Manhattan Digest

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TELEVISION

NBC Saves Parks and Rec, Cancels Four Other Comedies

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(Source: Wikipedia)
(Source: Wikipedia)

Last night I rifled off a story to my editor about up-fronts and taking wild guesses about how NBC was going to handle its’ once vaunted comedy lineup with intentions of posting it today. Between then and now, NBC took a lot of the mystery out by renewing Parks and Recreation for a sixth season and canning Guys with Kids, 1600 Penn, Whitney, and Up All Night.

Needless to say, I wasn’t shocked with any of these decisions. Parks and Rec is the closest thing NBC has to veteran hit right now, going into its’ sixth season and drawing a moderate viewership (Oh how the mighty have fallen). One could also see the network realizing how weak their slate was when they got a back nine tacked on their order this year (the season was originally supposed to be a 13 episode order like Community and 30 Rock).

Similarly, three of the four cancellations I had as inevitabilities.

1600 Penn had all the signs of a show that wasn’t going to outlive its’ first 13 episodes. It’s ratings consistently plummeted in it’s post-Office time slot, it came in at mid-season and had its’ season finale in March, it stuck out like a sore thumb in the same lineup as Community, Parks and Recreation and The Office, and last but not least it would be eventually bumped so that network favorite Go On could close out after The Office.

Up All Night, was not nearly as weak a show as 1600 Penn, but after much of the backstage turmoil you couldn’t help but think this show was going to get mercy-killed in May. Between the stars’ departures, the show runners’ departure, and an anticipated shift from single-camera to multi camera that got axed, it was tough to imagine Up All Night surviving to a third season.

Guys with Kids is the sort of show that most people were surprised made it out of its’ first six episodes, let alone a full season. It was one of those shows that existed as a way of NBC signaling its’ turn away from fairly intelligent comedy into the Lorre-esque dreck that pervades CBS.

Whitney, however, came as a little more of a surprise to me. While many people have reacted to most cancellations with a variation of “but they kept Whitney?” the impression I always got of the show was that it was the sort of show that the Peacock was never going to let die if only because it was a key part of network head Bob Greenblatt’s vision of a couple of years ago.

This leaves Go On (which I think will be renewed) and Community (which is a coin toss) as shows whose fates are to be determined, though it also signals that regardless of the situation that NBC needed to look in a new direction for its’ comedy lineup after a disastrous 2012-13 season.

UPDATE 4:20 PM: I was horribly wrong about Go On. The sitcom was just cancelled by NBC. This one surprises me a lot at it fits NBC’s strategy of bringing it’s “must-see TV” stars out of the mothballs and this series always seemed disproportionately adored by the network. I’m not sure whether this increases Community’s chances of survival (in a two similar shows one could survive sort of way) or is a potential foreboding doom (NBC manages to cancel just about anything with the intent of getting laughs from its’ schedule).

Next week is upfronts week: Keep posted to Manhattan Digest for more news and opinions!

Model Employee Upends Privilege to Hilarious Effect.

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The Cast of VH1's Model Employee!
The Cast of VH1’s Model Employee (Source: VH1)

Model Employee: Wednesdays at 10:30pm Eastern on VH1

I’m generally not the biggest fan of the reality genre, but I have an admitted soft spot for the “fake out” style reality show first put on the airwaves by Joe Millionaire, and ultimately perfected by reality parody The Joe Schmo Show. It’s also a side of the genre we tend to see less of than your more straight-forward Real Worlds, Real Housewives, and Big Brothers. VH1 returns to this well tonight with Model Offering, a modeling competition that is decidedly not cut from the America’s Next Top Model cloth.

Model Employee is designed to be a modeling competition unlike any other. It puts eight models all vying for a job being the face of Las Vegas’s Mandalay Bay hotel and casino in a competition that doesn’t just focus on the glamorous side of modeling, but also forces them to handle the dirty work that comes with being part of a large entertainment resort empire.

Our show opens with a Robin Leach knockoff narrating the premise of the show and introducing our eight very catty contestants (all of whom have major names on their resumes). After getting to know each other, the show finally springs its’ conceit on its’ contestants, courtesy of host Chrissy Teigen. Needless to say, our contestants were not pleased having to bus a large banquet and then wash the dishes. After this first task, our models are introduced to their penthouse, which is more of what they are accustomed to.

