Many Happy Returns

Many Happy Returns: House of Cards

House of Cards Season 2 releases on Netflix this Friday, February 14^th.

I’ll be the first to admit that I loathe Valentine’s Day with a burning passion (probably as an effect of being perpetually single). This year, however, doesn’t seem as bad for me: two of my friends ended up in horrible relationship situations, it’s a Friday so I can always hit the bar, and most important of all it marks the return of Netflix’s hit series House of Cards.

Since we last left off: Storyline wise, season one of House of Cards left a ton of loose ends on the table. Frank Underwood had just accepted the position of Vice President with his plan for revenge just completed. His fixer, Doug Stamper, has a major mess on his hands, as young journalist (and former Underwood paramour) Zoe Barnes is looking to the last days of late congressman Peter Russo. Underwood’s wife Claire meanwhile, is facing a lawsuit from a disgruntled former employee who is not afraid to lie under oath in order to maintain her ideals. Based on Netflix’s official trailer, we should see follow through on all of these.

Many of the main principals remain on the cast, but the show also picks up some fresh blood (which will be necessary since we move from congress to the executive branches). The most notable addition is Molly Parker as congresswoman Jacqueline Sharp, a California representative whom Underwood taps for his old seat as House Majority Whip.

More importantly than what is going on inside the universe of House of Cards is the macro-level effect that it, along with season four of Arrested Development and surprise hit Orange is the New Black had for Netflix and the future of the TV industry as a whole. I’ve touched numerous times on how critical those three series were to establishing the expansion and credibility of web-based distribution (and how they are the future of television as we know it), but House of Cards in particular has brought the bulk of prestige with Kevin Spacey being nominated multiple times for Best Actor in a Drama Series (for his portrayal of Frank Underwood) while Robin Wright scored a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her work as Claire. Netflix in turn showed the series a vote of confidence by green lighting not only this second season, but a third to debut in 2015.

What I’m Looking Forward To: Having gotten a chance to watch the first season recently, I’m looking forward to seeing what curve balls the vice-presidency throws Underwood. The tension between President Walker and Vice President Matthews is pretty common for the executive branch (one can argue that if there’s a VP whose gotten sidelined more than Matthews it’s probably Joe Biden). One can only imagine that a Walker-Underwood administration may end up looking more like the Kennedy-Johnson ticket (as Underwood is built very much on Johnson’s mannerisms).

Additionally, House of Cards is the sort of show where the whole tends to be greater than sum of all parts and works best when all of the plots intersect. It should be interesting to see if Barnes, Sikorsky, and Lucas are capable of mowing through a maze that Underwood and Stamp keep adding walls to second-by-second, while Claire works to trap those suing her (a suit that ultimately finds it root in Frank’s machinations that affect Claire’s nonprofit) in their own lies.

What I’m a little worried about: One of the things I truly liked about House of Cards was how subtle it could be. The tail end of season one started to get a little loopier and more drastic, starting with Russo’s murder and getting even more so as the investigation wore on. I’m a little worried that the second season could double down on the craziness, particularly with the journalists, who seem to be the ones often thrown into ridiculous story lines involving fake prostitution stings, trysts with colleagues and barging into offices.

Next Week: There’s still another week of the Olympics in Sochi before TV premieres pick back up again, so my series looking in at the major networks at mid-season will continue.

Many Happy Returns: The Sing-Off

by Michael Tyminski

The Sing-Off: Premeires December 9^th at 9:00 pm on NBC

Since we last saw The Sing-Off: A little over two years has passed between seasons of The Sing-Off, as NBC benched the show for the 2012-13 season in favor of trying to capitalize on breakout show The Voice‘s success, eating The Sing-Off’s fall spot in the rotation to run two seasons a year. This year, NBC brings the show back in it’s original holiday spot running seven episodes over two weeks.

Personally, I was surprised at the benching. The Sing-Off had just stumbled upon the sort of act that seemed incredibly fresh in it’s season three champions: Pentatonix. The five piece outlet had week-in and week-out consistently broken new ground for the a-capella genre with their original and often transcendent takes on classic songs. This has led to multiple successful concert tours, appearances across the dial (they just appeared on Ellen a few weeks ago), and an incredibly strong presence on YouTube garnering thousands of hits with every new video they released.

We also see many of the older faces return, including host Nick Lachey and judges Ben Folds and Sean Stockman. For the third straight season, however, we will see a new judge in the center seat as Jewel replaces Sara Bareilles on the panel.

One area that does however seem much different from two years ago is the landscape for competition shows. With the exception of The Voice, the competition show is starting to die off across the board, with even venerable juggernauts such as Dancing with the Stars and American Idol starting to feel the pain of cutbacks this year. I think the Sing-Off will need to pull some surprisingly strong ratings if it wants to see a fifth season, although the cut back to seven episodes should help the show maintain the high level of competition necessary for the show to succeed.

