TV of 2023

[DarkImbecile]

Maybe not 2023, but Matt Reeves is signed to direct a limited series with Rami Malek starting as Buster Keaton

[Roger Ryan]

Maybe not 2023, but Matt Reeves is signed to direct a limited series with Rami Malek starting as Buster Keaton

Apprehensive about this. A limited series on Keaton should really have a narrow scope such as focusing exclusively on the Arbuckle trial and how that event affected the friendship and working relationship between Arbuckle and Keaton. That could be really effective dramatically while allowing for plenty of stunts and clowning around. Or, the series could just be about Keaton losing his independence when moving to MGM and the onset of alcoholism. But trying to do twenty years or more in Keaton's life will probably make this feel too scattershot as most traditional biopics are.

[flyonthewall2983]

Kathy Bates is the new Matlock

[flyonthewall2983]

Someone on Twitter last night referred to Progressive Insurance’s Flo and “her cadre of idiots” and it’s making me laugh all over again.

Speaking of which, here’s Charley Steiner reminiscing with Rich Eisen on having to report on Carl Lewis attempting to sing the national anthem, 30 years ago on SportsCenter.

[brundlefly]

Kathy Bates is the new Matlock

This is only going to confuse the hell out of a bunch of old people.

OTOH (from that link) Elsbeth Tascioni is a gem of a character and though I fear extended exposure could dilute her appeal, there was never a second she was on The Good Fight when I wasn't wishing there were more seconds of her on The Good Fight.

[The Curious Sofa]

Kathy Bates is the new Matlock

This is only going to confuse the hell out of a bunch of old people.

OTOH (from that link) Elsbeth Tascioni is a gem of a character and though I fear extended exposure could dilute her appeal, there was never a second she was on The Good Fight when I wasn't wishing there were more seconds of her on The Good Fight.

The Good Fight lost me over last couple of seasons, not being able to go up against Trump made the show feel without impetus, it never got over the loss of a couple of orginal cast members and it became a little too silly for my taste. I'm so on board with a Elsbeth Tascioni spin-off though, during the The Good Wife I already thought that would be a no-brainer. Thanks to Carrie Preston, Tascioni was one of the most delightful recurring characters of any TV show ever. While Poker Face (which I have not yet seen) just staked the claim to being the female Columbo, Tascioni always struck me as very Columbo-like in the way she wrong foots opponents by hiding a sharp mind behind a scatterbrained appearance.

[Black Hat]

Kathy Bates is the new Matlock

looking forward to the tucker carlson segment on this!

[flyonthewall2983]

Maybe he’ll demand she be recast by a bowl of m&ms

[brundlefly]

The Good Fight lost me over last couple of seasons, not being able to go up against Trump made the show feel without impetus, it never got over the loss of a couple of orginal cast members and it became a little too silly for my taste. I'm so on board with a Elsbeth Tascioni spin-off though, during the The Good Wife I already thought that would be a no-brainer. Thanks to Carrie Preston, Tascioni was one of the most delightful recurring characters of any TV show ever. While Poker Face (which I have not yet seen) just staked the claim to being the female Columbo, Tascioni always struck me as very Columbo-like in the way she wrong foots opponents by hiding a sharp mind behind a scatterbrained appearance.

Agree about Tascioni following the Columbo template to a t. I have mixed feelings about The Good Fight overall; it took stabs at greatness but was mostly satisfied being very good television. Its foundation was flawed -- let's make a show about a black law firm built around Christine Baranski! -- and it was aware of that but both lacked the conviction to seriously challenge itself and was secure in the correct knowledge that, fuck it, Baranski was the heart of the show. And I think some of the flailing toward the end was due to having nothing new to do with Baranski and being unable to successfully frame the Lockhart-McVeigh marriage over the insurrection as a binding symbol of American unity. Especially when the Lockhart-McVeigh marriage was pretty great and should have been an easier focus than LSD'ing out with John Slattery.

I'd argue there was good stuff still, though. Mandy Patinkin's private court system was a great terrible idea that revealed itself well enough until it had to cartoonishly implode. The Carmen Moyo character could have been a great one had they not forced her into action so quickly and had they not been so eager to have her plug-and-play for Lucca Quinn. But as time capsule stuff it's valuable to have some amusing way to vent the Trump years, the Kings are great at cycling in guest stars(*)(doubly so when they use the same ones on Evil in completely different ways), and it gave us one of the all-timer opening credits sequences.(**)

(*) And secure in their television-ness, I loved it when they used guests to stage Spin City and Hannibal reunions.
(**) Again rivaled by the one for their other show featuring Carrie Preston's husband.

