At the risk of instigating a public stoning, I thought I would take a bit of a departure this week and switch over to the (gulp!) small screen. So if you’re a TV snob, you might want to tune out now and spare us the eye-rolling and the predictable “Jesus, why don’t you people try reading a book?” admonishments in the comment section, mmmkay?
For those still with me (both of you), I now submit an unabashedly subjective Top Ten list for your perusal of shows (in no ranking order) that I currently find to be compelling enough to earn the “priority” nod on my DVR. I shared a similar list here last year; you may spot a few “re-runs”, but hey-there’s no accounting for some people’s taste, eh?
Boston Legal(ABC) Denny Crane! Sadly, it’s the farewell season for creator David E. Kelley’s extremely entertaining courtroom dramedy about a prestigious Boston law firm. Leading a fine cast, James Spader, William Shatner, Candice Bergen and John Larroquette have cemented well as TV’s Dream Team; it’s a shame to see them break up the band, as it were. Sure, some of the ongoing plot points are admittedly silly and things do tend to get a bit too precious at times (especially when characters go smashing through the Fourth Wall like bulls in the proverbial china shop) but there is one thing I’m going to miss more than anything else, and that’s Alan Shore’s closing arguments. Well, for the sake of the narrative, they are called “closing arguments”, but I think we all know they are in reality some of the most incisive, intelligently written, “stand up and cheer” progressive political rants you’ll ever hear on a mainstream network TV show (on second thought-anywhere this side of the blogosphere). Paddy Chayefsky would be proud. Don’t despair, BTW- since this season breaks 100 episodes, syndicated perpetuity is assured.
Breaking Bad (American Movie Classics) I will admit upfront that I missed this one during its initial run back in January of this year (I don’t think it initially got a lot of press or much viewer buzz) but like many people, my interest was piqued when Bryan Cranston picked up an Emmy for his starring role. AMC has been replaying the first season, and I’m hooked. Cranston gives a full-blooded performance as Walter White, a middle-aged chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. Infused with a desperate sense of urgency to build up a nest egg for his pregnant wife and cerebral palsy-afflicted son, he partners up with a former student-turned drug dealer and applies his knowledge of chemistry to cook up some award-winning crystal meth. Having a brother-in-law in the DEA complicates his situation, as one might expect. Yes, it is reminiscent of Weeds , but it’s much darker and more texturally rich. Season 1 was cut short by the WGA strike (only 7 episodes were made). Look for Season 2 in early 2009.
Californication (Showtime) Season 2 of this bawdy romp about a blocked, angst-ridden, sex-addicted East Coast writer (David Duchovny) who has grudgingly transplanted himself to L.A. is garnering much more interest than its premiere season for reasons that I’m sure Duchovny would rather not call more attention to (the actor’s recent, highly publicized check-in to a rehab center for, erm, sex addicts). It’s lewd, crude and frequently nude, but there are some very knowing, sharply written observations about the mercurial complexity of adult relationships lurking just beyond the bedroom door. Natasha McElhone is doing some wonderful work every week as his long-suffering ex.
The Daily Show / The Colbert Report (Comedy Central) – All I can say is, thank you, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (and your writers), for reassuring us, with your wheelbarrows full of Emmy Awards and in your goofy yet consistently brilliant satiric fashion, that my good friend Digby and all the other equally dedicated and astute political observers/media watchdogs of the progressive blogosphere can no longer be dismissed by the MSM as the journalistic equivalent of crazy people screaming at traffic. God knows, many are the times you’ve kept me from throwing myself under a bus during a particularly depressing news cycle (like the one that’s lasted for the last, oh, eight years.)
Jurassic Fight Club(The History Channel) – Maybe there’s something about the new generation of imaginative, CG-driven, Wild Kingdom-inspired dinosaur docs that just appeals to my inner 14-year old, but ever since the BBC/Discovery Channel’s innovative and entertaining Walking With… series broke the mold of the endlessly droning paleontologist standing in front of a Museum of Natural History skeleton shtick, I can’t get enough of this stuff. Jurassic Fight Club is the latest and arguably best of the genre so far. Each episode investigates a prehistoric “crime scene”, where some epic clash of the titans has ensued. The mystery unfolds through an engaging blend of deductive science and forensic pathology, culminating with a vivid recreation of how the rumble likely went down. It’s guilt-free escapist fare, because you’re learning something…um, right?
