Fall TV Preview

Posted on September 2, 2009 by Michael R. Underwood

We’re on the verge of the Fall 2009 premieres, so I thought I’d share some thoughts on upcoming shows (Sadly, wordpress seems to have eaten all the videos I embedded to go along with the commentary):

Glee (FOX, premieres 9/2)– I’ve already written about Glee here, but let this serve as a reminder, since the re-air of the Pilot is tonight. One of FOX’s most-pushed new shows, Glee follows the losers and outcasts of an Ohio Glee club, re-started by former Glee star-turned Spanish teacher. It’s a musical comedy, but rather than breaking from reality for the musical numbers, they’re all diegetic, songs done by the Glee members or a cappella loops for sound effects/background music. In the pilot alone, they do “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat,” “Rehab,” “On My Own,” and “Don’t Stop Belevin.'” The show has a great quirky sensibility, and is playing the ‘outcasts band together to become more than they would have been alone’ vibe. It’s got an infectious joy to it, and is definitely one to check out.

Flash Forward (ABC, premieres 9/24) — Adapted from a Robert J. Sawyer SF novel, this is being positioned as the long-awaited companion show to their ongoing hit, LOST. In Flash Forward, everyone in the world collapses for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. During that time, they see their own lives, 6 months in the future. The action of the show will then follow the main characters working to ensure that the events in their flash forwards come to pass (or that they don’t). The large ensemble cast includes Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, Dominic Monaghan, Christine Woods and more. ABC has been pushing the show, and it’s drawn a good bit of attention already, given the cast and the concept. In the viewing world following shows like LOST, Heroes, and more, there seems to be more room for mystery-based SF shows, especially ones such as Flash Forward or LOST that have contemporary settings, focusing more on the familiarity than estrangement (to go back to Darko Suvin’s definition of SF). Whereas the novel version by Sawyer flashed forward 21 years, the short-term flash-forward allow for each season to run the span of a flash-forward each season, then do another incident for each following season (which has been advertised as the plan for the TV show). This approach should make for more contained story arcs, and hopefully, the ability for each season to stand on its own merits rather than serving as a lead-in for a subsequent season, as any longer serial narrative has a tendency to do. I’m going to follow this one for probably at least a few episodes, unless it just crashes and burns.

Eastwick (ABC, premieres 9/23):
Seemingly positioned as a sequel to John Updike’s 1984 novel The Witches of Eastwick, this updates the story for a post-Desperate Housewives world. Three women make a wish at a well at the same time, and have their wishes come true — which in true Monkey’s Paw fashion, proves to be more than any of them bargained for. Featuring Rebecca Romajn, Lindsay Price, and Jaime Ray Newman, with Paul Gross as the wish-giving devil. There have been a number of shows that have come along trying to be the next Sex and the City or the next Desperate Housewives, and this show has the honor of being the third TV remake/adaptation of the novel. I’m not excited about it myself, since I’m not the target audience, but I may watch an episode or two just to see how it does.

The Prisoner (AMC, premieres Nov): A remake of the influential British miniseries, AMC is trying to increase its original programming props by going for a remake/sequel of a show that for many, stands the test of time without needing an update. They do have the fortune of slick cinematography, strong set/costume design, and Ian McKellan in the role of #2, with Jim Caviezel as the protagonist, #6. I admit I haven’t seen the original version, but I’m hoping to watch it from AMC (as they’re streaming the original series online for free) before watching this version.

Bored to Death (HBO, Premieres 9/20): With Jason Schwatzman in the leading role, there’s instantly a certain expectation for the show. Add the show’s logline of “A Noir-otic comedy,” and you’ve already got a decent sense of what you’ll be getting into. Schwartzman plays Jonathan Ames, Writer by day, unlicensed Private Detective by night. Ted Danson plays his boss, and the entire thing has indie screwball written all over it. Given that it’s HBO, it automatically gets a certain amount of faith based on the network’s credibility, but I remain skeptical — more because of my own aesthetic leanings than any possible faults of the show.

Bored to Death

Midseason Shows

V: (ABC) — Another classic SF remake, this has a group of aliens arriving on Earth, promising technological bounties in all areas in exchange for access to water and another ‘common resource.’ Saying much more would verge into spoilers, but I’ll note that it will feature Firefly alums Alan Tudyk and Morena Bacarin as well as LOST star Elizabeth Mitchell.

