50/50 has gotten a lot of attention for managing to be a funny movie about cancer, but I'd argue that the more impressive feat is that it manages to make Seth Rogen charming and likable.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (rock solid as usual) stars as Adam, who is diagnosed at 27 with a rare form of spinal cancer, and the movie follows him through chemotherapy and surgery. He's got a solid support network -- best friend Kyle (Rogen), overbearing but well-intentioned mom Diane (Anjelica Huston, making a big impression with relatively little screen time), and a young counselor-in-training (Anna Kendrick, finding the endearing side of being minimally competent).
There are also nice supporting performances from Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer as two of Adam's fellow chemo patients, and Bryce Dallas Howard as Adam's girlfriend. (Howard is, I think, in desperate need of a non-Evil Bitch role, and fast, before she's completely typecast.)
The comedy works because it never feels like writer Will Reiser is just going for the jokes; they all build naturally out of who the characters are and what they're going through -- Adam's attempt to hide his fear, Kyle's desire to be supportive and helpful, Diane's feeling shut out of Adam's life. There's also an understanding that some moments can't support jokes, and the movie pulls off its more serious scenes very well without getting too melodramatic or tear-jerky.
October 16, 2011
October 13, 2011
BOOKS: Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (2011)
The world of 2044 is on the verge of collapse, and most people spend their time hooked into the OASIS, which is a massive virtual reality playground where you can visit your favorite fantasy worlds, go to school, meet your friends (who may or may not be people you've ever met face-to-face) in virtual restaurants (or clubs, or chat rooms...). The popularity of virtual reality means that the entire world is in mourning when James Halliday, inventor of the OASIS, dies.
Halliday has one last surprise up his sleeve, though. In a videotaped will, he announces that hidden somewhere in the OASIS is a series of complicated puzzles, and that the first to find and solve them all will inherit his multi-billion dollar estate, which includes ownership of the OASIS. Cline's novel follows high school student Wade on his quest to find and solve Halliday's puzzles, the answers to which are rooted in Halliday's love of the 80s pop culture he grew up on.
It's a reasonably entertaining story, and Cline's vision of the OASIS, of lives spent in virtual reality, is fascinating. But I suspect that most of what I liked about the book was the opportunity to stroll down memory lane, playing "spot the reference" with the pop culture of my own teen years. If you're a child of the 80s, you might enjoy this; if you aren't, I don't think it'll have much to offer you.
Halliday has one last surprise up his sleeve, though. In a videotaped will, he announces that hidden somewhere in the OASIS is a series of complicated puzzles, and that the first to find and solve them all will inherit his multi-billion dollar estate, which includes ownership of the OASIS. Cline's novel follows high school student Wade on his quest to find and solve Halliday's puzzles, the answers to which are rooted in Halliday's love of the 80s pop culture he grew up on.
It's a reasonably entertaining story, and Cline's vision of the OASIS, of lives spent in virtual reality, is fascinating. But I suspect that most of what I liked about the book was the opportunity to stroll down memory lane, playing "spot the reference" with the pop culture of my own teen years. If you're a child of the 80s, you might enjoy this; if you aren't, I don't think it'll have much to offer you.
October 12, 2011
MOVIES: Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011)
Weekend tells the story of a weekend-long conversation between two gay men who meet at a bar on Friday night; in tone, you might think of it as a gay Before Sunrise.
Russell (Tom Cullen) is an introverted, semi-closeted lifeguard; Glen (Chris New) is a chatty artist. The serious talk begins when the men wake up the next morning, and Glen wants to tape Russell talking about their evening; he says the recording is for an art project on gay sexuality. That conversation opens the floodgates to a wide-ranging discussion of gay marriage, coming out stories, and the importance (or lack thereof) of longterm relationships. There's clearly a strong attraction between the two, both physically and emotionally, but there are a host of obstacles making a serious relationship unlikely.
The two principal actors are both terrific; Cullen is particularly good as the quieter of the two men, finding ways to let his silence speak more clearly than words. Haigh's dialogue has an improvisational quality; and while the specifics of these conversations will certainly be familiar to any gay man, the topics of love and intimacy are universal. The language is blunt, and there is one sex scene that's more graphic than any Hollywood scene between two men would ever be, but is roughly equivalent to the hetero scenes you'd see in an R-rated movie.
Russell (Tom Cullen) is an introverted, semi-closeted lifeguard; Glen (Chris New) is a chatty artist. The serious talk begins when the men wake up the next morning, and Glen wants to tape Russell talking about their evening; he says the recording is for an art project on gay sexuality. That conversation opens the floodgates to a wide-ranging discussion of gay marriage, coming out stories, and the importance (or lack thereof) of longterm relationships. There's clearly a strong attraction between the two, both physically and emotionally, but there are a host of obstacles making a serious relationship unlikely.
The two principal actors are both terrific; Cullen is particularly good as the quieter of the two men, finding ways to let his silence speak more clearly than words. Haigh's dialogue has an improvisational quality; and while the specifics of these conversations will certainly be familiar to any gay man, the topics of love and intimacy are universal. The language is blunt, and there is one sex scene that's more graphic than any Hollywood scene between two men would ever be, but is roughly equivalent to the hetero scenes you'd see in an R-rated movie.
BOOKS: Before I Go to Sleep, S.J. Watson (2011)
Christine has amnesia. Any new memories she makes during the day are lost when she sleeps, and memories from earlier in her life are erratic, coming and going unpredictably. So every morning, Christine wakes up with a man she doesn't recognize, who patiently explains that he is her husband, Ben, and tells her that this has been her life for more than 20 years now, ever since the car accident.
But Ben doesn't know that Christine has begun seeing a new doctor, or that on the doctor's advice, she's been keeping a journal. The doctor phones every day to remind her who he is, and where she's hidden her journal; he thinks that writing down her daily experiences will help her to develop and retain new memories. As Watson's novel opens, Christine has gone through what is apparently her morning ritual with Ben, and is sitting down to read her journal. On the first page, below the neatly written "Journal of Christine Lucas," she is horrified to see written in frantic bold letters, "Don't trust Ben."
That's a pretty nifty setup for a thriller, and though the payoff doesn't quite live up to the premise (I'm not sure any payoff could), the book is still a fine piece of entertainment. I particularly like the way Watson uses Christine's amnesia to subvert some of the basic expectations of mystery writing. Normally, for instance, when some apparently irrelevant detail is repeated for the third or fourth time, we readers can say, "Aha! That must be a clue!," but here, everything has to be repeated over and over because Christine has to learn it all from scratch with each new day.