The Life and Times of Tim(HBO) HBO’s newest addition to their sacred Sunday night lineup is an animated “cringe comedy” that is sort of a cross between The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Each show is comprised of two vignettes from the life of a beleaguered, workaday New Yorker named Tim, who despite his generally good nature and sincere intentions, can’t seem to get through the day without unwittingly becoming a social pariah, or at best, somebody’s bitch. It’s very left field, and extremely funny. It’s even hard to explain why it’s so goddam funny until you’ve actually seen it, but with vignette titles like “Angry Unpaid Hooker”, “The Priest is Drunk”, and “Tim Fights an Old Man”, I think you can glean why it’s not a Saturday morning cartoon. The series is the brainchild of one Steve Dildarian, whose previous claim to fame was dreaming up Budweiser’s “Lizard” ad campaign (who knew?). Dildarian provides the voice of Tim.
Little Britain USA (HBO) Demented Brits Matt Lucas and David Walliams have adapted their BBC series for American audiences, who may or may not glom on to their very peculiar skew on the world. The duo play recurring sketch characters, some borrowed from their BBC oeuvre and some newly minted for the HBO series. They use a framing device that is suspiciously similar to the one used in the recent Showtime mini-series Tracey Ullman’s Tracy Ullman’s State of the Union. This fish out of water motif works better with some characters than others (these guys don’t really share Ullman’s gift for dialect-perfect mimicry) but when they do hit their target, it’s a gut-busting laugh riot. Like most British comedy, it’s a strange mix of lowbrow vulgarity and inspired moments of comic transcendence. My favorite recurring characters are the world’s most unhappily married middle-aged couple; the vignettes are like three-minute Harold Pinter plays, packed with bathos, pathos and a lifetime of shattered dreams and existential misery. Bloody brilliant!
Mad Men(American Movie Classics) I mentioned this show as one to keep an eye on in my piece last year, just as the first season was getting underway, and I’m happy to report that it has since made good on that promising start (including an Emmy for star Jon Hamm) Set on the cusp of the New Frontier (circa 1960) this drama centers around Don Draper, a Madison Ave “ad man” who is tops in his field, but is going through an existential crisis (“This place has more failed artists and intellectuals than the Third Reich,” he observes about the ad agency that employs him). Series creator Matthew Weiner was a writer for “The Sopranos”, and you may notice some signature themes, like family loyalty, primal doubts and territorial pissing. It’s kind of a post-modern take on The Dick Van Dyke Show, with a nod and a wink to Billy Wilder’s The Apartment.
The Sarah Silverman Program(Comedy Central) Sort of an alternate universe version of Seinfeld , this could be seen as another sitcom “about nothing”, but the beauty of it is, it really is about something. It’s about racism, homophobia, life, the universe and everything, except you are too busy laughing your ass off to really notice. I am aware that comedienne Sarah Silverman rubs a lot of people the wrong way, particularly those who do not have a highly developed sense of irony (one day, the rest of the world will put away the smelling salts and realize that she is the female counterpart to Sascha Baron Cohen). I will say that she’s pretty damn close to being the personification of my ultimate dream girl: Intelligent, beautiful, and just so adorably twisted and sick (I’m not normal).
Z Rock (Independent Film Channel) Extras meets The Monkees in one of the freshest new comedy series around. Tagged by IFC as “a (kinda) true story”, the program is a hybrid of “mockumentary” and reality show. An aspiring hard rock power trio (comprised of real-life Brooklyn musicians Paulie Z, David Z and Joey Cassata) gigs the NYC club scene at night as “ZO2”, and plays the children’s birthday party/bar mitzvah circuit by day as their unplugged alter-egos “The Z Brothers”. As you can imagine, this Jekyll-Hyde juggling act makes for some pretty outrageous scenarios, and it is sometimes a little tough to distinguish the club crawling groupies from the hot-to-trot soccer moms. While the three band members exude an appealing, easy-going charisma just by basically “playing themselves”, the show’s secret weapons are Lynne Koplitz as their neurotic, fast talking manager Dina, and the hilarious Jay Oakerson as a mookish club manager who may or may not have a genuinely homoerotic “man-crush” on lead singer Paulie. The dialog (partially improvised) has a Kevin Smith vibe; or maybe it’s that East Coast thing?