Day one:(NBC) — This is an apocalyptic show that follows the residents in an apartment complex brought together to be in a position to do…something after a worldwide event/attack/something that Destroys Civilization As We Know It. The recent trailers/previews seem to indicate an alien-type event, and a Mysterious Benefactor who chosen the main cast to lead the resistance against the aliens or whatever the source of the apocalypse ends up being. It’s notable in that the level of effects used are reminiscent of films like The Day After Tomorrow or Independence Day, far beyond the scope of what is normal/expected for TV. This of course means that if its budget is that high, it’ll need to perform amazingly well to earn its keep, a problem that shows like Dollhouse, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Battlestar Galactica have had to face. None of the cast members stand out as of yet, and I have the feeling that Jason Alexander, the show-runner, is going for a Heroes/LOST-style ensemble where people’s backstories emerge in play to provide additional fuel as B-plots behind/beside the A-plot of the apocalypse and the recovery/survival aspects. We’re likely to see even more of this before it airs in 2010.

Review: Up

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Michael R. Underwood

Pixar Studios may in fact be the gold standard in animated films.

It comes as no surprise that Up was chosen to open the Cannes film festival. It transcends the baggage associated with animated works and presents a compelling film delightful for children, heartbreaking and uplifting for adults. It achieves an astonishing amount of pathos, starting with a strong and moving opening sequence, genuinely emoting animals, surreal landscapes and an uplifting, tightly-plotted overall work.

Carl is a strong quiet (except when yelling at people because of being a grief-stricken crochety bastard) lead who shows a wide variety of emotion — through Carl, the film explores death and grief and nostalgia with subtle touches as well as huge metonyms (the whole house as Carl’s touchstone for Ellie, in addition to the smaller ones like the bird for the mantle and the portrait).

Russell is cute as a truck full of kittens, and Dug the dog is Pure Dog-ness incarnate and given a voice.

The 3D may not have added as much to Up as to other films, but I feel like it worked with the what was going on. I imagine we’ll be seeing more 3D-enabled work from Pixar in the future.

Two thumbs and four paws up.

Battlestar Galactica — Daybreak

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Michael R. Underwood

More than five years after the 2004 miniseries, the re-imagined version of Battlestar Galactica reached its conclusion with “Daybreak,” a two-part, three hour series finale.

Ron Moore, show-creator and acknowledged Guy In Charge has been on the record as having prioritized character arcs over plot resolution in the finale. This choice is made apparent especially towards the end of the finale, as grace notes for characters are chosen over clear resolution.

The first hour and change is pure adrenaline, final preparation for Galactica’s final mission, the so-crazy-it-has-to-work plan, and then the entirety of the show’s remaining CG budget put into a glorious swansong fight sequence for the Galactica and the series.

There’s already been a lot of talk about the show’s epilogue. By jumping ahead from the end of the character’s story to contemporary Earth and having the ‘angels’ muse about the state of technology, the themes of the show became almost painfully clear. To me, the angels’ dialogue at the end wasn’t clearly a condemnation of robotics or a cautionary tale, but could be read as either.

To put on my writer hat for a moment, I would have sufficed with ending on Hera walking up to a (male) child of the indigenous tribal peoples and making a connection You get the idea of how Hera acts as the future of the survivors, and you can see how the name repeats in a cycle. But then again, it’s much easier to say how you would have done something better than to do it the first time on your own.

Roslin’s ending is the only thing it could have been, and Bill Adama hitched his carriage to hers for an ending. Between this and Kara’s ‘So I guess I was an angel, and now that I’ve done my job I can vanish’ leaves Lee to go off and finally live for himself rather than be defined by his relationships to other characters (his father, his president, Kara, etc.)

Battlestar achieved enough mainstream success as a drama to be ‘escape’ the Science Fiction ghetto (such as it still exists, which is to say only somewhat, and to some people). The finale concerns itself more with answering the character/drama questions than the science-fictional ones. We don’t get a final explanation of what Kara is, but she does make the connections and delivers on the prophecy associated with her by the Hybrid(s). We don’t have the secret history of Earth like we could have with buried starships and many Atlantises, but we do have the Fighting Agathons surviving to the end as a family unit despite all exterior threats.

The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica will likely be remembered as the best SF show of the Aughties decade. It was deeply reflective of post-9/11 USA and a turn towards gritty moral gray areas in mainstream SF television. Just as post-9/11 entertainment included a push towards clear black & white heroism (superhero films, early 24), it also explored the gray areas as we tried to find meaning and humanity in the horrible things our country has been associated with (torture, jingoism, invasion, etc).