[DarkImbecile]

Amazon is releasing a six-episode update of Dead Ringers on April 21 with Rachel Weisz in the lead roles and Sean Durkin and Karyn Kusama directing four of the episodes

[Matt]

Normally I would say “no thanks” to any attempt to remake or update a Cronenberg film, but the presence of Rachel Weisz (and Jennifer Ehle) is a powerful enticement. I hope I don’t regret watching it (as I do most prestige TV these days).

[therewillbeblus]

Any Atlanta fans watching Glover's new series(/long film) Swarm? It's definitely in step with that show's established tone of dark surreal comic satire, here following a mentally-unhinged stan for a Beyoncé-inspired pop star, as she picks off (primarily) men who bash her idol, have enacted perceived or real harm against women, or really for any reason she can rationalize.. though it's to Glover and Janine Nabers' credit that we never get an invitation into the internal logic of her surface-level reasoning while still tracking her state in close proximity. It's an incredibly challenging feat to pull off, but then so was Atlanta. The miniseries plays out a bit like Promising Young Woman merged with Der Fan and eventually The Talented Mr Ripley and Black Swan in the finale. The Fennell comparison is worth pointing to abstractly rather than specifically, but apt since the amplified behavior is sourced in defensive trauma responses of compensation and projection divorced from the actual utility of the music itself, and more what the icon represented for our antihero's personal relationship with family that she doesn't have the skills to process. The layered trauma history is slowly unveiled, and the mockumentary episode is both hilarious and touches on deep-rooted psychosocial contexts -and distinct systemic and institutional problems- that Atlanta tackled via similar intra-series modalities. The long-reliable Dominique Fishback finally gets a complex starring role and is an exemplar lesson of perfect casting. Even her stature and posture complement the complex deadpan expressions in some wide shots to incite physical comedy around objectively horrifying macabre set pieces, delivering the kind of twisted humor in observing antisocial behavior and absurd situations that Glover has perfected already. Fans of Glover's last show shouldn't sleep on this, especially if you enjoyed the dimmer, esoteric, and uncomfortable moments from that one's most recent seasons.

Also, there are some really fun cameo perfs that shouldn't be spoiled, including two in episode four from polar opposite circles - one from the hard-indie scene and the other couldn't be more popular!

Episode 4Show

It's a neat bit of casting, Billie Eilish sliding into the kind of role we might expect from Kate Lyn Sheil - not to mention audaciously giving the newbie a rich central spot and sidelining the surprisingly-underutilized indie vet! But she shows real promise in her debut acting perf, and I hope to see more of Eilish in these types of understated parts in the future. I also thought it was a nice in-joke that Eilish remained clothed as the rest of her flock were naked flaunting their bodies in an ostensibly-harmonic milieu - which not only demonstrates hypocrisy through reinforcing power dynamics that the cult's ethos reportedly rejects, but also reflexively as a dealbreaker individualized to Eilish's own insecurities and personal statement on body image masking-as-nullifying-value-placement-in that she won't part with for a role here, just like Dre won't part with her phone and obsessions she's being asked to give up!

There are just some things we cling to for comfort and refuse to give up in our lives.. psychological dealbreakers. And that's a big part of what this show is about, using an extreme case study to reflect our own vulnerabilities, loneliness, insecurities, and resiliences in the face of personal traumas accrued through a lifetime.

[swo17]

It's good. Fishback was part of a stellar ensemble cast in The Deuce and she's excellent here. There's a throwaway joke about Flaming Hot Cheetos that I only got because I just read an interview with Glover where he says he's obsessed with them (specifically, dipped in sour cream). Also, your next episode up was written by Malia Obama!

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah she was great in The Deuce and easily the best part of Judas and the Black Messiah, playing off her partner in the Oscar-winning role and giving so much more detail and complexity to a character that could've been a throwaway and would normally be at least overshadowed by a 'juicy' part like that

[swo17]

Also, ace Disney trolling by casting the Little Mermaid's sister in such a scandalous role (not to mention that she and her sister were initially discovered and signed by none other than Beyoncé). And lastly:

SpoilerShow

Did you catch that the Halsey character was played by Michael Jackson's daughter Paris?

