This series is centered around Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace), a former IBM employee who has decided to offer his services to John Bosworth (Toby Huss), the head of Cardiff Electric. The company only produces parts for other companies and MacMillan convinces Bosworth to go all-in on creating a personal computer division. He recruits Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy) after reading a visionary article he wrote in a computer magazine.

I feel as though the show’s creators are borrowing from a few different places here. First and foremost is the character of Joe MacMillan, which feels like a dime-store ripoff of Don Draper. He is a marketing man with a mysterious background who manages to convince people to do things through obtuse yet inspiring speeches. Sound familiar? The subject matter feels like one that has been told quite a bit recently with all of the Steve Jobs biopics that came out in the last year or so. The difference with this show is that the stories are almost wholly fictional, similar to the ad campaign storylines in Mad Men.

This show is a solid period piece for the early 1980s. It is great to see all of the old vintage electronics used on the show. The computer terminology seems pretty accurate and the information is not dumbed down at all, though a lot of the dialogue feels as though it was written with current knowledge at hand (i.e. predictions of the internet). The soundtrack is pretty solid, especially whenever the scene features punk-rock programmer Cameron (who looks like she could be Daryl Hannah’s 1980s cousin).

I have watched the first four episodes and I will definitely keep with it, but it isn’t the greatest show ever. I would recommend it if you like technology or the 1980s.

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In The Flesh

“In The Flesh” is a fresh take on what is becoming a tired genre: the post-apocalyptic zombie world. In this universe, the zombie apocalypse has come and gone and scientists have discovered a cure for the disease that turns people into zombies. People that have become zombies can’t become human again, but thanks to a drug, it keeps their cannibalistic tendencies at bay and allows the former zombie (called a Partially Deceased Syndrome Sufferer, or PDSS) to re-enter normal life. The zombie still looks like a zombie (pale skin, zombie eyeballs) but with the use of contact lenses and makeup, zombies can once again appear human.

This show centers around Kieren Walker, a boy who had committed suicide but then reanimated during the zombie rising. He is rehabilitated and is allowed to rejoin his family. His parents are happy to have him back, although his reappearance has opened old wounds due to his suicide. His sister has very mixed feelings however, as she belongs to a local anti-zombie militia called the HVF (Human Volunteer Force). She cares for her brother but has to come to terms with her dislike of zombies. Kieren’s family lives in the small town of Roarton, which hosts a local chapter of the extremist HVF group.

I have only watched the first episode of this series but I plan on catching up on it in the near future (it just finished airing its second season, for a total of nine one-hour episodes). I would definitely recommend this show to anyone who likes zombie fiction mixed with a dash of social commentary. The zombies in this show could be metaphors for immigrants, as there is a lot of zombie xenophobia in this universe. There are also parallels to people coming back from war with post-traumatic stress disorder. This show is a drama with bits of dark comedy sprinkled in. One episode in and it appears to be far better than “The Walking Dead” though with far less gratuitous violence.

Almost Royal

Once “In The Flesh” completed, it was replaced with the new show “Almost Royal”. “Almost Royal” is a mockumentary show in the vein of “Ali G”. The premise of the show follows Georgie and Poppy Carlton, two British royals who are far down the line for the British crown, as they embark on a tour of America per their dead father’s wishes. They stop in various cities and partake in different American events, pretending to be ignorant to the local customs. This leads to plenty of excellent “fish-out-of-water” scenarios and underestimations of their intelligence due to the characters they play; Georgie is a soft aristocrat who seems inexperienced at the most basic of tasks such as driving, whereas Poppy portrays herself as a rich airhead who only seeks employment at what she considers to be an easy job, like acting.

The show feels like a much gentler version of “Ali G”. Georgie and Poppy do have some good one-liners: one episode takes place in Texas and features a horseback ride, to which Poppy asks the instructor about “bareback riding” and said that her mother used to do that all the time, to which the instructor was unsure how to respond. This episode especially felt reminiscent of Borat’s trips to the South, although there was no “Throw The Jew Down The Well” to be found.

If you like “Ali G” I think you would enjoy “Almost Royal”. It is not nearly as offensive, but also not nearly as interesting/provocative, as “Ali G” shined a light on some pretty awful human behaviors, whereas “Almost Royal” feels like a network prank show but with some PG-13 humor sprinkled in.

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I was always amazed by the complete 180 that “From Dusk Till Dawn” took and how it melded the two genres of western/heist and horror. When I found out that Rodriguez was adapting the film for television, I was intrigued and was not sure how the material would play out. After watching this series, I can say that Robert Rodriguez has once again bent the storytelling medium. This time, he has done something that I’m not sure has been done before: he has taken his movie’s overall plot and expanded the story into a ten-episode series for the new El Rey Network. The overall story arc of the movie has been retold in ten episodes, with expanded background and origin stories, as well as a few new characters. Each episode of the series tells a small slice of the movie’s storyline.