And Watson does a nice job of laying the groundwork for the big twist at the end, slowly ratcheting up the tension until the final confrontation. Is that twist as surprising as it ought to be? Well, no; you're likely to see it coming long before the end of the book. But it's a well written scene, and it delivers enough emotion that I'm willing to forgive the mild failure in the suspense department. A very promising first novel.
But Ben doesn't know that Christine has begun seeing a new doctor, or that on the doctor's advice, she's been keeping a journal. The doctor phones every day to remind her who he is, and where she's hidden her journal; he thinks that writing down her daily experiences will help her to develop and retain new memories. As Watson's novel opens, Christine has gone through what is apparently her morning ritual with Ben, and is sitting down to read her journal. On the first page, below the neatly written "Journal of Christine Lucas," she is horrified to see written in frantic bold letters, "Don't trust Ben."
That's a pretty nifty setup for a thriller, and though the payoff doesn't quite live up to the premise (I'm not sure any payoff could), the book is still a fine piece of entertainment. I particularly like the way Watson uses Christine's amnesia to subvert some of the basic expectations of mystery writing. Normally, for instance, when some apparently irrelevant detail is repeated for the third or fourth time, we readers can say, "Aha! That must be a clue!," but here, everything has to be repeated over and over because Christine has to learn it all from scratch with each new day.
And Watson does a nice job of laying the groundwork for the big twist at the end, slowly ratcheting up the tension until the final confrontation. Is that twist as surprising as it ought to be? Well, no; you're likely to see it coming long before the end of the book. But it's a well written scene, and it delivers enough emotion that I'm willing to forgive the mild failure in the suspense department. A very promising first novel.
October 11, 2011
TV: Last Man Standing (ABC, Tue 8)
Tim Allen, Nancy Travis, and Hector Elizondo are three talented people, which makes one wonder how it is possible to build a sitcom around them and not get a single laugh.
Allen plays Mike, who supervises catalog shoots for Outdoor Man, a mail-order company selling outdoor gear. But catalog sales are declining, and his boss (Elizondo) can no longer afford to send him off to Alaska and Costa Rica for expensive photo shoots, so he is charged with finding a way to boost the company's anemic web presence.
This is good news for his wife (Travis), who's just gotten a promotion and will have to work extra hours (it's a sign of how unimportant a character she is that we are never told what her job actually is), meaning that Mike will have to step up and help out with their three daughters (20-ish single mom, boy-obsesed teen, jock tween).
So, we're in very similar territory to Allen's old Home Improvement, with the exception that Tim Taylor's cluelessness was well-meaning and likable, where Mike's is aggressively assholish. He tosses off causal sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and general loathing of the modern world.
This is an awful mess of a show, and it's baffling that anyone thought it was funny enough to put on TV.
Allen plays Mike, who supervises catalog shoots for Outdoor Man, a mail-order company selling outdoor gear. But catalog sales are declining, and his boss (Elizondo) can no longer afford to send him off to Alaska and Costa Rica for expensive photo shoots, so he is charged with finding a way to boost the company's anemic web presence.
This is good news for his wife (Travis), who's just gotten a promotion and will have to work extra hours (it's a sign of how unimportant a character she is that we are never told what her job actually is), meaning that Mike will have to step up and help out with their three daughters (20-ish single mom, boy-obsesed teen, jock tween).
So, we're in very similar territory to Allen's old Home Improvement, with the exception that Tim Taylor's cluelessness was well-meaning and likable, where Mike's is aggressively assholish. He tosses off causal sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and general loathing of the modern world.
This is an awful mess of a show, and it's baffling that anyone thought it was funny enough to put on TV.
TV: Reed Between the Lines (BET, Tue 10)
Here we have a serviceable, though not very exciting, family comedy that is very clearly and deliberately in the mold of The Cosby Show. Mom and Dad are New York professionals Alex and Carla Reed (he's a college professor, she's a psychiatrist) with three adorable kids (boy/girl twins in early teens and a cute little girl). Their house is even laid out almost exactly like the Huxtables' -- door, stairs, sofa, kitchen all in the same place.
The resemblance is only emphasized by the casting of Malcolm Jamal-Warner as the father. He co-stars opposite Tracee Ellis Reed, and they have a similar warm chemistry to that of Cosby and Phylicia Rashad, albeit at a much lower level of skill.
And "lower level" is, I'm afraid, the dominant phrase for the show. It's all perfectly competent; Reed and Jamal-Warner are likable enough; the kids are cute. But if you're going to so obviously invite comparison to The Cosby Show, a classic of its type, then perfectly competent isn't going to cut it.
The resemblance is only emphasized by the casting of Malcolm Jamal-Warner as the father. He co-stars opposite Tracee Ellis Reed, and they have a similar warm chemistry to that of Cosby and Phylicia Rashad, albeit at a much lower level of skill.
And "lower level" is, I'm afraid, the dominant phrase for the show. It's all perfectly competent; Reed and Jamal-Warner are likable enough; the kids are cute. But if you're going to so obviously invite comparison to The Cosby Show, a classic of its type, then perfectly competent isn't going to cut it.
October 10, 2011
TV: Enlightened (HBO, Mon 9:30)
Enlightened may be from HBO, but it feels kind of like the comedies Showtime's been doing in recent years, with a not-quite-middle-aged actress struggling with an emotional/physical crisis in a show that's never really laugh-out-loud funny.
This one gives us Laura Dern as Amy, who we meet in the midst of a nervous breakdown at work. After an ill-advised fling with her boss, she's being transferred to another, less prestigious division, and isn't taking the news well.
Cut to Hawaii, where Amy is attending some sort of New Age-y meditation/therapy retreat. She's writing in a journal, she's gone off her anti-depression meds, and she seems immensely calmer. So much so that when she returns home, no one knows quite what to make of her. Her mother (Diane Ladd, who happens to be Dern's real mother) and ex-husband (Luke Wilson) are both skeptical of the new Amy. Amy even manages to get re-hired by her old company, though we don't yet know what her new position will be.
It would be easy to laugh at Amy, but I think co-creators Dern and Mike White are after something more complicated than just another "let's make fun of the New Agers" joke. Amy's transformation seems to be genuine and sincere, and I think that as we watch her struggle to face the world in a more open-minded, less judgmental fashion, Enlightened is challenging us: Can we give Amy the same benefit of the doubt without giving in to the easy, reflexive, cheap laughs at her expense? This one could be very interesting.
