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28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 27-October 3, 2012
You say you want a revolution by Victoria A. Brownworth
W
hat a great week this is! New shows on every night. People realizing they need more TVs and more DVRs pumping up the economy! What could be better? There is actually something good to watch every single night of the week, although Thursdays and Sundays are still the conflict nights that keep Netflix in business. Whose idea was it to pit Revenge against The Good Wife against Masterpiece Mystery against Homeland against Boardwalk Empire against Copper on Sundays? Yikes! And don’t think you can leave the house on Thursdays when Grey’s Anatomy and Glee queers are pitted against Person of Interest smarts and the final season of The Office. Or Scandal soap/politics are vying with the super-slick Sherlock Holmes on Elementary and the dark humor of Louie. How many DVRs can one house have? For TV-watchers, Christmas comes with Rosh Hashanah. And is there ever a lot to reflect upon. In recent weeks we’ve taste-tested a lot of TV for you so you know what to watch and what to avoid, but some shows are even better than we expected. A few of the best new shows are also the most likely to need your viewership, two edgy political dramas: NBC’s Revolution (is NBC going to become a good network again?) and ABC’s Last Resort. Revolution is way edgier than the promos suggested, not the Lost wannabe that some critics (not us) predicted. It has gotten mixed reviews, but we aren’t sure why. It’s crazy good, with a Game of Thrones tone to it that may leave the squeamish somewhat deterred, but is really compelling. To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, this is the way the world ends, returning to medieval feudalism. This makes Revolution perfect for this election season. There’s a cast of pretty young virtual unknowns for eye candy, but they can all act, and then there’s the magnificent Giancarlo Esposito, who never seems to age. Elizabeth Mitchell of Lost and V fame is back in the arms of J.J. Abrams, and Tim Guinee (The Good Wife and tons of other shows) is also in the cast. This is apocalyptic, fear-inspiring drama that is truly terrifying if you think about it for more than five seconds. Those of us who lost power during “what climate change?” Hurricane Isaac know what it means to not be able to have ice or Facebook
once the batteries run out. Revolution takes place 15 years after something governmental or military sucked all the electricity off the earth, leaving the world to fend for itself sans refrigeration, cars or any electronic devices requiring AC/DC, with no one reprising Thomas Edison. Take that, iPhone 5. The meek have definitely not inherited the earth, and feudalism has taken violent eye-for-an-eye root everywhere. Thus, while no one can access a computer (except for a small coterie of people with a secret flash drive hidden in a silver amulet), everyone has weapons. This show has a sprawling, unkempt violence to it much like Game of Thrones (with Esposito in lieu of Peter Dinklage, Tim Guinee in lieu of Sean Bean) except this alternate universe is our own, and this is one helluva cautionary tale. Revolution can be unsettling to watch. While it is dystopian, it’s also so close and real to our own time that it’s hard not to imagine how easily this could happen in an age where war games involve computers, spyware and Three Mile Island shutting down a reactor just last week for reasons even the nuclear folks can’t explain. Revolution is on Mondays opposite Castle and Hawaii Five-O (yeah, we don’t watch that show either, even if Christine Lahti is joining the cast) and following The Voice, which, much as we like it, could not be a worse lead-in show for Revolution. Last Resort also has a sharp and scary realism. This show is on the prized Thursday night, but in the dreaded early time slot that has failed so many serious shows before it. Last Resort is up against some of the highest-rated, most-established and Emmy-winning shows on the tube: The Vampire Diaries (who can resist the sexy and gay vampires? And that Elena), Big Bang Theory (with out gay actor Jim Parsons), the final season of 30 Rock (which people just might watch for more Tina Fey) and The X Factor. Last Resort is the smartest show in its time slot, which means it still might garner a solid audience. What makes it so good is a stellar cast led by Andre Braugher as Captain Marcus Chaplin, the hyper-realistic thriller plot and taut, strong writing. Chaplin commands a nuclear submarine that is ordered to attack Pakistan. When he asks for confirmation of the order, however, he is relieved of his command, and therein lies the dramatic conflict. When Chaplin’s
Courtesy NBC-TV
Giancarlo Esposito stars as Captain Tom Neville, a former insurance adjuster turned militia leader, on NBC’s Revolution.