[therewillbeblus]

The third season of I Think You Should Leave drops May 30 - it's inconsistent at best, but I actually thought season two was way better than the first, and even those who have already expressed contempt on this board should check out the brilliant "Brian's Hat" and Paul Walter Hauser's excellent "Jamie Taco" sketch (unfortunately absent from the internet, but it's in episode four of season two) for their terrific execution of surreal comedy, which is where the show shines vs. the more juvenile amplified absurd theatrics

[therewillbeblus]

Beef is being advertised as "Parasite meets Changing Lanes meets White Lotus" give or take a few other influences, and that's about right, but it's nowhere near as intelligent or compelling as any of those, and I'm not exactly in love with them either. The cast is great, with Steven Yeun giving a career-best performance, and Ali Wong granting a lot of vulnerable depth to her character that may have felt forced in another actor's hands. But David Choe and especially Joseph Lee are terrific as well, and make this 5.5-hour odyssey of unspectacular 'stakes-raising social horror' bearable. I appreciate the prioritized attention to these characters' flawed humanity born from conditioned traumas informing negative core beliefs, but the show is also trying to be 'about' something without ever really doing more than posturing in its direction, and often takes detours into comedy that feel too forced. Occasionally some gallows humor works for its full-measured audacity, like the fate of one particular character entering a panic room, but the comedy and drama in the last episode particularly come off as artificial and imposed. People looking for a social problem thriller with talent to pass the time should give it a whirl, especially if you're a fan of the two stars, but consuming it in a binge format didn't yield the effect of layered intensity and surrogate investment the show promised, and the thematic outcome is disappointingly slight.

[beamish14]

I don’t know if I’m just easily amused or just so incredibly jaded about the state of American comedies that I’m blowing its merits out of proportion, but Freevee’s Jury Duty is stunning me. There are multiple elements of this show that really surprised me, not the least of which is its the pseudo-documentary interview format. Despite being so overused (I can’t even stomach the widely acclaimed Abbott Elementary, but that might stem, in part, from being an educator myself and frankly having a difficult time finding much humor in the current state of affairs in said field), but it fits the material perfectly given that the ostensible nucleus of the show is an actual unemployed everyman named Ronald Gladden who truly thinks he’s on a reality television program. Surrounded by a cast of “maybe I’ve seen you somewhere…?” improv performers who consistently hit incredible marks and a wonderful James Marsden as himself, the show might appeal to Nathan Fielder’s fans here. The show’s creators, the team of Lee Eisenberg & Gene Stupnitsky, were closely associated with the American iteration of The Office, a show I’ve always had some serious misgivings about despite liking in patches, and co-wrote Harold Ramis’ best-forgotten final film, Year One, which further made me reluctant to fully embrace this initially.

There is a genuine believability in the relationships fused among the jurors forced to serve on an inane civil trial involving a fashion company and then cohabit. Ronald’s empathy for each of them is very endearing and even touching in scenes.

I don’t want to spoil perhaps the absolute best gag, but there is a moment in episode 6 dealing with ”soaking” that made me nearly hyperventilate with laughter

[therewillbeblus]

I'm loving Mrs. Davis, the new Lindelof series on Peacock. It's a positively-bananas sci-fi dramedy, which works at-odds with his typical sincerity but right in line with the tactful, self-conscious absurdism from The Leftovers' wackier moments. Betty Gilpin is terrific in the lead, and the imaginative elasticity the premise allows for is welcome, while still grounding to an internal logic we become gradually cued into with delightful reveals. I don't know how much it's 'saying' about the relationship between spirituality and technology in a world where both are so heightened, but the madcap explosion at meditating on that state with a swarm of uninhibited ideas intruding in on the action is expressing all we need to feel about it - no didacticism required. It's a great show for people who no longer think the world makes sense, but who don't want to drain their energy feeling bad about it during their leisure time either.

[Matt]

Normally I would say “no thanks” to any attempt to remake or update a Cronenberg film, but the presence of Rachel Weisz (and Jennifer Ehle) is a powerful enticement. I hope I don’t regret watching it (as I do most prestige TV these days).

Re: Amazon’s Dead Ringers

Only 2 episodes in, but I’m really enjoying it. Weisz and Ehle are giving top-tier performances, and it pays appropriate homage to Cronenberg”s film while being entirely its own thing.

