OK, maybe I’m starting to get that “holy crap, there are just too many TV shows” feeling just a little bit. Must focus and catch up over the holidays! There are entire second seasons I’ve allowed to languish while indulging in new shows. And note to self: Cancel that Hulu membership before the free trial ends. Anyhoo, whew, deep breath, here are the shows I started watching in recent months.
LOVED
Kidding (Showtime) Around The Truman Show, I stopped hating Jim Carrey, and by now I actually kind of like him. Re-teamed with the ingenious Michel “Eternal Sunshine” Gondry, Carrey shows us the often-dark inner world of a very Mr. Rogers-like TV personality. Judy Greer’s hot streak continues as his newly ex-wife, and I’m happy Frank Langella doesn’t have to boss around Russian spies anymore. Cleverly, sharply, twistedly done, with an emotional punch to the gut every now and then.
The First (Hulu) What category of the Emmy Awards does this qualify for? Limited series? Miniseries? Whatevs, just give Sean Penn Best Actor right now. No other show I’ve seen recently had the cinematic feel of this real-feeling, just-slightly-in-the-future chronicle of putting humans on Mars, with all the politics, budget, science, and tragedy that would entail. We truly see the toll the process takes on the crew’s personal lives, and nobody gets hit harder than Penn and his daughter (an excellent Anna Jacoby-Heroin, oops, Jacoby-Heron, Freudian slip).
LIKED A LOT
Atypical (Netflix) Believe it or not, it was a recommendation tweet from reclusive jazzman/actor/artist John Lurie that got me watching. The concept, “autistic teen and the family who loves him” could’ve been terrible but instead it’s pretty freaking sweet. The very realistic portrayal of Sam’s condition makes network special-needs sitcom Speechless significantly less enjoyable for me in comparison. The casting here is top-notch: Michael Rapaport as the dad hasn’t been this good or this likable in quite a while, and of course mom Jennifer Jason Leigh and I go way back. But it’s the loving relationships between the parents and children, the sister and brother, and with their friends/therapists/coaches/etc. that keep me tuning in. Or as Lurie later tweeted, “I binged watched @Atypical on Netflix because it is heart warming, but not heart warming in that creepy way.”
Camping (HBO) Girls ultimately wasn’t my cup of meat, so I wondered if I’d have a similar reaction to this Lena Dunham-spearheaded comedy. And indeed, the first couple of episodes didn’t totally grab me. But the cast is great and really funny, including David Tennant (with a wussy-guy American accent), Jennifer Garner (as the type-A-type wusses often end up with), my boy Brett Gelman, and a super impressive Juliette Lewis. I soon felt like I was camping in a tent just down the trail, and I didn’t want my trip to end.
Black Books (Amazon) It also took me a little while to adjust to the groove of this early-2000s British comedy. The show has a Seinfeld feel but sillier (as those Brits tend to do). Irish stand-up Dylan Moran is terrific as the rumpled, ultra cynical book store owner. And you get to play Spot the British TV Star Cameo.
LIKED
Norm Macdonald Has a Show (Netflix) I was primed to love this, as a huge fan of Norm for a long, long time. But I was disappointed that they didn’t make more effort to shake up the format a little bit from the YouTube version that has aired in recent years. And Norm doesn’t get the A-list guests that his guru Letterman has booked on Netflix. Still, it’s Norm, and there are many funny bits, even if some interviews are stronger than others.
Lodge 49 (AMC) A few more episodes and I might’ve hated this. At first I loved the show’s quirky sensibility, and Wyatt “Spawn of Ken and Goldie” Russell is mega-likable as the slacker surfer dude who ends up at a mysterious old-fashioned lodge. The writing lost steam as the season progressed, though, and I apologize to my friend Katie Gentile for giving this such an enthusiastic early recommendation.