All of the characters from the movie have been recast and the new actors bring new life to the roles. The Gecko brothers are played by DJ Cotrona (the Clooney character) and Zane Holtz (Tarantino). Cotrona does a pretty solid Clooney impression but manages to add a bit more likability to the character of Seth Gecko. Holtz is probably the biggest revelation as Richie Gecko; he takes Tarantino’s two-dimensional creeper character and adds a deep third dimension to the role. He reminds me of a younger Michael Shannon, who is one of my favorite current actors. Tarantino’s Richie seemed to simply be a creepy pedophile, but on the TV show, Holtz’s Richie has been possessed by Santanico Pandemonium and is haunted by her visions through a ceremonial knife used for ancient sacrifices.

The Gecko brothers are being hunted by Texas Rangers Earl McGraw (played by Don Johnson) and new character Freddie Gonzalez (Jesse Garcia). Don Johnson chews every bit of scenery given to him like a pro. Jesse Garcia’s Ranger Gonzalez is tenacious and swears to follow the Gecko brothers to the gates of hell (which is almost accurate by the end of this season). It turns out that Gonzalez has a rich bloodline that grants him special powers.

Along the way to Mexico, the Gecko brothers end up taking the Fuller family hostage, just like in the movie. This time, the patriarch of the family is played by Robert Patrick (previously played by Harvey Keitel). His children are portrayed by relative newcomers Madison Davenport and Brandon Soo Hoo. The Fuller family are on the run from their own lives as the mother of the family died in unusual circumstances (which are explained by the end of the series).

As the Geckos and Fullers make their way to the “Titty Twister” and eventually begin the swapover to vampire story, we learn more backstory about all of the characters as well as some more background on the vampires. The vampires are unlike any vampire I’ve previously seen on TV or in movies. This show’s vampires’ lore explains that these vampires are actually reptilian as opposed to the classic vampire bat. The origin of Santanico Pandemonium was due to possession by snakes, rather than bats. It is an interesting spin on the classic vampire origin.

If I had one complaint for this show, it would be the casting of Santanico Pandemonium (played by newcomer Eiza Gonzalez). Perhaps it is because Salma Hayek’s Santanico was so iconic, but the new actress just doesn’t compare. Of course, the character is given far more depth and backstory on this TV show, but the actress simply isn’t as breathtaking.

Two other characters that are repurposed are Carlos and “Sex Machine”. Carlos was originally the man that the Geckos were meeting at the Titty Twister in the movie, but on the show, Carlos is a vampire masquerading as their human point of contact. In the movie, “Sex Machine” (originally played by Tom Savini) was a fellow human at the Titty Twister who was mainly defined by having a gun shaped like a penis that fired from his crotch. On the show, the character is played by the scene-stealing Jake Busey, and he is an anthropologist on the hunt for this vampire civilization.

In summation, I really enjoyed this revision of the “From Dusk Till Dawn” story. The new actors and expanded storylines really fleshed out the movie’s original plot without feeling like the show was a redundant exercise. The series has been renewed for a second season and I am curious to see where this show heads next, as the first season pretty much followed the storyline of the movie. Perhaps I need to watch From Dusk Till Dawn 2 and 3 in preparation?

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Television is a demographics game. The key demographic is considered to be the 18-49 year old male television viewer. It is fitting that two of the newest shows to air, HBO’s Silicon Valley and FX’s Fargo, feature lead characters that cover both ends of this age spectrum.

Silicon Valley revolves around Richard (Thomas Middleditch), a sheepish computer programmer working for Hooli, a not-so-subtle reference to Google. Richard lives in an “incubator”, which appears to be a living situation where the landlord (in this case, the hilarious TJ Miller) gives you a place to stay and in return they get a percentage of whatever profits you earn on technologies you create while living in said incubator.

Richard and his cohort (Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr and Josh Brener) have created Pied Piper, a music app that can determine if a songwriter’s newly created music infringes on already-produced music. While this sounds like a ridiculous idea for a website, the true genius of Pied Piper is Richard’s compression algorithm for shrinking the music files. As anyone who watches Netflix knows, file sizes just keep getting bigger and bigger as resolution increases. Richard’s compression algorithm has somehow managed to make compression quick and lossless, which could completely change the way the world uses the internet. This leads to a competition for the procurement of Richard’s algorithm. The first of two competitors for Richard’s algorithm is Gavin Belson (Matt Ross), the pretentious new-age CEO of Hooli, who offers Richard $10 million for his idea. The other competitor for the algorithm is the eccentric Peter Gregory (the recently deceased Christopher Evan Welch, who is brilliant in this role), who is sort of a Steve Jobs type, who offers to bankroll Richard’s Pied Piper company in exchange for a 5% stakehold. This is an interesting dichotomy and feels like a very Mike Judge issue: does one take the money and literally sell-out to a corporation, or does one take a risk and try to become a self-made billionaire?