[MichaelB]

I’m greatly looking forward to this, although I very much want to watch it with my wife, an obs-and-gynae ultrasonographer who hasn’t seen the Cronenberg film, and we’re still trying to get our schedules in sync.

[Roscoe]

I've been enjoying LUCKY HANK, the Bob Odenkirk series on AMC. Lower-key and funny and sad, it pops into my head when I least expect it. Splendid performances all round, fine writing and direction, I'm digging it.

[therewillbeblus]

Normally I would say “no thanks” to any attempt to remake or update a Cronenberg film, but the presence of Rachel Weisz (and Jennifer Ehle) is a powerful enticement. I hope I don’t regret watching it (as I do most prestige TV these days).

Re: Amazon’s Dead Ringers

Only 2 episodes in, but I’m really enjoying it. Weisz and Ehle are giving top-tier performances, and it pays appropriate homage to Cronenberg”s film while being entirely its own thing.

Same, this really exceeded my expectations. I was going to watch this anyways just to see Weisz go ham, but the firs act (the first two eps) manages to balance a critical meditation on the state of woman's health in America with broader social satire, and the accompanying real dramas of a moral person attempting to contend with overwhelming, impenetrable systems and other wills on an intimate level. The Cronenberg was more focused on the micro-level, but I may have found this even more compelling in that zone (not that it's "better" - I consider the film one of his best, they're incomparable) in addition to covering the mezzo/macro ground - I guess that's the benefit of the miniseries format, but this is very much its own thing and I'm here for it. Then the second act ventures into the psych-thriller format dissecting identity that asks psychosocial and philosophical questions peripherally against the prioritized state of pure emotional surge. Are we more powerful with a codependent half, or a fractured person incapable of existing in an independently-realised state? And the ensuing chapters of collateral damage reveal some powerful truths about expectations and subtle manipulations inherent in enmeshed relationship dynamics, where nobody is innocent, and perhaps the diffusion of responsibility via suppressing one's role in this contract is the greatest offense.

The second episode's tonal vacation into an absurd dinner party -that only ups the ante as it (appropriately) grammatically races ahead of our prompting- is so inspired and formally economic, like a Ruben Östlund film as directed by David Fincher. It took me about two hours to watch the 50 minute episode, because I felt the urge to rewind the first half like five times to ensure I caught every gag, acidic line, and reaction shot. It also perfectly bookends with its sequential mirror epiosde: the second-to-last episode's dinner party (masterfully directed by Karyn Kusama), which repulses with ominous, maddening sensations, all while retaining the darkly comic absurdism of the earlier party. The difference is that life isn't breathing into the room with fun incisions, and instead we feel the life getting sucked out with moral agitation and suffocating emotional dysregulation - all building to a one-two punch with a disarming narrative of the history of gynecology and a crescendo'ing breakdown.

Other highlights include Jennifer Ehle's speech in episode three on the hypocritical, delusional nature of privileged social justice advocates, which is both brilliant and chilling for being so right and yet arriving at an answer of reinforced indifference to enacting progressive change on a higher level. And Weisz' impassive baby cry lost in thought on a cig break in episode four? Such inspired bits of disturbing eccentricity

[therewillbeblus]

Silo is off to a promising start, pulling a now-familiar bait-and-switch on the directionality of the series, but one that worked for me at priming an implicit mystery beneath the three defined ones: the murder, the history, and why the lies. I haven't read the source, but

SpoilerShow

I'm not too optimistic that whatever nefarious secrets being covered up by this fascist regime to suppress the people from an uprising, etc. are going to shed new light on an unoriginal sci-fi concept... However, the mystery I'm drawn to is why did our two pump-faked ostensible leads take the specific isolating death route that they did? Both of them clearly had allies within the silo, but seemed to be fully self-actualized in respective quick decisions to sacrifice themselves to 'protect' others, once finding out key information beyond what's been shared with the viewer. If the answer is just that there are eyes and ears everywhere, that'll be annoying, but if there's a clever reason for the secret-keeping and martyring clue-dropping, I'm intrigued

Regardless of how it all turns out, I'm excited for some world-building, the process of the detective work unfolding, and Rebecca Ferguson finally getting a juicy starring role after being sidelined into one-note parts following her complex star-making MI:5 perf (including the sad dilution of that very character is its follow-up). Plus, Graham Yost has finally created another show!

[flyonthewall2983]

She’s incredible in Dune, I’d never seen her before in anything and was kind of blown away by her acting.