This one gives us Laura Dern as Amy, who we meet in the midst of a nervous breakdown at work. After an ill-advised fling with her boss, she's being transferred to another, less prestigious division, and isn't taking the news well.
Cut to Hawaii, where Amy is attending some sort of New Age-y meditation/therapy retreat. She's writing in a journal, she's gone off her anti-depression meds, and she seems immensely calmer. So much so that when she returns home, no one knows quite what to make of her. Her mother (Diane Ladd, who happens to be Dern's real mother) and ex-husband (Luke Wilson) are both skeptical of the new Amy. Amy even manages to get re-hired by her old company, though we don't yet know what her new position will be.
It would be easy to laugh at Amy, but I think co-creators Dern and Mike White are after something more complicated than just another "let's make fun of the New Agers" joke. Amy's transformation seems to be genuine and sincere, and I think that as we watch her struggle to face the world in a more open-minded, less judgmental fashion, Enlightened is challenging us: Can we give Amy the same benefit of the doubt without giving in to the easy, reflexive, cheap laughs at her expense? This one could be very interesting.
October 06, 2011
BOOKS: Plugged, Eoin Colfer (2011)
After much success with his Artemis Fowl series of novels for young adults (which I've not read), Colfer makes the move to adult fiction with this oddball crime caper.
(We should note that, jacket text to the contrary, this isn't Colfer's first venture into adult fiction; there was his unfortunate attempt to cash in on the corpse of Douglas Adams by continuing the Hitchhiker's Guide series. But the less said of that, the better. Let's just say that this is Colfer's first adult novel based entirely on his own ideas.)
Colfer gives us a comic crime caper about Daniel MacEvoy, an Irish ex-military man working as a bouncer in a sleazy New Jersey strip club. When people around Daniel start dying -- the stripper he has a not-so-secret thing for, his hair transplant doctor/best friend -- he finds himself suspect #1, and is forced to use his military training in ingenious ways to get out of the mess.
The tone is a bit offputting; Colfer's trying to make Daniel a lovable thug, sort of a more violent version of Donald Westlake's lovable thief Dortmunder. But the amped-up violence doesn't mix well with the humor, and Daniel comes across as just a bit too unstable; I felt like he wasn't resorting to violence in desperation so much as he was happy to have an excuse for it.
Not a horrible book, and it has some nice moments along the way, but it never really takes off. I'll be curious to see if Colfer gets any better with his next effort, or if this is really the best he can do.
(We should note that, jacket text to the contrary, this isn't Colfer's first venture into adult fiction; there was his unfortunate attempt to cash in on the corpse of Douglas Adams by continuing the Hitchhiker's Guide series. But the less said of that, the better. Let's just say that this is Colfer's first adult novel based entirely on his own ideas.)
Colfer gives us a comic crime caper about Daniel MacEvoy, an Irish ex-military man working as a bouncer in a sleazy New Jersey strip club. When people around Daniel start dying -- the stripper he has a not-so-secret thing for, his hair transplant doctor/best friend -- he finds himself suspect #1, and is forced to use his military training in ingenious ways to get out of the mess.
The tone is a bit offputting; Colfer's trying to make Daniel a lovable thug, sort of a more violent version of Donald Westlake's lovable thief Dortmunder. But the amped-up violence doesn't mix well with the humor, and Daniel comes across as just a bit too unstable; I felt like he wasn't resorting to violence in desperation so much as he was happy to have an excuse for it.
Not a horrible book, and it has some nice moments along the way, but it never really takes off. I'll be curious to see if Colfer gets any better with his next effort, or if this is really the best he can do.
BOOKS: The Guilty Plea, Robert Rotenberg (2011)
Followup to Rotenberg's Old City Hall, which I liked very much. I say "followup" and not sequel, because there's really no significant plot connection between the two books. They share a few characters, but the small bits of backstory from the first book that you might want to know are very skillfully worked into the narrative; you won't feel lost at all if you pick up this one without having read the first.
This is another courtroom drama set in Toronto, and our murder victim this time is Terrance Wyler, youngest son of a prominent family. He's found stabbed to death in his kitchen on the morning that his divorce trial is scheduled to begin; when Samantha, his soon-to-be ex-wife, shows up at her lawyer's office shortly thereafter carrying a bloody knife wrapped in a kitchen towel, the police and prosecutors have every reason to expect a simple and speedy resolution.
But what kind of a book would that make? No, Rotenberg has plenty of twists in turn for his characters, and lots of new suspects to meet along the way. There's the Hollywood beauty queen with whom Terrance was having an affair; ditto for Samantha and the teenaged boy next door. Terrance has a pair of older brothers who've never quite forgiven him for his (failed) attempt to break away from the family business. And what about the mysterious librarian from the small town where Samantha grew up?
The characters are more fully dimensional than we generally get in this sort of story, and Rotenberg has a nice knack for knowing how and when to toss in a bit of comic relief along the way. If the final whodunit revelation feels a bit implausible, it has at least been fully and fairly prepared for, so doesn't come as a total shock.
A good, solid piece of entertainment.
This is another courtroom drama set in Toronto, and our murder victim this time is Terrance Wyler, youngest son of a prominent family. He's found stabbed to death in his kitchen on the morning that his divorce trial is scheduled to begin; when Samantha, his soon-to-be ex-wife, shows up at her lawyer's office shortly thereafter carrying a bloody knife wrapped in a kitchen towel, the police and prosecutors have every reason to expect a simple and speedy resolution.
But what kind of a book would that make? No, Rotenberg has plenty of twists in turn for his characters, and lots of new suspects to meet along the way. There's the Hollywood beauty queen with whom Terrance was having an affair; ditto for Samantha and the teenaged boy next door. Terrance has a pair of older brothers who've never quite forgiven him for his (failed) attempt to break away from the family business. And what about the mysterious librarian from the small town where Samantha grew up?
The characters are more fully dimensional than we generally get in this sort of story, and Rotenberg has a nice knack for knowing how and when to toss in a bit of comic relief along the way. If the final whodunit revelation feels a bit implausible, it has at least been fully and fairly prepared for, so doesn't come as a total shock.
A good, solid piece of entertainment.
October 05, 2011
TV: American Horror Story (FX, Wed 10)
Here's the latest from producer Ryan Murphy, and in some ways, it is weirdly reminiscent of Murphy's other current success, Glee. That is to say, it's an ambitious, overstuffed, tonally inconsistent, occasionally brilliant mess that throws everything at the wall in the hopes that something will stick.
Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton are Ben and Vivien Harmon, and their marriage has been under great strain; they lost a baby (stillborn at seven months), and a few months later, Vivien caught Ben in bed with one of his students. Now, a year later, they're moving to Los Angeles for a fresh start, and their new home has a lot of unpleasant history, including the murder-suicide deaths of the most recent occupants.
McDermott is a psychologist who's seeing patients in his home; among them is Tate (Evan Peters), a boy with violent fantasies. He quickly becomes friends with the Harmons' daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga), who's having problems settling into her new school.
Throw in the elderly maid (Frances Conroy) who Dan, and only Dan, sees as a hot young bombshell (Alexandra Breckinridge); the snoopy neighbor (Jessica Lange) who seems to have escaped from a bad Southern Gothic novel; and her daughter (Jamie Brewer), who has Down syndrome and a habit of telling everyone who moves in that "you're going to die in there," and you've got a wildly overheated mix of horror cliches.
The cast members seem to be acting in several different shows. Britton is doing realistic psychological dramas; Farmiga and Peters are straight out of 90210: Psych Ward; and Lange is camping it up like her life depends on it. Of all the shows on display, Lange's is the one I'd like to see more of; the delicious menace in her voice when she threatens Conroy ("Don't make me kill you again") had me giggling with delight.
But moments like that come far too rarely, and the show's utter inability to settle on one style or tone makes it a struggle to sit through. For horror aficionados and completists only, I'm afraid.
Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton are Ben and Vivien Harmon, and their marriage has been under great strain; they lost a baby (stillborn at seven months), and a few months later, Vivien caught Ben in bed with one of his students. Now, a year later, they're moving to Los Angeles for a fresh start, and their new home has a lot of unpleasant history, including the murder-suicide deaths of the most recent occupants.
McDermott is a psychologist who's seeing patients in his home; among them is Tate (Evan Peters), a boy with violent fantasies. He quickly becomes friends with the Harmons' daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga), who's having problems settling into her new school.
Throw in the elderly maid (Frances Conroy) who Dan, and only Dan, sees as a hot young bombshell (Alexandra Breckinridge); the snoopy neighbor (Jessica Lange) who seems to have escaped from a bad Southern Gothic novel; and her daughter (Jamie Brewer), who has Down syndrome and a habit of telling everyone who moves in that "you're going to die in there," and you've got a wildly overheated mix of horror cliches.
The cast members seem to be acting in several different shows. Britton is doing realistic psychological dramas; Farmiga and Peters are straight out of 90210: Psych Ward; and Lange is camping it up like her life depends on it. Of all the shows on display, Lange's is the one I'd like to see more of; the delicious menace in her voice when she threatens Conroy ("Don't make me kill you again") had me giggling with delight.
But moments like that come far too rarely, and the show's utter inability to settle on one style or tone makes it a struggle to sit through. For horror aficionados and completists only, I'm afraid.
October 02, 2011
TV: Homeland (Showtime, Sun 10)
Very strong start for this one.
Damian Lewis plays an American POW who's rescued after eight years of captivity in Iraq; Claire Danes is the CIA analyst who suspects that he might have been turned by his captors, and is plotting some sort of terrorist attack in the US. She has a somewhat spotty work history, causing at least one international incident that got her removed from field work and put behind a desk, so her superiors aren't taking her concerns seriously.
I like the ambiguity of the principal characters; we have ample reason to believe that Lewis isn't telling the entire truth, but we also understand that Danes's history of instability (of various sorts) makes her not entirely reliable.
Fine performances from Danes and Lewis, as well as Mandy Patinkin as Danes's CIA mentor and closest confidant, and Morena Baccarin as Lewis's wife.
Damian Lewis plays an American POW who's rescued after eight years of captivity in Iraq; Claire Danes is the CIA analyst who suspects that he might have been turned by his captors, and is plotting some sort of terrorist attack in the US. She has a somewhat spotty work history, causing at least one international incident that got her removed from field work and put behind a desk, so her superiors aren't taking her concerns seriously.
I like the ambiguity of the principal characters; we have ample reason to believe that Lewis isn't telling the entire truth, but we also understand that Danes's history of instability (of various sorts) makes her not entirely reliable.
Fine performances from Danes and Lewis, as well as Mandy Patinkin as Danes's CIA mentor and closest confidant, and Morena Baccarin as Lewis's wife.
TV: How to Be a Gentleman (CBS, Thu 8:30)
What a mess.
"How to Be a Gentleman" is the column that Andrew (David Hornsby) writes for an Esquire-ish mens' magazine. It's devoted to the old-fashioned finer virtues of elegance and refinement. But when Andrew's editor (Dave Foley) informs that the magazine's been sold to new owners who want to move it a few notches down the classy ladder ("they've decided to increase readership by appealing to people who don't read"), Andrew is at a loss.
A series of sitcom coincidences bring Andrew back into touch with Bert (Kevin Dillon), who had been his high school bully and now works as a personal trainer. It's not long before Andrew realizes that Bert is the answer to his writing challenge, and we're set up for a series in which Bert teaches Andrew how to be a dude and Andrew teaches Bert how to be a gentleman; it's an Odd Couple for the new millennium.
There are a lot of problems here. The writing is flat and unfunny, wasting a lot of fine comic actors in supporting roles (Mary Lynn Rajskub and Rhys Darby as Andrew's sister and her husband; Nancy Lenehan as Andrew's mother). But worst of all are the two lead actors, who are both incredibly irritating. In Dillon's case, I'll put most of the blame on the conception of the character, who is written as such a bullying asshole that no actor could make him likable or funny.
But the problems with Andrew lie mostly at Hornsby's feet. One can be a gentleman without being a simpering priss, but Hornsby plays the character as someone who longs for the days of valets and ascots, and he's affected a speaking voice that is painfully whiny and petulant. By the end of the episode, hell, I wanted to give the little twit a noogie or two.
This is an absolute disaster, without doubt the worst new sitcom of the year so far.
"How to Be a Gentleman" is the column that Andrew (David Hornsby) writes for an Esquire-ish mens' magazine. It's devoted to the old-fashioned finer virtues of elegance and refinement. But when Andrew's editor (Dave Foley) informs that the magazine's been sold to new owners who want to move it a few notches down the classy ladder ("they've decided to increase readership by appealing to people who don't read"), Andrew is at a loss.
A series of sitcom coincidences bring Andrew back into touch with Bert (Kevin Dillon), who had been his high school bully and now works as a personal trainer. It's not long before Andrew realizes that Bert is the answer to his writing challenge, and we're set up for a series in which Bert teaches Andrew how to be a dude and Andrew teaches Bert how to be a gentleman; it's an Odd Couple for the new millennium.
