TELEVISION

The Tomorrow People Has a Promising Future

The Tomorrow People: Wednesdays at 9 Eastern on the CW

The science fiction drama has always at been looked at as both a niche format as well as a television staple (particularly in syndication). Lately, however, it seems like a procedural heavy schedule has pushed most sci-fi off of the big four (with the closest things that qualify being Lost and Revolution) and solely into the corner of that genre’s SyFy. However, if there is one broadcast network that has seemed most open to dabbling into such matters, it’s the CW, which takes it origins from the UPN network (home of both Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise), the WB network (whose extensive line of “teens playing with the supernatural” series is even more impressive) and of which many stations were the same syndicated stations that ran Star Trek: The Next Generation, Babylon 5, and 90’s fantasy stalwarts Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess. It’s from this tradition that the CW draws with it’s newest offering The Tomorrow People.

The Tomorrow People, a remake of the 70’s British series (and very early Nickelodeon staple), begins with Stephen Jameson (Robbie Amell), then a normal teenager, acquiring some very supernatural powers, such as teleportation and telekinesis. After acquiring these powers, he finds out that he is not alone in having these powers, meeting three others: John (Luke Mitchell), Cara (Peyton List), and Russell (Aaron Yoo). However, these powers also put them at odds with a concerned group of paramilitary scientists known as Ultra who view their new found powers as an existential threat to the current fabric of society. It is in this conflict that Stephen must navigate through, weighing a normal life on one hand with a group of people who truly can understand him on the other.

Like many series with sci-fi and action components, the first thing that I’m prone to notice are the visual effects, and in this case, they are quite impressive. This is particularly noticeable in the fight scenes themselves, as they manage to roll a slick teleportation animation into fights without relying on jarring camera work. Similarly anytime that a force ball (imagine a big invisible hadoken from Street Fighter) gets rolled out or Stephen takes bullet time to the next level, the show maintains a very cinematic quality that rivals Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The only real complaint I have on the visual level is the CW mandated insistence on every show taking place in darkness for at least half the episode.

The Tomorrow People also is surprisingly well written for a pilot. While it’s expected that many pilots require heavy exposition which in turn slows the plot to a grinding halt, the unloading of key facts is handled deftly and nimbly. This is in part due to the pilots brisk pace, in which three stories are very rapidly resolved in cinematic fashion, often showing where lesser shows would suffice with telling. There is only one particularly jarring hitch (which admittedly felt exclusive to the pilot) in that tonight’s episode often felt more like Stephen, our protagonist, was being dragged from point to point, whereas our lead character could likely stand to use more agency in his actions (and the last few minutes hint he should in the future).

If there’s one particular weakness to the episode, it’s in the acting. The dialogue tends to feel wooden at points, especially in early interactions between Stephen and John. However, even in this one particular rough spot, we can find clear standouts. Mark Pellegrino, who plays series antagonist Jedekiah Price (of Ultra) in a way that manages to creep and disconcert without feeling excessively hammy.

The Final Verdict: There’s a lot of potential in The Tomorrow People. It’s cleverly written, looks impressive, and paired with the sort of show that feels like a comfortable lead in (Arrow) that could lead to a long and fruitful first run (and later syndication). Many of the show’s flaws (which mostly lie in characterization and acting) are the sort of things that can be fixed and developed over time, as pilots tend to be bare bones in those areas. I’d recommend checking it out if you’re looking for an action/sci-fi fix on your Wednesday night, as the major network competition unilaterally skews away from those sort of shows.

Sean Saves The World, But the World Needs Polishing

by Michael Tyminski

Sean Saves the World: Thursdays at 9 Eastern On NBC

In prior reviews, I’ve looked that the networks’ focus for the returning hero, and mentioned that no network was more all-in on this than NBC. For NBC, this is a trend that stretches back to last year when it was clear that they were originally grooming the Matthew Perry vehicle Go On for big things. It’s with this reason that when NBC put out it’s schedule for this fall that I was clamoring to find out what was going to get the 9 p.m crown jewel slot. Was it going to be a long-standing show like the critically acclaimed Parks and Recreation? Was it going to be The Michael J. Fox Show, which got a full season vote of confidence from NBC? Needless to say, I was somewhat surprised when I found out it would be devoted to the return of Will and Grace’s Sean Hayes in Sean Saves the World.

