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US TV

Preview: Son of Zorn 1×1 (US: Fox)

14 September 2016 Rob Buckley 15 Comments


In the US: Sundays, Fox. Starts September 25

I don’t know exactly where Mattel and Filmation lie within the many concentric circles of giant US conglomerates’ IP assets, but if they’re not contained at least somewhere within Fox, I think the creators of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe have a good copyright infringement case on their hands with the arrival of Son of Zorn.

Zorn’s the guy in the picture above; He-Man is the guy in the 80s cartoon below.

Somewhat similar artistically, I think you’ll agree. 

However, that’s probably about the only similarity the two have in common, beyond an oddly similar array of friends, because Zorn owes a lot more to He-Man’s own inspiration, Conan the Barbarian, than to He-Man. He’s a macho, manly kind of guy who’ll only take orders from a woman if he believes she’s really a man.

That’s possibly why he ended up getting divorced and returning to his cartoon island nation to fight demons, giants, et al, while his wife (Cheryl Hines from Suburgatory and Curb Your Enthusiasm) headed off to Orange County, California, to raise their son, Alangulon, by herself. When Zorn returns to Orange County to see his now-teenage son and discovers that Hines is getting married to online professor of psychology Tim Meadows (Mean Girls), he decides to remain in Orange County as a detergent salesman so he can woo back his wife and become a father again.

Coming from Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Last Man on Earth, The Lego Movie), it’s unsurprising that this is a good deal funnier than you might expect – and you might be expecting Kröd Mändoon. While this is basically no different to any other culture clash or squabbling exes comedy – or even to Last Man Standing – with Zorn having to learn to be sensitive and fit in with modern American mores to have a relationship with his wife, it’s less about the format and more about the detail with Son of Zorn.

Zorn’s not just a huge dick with a huge sword, he’s a huge dick with a huge sword and access to death hawks. He’s also a ‘diversity hire’, barbarians from island nations being something of a rarity in California. Alan(gulon)’s a vegetarian and can flirt with the best of them, but he would be better with the girls if he had his own car… or death hawk. Hines’s character is trying to be responsible but is also someone who was happy to hang out with a barbarian and have sex with mountain trolls when she was younger. And Meadows’ character is hyper self-aware, particularly of the fact he’s a big disappointment in life and that Zorn is just big, giving an almost Ben Carson-like deadpan performance of oddness.

A lot of the jokes are obvious and you can usually see where everything’s going. But Son of Zorn keeps coming back with sufficiently out-there jokes that it doesn’t seem matter. Worth trying, at least for an episode or two.

Better Things
US TV

Review: Better Things 1×1 (US: FX)

13 September 2016 Rob Buckley 2 Comments


In the US: Thursdays, 9pm ET, FX

As you get older, you become more reflective. You look back over your life and all the things that made you what you are and that took you to your current place in existence. Often, you’ll want to share your thoughts and ruminations with others, share those memories before they become like so many ‘tears in the rain’. 

Frequently, however, this is far more interesting for you than for anyone else, who probably have their own stories and memories they enjoy far more than yours.

Better Things is a semi-autobiographical piece written by and starring Pamela Adlon, co-written by Louis CK. Adlon isn’t a big name, unless you’re a fan of either Grease 2 or Louis, but she’s had a long career in show business, particularly in voice-over work. Indeed, you may recognise her voice more than her, since she won an Emmy for her performance as Bobby on King of the Hill.

Ever wanted to know what life is like for a 50-something single mother with three daughters, who’s the daughter of a TV producer and who’s an actress living in LA who goes to a lot of auditions and has to deliver a lot of bad dialogue in a lot of bad TV shows? I can’t say I feel a desperate need to know myself, but maybe you’re different, in which case Better Things will be a big help bridging that empathy gap.

Trouble is, it’s not saying an awful lot that you won’t have heard elsewhere. It’s tough being a single mom; it’s tough dating when you’re older; it’s tough having a teenage daughter; it’s tough being an older actress. And so on. These are known things. Even the ‘bad parenting’ jokes have been done to death this year alone, in movies such as Bad Moms and TV shows such as The Detour. Maybe we need reminding every so often, but I’m not sure a multi-part comedy series on FX is the best way to go about it.

All the same, there are good things in Better Things, although that’s more to do with some creative choices than the subject matter or anything especially interesting or funny that happens. Better Things isn’t always linear storytelling, with time jumps backwards and forwards, dream sequences, inter-titles, TV shows within TV shows, cameos by famous actors, either as themselves (Julie Bowen from Modern Family) or as characters (Bradley Whitford from The West Wing). The autobiographical elements give the show a specificity and an accuracy that it might not otherwise have had, too, and there’s some laughs to be had from Adlon’s voiceover work. 