There are a lot of problems here. The writing is flat and unfunny, wasting a lot of fine comic actors in supporting roles (Mary Lynn Rajskub and Rhys Darby as Andrew's sister and her husband; Nancy Lenehan as Andrew's mother). But worst of all are the two lead actors, who are both incredibly irritating. In Dillon's case, I'll put most of the blame on the conception of the character, who is written as such a bullying asshole that no actor could make him likable or funny.
But the problems with Andrew lie mostly at Hornsby's feet. One can be a gentleman without being a simpering priss, but Hornsby plays the character as someone who longs for the days of valets and ascots, and he's affected a speaking voice that is painfully whiny and petulant. By the end of the episode, hell, I wanted to give the little twit a noogie or two.
This is an absolute disaster, without doubt the worst new sitcom of the year so far.
TV: Suburgatory (ABC, Wed 8:30)
Tessa (Jane Levy) is a New York girl, so she's not happy when her father George (Jeremy Sisto) decides to move the two of them to the suburbs for a more wholesome life. But by the end of the first episode, she's found a potential new best friend and just maybe the mother figure she's been missing, and the suburbs are starting to look not so bad after all.
That's a fairly standard setup for a sitcom, but this one looks to be a particularly good exploration of familiar ideas. Levy is a tremendously likable lead, capable of being a sullen, resentful kid while retaining our sympathy; Sisto is clearly having a terrific time getting to play comedy for a change, and if he hasn't yet figured out quite how to tone down his innate "hello, my name is Jeremy and I'll be your stalker this evening" creepiness, I think he's headed in that direction.
The new best friend Jane (Allie Grant) and bitchy rival Dalia (Carly Chaikin) are thinner characters than the leads, but you can't develop everyone to their fullest in thirty minutes. And the other principal supporting player, Dalia's mother Dallas (Cheryl Hines), is a terrific character. At first glance, she's a shallow Real Housewife type, only interested in big hair, botox, and tight shorts, but Hines gives her more depth than you'd expect, and her relationship with Tessa is likely to be the most interesting thing in the show. Dallas has begun to realize that she's turned her own daughter into just another beauty-obsessed brat, so she's fascinated by Tessa, who's smart and sarcastic and not remotely interested in those suburban cliches. Watching how these two change one another could be great fun.
There's a lot of potential here, and it's been given a time slot (between The Middle and Modern Family) that should be a good fit.
That's a fairly standard setup for a sitcom, but this one looks to be a particularly good exploration of familiar ideas. Levy is a tremendously likable lead, capable of being a sullen, resentful kid while retaining our sympathy; Sisto is clearly having a terrific time getting to play comedy for a change, and if he hasn't yet figured out quite how to tone down his innate "hello, my name is Jeremy and I'll be your stalker this evening" creepiness, I think he's headed in that direction.
The new best friend Jane (Allie Grant) and bitchy rival Dalia (Carly Chaikin) are thinner characters than the leads, but you can't develop everyone to their fullest in thirty minutes. And the other principal supporting player, Dalia's mother Dallas (Cheryl Hines), is a terrific character. At first glance, she's a shallow Real Housewife type, only interested in big hair, botox, and tight shorts, but Hines gives her more depth than you'd expect, and her relationship with Tessa is likely to be the most interesting thing in the show. Dallas has begun to realize that she's turned her own daughter into just another beauty-obsessed brat, so she's fascinated by Tessa, who's smart and sarcastic and not remotely interested in those suburban cliches. Watching how these two change one another could be great fun.
There's a lot of potential here, and it's been given a time slot (between The Middle and Modern Family) that should be a good fit.
September 28, 2011
TV: Hart of Dixie (CW, Mon 9)
Hart of Dixie returns to one of TV's standard formulas -- the big-city person forced to live in a small town -- and executes it with a fair amount of charm. What we have here is a new version of Northern Exposure, with Rachel Bilson taking the Rob Morrow role, and Bluebell, Alabama filling in for Cicely, Alaska. The tone may also remind you a bit of Gilmore Girls, as will the set; after the pilot, the show will use the old Stars' Hollow backdrop.
Dr. Zoe Hart (Bilson) wants to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, but she has no people skills, and her supervisors insist that she can't tend to the hearts of others until she gets in touch with her own. (The actual dialogue is almost precisely that treacly.) So, it's off to Bluebell, where a kindly old doctor has been trying to get her to join his general practice ever since she graduated from medical school. Upon arrival, she finds that Dr. Kindly is recently dead, and that he's left half of his practice to her.
Bluebell is, of course, populated with a host of lovable small-town locals and eccentrics. There's Dr. Brick Breeland (Tim Matheson), the doctor who owns the other half of the practice, and who wants nothing to do with Zoe. Brick's daughter, Lemon (Jaime King), is the local Queen Belle, engaged to the town's golden boy, George (Scott Porter).
George is one potential romantic interest for Zoe, but there's also bad boy Wade (Wilson Bethel). And the town's mayor (Cress Williams) is a former NFL star (and so far, the only black guy in town) who owns a pet crocodile named Burt Reynolds.
The pilot of a show like that has obvious beats to hit, and you won't be surprised by a moment of it -- Zoe reluctantly goes to Alabama, hates the town and the people, alienates everyone, finally starts to win people over with her skill, and begins to understand the place enough to decide to stay. But the cast is very likable; Bilson has a knack for being just snarky enough to get laughs without making herself hatable, and she has particularly good chemistry with both Porter and Williams.
So, yeah, the pilot is absolutely predictable, but the execution and the casting are good enough that I'll give it a few more weeks to see what happens beyond the establishing of the premise.
Dr. Zoe Hart (Bilson) wants to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, but she has no people skills, and her supervisors insist that she can't tend to the hearts of others until she gets in touch with her own. (The actual dialogue is almost precisely that treacly.) So, it's off to Bluebell, where a kindly old doctor has been trying to get her to join his general practice ever since she graduated from medical school. Upon arrival, she finds that Dr. Kindly is recently dead, and that he's left half of his practice to her.
Bluebell is, of course, populated with a host of lovable small-town locals and eccentrics. There's Dr. Brick Breeland (Tim Matheson), the doctor who owns the other half of the practice, and who wants nothing to do with Zoe. Brick's daughter, Lemon (Jaime King), is the local Queen Belle, engaged to the town's golden boy, George (Scott Porter).
