In the US: Wednesdays, 10/9c, ABC
In the UK: Not yet acquired
This is Us was an unexpected hit for NBC, which usually does lukewarm versions of other networks’ dramas with a hint of added smartness. As its portentous title suggests, the show tries to depict universal emotions – it might as well be called ‘this is the human experience’ – and that’s one of the keys to its success.
ABC must have been annoyed when it saw how well the show did. This was ABC’s natural territory after all. ABC is the network of gushing emotionality, after all.
Cue A Million Little Things, ABC’s necessary rejoinder to This Is Us. Based on the idea that friendship isn’t one thing, it’s a million little things, the show is unusual for ABC, however, in being about a bunch of male friends: David Giuntoli (Grimm), a music teacher and stay-at-home dad who is having marital problems; unsuccessful movie director Romany Malco (Weeds); womaniser and breast-cancer survivor James Roday (Psych); and successful businessman Ron Livingston (Office Space).
Typically, they don’t really talk about their emotions much, just watch sports together, so when Livingston jumps off a tall building, it comes as a big surprise to all of them. Was he depressed? What did he have to be depressed about? Say, is there anything you guys aren’t telling me, too?
One of the things I toyed with mentioning when reviewing The Cool Kids earlier today was the idea that maybe different generations appreciate different kinds of storytelling. Obviously, the kids with their phones and their YouTube like short-form (or do they?), whereas my generation love proper TV like they made in the 80s and the 90s before everything went to hell. Obviously. But is my normal just as much an acquired taste and were the dramas of the 60s and 70s ‘optimum TV’ and are people in their 50s and 60s the true connoisseurs, who are currently underserved?
It would explain why I didn’t think there were any jokes in The Cool Kids – there were, but I didn’t really appreciate them, whereas someone older might have done.
Nah. The Cool Kids was dreadful. I bet even old people hate it.
Anyway, that was my thought. Which handily enough ties into Netflix’s The Good Cop. Netflix, of course, is truly global in all senses, and tries to cater for all generations and all tastes around the world. And despite the fact them kids watch a lot more streaming services than the older generations do, that doesn’t mean oldsters can’t watch them, too, particularly if there’s TV actually aimed at them. We’ve had older female-oriented TV on Netflix already with Grace and Frankie, but now here’s one for the boys.
With the US Fall season now cranked up to full, there are plenty of new sitcoms hitting the screens. Unfortunately, none of them are any good; worse still, none of them really want me rambling on for a full review about them. So rather than leaving them all to WHYBW tomorrow, I’ll just do them now, instead.
Murphy Brown (US: CBS)
Latest of both the sitcom revivals and CBS’s attempts to plunder the 80s archives for remakes, this first episode sees Murphy getting the old band back together to start a new cable network morning news show to do proper news in the era of Trump, with the minor complication that her son (Limitless‘s Jake McDorman) is now a host in the same timeslot on a rival #FakeNews channel. She’s also looking for a new secretary, of course, but the first one, Hilary Clinton (that’s only one l), might not be suitable…
This was naturally never going to be particularly fresh, but this comes on the back not only of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, but CBS All Access’ The Good Fight, where Trump-induced liberal rage was the name of the game. So none of it feels particularly fresh and the jokes are all mere shadows of the ones that have already aired in those shows. And that’s before we get started on having an Indian guy as the channel’s social media guru – that’s practically a Dev Patel Newsroom tribute. After that, it’s jokes about how Murphy can’t use her new smart phone because she’s old (hilarious) and how Trump hires are brain dead (that’s practically a The Good Fight tribute). It would help if the show’s producers could even get Donald Trump’s Twitter handle correct, if they’re going to start making jokes about not understanding tech, of course…
It’s nice to see all the old gang back together, but I’d rather be watching a third season of Great News instead, thank you.
In Australia: Mondays, 8.30pm AEST, Showcase. Starts October 1
Hitmen and comedy seem to be a heady combination. On TV alone, just recently, we’ve had HBO’s Barry and Epix’s Get Shorty; UK TV has Mel and Sue reunited at last for the forthcoming Hitmen. And in the movies, there are comedy hitmen in The Whole Nine Yards, Get Shorty (again), Pulp Fiction, A Fish Called Wanda and Grosse Pointe Blank, to name but a few.