Sean Saves the World follows the titular character, a divorced dad who is thrust back into full-time parenting when his high school aged daughter Ellie (Samantha Isler) moves in. However, it’s not just his home life that gets thrown into upheaval. Sean also has to deal with a new boss (the always funny Thomas Lennon) whose tighter regime requires that his team at work put in more hours. The end result, like I’ve written oh so many times in the past two weeks, is our protagonist being forced to juggle both duties at home with work around the office.

The first thing that I noticed, above all else, is the omnipresent laugh track. While I’m not particularly biased to the single camera set-up, it feels like the laugh track disrupts the fairly rapid fire dialogue, often leading to an overblown reaction, which doesn’t jibe well with the subtle, sarcastic back and forth that dominates the dialogue (and that the cast clearly excels in).

The writing suffers at points, often due to the cardboard nature of some of the characters. In particular, Sean’s mother Lorna seems like a less alcohol drenched Lucille Bluth, while both of his co-workers felt pretty one dimensional. Similarly, the plot felt way too direct in forcing Sean to literally juggle home and work. I can understand establishing a premise strongly in a pilot, but this time around it felt too single-minded, often shoehorning Ellie and Lorna into what felt predominantly like a workplace sitcom plot.

Still there are many positives to be found in the show for it to show no promise. First and foremost, the cast as a whole is spectacular. Thomas Lennon in particular shines as evil boss Max, effortlessly acting as a thorn in people’s side. Additionally, while everything felt simplistic and forced, enough of the jokes landed, which for a sitcom really is priority number one (and as mentioned above, would have landed much better without a soundtrack).

The Final Verdict: Sean Saves the World feels very much like a work in progress, pairing a fairly interesting workplace sitcom (the show’s best comedic pairing is very clearly Hayes and Lennon) with a very pedestrian family comedy. Luckily, the tone and the humor is there and there have been successful comedies with worse pilots (and for that matter first seasons). Furthermore, the track record of the staff both behind and in front of the camera seems way too good for this show to truly tank. I’d wait and see on this one, possibly checking out an episode on a re-run laden Thursday night.

Bored to Tears By Super Fun Night

by Michael Tyminski

Super Fun Night: Wednesdays at 9:30 Eastern On ABC

Super Fun Night has an interesting development history. The show was originally shopped to CBS last year, only for the network to pass on it, only for ABC to swoop in and pick up the series. While this would normally seem like the sort of sign that would doom a show, ABC has shown a surprisingly high amount of confidence in the show, giving it both plenty of hype and the strongest possible comedy lead-in one will find on the network: Modern Family.

Super Fun Night was predominantly conceived as a vehicle for Rebel Wilson (Bridesmaids, Pitch Perfect), who plays Kimmie Boubier, a shut-in junior attorney, whose weekend routines always involve her friends Marika (Lauren Ash) and Helen-Alice (Liza Lapira). The three typically take the introverted route, and don’t go out much until they feel compelled to do so to celebrate Kimmie’s promotion. At that point, as she meets Royce (Kevin Bishop), a British attorney. From there hijinks ensue as the three introverts are thrust into new social situations.

So, is this show worth the hype? In short: an unequivocal no. However, since the whole point of a review is for me to tell you why Super Fun Night is lacking, let me count the ways. First and foremost, this show is not funny. This is due to a reliance on banal jokes, hacky and physical comedy (oh my god, someone had an elevator door eat their clothing? I’ve NEVER seen that before!). When it doesn’t rely on those dated premises, it instead tries to rely on going to a well of awkwardness that falls flat at every turn.

On top of not being funny, the show seems to rely on a lot of clichés to fill out the plot, which fits the arc of every underdog story ever. This is made even worse by the fact that Kimmie’s rival, Kendall, is the one stuck behind the 8-ball. The closest analogy to this sort of awkward plotting comes from the world of professional wrestling whenever John Cena is forced to play the underdog while being the dominant champion. It doesn’t play well with WWE audiences and it doesn’t really play well here. I also wasn’t thrilled at the lack of a real B-plot, as a show built around a group of three friends didn’t really spend any time with Marika or Helen-Alice.

