[10 for 10... that's 10 movies (or tv shows) which we give ourselves 10 minutes apiece to write about. Part of our problem is we don't often have the spare hour or two to give to writing a big long review for every movie (or TV show) we watch. How about a 10-minute non-review full of half-remembered scattershot thoughts? Surely that's doable? ]
In this edition: a bunch of teevee
Young Rock - Pilot (NBC)
...m'kay...
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No doubt about it, 2020 was a completely fucked up year, pardon my French. Nothing was normal, everything felt off, and, you know, for some people it was really really bad (and for some it remains really, really bad, or has gotten even worse). I feel very fortunate for where I am living, and working and able to frivolously talk about TV and movies on the internet to literally tens of people! Such a gift!
Had you asked me on January 1, 2020 what one of my favourite shows of the year would be, I never thought a quasi-spy/mystery/psychodrama starring the Big Bang Theory's Kaley Cuoco would be near the top of the list. But there it is.
I loathe the Big Bang Theory to the point that I feel offended whenever someone thinks I watch it just because I'm a geek. I'm not going to get into it, this is not a Big Bang Theory review, but I dislike the show so much that pretty much everyone associated with it I just want to write off completely.
Yet I've had to begrudgingly admit that Cuoco's vocal performance as Harley Quinn in the (now HBO Max original) cartoon is fantastic, and that as producer of the series she's actually had somewhat of a guiding hand in how that show comes together, and the messaging it presents.
The Cuoco softening continued with The Flight Attendant, which the wife and I started watching on a whim because a commercial before whatever HBO show we were watching made it look like a really really fun series.
And it is.
It's super fun, but the commercial made it out to be more of a Peter Sellers-esque farce with Cuoco's titular flight attendant bumbling through being a suspect for a murder and doing everything wrong in trying to clear her name. In reality it's much more dramatic than that, as Cuoco's character, suffering intense PTSD and anxiety is coming apart at the seams while still trying to do something proactive. And Cuoco is fantastic in the role. She treads a very fine line between realistic and over the top and always stays on the right side of it. The show goes broad but she stays grounded. I've clearly misjudged her (though I have not misjudged The Big Bang Theory).
The Flight Attendant is utterly consumable, an effective mystery thriller, while also being supremely charming with a very well rounded cast. There are some stretches and missteps and moments that feel too large for the story, but they're forgiven by how easy it is to invest in the story, the characters and the character dynamics. The twist that Cuoco's character works through her issues in her head with her murdered lover is the shows fantastical conceit, but it's wonderful and works so well to help get inside the character's fractured midset.
Just an absolute delight. Unfortunately they're planning a second season which I think is a mistake. This feels so right self-contained, and I worry that Killing Eve syndrome will happen, where the show's quality dips so dramatically without an actual plan or guide... but you never know.
[16:23]
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Just as I never thought that a show starring Kaley Cuoco would be one of my favourite things of the year, I would have never guessed at the start of 2020 that the rumoured Saved By The Bell redux would be one of my favourite things of the year. And both The Flight Attendant and Saved By The Bell were airing at the same time, so I had two unlikely appointment television shows going. I was really questioning my sanity for a moment.
I didn't much like Saved By The Bell as a pre-teen, because it was the lead program responsible for cartoons disappearing from Saturday morning network TV. You know, the stuff that made getting up Saturday morning worthwhile and so very exciting. I caught the odd episode, but I generally tried to find something else to watch or go off and play on the Commodore 64 or read comics or something.
So there's no way I should have been looking forward to a reboot. I had no nostalgia for the show, and really the thing I like most about SBTB is the Funny or Die series on youtube, "Zach Morris Is Trash", where they run through an episode of SBTB in 4 or 5 minutes with the thesis of how Zach Morris is the worst person on earth, and they're usually proven correct.
But the redux/sequel/reboot was a curiousity, that's basically it. And the first commercial for it, it actually made me laugh multiple times. It was to my own awe and dismay, when, halfway through watching the first episode I not only found myself laughing constantly, but also genuinely appreciating what the show was doing.
This new SBTB finds an "urban" school being shut down due to budgetary and safety concerns and some of it's lower income students finding their way to the very upscale world of Bayside High, where everything is clean, bright and surprisingly progressive. You would expect the show to play off of differences in an antagonistic way, but the rich kids are welcoming of the new wave of multicultural students (it's more their rich parents who have the difficult time).