Which is odd. Hitmen murder people for money, so they aren’t especially nice people.
Mr InBetween may be a dark comedy about a hitman, but it does at least seem to understand that. Based on Scott Ryan’s 2005 student movie The Magician (he can make people disappear…), it sees Ryan reprise his role as Ray Shoesmith, a smiling Australian odd job man who seems like a nice bloke. He’s a decent enough father to his child, whom he still manages to spend time with, despite the divorce. He keeps a dog, plays video games at home and is willing to do a mate a big favour if he needs it – like ‘admitting’ to his mate’s Russian wife that that DVD of porn she found was actually his, not her husband’s. He even helps with the care of his brother, who’s in the early stages of motor neurone disease.
Those odd jobs, though? Sure, he’s a bouncer at a club. But he’s also a debt-collector, who’ll threaten the wife and family of anyone who fails to pay up on time. And if someone fails his boss, they might find themselves plummeting to their doom from a great height.
Scott Ryan and Damon Herriman in Mr Inbetween
In between days
Ryan’s portrayal of an enforcer is both darkly threatening and nuanced. He smiles so much you want to like him and when he doesn’t need to use violence, he won’t, instead using persuasion and threats to get what he wants. When a young protégé on his first job starts roughly up an ordinary man who can’t pay, Ryan simply gets the man’s wallet out, looks up the address and pockets the family photo he finds. It’s enough to get the money.
When the protégé apologies later, Ryan is all smiles still. “Don’t worry. You’re not expected to know what to do the first time,” he says.
But the story is also a portrayal of loneliness. Despite his friendliness and constant banter with the blokes, Ryan finds it hard to connect with women. When a paramedic (Brooke Satchwell) he encounters when they’re walking their dogs shows interest, Ryan doesn’t know how to act, but knows that he should. Fortunately, life presents him with a second chance…
(l-r) Nicholas Cassim as Bruce, Scott Ryan as Ray Shoesmith, Chika Yasumura as Brittany. CR: Mark Rogers/FX
Portrait of a hitman
The show is billed as a dark comedy, but there aren’t many jokes, just wry situations. More pervasive is the expectation of constant violence, with the possibility Ryan’s smile is going to disappear and erupt into violence at any point. When the violence comes, it’s bone crunching and there’s an opening stunt that will make you almost gasp in wonder at they managed to film it.
Instead, it’s more of a well written, brave character piece, with some fine acting by Ryan. That writing and performance is presumably enough to have wooed the great and the good of Australia’s acting fraternity to turn up, since Damon Herriman (Secret City, Quarry) and Jackson Tozer (The Ex-PM) are regulars, and Firass Dirani (Underbelly) and Matt Nable (Deadline Gallipoli, Hyde and Seek, Arrow, Barracuda) are set to appear in later episodes.
Don’t expect fireworks and long action scenes. Don’t expect huge jokes. But Mr InBetween is a fascinating little show with only a half-hour runtime, so pretty much anyone can give it a try.
It’s “What have you been watching?”, your chance to recommend to fellow TMINE readers anything you’ve been watching this week
The US fall season started in earnest this week – no more previews, just plain old new episodes of new series in their regular time slots. Since the last WHYBW, we’ve had – and TMINE has reviewed – I Feel Bad (US: NBC), Magnum P.I.(US: CBS) and Manifest (US: NBC). Joining them are New Amsterdam (US: NBC) and FBI (US: CBS), which I’ll review after the jump.
The Internet streamers have been keeping up, too – as has TMINE – with the likes of season two of Ozark(Netflix) and after the jump, The First (US: Hulu; UK: Channel 4). Netflix also gave us Maniac over the weekend, but I’ve not had a chance to watch that, so here’s a trailer in lieu:
Meanwhile, the plucky Australians have decided to give us their own version of Footballers’ Wives (Aussie rules, of course) in the shape of Playing for Keeps (Australia: Ten).
Needless to say, I won’t be bothering with that. Maybe you will.
I’ll be trying to keep up with the rest of the new schedule (I hope) so expect all manner of new US TV shows to be reviewed by the next WHYBW, although my work schedule looks a bit crazy for the next week, TBH, so I can’t promise nowt, I’m afraid.
After the jump, on top of those new shows, I’ll be casting my eye over the latest episodes of the regulars: Forever, The Last Ship and You. See you in a tick.