There are some positives that the show can build on. In particular, the one-upsmanship that occurred during the musical number at the end felt stronger than the rest of the show. Additionally, while the writing felt off, it seemed like the cast did the best it could with the material, with Kate Jenkinson in particular really standing out as Kendall Quinn, seeming to love every super-villainesque moment thrown her way.

The Final Verdict: It’s pretty clear why CBS ended up passing on Super Fun Night. This pilot felt half-baked and the writing seems sloppy, laser-focused on an A-Plot that felt very mundane. While normally with a sitcom it takes a few weeks to get into a groove, even a fully realized version of Night would be unappealing. Skip this one, Wednesday is a strong enough comedy night right now that you can find something funnier anywhere else on the dial.

East Bound and Down – Season 4 Starts Out Well…But is it Necessary?

by Peter Foy

Now, that I see some of us are done thinking about the Breaking Bad finale (this is a lie), maybe we can talk about another great series that returned to TV the same night, and no I’m not talking about Homeland.

HBO’s Eastbound and Down, the hilarious chronicle on Danny McBride’s indelible character Kenny Powers, returned for a fourth season this past Sunday, about a year and a half after most of its viewers thought the show had ended. With the series third season ending (spoiler) with Kenny leaving behind his goal to return to the majors, faking his death, and moving back to his true love April (Katy Mixon), it seemed like the ideal way to end the series, and it’s three creators (Jody Hill, Ben Best and Danny McBride) had said that was indeed the original plan. Thing is, seeing that HBO had recently cancelled the majority of their half-hour long comedies, it was feasible that they would want to keep onto one that had proven both critically acclaimed and popular with viewers. So here comes the show’s (likely) real final season, which Danny McBride describes as what happens “after the hero rides out into the sunset.”

Picking up a few years after the third season, the premiere finds Kenny Powers married to April, and living with her and their two children in suburbia. Working as an assistant manager at a car rental company, we see the character is not happy in this “normal” lifestyle at all, with him shunning people that recognize his abandoned celebrity status, and finding himself struggling financially. We see Kenny have violent outbursts, and feel shitty about leaving the majors behind. Kenny’s past catches up with him, however, when he delivers a rental car to his old sports colleague Guy Young (Ken Marino), who’s still living the wild life. Needless to say, this is all the push Kenny needed to return to being an…asshole again.

There was good news and bad news about Kenny Powers return, and it’s probably best to just get the bad news out of the way first. The episode did have quite a few moments that made it feel like this was an afterthought on the writer’s part. They really glossed over the fact that Kenny faked his death, with only a brief introductory sequence showing us that he crashed his own funeral and then had to do some jail time for it. I think if the writers could of taking there time (or maybe even asked for more episodes this season) they could have given us some really good material on why Kenny decided to come out and disprove his death. It’s really evident to me that Kenny’s fake death was supposed to be a plot device to end the series with, and if they were unsure about whether season 3 would be the finale, than they probably shouldn’t have used it.

That said, what was great about the previous seasons of Eastbound and Down is still great here. One of the most noble and entertaining facets of Eastbound and Down is that it’s one of the few shows that really does reinvent itself each season. Each year has seen Kenny in a different location and in a different predicament, and for a show that has short episode-counts-per-season for an American TV series, it’s always managed to get in great amounts of character development and plot progression. Keeping that in mind, it isn’t that surprising to see that this series is going to have a different format yet again, but the series also isn’t forgetting the reason why Kenny Powers is such a compulsively watchable character. In the second half of the episode when we see Kenny revert back to the lovable douchebag that he was for the first three years, it’s a sight to behold. He’s profane and loose as ever, and I have a feeling that Hill, Best and McBride have a format for this season that will see the settled down Kenny Powers clash with the rebellious nature of his past (true?) self. If they can do that then I’ll totally be on board for this season being a sort of victory lap for the series.

Fans of the show absolutely should tune into this episode. While sure, I feel the ending last season was a perfect capstone for the series, but Kenny Powers is a fantastic character that has plenty more potential, and thankfully the writing and directing were still super-sharp for this premiere. It pretty much won me over, and I’m now convinced that McBride and his co-creators are firmly committed to giving the Kenny Powers saga (another) great ending.