Though the child of Zach Morris and Kelly (Tiffani Amber Theissen) whatserface is in the show, they mercifully make him a side character, and he's delightful in a supporting role, a prankster and oblivious spoiled rich kid. Instead the lead of the show is one of the transfer students, Daisy, who is the one who breaks the fourth wall and addresses the camera directly (remember in my last 10 for 10 talking about Enola Holmes and how people were upset with it using the "Fleabag device" of talking directly to screen, Zach Morris did it decades earlier). Haskiri Velazquez as Daisy is very endearing and fun in the role, giving those glances and asides a lot of unique charm and character.
The show examines the class and race divides and it has a character who is trans (Lexi, the most popular mean girl in the school), which seems like it would lead to a lot of "very special episodes" but instead the show expertly weaves a rather deft comedic narrative about topics that should be quite sensitive. It purposefully defangs the tension and gets the point of acceptance across (if not always activism, although that's one of Daisy's big things).
The pilot was so good, I rewatched it when I made my wife watch it, who agreed that the show is a thousand times better than it has any right to be. I neglected to even mention how it continues the Saved By The Bell continuity, carrying over cast and characters from the previous series and making deep cut references to episodes and events and tropes of the old show. These things are there, and they're hilarious even if you don't get the reference, because it's evident that these absurd events they're referencing were things that happened once on the old show. But it's not stuck in the past or reliving it, it's just joke fodder. And seeing former cool guy A.C. Slater as now the kind of pathetic Coach is just fun in its own right, but Mario Lopez plays the character so tone perfect as to not make him sad (that's reserved for John Michael Higgins' ineffective principal).
It was when I saw the credits and Tracey Wigfield's name came up that it all became clear why this show worked so well. Wigfield was a Tina Fey disciple, having a hand in 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and this adopts that production and comedy style... that rapid-fire, jokes-per-second pacing that's a kind of comedy gold. But the young actors are so well cast and the midset is so perfect... I love this show, so unexpectedly, but it presents such an optimistic world, while acknowledging there's still bad stuff. It's kind of the show we need right now.
More please.
[41:33]
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The first season of His Dark Materials was a bit of a slow burn, it took its time to get going, and even when it did it felt like it was still in complete set-up mode. Season 2, covering the second book of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy moves at a much faster pace. Lyra and Will meet, they hop between dimension, and there's kind of a more focused trajectory for them. We know the dangers they're facing, we know what they're looking for, but the more important part is they have each other. It works well, the budding friendship and connection. They both have destinies to achieve, and they're both kind of oblivious to the fact. Lyra has greater designs than Will, but will is comfortable with the fact that he's the guy who needs to help ensure Lyra's destiny comes to fruition.
In the background, there's the machinations of our evil beings over at the Magisterium, with some polite murder and a new patsy regime taking hold, if only so that Ruth Wilson's fantastically perplexing Marisa Coulter can do whatever she wants without any real oversight.
The first season seemed bogged down with too many characters, but not enough sense of what to do with them all. The second season feels so much more streamlined, so much tighter, much more consumable.
It also helps that it's playing with parallel realities, which is, next to time loops, my favourite sci-fi trope. And perhaps that's ultimately what makes Season 2 resonate with me more than Season 1, it's more science-y than fantasy, and I do favour science fiction over fantasy, (but I'm usually pretty happy with a blend).
I was nervous that the show wasn't doing well and that it wasn't going to get to wrap up, but thankfully HBO is committed to the project and is closing it out with a third season.
[51:47]
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Uh oh.
Big Mouth is back. It's about to get uncomfortably hilarious.
We rewatched Season 1-3 during the lockdown and were quite ready for season 4 when it came. This season promised both more of the same as well as something different...some growth for the characters, if not necessarily maturity.
The third season ended with Nick and Andrew's friendship dissolving and the fourth season picks up with them forced to bunk together at camp where Nick's summertime best friend, Seth, played by Seth Rogen winds up becoming fast buds with Andrew. Meanwhile there's a trans girl who everyone used to know as someone else, and it's Jesse who is the first to accept it. As usual among all this is the plethora of dick, fart, and poop jokes as well as the hormone monsters only serving to make bad situations worse. The camp setting is only the first three episodes of the season, but the show easily could have extended it. Hopefully there's more camp in subsequent seasons.