The next morning they wake up to enter the deliberation room, where they meet their judges…whom were all undercover the night before: Vanessa Branch (of Orbit Gum commercial fame), Jimmy Smith (a marketing executive), and Patrick Miller (whom is the VP for entertainment at the Mandalay Bay). While everyone was spared elimination, we find out that the winners get to work as spokesmodels at a wine tasting event while the bottom four work as harnessed servers known as the “wine angels”. Things are bumpy for both the angels and the spokesmodels at this event as the servers try to get an education in grabbing wine bottles in midair while the models get grilled about basic product information (and with the exception of Alexis fail horribly at it).

There’s a certain schadenfreude that many get when it comes to watching our most privileged stumble, and luckily our models are generally so arrogant that it’s fun to watch them struggle with basic tasks that most people could perform easily. Additionally, while there is a ton of cattiness amid the models, the initial twist of sending the judges undercover for the first challenge was an amazing way to see if they could get our contestants to say something really stupid while no one was watching (even though Chrissy foreshadowed the twist at the outset). Needless to say, they succeeded with Johanna saying some things that if put on twitter would bring down an empire.

If there is one real knock I have about the show, it’s that it visually looks cheap in a show that has a naturally opulent setting. This is really apparent in the opening, the confessional room (a green screen with a cheaply done generic screen effect…the casino is opulent, could you have not done what Bravo does for every show and show off your setting?), and the deliberation room which looks closer to a cheap game show set than a model runway. This also feels apparent in the way it was shot, aiming for cheap time lapse effects and sped up tracking shots that fail to do the Vegas skyline justice.

The Final Verdict: Everything about Model Employee screams guilty pleasure. The producers have done an excellent job putting together a sufficiently catty show that is more about upending privilege than celebrating it. The show is strongly cast and places the focus on our contestants’ inability to adjust to “normalcy” from which the drama then spokes out naturally. The end result is a funny reality series that should remind people that taking casting calls for reality series that promise luxury is quite possibly the most misguided thing you can do. Check it out if you’re into this sort of stuff, it’s not a bad way to spend 60 minutes.

The Show is an Offbeat Affair, But Could Use A Little Longer to Simmer

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Vinny Guadagnino, the host of The Show w/ Vinny on MTV (Source: MTV)
Vinny Guadagnino, the host of The Show w/ Vinny on MTV (Source: MTV)

The Show w/ Vinny: Thursdays at 10pm Eastern on MTV

It’s been four years since Jersey Shore became a surprise hit, spurring the careers of eight twenty-somethings that weren’t actually from Jersey with their off-beat combination of drinking, fighting, and taking back a mild ethnic slur. Since then, we’ve seen a variety of side projects, from DJ Pauly’s new-found music career to The Situation’s appearances on Dancing with the Stars and his own Comedy Central Roast to spin-off Snooki & JWOWW. Tonight mark’s the debut of another of these new projects, with nice guy Vinny Guadagnino’s new talk show, simply titled The Show w/Vinny.

The Show w/Vinny is designed to be an unconventional take on the talk show format. In lieu of a studio, much of the action is supposed to place in a variety of locations, including the Guadagnino’s Staten Island Household. Vinny’s family also plays a heavy role in the action, including his mother, Paola, whom plays a large role in much of the promotional material.

Tonight’s show featured two guests: Our first half featured Lil Wayne, whom enjoyed a nice meal at the Guadagnino household before teaching Vinny how to skateboard at a skate park somewhere in Staten Island. The second half of our show involved YouTube sensation Jenna Marbles, whom was interviewed by Vinny before being hooked up in a video chat with Snooki, whom she did a piece about a while back.

So how does this show turn out? Well, it’s pretty uneven. Vinny is a pretty affable host, but he seems somewhat unpolished and occasionally sounds like he’s reading off of cue cards at times. However, in those moments where Vinny is interacting with his family or doing a bit with his guests that he seems more comfortable. The show also seems to be teasing that Vinny will hit on just about any female guest that crosses his path, which seems to help liven up some of the proceedings.

Vinny’s family is around in limited doses, but provides a nice change of pace, and allows Vinny to introduce his guests by describing them to Paola, who rightfully should not know most of the guests most relevant to MTV’s audience (I know my mom wouldn’t know who Lil Wayne or Jenna Marbles were either). Its’ also in Vinny’s family that we get the overarching feel of the show: that household where there’s always something going on in the kitchen.