A Heavy Hand On The Premise Sinks We Are Men

by Michael Tyminski

We Are Men: Mondays at 8:30 Eastern on CBS

It seems like more often than not, there’s often some rhyme, reason, or pattern of what makes it to air, especially on the big four networks. Either the network execs are cashing in on a current cultural trend, a hot-button issue, trying out some new revolutionary concept, or just blatantly aping what CB—ahem, lead dog is doing to get its’ ratings edge. However, occasionally we see a show slip through the cracks that seems to exist solely as some sort of weird outlier that seems out of place both on the air and on it’s place in the network schedule (the clearest example of this being last fall when Whitney was stuck between two other shows that clearly share an audience in Dateline and Grimm). This year, that outlier seems to be We Are Men.

We Are Men picks up when Carter (Chris Smith) is left at the altar by his bride, only to move into a short-term housing complex in order to pick up the pieces of his life. While there, he befriends three other men in similar predicaments: Gil, a small business owner (Kal Penn), Frank, a middle aged clothier (Tony Shalhoub), and Stuart, an OB/GYN who’s going through his second divorce (Jerry O’ Connell). Together, these men try to mentor Carter through his situation while hanging out poolside.

This pilot feels like a tale of two pilots, there’s the overwrought origin story where Carter is under the thumb of his domineering fiancee’. This pilot is kind of a mess, as it forces us to go in the same circle twice: once in speed mode in the first five minutes, and then seemingly out of nowhere a second time over the back end of the show. Unfortunately, the whirlwind retelling of the story feels incredibly plodding leaving to an overwrought scene at the chapel where we for the second time have it repeatedly beaten into our head how lousy Carter’s relationship really was.

The second pilot is a show about nothing, and this angle is considerably more enjoyable. While Gil, Frank, and Stuart, aren’t particularly well filled in (it is a pilot, after all), We Are Men shows more promise when our principal characters are bouncing off of each other, and the cast does an excellent job displaying that easy rapport. It’s the little moments in general that are We Are Men‘s strength, most notably a cameo by Dave Foley as Carter’s father, a man who truly appreciates his hard-boiled eggs.

The Final Verdict: Many sitcom pilots tend to be fairly well removed from the original pilot by the middle of it’s first season, and We Are Men is no exception to that rule. In this case, it’s probably for the best, as there isn’t much of a story in this origin and the premise is pounded into you from the pilot. I also think this show could benefit from a potential mid-season schedule swap with The Crazy Ones, as We Are Men makes more sense with a Two and a Half Men lead-in. Overall, I’d probably skip this one for the time being, but wouldn’t be surprised if it became a sleeper hit should it survive past mid-season.

Breaking Bad: The Legend Ends – Felina

by Peter Foy

Breaking Bad is over! The show that so many of us have loved and watched religiously for these fast years has aired its last episode, and it was really something. It felt organic to the show’s nature, carefully paced, wisely satisfying, a mite bit predictable, and overall a great finale for the series. Where to start?

Well, for one I should point out where the episode was most surprising. I was a little worried going into the episode that Felina would have a faster pace to it than your typical Breaking Bad episode as they did have quite a bit of loose ends to close. Fortunately though, Gilligan realized what a disservice that would be, and he took his time with the pacing and in some rather unexpected ways. Some people had felt that Walt was going to pay his former Grey Matter associates Elliot and Gretchen a visit for this finale, but I don’t think anyone predicted how it would be handled. Walt asks that they give his child Walt Jr. his money for his 18th birthday. He then threatens them that he hired hitmen to kill them if it doesn’t happen, which definitely shows the character still can be scary, but then we discover that Walt has only hired Badger and Skinny Pete to play mock-assassins. It actually has us change our view a bit of Walt, and see him as more as an intelligent and well-meaning guy again, who just happened to fuck things up royally for himself.

That’s probably the episode’s greatest accomplishment, as it manages to make Walt likable again. Walt played a bad-ass come the show’s final moments, but not without showing his humanity too. The tear-jerking moment comes when Walt confronts Skyler again, and finally talks to her honestly. He admits that he became a meth cook for himself (rather than his family) as he was good at it, and he feels so sorry for the way things have turned out. He leaves her with the GPS coordinates to find Hank and Gomez’s bodies, which he feels will act as her get-out-of-jail-free-card. It was heartwarming to see Walt touch his baby Holly one last time, as we all knew that he wouldn’t be living past the credits tonight.

