Tuning In

Ringer "She's Ruining Everything" Review

2011-09-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

Last week I was quite curious about how Ringer would develop it's rather dreadful pilot into a series that would be worth watching. After the second episode I am no longer curious because it seems that Ringer is developing into a dull, non event, where even campy humor is far out of reach.

Not only was episode two shockingly dull, it was also poorly constructed, with the entire narrative for a forty minute episode being how is Sarah Michelle Gellar going to hide a dead body during a cocktail party. OK, if that's the direction they wanted to go in but why have the body suddenly vanish at the end of the episode, rendering the episode a waste of time. Gellar's Siobhan/Bridget also resists fleeing with her confidant Malcolm because she doesn't want to upset things in her sisters life. Bit late for that don't you think?

Ringer has also not fared well in the direction stakes, with all of the heavy handed metaphors involving mirrors totally disappearing in this episode. Sure they were forced in the pilot but Ringer has been left as a poorly written and directed melodrama with some really stupid writing. For, example in one inexplicable scene the police find all of their information about Siobhan and husband Andrew (Ioan Griffud istill given nothing to do) off Facebook and, to add insult to injury, that Siobhan's favorite film is The Notebook. Way to appeal to your audience CW.

Ringer squandered the small amount of potential it had in it's pilot on a follow up that is as dull as they come. The plotting was shoddy, the writing dismal, the direction awful and Sarah Michelle Gellar is still running around looking suspicious and confused. I am not looking forward to next week.

* out of *****

New Girl "Pilot" Review

2011-09-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

I wasn't very excited about New Girl being a detractor of star Zooey Deschanel. I didn't really care for her work on films like 500 Days of Summer, but in New Girl I found myself thinking that she is one of the brightest new comic talents on television.

I wasn't as wild about the rest of it's characters, but Deschanel was just so good that it didn't matter to me at all. Deschanel is Jess, who found her boyfriend cheating on her and is forced to look for a new apartment. She finds one on Craig's list, which she'll be sharing with three guys. She then goes through the usual cycle of watching Dirty Dancing on loop and staying on the couch for days, before the boys encourage her to put herself back on the market. The three guys are played by Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield and Damon Wayans (who will unfortunately only be in the pilot because ABC is keeping him hostage in the woeful Happy Endings) and thought they were a nice foil to Deschanel. I particularly enjoyed the way Greenfield played a typical douche bag character and the fact that every other character knows he is a douche bag, even making him put a dollar in a douche bag jar. I also enjoyed Hannah Simone as Jess' model friend Cece and felt she brought a great sense of deadpan to the show. I feel that she will be our kind of window to the world outside the apartment.

However, New Girl's success or failure rests on the shoulder of Deschanel and I thought she was a triumph. I loved her quirky sensibility and the sheer warmth that she brought to the screen in this pilot. I just loved all of the time she was on the screen which, thankfully, was pretty much the entire pilot. I am so excited to see where this show goes in future episodes, but I just hope it lives up to this pilot.

**** out of *****

The Playboy Club "Pilot" Review

2011-09-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

In these tough economic times it's easy to see why a network would chose to base a show on a brand with imediate name recognition. Whereas ABC has chosen Pan Am as the basis for their show, a brand that went defunct a while ago, Playboy is still a brand that rakes in millions every year, so the cash in feeling is more overt. I wouldn't that at all but the show attached is awful. The show opens with some really bad voice over narration by the real Hugh Hefner that is worth watching the first two minutes of the episode just for a laugh.

The Playboy Club was the high point in sixties Chicago, with men going in and hanging with gorgeous girls dressed in bunny costumes. Nick Dalton (Eddie Cibrian) is a high flying lawyer and a frequent visitor to the club. He takes an instant fancy to new girl Maureen (Amber Heard), much to the displeasure of Carol-Lynne (Laura Benanti), the very first bunny. This kind of love triangle through line may have been interesting, but The Playboy Club isn't satisfied with that and insists on laboring a murder mystery/ mafia story on top. This is handled with little finesse or appeal. I found myself loosing interest in this through line. I also hated Eddie Cibrian doing a poor Jon Hamm impersonation. I couldn't take his bad mumbling and squinting looks after about ten minutes and wanted to punch him after twenty.