There is a TV movie coming this fall (The Plan), but it is unlikely that it will substantially change interpretations of the ending.

Review — Castle “Flowers For Your Grave”

Posted on March 10, 2009 by Michael R. Underwood

Nathan Fillion’s new series Castle premiered last night on ABC, and the pilot has already established a number of character dynamics and claimed its own territory in the Specialist + Handler mode of procedural drama.

Fillion stars as Richard Castle, narcissistic best-selling mystery novelist. Castle is called in to assist Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) when a copycat killer re-creates murder scenes from Castle’s books. Castle’s upcoming book kills off the protagonist of his long-running series of best-sellers, and Castle is now stymied by writer’s block.

Katic and Fillion have created great chemistry between their characters, but Fillion is the real stand-out here. Castle has enough qualities in common with his role of Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly to re-captrure some of the fun of that character. Castle is rebellious, impulsive, and narcicisstic, while Beckett is controlled, by the book, and sharp-tongued. They grate on one another in a way that brings conflict but also sexual chemistry as a result. Like any similar situation, much will depend on how well the ‘will-they-won’t-they’ question is handled.

Aside from the chemistry between the leads, I think the show’s main staying power will be the fact that Castle sees everything through the lens of storytelling and the laws of dramatic narrative. He continues investigating a case after it is initially ‘closed’ due to the fact that as it was, it made a crappy story. He also reads people well based on his experience with characterization. Castle sees things that Beckett doesn’t, and Beckett picks up on things when Castle misses them. Castle‘s version of the Specialist appeals to me specifically because of my love of genre conventions and because I am a writer myself. It is likely to appeal not only to general procedural watchers but especially to true fans of the genre due to the way that it weaves in direct discussion of the mystery/detective genre to the story.

At the end of the pilot, we’ve established how the show is going to work — Castle is doing research for his new series (with a protagonist inspired by Det. Beckett), so he’ll be hanging around getting into trouble, giving insights based on investigative and/or dramatic theory, and annoying the hell out Beckett, while they’ll waltz around their feelings.

Castle is for Fillion fans, procedural fans, and for fans of self-referential/post modern genre/narrative amusement.

Review — Role Models

Posted on February 26, 2009 by Michael R. Underwood

The 2008 film Role Models stars Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Elizabeth Banks, and more.

Scott and Rudd are Danny and Wheeler, promoters for the Minotaur energy drink who end up doing stupid comedy things and get sentenced to do 150 hours of community service.

Danny and Wheelerare paired with youths in the Sturdy Wings program (in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters mode). The overall message of the film is ‘find something you love and be happy with it and with who you are.’

The part of the film most interesting to me is the depiction of geeks and geekdom. In the plot with Danny and Mintz-Plasse (aka McLovin’ from Superbad). Mintz-Plasse is Augie Farks, a bespectacled teenaged role-player who does boffer LARPS (Aka hitting your friends with padded weapons).

Augie’s mother and step-father/mother’s boyfriend look down at Augie’s hobby and want Danny to help them bring Augie into the ‘real world’ — but they do so without having ever gone to watch Augie at LAIRE (Live Action Interactive Roleplaying Explorers). Danny too is initially put off by Augie’s hobby, but after watching and then partaking, he sees the ways that LAIRE provides a social outlet for Augie, allows him to channel his passion into something that encourages exercise (even light exercise) develops skills (Augie sews/embroiders a badge for Rudd to wear), and is the place where he sees his crush, Esplen/Sarah. Danny urges Augie to talk to Esplen/Sarah rather than just longing after her from afar.

Overal, the representation of geekdom and boffer LARPs is even-handed to positive. The people involved are clearly having a great deal of fun with their hobby, with a large, active, and welcoming community. Some take things very seriously, to the detriment of others’ experience, but that happens everywhere. Danny’s embracing of LAIRE helps bring both pairs together at the end. Augie’s mother and step-kinda-not-actually-father see the group playing at the end, see how much it means to Augie, and come to appreciate it (and him, for who he is).

There’s a great exchange between Danny and one of the LAIRE players that captures the fun aspects of LAIRE and the hobbies it represents:

Warrior: I’m DEAD I’m DEAD!
Danny: Sorry, Sorry.
Warrior: Fun though right?
Danny: It’s a blast!
Warrior: Contagious! I know!
Danny: Totally.
Warrior: Come back next year, we need people.
Danny: Ok
Warrior: Give me you email!