Maybe if you’re facing similar issues, you’ll find this funny in a gallows humour kind of way. Personally, I found it just a little bit too self-involved, a bit too much a female Californication but without much joy.

What have you been watching? Including Atlanta, Narcos, The Last Ship and Mr Robot

12 September 2016 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

It’s “What have you been watching?”, my chance to tell you what movies and TV I’ve been watching recently that I haven’t already reviewed and your chance to recommend things to everyone else (and me) in case I’ve missed them.

The usual “TMINE recommends” page features links to reviews of all the shows I’ve ever recommended, and there’s also the Reviews A-Z, for when you want to check more or less anything I’ve reviewed ever. 

I’ve been a bit slack over the past week. Work’s been a bit crazy and season two of Narcos has been taking up a lot of my time. Never fear, though, as over the next few days, I should – fingers crossed – be reviewing a whole batch of new US shows, including Quarry, Better Things and Speechless. I might even pass a third-episode verdict on Four In The Morning, if I have the time.

After the jump, I’ll be looking at the latest episodes of the regulars, Halt and Catch Fire, Mr Robot and You’re The Worst, as well as the whole second season of Narcos and the season finale of The Last Ship. But before that, one show I had been planning to do a full review of last week but didn’t get round to because it turned out not to be worth it was…

Atlanta (US: FX; UK: Fox UK – starts November)
Written by Donald Glover (Community, The Martian), Atlanta also stars Glover as the Princeton-drop out cousin of an Atlanta rapper (Brian Tyree Henry) who’s just about to hit the big time. Glover has to use his big brain, as well as his connections, to get in on the deal as well as help Henry deal with the problems of the music biz, race, sex and more.

I’ve seen various articles talking about how Glover has ‘redefined comedy’ with Atlanta and it’s fair to say that he’s redefined in that Atlanta is as much a drama as a comedy and there aren’t many jokes. Of the jokes that Glover does give us, most of which he gives to himself and concern being the smartest guy in the room, with no one on his level to talk to (“Do you know where the word management comes from?” “Yes, it’s from the Latin word manus, meaning hand” “Oh… Management really means…”). Otherwise, while it does offer an insider’s view of life for the poorer members of society in Atlanta, it doesn’t offer that much that’s new – apparently, people will treat you differently if you’re famous, for example. How insightful.

I wanted to like this, since Glover’s great, and I had had high hopes for it, given Glover started out writing for 30 Rock, but my 100% dislike of all shows about the American music industry (eg Power, Empire, Vinyl, Nashville) continues to have a 100% strike rate thanks to Atlanta.

Continue reading “What have you been watching? Including Atlanta, Narcos, The Last Ship and Mr Robot”

US TV

Mini-review: Vice Principals 1×1 (US: HBO; UK: Sky Atlantic)

21 July 2016 Rob Buckley 1 Comment


In the US: Sundays, 10.30pm, HBO
In the UK: Tuesdays, 9.35pm, Sky Atlantic. Starts July 26th

This year, it seems, is the year that US TV has decided it wants not only to go back to school but to go back to school childishly. “Being an adult hard? How about a bunch of teachers who behave like kids? Wouldn’t you like to watch that?” seems to be the theory.

We’ve already had Teachers and Those Who Can’t from TV Land and TruTV respectively, offering us just that, and now we have HBO’s efforts at the same, Vice Principals, in which Walton Goggins (Justified, The Shield, The Hateful Eight) and Danny McBride (Eastbound and Down, Tropic Thunder) are – yes, you guessed it – vice principals at the same US High School. Goggins is the sweet-talking but ultimately two-faced popular one; McBride is the foul-mouthed, inadequate dick that everyone hates; both hate each other.

Then the principal (Bill Murray – yes, Bill Murray) decides to stand down for the sake of his sick wife, prompting a contest between his deputies to replace him, only for both their dreams to be dashed as outsider Kimberly Hebert Gregory (Devious Maids) gets the top spot instead. My enemy’s enemy is my friend so McBride and Goggins unite to defeat their new opponent – but such is their ineptitude, all’s that likely is mutually assured destruction instead.

The show has several strands of (attempted) comedy. With McBride co-creating and writing, as per Eastbound and Down, it’s not surprise there’s his usual parade of attempted alpha male put-downs, extreme dickery and inappropriate teaching methods, here filtered through a more inadequate, more self-aware, less sports-obsessed prism than Kenny Powers. There’s also the childish squabbling between McBride and Goggins, and their frequently politically incorrect antagonism towards Gregory’s ‘smart, sassy black woman’ routine – which, subtly, is itself as manufactured as both McBride and Goggins’ facades.

