FX

Partners On FX Is Severely Lacking

Partners: Mondays at 9 Eastern on FX

FX has made a number of bold and interesting moves over the past few years – they focused on expanding their comedy division and had strong successes with Louie, Archer, and The League. Two years later, they laid the groundwork for a split into three networks: the FX we all know and love, comedy-centric FXX, and the movie channel FXM. Lately, the network has been an aggressive participant in the event series trend, with limited run series like the various seasons of American Horror Story and Fargo. However, they pay for all of these gambles from a trick they learned on one of their least critically acclaimed shows in the form of Anger Management, where they started using a 10 episode first season and 90 episode second season model to bring in top name stars for their newer shows, like they do with Monday’s new debut Partners.

Partners stars Kelsey Grammar and Martin Lawrence as two attorneys who start a legal partnership at their respective nadirs. Grammar’s character, Alan Braddock, is a hotshot attorney who just got fired from the family business and is making money doing some horrifically unethical legal work. Lawrence’s character, Marcus Jackson, on the other hand, is battling a divorce and has much of his work being performed pro-bono for baked goods. When the court forces the two to work together, they form a partnership in an attempt to be profitable and ethical something neither has completely grasped.

Partners is ultimately a mess. It’s pilot is an origin story that feels thrown together, with it’s points being held together with the absolute minimum of internal logic. The end result, is a story that feels not only rushed, but nonsensical at points due to the wild jumps of logic that the show makes. Furthermore, this show about lawyers seems to take a long detour into Braddock and Jackson being private investigators (while their assistants do seemingly nothing) at least once during every episode. Add in some tacked on family subplots by giving Braddock an unnecessary daughter and you have an incoherent plot soup.

Worse than that, much of Partners feels incredibly tired. Many of the the jokes feel like a raunchier version of something out of a 90’s sitcom (which is no surprise when you consider the showrunner is Robert Boyett whose mostly known for ABC’s TGIF block). This tiredness extends out to much of the line delivery, which for Lawrence especially feels flat and uninspired, as if it’s clear he took the script for the paycheck.

The one bright spot on the show is Grammar-himself, who keeps the same Grammar-esque pomposity and tone adds a little bit of the levity to the shows delivery. While normally I’m not a fan of someone hamming up on a sitcom, here it’s necessary if only to breathe life into the otherwise dull proceedings. Unfortunately, however, even that one bright spot is but a tiny shrub in the path of the awful tornado that Partners ultimately is.

The Final Verdict: The latest 10-90 experiment by FX, I would be surprised if Partners makes a second season. It mixes tired jokes, incoherent plotting, and mostly uninspired acting into what feels like an interminable 22 minutes. Skip this one, FX doesn’t misfire often, but Partners is a complete dud.

The Strain Is A Virus Stuck In A Useless Host

by Michael Tyminski

The Strain: Sundays at 10 Eastern on FX

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a ton of fantasy and horror on the airwaves – NBC has found a Friday night niche running out shows like Dracula, Hannibal, and Grimm. AMC scored a huge hit with The Walking Dead (which will be it’s last major tentpole standing after Mad Men leaves the air next year). HBO has found strong success off of shows like Game of Thrones and True Blood. Even Showtime has entered the fantasy game with Penny Dreadful. Now FX, which has made it’s name in drama off of gritty realistic dramas like The Shield, The Americans, Sons of Anarchy and Justified is getting into the supernatural game with The Strain.

The Strain, the brainchild of film director Guillermo Del Toro, follows the CDC Canary Team, a unit designated to handle to some of the world’s worst viral outbreaks. This time around, however, the outbreak is a virus that afflicts it’s hosts with an ancient strain of vampirism. As a result, Canary Team member Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) assembles a rag-tag army of New Yorkers to fight the vampires in a war that will determine the fate of humanity.

Let’s start with the positives: when The Strain wants to scare the pants off of you, it’s going to scare the pants off of you. This is particularly notable in the slower early portions of the pilot, where the episode lulls you into a false sense of security before using it’s jump scares judiciously. The show also manages to give off a couple of solid gore scares along the way for good measure, as you expect from a show that gives you large numbers of dead and undead bodies floating around at all times.

Unfortunately, those crystallized horror moments are lost in a bloated pilot. As is typical for FX, The Strain‘s premiere clocks in at around 100 minutes. Unfortunately, the pilot squanders most of it’s first half setting up awkward romance and divorce plots for Goodweather that feel tacked onto the show’s ultimate premise of good vs. evil. What makes these bloated moments particularly damning though, is that these moments don’t actually make me care about Goodweather (or any of the protagonists for that matter).