The warrior then remembers he’s been killed and over-acts his death.

In the battle Augie saves his crush Esplen from being killed, kills the King, and is finally killed by Esplen at the very end while he was celebrating his victory over the King. At the bonfire party after the war, Augie goes over to Esplen to congratulate her. Esplen/Sarah asks him to be her King (since she’s now the Queen), and then he kisses her. It’s all very cute awkward adolescent geek romance.

Augie’s part of the story is precious at times and fairly simple, but I’m happy to have more representations of geekdoms where the geeks are clearly humanized and their hobbies seen not as something to out-grow, but something to be enjoyed. Not that LARPs are all automagically wonderful and not that I think people should only be involved in LARPS/gaming/fantasy, but I’m pleased to identify Role Models as part of a more positive/realistic representation of geek cultures in mainstream media.

On the Horizon — Mid-season

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Michael R. Underwood

Here are three speculative and/or genre-inclined shows coming up soon in TV-land. Dollhouse, Castle, and Kings.

Dollhouse

Joss Whedon’s anticipated new tv drama, starring Eliza “Faith” Dushku as Echo, one of a number of ‘Dolls’ — people who have had their memories wiped, live in an idyllic but infantile ‘Dollhouse’ facility, and who, when they become ‘Active,’ are implanted with memories and skills to serve as whatever the Dollhouse’s clients want them to be. This will allow Whedon and the show to explore Dushku’s range as a leading lady, explore the theme of memory vs. spirit/soul, exploitation, human experimentation/human trafficing, etc. The show also stars Tamoh “Helo” Penikett as James Ballard, the FBI agent who investigates the urban legend of the Dollhouse. Dollhouse has been troubled by production delays, disagreements about creative direction, and other issues, but it is on track for at least a nine-episode initial order.

Dollhouse premiers February 13th on Fox.

Castle
Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion, of Firefly and Dr. Horrible fame) is a famous best-selling mystery novelist who is tapped by the NYPD as a consultant when a copycat killer starts committing murders in the same manner as Castle’s books. This creates what seems to be a very promising meta-genre component for the series, since we’ll have Castle interpreting everything through the filter of a crime/mystery writer, and provides a variation on the ‘expert consultant protected by bad-ass detective/agent’ dynamic of shows like Fringe, The Mentalist, Numb3rs, Bones, etc.

Stana Katic (Heroes, 24, Quantum of Solace) plays Castle’s detective handler/inspiration for the protagonist for a new series of books. The show is likely to make good use of Fillion’s range, injecting comedy (From the video preview — “Did you see that? That was so cool!”) and romance (Castle asking the detective out, and her brushing him off while acknowledging the chemistry) into what seems to default to a prime-time hour-long crime procedural drama.

Castlepremiers March 9th on ABC.

Kings
An alternate-present America re-telling of the story of King David, Kings gives us David Shepherd (Christopher Egan) rescuing the son of King Silas (Ian McShane), ruler of Shiloh, a city in the Kingdom of Gilboa, David is welcomed into the court and turned into a hero of the people, wrapped up in politics and power. NBC’s promotion has highlighted the alternate-history aspects of the world, focusing on the monarchic nature of the Kingdom of Gilboa (Shiloh, the center of the story, appears similar/evocative of a New York City or the like).

UNN Breaking News

This show appears to be high-production value, since there will not have to be much in the way of SF special effects, focusing on costuming, graphic and set design to highlight the subtle but fundamental differences between our world and that of Kings. The story of King David should provide enough material for several seasons, depending on how close of a re-telling is planned and how quickly the story is to unfold. Early responses to the pilot script paint it as “bold, bizzare, fun”.

Kings premiers March 19th on NBC.

Review at the Internet Review of Science Fiction

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Michael R. Underwood

I have a review of the first season of the TV show The Middleman up at the Internet Review of Science Fiction.

Permanent link — http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10495

Battlestar Galactica — The End is Near

Posted on January 7, 2009 by Michael R. Underwood

After another long hiatus, Battlestar Galactica will be returning to TV for its last half-season on January 16th. 10 episodes (of varying length) remain, as well as a TV-movie called The Plan, which is set immediately following the Cylon attacks on the 12 colonies.

In this remaining narrative space, there are a lot of loose ends to tie up. The first section of Season 4 had already adopted an elegiac tone, trying together threads, ‘resolving’ character arcs (of course, resolution in Battlestar often comes at the end of a barrel or at the opening of a airlock).