Big Mouth accelerates rapidly through storylines, pushing its dense cast of characters through dramatic paces at a stupefying rate. Missy finds her own voice as a young Black woman (which culminates in Jenny Slate passing on the voice work to Ayo Edebiri, a proactive choice made by the show just as the cries for accurate vocal representation were starting). Jay an Lola get into a very weird relationship which seems to sweetly work for those two disgusting kids. Matthew gets more involved with his boyfriend and so much more.
It's all a lot, and very outrageous, and frequently in questionable taste, but that's the show. It's very progressive in some ways but still mired in little kid poop and fart humour, and 80's-influence raunch comedy.
If there's one takeaway from season 4 though, it's that Nick as a character is becoming a real asshole, and that Andrew, who was already aware of his own asshole tendencies, is at least aware of it where Nick is not. And that makes it harder viewing when the ostensible lead of the show becomes more and more unlikeable. I hope that Nick finds some sense of self in the upcoming seasons.
[1:07:05]
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I avoided The Queen's Gambit because it was one of "those shows", you know, the ones that becomes a thing, and everyone watches and says its the greatest thing and you must watch it. I buck up against that kind of stuff, because therein lies mediocre shit like The Da Vinci Code right?
But COVID hit the industry hard, and new content suddenly became a trickle rather than a flood. Sure I could have went and started, say, Orphan Black or something, but The Queen's Gambit was right there, staring me in the face.
And yeah, I have to admit, there's definitely something there. A young girl, traumatized by the death of her mother, and orphaned, becomes addicted to the pills the orphanage used to help the kids sleep (oh, the 60's). But Elizabeth also finds chess, and becomes fixated. Not only does she have an aptitude for math, but even more a preternatural ability to read the chess board, to calculate possibilities.
Young Elizabeth is interesting, but it's when the show jumps forward to her being a teen in the second episode and Anya Taylor Joy takes up the role that the show becomes fire. Joy takes the character from a naive newbie to a shrewd and calculating ingenue, and handles the varying paces required of her with aplomb. She's clearly got an emotional disconnect from her reality but those moments where she breaks the facade, Joy plays so perfectly. The relationship with her adoptive mother is one of convenience at first but becomes one of intense meaning, it's where Beth learns to be a strong, independent woman, to look out for herself and not compromise anything.
It's all framed in Beth's experiences in the world of competitive chess, where she is one of few women, and certainly the only woman of world-class caliber. The show never really goes too deep into what probably was an actual misogyny minefield, and instead seems to have more fun with chess players as intellectuals who respect skill and smarts. It also enjoys how capable Beth is at cutting down most anyone she meets.
If the show flails, its in its final act, where Beth goes to a Russian invitational, a big deal for an American chess player. The Russians are the gold standard and considered unbeatable. The mini-series falls into a lot of happenstance and cliches, and improbable logistics to be emotionally manipulatate, to give the audience the feels in an unjust manner. It taints the whole production for me. I'm sure most people wouldn't even notice. But other than that, it's a wonderfully sumptuous production, so well crafted visually, the wardrobe is out of this world, and Taylor Joy just a captivating presence.
[1:22:39]
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Season 1 of Star Trek:Discovery was difficult for many because the visuals looked far too advanced when compared to what we see in the original series ("TOS"), and being a show that takes place roughly ten years before TOS creates a cognitive disconnect that was hard for many to resolve. When at the end of the second season, the crew of the Discovery find themselves a thousand years in the future, it seems like, finally, the show is where it should have started. It should be home now, exploring a far different reality than the 80 year timespan explored between TOS and Voyager.
I love how the season opened, with sole focus on Michael Burnham, as she finds herself separated from the crew in traveling to the future, and makes friends with a bounty hunter (?) named Book who shows her the ways of the further. A friendship is forged and adventures are had.
The second episode shows what was happening on Discovery while Burnham was off on her own thing. And I was liking the idea of alternating between Burnham and Discovery for a few episodes as they had their own adventures on their way to finding each other.
Alas, at the end of the second episode of the season, they find each other. Too soon.