The one bright spot in this mangled pilot is Laura Benanti as the head bunny. She was the very first bunny and is dealing with the pressures of age. She is an absolute joy to watch on screen and I found myself wondering when her next scene was coming up. Although the show posted poor ratings for it's premier I hope that we can see some more episodes just for more Laura Benanti goodness.

*1/2 out of *****

2 Broke Girls "Pilot" Review

2011-09-20T16:07:00.000-07:00

2 Broke Girls is the first CBS show to premier this season and it is also the first show from Whitney Cummings to debut this season, with her self tilted show Whitney debuting Thursday on NBC. Judging from the pilot, 2 Broke Girls seems to have a lot more potential than Whitney, but that's not to say that this pilot was up to much.

It's a fine pilot that plays very much into the CBS wheel house with it's familiar comedy beats and rhythms, although this does feel a tad more edgy than CBS stablemates Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. Let me rephrase that, it feels more like what CBS thinks is edgy in 2011 but would have been edgy on other networks in 2002. Kat Dennings is Max a working class girl who has two jobs, one as a waitress in a crummy greasy spoon and the other as a nanny for a socialite. Dennings is easily the best part of the pilot with her astonishing ability to deliver punchlines in a casual manner coming off as really refreshing. I was far less impressed with Beth Behrs as ditsy heiress Caroline who has been stripped of all her assets. She was painfully annoying throughout most of the pilot, coming across as the stereotypical Paris Hilton type. Where she did work for me was when paired with Dennings, the two of them together provided some genuine warmth and humor in an otherwise dull episode. From the looks of things that's what this show will be focusing on, so I'm excited to see where it goes.

One thing that really did bother me about the show was the racial stereotyping. The old black cashier and the Asian boss were painted with exceedingly broad strokes, so much so that it distracted me from the rest of the show. This is something the show needs to address quickly.

**1/2 out of *****

Two and a Half Men "Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt" Review

2011-09-20T05:34:00.000-07:00

Two and a Half Men - Season 9 Episode 1

This new season of Two and a Half Men cannot be judged in the same way that any other season has been judged. The question on ever body's mind is how does new comer Aston Kutcher fills the large shoes of Charlie Sheen. The answer to that question based on this season premier is not very well. He looks great but this episode died aas soon as he appears.

The episode starts well with the funeral of Charlie Sheen's character after he was killed in a train accident. This type of morose humor isn't really what the show is known for but it kind of worked for me, with Charlie's many girlfriends uniting at the funeral. The scenes afterwards involving Holland Taylor trying to sell of Charlie's house to people like John Stamos were not as amusing and merely served to give people like John Stamos something to do with their time.

However, the real groaner in the episode was the feeble attempt at empathy with John Cryer talking to the ashes of his dead brother. This is all well and good but the predictable payoff with Cryer dropping the ashes when he sees Ashton Kutcher drenched from a suicide attempt at his patio doors is tired to say the least. Then theirs the major problem of Ashton Kutcher, sure he's handsome and quite funny in his own dopey kind of way, but his style I don't think fits very well with Two and a Half Men, a show mainly known for sexcapades and double entendres. The reason Sheen worked so well was because of his history and the fact that everyone could believe him saying and doing those kinds of things. Ashton Kutcher, on the other hand, a man mainly known as the fodder for cougars is not so believable. Not to say that the show was amazing before because it certainly wasn't, mainly due to poor writing and that is prevalent in this premier, but it always had a certain kind of guilty pleasure appeal that made acceptable to dip into on occasion and that's what the show is now totally devoid of.

* out of *****

How I Met Your Mother "The Best Man" and "The Naked Truth" Reviews

2011-09-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

How I Met Your Mother - Season 7 Episodes 1 and 2

How I Met Your Mother has come in for serious flack over the years for taking a seemingly endless amount of time to get to answering the question in it's title. In the opening episode of it's seventh season it makes it very clear that it will take a lot longer still to answer it. That's fine with me as I am certainly in the camp that enjoys it's comforting ensemble nature and humor that could never be called edgy. It's what TV comedy was built on and based on these two episodes it still has appeal.