The flatness of the writing unfortunately extends out to much of the show, including the acting. It often seems like the actors are sleepwalking through their lines, even though the only characters with lines so far are the living ones. Similarly, while many horror movies tend to have their fun little moments (often when an undesirable character gets theirs), The Strain exists on being drab everywhere – even plucky moments where Goodweather and assistant Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) are exchanging what one would assume would be banter are completely devoid of punchiness.

The Final Verdict: There’s a good show waiting in The Strain if it just cut out all the fat and focused on the primary plotline. Unfortunately, with the amount of filler in the show, it’s going to take a lot more than diet and exercise to slim down what felt like a grossly bloated pilot. I’d skip this one or wait until the season’s closer to over before looking at it– Sundays at 10 are prime real estate for dramas and this one has to be the weakest new offering in that time slot.

Fargo is Superbly Acted

by Michael Tyminski

Fargo: Tuesdays at 10 Eastern on FX

Every year there seems to be one macro-level trend that every network on the dial jumps on at the same time. Last year, for example, that theme was serial killers, spawning The Following, Cult, Bates Motel, and (the strictly superior) Hannibal. This year, we’ve seen some subthemes with hostage crises (Hostages, Crisis), and spy work (Intelligence, The Assets). The real trend sticking through this year however, is to spin older movies into shiny new TV shows. NBC is trying it with Rosemary’s Baby, CBS is launching Bad Teacher next Thursday (I’ll have the review for you here), and FX is attempting the same feat with Fargo.

Fargo, loosely based on the Coen brothers picture of the same name, is built around the small town of Bemidji being thrown into upheaval when Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) comes into town who changes the life of local insurance salesman Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman). From here the show spins into the crime drama and black comedy roots of the original film, following not only Lorne and Lester, but the local Bemidji police force.

So how is this new Fargo? Well at a minimum, you can say the series starts with a bang, with the body count inching upwards from minute one. The show probably does well to instead do away with recounting the old story and moving towards a new, but parallel track. The superficial aspects are still present: the bitter cold, those upper-midwestern accents, a seeming commitment to niceness (unless someone’s talking to Lester, in which case the niceness tends to take that facetious “bless your heart” sort of tone), but anyone looking for familiar characters are not bound to find them. Unfortunately, if there is one knock with the series, it’s that it feels a little hollow at points (and also possibly the result of FX showing extended cut pilots for many of their drama debuts).

If you’re looking for the quirky, midwestern, homespun brand of dark comedy, you will find it in this Fargo as well. Often the humor is found in the spaces between the action, such as when Molly gossips to her local coffee shop owner about one of the murders just as her boss is walking in. Similarly, any time Lorne is forced to interact with teenagers, we are bound to get a comedic scene of him talking someone into mischief (or worse) while preying on the stupidity that tends to accompany kids of that age.

The show is superbly acted. Billy Bob Thornton is amazing as Lorne, a ruthless drifter who Thornton plays as if he is the devil himself. However, the real gem of Fargo is Martin Freeman, whose Lester is constantly pushed over the edge during the course of the pilot, gradually moving from bullying victim, to snapping on his brother, to putting out a hit on his bully, to much, much, worse. We also get strong acting from the supporting cast all around, including Alison Tollman, who plays Bemidji police officer Molly Solverson.

The Final Verdict: Fargo is the sort of show that’s in a weird place: if you view it as a watered down version of the film, you will probably talk yourself into not liking it. However, there actually is a lot to like, even if the show doesn’t truly transcend or break new ground (If I may steal an analogy from figure skating for a minute, the technical score would be considerably higher than the artistic score). I would still recommend checking this out if only for the particularly strong acting.

Emmy Nominations Are In: What Do They Say About the Big Picture in TV?

by Michael Tyminski

This morning, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences released its’ list of nominees for the 2013 Primetime Emmy Awards. With the list of nominees, we can take away some conclusions about the state of television over the past year.

Netflix’s original programming model is for real: Amid the nominations, we see a handful of nominations for Netflix Originals Arrested Development and House of Cards. House of Cards seems to hold a slightly higher position on the totem pole, scoring nominations for both Kevin Spacey for best actor as well as a best drama nod for the show itself. Arrested Development received a best actor nomination for Jason Bateman to add to Netflix’s prestige. The network which started releasing original shows in February is off to a good start critically (as well as commercially, as proven by the rumors of a pushed season 5 for Arrested Development).