This show is fantastic. It is well-written (the dialogue is highly technical and I love that the writing doesn’t condescend to the audience), the characters are hilarious, but my main point of contention with the show is the main character. Richard is a nebbishy computer programmer and everyone walks all over him. His landlord Erlich bullies his way into 10% of Pied Piper (I’m not sure how legal “incubators” are, I would think 10% is a bit much). His coworkers at Hooli constantly pick on him. Even Peter Gregory browbeats Richard. It would seem that Richard’s character is the everyman that we are supposed to identify with, as if we are all sheepish browbeaten men at our workplaces. A lot of us ARE men who somehow feel marginalized by our work predicaments. Perhaps we aren’t paid as much as we would like. Perhaps we don’t have as much power in the workplace or our living situations as we would like. But how many of us have created something that could potentially change the world? Granted, I may have made some miraculous isotopes with a nuclear reactor, but let’s be honest, how amazing would it be to be able to watch Netflix without any buffering? I find it hard to have sympathy for someone who is brilliant enough to change the world but not confident enough to hold his head up high.

It appears that Richard “mans up” by the end of the second episode of Silicon Valley, so maybe his weakness will wash away as he begins to work on making Pied Piper a successful company. I will continue to enjoy watching the exploits of the Pied Piper company and can’t wait to see where Mike Judge and company take us. For the sake of this review, I would like to imagine that Pied Piper fails, Richard is epically humiliated, and he ends up changing his name and moving to North Dakota, where he ends up becoming the protagonist of FX’s Fargo.

Fargo is set in a similar universe to that which the movie Fargo portrayed, which is the wacky universe of North Dakota and northern Minnesota. The pilot episode begins with Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) driving down a snowy highway with the sound of someone trying to escape from the trunk. A group of deer run across the highway, causing an accident. The trunk opens and a man in his underwear escapes into a remote snow-covered forest. Why is this guy in his underwear? Why does Lorne Malvo have such a ridiculous haircut? This really sets the tone for the show.

The show then cuts to Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) bumping into an old bully from high school. The bully is with his two sons (who are bullies in the making) and he reminisces about the times he humiliated Lester (even calling him “Lester Nigger”), to the point that it’s painful for the viewer to see Lester sit through this. Lester gets scared when the bully throws a fake punch and ends up recoiling into a window, causing a broken nose and an appointment to the ER, where he meets Malvo. He regales Malvo with the story of his encounter with his high school bully and Malvo offhandedly offers to kill the man for him. Lester cannot even ask Malvo to either perform the task or cancel the task as he is too chicken to make any decisions with his life.

Are all marginalized older white male characters named Lester? This character shares a lot of traits with American Beauty’s Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), as they are both middle-aged men stuck in dead-end jobs and trapped in loveless marriages. Nygaard heads home and is immediately nagged by the stereotypical nagging wife character. She openly wonders why she married him instead of his more successful brother, and berates him for not working his way further up the ladder in his office at an insurance agency.

We are introduced to some other characters in the opening episode. There is Molly Solverson (newcomer Allison Tolman), the deputy who finds Malvo’s crashed car and begins to unravel the mystery of the man in the trunk. By the end of the episode, she appears to be the Frances McDormand equivalent and I am intrigued to see what she continues to do with the role. We also meet Deputy Bill Oswalt, who in my opinion will end up being a criminally underused Bob Odenkirk, a bumbling character that is weakly played for comedic effect.

This show definitely borrows from the Coen brothers’ catalog. Lorne Malvo is played in a similar tone as Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh, but with a dash of Bad Santa thrown in. Martin Freeman is a poor man’s William H. Macy in this role. He has the perfect face and body for this role as his round face and short frame make him physically smaller than all of the other characters that would dominate him (including his wife). Allison Tolman seems to be a great choice for the Frances McDormand role.

I really enjoyed Fargo the movie. The performances by William H. Macy, Frances McDormand and Steve Buscemi were iconic. Thus far, it seems that Fargo the TV show is a pale imitation of the movie. The quaint northern midwest accents that were silly in small doses in the film have become a bit over-the-top in the TV show. I’m not sure if the viewer will get sick of them by the end of 13 episodes, but if this 90 minute pilot was any indication, I will. The accents are set up in a way to make the characters seem stupid or less intelligent than they actually are, which is really a shame for characters that should have more gravitas. I will continue to watch this show and I am usually harsh on pilot episodes, but so far I do not have high hopes for this show.

In summation, if I were to choose which marginalized white man show to watch, I would select the Mike Judge show before the Coen Brothers show. I suppose it all depends on what environment you want your story set in. I am far more familiar with office spaces than countries for old men.

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I have watched the first three episodes thus far and I think this show is great. Andrew Daly is perfect for this show as he has mastered playing a completely fake friendly host-type of character (as seen in Eastbound & Down as the principal). Daly brings a hint of darkness to the role and these experiences that he partakes manage to go down some pretty dark paths. This last episode had a viewer ask him what getting divorced was like, and MacNeil actually went through a divorce with him wife. The divorce was the middle storyline, frame on either side by viewers asking what it’s like to eat 15 and 30 pancakes. The episode begins with MacNeil barely finishing 15 pancakes and vomiting in the parking lot, with a final review of half-a-star (most of these experiences are awful and merit a half-star). By the end of the episode, he is asked to eat 30 pancakes and he polishes them off like a champ.

If you are an Andrew Daly fan or just a fan of bizarre black comedy, you will not be disappointed with this show. And after doing a quick Google search, I have discovered that this show is a remake of an Australian show “Review with Myles Barlow”. That show apparently featured the experiences of murdering and drug-muling. I can’t wait to see what Forrest MacNeil is forced to do next!

