TV reviews

Arrested Development Is Back And As Good As Ever

Arrested Development: Now on Netflix

It’s back. Arrested Development received its’ full-blown Netflix release Sunday morning. Being the first Netflix style whole-season dump release I’ve had to review I took the moment to ask myself: How am I going to handle this? Ultimately I decided that rather than use an excessively narrow reference frame of one episode, or binge watching the full season, I’d watch three or four episodes and take it from there. Additionally, because it isn’t a new series, I’d hone my opinions onto mostly what’s new and different. If you need some background before watching the series, I’d recommend checking out my Many Happy Returns column on the show before reading this review.

So….in a broad context, where are we? Seven years after the arrest of Lucille Bluth, we find out that she somehow gets off of the SEC charges but is instead being charged under maritime law. Michael is in dire straits after Sudden Valley turns into a huge disaster when there are no roads placed in relation to the house. Lindsay and Tobias are well…Lindsay and Tobias, and George Michael is away at college.

Otherwise? You know…it’s the story about the family who lost it all and the son who has to keep them all together.

That being said, the fourth season has a lot of key differences from the series that ran on FOX:

First and foremost, the show moves at a much slower pace. Whereas the original series often juggled three story lines in a given show, season four follows one character arc from beginning to completion. This isn’t a bad thing, as jokes that would normally get a split second have a little bit of time to develop. Additionally, whereas the older show would often have the three story lines come together at the end, the plots in this season, while considerably simpler often tend to snowball.

Alongside that slower pace is a renewed interest in character development, even if it eventually leads to some characters being off model. Michael, for example, has his negative traits more embellished, particularly his clinginess to George Michael (what seems like a father not wanting to lose a teenage son turns into something completely different when he’s hanging around a college). Similarly, we see more of the domineering George Sr. that was alluded to during the series (as opposed to the constantly groveling George Sr. we actually see during the series).

Additionally, there is a never ending door of celebrity cameos in the new season, including recurring spots for Seth Rogen and Kristen Wiig (playing the 80’s version of George and Lucille), as well as one off spots for Adam Devine (and half of the cast of Workaholics), Ed Helms, John Slattery, Maria Bamford, and John Krasinski. A lot of these cameos are half disguised making spot the celebrity even funnier.

Unfortunately the one flaw of the single character focus and stuffed to the gills nature of the universe (the new season really uses its’ supporting cast in a number of interesting ways) is that you don’t hear from a large number of characters for long stretches of time. In the five episodes that I saw going into writing this review, neither Gob nor Buster have much in the way of screen time.

The show also has a longer run time. 22 minute broadcast requirements have turned into 30 minute episodes that generally follow the formats used in the original series’ pilot and finale of Freeze in a moment of time, cut to open, fill in the back story, then follow through the original frozen moment. This format works great for playing catchup as the show fills in the 7 missing years of the characters’ lives. Additionally, it allows for viewers who are new to the show to catch up, as the series uses footage from the original series wherever it refers to something outside of immediate continuity.

One thing that is not different, however, is that the show still remains incredibly sharp and funny. New pacing aside, Hurwitz and company managed to still pack the show with as many visual gags as humanly possible. Additionally, with everything snowballing and cascading in slow motion it should be interesting to see how it all meshes together.

The Final Verdict: This new season is well worth the wait. Additionally, due to the slower pace and the direct referencing of prior seasons, newer fans should actually anticipate a low learning curve since much of the exposition is laid out there for all to see. I recommend processing the series slowly, as each episode has an extra eight minutes of material (or approx 1/3 of a show), so this 15 episode season will actually be longer in run-time than any other season except one. The choose your own adventure aspect, while downplayed will also make repeat viewing interesting, giving the new episodes some lasting power. Highest recommendation on this season and likely the most addicting thing you’ll encounter this summer.