The major networks did not have a strong year: Many of the major categories this year seem to be dominated by the cable networks and premium channels such as Showtime and HBO. While this doesn’t surprise me (the only strong drama for the big four this season was Hannibal and barely half the season was over by the May 31^st cut-off date). This trend is particularly strong on the drama side of the ledger, where the only broadcast show being considered for best drama is PBS’s Downton Abbey. On the comedy side, the trend is slightly less harsh, but mostly due to the heaping of praise the Academy has placed on 30 Rock’s final season. There is however, one show on the major networks that is standing up against this wave of cable dominance, because…

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences really likes Modern Family: If there was one scripted show on network TV that the Academy has fallen in love with, it’s Modern Family, which has become a master-class for domestic comedies and props up a successful night for ABC. The show has a large number of nominations spread across a variety of categories including best comedy, best supporting actor (with three nominations there), best supporting actress, best writing for a comedy, and best directing for a comedy.

After a few down years, HBO is back and carried on a mix of younger shows and miniseries: After struggling around the end of the last decade, HBO has taken back it’s role as the main home to high quality television. The academy heaped praise upon sophomore comedies Veep and Girls, as well as third-season drama Game of Thrones. Similarly, it’s Liberace feature Behind the Candelabra has received a large amount of attention from the Academy, scoring 15 nominations.

Finally, the Academy did not forget Louie, in spite of skipping a season and airing at the very beginning of this year’s broadcast window: It may have been airing at this time last year (the Emmy window goes from June to May, unlike many other awards), but last year’s transcendent and critically adored second season of Louie has received a large number of nominations in almost every category that the show could qualify for (added bonus for Louis C.K. Also getting a best guest actor nomination for his hosting gig on Saturday Night Live). It’s nice to see, because while it seems that many movies begging for Oscar nods try to crowd into the end of the Oscar window, that the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences didn’t forget a show that could have easily escaped public consciousness over the year.

This years 65^th Annual Emmy Awards are on Sunday September 22^nd at 8 p.m. on CBS. I’ll be here covering the show that night in the same breezy rapid-fire style that I used to cover the Oscars and Grammys.

The full list of Emmy nominations can be found here: http://www.emmys.com/nominations

The Bridge May Not Be The Wire, But It’s Still Worth Crossing

by Michael Tyminski

The Bridge: Wednesdays at 10 p.m. Eastern Time on FX

There was a time when HBO’s drama suite always had room for the sort of show that tackled contemporary issues in a thought-provoking and realistic manner, such as Oz, and The Wire. However, while HBO has managed to build it’s ratings back on more fantastical shows such as Game of Thrones and True Blood, FX has quickly taken the mantle over for these gritty, contemporary shows, with Rescue Me, Justified, and tonight’s show: The Bridge.

The Bridge tracks the story of two cops, the American Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger) and the Mexican Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir) as they try to track a serial killer operating in both countries. Along the way, they must deal with the numerous problems that plague the border, including drug cartels, prostitution, political corruption and other minefields.

The strength of this show lies in its’ characters, and particularly it’s leads. Sonya Cross’s by-the-book cop is made extremely aloof (to the point where it’s debatable whether the character has Asperger’s) in nature in order to bring the trope to it’s logical extreme (as very little seems to emotionally sway her from cold detached logic). Meanwhile, Marco Ruiz is built to be a perfect counterpoint, a warm, pragmatic cop whose experience in Juarez tells him that sometimes the book needs to be thrown out in extreme circumstances. It’s in those moments where these characters are required to establish their respective quirks (Sonya’s awkward questioning of both the judge’s husband and the reporter stuck in a bomb laden car and Ruiz’s going to the “Captain” to get clearance to look into the case) that the writing shines most.

Of course, both characters are just subtle enough that they require strong acting to carry their nuances onto the screen. Diane Kruger does a superb job stripping Sonya of her empathy, while making sure to leave enough room to be emotionally broken when she finds out her lieutenant is eyeing retirement. Demian Bichir, however, steals the show with his incredibly charismatic approach to Ruiz, who gets to have lighter, wittier exchanges in many of his scenes. The supporting cast also holds their weight well, with performances that are generally strong all around.

I also appreciate the show’s fearlessness in pushing the theme of double standards and divides in numerous ways: our initial act, the reporter’s reaction to the crime wave in Juarez, the message from the “bomb” in his car. The most interesting use of this divide, however, is in the shows fearless use of Spanish (and subtitles) for most of the scenes in Juarez, implying an even further contrast from what’s happening on the US side of the border.

If there was any issue I had with The Bridge, it’s that the extended pilot is a little bloated at points. This feels particularly true in laying the roots for our B-stories, particularly the one spurring from the man with the heart-attack, as the ensuing scenes didn’t say particularly much, and felt lost in between the scenes that exist to reinforce the Cross-Ruiz dynamic.