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13. Raising Hope

Arguably the most underrated comedy on television, Raising Hope keeps chugging along with solid, genuine blue-collar comedy. Fox seems to want nothing to do with this show as it has now been banished to Friday evenings and the episodes are shown two at a time. This short fall season featured some immediate classics such as “Burt Bucks” (where Burt invents a new form of currency which inevitable backfires). It will be disappointing if this show is cancelled while it’s still in its prime, it will be “Arrested Development” all over again.

12. Inside Amy Schumer

2013 featured a lot of great sketch comedy shows, such as The Kroll Show, Key & Peele, and my nomination for the best of the lot, Inside Amy Schumer. I must admit, I was not a big fan of Amy Schumer before this show aired. I felt like she tried too hard to be offensive and that her standup lacked wit. Well this show ended up far exceeding my low expectations. Considering that the show airs on the young-male-demographic-aimed Comedy Central, it was surprising to see a powerful female comedy show that defied most conventions. The show also features an interesting interview segment (“Amy Goes Deep”) where Amy interviews a random person, such as an ex-cop and a dominatrix. It is refreshing to see a funny female-led sketch show as it is typically a male-led format.

11. Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones continued its run as the most exciting fantasy show on television, paralleling the first half of the third book of the Song of Ice and Fire series, ending the season with the eagerly-anticipated “Red Wedding”. As solid as this season was, I fear that this may be the peak of the series (I would hope to include season 4 in this peak). In my opinion, the books lose steam after book 3. This can already be seen in the Daenerys storyline, as she is still on another continent, far away from the intrigue of Westeros. As much as people didn’t seem to like the Theon storyline (I thought it was fine, albeit uncomfortable to watch), I am eager to see where it takes the character next season.

10. The Americans

I was initially wary to watch this show as it looked like a knock-off of Showtime’s “Homeland” but I became hooked after the intense premiere. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys are Russian spies who are posing as normal Americans in Washington DC in the early 1980s. This show splendidly captures the look and feel of the Cold War and has great performances from the leads as well as supporting roles such as the ones played by Margo Martindale and Richard Thomas.

9. Legit

I am a fan of Jim Jefferies’ standup so I was excited to check out his new series “Legit”. The show features Jim as a version of himself who attempts to become “legit”, i.e. become a better person and do good things with his life. This leads him to take on a big-brother-esque role to his friend’s disabled brother Billy, played brilliantly by DJ Qualls. The show takes a few episodes to set up the premise but then it takes a huge leap forward when the show backs off from focusing on Jim and lets the ensemble work with each other. DJ Qualls should get an Emmy for making his disabled character one of the strongest characters on television in recent memory.

8. House of Cards

2013 was the Year of Netflix as it established itself as a content powerhouse, with 3 shows on my top 13 list. House of Cards put Netflix original content (though it is not technically original as it is a remake of a British show) on the map back in February and may have revolutionized the way new television shows are provided to the public, becoming one of the first shows to make a full season of new content available all at once, to the joy of serial season watchers. Kevin Spacey (who will win an Emmy for this role) chewed up scene after scene as a South Carolina Congressman who is one of the most powerful men in Washington DC. The show has deservedly received a lot of acclaim and I know I can’t wait for season 2 to become available.

7. Eastbound and Down

The excellent final season of Eastbound and Down is arguably the best season of its run, mostly due to finally showing true character development and change in the stubborn Kenny Powers. Kenny begins the season humbled, living as a “normal person”, but the taste for fame and fortune once again pollutes his life. He finds a second career as a sports pundit on “Sports Sesh” only to find the fame once again ruining his relationship with April. The show comes to an insanely hilarious conclusion and we finally see Kenny Powers head up instead of down.

6. Arrested Development

I was skeptical as to how funny this reboot would be as it had been a seven-year hiatus, but the new season of Arrested Development did not disappoint. It was strange to see the new format of the show; due to budget restrictions, episodes focused on one character at a time rather than the previous ensemble. The show was as brilliantly written as ever, with some jokes that wouldn’t even pay off until multiple episodes later. One joke in particular, involving Lindsay Bluth talking to a guru, blew my mind when it was referenced episodes later.

5. Masters of Sex

I admittedly did not know about Masters and Johnson before this show aired, but I would watch Lizzy Caplan in anything, so I gave this show a chance and it turned out to be the best show that aired this fall. Initially it feels like a Mad Men knockoff as it is a post-WW2 period piece, but Masters of Sex focuses mainly on sex and the differences between men and women in regards to sex. Lizzy Caplan plays the sexually-liberated Virginia Johnson, who begins working as a secretary for Michael Sheen’s Dr. Masters. Dr. Masters wants to study sexual response in human beings and he ends up enlisting Virginia to be his assistant. The first season begins with their meeting and ends with an initial presentation of the sexual response data; what happens in-between is a lot of sex, but it never feels gratuitous and is oftentimes cold and clinical.