KIND OF LIKED, KIND OF DIDN’T
Lotsa Luck (Antenna TV) So I’ve been recording The Paul Lynde Show, and at the end of the recording is the opening credits and theme song for Lotsa Luck. Finally, I decided to check it out. Whoa, Carl Reiner co-created this 1973 series. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have much hands-on involvement. But youngish Dom DeLuise is certainly likable and this fits snugly in the tradition of working-class family sitcoms. (Dom works in the Lost and Found department at a New York City bus company.) Could be funnier but not a bad watch, and vastly superior to the aforementioned Paul Lynde Show.
DIDN’T LIKE
Sharp Objects (HBO) It was all set up for me to like: I dig Amy Adams and small towns, and my friend’s stepdaughter Sophia was perfectly cast as the young Amy Adams. Amy’s newspaper journalist character likes to drink — a lot! — and drive around listening to rock and roll while trying to investigate murder in her hometown. She’s a hot mess! She’s one of those, whaddya call it, anti-heroes! An unreliable protagonist! I was enjoying most of this but toward the end it started to get incredibly stupid, and a character who had been cartoonish got even more cartoony. And then there’s a crazy, unwarranted twist. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Bad, bad, bad.
The Paul Lynde Show (Antenna TV) This 1972 sitcom is godawful but somehow I keep watching. Based on a play by Nora Ephron’s mom (!), Paul’s unemployed son-in-law Howie moves in and oh boy is there a lot of early-70s generation clash. I’m astonished how Lynde mugs his way through every scene and perhaps his whole career. At least there are interesting period cameos: Stiller and Meara, Tom Bosley, Dick Van Patten, etc.
JURY CAME BACK IN
Urban Myths (FLIX/TMC) Meh.
TWO AND DONE
Adventure Time (Cartoon Network) I skimmed an article that gushed about how brilliant this show was. And the pilot was… brilliant! Highly imaginative and very funny and a little subversive for the young ones. But by episode two, I found it entirely too… kiddie. Admittedly, I’m not the target audience, being 1,000 years old. But, also, having the guy who is the voice of Bender be the voice of the dog? Really annoying.
ONE AND DONE
The Good Cop (Netflix) Reading about this — retired cop Tony Danza moves in with his by-the-book son cop Josh Groban — I was certain it was going to be a sitcom. But no, it’s one of those dramedies like they made in the 90s, and indeed feels very much like a 90s network show, with a “crime of the week.” And like most dramedies, not fulfilling as a drama or a comedy.
Murphy Brown (CBS) And speaking of 90s-style shows…. The old gang actually looks OK, and their rapport is still solid. Unfortunately, the 90s-style sitcom writing does not hold up.
Single Parents (ABC) Kids saying grown-up things and, ugh, just not for me.
THE SIMPSONS
There was an episode recently that, believe it or not, was funny all the way through. Some guy Michael Ferris wrote it. Thank you, Michael.
BELATED THANK YOU AND GOODBYE
Wilfred (Amazon) So this was annoying: I had, faithful as a puppy, watched the first three seasons of this offbeat show about a boy (Elijah Wood) and his dog… or maybe it’s not a dog and the boy has been slowly losing his mind. But in 2014, for its final season, the show quietly moved from FX to FXX. Hey, nobody told my DVR. I guess I figured it out toward season’s end, but unlike in the old days, when cable networks would repeat episodes ad infinitum and it was easy to catch up, now they yanked the show from the schedule, didn’t put the series on-demand, and the only way you could watch was via a pay streaming service (Hulu I think). It took me four goddamn years to, like a bloodhound track down that final season. But it was worth my while, as the show kept the goofy mystery spinning till its last breath. Good show, Wilfred! Good show!
The Americans (FX) Now, I did watch this final season when it aired. (FX was kind enough to keep the series on the same network for its entire run.) I simply forgot to mention it in my previous round-up! (Did I mention I’m 1,000 years old?) This stayed really strong from year to year, and wrapped up in satisfying fashion. I think I’ll miss you most of all, Mail Robot.
LOOKING FORWARD TO
True Detective season 3. Still need to watch Maniac. And what’s this I hear about a Northern Exposure reboot?
SHOWS I USED TO WATCH AND IN MANY CASES STILL DO
Links to Edition I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, and XV.
Jack Silbert, curator