The Final Verdict: The Bridge is the sort of show that has the potential for greatness, but after the extended pilot, I’m not entirely certain how far the show will pull back from its’ central storyline. However, even if the show does not reach The Wire-like heights, there is enough good just from the shows central pairing to make it worth watching. Hopefully as the episodes are cut down to 44 minutes in length, some of the fat will be cut out and the end result will be the pantheon level show FX is hoping for it to be. At the minimum it’s worth checking out, but on a quiet night for summer programming, it’s probably appointment viewing.

FX Announces it’s Threefold Expansion at Upfronts

by Michael Tyminski

Today is the beginning of upfront season, that magical time where networks make big announcements about the future of their channels in addition to what shiny new shows will hit your airwaves in the fall and what shiny old shows will get more episodes in the upcoming year.

According to Broadcast and Cable, the big news from FX is that it will expand from one channel into three. FX will continue to market to its’ 18 to 49 year old demographic, while launching spin-off channels to target both the older and younger portion of those markets. FXX (which will replace the current Fox Soccer Channel) will target younger audiences, with a focus on raunchier comedies such as The League. This network will launch in September. FXM meanwhile, will target the older viewers in the 25 to 54 year old bracket, and will focus on a robust set of movie and miniseries offerings.

The network will also have the shows to fill these precious programming hours by renewing hit series such as It’s Always Sunny, The League, Justified, Legit and Sons of Anarchy (Archer received a fifth season earlier this month as well), but also with a bevy of acquired syndicated programming including CBS’ Mike and Molly, How I Met Your Mother, to prop up the finances for its’ more critically acclaimed original programming. Particularly notable is FX’s increased willingness to get into the late night game, expanding Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell to five nights a week.

FX president John Landgraf also announced some new series such as one based on the film Fargo (the Coen brothers are confirmed to be involved on the project) and Guillermo Del’ Toro’s The Strain. FX anticipates rotating 25 original series (which is roughly the same amount of programming as the big four networks provide) through the three networks during a given year.

This decision shows the burgeoning strength of FX in the basic cable market, with only USA as a credible rival on that tier. The three channel plan almost makes the network closer in nature to the premium channel layouts of HBO, Showtime, or Starz, where multiple networks under the same branding is commonplace. Furthermore, FX’s track record has been incredibly strong over the past few years (the only flop in recent memory was Unsupervised), so expanding the network to provide more quality programming is welcomed by yours truly in the hopes that I can even further reduce the number of reality shows I have to review. It also brings FX into line with a current trend in cable, where networks tend to focus on comedy or drama but not both (as an example TBS and TNT went all comedy and drama respectively to further delineate their brands, and even a broader channel like USA tends to lean much more heavily towards drama). The massive roster of top tier talent that they are assembling for this expansion further increases the odds for success. Finally, this feels like a huge corporate coup for News Corp. as a whole, as it can turn two flailing networks (SPEED and Fox Soccer Channel) into two potentially successful networks (in Fox Sports One and FXX).

The Americans Thrives with Thrills and Subtlety

by Michael Tyminski

The Americans 10:00pm Eastern Time, FX

It takes a lot these days to truly blow me away from a pilot. I’m typically the sort of person who believes that the first episode displays what a given show can become, but often is not executed to a degree where that promise is actualized. However, the first episode of The Americans last night managed to completely blow me away.

The show loosely follows both the un-american activities and family life of two sleeper agents in America: Elizabeth (Kerri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys). Their “jobs” are a sham, their marriage was dictated by their Soviet overlords, and they exist to handle missions for the KGB while living comfortably in suburban Virginia. However, they must balance this while entirely withholding the truth from their neighbors, including a recently relocated FBI agent named Stan Beemer (played by Noah Emmerich) and even their own children.

What I truly enjoy about this show is that it reminds me a lot of Mad Men in that it’s a fairly subtle period piece that truly enjoys exploring the notion of identity. This tension is particularly palpable in the scenes where Philip and Elizabeth are discussing what to do with General Timoshev, a Russian defector whom they kidnapped from his apartment in Washington. Elizabeth remains steadfast in her resolve to serve the motherland, but also would like to off him because of some improprieties he took with her back in training, while Peter seriously considers his offer of defecting under the guise that they have been living this “American” life for half of their lives and that with young children they should consider taking the money and living a more stable life.

Another small positive for the Americans was the amount of detail they put into making the show look and feel like the early 1980’s, whether it be the cheesy wigs used for spycraft (that gave me flashbacks to the music video for “Sabotage”), the use of music (the show makes incredible use of both Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” and Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”), down to even the automobiles (my dad owned a boxy ’77 Cutless Supreme when I was a kid that looked not too far off from the sedan that proves to play a fairly central role in the plot).