4. Enlightened

Enlightened is my most “disappointed that it got cancelled so soon” show of the year, with Treme being the second show. At least Treme got 3.5 seasons. Enlightened ended with only 18 episodes in total, but those were an amazing 18 episodes; plus the show ended on a satisfying note. This show followed Laura Dern’s Amy Jellicoe as she attempted to bring down the evil Abaddonn corporation that sent her to rehab previous to the start of the series. The viewer is tempted to side with Jellicoe as Abaddonn has done some heinous stuff, but Amy has so many character flaws (i.e. most of her ambitions are self-serving in the disguise of being selfless) that it is hard to root for her. The cast of side characters is fantastic, with co-creator Mike White as her co-conspirator Tyler, Luke Wilson as her ex-husband Levi, and many others I won’t mention here. Season 2 brought in Dermot Mulroney and Molly Shannon as love interests for Amy and Tyler, and both characters are used to help bring Abaddonn down. The finale ends on a great note and even if they were to make another season, I’m not sure how they could continue it. RIP Enlightened.

3. Orphan Black

I devoured the whole first season of Orphan Black in the matter of two days (one of those days being Christmas 2013). This show hooks you in right off the bat when British punk Sarah Manning sees a woman about to jump in front of a subway train. Before the woman jumps, she looks over at Sarah and the woman is her exact twin. What happens over the next ten episodes was a non-stop thrill ride that uncovered secret after secret with exciting cliffhangers at the end of each of the ten episodes. Tatiana Maslany has become a new favorite of mine as she had the unenviable task of bringing up to 8 different characters to life. Through excellent special effects, she had to act with other versions of herself. She did such a fantastic job that the viewer was never distracted by the fact that the same actress was playing all of these characters. Maslany should (but probably won’t) win an Emmy for this role.

2. Orange is the New Black

This show was created by Jenji Kohan, who created the brilliant Showtime show “Weeds” (at least, I thought it was brilliant for its first few seasons). Inspired by the book of the same name, this show features a highly-diverse cast of interesting characters. I nicknamed this show “Gentle Oz” as it showcased some of the same prison system issues as the HBO show “Oz”, albeit without the gratuitous violence. The show is very well-written, well-acted (would love to see some of the actresses get nominated, such as Taryn “Pennsatuckey” Manning, Kate “Red” Mulgrew, or Uzo “Crazy Eyes” Aduba) and I can’t wait for Season 2. Although the real Piper was only imprisoned for 13 months, I have a feeling they will figure out ways to keep Piper in prison.

1. Breaking Bad

RIP to arguably the greatest show in television history. Breaking Bad performed the rare feat of somehow improving upon each consecutive season. The final season was a non-stop adrenaline rush featuring one of the most stressful hours I’ve ever sat through (“Ozymandias”). Breaking Bad re-defined dramatic television and set the bar so high that I don’t envision a show surpassing it anytime soon.

Honorable Mention:

Treme

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? Unfortunately, only a few people will, as this show was criminally underwatched. I will greatly miss watching this show and its final five-episode season was a solid send-off.

Comedy Bang Bang

This show became a Friday-night ritual for me this fall and it was consistently one of the funniest shows of the year for me, but not quite in my top 13. This show is about as close to live-recreating “Space Ghost Coast To Coast” as you can get.

Maron

Solid first season for the Marc Maron semi-autobiographical series. It drew a lot of comparisons to “Louie” but I think that is an unfair comparison. It was solidly funny and emotional, though it didn’t hit me with the same gravitas and creativity that Louis CK’s show does.

Veep

This show will always give me solid laughs, but as it wasn’t significantly different from the first season, it sits outside of my top 13.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Probably my favorite fall comedy debut, this show is the rare television cop comedy that works, due to Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher’s precinct captain, and all of the hilarious supporting characters.

Toast of London

My Matt Berry addiction was continued with the new British fall series “Toast of London”, where Berry plays awful theatre actor Stephen Toast. I thought this show was hilarious, but not quite top 13 material.

Worst:

Low Winter Sun

I am embarrassed to admit that I was excited to watch this when I first read about it. A cop show starring Mark Strong and Lennie James, two underrated character actors? Sign me up! Little did I know that it would end up becoming the punching bag of internet critics everywhere (of course, it had the task of following up Breaking Bad, which would be like being asked to perform some standup after Louis CK). I tuned in for about 15 minutes of the first episode and I was treated to a boring, bland show with a plot I could not muster interest in. It might be unfair to put it on this list, but based on the outpouring of disdain for the show, I’m fine listing it here and have no guilt over quitting it tout suite.

Dexter

This show ended around the same time as Breaking Bad and it was amazing to see how shitty Dexter was by comparison. In Breaking Bad you had a multi-layered, well-crafted drama that wrapped itself up perfectly. With Dexter, you had a final season that featured multiple meaningless side-stories (Masuka’s daughter? Quinn not getting a promotion? Harrison’s treadmill fail?) and an ending so unsatisfying, it makes sense that it was likely due to interference by the Showtime executives.

Boardwalk Empire

What is the point of this show anymore? Why are we supposed to care about any of these characters? All I want to see now is 60 minutes of a coked-up Al Capone doing Al Capone things. That’s about it, especially after killing off a few of my favorite characters this season. I’m not even sure I’ll keep watching Boardwalk Empire.