We’ve still got one last Cylon to reveal, a Cylon civil war to finish up, and in my viewing, the most important task is to create an ending which will cause the series to resonate with one of its catch-phrases — All of this has happened before, all of this will happen again. The show’s coda needs to suggest a teleology that will either lead to a re-playing of its story, or prove itself as the repetition that breaks the cycle.

Just as at the end of Season Three we got to see Earth, at the end of Season 4.0 we got to see the home of the 13th tribe from the ground level, ruins and all. The Season 4.0 finale seems to make the Flying Motorcycle ending less likely, but we shall see. The truce between Humans and Cylons is an uneasy one, and I’m sure things will get much worse before they get better, if they do. I’d feel cheated if the show didn’t end with some kind of equilibrium for the humans, whose entire arc has been about finding Earth and completing their Exodus. New Caprica was an interruption,

The progress of Ron Moore’s prequel project Caprica means that the Battlestarverse may continue on past the series proper, but I’ll be much happier with the series if it has its own proper ending.

I feel comfortable in calling Battlestar Galactica the iconic Bush Era Science Fiction series (at least, of those produced during his presidency). It’s fitting that Battlestar will be ending before we get too far into Obama’s tenure as president, as the show is very distinctly a response to the 9/11 political landscape and the Bush administration. Obama will still of course be dealing with a post-9/11 world, but it makes me wonder what the great Science Fiction epic of his presidency will be.

Return to Leverage

Posted on December 28, 2008 by Michael R. Underwood

Leverage has arrived on TNT, and we’ve now had four episodes (the pilot which I discussed earlier and three more).

As the show settles into its digs, we can see what the series is likely to look and feel like in an ongoing fashion. Leverage is clearly over-the-top, trading mimetic realism for the joyous fun of heist and con-man action where Awesomeness is a clear and present aesthetic agenda.

In “The Two-Horse Job” and in “The Miracle Job,” the characters’ backstory is central both to the reason for the team taking each case and also plays out in the interpersonal drama between the leads and the guest-star clients. Other characters’ investment in the individual jobs waxes and wanes based on their personal beliefs regarding the lines which the team has to cross along the way, which keeps the procedural formula from growing stale.

Leverage plays like a 21st century A-team, but instead of being a group of ex-special forces soldiers, the show draws more upon the caper, heist, and do-gooder fixer traditions of series including Mission: Impossible, Burn Notice and films like Ocean’s Eleven, among many others. The characters are a WASP-y ex-insurance claims investigator, a black geek-chic computer hacker, an Autism-spectrum super-thief, an actress who is abysmal in productions but inspired in confidence games, and a wise-cracking thug. The actors bring enthusiasm and oddity to their characters, making sure that each character is just a couple degrees off-center for their archetype.

We’ve also been introduced to an ongoing antagonist for the characters in Jim Sterling, played by Mark “Badger” Sheppard. Sterling is a worthy opponent for our team, having taken over in the job formerly held by Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton), the team’s leader.

One of the main reasons the show is compelling is that for all the heroes’ schemes and plotting, things keep going wrong. They have a good idea which goes much further than intended, and then they need to come up with a new scam to un-do the earlier scam. This scrambling and reversal forces the characters to go out of their comfort zones, improvise, and get into more trouble.

Table Talk and The Joy of Planning

The show also plays like a tabletop RPG game, unsurprising since the show and certain traditions of tabletop play draw influence from the same sources. Each character is an expert in their niche, they have diverse and intriguing backgrounds, and most of all, they bicker and banter over planning in a way that is highly reminiscent of any number of gaming sessions where characters spend more time thinking of the plan than actually executing those plans.

And here’s the thing — in a caper/confidence game situation, the planning is one of the most fun/exciting things. The architecture of a scam, the construction and unfolding of a human Rube Goldberg machine provides one of the main aesthetic thrills of the narrative mode which Leverage makes its home territory.

Where shows like LOST have used extended flashbacks to provide B-plots for episodes, portraying characters at different stages of their life to show character growth or lack therof, Leverage often goes for quick flashbacks to provide punchlines to jokes our to counter-point/undermine what a character is saying in the present. Leverage‘s flashbacks are more mad-cap, and provide a fair amount of the sjow’s Over-The-Topness.

Leverage is a show to watch, and has the benefit of Prime-time cable-drama ratings expectations rather than Network Prime-Time expectations. I doubt Leverage will ever be a big hit, but it may be able to achieve a strong following based on its quirky and compelling over-the-top caper action.