If there is one aspect of this show that particularly peeved me it was the random cutting of the camera to wide and occasionally off screen angles. There’s not really much of a reason to capture the empty half of a living room or the crew cracking up at something during an interview. It also takes away from the flow of a show that tends to stop and start quite a bit to begin with (each half of the show contains three segments, meaning that on average each piece of the show runs around 3 minutes) and tends to be visually jarring, two words I never wish to associate with my late night talk shows or the “comfort food” vibe.

The Final Verdict: The Show with Vinny has some good, some bad and some ugly. It feels like the producers provided a lot of structure to protect Vinny (with the absence of a monologue and two segments of the show where he doesn’t really have to do more than provide the occasional one liner), but ultimately sent the show in a direction where matters occasionally feel forced. Vinny could work as a talk show host, but definitely needs a little more comfort in his interviews, which will come over time. Overall, I get the vibe that this is a wait-and-see sort of show, as there’s room for improvement but it could work as mellow, offbeat, late night comfort food.

Inside Amy Schumer is Funny, Raw

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Amy Schumer (Source: Comedy Central)
Amy Schumer (Source: Comedy Central)

Inside Amy Schumer: Tuesdays 10:30pm Eastern on Comedy Central

2012 was a busy development cycle for Comedy Central as they locked up large numbers of stand-up comedians in full fledged developmental deals. It is now, in 2013 that we have started to see many of those series hit the airwaves, including Kroll Show, Nathan For You, The Jeselnik Offensive, and their newest offering Inside Amy Schumer.

Inside Amy Schumer is the eponymous comedienne’s newest project and follows a sketch comedy format much like other Comedy Central star vehicles, probably most closely hewing the Chapelle’s Show/Key and Peele mixture of stand-up in front of a studio audience and pre-taped bits. In addition to the sketch and stand-up segments, Schumer also performs a number of woman-on-the-street interviews over the course of the show.

With sketch comedy in general, I think the first and foremost question one needs to answer is: Is it funny? In my personal opinion, very much so. Schumer succeeds in carving out an incredibly seedy and neurotic alter ego for herself (unlike many other shows of this ilk, it doesn’t rely on the SNL model of recurring characters, instead focusing on slices of Amy’s life). Much of this work is set up in the premises of the show’s sketches, whether it’s Amy planning out a full life with a guy she just hooked up with the night before or being unable to identify an African-American sales clerk at a clothing store and then followed up by Schumer’s trademark raunchy style of comedy.

That being said, there were a few minor flaws I found with the show that can be easily addressed without necessarily changing the funny foundation on which the show is built. First and foremost, I found it odd that the show’s reference pool was firmly stuck in the later Bush years, devoting its opening segment to “Two Girls, One Cup” and riffing on veteran Biography Channel Series I Survived…. This seems like a weird gap in time to reference because it’s just old enough to feel dated while being just new enough that nostalgia has yet to build for it yet.

Secondly, while funny, the stand-up bits felt tacked on and gratuitous, where other similar shows monologue segments often served the purpose of setting up the show (Chapelle’s Show and Kroll Show were particularly strong at this style of introduction). Hopefully later episodes better tie the stage segments to their surrounding sketches, as Schumer’s stand-up act is fairly strong.

The Final Verdict: Inside Amy Schumer is very funny for sketch comedy and a strong enough premiere to warrant further viewing. I think a strong premiere says a lot about the potential that the series possesses, as many comedy shows often need a few episodes before becoming fully self-actualized. Minor quibbles aside, the show is a near-perfect mix of self-deprecation, cringe humor and gross out gags and looks primed to succeed in its’ post Tosh.0 time slot. If you get a chance, check it out: you won’t be disappointed.