What I’m Looking Forward To: We’ve had two years of post-Pentatonix simmering. It should be interesting to see what direction this years groups take, as both PTX and Urban Method got as far as they did on ambition as much as execution. The smaller field should also theoretically mean a stronger field, which is essential because The Sing-Off is always a better show when every group is slaying it out there (as opposed to say American Idol, where half the fun is in watching people crash and burn their way through auditions. When you add in the fact the show should get a Voice bump, this is the best chance the show has ever had to vindicate itself in the eyes of viewers.

What Worries Me: Part of what made The Sing-Off work so well was that it knew what it was, and that was that it was the competition show worth watching if you actually were into music (I’m pretty sure every PTX live audience would make for a killer choir group). While part of that was the high caliber of the contestants (they routinely pulled from the best of college with some small time groups as well), a lot of it also came from Bareilles being the perfect mix for the middle seat, bringing not only enthusiasm, but some pointed criticism as need be. Jewel takes over for Bareilles, and until we what she brings to the judges’ table, I’ll fear the Nicole Scherzinger level worst. The other thing that worries me is that we had an insanely strong talent pool for season three (the super group composed of the best of seasons 1 and 2 finished sixth), so obviously a weaker pool will be pretty disappointing.

Many Happy Returns: Whose Line Is It Anyway

by Michael Tyminski

From L to R: Ryan Stiles, Aisha Tyler, Colin Mochrie, Wayne Brady

Whose Line is it Anyway?: Tuesdays at 8p.m. Eastern on the CW

2013 has been an interesting year in terms of canceled shows getting dragged out of the mothballs. Arrested Development made it’s return on Netflix, Cougar Town found second life on TBS, NBC found room to resuscitate The Sing-Off after a year away, and even 24 is getting a handful of new episodes in as the paradigms of terror and security change around us. The most surprising return of the bunch, however, was CW picking up Whose Line is it Anyway?

Whose Line is it Anyway? introduced short form improv to the broadcast airwaves 15 years ago when it debuted as a limited run summer on ABC. The show ended up becoming a surprise hit, launching the career of Wayne Brady, solidifying Carey’s role as both ABC’s headliner and future game show host (of CBS’s The Power of 10 and his current gig on The Price is Right), and introducing Colin Mochrie and Greg Proops to mainstream American audiences. This incarnation had a respectable seven year run followed by a lengthy second run on ABC Family.

The new version looks to hold pretty true to the format of the prior series: a series of short improvised games where the points don’t matter and winner gets the prestigious responsibility of reading the credits in the style of the host’s choosing. Additionally, we get the returns of regular panelists Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady to anchor every episode, a smart call as those three (plus Brad Sherwood) were the true anchors of the ABC series. The fourth seat is held by a rotating panelist that will change every show.

Speaking of changes, the major change is in the host’s chair. Drew Carey will not be back to host this incarnation (maybe he got a little too expensive? I doubt it’s contract related seeing how fellow CBS host Brady appears in every episode). He will be placed by Aisha Tyler, who is no stranger to comedy (playing Agent Lana Kane on Archer and having a stint as host on E!’s Talk Soup). This feels like a fairly minor change, as the host plays a more minor role on Whose Line than on many other shows and should create interesting new dynamics for our cast.

Tuesdays and especially the 8 p.m. slot on that night have been pretty quiet this summer. While it’s mildly surprising that the CW would put this relaunch up against the opening of the MLB All-Star Game (at Citi Field, home of my beloved New York Mets even!), it’s in a great spot to thrive and works as safe, fairly guaranteed entertainment on a network that struggles with comedy.

Many Happy Returns: Arrested Development

by Michael Tyminski

Arrested Development Season 4: On Netflix starting Sunday, May 26 @ 12:01am Pacific Time

When we last left off: It was seven long years ago when Arrested Development was canceled by Fox and burned off as counter-programming to the opening of the 2006 Winter Olympics. In that time, the show picked up a rabid following on DVD (Arrested Development is probably the first show that truly benefited from the binge-watching model, as it allowed for call backs to be salient in the viewers mind instead of going dormant each week). Additionally, rumors for a potential movie ran rampant for a number of years, while many of the cast members moved on to pursue greater fame and a large number of projects, the most notable being Jason Bateman and Michael Cera’s ascensions to movie star leading man status. Finally, a little company called Netflix went from being a DVD by-mail company and grew into a streaming Goliath that decided to get into the process of making its’ own TV (such as the earlier Kevin Spacey vehicle House of Cards).