Which of course brings us to the final showdown. Jack is depicted as loathsome as ever, which really makes us root when Walt finally puts that M60 to use. Rigging it up to his trunk to act as a human lawn-mower when he pops it works in just such a satisfying way, especially for those who have compared Walter White’s technical genius to MacGuyver. What follows is certainly predictable, as all the neo-nazis are killed immediately from the gunfire except for Todd and Jack, but we seriously needed to see Jesse and Walt deal with these two assholes individually. It really was something poetic to see Jesse choke the life out of Todd with his own slavery chains, and then for Jack to offer Walt a way to get the money he stole from him, only to have Walt answer his proposition with a bullet.

So now Jesse is free, and Walt offers him the chance to kill him if he wants to. Fortunately though, we find that Jesse sees no reason to end his former mentor’s life, and discards the gun (notice he didn’t say bitch, either!). It was also such a great cue when Walt picks up Todd’s phone after it rings only to find Lydia on the other line…and tell her that he slipped ricin into her drink. It’s hard for us to root for Walt poisoning a woman but…c’mon, she deserved it! So now for the closing shot, of Walt returning to a meth lab again, and then finally dying from the wound his machine gun rigging gave him. It’s pretty much the ending that we all had in mind for the show, but what a hell of a ride it was getting there!

A lesser show would have probably ended with an epilogue of sorts, but here we realize that’s unnecessary. We already know that Skyler will get off the hook when she hands the DEA the coordinates, Hank’s body will be found, and Walt Jr. will receive a huge fortune come his next birthday. One loose end I would have liked a little more of a hint at is what’s to become of Brock? I was hoping this episode would leave off with us having a good feeling that Jesse is going to find a way to take care of Andrea’s orphaned child (maybe by changing their identities through the service of Ed). Still, the earlier scene from this episode where we see Jesse fantasizing on being a carpenter, and the last image we see of him laughing hysterically as he drives off to freedom, suggests that the character will now finally be able to put his dark past behind him.

Also, while it certainly isn’t a fault of the show itself…but what was with all the goddamn commercials! It eased up by the ending so it didn’t distract from the climax’s momentum, but the commercials were incredibly frequent during the show’s first half. Honestly, I found it a little insulting that one of the commercial blocks was dedicated to an extended trailer for Aaron Paul’s next starring vehicle Need for Speed. Not to sound like a dick but…anyone intelligent enough to be watching Breaking Bad I doubt would be excited about Jesse Pinkman starring in a video game adaptation. I’m really hoping that such a talented actor as Paul doesn’t find himself mis-cast in crappy action movies due to the success of Breaking Bad.

So how would I rate the final episode of Breaking Bad? Well, it’s not the series finest moment. It wasn’t as tense and unpredictable as the season 4 finale Salud (maybe cause Jack is a shallow villain compared to the sublimely complex Gus Fring), nor did it have a scene that was as gut-wrenching as the death of Hank. What it was though was a triumphant victory lap for the series, and one that really made us realize how special it all was. You could say this episode marked TV history, but I think it’s more of the 6-year run as a whole that has.

Thanks Vince Gilligan and co.! You guys just closed such a chapter for my life in a near pitch-perfect way.

4.5 stars out of 5 (might as well revert to a traditional rating system for the finale, eh?)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is Worth the Hype

by Michael Tyminski

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Tuesdays at 8p.m. Eastern on ABC

Premiere week is in full swing, and that means an opportunity to look at the big four’s most hyped new shows for the fall, with a healthy mix of new high-concept dramas (Sleepy Hollow), stars making a triumphant return to television (The Michael J. Fox Show), and new shows from familiar faces (Dad, Mom). For me personally, I think there was, however, no new show that was more hyped or will dictate its’ network’s fortunes more than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ties very closely with the Marvel movie universe, which should come as no surprise as ABC and Marvel share a common parent company in Disney. Joss Whedon once again gets the keys to the car, and he picks up right where The Avengers movie left off, starting with the seemingly unexplained resurrection of Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), a secret agent working for the super-spy group whom died during the Avengers movie. Coulson recruits a new team in order to deal with the villain group the Rising Tide. However, the true promise this series has will be later on, as S.H.I.E.L.D. interacts with the larger movie universe.

