It's been a crazy week so far, but luckily, the weekend is almost here. This memorial day weekend will be marked by a Baram brothers reunion here in LA, during which feats of strength will be performed, genetic superiority will be determined, and old rivalries will be settled. Sounds epic, right? In the meantime though, here's some reviews for ya'.
FOX SUNDAY NIGHT FINALES:
THE SIMPSONS Season Finale:
- After a horrendous effort last week, this week's Simpsons season finale was a huge improvement. In fact, I'd say that this episode, about the migration of the residents of Ogdenville to Springfield following the collapse of their farming industry, was a lot of fun. Yep, Ogdenville: made famous in the classic Monorail episode, where Lyle Lanley declared that Ogdenville was one of a handful of neighboring towns that had successfully built a monorail of their own. In any case, even a monorail couldn't help those Oggies this time, and as expected, hilarity ensues when Springfield is hit with an influx of outsiders. At first, the Springfieldians enjoy having the ultra-handy Ogdenvillians around to fix their roofs, clean their kitchens, etc. But soon, tensions mount between the two factions, and a clash of culture breaks out. The Ogdenvillians, with their odd, Norwegian dialect (they even sneeze differently!) are shunned by the Simpsons and the rest of Springfield. All in all, this was a pretty darn good episode. A couple of the jokes really worked well, and the plot was simple, coherant, and told a fun allegory. Sure, the allusions to our country's own issues with immigrants weren't exactly subtle, and yes, The Simpsons has dealt with similar subject matter before. But again, I came away pretty pleased with this one - it was up there with the better eps of this season, which, I'm happy to say has been pretty good overall despite a couple of clunkers.
My Grade: B+
KING OF THE HILL Season Finale:
- Man, what a long, strange trip it's been for King of the Hill. The show was cancelled two seasons ago, then resurrected, then cancelled again, then ABC wanted to pick it up, then they didn't ... and while this is the official "season finale," there are, apparently, still a couple of more episodes in the can, including a proper series-ender. When those last couple of episode will actually air I have no idea, but ... WTF, Fox? It goes to show that this show has always been a utility player in the eyes of the network. It's been jerked around more than any long-running show probably ever. It's aired whole seasons at 7 pm. Even as recently as several weeks ago, FOX benched KOTH so that Sit Down, Shut Up could take over it's traditional 8:30 timeslot. But within weeks, KOTH was back at 8:30 where it belonged. No big surprise there, this is one of the most resillient shows around. It makes me want to forgive the show for having a merely-okay season, because the show has been remarkably consistent throughout its storied TV run. Throughout all of the timeslot changes and near cancellations, Mike Judge and co have simply been going to work and churning out one solid episode after another. Hank Hill would be proud.
As for the finale, it was a solid if unspectacular effort that saw Boomhauer participate in a house-exchange with a Canadian family for the summer. The Canadians move in next door to Hank and at first seem likable enough, despite their differences. Hank even bonds with his new neighbor over a shared love of topline lawn-mowers. But soon enough, Hank realizes what earlier struck Peggy - that the Canadians are passive-aggressively rude and stand-offish, unfriendly, and just plain bad neighbors. The episode was fun, although I do sort of understand the gripe that there've been a lot of eps this season where Hank has come off as annoyingly self-righteous. Still, a decent enough effort from KOTH.
My Grade: B
FAMILY GUY Season Finale:
- This season of FG has been sort of abysmal, and it's at the point now where I am watching out of habit, but rarely go into an episode with any kind of expectations. I guess the problem is that, for the most part, I still really enjoy the *characters*, but the overall humor just seems to fall flat to a greater degree with each passing week. I mean, the show has its moments, but when was the last time that a given episode of FG has been good enough to measure up to the glory days of seasons 1 or 2? That said, this year's season finale was just bad. Like, really, really awful. Hard to sit through, even. The extended flashback episode that reimagined the Griffins as colonial-era settlers landed with a huge thud. The jokes that tried to work on shock value alone bombed. As did pretty much everything else about this episode. Family Guy is in desperate need of a shock to its system, because right now it simply reeks of sucktitude.
My Grade: D
MORE TV Reviews:
GLEE Pilot Review:
- I wasn't quite sure what to expect with Glee. It seemed like it was sort of a blend between the offbeat humor and characters of Arrested Development and the upbeat teen fantasy of High School Musical. Given the inclusion of hilarious cast members like Jane Lynch, and given that it was airing on FOX, known for its subversive comedies, I thought and hoped it would be much more AD than HSM. Turns out, the scales might be slightly leaning in the other direction.
Don't get me wrong, there was a lot to like in this pilot, and there IS a lot of potential for the show going forward. The cast seems excellent top to bottom. Even better, like AD, it looks to be a dense show. Meaning, there are all kinds of potentially interesting and funny minor characters that I'm curious to see more of. Even the primary cast members in this one don't all get a lot of exploration.
And that was definitely part of the problem ... this could change, but right now way too many of the characters seem one-note and cliche. There's the sassy black girl, the effeminate loser, the jock-who-really-just-wants-to-rock, etc. I was hoping that we'd see a deeper dive into some of these would-be stereotypes, but, at least in the pilot, it never really came.