George is one potential romantic interest for Zoe, but there's also bad boy Wade (Wilson Bethel). And the town's mayor (Cress Williams) is a former NFL star (and so far, the only black guy in town) who owns a pet crocodile named Burt Reynolds.
The pilot of a show like that has obvious beats to hit, and you won't be surprised by a moment of it -- Zoe reluctantly goes to Alabama, hates the town and the people, alienates everyone, finally starts to win people over with her skill, and begins to understand the place enough to decide to stay. But the cast is very likable; Bilson has a knack for being just snarky enough to get laughs without making herself hatable, and she has particularly good chemistry with both Porter and Williams.
So, yeah, the pilot is absolutely predictable, but the execution and the casting are good enough that I'll give it a few more weeks to see what happens beyond the establishing of the premise.
September 27, 2011
TV: Terra Nova (Fox, Mon 8)
It's the early 22nd century, and the Earth is on the verge of total environmental collapse. You can't venture outside without wearing an oxygen mask, and an orange is a rare, exotic treat.
In that world live the Shannons, parents Jim and Elizabeth (Jason O'Mara and Shelley Conn), sullen teenage son Josh (Landon Liboiron), nerdy science whiz Maddy (Naomi Scott), and adorable moppet Zoe (Alana Mansour). Zoe is a problem for the Shannons, because she's an illegal third child, and when she's discovered, it's off to prison for Jim.
Two years later, Elizabeth has been recruited to join the Terra Nova project, an attempt to give humanity a fresh start by traveling back in time 85 million years; she's a doctor, so her skills will certainly be useful. She can't bear to leave Jim, though, so she helps him bust out of prison and crash through the time portal with the rest of the family.
(If the show's trying to create sympathetic protagonists, it's going about it very strangely at this point. Jim and Elizabeth's selfishness in having an illegal third child makes them a perfect symbol of the selfishness that has nearly destroyed their planet, and one has to wonder whether any struggling colony would really welcome a family willing to break that many rules, regulations, and laws to get there.)
The rest of the 2-hour pilot is spent getting to know the Terra Nova colony. It's run by Commander Taylor (Stephen Lang, reprising his Avatar shtick), who has to deal with a group of breakaway colonists called the Sixers; it's got lots of CW-reject teens for Josh and Maddy to crush on; and it's got dinosaurs. Lots and lots of dinosaurs.
The show has a huge special effects budget, and you can see every penny on the screen; Terra Nova looks spectacular. But once you get past the gorgeous landscapes and frightening dinos, there's not much drama to speak of. Jim, a cop in the 22nd century, winds up on Taylor's security team (again, I can't help but wonder if a convicted felon who busted out of jail to get here would land such a job) and stomps about as if he's on CSI: Cretaceous; Josh is a pouty little brat who deserves to be eaten by the slashers; and Zoe is so pwecious it'll make your teeth itch.
As hard as the show works to establish a variety of season-long mysteries -- Who sent the Sixers? Why is someone drawing weird hieroglyphics on the nearby rocks? What is the Terra Nova project really all about? -- it doesn't establish any reason for the audience to care about any of them. A verypretty, veryexpensive bore.
In that world live the Shannons, parents Jim and Elizabeth (Jason O'Mara and Shelley Conn), sullen teenage son Josh (Landon Liboiron), nerdy science whiz Maddy (Naomi Scott), and adorable moppet Zoe (Alana Mansour). Zoe is a problem for the Shannons, because she's an illegal third child, and when she's discovered, it's off to prison for Jim.
Two years later, Elizabeth has been recruited to join the Terra Nova project, an attempt to give humanity a fresh start by traveling back in time 85 million years; she's a doctor, so her skills will certainly be useful. She can't bear to leave Jim, though, so she helps him bust out of prison and crash through the time portal with the rest of the family.
(If the show's trying to create sympathetic protagonists, it's going about it very strangely at this point. Jim and Elizabeth's selfishness in having an illegal third child makes them a perfect symbol of the selfishness that has nearly destroyed their planet, and one has to wonder whether any struggling colony would really welcome a family willing to break that many rules, regulations, and laws to get there.)
The rest of the 2-hour pilot is spent getting to know the Terra Nova colony. It's run by Commander Taylor (Stephen Lang, reprising his Avatar shtick), who has to deal with a group of breakaway colonists called the Sixers; it's got lots of CW-reject teens for Josh and Maddy to crush on; and it's got dinosaurs. Lots and lots of dinosaurs.
The show has a huge special effects budget, and you can see every penny on the screen; Terra Nova looks spectacular. But once you get past the gorgeous landscapes and frightening dinos, there's not much drama to speak of. Jim, a cop in the 22nd century, winds up on Taylor's security team (again, I can't help but wonder if a convicted felon who busted out of jail to get here would land such a job) and stomps about as if he's on CSI: Cretaceous; Josh is a pouty little brat who deserves to be eaten by the slashers; and Zoe is so pwecious it'll make your teeth itch.
As hard as the show works to establish a variety of season-long mysteries -- Who sent the Sixers? Why is someone drawing weird hieroglyphics on the nearby rocks? What is the Terra Nova project really all about? -- it doesn't establish any reason for the audience to care about any of them. A verypretty, veryexpensive bore.
September 26, 2011
TV: Pan Am (ABC, Sun 10)
It's 1963, and the newest jet in the Pan Am fleet is making its maiden voyage from New York to London. Over the course of that flight, we meet the four stewardesses who are our main characters and peek into their backstories, as well as set up the mystery that seems likely to be the main season-long story arc.
Colette (Karine Vanasse) is the French stewardess, who is surprised to see on the flight a man she had a fling with in Rome a few months ago, and even more surprised to see him traveling with the wife and son she didn't know he had. Kate (Kelli Garner) is a veteran stewardess, recently recruited by US intelligence to do occasional bits of spying and courier work for them. Kate's younger sister, Laura (Margot Robbie), recently left her fiance at the altar before deciding to follow in Kate's stewardess shoes. And Maggie (Christina Ricci) is an intellectual, correcting her boyfriend on the distinction between Hegel and Marx, and a rebel, recently suspended from work for failing to wear her girdle.
We also meet pilots Dean and Ted (Mike Vogel and Michael Mosley), and get a quick look at Dean's romance with stewardess Bridget, who has abruptly quit her job and vanished.
This is the second of the year's Mad Men knockoffs, and it's vastly better than The Playboy Club. The show is a very different take on the 60s than that of Mad Men, less cynical and gray-tinted, more glamorous and colorful. The ensemble cast is uniformly fine, and they all do a solid job of quickly sketching out their characters in the relatively limited time each is given.