From there Burnham becomes fixated on "The Burn", the event from 100 years prior wherein all the dilithium in the universe exploded all at once, crippling interspace travel. Though people way out of time, and their technology seemingly archaic, it's the Discovery that is the only ship that can travel pretty much anywhere in the cosmos thanks to the spore drive, thus making them both invaluable asset to the fractured remnants of the federation, but also a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands.
There's some floundering in the midseason, and frankly too much Burnham focus for my liking. The conecit of the show being centered around someone who wasn't Captain of a ship seemed like a good idea to start, but the crew has come together and the cast has gelled, it's time to become more of an ensemble and stop having not just the universe, but the damn timeline revolve around Michael Burnham. I don't even dislike the character, but I dislike the gravitational pull the show puts on the character, the center of everything.
The last third of the season is nicely propulsive, if not always sensible. It gets big and resolves a lot of the big issues they set up, but almost too cleanly, as it really could have spent a lot more time being more traditional Trek in navigating this future reality, but instead it ends with a triumphant new normal. That said, it does poise the fourth season to be this future reality exploration in a traditional Trek sense... but we know this show buck up against that expectation time and again, so we'll see how it fares.
A mixed bag, but more better than worse...just frustrating
(SPOILER:
how!? How do they promote Burnham to captain after she goes rogue time and again and follows nothing but her own intuition even when it clashes with the established morals and guidelines of the federation. It's maddening that they did that. She should have been thanked for her efforts and cast out.)
[1:37:08]
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Some of the comedy and film review podcasts I listen to had in the past mentioned Los Espookys and the name stuck in my head. I tried looking up the show, but it was just never something remotely accessible in Canada, until recently when it popped up on our Canadian HBO streaming. I hopped right on, really not knowing anything about it.
What it is a delightfully silly, mostly Spanish language comedy about a group of 20-somethings who are obsessed with horror and operate a upstart business that does spooky things upon request. It seems like a bad idea for a business, and it is, but it's a niche idea and the show takes us through their adventures with their niche clients.
I don't really know how to explain Los Espookys. It's its own comedic reality, where everyone acts a little weird so people acting a little weird doesn't seem weird to anyone. Movies like Nacho Libre or Kung Fu Hustle come to mind, where the reality that the characters inhabit is one which everyone accepts, but obviously are patently absurd to us. Like, there's this whole side thread about Andres, a fabulously droll and goth gay man who is the young heir to a chocolate empire. He is dating and later engaged to a statuesque but vain and superficial heir to a cookie empire... and their relationship makes no sense, but that's kind of the point. Or Tati, the most awesome, out there character of the show. She's supremely positive and up for anything, but also utterly incompetent and oblivious to her incompetence. She's always doing odd jobs, seriously odd jobs, like breaking in peoples shoes, or moving the second hand in the clocktower (it's now running 3 minutes slow as a result). There's weird asides, like the local tabloid news broadcaster who seems to be brainwashed, or Uncle Tico in L.A. played by Fred Armisen whose gift in life is parking cars, and can only seem to relate to people on that level.
It's an utterly delightful and silly show, and I was very sad that it was only six episodes long. At the same time, six episodes seemed to be the perfect amount to work through its various arcs while still readying itself for more to happen in a sequel season. This is a show where I think less is more. It feels like it's taking the path of British comedy, in that way, and smartly so. It's a good plan to obsess over the comedic details watching on repeat than to drown in too much absurdity. I'm ready to rewatch, any time.
[1:51:30]
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Lupin is a famous French thief from novels. It's been adapted many times and even inspired a famous anime series. This is a modern take on it from Louis Leterrier, which is more about a character who is inspired by the Lupin books, rather than Lupin having been a real person in this reality.
The show is very watchable, with Omar Sy being a very charming lead. The story, over its six episodes, is kind of a mystery that unfurls, as Assan Diop pulls off a very daring heist at the Louvre, which seems like just a gig, but then reveals to have very personal layers for Assan.
Assan is a father and has an ex-wife whom he gets along well with. It's clear there's love still there but Assan's profession keeps him distant. But this very personal journey he's on brings up aspect of his past, his immigrant father framed for a crime he didn't commit, and Assan finally understands that there's actually a wrong to right.