lieutenant Sam Kendal (Scott Speedman, who really looks like a smartly sexy sailor pinup) asks for similar confirmation, the sub gets attacked. By the US government. Then they must escape, becoming a rogue crew. Last Resort has some of the interiority of Homeland and a lot of the geopolitical stakes that have become altogether too real since the murders at the Libyan embassy. Highly recommended. Speaking of Thursday nights, who will die on Grey’s Anatomy gets revealed Sept. 27, and Glee tries to decide if it’s going to get better (we hope) or further away from the sometimes pitch-perfect show we remember from seasons past. Glee has pumped up the transgender character of Unique/Wade Jones (Alex Newell, brought over from The Glee Project). Unique decided she was the new Rachel in Glee’s season-opener, but inexplicably Blaine won that title, then sent Kurt off to NYC to be with Rachel. Britney tore up the place with her Britney 2.0 performances in the second episode. Britney is still so great, even without Santana. She really epitomizes the queer Glee. On Sept. 27, Sarah Jessica Parker guests as Kurt’s new mentor, Isabelle Klempt. (Yes, Klempt. As in verklempt.) To which we can only say, “Oy.” One of the problems with many comedies a few seasons in is overreaching. That’s what Glee is suffering from this season. Instead of doing what they do best – diversity and acceptance in high school that doesn’t exist, but which those of us who were bullied in high school wish did – the Glee writers/producers are grasping for big names to draw in viewers since they are in the most coveted time slot on TV. No, no, no. The viewers for this show don’t care about an aging Carrie Bradshaw. They just don’t. Kate Hudson as a bitchy Sue-esque dance instructor belittling Rachel? Seriously? The pretty-in-pink, kittensand-puppies spokesperson for Almay cosmetics who has starred in numerous straight-dating movies just does not seem capable of being the Dirty Harry of the barre. Adding in a new famous actress every week is not the way to move Glee forward. (We never saw anyone more under-utilized than last season’s Gloria Estefan guesting as Santana’s mother. Except watching her be under-utilized on the CW’s tedious The Next. And please don’t bring Gwyneth Paltrow back unless someone gets to kill her.) We still have big love for Glee. While we have begun to tire of Kurt and never understood how anyone was interested in the boring Blaine, we like the new character of Marley and her obese lunch-lady mom. We still love Britney and Unique, Mercedes, Sue and many other cast members. But this is a show finding its way in new territory. When the creators decided to write so many of the favorite characters into the margins of the show, it was a bold move, and a big mistake. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So now that Glee is broken, let’s hope it can be pieced back together.
Normal, obvious We have tried to transport ourselves
into the alternate universe in which The New Normal is the show some people claim it is: funny and sweet instead of grating and obvious, but no. We keep trying to like this show since it’s so gay, but unlike Modern Family, which it rips off in all the worst ways, it’s just not that show. Deconstructing the last couple of episodes, here’s the problem: the racism and homophobia that are supposed to “teach” the audience (whoever that audience is) that racism and homophobia are bad are just mean and vicious. And the weekly lessons are a little too ham-fisted. Last episode we recognized the scene with the mentally challenged Down Syndrome character who, when he is defended, shouts “fag” at his gay rescuer: this is a warped version of a Glee moment. Does Ryan Murphy think Glee is too soft in its tutorials so with his new show he’s ratcheted up the decibel level? Most of the time Glee has an insouciance to it that makes these scenes click, even when The Message is in neon lights flashing in front of us. But New Normal is just lecture after lecture strung together with endless shopping. We find the caricaturish nature of so many of the characters offensive and not even remotely believable. We know New Normal is a comedy, thus suspension of disbelief is always in play, and we know there are people who really are just one-dimensional demons of hatred, but they aren’t the norm that New Normal implies, where everyone shopping in an outlet mall is a homophobe, and even the mentally challenged don’t want to be defended by a “fag.” The New Normal could have been true Teachable Moment TV. But instead it’s just gratuitous stereotyping. Even Ellen Barkin with her razor-sharp delivery can’t quite make her racist, homophobic, sexist character charming. Speaking of charming, NBC’s other new comedy Go On is all the things New Normal isn’t. First of all, it’s funny. It also is often heart-breaking. Matthew Perry is superb, with a pitchperfect performance. He’s funny, he’s sad, he’s fearful, he’s Emmy-worthy. Perry has had some good if brief stints since Friends ended, in roles on the complicated but short-lived Studio 60, and as a villain on The Good Wife. Go On proves that comedy is his metier. Perry plays the suddenly widowed sportscaster Ryan King, whose boss forces him to attend a grief group peopled with an array of characters (including a lesbian whose partner has died) that is gender-, sexual orientation- and racially diverse. Go On is funny, smart and special. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet has moments of real seriousness. Go On airs after New Normal, so one can see why it works and the other show doesn’t pretty succinctly. It addresses homophobia, racism and sexism with subtlety and nuance. It provides Teachable Moments in every episode without the sledgehammer or the stereotypes. Speaking of sitcoms that nail it, how is it possible that The Simpsons just began its 23rd season and is still smart, funny, fresh and clever? Last
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week’s episode took the GOP’s voter ID laws to task. Homer arrives at the polls and is asked to provide a photo ID. “But I’ve lived here all my life,” he complains. The poll worker responds, “Stopping all Americans from voting is for the protection of all Americans.” Homer explains to the poll worker that he’s just a 40-year-old white guy who gets all his news from gas station monitors, so they let him vote. He votes for Romney, only to discover that he’s had six wives named Ann and gotten a medical tax deduction for a personality transplant. The Simpsons proves that good writing is what keeps good shows going season after season. SNL just started its 38th season. If you missed the opener last week, check out Bill Hader’s spoof of Clint Eastwood’s empty chair routine from the RNC at NBC.com. Hilarious. After four years of Fred Armisen portraying President Obama, SNL now has Jay Pharoah, who is AfricanAmerican, playing Obama. Pharoah isn’t as good as Armisen, but he may get better. Jason Sudekis as Mitt Romney is fabulous. Nothing will ever match Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin, but Sudekis is really good. SNL still does satire really well. (Another reason to check out the season opener: openly queer hip-hop artist Frank Ocean was the musical guest.) Speaking of queers, Dina Lohan was trying to edge her way back into the limelight cast by her daughter Lindsay on Sept. 21, with a series of statements to Access Hollywood. Our lesbian LiLo’s derelict mom was alleging that she never tried to look like her daughter (uh-huh), that she’s “just a natural blonde and can’t help that” (she’s a natural blonde in the same alternate universe where The New Normal is funny) and that she only hung out in clubs with LiLo so she could point out the enablers to her (did she point to herself?). Sometimes the jokes just write themselves, but they aren’t always funny. In the same show, AH showed clips of John Travolta’s first interview in a year, talking to BBC’s Breakfast and side-stepping every question about his recent troubles with gay men and masseurs claiming he had propositioned them. Travolta noted that he had been seeking refuge in his church. That would be the Church of Scientology. Poor Dina and John: there are none so blind as those who cannot see. Finally, the Sept. 20 episode of Nightline was one of the most powerful half-hours you’ll ever see on TV. ABC’s Dan Harris spent 48 hours in solitary confinement to report on what that controversial punishment is like from the inside. Harris is one of the best reporters on the tube. He won an Emmy for his Nightline series on how to buy a child in 10 hours. In the piece on solitary confinement, the camera followed Harris as he was locked in and endured the tedium, mounting anxiety and nightmarish noise from other inmates who were in the midst of meltdowns from the treatment Amnesty International has stated is tantamount to torture. As Harris explained, solitary costs three times what standard confinement costs. It is used as punishment as well as a means to keep prisoners who are excessively violent from the general population. But psychiatric studies have shown that such confinement causes depression, suicidality and diminished mental capacity. Lack of interaction with other people makes us crazy. Harris’ report was chilling and disturbing. As he noted when he left (after not thinking he could make it through the full 48 hours), “this is being done in our names, with our tax dollars.” That it is inhumane could not have been more graphically detailed. Watch it at ABCnews.go.com. Then write your Congresspersons about stopping this barbaric treatment. For the new shows or the old ones, the fluffy celeb news or stories like Harris’, you know what you have to do: Stay tuned.▼