The better of the two episodes for me was the season opener The Best Man, which is told in flashback from the future. Barney is getting married to an unknown woman and Ted reminds him of the wedding that Marshall ruined way back in September 2011. This was a little confusing to start off with especially for newcomers, but once things started swinging it didn't take long for everything to become clear. Marshall and Lily are expecting a child and they decide not to tell anyone, so Marshall becomes drunk by drinking all of the alcohol a that Lily was to consume. I really liked this plot line and it really gave the episode it's heart which I felt was missing from the second episode. The other stories involve Ted trying not to cry during his best man speech and live up to his nickname Schmooby and Robin trying to tell Barney that she still has feelings for him. The latter also allows for a dance segment between Robin and Barney that sows that Neil Patrick Harris is a far better dancer Cobie Smulders.

The Naked Truth is an episode that tries much more for just straight humor than Best Man. Marshall tries to stop drinking but is forced to when he has to win a drinking game to get an old college friend to take a video of him naked off YouTube. This is mainly played for laughs and the attempts at warmth with this story didn't work for me in the same way it did in the previous episode. He does this to secure a job with an influential lawyer played by Martin Short. Short has limited screen time here but I find him a really annoying actor so I hope he's toned down a tad. The Ted story-line involving who he's going to take to an architects ball was just pathetic and really not very funny with the conclusion glaringly obvious from the get go. Barney had the most successful jokes in the episode with Nora asking him to tell her every lie he's ever told to have sex with a girl. It's a wafer thin premise but it works in a show like this.

The Best Man - ***1/2 out of *****

The Naked Truth - *** out of *****

The Secret Circle "Pilot" Review

2011-09-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

The CW is again trying for lightning to strike again with it's new supernatural teen drama The Secret Circle. It has hit gold with Supernatural, now in it's seventh season and The Vampire Diaries in it's third, with this show it's playing more aggressively into the Twilight camp. A young girl moving to a small town that isn't everything it seems is a very familiar plot line in this day and age, but Secret Circle is taking a fresh approach by not using vampires and werewolves but witches. How original.

Cassie (Britt Robertson) moves in with her grandmother in the small town of Chance Harbor after the seemingly accidental death of her mother. All of the high school kids in this town fit into every stereotype you can think of; the bitch and her sidekick, the friendly one and her boyfriend who has an obvious connection to Cassie and the mysterious hunk. The majority of this pilot involves people asking if she's Cassie Blake and telling her that they knew her mother. That gets old almost instantly but hopefully once all of these introductions are done the show will get better. The show also has some lame special effects involving cars catching fire and water floating in the forest. These effects aren't particularly convincing and mainly look cheap.

The show almost gets interesting towards the end once Cassie learns that she is a witch and is needed to complete the secret circle, but by that time the show had lost my patience. The cast is mainly the generic high school lot, probably cherry picked from Gossip Girl and 90210 rejects. The lead Britt Robertson, is probably the least interesting of the bunch, however she is given the weakest material which mainly consists of her walking around confused and screaming that she doesn't believe in witches. This is a show that could have some potential once it gets past the generic introductions, but this pilot is painfully paint by numbers.

** out of *****

Free Agents "Pilot" Review

2011-09-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

Free Agents is the second of NBC's new comedies to premiere after Up All Night. Free Agents shares the office locale in which some of Up All Night takes place, but unlike that show Free Agents never manages to create a strong ensemble and, even more criminally, it doesn't have a single joke that works. Not one!

Hank Azaria is Alex a recently divorced father of two who starts having sex with colleague Helen(Kathryn Hahn). She has trouble letting go of her fiance who died a year ago and has a staggering number of photos of him in her apartment. She wants nothing more than casual sex but Alex is extremely fragile, crying at the drop of a hat about the smallest thing. The rest of this pilot is extremely pedestrian with the usual she wants to be alone but will ultimately reach out to the man she has turned down so often payoff. I wouldn't mind that so much if it wasn't for the distinct lack of chemistry between the two leads. Hahn and Azaria are able comic actors but are left totally at sea here with material that is far below what they should be playing. I didn't laugh once throughout this entire episode, with the attempts at laugh lines coming of as stiff and clunky

