Just as we are getting into the swing of things with the new fall season, two American Pastimes are getting in the way. One is baseball taking over a good portion of the Fox schedule this month. The other is the past time of watching grown men argue with each other on stage while not saying anything at all. Hurray for Presidential campaign season! Sigh…
(See… they aren’t happy about it either. *sad trombone*)
But try as they might, baseball and politics can’t take over everything. So here are a few highlights from the week.
REVOLUTION
I’ve gone back and forth on how I feel about this show. It’s interesting and the amazing creative forces behind it (JJ Abrams and Eric Kripke) give me home that there is an interesting through line for the season, which was hinted at heavily in the past two weeks. But often I find myself forgetting about the episode several minutes after it is done. This week it was a whole other story thanks to some expert emotional manipulation on the part of the writing staff.
This series is one where I expect death to be a common theme, especially when one of the main characters is offed in the first 15 minutes of the pilot (the actor, thankfully, remains via flashbacks). However, I didn’t expect those deaths to be such a heartbreaker because I’ve yet to really attach myself to any character, except Billy Burke’s Miles because he’s a badass. So when it was pretty clear that Charlie’s step-mom-ish-type-person, Maggie, was going to bite it, I didn’t think it would be such a big deal. Instead, I wept like a wee child. The combination of seeing that her last words to her children were a forceful “I said no” in regards to reading The Wizard of Oz to them via Skype was sad. Then seeing she still carried around the book, just in case…. ugh. I wept. A lot. I should have known the show was capable of it because the scene last week where Al Green started playing and Maggie’s phone turned on for a brief moment gave me chills. If the show keeps up the moments like this, and doesn’t get lost in it’s own mythology, I think it could be quite successful.
THE MINDY PROJECT
I’m choosing to write about this show not because the episode was particularly great (it was fine – I laughed), but because I honestly don’t know how I feel about the series. I enjoy Mindy Kaling. She is a smart comedy writer (read her book!) and her work on The Office both off and on screen was always great. But this show… I just don’t know. It’s funny. I laugh every episode. But part of me is, well, a little offended. It’s not because Mindy the Character makes poor life choices. I get that. It’s not because she dresses ridiculously half the time. To each his own on clothing style. It’s not because she is so obsessed with Rom Coms it borders on crazy (and this is coming from me, who lives for a good Rom Com).
It’s because the male lead, the man I’m assuming from all the signals they have sent is meant to be her romantic foil, is a d-bag. I think Chris Messina is amazing. I wish he was in more stuff. But the things his character, Danny, says to Mindy are awful almost 90% of the time. He calls her fat and basically a waste of space in the office. I see a slight change in course direction as the episodes go by, but we need a full 180. Just do it writers. I’m willing to completely forget the first few episodes existed. Also, if you start the Mindy/Danny/Shauna love triangle that was hinted in this clubbing episode, I’ll riot. Just no.
SONS OF ANARCHY
That happened. I really don’t think there is anything more to say do you? Venus forever! Walton Goggins for all the Emmys!
ARROW
Aaaaaabs. What? Like you didn’t add on to the unfortunate narration when Oliver Queen looked in the mirror at his scar ridden body and had him say to himself, “Man, the island sucked, but I look FANTASTIC.” Because we all know he was thinking it. (Stephen Amell was probably thinking it too.) I thought this was a really solid pilot. It set up a long-term story arc and established all the main characters without being too exposition-y, which is pretty difficult to do for comic book stories. See: almost every 1st movie in a comic book movie franchise.
Amell sold Oliver’s dual (or I could say tri-) personalities, and while I love Katie Cassidy, I hope they do a better job at nailing down Laurel’s character. If you are fan of the comics, there were lots of little nods to things you can look forward to from the books, like the mask that they showed on the island and the list of names in Oliver’s Revenge Book. My one main issue – what magic make-up remover does he have that he could get all that green make-up off so quickly in the 3 minutes it took to get from Hunt’s office back to the party to greet Lance and the rest of the cops? That is some sort of miracle cream. Maybe that is how the Queen family made their fortune. Anyway… I’m excited to see how they maintain that level of action throughout the series, but for now – fun pilot!
NASHVILLE
First and foremost, Connie Britton is the best, y’all. Just hearing her say the word “y’all” made my heart sing. I miss Friday Night Lights every day. And yet, she was somehow even better has Rayna, a country singer trying to fight to keep her career in the wake of the up-and-comer played by Hayden Panettiere. What works about this show is while their forced rivalry is the center of the series, it is by no means the point of the show. They have their own issues to contend with, and how their rivalry messes with their lives is more important than any cattiness that may ensue between the two.
The show is beautifully shot, masterfully told and perfectly acted. The entire cast is full of people I love to watch. I was excited to see Jonathan Jackson (forever Lucky Spencer on General Hospital) and Charles Esten (who I remember as being Chip Esten back in the day on Whose Line Is It Anyway). And even if you took away all the great scenery and acting and writing, there is still the music. Wonderfully worked in country songs played off as originals in a way that never seems jarring and out of place. The final scene set to The Civil Wars’ ‘If I Didn’t Know Better,’ sung by Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio was gorgeous. I had goosebumps. Whatever the reason you come up with to watch it – watch it.
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES
It’s a shame The CW won’t hire any beautiful people to be on their programs. It would make it all easier to watch. Anyway, despite their hideous faces, I loved having this show back. I know. Cheesy vampires and all that. But of all the vampires on screen nowadays this one is far and away the best told story. It has issues, of course. Like the fact that this season premiere seemed to just wipe away a lot of what was set up in the finale because maybe they realized a lot of that was a bad idea. But they fixed it, so I guess not that bad, is it?
Of all the things in this episode my favorite bit was the almost immediate reversal of the “Klaus is in Tyler’s body” story line. While it gave Michael Trevino some fun acting to do, the fact that it was quickly setting up a “Klaus kind-of-rapes Caroline” story line was just icky. So that was taken care of in the best way ever – Klaus stopped it and told her the truth before anything major happened because he knew he’d win her over eventually anyway. And then he got his body back 15 minutes later. All is well in the world. Except, you know, evil dead witches, psychotic pastors who blow people up, and lots of vampires. I don’t care if it’s a guilty pleasure or not. This show is fun, plain and simple.
DR. HORRIBLE
This was on TV!!!! I don’t know why I find that so exciting. I have it on DVD. I watch it on occasion just for fun because I can. But yet, it was on TV. Where people who somehow haven’t seen it could have. Did you watch? Have you seen it? Did you love it? Isn’t Nathan Fillion the best ever? (Yes. The only acceptable answer is yes. I don’t even want to hear your opinion otherwise.) Don’t you just want to be best friends with NPH and have him sing and be amazing all the time for you? (See previous parenthetical.) This little movie is one of my favorite 45 minutes ever to be on a screen of any size. It’s a shame this Joss Whedon fellow doesn’t work constantly. Oh wait….
So that’s my week. What did you watch this week? Anything you’d like me to cover in my next write-up?
Follow me on Twitter @serrae and read my articles on Small Screen Scoop