Homeland

This made my worst list because I think the show has run out of ideas. After blowing its load with shock after shock, I’m not sure the show is going to be able to keep going strong after (from what I can tell) getting rid of two of its main characters. Claire Danes’ Carrie is an interesting character but she’s going to need strong, interesting foils and I’m not sure she’s going to find that in Istanbul. I may drop this show, but if I don’t, it’s definitely not a show I care to immediately watch (I’ll be watching Masters of Sex ahead of this).

Futurama

What a disappointing, horrible final season. After watching a few episodes, you can see why Comedy Central shit-canned it.

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I remember when Castle first aired and thinking that it was going to be a high-concept show that wouldn’t have any legs. A mystery author who solves crimes using his ability to write mysteries? Working with a cop who had one of the worst hairdos on television? Starring Nathan Fillion, a cult actor that had never really sniffed success after starring in a one-and-done cult phenomenon “Firefly”? How did this become a top 10 TV show? The fickle finger of fate enlisted Joel and Cameron to try and solve the mystery behind this…mystery.
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Joel:

This isn’t my first rodeo with Castle. I’ve spent a significant amount of time in the hospital over the past couple years and Castle reruns on TNT almost every day for hours. And at certain hours of the night, it was infomercials, Castle or The Nanny. If you’ve ever seen any show on the USA Network, you’ve seen Castle. palatable crime drama with a side of humor. Like Psych or White Collar or Monk, I’ll pop in from time to time, but it’s very far from appointment viewing. At the end of the day, nothing matters. They give you no real reason to become emotionally invested in these characters. They’re simply a set piece to get to the end of the crime in one single serving episode. The main characters aren’t ever going to die or anything.

And the episode Rob selected for me to watch couldn’t have been a more perfect cheeseball example of this. The main characters are Castle(a crime novelist, I think. It was hard to tell because everyone was wearing flak jackets that said POLICE and he had one that said fucking WRITER on it) and Beckett, his police officer/girlfriend. Early on in this episode, Beckett steps on a trigger to an explosive device and can’t move until they disarm it. See, on a series like Breaking Bad or The Shield or Homeland, I’d be riveted, because who knows what the fuck will happen. On Castle, we have Castle and Beckett joking around as we see flashbacks of their relationship. God dammit, Rob. A flashback episode? There’s nothing lazier than a flashback episode. And this show is already pretty fucking lazy.

And I’m going to spare you the flashbacks, because they did absolutely nothing to enhance the episode. Beckett’s standing on a fucking bomb for hours and you’re bickering about who liked who first and having this flippant, flirty discussion? uggh. About halfway through the episode, the explosives team discover there’s a timer on the bomb with about thirty minutes left on it, and only then do Castle and Beckett realize the gravity of their situation, because before that it was just jokes on jokes. But I bet you’ll never guess how it ends. Castle figures out the five digit code must be Billy based on some bullshit I don’t even remember and disarms the device with 1 second left! 1 second! That never happens. Seriously, can we ever find someone capable enough to disarm a bomb with like 14 minutes left on it?

It’s easy enough to see why people watch Castle. People want to like Nathan Fillion. People do like Nathan Fillion. They’ve just never watched his stuff and only bemoaned its loss after the fact. Secondly, it’s quite a palatable show for women who want to watch a crime show. It’s sorta funny and less grisly than most. And when your lead in is the monster rated Dancing With The Stars and The Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise, women viewers will be there to be had. Was it horrible? No. Was it any good? Not really. But put it up against infomercials and the Nanny and I’ll probably tune in.
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Cameron:

A lot of us here at screensnark are pretentious douchebags, especially when it comes to procedural dramas. I admit, I’m one of the worst of the bunch. I fully understand the appeal of them, but they just aren’t for me. They’re massively popular, and I get it. Sometimes people just want to watch a self-contained hour of television without really worrying about any main characters dying unexpectedly. Normally a very straightforward storyline without any sort of brainpower needed to keep up. This ain’t Game of Thrones, this ain’t Breaking Bad. This is Castle.

I was a very big fan of the sitcom Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place, (later just Two Guys and a Girl) and remember being very impressed with one actor in particular. That was obviously Ryan Reynolds. He was absolutely hilarious, destined to become a star. There was another funny character though, the boyfriend. Played by Nathan Fillion. His role within the show was not as outright funny as Reynolds’ character, but his turn as a straight man showed some fantastic comedic timing. Sometimes being a straight man in a funny show can be a challenge in itself, knowing just when to look perplexed in a crazy situation a la Ben Wyatt. He didn’t gain true cult fame until he starred in the amazing series Firefly. When I saw that I couldn’t believe how much charisma Fillion oozed, rivaling Harrison Ford. The show was tragically cancelled early and we all wondered where Nathan would go. There was the Firefly movie, Serenity and then things were pretty quiet on his front. Castle is where he ended up, unfortunately.