Save Me is Stuffed Past Its’ Metaphysical Limit

by Michael Tyminski

Save Me: Thursdays at 8pm Eastern on NBC

It’s been a rough 2013 for NBC. After a fall where things were finally turning around courtesy of The Voice, NBC plummeted hard in the ratings, ultimately falling behind even spanish-language Univision in terms of ratings share. Additionally, many of it’s mid-season offerings (Do Not Harm, Deception, 1600 Penn, Next Caller, and Ready For Love) were somewhere between bland, mediocre, and in the case of Do Not Harm, Next Caller (which didn’t even make it to air) and Ready For Love, unmitigated disaster. Now it’s May, and NBC finally gets to the end of its’ bench, with the executives at 30 Rock praying for some divine intervention in their newest Anne Heche vehicle Save Me.

Save Me is about housewife Beth Harper (Anne Heche), whom receives a direct line to God after nearly choking to death on a hero sandwich. Taking advantage of that second chance in life, Harper looks to do right by her friends and neighbors with some divine help.

The show opens with Beth having said near-death experience before waking up the next morning and immediately starts making all of the healthy changes one usually makes mid-life: she gives up drinking, starts running, and reveals her talking from God in the form of being able to know all of our daughter’s happenings. Her husband Tom (Michael Landis) then enters the room and asks for a divorce so he would be freed up to marry his mistress, Carly McKenna (Alexis Breckinridge). Tom pushes for Beth to get a CAT scan, as he’s skeptical of her now prophetic state.

We return to the Doctor’s Office, where a CAT scan reveals that the near-death experience activated a part of her brain “only used by Tibetan monks”. Carly then tries to push Tom further down the divorce road before being concerned that Beth has the potential to profit off of her new life. Beth then tries to make nice with her friends before inadvertently stumbling upon the core of her friends’ problems. Beth’s new attitude and divine intervention fixes almost everyone’s problems in a clean fashion. This leads to Carly throwing a drink in Tom’s face after finding out he rekindled things with Beth. Carly then leaves for Beth’s house only to find her driving into a pole and getting struck by lightning.

So…What to make of this show? Well, like many domestic comedies, it doesn’t seem to rock the comedic boat, often settling for the safe harbor of jokes coming from familial relations and Anne Heche’s trademark spaciness. While Heche does a great job playing the crazy person who believes God is talking to her (and the crazy drunk she was before that), she struggles when the show has to hit a real emotional moment, particularly when playing the mother figure to her daughter.

There also seems to be a tendency for all actions to have the absolute minimum of consequences, no matter how insane or potentially serious. This is particularly notable in the cornball ending of our pilot where Carly is struck by lightning, which is shrugged off pretty easily by Beth (outside of a small mention of it in a prayer– and even then she’s back to invoking the God floor show by the end of the episode).

Save Me also seems to move a little too fast, often being forced to juggle four story lines with three of them revolving around Beth (often with her husband, then her daughter, and her friends), with the fourth often dealing with Tom’s affair. While shows like 30 Rock and Arrested Development can often bring the chaos into one happy and wild ending, Save Me often ties these story lines together with a whimper and not a bang (considering the show’s heavy use of pyrotechnics and special effects, that’s saying a lot.)

The Final Verdict: Save Me is emblematic of the Greenblatt-ian approach to saving the Peacock: It’s safe, a little goofy, and it involves divine intervention. It’s pretty middle of the road, however on a network that whiffed on every last risk it took this year, it’s nice to see something that isn’t a flaming disaster on NBC (even if a flaming disaster would have made writing a punny headline easier). That being said, even in context, it’s hard for me to really endorse mediocrity. Check it out if you’re looking for a light, goofy, and bubbly dom-com, but if you’re expecting some appointment viewing, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

Family Tree is a Breath of Fresh Air on Sundays

by Michael Tyminski

Family Tree: Sundays at 10:30 Eastern on HBO

Anyone familiar with the mockumentary subgenre is likely familiar with the work of Christopher Guest, who wrote and directed such critically successful films as This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. His latest project, Family Tree takes this style of wit and applies it to the small screen.