By far the best drama pilot of the year, and it should be great fun to see where it goes.
Colette (Karine Vanasse) is the French stewardess, who is surprised to see on the flight a man she had a fling with in Rome a few months ago, and even more surprised to see him traveling with the wife and son she didn't know he had. Kate (Kelli Garner) is a veteran stewardess, recently recruited by US intelligence to do occasional bits of spying and courier work for them. Kate's younger sister, Laura (Margot Robbie), recently left her fiance at the altar before deciding to follow in Kate's stewardess shoes. And Maggie (Christina Ricci) is an intellectual, correcting her boyfriend on the distinction between Hegel and Marx, and a rebel, recently suspended from work for failing to wear her girdle.
We also meet pilots Dean and Ted (Mike Vogel and Michael Mosley), and get a quick look at Dean's romance with stewardess Bridget, who has abruptly quit her job and vanished.
This is the second of the year's Mad Men knockoffs, and it's vastly better than The Playboy Club. The show is a very different take on the 60s than that of Mad Men, less cynical and gray-tinted, more glamorous and colorful. The ensemble cast is uniformly fine, and they all do a solid job of quickly sketching out their characters in the relatively limited time each is given.
By far the best drama pilot of the year, and it should be great fun to see where it goes.
September 25, 2011
TV: The X Factor (Fox, Wed/Thu 8)
It's a little hard to judge a show like The X Factor on the basis of a first episode, since the competition will move through a variety of different phases, some of which will vary more than the audition phase does from American Idol. But at this point, it's hard to see the show as much more than Idol Redux.
In the role of Simon Cowell, we have Simon Cowell, who can be just as cutting as ever, but who's also playing up his softer, sentimental side with the better contestants. In the role of Randy Jackson, we have L.A. Reid, which is a significant step up; Reid actually offers comments with more insight than Jackson's typical "it didn't work for me, dawg". He's also capable of giving Simon a run for his money in the bluntness department, and the show is clearly interested in setting up a Simon/L.A. rivalry.
The role of Paula Abdul is now being shared, which seems appropriate, since during her Idol days, you never knew whether you were going to get the sweet, charming, relatively lucid Paula or the incoherent, babbling, "what the hell is she on" Paula. Lucid Paula is being played, somewhat surprisingly, by Paula herself, on her very best, at least in the first few days of auditions; Loopy Paula is being played by Nicole Scherzinger, who so far doesn't have much to offer.
(For the Los Angeles auditions only, the fourth judge was Cheryl Cole, who was abruptly fired and replaced by Scherzinger, to no appreciably significant difference.)
Like Idol, the audition shows give us a mix of really good singers and ghastly ones; what's new here is the age range -- lower limit of 12 and no upper limit -- and the fact that auditions are held in front of an audience of 3-4,000 people. That can make the really good auditions more exciting, but it makes the mean ones feel even more cruel.
Host Steve Jones is blandly efficient in the Ryan Seacrest mold (though he's much prettier), but we won't really know how good he is until later in the competition. And it's only in those later rounds that the show's more significant breaks from the Idol formula will become apparent. At this point, you will probably enjoy this show to just about the same degree that you enjoy Idol.
In the role of Simon Cowell, we have Simon Cowell, who can be just as cutting as ever, but who's also playing up his softer, sentimental side with the better contestants. In the role of Randy Jackson, we have L.A. Reid, which is a significant step up; Reid actually offers comments with more insight than Jackson's typical "it didn't work for me, dawg". He's also capable of giving Simon a run for his money in the bluntness department, and the show is clearly interested in setting up a Simon/L.A. rivalry.
The role of Paula Abdul is now being shared, which seems appropriate, since during her Idol days, you never knew whether you were going to get the sweet, charming, relatively lucid Paula or the incoherent, babbling, "what the hell is she on" Paula. Lucid Paula is being played, somewhat surprisingly, by Paula herself, on her very best, at least in the first few days of auditions; Loopy Paula is being played by Nicole Scherzinger, who so far doesn't have much to offer.
(For the Los Angeles auditions only, the fourth judge was Cheryl Cole, who was abruptly fired and replaced by Scherzinger, to no appreciably significant difference.)
Like Idol, the audition shows give us a mix of really good singers and ghastly ones; what's new here is the age range -- lower limit of 12 and no upper limit -- and the fact that auditions are held in front of an audience of 3-4,000 people. That can make the really good auditions more exciting, but it makes the mean ones feel even more cruel.
Host Steve Jones is blandly efficient in the Ryan Seacrest mold (though he's much prettier), but we won't really know how good he is until later in the competition. And it's only in those later rounds that the show's more significant breaks from the Idol formula will become apparent. At this point, you will probably enjoy this show to just about the same degree that you enjoy Idol.
TV: Prime Suspect (NBC, Thu 10)
Very pleasant surprise here, a smart police procedural that does a good job of updating the original. Maria Bello is terrific as Detective Jane Timoney, the lone female homicide detective in her squad; most of her colleagues believe that she's only gotten there by sleeping her way up the ladder, and they're doing all the can to avoid giving her any real responsibility.
The sexism isn't quite as blatant as it was the original BBC version of the series 20 years ago (unless the men are drunk, in which case it's pretty damned explicit), but it's just as real. The boss keeps skipping over her name when it's time to assign a chief detective to a case; her theories are dismissed as foolish.
The cast is filled with fine character actors like Brian F. O'Byrne and Aidan Quinn, but it's Bello's show all the way, and she commands attention. Timoney takes no nonsense from anyone, and has no qualms about using unconventional tactics when questioning potential witnesses, or using her police connections to get what she wants in her private life.
I'm not a huge fan of police procedurals, but I like the fact that this one is less interested than most in showing us the brutal, gory details of the crime, and Bello's performance alone is enough to keep me watching for at least another week or two.
The sexism isn't quite as blatant as it was the original BBC version of the series 20 years ago (unless the men are drunk, in which case it's pretty damned explicit), but it's just as real. The boss keeps skipping over her name when it's time to assign a chief detective to a case; her theories are dismissed as foolish.
The cast is filled with fine character actors like Brian F. O'Byrne and Aidan Quinn, but it's Bello's show all the way, and she commands attention. Timoney takes no nonsense from anyone, and has no qualms about using unconventional tactics when questioning potential witnesses, or using her police connections to get what she wants in her private life.
I'm not a huge fan of police procedurals, but I like the fact that this one is less interested than most in showing us the brutal, gory details of the crime, and Bello's performance alone is enough to keep me watching for at least another week or two.