Unrelated image from a better project

The show isn’t any deeper than it’s premise, that being Fillion playing Richard Castle, a murder-mystery writer who gets to shadow detective Kate Beckett for book inspiration, even though she clearly disapproves. Why he’s allowed to do this ridiculous thing? I have no idea, I’d like to see the comedy of errors contained in the first episode that sets it up. The episode I actually saw was inconsequential. There was a murder, Castle uses unconventional methods to follow leads, detective Beckett uses good old fashioned detecting to follow others, and together they’re able to pool their resources and solve the murder. I imagine that could cover a large majority of the show’s plots. There’s the obvious will they/won’t they thing going on when you have one male lead and one female lead(I bet they will!!!). Formulaic as fuck, standard as shit, and as special as any one CSI spinoff. I figured this going in, and confirmed during viewing, the only reason this show works is due to the charisma of Nathan Fillion. If you’re a fan of Fillion, but procedurals are not your thing…..they still aren’t going to be. However if you’re a fan of procedurals, give Castle a shot. It’s a decent crime show and Fillion handles the lead with more charm than the Mark Harmons and David Carusos of the world.

The post Some Like It Watched: Castle appeared first on screensnark..

This summer, my wife got addicted to British television.  One show that she began to watch, which I decided to join in on, was “The IT Crowd”.  We had heard good things about it and we liked Chris O’Dowd in “Bridesmaids” and “Family Tree” so we gave it a shot.  We were completely unprepared for how much we would end up loving this series.  One of the funniest characters on this sitcom was the office boss.  The boss in the first two seasons was Denholm Reynholm (a great name in and of itself), played by Christopher Morris.  After Denholm’s hilarious and unexpected exit from the show, he was replaced by his son, Douglas Reynholm (the inimitable Matt Berry).

After completing the whole series, I immediately became obsessed with Matt Berry, who reminded me of a British Jack Black.  I remembered that he had a small role as a kid’s musician on Portlandia.  I went to Netflix to see what else was available featuring Matt Berry.  This is what I found:

Snuff Box?  I had never heard of this show and the picture didn’t exactly look enticing.  I had seen Rich Fulcher a few times in the past couple of years…he had a hilarious story on Funny or Die’s “Drunk History” about Abraham Lincoln.  He also played some odd characters on “NTSF:SD:SUV” and “Jon Benjamin Has A Van”, odd to the point that he made me a little uncomfortable.  But Matt Berry was so awesome that I figured I’d give Snuff Box a shot.  Boy am I glad that I did.

As a huge fan of cult comedy and sketch comedy, I was immediately impressed by the first episode of Snuff Box.  The premise is quickly set up with the opening scene: Matt and Rich play characters with their real names.  Matt is a professional hangman and Rich is his assistant (why an American is working with a British hangman is never explained but you really shouldn’t care).  The show weaves skits between their interactions and various random segues.  Snuff Box reminded me of another cult sketch show, Mr. Show (one of my favorite shows of all time), in the way that sketches would roll one into the other (though Mr. Show was much smoother in the transitions).

I also loved that there are jokes during the episode that are referenced later (sometimes in a future episode).  There is a random skit segue where Rich Fulcher is a “rapper with a baby” and sings a cheesy rap song, only to have it offhandedly referenced later in the show as its video is playing on a television and Matt Berry asks “How did this shit get to #1?”  It is best to see all six episodes in a row to get the full experience, but each episode can be individually viewed.  There are certain sketches that are repeated in different episodes, such as the hilarious “Boyfriends” sketches:

The humor is about as dark as it can get, with literal gallows humor throughout.  This show also featured the interesting dichotomy of a British and American comedy partnership.  Off the top of my head I am unable to think of another show that was 50% British and 50% American like Snuff Box (they even display the 50%/50% by the superimposing of Berry and Fulcher’s faces on the American and British flags in the opening credits).  The show itself is British but the presence of Rich Fulcher creates a schism between the politeness of British comedy and perceived ultra-vulgarity of modern American comedy.  Fulcher portrays himself as a vulgar lout who has always “gotta piss” and seems unable to complete a sentence without at least two “fucks”.  Berry’s character is much more urbane but is also a completely unapologetic dirtbag, but he is also a professional murderer…

Most of the sketches involve Fulcher and Berry as the hangmen, but they will also play random characters, such as this musical duo in the recording studio who keep meeting up with famous musicians (in this case, David Bowie):

Another sketch which exemplifies the difference between crude Fulcher and sophisticated Berry is the Christopher Lee sketch.  Matt Berry plays the famous actor Christopher Lee, as Dracula.  He is apparently hard up for work and takes a role in a porno movie directed by Fulcher’s sleazy porn director.  Weirdness and hilarity ensue:

If you like sketch comedy and are in the market for something you haven’t quite seen before, I highly recommend Snuff Box.  It is only 6 half-hour episodes, so even if you completely hate it, you won’t be that much closer to death upon finishing it.

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Joel

I would say that out of all the Screensnark staffers, Rob is the most similar to me in terms of entertainment. We’re both huge comedy nerds. We’ve been discussing stand up and sketch comedy for the better part of a decade. So when he requested that I watch Snuff Box, I was a little intrigued. I’d never heard of it before, but Rob is into a sketch comedy show that I’m not? I got very curious. He likened it to Mr. Show With Bob and David, which…no. That isn’t a slight against Snuff Box, but a testament to how much I love Mr. Show.