ABC blew up it’s Tuesday night reality block to build around this show, so I guess the real questions are: does this show justify the hype, and will this show ultimately provide the sort of return on investment that ABC needs in order to keep this show on the air? Well first and foremost, let me say that the show definitely succeeds in giving off that blockbuster feel. The action scenes are slick and well choreographed, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D doesn’t shy away from showing off the toys from minute one (both of the action figure variety, and the super-spy sort as well).

Tonight’s episode also features some fairly tight writing, deftly weaving exposition into moments that also allow for character dynamics to further development or push the plot along. Furthermore, the twists in the plot line are well executed and set up in a reasonably logical manner (that is to say, you don’t see the twists coming the first time, but when you look back after the fact, it all comes together). Finally in true Whedon-esque (and for that matter a common feature in spy movies as well), we get a fair amount of comedy in our action soup, including one funny visual of a guy getting tossed 50 feet in the air after hitting someone with superpowers in the head with a pipe.

The acting, is what ultimately holds this all together. Particular kudos are to Gregg’s ability to capture Coulson’s unorthodox leadership skills in a manner that maintains a likable manner. Equal praise should be given to J. August Richards, whom in his guest stint in the pilot tears the house down as a desperate man who took to desperate measures and gives a powerful speech in the episodes climax that could have very easily been hammed into super-villainy and add an extra level of humanity that allows for some true empathy from the viewer.

The Final Verdict: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is the sort of blockbuster event show that ABC has yet to find since the finale of Lost. Whedon and company find an ability to juxtapose large effects and small stories to create a series that could sufficiently anchor the Marvel movie universe (and of course throw out cameos for sweeps), but also manage to keep the show light and fun. As a whole I’d recommend checking it out, but I think if you’re into geek culture (as I am prone to be) this can be safely bumped up to almost must watch territory.

Mom Feels Like A Work in Progress But Shows Promise

by Michael Tyminski

Mom: Mondays at 9:30 Eastern Time on CBS

Last week, when I reviewed FOX’s abomination Dads, I mentioned how it jumped on part of a very common premise for sitcoms in the past year: adults and their parents living together under one roof due to the shaky economic time we’re in. We saw it with ABC in April when they debuted the flop How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life), This season we get even more of the trope with FOX’s Dads, and CBS, who has not one but two shows using the trope with The Millers,and tonight’s debut: Mom.

Mom, which comes from the same Chuck Lorre brain trust responsible for half of CBS’ comedy lineup features Anna Faris playing a single mother trying to stay afloat and care for her two kids. However, when her mother (Alison Janney) returns to her life, they immediately start butting heads. Along the way she must deal with her two kids, her hectic job, and her recovery from alcoholism. Needless to say, the show is a natural pair with current CBS’ sitcom 2 Broke Girls.

So, does this show fare any better than the other similar shows I mentioned? Well the handful of times I laughed over the course of the hour is already a handful of times more than I laughed watching Dads, (and How to Live) for that matter. Allison Janney in particular lights up the screen as Bonnie, playing the mother figure to Faris’ Christy and showing a soft touch that you typically don’t get out of a Lorre show. Faris’ does an equally serviceable job as Christy, who has to do some emotional heavy lifting as the shows first segment does not hesitate to pour gasoline on the fire of her unhappy life.

If there was a clear weakness to Mom, it’s that this episode (which admittedly is the pilot) tries to jam in way too many angles for it’s own good. Within 15 minutes we discover that Christy works as a waitress, she had at least one of her children in high school (ruining her ability to graduate and killing her hopes and dreams), her teenage daughter is sexually active, she’s sleeping with her boss, she’s in alcoholics anonymous, her kids truly hate her, that’s she’s actually the affair in that love triangle, and that it’s somehow all Bonnie’s fault. The show then struggles to revisit all of those angles over the back half of the show, creating a very overcrowded story arc that struggles to come together when the show jams them in the same place in the episode’s climax.