The other reality here is that, let's face it: even though I found a lot to like with GLEE, a couple of minutes into it it was clear that this was a show with a heaping dose of female fantasy-fulfillment. All one had to do was log onto Facebook following the premiere and gaze at the endless status updates from the female population already declaring this show to be a new fave. So yeah, not a criticism of the show, it's just that the main glee-club girl is the kind of characters that girls and women are going to love and root for but that guys are just going to find annoying. Same goes for the idealistic young teacher who guides the glee club. Women are going to love him and hope he ditches his shrewish wife for the school's guidance counsellor, aka his not-so-secret admirer. Guys are going to to quickly tire of his wishy-washyness and hope that he grows a pair. Again, this WAS only a pilot ep, and there is a lot of opportunity for things to change, but ... the only reason I really harp on these things is because I was kind of hoping this might be the second coming of Arrested Development or something, and that's not quite what this was.
But Glee definitely has a lot going for it. The production was great - there was almost a hint of Pushing Daisies-style whimsy in the bright colors and larger-than-life feel. As I said, the cast was clearly pretty awesome. Even if the characters aren't written to perfection right out of the gate, it seems like this cast could likely help to elevate the material. As for the musical numbers? To be honest, I'm not sure what to think, exactly. On one hand they seem tongue-in-cheek, on the other hand, they seem 100% as unironically earnest as anything in a Disney musical. It's funny, because it's hard to see how self-aware comedy and giant non-ironic performances of "Don't Stop Believin" go together. But maybe this show can make it work. I definitely give it a lot of credit for trying something different, and I will definitely be onboard to see how things shape up. All in all, this was in many ways a pretty amazing pilot in the sheer amount of stuff it packed into it. I can't deny that it built up a lot of momentum by the end - if nothing else, I'm curious to see what's next. At the same time, not yet ready to declare it the best thing ever quite yet.
My Grade: B+
- And now, a movie review ...
ANGELS & DEMONS Review:
- I wasn't crazy about the movie version of The Da Vinci Code, and I didn't have huge expectations for its sequel. But, something about the subject matter seemed too intriguing for me to pass up. The fact is, I love stories that examine the intrigue and mysteries behind institutions of religion, and the combination of murder, secret societies, doomsday weapons, and conspiracies in the Catholic Church sounded like a a potentially potent mash-up. Even if The Da Vinci Code turned out to be pretty lifeless, it seemed like a lot of elements were in place to make Angels & Demons an entertaining and intriguing romp.
There's good news and bad news here. The good news is that, overall, this one is a lot more entertaining than its predecessor. Particularly in the movie's second half, things get big and epic enough that you can't help but be sucked in. The bad news is that a lot of the first movie's inherent flaws carry over to this one. There's still a blandness to the movie and its characters that makes the plot less exciting than it should be. And there's still a sense of cheesiness to the plot and dialogue that undermines the serious and urgent tone that the movie is going for.
To start with probably my biggest complaint about this franchise in general - the leading character is pretty dull. Sometimes it's fun to have a somewhat mysterious central character - it allows you to fill in the blanks and use your imagination a bit. But, this is not really one of those cases. The fact is, Tom Hanks plays a pretty bland character in these movies, and it makes the movies a bit bland by osmosis. Hanks does a lot of good things in this one - his sense of timing with dialogue is always sharp, and he is, as always, great at upping the intensity of a given scene when called upon. But, at least as far as the movies go, Dr. Robert Langdon is not exactly up there with the great icons of cinema.
The Hanks issue is funny too, because it's kind of carried over to the rest of the cast. What I mean is, Angels & Demons is overflowing with great actors playing bland characters. In most cases, the actors are able to give their characters a little extra kick, but still, it's crazy how little most of them are really given to work with. Ayelet Zurer, the Israeli actress from Munich, is fine here as a brilliant scientist ... but her character is pretty hollow. There's no real chemistry between her and Hanks, and there's no real reason for her to be tagging along with him throughout the adventure. Armin Mueller-Stahl, so great in Eastern Promises, gives it his all as a sinister-seeming Cardinal ... but his character is ultimately a walking red-herring. In fact, the one area where this movie probably falls short of the original is that The Da Vinci Code had a couple of crazy performances from the likes of Paul Bettany and Ian McKellan. No actor here really shines like those two did last go-round.
The one guy who comes close is Ewan McGregor as a progressive protege of the recently-deceased Pope. At first he kind of looms in the background, but when his character steps into the spotlight in the movie's second half, the film really begins to gain momentum. McGregor's character is, in the end, easily the film's most intriguing. It's kind of strange to see such a great actor in what is still something of a side role, but the truth is that they probably needed someone of his caliber to effectively sell the various twists and turns that the character goes through.
In general, I'd say the movie excels when its focused on being a mystery, on unravelling the layers of intrigue that it sets up. When it tries to be an episode of 24 set in Rome, it struggles. The part of the movie that plays as an against-the-clock wild goose chase often just kind of lost me, with Langdon flying from historic site to historic site with little rhyme or reason. It's a nice tour of Rome, but it felt like Langdon's intellect and knowledge base was up and down given the writer's whims. Given some of the past works of the writers involved (Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp), it should be no surprise that there isn't exactly a lot of subtlety to the script. Every other sentance seems to be a grim proclamation of impending doom, which definitely procues some unintentional giggles. Meanwhile, Ron Howard directs a couple of really cool action scenes and set pieces, but never gives the movie much of a distinctive style or tone.
At the end of the day, this was a movie during which I was able to sit back, relax, and let myself be entertained by, even if there were numerous groan-inducing moments and characters that never truly grabbed me. But I did find a lot of the ideas here fascinating: the Hadron Collider that can produce antimatter (which can then be used as a doomsday-device weapon), the existence of the Illuminati and their centuries-old vendetta against the Church, the inner-workings of the Vatican, etc. Basically, the movie puts just enough meat around these bones to make for a fun night at the movies.
My Grade: B
- That's all for now. Almost ... the weekend ...!
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