September 24, 2011
TV: A Gifted Man (CBS, Fri 8)
CBS has had very good luck with lightly supernatural dramas on Friday nights -- Joan of Arcadia, Ghost Whisperer, the last two years of Medium -- and A Gifted Man should continue the tradition very nicely.
Michael Holt (Patrick Wilson) is a talented neurosurgeon with no time in his life for anything but work. He unexpectedly runs into his ex-wife, Anna (Jennifer Ehle), whom he hasn't seen in ten years; she's now running a free clinic, and says she hadn't called because she didn't think he'd want to hear from her. Michael is delighted to have run into her again, and thrown for a loop the next morning when he learns that she died two weeks earlier.
Yup, it's Anna's ghost visiting Michael, determined to make Dr. Ghost Whisperer a better man. By the end of the episode, he's doing free surgery for poor Latino kids, and reluctantly accepting Anna's presence in his life.
The cast here is terrific. I've never quite understood the "Patrick Wilson is so sexy" bandwagon, but he's a fine actor, and very good at arrogant and contemptuous. Jennifer Ehle comes across as a bit too perfect for words, but that's not entirely inappropriate, since she is a spirit, and to a large extent, we're seeing her as Michael's idealized memory.
Also on hand is Margo Martindale as Michael's hyper-efficient assistant, Rita; Julie Benz as his sister, Christina, who sees Anna's visits as a "cosmic gift;" and Pablo Schreiber as Anton, a shaman whose role will be to help Michael understand and cope with Anna's presence. All are well suited to their roles; Benz provides the show with just the right touch of comic relief without letting the character's New Age-iness become just a cheap joke.
So, it's part emotional/supernatural journey of growth, part medical procedural (with both Michael's upper-crust clientele and the free clinic patients), and all of it done with great style and skill. It's a little too earnest and sincere for my taste, and I probably won't be watching regularly, but the target audience for the show should be very happy with it.
Michael Holt (Patrick Wilson) is a talented neurosurgeon with no time in his life for anything but work. He unexpectedly runs into his ex-wife, Anna (Jennifer Ehle), whom he hasn't seen in ten years; she's now running a free clinic, and says she hadn't called because she didn't think he'd want to hear from her. Michael is delighted to have run into her again, and thrown for a loop the next morning when he learns that she died two weeks earlier.
Yup, it's Anna's ghost visiting Michael, determined to make Dr. Ghost Whisperer a better man. By the end of the episode, he's doing free surgery for poor Latino kids, and reluctantly accepting Anna's presence in his life.
The cast here is terrific. I've never quite understood the "Patrick Wilson is so sexy" bandwagon, but he's a fine actor, and very good at arrogant and contemptuous. Jennifer Ehle comes across as a bit too perfect for words, but that's not entirely inappropriate, since she is a spirit, and to a large extent, we're seeing her as Michael's idealized memory.
Also on hand is Margo Martindale as Michael's hyper-efficient assistant, Rita; Julie Benz as his sister, Christina, who sees Anna's visits as a "cosmic gift;" and Pablo Schreiber as Anton, a shaman whose role will be to help Michael understand and cope with Anna's presence. All are well suited to their roles; Benz provides the show with just the right touch of comic relief without letting the character's New Age-iness become just a cheap joke.
So, it's part emotional/supernatural journey of growth, part medical procedural (with both Michael's upper-crust clientele and the free clinic patients), and all of it done with great style and skill. It's a little too earnest and sincere for my taste, and I probably won't be watching regularly, but the target audience for the show should be very happy with it.
TV: Person of Interest (CBS, Thu 9)
Michael Emerson is the mysterious Mr. Finch, who recruits the equally mysterious Mr. Reese (Jim Caviezel) to be his partner in crime fighting. It seems that Finch was the developer of the computer system the government uses to keep an eye on all of us in this post-9/11 world, and he left himself a small backdoor into the system, through which it spits out to him the Social Security numbers of people who are soon to be involved in various crimes. Nothing that the feds would be interested in, like terrorist attacks -- more relatively small stuff like kidnapping and murders.
But Finch doesn't know whether the people he's given are going to be victims or perpetrators, and he needs someone to do the investigate legwork for him if these crimes are going to be stopped. That's where Reese comes in; he's a Special Forces vet with dark secrets in his past that have left him extremely reluctant to kill (a lot of people get shot in the leg in this show).
The show suffers from one fairly obvious problem -- if we aren't allowed to know, for dramatic purposes, whether our persons of interest are victims or criminals, then we spend most of the show trying to care about people we aren't being told enough about to make us care.
But even worse, it suffers from a serious talent imbalance in its leading men. Michael Emerson is a fine actor, and well cast in the role of the secretive recluse. But he's at his best when he has an equally strong co-star to play off -- think of Camryn Manheim in The Practice or Terry O'Quinn in Lost -- and Jim Caviezel simply isn't up to the task. Caviezel has chosen to play the entire role in a hushed whisper that sounds like an audition to be Christian Bale's Batman understudy, and he projects very little personality. You can sort of see what he's trying to do, going for the whole "I'm so wounded that I don't let anyone in" thing, but all he's accomplishing is "I'm a sullen little prick."
Love Emerson, hate Caviezel, and the story itself isn't interesting enough to sway the difference in the show's favor.
But Finch doesn't know whether the people he's given are going to be victims or perpetrators, and he needs someone to do the investigate legwork for him if these crimes are going to be stopped. That's where Reese comes in; he's a Special Forces vet with dark secrets in his past that have left him extremely reluctant to kill (a lot of people get shot in the leg in this show).
The show suffers from one fairly obvious problem -- if we aren't allowed to know, for dramatic purposes, whether our persons of interest are victims or criminals, then we spend most of the show trying to care about people we aren't being told enough about to make us care.
But even worse, it suffers from a serious talent imbalance in its leading men. Michael Emerson is a fine actor, and well cast in the role of the secretive recluse. But he's at his best when he has an equally strong co-star to play off -- think of Camryn Manheim in The Practice or Terry O'Quinn in Lost -- and Jim Caviezel simply isn't up to the task. Caviezel has chosen to play the entire role in a hushed whisper that sounds like an audition to be Christian Bale's Batman understudy, and he projects very little personality. You can sort of see what he's trying to do, going for the whole "I'm so wounded that I don't let anyone in" thing, but all he's accomplishing is "I'm a sullen little prick."
Love Emerson, hate Caviezel, and the story itself isn't interesting enough to sway the difference in the show's favor.
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