Family Tree follows 30 year old Tom Chadwick (Chris O’Dowd), whom after receiving an inheritance from his family, decides to look into his genealogical background. Ultimately this leads to Chadwick discovering a number of interesting stories from throughout his families past.

Our episode opens with Tom checking in at his father’s house (his father played by Christopher Guest regular Michael McKean) after losing his job and his girlfriend. He describes his job as an insurance adjuster (that he recently lost), before looking for a new position risk assessing bouncy houses. We also meet Tom’s sister Bea (Nina Conti), whom can only communicate her true thoughts through a puppet of a monkey. He then goes through the chest, only to find out about an ancestor whom held a military position and inquire about it with a local curiosities dealer.

We also meet his best friend Pete (Tom Bennett), whom befriended him at a young age. They are sent to a historian and antiques dealer by the name of Neville St. Aubrey, who is described completely nuts and focuses as much on a tangent about a turn of the 20th century photo studio as on Tom’s actual quest. Unfulfilled, Tom is sent home where he is set up on a date with one of Pete’s coworkers whom is obsessed with dinosaurs. Neville then calls him back later with the results of his study, only for Tom to find out that everything was not as it seemed in the photo.

Overall, the show paces itself at a nice relaxed clip and is incredibly light, while maintaining the esoteric nature that one would expect from most of Guest’s other work. The slow clip is a boon, as tonight’s episode “Boxes” needed to cram a large amount of exposition in 27 minutes, introducing us not only to our main characters, but also to our premise and the dubious historical authorities that Tom relies on to find his identity. Additionally, Family Tree benefits from its’ London setting, as the show is fearlessly dry and understated in its’ sense of humor.

In terms of acting, O’ Dowd thrives playing the perpetually mopey Tom, whom is not interested in a relationship because it would “get in the way of his wallowing”. Similarly, Bennett’s Pete has potential to be a scene-stealer, in his introduction he reminded me a lot of Ricky Gervais’ portrayal of David Brent: An awkward man with a heightened sense of self-importance whom can find humor in any situation.

That being said, this show definitively feels British (it is a co-production with BBC2 after all), so do expect a number of references to sail right over your head if you’re not very well versed in British television (I’m admittedly not). In this episode this was particularly apparent, as at least three times during the show we see snippets of fake BBC shows that rely on one knowing the source material to get the joke, and hopefully later episodes will translate better on this side of the pond.

The Final Verdict: Family Tree is absolutely delightful. While most Sunday cable offerings are often their most heavy dramatic offerings (see: Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Homeland etc.), it’s nice to have a show like Tree to unwind you as you prepare for the weak ahead. As a whole the show is superbly written, well acted, incredibly subtle, and most importantly: funny. If you liked any of Guest’s movie work it’s the highest of recommendations, and even for those unfamiliar with his prior work, I recommend checking it out.

Model Employee Upends Privilege to Hilarious Effect.

by Michael Tyminski

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

by Michael Tyminski

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

by Michael Tyminski

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.

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

by Michael Tyminski

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.

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

by Michael Tyminski

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.

Off Pitch is Off Target

by Michael Tyminski

Off Pitch: Wednesdays at 10pm Eastern on VH1

Glee (n.): 1. Exultant, High Spirited Joy. 2. A part-song for usually male voices. – Webster’s Dictionary.

In the last half decade or so, starting with the success of the Real Housewives series on Bravo, we have seen an increasing trend of cable networks taking the subject material of already successful shows and turning it into an inexpensive reality show to cash in on a trend (or sometimes if we’re lucky it will be an even cheaper reality knock off of an existing reality show). VH-1 continues this trend, trying to make real glee out of Off Pitch.

Off Pitch tells the tale of the Grand River Singers, an all-adult community choir that takes their inspiration not from the classics or A Capella street corner favorites, but rather from that cornerstone of modern music innovation, Glee. This year is a huge year for the Grand River Singers, as they intend on taking their show out of the tiny town of La Crosse, Wisconsin and on the road across the state. Off Pitch focuses most heavily on co-directors Tim and Rob who run the choir.