The rest of the ensemble are even worse, with a befuddled Anthony Stewart Head playing the boss. His character type is the kind of sexually inappropriate boss that went out of style decades ago. All the men in this office ever talk about is who is going to be their wingman and the women are all frigid bitches. Seriously, even Working Girl , a film from 1988, is more forward thinking than this office. All anyone seems to talk about is sex, with colleagues even holding a board meeting about how to get newly divorced Azaria a date. This would all be comical if the writing wasn't so appallingly unfunny. The season is young, but this is a real disaster.

* out of *****

Up All Night "Pilot" Review

2011-09-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

Up All Night sets out to answer a question that has been perennially popular in TV, Movies and theater; is life ever the same after a child? The answers to this question is debatable but everyone agrees that life changes once people have a child. Up All Night explores the various degrees of that change and how people try to maintain there old existence post-baby.

Christina Applegate and Will Arnett are Regan and Chris, a couple who have been married for seven years. Regan gets pregnant pre-titles and just after the credits role their beautiful daughter Amy is already a couple of months old. Regan goes back to work for Ava(Maya Rudolph), an Oprah type talk show host, who intimidates most of her staff but is best friends with Regan. Chris, however is going to be a stay at home dad. I love that this show switches the gender stereotype and shows how fathers can be just as good as women at looking after children. In this pilot it is more exploited for comedy with one scene involving Chris not being able to find the correct cheese in the grocery store a total miss, but in the long run I hope that Up All Night will try and show Chris as a good stay at home dad.

The rest of the episode's plot is pretty average, with the typical work commitment coming in the way of the couple celebrating their anniversary. In this respect Up All Night is far more typical sitcom than it thinks it is and for it to succeed I feel it needs to make the plot lines much more original, but I'm sure that will come over time. However, much of this bog standard material comes alive when played by Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph. These are two extremely adept comediennes, who I hope will come to shine even more over the course of this shows run. Rudolph in particular is the one allowed to have the most fun as she is really only tertiary to the action in this episode. Will Arnett is fine but I've always found him a hard actor to warm to especially in leading roles, but maybe he'll grow on me. However, the real clunker of the cast who gets little screen time in the pilot but I'm sure we'll see more of in future episodes is Nick Cannon as one of the regulars on Ava's show. He striked me as extremely annoying even in very small doses, so I hope his role is kept to a minimum or excised completely.

*** out of *****

Ringer "Pilot" Review

2011-09-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

When the CW first announced that it would be producing Sarah Michelle Gellar's first foray into prime time since Buffy, it seemed like a change of pace for the network most popular with teenage girls. However, Ringer is much more the typical Gossip Girl type than you would expect and that's what makes Ringer far less compelling than it's plot description would have you believe.

Gellar plays estranged twin sisters Bridget and Siobhan who haven't spoken in many years for unclear reasons. Bridget is the "bad twin", who has been witnessed the murder of a fellow stripper and is in witness protection awaiting the trial of the killer(who also happens to be a mafia boss.) Bridget escapes from witness protection for reasons the show doesn't bother to explain and seeks out her twin sister Siobhan, who seemingly has a very privileged life. During a boat sequence which includes some of the worst green screen work I've ever seen, Siobhan seemingly commits suicide and Bridget makes the choice to take her place.

However, Siobhan wasn't every thing she seemed and Bridget finds out about this the hard way. Siobhan's marriage was in tatters, she was having an affair with the husband of her best friend and had a poor relationship with her stepdaughter. None of these plot lines are original and when played together feel very contrived. The pilot of Ringer fits in so much plot to forty minutes that it goes along at such a breakneck speed that it becomes a tad hard to follow.

Ringer also doesn't have the benefit of being all that well written. The script gives Loan Griffud as Siobhan's husband precious little to do. He scowls around complaining about how thin she is and how she has become a totally different person. The rest of the cast fair little better, with Tara Summers as Siobhan's best friend with marital issues of her making the best impression.

