REVIEW: "The Americans" Season 6

The Americans came to an end this week, at long last. Six years of spying, sex and murder (which is apparently all that spying really is) culminated in a low key ending that left me feeling frankly, unsatisfied, despite the tact with which it was pulled off. A longtime favorite of mine, I do believe the show peaked in Seasons 3 and 4, where I was fooled into thinking that it was building towards something much more consequential than what ended up happening.

Not that there weren’t signs before this. Actually, the fifth season, considered a disappointment from most fans, was where I started picking up on the signals that the show actually may not want to do away with either of its two antiheroes, much akin to shows like The Sopranos and Justified before it. No, I started realizing that each season’s slow build was more about the tension itself rather than that tension actually leading to something. In past seasons, when characters like Martha (Alison Wright) and Paige (Holly Taylor) found out the truth about Philip and Elizabeth, it changed the status quo and led to realizations that felt dangerous and authentic, and I was tricked into thinking that the two of them couldn’t continue to lead these lives indefinitely, that something would happen to them, especially with Philip’s increasing existential crisis.

But Philip’s personal crisis was simply that. Personal. Now when I look back on it, I realize that finding out the truth didn’t lead to Martha’s ruin, or Pastor Tim’s for that matter. No, when it felt like they were in the most jeopardy, something always let Philip and Elizabeth skate in the end. So perhaps it was me, reading the show wrong all these years. Maybe I was spoiled by the apocalyptic ending of Breaking Bad, where Walt had to get what he deserved eventually. 

Why has Paige become a complete moron this season?

The Americans was always about Phil and Elizabeth’s marriage, which was in as bad a place as it had ever been at the opening of this season. There was a time jump of three years since last season, and Philip had quit working for the KGB and was genuinely running the travel agency (which is a little weird, since I assume the KGB had set up that business as front to begin with, so how could Philip be having money problems?), while Elizabeth was working solo and sloppier than ever, having to murder someone new just about every week. There’s an absolutely idiotic subplot involving Elizabeth now training Paige to become a spy for the Soviet Union, which she inexplicably is into (has she grown stupider as she’s gotten older?), and then rogue KGB agents pull Elizabeth into their plot to take out Gorbachev before the 1987 summit in Washington, so Philip must get back in the game somewhat to prevent that from happening.

This could have been setup for a great final season and a permanent rift between the Jenningses, but as I began to suspect last year, the show never wanted to separate them in the first place. No matter how far apart they are, no matter how doomed their marriage seems to be, their connection is never severed completely. This could have been a terrific storyline for hapless Stan (the worst FBI agent in history, it turns out) to finally find out about his neighbors, trap Philip into turning on his wife in exchange for immunity for himself and the kids, and lead to a powerful, possibly fatal confrontation between husband and wife. At least, that’s what I would have done.

But obviously, I’m not the writer here. So what happens instead feels basically like another typical, not final, season of The Americans, with Elizabeth running her sources as usual and nothing coming to a head in any way until the last couple of episodes, where Philip is finally burned, Stan figures out the truth (after nothing more than one conversation with poor, clueless Henry) and our doomed couple must go on the run. Conveniently, true believer Elizabeth has a sudden change of heart in not wanting to follow the orders of the rogue KGB operatives, allowing Philip to stay allied with her, and Stan’s one confrontational scene with the family ends in a way that’s most unexpected, yet also totally anticlimactic. I couldn't help thinking, that’s it? After all this time? The series wraps up with the bare minimum of consequences for the Jenningses and very little payoff for their years of crimes, unless all you wanted was to see Stan find out, I guess. I wanted more. And there was so much story potential that I think it could have led to a lot more, unless creator Joe Weisberg really felt from the beginning that neither of them should have to pay for or even acknowledge their years of murdering innocent people (not even completely un-remorseful Elizabeth, apparently). Was I supposed to be on the side of the Soviet Union all along here? Silly me.