RuPaul’s Drag Race: Pre-Finale Interview with Michelle Visage

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If there ever was such a thing as a “Triple Threat” and then some, Michelle Visage truly exemplifies that.  Starting her career off in the wildly talented girl group Seduction back in the late 80’s, she has consistently worked with the changes in the pop culture and environment and remained relevant and successful at the same time.  Since her girl group days, she has gone on to a talk show with none other than RuPaul, provided lead vocals to the song “It’s Gonna Be A Lovely Day” off of the Grammy Winning Bodyguard soundtrack, and a slew of radio gigs throughout the years.  Now, she sits as one of the two main judges beside Project Runway alum Santino Rice on the hugely popular LOGO television show “Rupaul’s Drag Race”, which had it’s recap episode last night.  As the live finale approaches next Monday night LIVE at 9/8 central, I sat down with our favorite judge to an e-lunch over some e-tic-tacs. Take a look! [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race: Pre-Finale Interview with Michelle Visage

Ke$ha’s “My Crazy Beautiful Life” is a pleasant surprise

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Source: MTV
Source: MTV

Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life, 11pm Eastern Tuesdays on MTV

In the world of female pop starlets, there always seem to be specific brands that stars seem to hew to. Katy Perry always seems to be somewhat infantilized and stuck in a state of arrested development. Rihanna has often put a sadomasochistic image at the forefront of her brand (and those are just the newspaper headlines). Then there is Ke$ha, whose made her fame on looking and sounding like she’s a girl you met at a rave whom fell into a vat of glitter after an all-night bender. All jokes aside, I’ve always gotten the impression that while some music stars live the lifestyle (Lady Gaga has a new publicity stunt every two weeks to reinforce her “weirder than you” image) that the Ke$ha image is just that: a brand. Luckily MTV is swooping in to save the day with a new reality show that will allow me to test this hypothesis.

Ke$ha: My Crazy Beautiful Life follows recording artist Ke$ha as she handles her day-to-day life, both professionally and personally. The show hypes itself on it’s “rawness” and “realness”, with much of the documentary being produced by her brother, Lagan Sebert. Additionally, the show seems to take on more of a documentary feel, as the show intends on using approximately two years of footage to tell her story as opposed to the more in-the-moment feel of other celebrity pushing shows.

Without fail, we open on an exhausted Ke$ha’s back story, discussing how she dropped out of high school at 17 to become a musician and headlining a concert two years ago. The night after Kesha gives her mom a tearful goodbye before hitting the road for a tour. We then get more concert footage from various stops along the tour, before pausing in Los Angeles where she reminisces about a former flame whom she gave up to pursue her music career. We return from commercial to find Ke$ha borderline stalking Harold and being generally insecure while musing stoically about love.

After the L.A. show, Ke$ha gets a review from an unfavorable blogger that sends her reeling, before commenting on how certain bloggers cross the line and tear people apart (I could take guesses as to whom she is talking about, but why should I give them the free press?). Ke$ha then invites her best friend, Savannah with her to Scotland for the Glastonbury Music Festival (which she’s performing at). We then see Ke$ha give interviews to BBC radio in full blown glitter and makeup (which cannot possibly be comfortable). Ke$ha then has a meet and greet with the fans, including a particularly intense moment in Manchester where a fan wrote a letter about being bullied which she then read on the spot.

As a piece of art, My Crazy Beautiful Life comes together excellently as it darts between Ke$ha the performer, and Kesha the person. It’s not afraid to drag you into moments that seem like they would be incredibly awkward (case in point: the awkward limo drive by Harold’s house). Similarly, you quickly gain the impression that there’s a lot of inherent confidence and wildness in that glitter, because it’s often in those moments where she’s without the make-up that we start to see that so much of what makes Ke$ha, well, Ke$ha is becoming the mask to hide what’s a pretty emotionally bruised twenty-something.

The show as a whole is slick and well shot, but also is very heavily padded. We see at least three long concert montages in a show with a 22 minute run time. This is a shame, because Ke$ha the person seems fairly complex, with a mix of insecurity, raw honesty, and just enough of her stage persona to keep the proceedings interesting. Similarly I wish that the show had spent a little more time elaborating on her back story, as it was glossed over in the span of about 30 seconds and would have given a little more power to those human moments that start hitting you from minute one.

The Final Verdict: I was pleasantly surprised with Ke$ha: My Beautiful Crazy Life. I went in expecting that the show would be given the full MTV treatment – a booze fueled romp of glitz and glamour not too far removed from most of their hit programming the last decade. Instead, I got a show that actually lived up to it’s hype and is a fairly gripping documentary with what has to be the most music content a show on MTV has had in years. While I think the series probably would have been better served as a feature length documentary, it’s definitely worth checking out if you need something to watch at 11pm on a Tuesday.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Recap: Order in the Courtroom, Hunties

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rupauls-drag-race-season-5-guest-judgesBackstage, the girls are chit-chatting about Detox leaving. There’s some banter and Detox has left a personal note for both Alaska and Roxxxy. Either because she’s a lot more of a bitch then she lets on, or because of producer meddling, she doesn’t leave a note for Jinkx. The high school bullshit will continue from there, folks, just a warning. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Recap: Order in the Courtroom, Hunties

What Would Ryan Lochte Do?: Take a Page from Jersey Shore Apparently

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Ryan Lochte (Source: E! Online)
Ryan Lochte (Source: E! Online)

What Would Ryan Lochte Do? Sundays, 10pm on E!