Ringer is a vaguely compelling drama with too much of that CW sheen to make it totally compelling. Gellar is fine but the rest of the cast has precious little material to work with in this over packed pilot. However, I do feel that Ringer has some potential to get interesting in the long run but it needs to take it's time and give it's characters some room to breathe.

Harry's Law "Wheels of Justice" Review

2011-02-08T15:39:00.001-08:00

Harry's Law has established itself in it's first three installments as a law show that takes itself seriously but isn't afraid, like similar shows, to make you laugh. The performances from the very capable cast were always solid and Kathy Bates as always was sensational. However, this episode is by far the least engaging so far.

The plot deals with the conclusion of the fast food case that Tommy Jefferson and Malcolm are handling. That is the main comedic storyline of the episode and as always Christopher McDonald's Jefferson is a riot, but has managed to bring some humanity to the character here. The dramatic storyline involves Adam's love interest Chunhua being attacked and it finally gives Brittany Snow something to do. She tries to get everyone to connect with her and we find out that she was molested by her uncle.

It's good to see a show trust it's supporting cast so much but when you have Kathy Bates as your star you must feel some what entitled to give her something to do. She basically acts as a greek chorus in this episode, coming in at crucial moments to give her opinion on issues. This is a huge let down when she was the main focus of the first three episodes and I hope she comes back as the main focus of the show next week.

Verdict

**1/2 out of *****

Mr Sunshine "Pilot" Review

2011-02-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

Mathew Perry has made a career out of playing snarky and quick witted characters. From Chandler Bing on Friends to Matt Albie on Studio 60, Mr Sunshine's Ben Donovan can now be added to that list. It's not surprising that this occurred as Perry is producing the show and co-wrote the pilot. This is an enjoyable show that isn't without it's charms, but the laugh count was quite low with this pilot.

The show follows Ben, the manager of a sports arena, who loves to live his life alone with relationships free from commitment. He hardly knows his co-workers and is having a no strings attached office romance. He also has to deal with his pill-popping, semi racist boss Crystal (Allison Janney)

Perry is on comfortable ground here and throws every sarcastic comment out with relish. He is a character that cares about no one but himself, but as is the norm in TV land we know he will change eventually. The character who will most likely change him is Crystal's son Roman. He is a very dim but endearing character who fails to see that Perry's character really doesn't want to talk to him.

There are some funny moments in this pilot with the majority coming from Allison Janney's Crystal who is comic perfection. The funniest moment is when a group of clowns come in and Crystal starts throwing children at them. However, this kind of outlandish humor sits in stark contrast to the dry wit of Perry's character. Also the awful elephant sub plot really doesn't belong here.

This a show with potential and reminds me of ABC stablemate Cougar Town, not just because of the Friends connection. Both shows had tired initial concepts, with Cougar Town managing to develop into an intelligent and hilarious character comedy. Hopefully, the same will happen with Mr Happiness.

Verdict

**1/2 out of *****

Review - Modern Family Season 2 Episode 13 Caught in the Act

2011-02-05T19:17:00.000-08:00

Modern Family has had a terrific season so far and this week's episode "Caught in the Act" is the best so far. This week Gloria is in a crisis when she sends a harsh email to Claire, Cam and Mitchell frame a kid for a juice box accident and the Dunphy kids are traumatized when the see their parent's having sex.

The weakest storyline is the one with Cam and Mitchell, it just doesn't hold up compared to the rest of the episode. There are some nice moments especially when they stop to figure out that Anjelica Huston was indeed in "Prizzi's Honor" and the ending is nice. However it does feel throwaway compared to everything else going on.

This is Sofia Vergara's best episode of the season yet. The scene where she is talking about the email and Claire and Phil think she is talking about sex is some of the best innuendo of the season. Her line about the cupcakes also had me rolling with laughter.

The Dunphy kids are the highlight of the episode. Luke is charming as ever and his line "Whatever it was it looked like dad was winning" is an instant classic. Hayley and Alex are great as well and the revelation of how lucky they are that their parents love each other is one we can all relate to.

***1/2 out of ****

Favorite line

Mitchell: "They can take us at 5:15"

Cam: "What are we 80?"

Mitchell: "Or 10:45?"

Cam: "What are we 20?"