As a whole, the show is pretty typical Chuck Lorre fare in every respect: multi-camera, tons of laugh track, the obligatory bawdy and easy jokes, and a blue collar setting. As a result, your final opinion of the show is going to revolve around whether you tend to like most of the current CBS comedy lineup that is modeled in his image.

The Final Verdict: Mom seems to fall into the trap that many sitcoms have in the early going: there’s a ton of unpacking and it ends up hurting the precious timing that comedy relies on. However, there seems to be some bright spots, particularly between the show’s central pairing in Christy and Bonnie (which I’m sure we’ll see in larger doses than in the pilot). As a result, I see this being a wait-and-see proposition for most people, with a bump up to check it out for those who happen to have a fondness for CBS’s brand of comedy.

Breaking Bad: The Legend Ends – Granite Slate

by Peter Foy

*Spoilers, as always

Well, that was bleak, huh?

That’s obviously saying a lot for Breaking Bad, as this is a show that’s specialized in showcasing humanity at it’s lowest, including child murders and drug abuse. This penultimate episode, however, had us view Walt and Jesse at their absolute nadir, and it was certainly unpleasant as viewers. Whether we have sympathy for these characters or not, we’ve watched them for 60 episodes as they’ve gone from drug-game entrees, to become practically king-pins, and now they’re in horrible places because of their terrible crimes. Having an extended running time tonight (75 minutes with commercials) it was all very depressing to watch for sure, but it’s necessary too. This further augments the fact that the series finale mustn’t hold back at all, on the writer’s part or on Walt’s.

The episode opens up with Saul going to change his identity by enlisting the service of the “disappearing man” that we’ve heard of so elusively for years now. Walt then meets up with Saul, and he’s still trying to have his former lawyer help him with his predicament. Thing is Saul is done with helping Walt now, and even suggests that he turn himself in as it’s the only way he can give his family some support, what with his frozen bank accounts and scant possibility of ever sending them his dirty money. In fact, once we see where Walt is re-located by his forger (played by Robert Forster) we realize that Saul was probably right on the money. Walt is sent to an isolated cabin out in New Hampshire, and he is warned not to leave the premises or else he’ll be caught immediately. Knowing that Walt is going to die from his cancer eventually, this actually seems to be just as bad a fate as prison for him, if not more so.

Of course, while Walt’s predicament is harsh, Jesse has become a far more sympathetic character at this point, and his scenes this episode were far more heartbreaking. Right from the beginning when Jack discovers that Jesse ratted out Todd as a child killer on Hank’s video, you could tell that his situation just went even worse. Even though Todd talks his uncle out of executing him (only so that he can learn to cook pure meth for his love interest, Lydia), Jesse receives plenty of torture from these guys this episode. What made it all the worse to stomach though, is that it looked like Jesse might actually escape, as he uses a paper-clip to undo his cuffs, and then through a rather impressive balancing act, he breaks out of his cell…course that doesn’t exclude the security cameras. Then in the subsequent scene, seeing Todd knock on Andrea’s door was so horrific as you knew right then and there that he was going to kill her as Jesse watched, and if you were like me you probably were thinking that her character was sacred ground…Breaking Bad isn’t that kind of show. In a show that has offered us morbid takes on all sorts of criminal scum, it’s certainly saying a lot that Jack and his boys are the most EVIL PIECES OF SHIT to grace television in a good long while. I even think they give Game of Thrones’ Jofferey a run for his money. Still, the fact that Brock was spared makes me think that Jesse will somehow become the child’s adoptive father, and I would certainly be glad if the writers found a way to take that path.

The real signifier that the show is coming to an end, however, occurred in the final scene. Walt finally ventures out of his abode to a pay phone at a local bar, and then calls his son, and tell him that he is going to send him a box of a few thousand dollars. Walt Jr., however, can only berate his father and tells him he hates him for killing Uncle Hank. When Walt then calls the DA of the Albuquerque police, it seems that he is certainly about to turn himself in…then the prime motivator happens. While sitting at the bar, the owner is flipping through the channels when he comes across a filmed interview with his old Grey Matter associates, Elliot and Gretchen. As we’ve always known, Walt has always aspired for his brilliance in chemistry to make him world renowned, and he previously lost his opportunity with Grey Matter when much younger in life. Walt realizes that he has become known for his chemistry skills now, but in a much different way, and when Gretchen says that Walt is no longer with us, and that he’s become Heisenberg, then we can see how that was all Walt needed to go all out, and return to New Mexico. The decision to play the show’s theme music at the end was a fantastic touch, and truly sets us up for…for…for…

*gulp* ready to see how it all ends?

