As Joseph Heller wrote in Catch-22, “Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.” The Strain is difficult to categorize. The cynical part of me thinks it was born mediocre and I’ve just been expecting too much from it. Perhaps this was always where we would end up, with Holocaust flashbacks and a sense that this isn’t what we signed up for.
There’s a lot of talk this week about being good, as in a decent person, and what that means. The writers lay it on thick with the scene between Jim and his wife, who has just been accepted into a cancer trial because of Jim’s deal with the devil. “Good things happen to good people, right?” she asks him. “Right?” It’s like she’s just rubbing salt in the wound of his already festering guilt.
Following the trend of reimagining classic films into television series, Fargo has been nothing but a pleasant surprise. Although it samples none of the original plot from the 1996 Coen Brothers film, there is a similar air to the cold, quirky and dark television drama set in Minnesota. The series stars Martin Freeman as Lester …
One of the key maxims of Elmore Leonard is that criminals are, by and large, dumb. So far, the most consistent throughline of Season 5 has been that “dumb” can mean a lot of different things,..
Justified, Season 5, Episode 9: “Wrong Roads” Written by Dave Andron and Leonard Chang Directed by Michael Dinner Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX – Now that it’s too late for Justified‘s fifth season to rank with the restof the series – relatively speaking, there’s simply been too much chaff to make that cut …
Justified, Season 5, Episode 8: “Whistle Past the Graveyard” Written by Chris Provenzano Directed by Peter Werner Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX – Take what you can get: “Whistle Past the Graveyard” doesn’t fix what’s wrong with Season 5 of Justified, but it at least has the decency to provide a few jolts …
Justified, Season 5, Episode 7: “Raw Deal” Written by VJ Boyd Directed by Bill Johnson Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX – Why does it feel like so little happens in “Raw Deal”? A relatively major character bites the dust, Boyd’s Mexican adventure appears to be imperiled nice and early, Ava makes a play …
Justified, Season 5, Episode 5: “Shot All To Hell” Written by Chris Provenzano Directed by Adam Arkin Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX – Ask and ye shall receive. The first four episodes of Justified‘s penultimate season were mostly fine, but felt a little compromised and slight compared to past seasons, which tended to …
Justified, Season 5, Episode 4: “Over the Mountain” Written by Taylor Elmore Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX – In case the theme of Season 5 of Justified wasn’t already abundantly clear, “Over the Mountain,” the latest in a too-long string of set-up episodes, underlines it in felt-tip. If the …
American Horror Story, Season 3, Episode 11: “Go To Hell” Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon Written by Jessica Sharzer Airs Wednesdays at 10:00 PM on FX “Go to Hell,” the penultimate episode of Coven, ramps up the action, piles on the blood, closes off a few story-lines, and says goodbye to a few characters in a manner …
Justified, Season 5, Episode 3: “Good Intentions” Written by Benjamin Cavell Directed by Dean Parisol Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX As a general rule, the longer a heavily serialized series goes on, the more laborious the early episodes of seasons become, as they strain to incorporate new elements while servicing long-simmering plotlines …
Justified, Season 5, Episode 1: “A Murder of Crowes” Written by Fred Golan and Graham Yost Directed by Michael Dinner Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX – When we last saw Raylan Givens, he was kicking back – sort of. Having just brushed Nicky Augustine off his shoulder by serving him up to his …
6. The Spoils of Babylon The Spoils of Babylon is an upcoming American comedy miniseries by Saturday Night Live veterans Andrew Steele and Matt Piedmont, directed by Piedmont (Casa de Mi Padre), and starring Tobey Maguire, Kristen Wiig, Tim Robbins, Jessica Alba, Val Kilmer, Haley Joel Osment, Michael Sheen, and Will Ferrell. It’s doubtful that any …
10. The Good Wife (CBS) This year, The Good Wife did the unthinkable. Five seasons (and almost 100 episodes) in, it blew up the show. The original premise, that the publically shamed wife of a crooked politician begins her life anew at a former flame’s law firm, is gone, replaced by a baroque melodrama of …
Once upon a time, it may very well have been possible to see all of the great television that aired in North America in a calendar year. For most of us, that time is over. From the ever-growing list of networks supplying quality programming to the advent of digital content providers smuggling in new and …
…these actors were fantastic talents caught in a rut of a tragic show – tragic not just in the Greek, dramatic tragic sense, which this series certainly exemplifies, but tragic in how misused many of these superb elements have been lately.
One of the more interesting discussions that’s been going on between TV critics this year – now that Breaking Bad has finished and Mad Men is slowly on its way out – has revolved around darkness of tone and how unrelenting it can be in a series to the point where it’s a problem. We’ve seen plenty of new, dark shows carve a niche for themselves without being too oppressive with their content. Sons of Anarchy, though, is one of those shows in which I often feel like I’m being pounded in the face with pessimism.
Sons of Anarchy, Season 6: Episode 11 – “Aon Rud Persanta” Written by Chris Collins and Kurt Sutter Directed by Peter Weller Airs Tuesday nights at 10 on FX Nero calls it the Godfather dilemma: the more you try to distance yourself, the closer you get sucked in. Tara is extremely familiar with this concept …
Sons of Anarchy, Season 6: Episode 10 – “Huang Wu” Written by Kurt Sutter and Charles Murray Directed by Billy Gierhart Airs Tuesday nights at 10 on FX Oftentimes, a TV series unintentionally develops a weak link in its cast. If any of you are viewers of The Walking Dead, too, you could easily point out …
“Burn, Witch, Burn! deals with the fallout of last weeks climax which saw Cordelia blinded, when assaulted at a nightclub by a hooded assailant who threw sulphuric acid in her face. Meanwhile, Marie Leveau’s army of dead storm Miss Robichaux’s Academy. The fifth installment of Coven is immersed in the guilt of cruel mothers. LaLaurie is forced to come to terms with the pain and suffering she inflicted on her own daughters who rise from their graves, and Fiona feels responsible for Delia’s attack. On top of all this, two witches display new unexpected powers as Zoe manages to break Laveau’s spell and defeat her zombie army with only a few words, and Delia receives a startling clairvoyant vision of her husband’s murderous and cheating ways.
Sons of Anarchy, Season 6: Episode 9 – “John 8:32” Written by Kem Nunn and Kurt Sutter Directed by Guy Ferland Airs Tuesday nights at 10 on FX After finally managing to craft something kind of interesting out of Tara’s fake pregnancy plot last week, Sons of Anarchy is beginning to make the exponential climb to …
Sons of Anarchy, Season 6: Episode 8 – “Los Fantasmas” Written by Roberto Patino and Kurt Sutter Directed by Peter Weller Airs Tuesday nights at 10 on FX All season long, we’ve been following a pretty lackluster B-plot in Sons of Anarchy focusing on Tara and her subversive plans to get her kids out of the crossfire …
The emotional core of “Sweet and Vaded” comes from a rather unpredictable place. After seeing Walton Goggins return to the role of Venus in last week’s episode, there didn’t seem like there was going to be much a of a follow-up to his appearance. And while “Sweet and Faded” doesn’t exactly revolve around Venus’ story, it is certainly the heart of the episode.