Grade: B-

Stan solidifies his status as the most duped FBI agent in history

REVIEW: "The Flash" Season 4 / "Riverdale" Season 2

THE FLASH Season 4

This year's big wedding crossover extravaganza was the best one yet

This season of The Flash was a mixed bag overall, but there were still some good episodes, a better villain than last season, and I would call it an improvement on Season 3 at least. The thing with this show is that it coasts mainly on the appeal of its ensemble- as of now it’s still the only Arrowverse show to have arrived full formed and undergone no significant changes to its core cast (sometimes they’ll bring people in for a season who then leave or become recurring, but the core group has remained intact all these years). So if you like the characters, it’s pretty easy to enjoy the show, even through its weak spots. This season the bad guy was Clifford DeVoe, aka The Thinker (played by Neil Sandilands, the strongest actor for the seasonal villain since Tom Cavanagh in Season 1), who was assisted in his evil deeds by his wife Marlize (Kim Engelbrecht, also a very strong addition- she could have been the main antagonist on her own). But the weakest part of these shows lately, in my opinion, is the adherence to having a season long villain every year in the first place. You get stuck in a formula that must repeat itself over and over again- inevitably the team must try and fail to stop the villain through multiple repeating episodes, until the season finale, when they have to defeat him, because….well, it’s the season finale. This makes a lot of plot twists very predictable, because you can see the seeds of it having been done each season at a particular point in time like clockwork. I find the better episodes are the occasional standalones each year, like “Enter Flashtime” this season, an episode where Barry had to slow down time to stop a nuclear bomb going off in seconds, or the annual Arrowverse crossover, which was set at Barry and Iris’s wedding that was crashed by Nazis from an alternate earth, and incorporated all four shows into a standalone two hour two night event that was SO much fun. Would there be anything wrong with going back to the old fashioned baddie of the week adventure show formula, with ongoing character and relationship arcs to serialize it? I think it would be far easier to maintain the quality week to week, to be honest. 

Hartley Sawyer joined the cast this season as the Elongated Man

There were other little pleasures this season, like the adorable new character of Citizen Cold, aka Leo Snart (still played by Wentworth Miller with enormous energy), Danny Trejo guest starring as Cisco’s girlfriend Gypsy’s (Jessica Camacho) father, and finally the full development of the female regulars (not so much Caitlin, whose Killer Frost story remains confusing and muddled, but definitely Iris, who, as wife of the Flash, also takes her rightful place as leader of Team Flash). But then there are things that were annoying, like the string of episodes where Barry’s in prison for no reason (did Grant Gustin need some time off?), the endless repetition of the same “becoming a hero” episode for Ralph (Hartley Sawyer, who was actually very good) as the Elongated Man, and finally, way too many scenes of the gang standing around in Star Labs spouting exposition (can’t they spring for a new set at some point? I hate looking at this ugly grey lab- what happened to CCPD and Barry’s CSI job? Film outside once in a while!) Sometimes I think that the cast is too big, which results in everyone kind of getting shortshrifted (feels like Joe was offscreen a lot this season, for example, while other relationships went totally ignored, like Cisco and Caitlin’s, and even Barry and Iris need to get more intimate scenes together as a married couple if they’re meant to be the heart of the show…despite heartfelt declarations of love, it feels suspiciously like they go out of their way not to let them be too romantic/physical with each other, which makes me question intent behind the scenes- seriously, what’s that about?) Despite how easy it is to nitpick and criticize (this applies to any superhero property of course), I still enjoy the show, I’m still invested in all the characters (well, all except Caitlin) and the setup for next season, which promises a sort of Back to the Future-esque story involving Flash descendants, has me excited, so I’ll be there again with bells on, ready to critique, complain, analyze, but always still watch (which I couldn’t say the same about for Arrow after its third season, so that’s something).

Grade: B

RIVERDALE Season 2

Why has Reggie been excluded from this group? It was a core five in the comics, not a core four

So, if was anyone was looking for a guilty pleasure to sort of take the place of Gossip Girl, which in itself replaced any number of teen shows before it, going all the way back to the original 90210, boy did you get what you were looking for in Riverdale, aka “Dark Archie.” This is an absolutely bonkers show which actually has more in common with a daytime soap than a nighttime one. It does have a subversive kind of appeal, especially for those who were fans of the Archie comics and get a kick out of seeing those supposedly clean cut 1950’s teens turn dark- and I mean very dark. This show can barely go a week without someone killing someone else, but the hilarious part is that nobody really cares that much or is surprised by any of it. The twists and turns are basically for plot purposes only, and characters are only skin deep, but the core four, Archie, Veronica, Jughead and Betty, are all reliable (there’s no weak acting link here like there was on Gossip Girl) and every parent is an un-apologetically awful sinner of some sort- killer, mobster, gang member, adulterer, psychopath, you name it. I think what makes it more consistently watchable than some series is that the size of the cast is big enough that you can have revolving plots and bounce around from character to character (the Archies give you plenty of extraneous teens to choose from, like Chuck, Reggie, Josie, Moose, Ethel, etc) so that no one story takes up too much time overall. But there are exceptions, like the endless Black Hood storyline, and Jughead’s joining the Serpent gang, which made him more insufferable than not this season. On the other hand, they had a full on musical episode based on Carrie and Cheryl was imprisoned by evil torturous nuns for two weeks. The sheer absurdity of it all prevents you from taking any of it seriously, and at times I don’t know why I can’t stop watching it. Maybe because I laugh out loud at least once in each episode, which is a more reliable hit ratio than most of my comedies. I can't say this is a good show. In fact, it's complete trash, and yet it’s enjoyably bad. Mostly.