4.5 goatees out of 5 (I guess the .5 is a ‘stache?)

Dads Might Be the Worst New Show of the Season

by Michael Tyminski

Dads: Tuesdays at 8 p.m. On FOX

Normally, when I look at a show, I open with a little context about the TV landscape it’s coming into. I do this normally to give not only a little context, but to highlight trends in new TV so you know what’s competing for the eyeballs and attention of a given market segment (there’s a lot of TV out there and precious little time after all. While this show is one of many comedies built this year around adults and their parents cohabiting as the end result of a stagnant economy, (and I’ll discuss this more next week when I look at CBS’s Mom) I think the best place to start any discussion of Fox’s new sitcom Dads is with the negative buzz that has surrounded this show.

Simply put, many of the critics who have seen advance screenings of Dads have found the show to be complete and utter dreck, both unfunny and morally reprehensible (particularly in matters of race, but I defy you to find a Seth McFarlane show that believes in holding back). Fox in turn, has started an ad campaign telling America to ignore these fine people who get paid to watch TV and to watch their controversial new show. Needless to say, for the purposes of this one show, with as much vigor as I try to answer the question “Should I watch this show?”, I’m also going to try to answer “Did this show deserve the heat it got from critics in screenings?” (By the way, I feel like some marketing guy at Fox is going to completely take that last question out of context).

That being said, Dads follows the lives of two best friends: Warner, played by Giovani Ribisi and Eli , played by the hardest working man in McFarland: Seth Green. Their lives are simple and straight forward until their dads, played by Martin Mull and Peter Reigert unexpectedly move in. From there, hilarious hijinks ensue as generations clash under one roof!

So, is it as bad as those who got to screen this at the TCA’s claim it is? In one word: Yes, just yes. Dads is the sort of tired, hacky, TV that takes the worst elements of every sitcom you’ve ever seen and churned them into a blender of pure unfunny the likes of which I’ve never seen. Warner and Eli’s dynamic is ripped straight from The Odd Couple without any of the heart. The jokes, are hacky, cliché, and stretched past the point of any credibility, and delivered with excessive mugging and an almost playground bully-esque cadence (seriously, try plugging in “Smooth Moves, Ex-Lax into any line delivered by any lead in the show, and you’ll probably laugh harder). Making matters worse is the omnipresent laugh track that laughs at every. single. line. The end result is the sort of show that looks and feels like a sketch from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, down to the very cringing you’ll be doing while watching it.

As for the racism and sexism, it’s not nearly as atrocious as people hype it up to be, but the fact that they went for the most base, lowbrow, and least innovative way to address the topic is revolting. Worse yet, any potential irony or opportunity to leverage the joke as a function of someone’s ignorance is erased by the (even more moronic) laugh track. With no seeming hypocrisy, subtlety, or even something as simple as a generational divide (a golden example in using the mechanism of turning the joke back on the oppressor is Pierce Hawthorne) the race jokes feel empty and more like cheap shots than they probably would anywhere else, particularly when it is established immediately that our younger leads are no more enlightened than their fathers on the topic. The end result are jokes that are more like **ha ha, [insert group here]**, which is the sort of sensibility that leads to this sort of sociological criticism of Dads, even if the jokes themselves seem way too dumb and unfunny to actually do real damage.

The Final Verdict: Dads is the sort of show that seems like it would show up inside another show as a parody of a cliché, trite show. It definitely takes a sloppy hand with the racial humor and sexist humor, but it’s not nearly as morally reprehensible or mean spirited as it was initially perceived– just mind numbingly ignorant. Skip at all costs, this show is the sort of soul crushing utter garbage that should it ever get a fan base, they will be about as reviled as Juggalos.

Next Time: This Sunday is the Emmy Awards! I’ll be here on Manhattan providing live coverage!

TELEVISION

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