In terms of the show’s internal storyline, the third season finale “Development Arrested” closed off many of the show’s major plot arcs. All of the charges against George Sr. were ultimately dropped when it was discovered that the U.S. Government’s two CIA branches didn’t know what the other was doing. Michael once again got passed over for the CEO position, leading him to leave for Mexico with George Michael. Meanwhile, Maeby was busy trying to get the family to sign away their likenesses for the rights to her story while Lucille was trying to ensure that no one sold their company stocks.

The show however, left one new avenue open: While the charges were dropped against George, our finale had the SEC coming after Lucille, whom we had discovered had masterminded much of George’s fraud and embezzlement schemes in the first place. A second, and potentially interesting angle arose from the reveal of Lindsay being an adopted daughter, adopted by George and Lucille with the sole purpose of spiting Stan Sitwell.

What I’m looking forward to this season: First and foremost, it’s new Arrested Development! While I occasionally watched the show when it was on FOX, I became hooked when a friend lent me the full series on DVD when I was living at school. Since that time I usually binge watch the series about once a year, so the idea of new episodes excites me!

To me, the most interesting part about this season is that whereas the original series was very strongly serialized and in chronological order, the events of this season will occur simultaneously, almost making the season feel like one jumbo sized episode when viewed holistically. While creator Mitchell Hurwitz feels the first run-through of the new season should be in run order, he envisions later viewings being akin to a choose-your-own-adventure style TV series, where people jump from one episode to another in order to see all the intersecting lines.

What I’m concerned about: One word: expectations. The expectations for this show’s return are at a fever pitch considering the fan outcry for new material for a number of years, and I wonder if expectations are going to be so high that no matter how amazing season 4 ends up (and trailers are indicating I won’t be moving from my couch this weekend) that it won’t stack up to all of the expectations.

I should be back with a review of the first two or three episodes of the new season either Monday or Tuesday. Enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend everyone!

Many Happy Returns: Community

by Michael Tyminski

Community: Thursdays at 8pm Eastern on NBC

Since we last saw Community: A ton has happened in the last 9 months since any new Community last showed new episodes. Community was narrowly re-upped for a fourth season. The show’s creator was unceremoniously canned due to budget issues with Sony, Chevy Chase got really mad for a bunch of reasons, the show was moved to Friday (to be paired with Whitney…ewwww) only for that move to be rescinded when the Peacock had a disastrous developmental season left too few shows to be called up from the bench. As a result, the show was pushed back to spring, which is perfectly acceptable to me as it means that we will be replacing one of my least favorite holidays (Valentine’s Day) with one of my most favorite holidays (Halloween). Finally, Barack Obama was reelected president and the Manhattan Digest was created.

Oh wait, that section was supposed to be a recap of what happened on the show to catch people up? Ok. So when we last left off, the Greendale Seven had just saved the school from Chang, who had taken over the school in pure Napoleonic fashion after installing an imposter dean and kidnapping the real dean. A few months later, Jeff was forced to choose between his career and his newly found friendship when Shirley and Pierce struggle to determine who would run their new sandwich shop. Troy saved the air conditioning school and moved into the room that was formerly the Dreamatorium. Finally Britta was giving Abed therapy, which almost led to Evil Abed trying to recreate the darkest time line by being generally evil.

Our season premiere looks to revolve around two key points. First and foremost, the Dean has a limited number of tickets to a course titled “The History of Ice Cream”, which in true Greendale fashion leads to a Hunger Games style campus-wide fight for those precious few tickets. Additionally, we learn that last year’s beloved dictator Chang has acquired a case of amnesia, meaning that he has completely forgotten about his psychotic reign of terror last year (though hopefully he hasn’t forgotten how to play the Key-tar).

What I’m looking forward to: One of the things that last season finale did well was leave a number of plot threads open for season four while leaving an ending that would not be a complete let down in the case of cancellation. We should finally meet Jeff’s dad this season, which I’m awaiting with baited breath as Jeff’s daddy issues played a large role in season 3. Finally, even without a fifth season renewal, season four seems like a natural closing point to the story about college, so the absolute worst case scenario is the story reaches what would be it’s natural conclusion.

What I’m not looking forward to: No new episodes after may? A possible change in tone in an attempt to “broaden” the show under Sony’s behest? Whatever line it was that made Chevy Chase blow up midseason? This topic is pretty difficult for me as Community is easily one of my favorite shows on the dial and I am way too happy to see it return (hence the column title: Many Happy Returns). However, knowing the creative tour de force that is Dan Harmon (and if you haven’t checked out his podcast Harmontown I strongly recommend it) is gone, the show could lose some of the intricacy that was it’s hallmark over the last two seasons.

Many Happy Returns

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