Grade: D+

REVIEW: "Silicon Valley" Season 5 / "Barry" Season 1

SILICON VALLEY Season 5

The guys are finally on the verge of making it after all

The latest season of Silicon Valley was fun, frothy, and particularly smooth considering it was the first without TJ Miller’s Erlich, who was abandoned in a drug den in China last year. There’s a subplot about Jin Yang trying to declare him dead to take over his share of the company and the house in the first few episodes, but since Erlich’s plots were often disconnected from the rest of the guys anyway, we don’t really miss him much at all. The rest of the gang is in top form, especially Zach Woods as Jared, who probably has a bit more screentime this season (never a bad thing), and Thomas Middleditch continues to evolve Richard into more of a douche as he tries to expand Pied Piper’s payroll. Basically, the show doesn’t miss a beat, is as funny as ever and the best part about this season is no more constant failure! Yep, as the season ties itself up, the Pied Piper crew (including Monica, who finally ditches robotic Laurie to join the guys officially) gets a handle on their new cryptocurrency plan, the company is officially launched, and would you believe it, finally, finally looks to be headed in a successful direction, as Richard outsmarts Gavin Belson for once. Richard’s dream of a new, decentralized internet is on track to actually take off in the finale, which he promptly responds to in nauseous disbelief after all these years. The happy ending leaves you with a warm and fuzzy feeling, and also the idea that the series may be winding down soon, since I’m not sure how much longer it can run if the aim is for the guys to actually make it in the valley. But that could be a good thing as well, since everything must end some time, and I know that creators Mike Judge and Alec Berg think it’s funnier for the guys to struggle rather than succeed. So Season 6 may be the last, but it could also be a natural, logical time for the story to come to an end, and I wouldn’t be mad about it all. If so, this show might manage to become one of the few comedies never to have a down season.

Grade: B+

BARRY Season 1

Bill Hader's 'Barry' is a dark, wild ride

SNL’s Bill Hader comes to HBO with a radical new show that had a pretty flawless first eight episodes, sort of a successor to Breaking Bad as a dark comedy with spurts of violent bloodshed. Barry is a professional hitman who inadvertently stumbles into an acting class in Los Angeles (led by the hilarious Henry Winkler) and spontaneously decides, hey, I think I want to be an actor! The problem is leaving his deadly day job behind, which he realizes is a lot harder to do than he expected. The tonal shifts on this show are pretty wild, veering from the soft comedy of Barry’s terrible improv classmates to his surreal daydreams about sunny domesticated life to the bloody gang warfare of his tangles with Russian and Bolivian mobsters. But with a supremely talented cast, jokes that work and suspenseful, genuinely dark plot twists that challenge the audience over its acceptance of the unquestionably murderous main character, I would say this is one of the best new shows of the year and I can’t wait to see where it goes in a second season. The episodes are just a half hour in length, which adds to the season flying by in a breeze, and once again leaves some viewers questioning whether it’s a comedy or a drama, but as I always say to people who are confused about this- WHY can’t it be both? Rules are meant to be broken, people, and this show does that beautifully.

Grade: A

Kimmy and Titus Go to Work in 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' Season 4 Trailer

I'm still sad that this is the show's last season (the ever busy Tina Fey is moving on to bigger and better things, like her Tony nominated Mean Girls show on Broadway), but I will be enjoying it for all it's worth. In the new trailer, it looks like Kimmy faces the MeToo movement and white privilege as she learns how to be an adult. The first six episodes drop on May 30th, while the last six will come out sometime in the fall.

Neil deGrasse Tyson Returns in 2019 With More 'Cosmos'

Oooh. I enjoyed 2014's reboot of Carl Sagan's original Cosmos documentary series quite a bit, and now the sequel show, Cosmos: Possible Worlds will be premiering on Fox and National Geographic sometime next year. I'll definitely have it marked on my calendar.

