we end with a final appearance by Kenan's Willie, talking about "fun" in the summertime. You know, I actually thought this was Kenan's last season, but it doesn't appear to be, so I guess he really wants to break that record of longest running cast member.

ANDROMEDA GALAXY: A space sketch with Fred as the designated survivor whose seemingly first class flight in an escape pod annoys his sacrificial crewmates, especially when he picks out City Slickers 2 as the in flight movie, and Korean chicken as dinner. Good for a couple chuckles, but it's too short to leave much impact.

STUDENT THEATRE SHOWCASE: Okay, I think we've seen this sketch too many times now. It's the same old thing, with the annoying artsy kids doing their wacky, politically correct message show. There's nothing new in it, and like I said, I think we got it by now.

HARKIN BROTHERS BAND: Not really a sketch, but Fred leads the entire cast dressed up as a 70's style hippie band as they sing about fun in the summertime. It's a nice final moment to close out the finale.

Well, I think this one was overall pretty solid, like I said earlier. I wouldn't call it hysterical, but hey, that Bernie/Hillary opening, the Bin Laden digital short, and the Mr. Bunting sketch qualify this one for at least a B+, while the rest of it didn't overtly offend, so thank you to Fred for bringing this season in for a landing. When it comes back it's going to be right in the thick of election time, which is always when SNL is most relevant, so I'll see you guys back here for what's bound to be a crazy fall. In the meantime, have a great summer everybody!

Trailer for Season 2 of Hulu's 'Casual'

Casual was one of the new shows I really liked last year, and the second season is premiering in June, so look out for it if you can. It's kind of in the Transparent vein of family comedy/drama. Even though I'm usually a big defender of shows like Transparent and Orange is the New Black qualifying for that comedy category, because to me dark comedy IS comedy, this is actually one that I would go ahead and label a drama, even though no one else will simply because it's a half hour show. But it's not nearly as comedic as those others can often be, and it dwells purely in the real world, with no cartoon-y or surreal-like elements.

'24' is Rebooted Without Jack Bauer in '24: Legacy' Trailer

I honestly don't know what the appeal of doing a 24 reboot sans Jack Bauer is. I mean, Kiefer Sutherland WAS the show, wasn't he? But Fox is going to go ahead and try it with Straight Outta Compton's Corey Hawkins in the lead, with this 12-episode series premiering after the Super Bowl next February. We'll see how it goes, I guess. One thing I can say about this trailer is that it does look exactly like 24, just...without Jack. Do people want to watch that? Who knows.

Chaos Reigns in New Trailer for 'Mr. Robot' Season 2

Finally, we get a look at the much anticipated second season of the critically buzzed Mr. Robot, which is starting on July 13th. I gotta say, this is a pretty impressive trailer, especially for TV. Doesn't give away too much, yet the intensity and mystery, which is everything on this show, is clear from the get go. And hey, they got Obama in there too!