The celebrity driven reality show is an interesting animal. This is because whereas most of the genre gives some degree of free will towards whom it designates as its’ heroes and its’ villains, the celebrity-centric shows (think Keeping Up with the Kardashians) are closer in nature to glorified publicity pieces. As a result, what you get is very little reality (or even “reality”) and more a glorified 30 minute infomercial that pushes whatever brand that celebrity is marketing (this brand doesn’t necessarily have to be positive, as a case in point see The Simple Life). This week we get to delve into the sub-genre a little more deeply, with the debuts of celebrity driven shows My Beautiful Crazy Life and last night’s What Would Ryan Lochte Do?.

What Would Ryan Lochte Do? (from here on out WWRLD?) follows Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, his family, and his personal assistant Gene as he goes forth to pursue swimming, acting, endorsements, entrepreneurship, and the rigors of being famous for the sake of being famous. Additionally, the show shines a spotlight on the single Lochte’s search for love and family life, as his mother and siblings are all considered part of the show’s core cast.

We open on Lochte gushing about some shoes he designed. Within five seconds we learn how articulate our star really is, as he stumbles his way through an interview about the “Lochte Edge”, even being taken slightly aback at the question. However, we then get our first glimpse into the life of Lochte, with the bulk of the first half of the show devoted to partying and watching him awkwardly hit on females at his house and the club.

We’re then inroduced to the rest of Ryan’s family at a bowling event on a Monday afternoon. Ryan definitely takes a puckish streak, while his older sister Kristin plays mother hen and harasses him about his love life. This then leads us to Ryan preparing for a date with Megan, one of the girls he was awkwardly hitting on in the club. After discovering the girl is leaving for Los Angeles a week later (the show is set in Gainesville, known entirely as the home of the University of Florida), he decides that the long term picture is bleak and to not go further with the relationship (in a weird instance of a TV show telling instead of showing).

I want to hate this show so badly, but the truth is you can’t look away. Much like those early seasons of Jersey Shore, the show has a solid yen for peppering in large amounts of vulgarity (Ryan’s mouth gets pixelated out at least five times in our premiere) and a tendency for things to comically go bust (in this case Ryan’s football and bowling exploits). In this case, many of our interesting scenarios come as the end result of Ryan’s oversized ego, whether its making a bet and losing to younger brother Devon, his sister’s prodding him about taking girls’ out to a sushi place after Ryan makes the claim “all girls love sushi”, or worst yet, referring to himself in the third person in interviews.

Speaking of the interviews, I’m surprised to the degree that they let Ryan stumble his way through them. That being said, those awkward interviews are the highlight of the show, as Lochte’s responses to the questions being posed are often side-splittingly funny, if only due to a stunning lack of self-awareness. The editing does Ryan no favors either, as when he couldn’t recall what Megan looked like before her date, the scene flashed back to the night at the bar with a close-up of Megan’s chest, implying that was the only thing Lochte could recall.

The Final Verdict: As I mentioned above, WWLRD? has a vibe that feels not too far removed from Jersey Shore. A large part of this is due to the fact that Lochte’s frat boy nature, fairly large ego, and lack of discernible public speaking skills make him a dead ringer for The Situation. That being said, in between those moments of incredible ego you see a truly likable protagonist for a show of this ilk as he is generally good to the people around him. The editors in turn play this cartoonishness up, while playing the drama down, allowing for a brisk 30 minutes where there the stakes are low and you’re compelled to see how Lochte puts his foot in his mouth this time. If you’re into shows of that ilk, you’ll love What Would Ryan Lochte Do?, and it’s probably worth checking out otherwise just to get a peek into the mind of an Olympic Athlete whose show seems like the perfect mixture of every psuedo-reality show that MTV has released with a twenty-something male emphasis over the past decade.