REVIEW: "Little Women"

As a longtime Little Women enthusiast, I am always ready for any new adaptation of the classic saga of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. I’ve read the book multiple times and seen multiple screen versions (for my money, the Winona Ryder 90’s one remains the most cinematic and satisfying) but it is a story that can be retold endlessly, since every generation and every fan has their preferred version. So I was perfectly ready to be drawn into the world of the March sisters all over again with this new three episode BBC miniseries that aired over Christmas in the UK last year and is now premiering on PBS, fittingly enough on Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, there was something about this faithful, yet dry adaptation that fell flat in some important places. 

Exceedingly well cast and mostly well acted, the series boasts a fine and feisty heroine, played by Maya Hawke (daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman), who's making her screen debut and is a very appealing and appropriately independent Jo. Also best in show is Emily Watson, whose Marmee is authentic and world weary and who manages to effortlessly make the platitudes that come out of her mouth sound realistic and convey her as a wise, experienced, working class woman of the Civil War era. Dylan Baker brings some life into the usually thankless role of Robert March, father to the girls, while Michael Gambon and Angela Lansbury are classy British perfection as Old Man Lawrence and Aunt March, respectively. 

I think the biggest fault here lies in the casting of the other sisters, unfortunately. Willa Fitzgerald gives us a very stiff (and seemingly dim) Meg, whose romance with the tutor Brooks falls completely flat and uninteresting, while Kathryn Newton’s Amy comes across as entirely too modern for a 12-year-old in the 1860’s. In this Little Women, Amy isn’t just spoiled, but could be a rival to any of the sophisticated, manipulative schemers on Gossip Girl. It’s a bit off-putting. Also jarring is the decision to use Newton to play both young and adult Amy, the change in years accompanied only by a change in hairstyle. Past versions may have struggled with whether to recast Amy or not, but I think it’s essential in selling her eventual marriage to Laurie, which is always difficult for an audience to accept in the first place.

Jo and Laurie come closer in this one...but still no cigar

Speaking of Laurie, he’s one of the other bright spots in this series. Jonah Hauer-King is well cast and very likable, and the Jo/Laurie relationship, always the heart and heartbreak of the book in the eyes of tortured fans going on over a century and a half, is centered strongly here and rips your heart out in all the ways it’s meant to. This particular version plays it up even more passionately, emphasizing the closeness, tension, near misses and gasp, even kissing (!) that the book did, rendering the eventual conclusion to their will they/won’t dynamic even more frustrating. But seeing it play out this way made me wonder whether previous adaptations had it right in choosing to downplay the Jo/Laurie stuff slightly, so as not to simply crush the audience in disappointment that turns downright unsatisfying. As it is, writer Heidi Thomas seems to feel similarly, since Jo’s relationship with Professor Bhaer (who is not an older man in this series, but looks like just a young hunk with a beard) is trimmed to the bare minimum of existence, as is Laurie and Amy’s connection. 

Annes Elwy fares a little better as the fragile Beth, whom she plays as suffering under the weight of her fears, rather than the mousy saint she usually is, but her death scene isn’t nearly as effective somehow, since this Beth seems more resigned to her fate and indifferent about her life in general, making it harder to care about her. The pacing of the series is solid, the production design lovely, and the sense of time and place striking, especially considering it was filmed in Ireland, which must stand in for Civil War era New England. What also works is the decision over which episodic events to adapt from the book. You can always pick and choose if you want to distinguish one adaption of Little Women from another, but it amuses me how little any writer seems to care about adult Amy, who has far more things happen to her in the book than ever make it to the screen in any version. 

Part of that decision however, lies with the true meat of the story revolving around Jo and Laurie, which is unavoidable and yet always a bitter pill to swallow. Someday I’d like to see someone go ahead and do a modern day telling of the story perhaps just inspired by the characters, to allow for a better resolution to one of literature’s great unrequited romances. Or is that fan fiction? Maybe in a way, but everything’s inspired by something else, and I think we Jo and Laurie shippers have waited long enough, don’t you?

Grade: B-

These March sisters are oddly disconnected from each other

Luke Cage Meets Bushmaster in Season 2 Trailer

I thought Luke Cage's first season was sort of a mixed bag. There were things I liked (the setting, and Luke himself, since Mike Colter is a great screen presence) and things I didn't (I cannot stand him being paired up with Rosario Dawson's Claire- the two have negative chemistry and don't make sense together as a couple, plus the main villain in the end wasn't very interesting), so the second season has things it can definitely improve on. Misty Knight's back now with a bionic arm, and I heard that Iron Fist is going to show up. Alfre Woodard's character looks to still be causing trouble and a new villain named Bushmaster challenges Luke's invincibility somehow. Here's hoping it all comes together a lot better than Jessica Jones's second season did. 