But despite all those elements at play, Vice Principals isn’t hugely funny, except towards the end of this first episode when the two enemies unite, and largely feels like watered down Eastbound and Down. McBride’s ex-wife Busy Philipps (Cougar Town) doesn’t get to do much beyond be the butt of his ineptitude, while Shea Whigham as her new husband largely gets to play the unexpectedly nice guy that McBride doesn’t quite know how to deal with, without getting to cause any laughs himself. 

An almost-interesting looking at failing masculinity and petty power struggles, Vice Principals might get better in its second episode when hostilities take off. The fact that it’s a definite two-season, 18-episode run means that it should have a fixed story arc that takes as long as it needs, no more, no less, which is another plus. At the moment, though, it feels like it needs work: must try harder.

US TV

Review: Roadies 1×1-1×2 (US: Showtime; UK: Amazon Prime)

8 July 2016 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

In the US: Sundays, 10pm ET/PT, Showtime
In the UK: Mondays, Amazon Prime

Although the theory of ‘the auteur’ is eminently quibblable, it’s fair to say that you can spot the work of Cameron Crowe a mile off. Whether it’s Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Elizabethtown or We Bought A Zoo, his work is usually characterised by an indie sensibility; a central male-female, potentially romantic relationship; quirky dialogue; a focus on music; and a lot of heart but not much brain. You won’t get very far through Roadies, Showtime’s new series about those unsung heroes and heroines of the live music industry, before proclaiming it as possibly the most Cameron Crowish piece of work that Cameron Crowe has ever done.

Crowe’s never been one for putting plot above character, so it’s a little hard to say what Roadies is actually about, other than that it’s a show about roadies – and the first episode is an introduction to all of them. The ostensible focus of the show are Luke Wilson (Idiocracy, The Royal Tenenbaums, Legally Blonde, Enlightened), the tour manager with a failed marriage and who now sleeps with women literally half his age, and Carla Gugino (Watchmen, Threshold, Wayward Pines), the production manager with a failing marriage and who doesn’t sleep with anyone. They have such The Thin Man chemistry together and obvious devotion to one another, everyone who meets them thinks they’re married – except they’re not!

However, Crowe seems more interested in Imogen Poots (28 Weeks Later), the young roadie who’s heading off to film school because she’s stopping believing in the music. If only she could recover her faith. Most of the first episode follows her around as she slowly rediscovers that faith thanks to all her fellow roadies, who are all a motley bunch of amiable characters: Ron White, the old hand who may have murdered two people but all the bands like; Keisha Castle-Hughes (Game of Thrones, The Almighty Johnsons, Whale Rider), the lesbian; and Peter Cambor (The Wedding Band), the guy from New Jersey who worked with Elvis Costello for a while and got stuck with his accent. There’s also Machine Gun Kelly, a roadie for another band with a strange relationship with Poots, which gets explained at the end of the first episode (spoilers, sweetie).

Crowe’s one real concession to plot comes from Rafe Spall (The Shadow Line, I Give It A Year), the semi-menacing English finance guy who used to work in sports and ‘real estate’ so doesn’t really get music, but who’s been sent over to make some budget cuts. Who’s for the chop? Probably not Poots, judging by the other age-inappropriate, Crowe-typical relationship that gets thrown into the mix. Probably no one, in fact, as Spall gradually learns that it’s love and people, not numbers, that keeps everything working backstage and you remove a piece of that bizarrely intricate puzzle at your own risk.

That first episode is in many ways lovely and heart-felt, albeit a bit saccarine and divorced from reality, with obvious love for music and people oozing from every scene – even for Spall and the creepy stalker girl who wants to do odd things with microphones (Jacqueline Byers). The trouble with auteurship, though, is that unless you’re Aaron Sorkin and prepared to consume superhuman amounts of cocaine to write a classic script every couple of weeks for umpteen years, it’s not something that can transfer over easily from film to TV.

The result is that even though Crowe directs the first two episodes, he hands over writing duties to others from episode two. Winnie Holzman (My So-Called Life) is the first to pick up the slack, but although she’s good in her own right, she’s not up to being Cameron Crowe. The result is faux-Crowe and a little bit painful to watch without his heart-on-a-sleeve gushing. It doesn’t help that Wilson pretty much checks out after the first episode, even if everyone else is working hard, particularly Spall whose role switches from menacing to comedic from the second episode. To be fair again, Wilson does give a near-perfect performance as someone who’s coming down after smoking heinous amounts of weed, so there’s that one small concession to reality, at least.

If you like Cameron Crowe, it’s worth watching the first episode at least, as long as you consider it as a one-off short movie. Watching any more than that would be intolerable. You can watch a trailer below, and if you’re in the US, you can watch the first episode for free here.