The Medium is Not Enough

In the US: Wednesdays, 8.30/7.30c, ABC

Speechless has done a surprisingly good job so far of not running out of things to say. In a show that’s founded on the comedy in how American society treats the disabled, there was the extreme risk from the very first episode that there were only so many nuanced and intelligent things to contribute on this issue.

But the show, which sees Minnie Driver trying to do her best for her son who has cerebral palsy, her other nerdy son, her sporty daughter and her patently odd husband, while they all try to do the best for her, has managed to find a whole lot to say not just about discrimination but about well meaning over-compensation against discrimination, working class families living in middle class neighbourhoods, having overbearing mothers, having odd fathers, being black in an all-white environment, young teachers teaching in schools and more. Clearly, there’s a lot of this coming from real-life observation, rather than watching a whole lot of other TV shows.

Speechless has also managed to do all that while still being funny. Perhaps its main line in laughs comes from the tension between the normal American need to try to be normal and fit in and when achieving that is impossible, because, for example, you’re in a wheelchair and can’t attend a beach party. Or because you like collecting items of trash and the girl you’re with doesn’t. A lot of which is genuinely amusing and original. 

Also of note is that Minnie Driver gets to be English. Not pseudo-English, as per Jameela Jamil’s Good Place character, who puts on a posh accent and talks about ‘suspenders’ when she means braces*. No, proper, sarcastically-pretending-to-enjoy-it’s-called-American-football English. That’s worth a sigh of relief in itself, even beyond the fun of just watching Driver blasting every other actor off the screen à la Tim Roth in Lie To Me.

So Speechless is a quick recommend, as it’s one of the best comedies so far this season. It’s not perfect. There’s at least child in the family who’s dispensible. It’s not Son of Zorn funny. But it’s good, smart, consistent and likable.

Barrometer rating: 2
Would it be better with a female lead? N/A
TMINE’s prediction: Should last until there’s a new entertainment head at ABC, which could be three months or seven years

In the US: Wednesdays, 8/7c, Fox
In the UK: Acquired by ITV. Will air this autumn

It would be wrong to think of Fox’s Lethal Weapon as a remake, reboot or reanything of the Mel Gibson/Danny Glover movie franchise. What it is is a bog-standard, TV buddy-buddy cop show circa 1986 that happens to have elements of the movies and modern production values. In fact, in the fundamentals of the plotting of its first three episodes, it’s a lot closer to LA Heat than it is to Lethal Weapon.

At this level, it’s not that funny and it’s not that exciting. Jokes are along the lines of wondering which of Riggs and Murtaugh is more like Starsky and Hutch. Because that’s what buddies do, right?

‘Lethal Weapon’? Most of the time it’s standing around shooting, frequently in slow motion and with a bit of CGI, and that’s about it. Where’s the running through the streets in a manic frenzy chasing people, with no self-regard? Where’s the emptying of magazines of semi-automatic rounds with machine-like rapidity and deadly accuracy at impossible distances? Where’s the Jailhouse Rock and the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?

Even then, such is the sheer mundanity, the Olivier Megaton-grade perfunctory nature of the action, it seems designed purely to take advantage of some unwritten rule that there needs to be a certain number of car chases per scene for the show to qualify for certain tax breaks. No one in the production unit seems to care that by the third episode, trucks’ buckled bonnets are perfectly intact by the next shot and Clayne Crawford’s Martin Riggs can empty his 9mm Beretta by firing just four shots. Does no one count their rounds these days?

But Lethal Weapon is nevertheless a cut above the average cop show. Crawford is the show’s main asset and the show’s wise to focus on him as much as it does, since Damon Wayans can do comedy but drama is not his strong point. Particularly embarrassing is the near smirk Wayans tries hard to avoid when he hears in the third episode that the wife of a dear friend has died of cancer.

But as well as Crawford, there’s the addition of a Los Angeles v Texas dynamic. While mostly this has focused on the Texan Crawford’s gentlemanly manners, we’ve also seen the California need for therapy as well as legal pot businesses make appearance in episodes. It’s novel at least to have some kind of cultural details in a show like this.

Perhaps more importantly and something that feels like it’s fallen in from another show altogether  is Crawford’s suicidal tendencies, which have been a focus since the first episode. While a lot of this has been cobbled together from the movies, including Crawford shooting his own TV when a TV commercial reminds him of his late wife, some of it is new and gets explored in greater detail, particularly thanks to the addition of a father-in-law character who, of course, is equally bereaved.

So three episodes in, I stand by my original conclusion: “…this feels like an adaptation that either only loosely understands its original material or doesn’t feel it can fully exploit it in a primetime show. Whichever it is, it also can’t create something of its own that’s as good or even half as engaging.”

Lethal Weapon will probably be my weekly brainless popcorn show and I could well stick with it, particularly if the equivalent of Rene Russo’s character turns up – maybe that’s going to turn out to be Jordana Brewster. Who knows? But I wouldn’t recommend the show unless you happen to have a popcorn-deficit, too.

Barrometer rating: 3
Would it be better with a female lead? Probably, but it would be smarter to swap out Wayans than Crawford
TMINE prediction: Sure to last longer than Rush Hour and could even get a renewal for a season or more