'Arrested Development' Returns on May 29th

YAY!!! Still one of my all time favorite shows, AD will return on May 29th on Netflix for its fifth season, and I cannot WAIT! It's been a long five years since the divisive Season 4 (which I actually liked by the way, and which is now airing in a remix version on Netflix in case you want to watch it in chronological order and recut to 22-minute episode lengths), but now the Bluths are back together the way everybody wants them- that is, in the same rooms at the same time and all interacting the way they were meant to. Perfect.

REVIEW: "Homeland" Season 7

Homeland has been trying its very best in the last few years to follow the headlines in having stories that parallel current political threats, and they were caught flat-footed (like the rest of us) in anticipating the country electing a female president last season. But Elizabeth Keane (Elizabeth Marvel) was supposed to be the good guy. Oops.

So they were forced to do several storytelling backflips in the first half of this season to wrangle a domestic political crisis brought on by, you guessed it, Russian hackers. Luckily, once that story really got going (it isn’t really until about episode 7), the second half of the season suddenly kicks into high gear and becomes a solid, suspenseful political thriller with a wishful thinking conclusion that surmises how a clearheaded U.S. government might actually be able to get back at the Russians (have our own hackers somehow steal the oligarch’s fortunes) and solve our national crisis by having the terrible American president resign for the good of the country. Sigh. If only.

So all that was good, but boy does it take a long time getting there. The first half of this season was extremely slow and preoccupied with a failed insurrection started by an Alex Jones wannabe (last year’s Jake Weber), a really boring, really terrible storyline that thankfully, completely disappears after episode 5 (it’s actually so abrupt given how long they spent on it that I wondered if the writers realized in the midst of writing it just how bad it was and changed course). Meanwhile, Carrie is totally isolated from Saul and everyone else, hassled by her sister Maggie to get a job and attempting to figure out if Keane and her staff is good or evil all on her own, which takes her in some wild and wacky directions as she realizes she’s developed a tolerance for her longtime medication. Yep, we get some seriously Crazy Carrie this season, since it’s a rule that we always have to see Claire Danes go nuts at least once a year.

Who knows where the doomed President Keane would be if not for Hillary's loss

And then there’s Frannie. Poor, poor Frannie. When the decision was made way back in Season 3 to let Carrie have Brody’s baby in order to keep a sentimental connection to him on the show, I don’t think the producers realized how difficult it was going to be to write Carrie as a single mother while also having her attempt to save the world every season. So little Frannie’s been through a lot as a result and finally this year Carrie just gives up and lets Maggie take her off her hands. I never minded the idea of Carrie as a mom, but it’s not fun to watch her traumatize her child constantly due to her unfailingly horrendous decisions. I often forget that I’m supposed to think Carrie’s actually good at her job, because every move she makes inevitably makes everything worse (this season in particular might be worst of all).

I somewhat enjoyed the political parallels as Mandy Patinkin's Saul steps up as the fictional world’s version of a Robert Mueller type (even though he’s now the national security advisor who’s clearly not doing his designated job) and manages to solve everything and save the day in a much shorter amount of time (the beauty of fantasy) which kind of does make you wish we lived in Homeland’s reality rather than our own. And I liked the addition of James D’Arcy as another old CIA contact of Carrie’s who might be intended as a new Quinn (Rupert Friend’s much beloved character sadly perished for good last season). The ending is a cleaner wrap-up than usual for this show, which sets the table for another time jump and a final season set in Israel next time. The series has had an impressive run all things considered- never significantly depreciating in quality thanks to its ability to reset every year, but all good things must come to an end, and after all this time with Carrie and Saul, I’m in for one more go, but I’m also ready for it to be the last. 

Grade: B

Carrie and Saul plan another mission to save the country

'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' to End With Season 4

Well, this sucks. Kimmy Schmidt is one of my favorite comedies, but it looks like this season, which premieres on May 30th, will be its last. The final season is split into two parts, so the first six episodes will show up at the end of the month, with the rest probably sometime in the fall. There's some speculation about wrapping things up with a movie, but who knows if stuff like that will actually happen. Sigh. It was crazy and fun while it lasted.