But he must first understand who is to blame, and the many skills he's adopted over the decades as a master thief are put to work in solving that puzzle.
At six episodes, the first season ends on a cliffhanger which feels like a cheat. So few serialized shows are six episodes anymore that it seems like it was an intentional ploy to get more money for less episodes and guarantee a reorder. The show appears to be quite popular, so a second season is likely, and, well, I'm up for it.
[2:00:44]
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Keenan Thompson has been on Saturday Night Live for a record smashing 19 years now. It's hard to remember a time when he wasn't on the show, and yet his presence is always welcome. He hasn't seemed to age at all and he's so comfortable in the live setting he's able to be a naturally funny presence in almost any role he's playing. He's got recurring characters, sure, but his best roles are ones where he gets to mug or react to something. He's a top notch supporting not-ready-for-primetime player, but now he's got his own show that, well, doesn't seem ready for primetime.
Keenan the show puts Keenan as a widower father who is also a morning show celebrity in Atlanta. His morning show curiously isn't a sort of parody of morning but rather tries to earnestly ape the morning show vibe in a scripted sitcom. It doesn't work. They should let the characters improvise here, give it a sense of flow, but as it is, it's just dull pap.
Outside of the morning show, Keenan has two daughters in sort of the pre-teen/early teen age range. They're a good heart to the show and have that kind of "we know whats really going on" precociousness. Also living with Keenan is is father-in-law, played bafflingly by Don Johnson. I don't say that as a race thing but more of a ...Don Johnson? thing. Also Keenan's brother lives with him, a rather shiftless Chris Redd, the only one to bring any laughs to the pilot.
Where this first episode of Kenan fails is two fold. Firstly, it seems like a sitcom that has no audience or laugh track, the pacing is all off. It may be COVID fallout, where the show was written as a live studio audience comedy, and so it just plays off flat as it waits for laughs never to come. The second reason is it doesn't let Kenan do what Kenan does best, which is react wildly to things. I mean yeah, that could get tired very quickly, but it what I want to see and there is literally none of it in the pilot.
Maybe it's a work in progress, but this pilot is so dire, I don't know that it's going to get enough episodes to really work out its rhythms
[2:11:32]
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Young Rock is a bizarre vanity project for Dwayne Johnson, where they mine stories from Johnsons life to present a show that takes place in many eras with many different people playing Johnson at different stages of his life.
We see Johnson as an 8-year old, living with his mother and idolizing his absentee father, the wrestler Rocky Johnson. In the pilot we find young Dwayne given all sorts of promises by his dad, going to back rooms to meet wrestlers like Junk Yard Dog, Andre The Giant , and "uncle" Iron Sheik where they're just casually hanging out. I loved this behind the scenes of classic wrestling, but also there's a really good emotional core as young Dwayne looks up to these glorious behemoths talking both life and the biz.
We then catch up with Dwayne in high school, where he was a bit of a shrewd shoplifter, and trying to elevate his status at a new school... with semi disastrous results. There's some pretty good comedy bits here, including the shoplifting tag exploding, and the fact that all the other high school kids think he's a Narc ("dude, you're bigger than my dad").
There's a third arc as Dwayne starting his football career and trying to get off on the right foot with his new teammates goes awry. It's all about the facade, the kayfabe, the fake reality you build to fool others into perceiving you how you want to be perceived.
All these individual parts, honestly, are pretty good.
What's not so good is the bizarre framing sequences set in 2032 where real Dwayne Johnson, is running for president and is being interviewed by Randall Park, now the host of a popular news journal. One of the hardest things to write well is this kind of talk show interview, and it's too easy to have characters say lines that fit the plot or whatever rather than talk like real people. It's kind of off putting how bad these sequences are despite starring two extremely charming performers.
There's definite promise here though but a lot of bugs to work out.
[2:22:32]
I am beginning to thinks you might watch more TV than I do...
ReplyDeleteMebbe it's because BC I watch shows with shorter seasons... And comedies are faster viewing...
DeleteFlight Attendant 8 eps
Saved by the Bell 10 eps
His Dark... 8 eps
Big Mouth 10 eps
Queen's Gambit 6 eps
Discovery 13 eps
Los Espookys 6 eps
Lupin 6 eps
Kenan 1 ep
Young Rock 1 ep
tru dat.
ReplyDelete