The show, while positioned as a serious drama also likes to inject little funny moments into the show to break the tension, be it a seemingly pasted on scene (last night’s showing was an extended version of the pilot) where Philip just starts randomly dancing in the mall, while taking his daughter shopping, or the way that the FBI claims that President Reagan is trying to break them down with 7am meetings.

Where there was action in the pilot (most notably the first ten minutes, where Philip, Elizabeth, and one of their comrades kidnap General Timoshev) the action was tight, well executed and tense, especially once you come to the realization (and it took me a couple of minutes to get to this point) that these are not immigration officers checking on a random Russian, but rather the wholesale kidnapping of a Russian ex-pat.

One aspect that initially grated on me until it clicked, was that most of the action was shot in the dark (to the point where it was almost difficult to see). However, once I came to the (delayed) realization that the entirety of the spy aspects of the show occurred at night and most of the family drama during the day, it made it slightly easier for me to take. The other minor issue I had with the pilot was that it felt bloated at points (as much as I loved the scene where Philip maims the sleazebag who was making moves on his thirteen year old daughter, it felt pasted on and I can’t imagine that the scene made the 44-minute cut)

The Final Verdict: The Americans is a gripping thrill-ride of a show that grabs on to your attention and never lets go. While this version of the pilot felt a little bloated at points (it ran 90 minutes instead of the usual 60), it had the vibe of both a blockbuster action thriller and a subtle period piece all rolled up into one. This show is easily finding it’s way into my regular viewing, and it should really make it’s way into yours. Give it a shot, you won’t be disappointed.

Legit is dark, funny, honest and excellent

by Michael Tyminski

Legit: Thursdays at 10:30 Eastern on FX

Over the last few years, one of FX’s strongest suits has been the lowbrow comedy about flawed people, whether it be the remorseless gang of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the maladjusted spies at ISIS in Archer, or the failed lawyer who gets high with a dog in Wilfred. Their new series Legit is a perfect fit in this mold.

Legit follows Jim Jefferies (in his stand-up persona), a stand-up comedian who is known for immaturity and for generally being an all around jerk as he tries to become more “legit” in the eyes of his mother. He is aided in his task by his best friend Steve (Dan Bakkedahl –the name may be unfamiliar, but he has had guest runs on shows ranging from Community to Veep to 30 Rock) whom has a considerably straighter moral compass than Jim and recommends that Jim do good things for people as a way to become “legit”.

When Jeffries’ gets a call from Steve’s younger brother Billy (who has muscular dystrophy and is confined to a wheelchair), the show’s plot wheels begin to turn in motion. Billy’s major concern in life at the start of the show is that he has yet to have sex and begs Jeff to take him to a hooker. This leads to a debauchery laden road trip that sets the overall tone for the series (and leads to the events of the next episode).

The second episode, “Dreams” picks up where the first one left off, with Jim and Steve off to break Billy out of his rest home but being saddled with his roommate, a developmentally disabled dwarf named Rodney (who drives a hard bargain and is really good at Wii Bowling) for a night of hard partying that leads to, Billy’s eviction and the return of Steve’s overbearing mother (and the clear fore-runner for Jim’s sitcom nemesis) Janice (played by Mindy Sterling) who insists on being the caretaker for Billy now that he can no longer be in the rest home.

The show as a whole is fearlessly raunchy, with two large benders in the first two episodes (in the form of the road trip in the pilot and a party off-screen in episode two), and features a very take-no-prisoners approach to its’ humor (if you’re not comfortable about a man in a wheelchair tripping out and being surprised at the notion that “he can’t feel his legs” this show is not going to be for you and you probably should disregard this review).

Where this show truly succeeds is in those heartwarming moments where Jim suddenly becomes a little less self-centered, be it when he hands a homeless man a five for listening to him ramble on about how dreams and goals make him miserable, trying to talk Billy out of killing himself after being forced to move in with his mother, or his genuine joy when Rodney gets a perfect game on Wii Bowling (even if the latter occurred while Steve was bugging out about returning Billy and Rodney to the rest home).

The Final Verdict: Legit clicks with me. It’s honest, it’s funny, it’s a little dark at times, but it fits perfectly into FX’s 10:00 PM Thursday comedy hour that has been home to some of the funniest comedy on television (and Unsupervised) over the past three years. It’s particularly strong at reaching both the most cringe-worthy of lows, and yet still succeeds in creating heartwarming moments. This will likely be part of my regular viewing (it’s lead in Archer has been for me since day one) and I look forward to how this twisted redemption tale plays out.

FX

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