The problem lies here. How does one exactly critique a sketch show? I guess in the spirit of Switch Hitter, I could just critique Rob’s taste, but I find it hard to say what works and doesn’t work in a genre as subjective as sketch comedy. It’s either funny to you or it isn’t. Or it’s whatever the fuck Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! is. But I’ll try and critique it anyhow.

Snuff Box was kinda funny. No more, no less. They gave their jokes and premises no time to grow and that frustrated me as a viewer. That’s their style, but it doesn’t work for me. I’d be surprised to go back and find out if even one sketch cracked the two minute mark. And probably 7 times out of 10, I saw the punchline within five seconds of the setup. So I found it predictable, lazy comedy most of the time. But there were a few genuine laughs from me. There was a sketch with no dialogue that was probably my favorite. Just guys out on the street with huge signs with arrows that say GOLF SALE. and when they got a patron to follow the arrows, it led to a back alley where they just beat his ass with the signs. Another premise that I laughed at was the fashion trend of pre pissed in and pre shit in pants called Le Piss and Le Poo, respectively. Because I’m a 13 year old at heart.

So at the end of the day, I find this to be a pretty run of the mill sketch show. Not great, but not crummy. Sorry, Rob. We’ll get ‘em next time.

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Cameron

This week my pal, buddy, confidante, guy I know by first name Rob asked me to watch Snuff Box. He asked that I watched the entire series, and to be fair it’s only 6 episodes, but life happened and I could only get in the first episode. Not to say that I will never see the last 5 episodes, because from what I saw in the pilot episode, I liked quite a bit. Rob told us that since we were big Mr. Show fans, we would enjoy this. Having seen the first episode, I do understand the comparison. I don’t like it quite as much as Mr. Show, but I can see the similarities. Both done by a talented comedic duo. Whereas Mr. Show was anchored by David Cross and Bob Odenkirk being themselves, albeit somewhat sensationalized versions of themselves, Snuff Box seems to be anchored by comic actors Matt Berry and Rich Fulcher playing characters. A sophisticated executioner and his American assistant. Then random sketches happen in between visiting these characters.

I didn’t know these actors, I think I recognized Matt Berry from an episode of Portlandia and the American I didn’t know at all. In fact, I didn’t think the “American” character was American at all since he sounds like a British actor impersonating an American. But I looked it up and apparently the guy is actually American. Inception. I’d like to go into more depth but the boring fact is that I enjoyed it. To analyze why people enjoy this show would be to look inwards, and I don’t have the mental fortitude to do that at this point in my life. I probably will return to it now that most shows are on a break. No more Walking Dead, Boardwalk Empire, etc for a while. It’s a little weird in places, like alienating weird. That’s okay though, not all the sketches on Portlandia or even Mr. Show are gold either. Final impressions, it’s streaming on Netflix, put it in your queues, it’s a funny show.

The post Switch Hitter: Snuff Box appeared first on screensnark..

“Almost Human” is FOX’s new sci-fi cop drama and it starts off with a bang.

The scene is set.  2048.  There is a lot of crime and the only way to fight it is with robot cops helping human cops (in this universe, all human cops are given an android partner for protection).  You’d think the bad guys would have robots on their side, and maybe they do, but that has yet to be established.  Anyways, the episode begins with Detective John Kennex (Karl Urban, a sizable star to be leading a network vehicle) leading a squad into a firefight but little does he know that it’s an ambush.  He tries to help an injured cop but is abandoned by his android partner and ends up getting hit by a grenade.  The camera pans down to reveal that he has lost a leg.  Suddenly another grenade falls nearby, cut to white flash.  Next thing you know, Kennex wakes up from a 17 month coma and is in a black market lab, having his memories scanned to figure out if he has any useful memories of the incident.

As he heals, Kennex is brought back onto the force and is given a new android partner as his last one was destroyed in the firefight.  Kennex has developed an intense dislike of androids after his last one abandoned him and he ends up tossing his partner out the door of his car while driving down the freeway.  But since all cops in this world must have an android partner, Kennex is sent to Rudy (Mackenzie Crook) to get a new android.  Rudy gives him Dorian (Michael Ealy), an older prototype android that was pulled off the market because it was “too human”.  The Dorian model was too emotional and unpredictable, as opposed to the newer models that have no emotional programming.

The rest of the episode is spent setting up the dynamic between the two officers.  Kennex bristles at Dorian from the moment they first meet, but eventually Kennex warms up to him as he realizes that this model is not like the others.

This show is borrowing from a lot of different places.  There are elements of Blade Runner, Robocop, Alien Nation, to name a few, but this show feels like a fresh reboot of these source materials.  The two main actors are perfectly cast and I am amazed by Michael Ealy as he has the difficult task of portraying a human robot and he manages to do so in seamless fashion.  I haven’t even mentioned the females of the cast: Minka Kelly (a Joel favorite, as a detective) and Lily Taylor as the police chief.

I really enjoyed this pilot and plan on sticking with this show.  It has a Joss Whedon feel about it (though not quite as quippy).  For a network show, the special effects were top-notch.  The violence was surprisingly gritty for an 8pm show on FOX.

4.5/5

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