Our first episode goes delves into the group’s annual audition process. This process exists not only so that Tim and Rob can find new blood for the group, but also so that they can continually mold the group in their own image year after year. That image was best described by Rob not even three minutes in when he stated “we’re not looking for the best singers, we’re not looking for the best dancers, but we’re looking for the best personalities!”.

Much like American Idol’s audition process, we see our fair share of people whom either don’t sing well or ultimately sabotage their audition (one audition we heard most of the music, but only one line of actual singing, while another felt her voice was sabotaged because her chest got in the way). The current members end up at an equally brutal brush-up rehearsal before their last performance of the year in a county park. This leads to an incredibly nervous (and public) announcement of the current cast of the singers, which saw both more singers than the previous year and some incredibly misleading announcements (watching Rob toy with Josh, the only guy you end up wanting to thrive in the series was kinda heartbreaking).

Off Pitch is dangerously catty, however, verging on flat out mean spirited. While the Grand River singers are described as a family by some, it gets downright vicious at points, whether its’ Rob tearing apart his current singers in cutaways during each audition or even worse, calling out singer Greg on his weight (if the person in question is fat, than I’m morbidly obese). This cattiness is made worse however, when you consider that the stakes have been blown out of the water compared to similar shows. There’s no half-a-million dollar recording contract, there are no regionals or even sub-regionals. It’s doubtful that anyone in this group is getting paid to sing. In spite of that, the criticisms that the show provides of its’ singers solely exists to break them down when it seems like for many this should be a social and creative outlet that allows them to do what they enjoy.

The production crew doesn’t help matters, often focusing on sound snafus or bored patrons at a county park during their performances. One gets the vibe that the production staff is trying to get you to emotionally invest in it’s cast by emphasizing the weaknesses, which seems like a time-honored recipe for disaster. Finally, a major weakness of Off-Pitch is that it wants so bad to be Glee, but it’s only willing to show public domain musical standards (or really anything that doesn’t require a top-dollar royalty check) over the course of the episode that it takes away much of the advertised distinctiveness of the Grand River Singers.

The Final Verdict: While it’s interesting to see VH-1 put on a music related program, a rarity since the networks format switched to lists, I love the ____, and Celebreality a decade ago, Off Pitch still feels like it too has nothing to do with music. It’s downright mean-spirited, which is even worse considering the incredibly sensitive nature of the cast (I dare you to find me a cutaway where someone isn’t on the verge of tears). The worst indictment overall is that for something that wants to be Glee, it seems to miss the fun, joyful forest for the over-dramatic trees. Overall I recommend skipping this, and if someone can buy me a time machine so that I also can get my 22 minutes back, I wouldn’t complain.

Defiance Provides an Interesting Take on the Space Western

by Michael Tyminski

Defiance: Mondays, 9pm Eastern on SyFy

The televised sci-fi genre at it’s best is an exercise in world building. Large numbers of episodes combined with story lines that often require some degree of exploration require massive worlds, multiple races to inhabit those worlds, technology that those civilizations can wield, and traditions that seem foreign without entering the uncanny valley (unless of course, the writer deliberately wishes to emphasize that). It is from this tradition that Defiance emerges, it’s world having not only to be large enough to fit a TV show, but a full scale online third person shooter as well (the two are tied and marketed as equals, as opposed to one existing solely as a vehicle to profit off of the other).

Defiance is set in the slightly futuristic earth of the middle 21^st century, in Defiance, a town that was formerly St. Louis. Much has happened in the 30 years between our world, and theirs however: Aliens have landed on earth, bringing advanced technology. This led to eventual war between humans and the Votans that lasted well over a decade. 15 years after this war, Josh Nolan (Grant Bowler), returns to Defiance to see a lawless border town and becomes its’ chief lawman, trying to prevent all mayhem from breaking loose between humans, Votans, and military scavengers.

When reviewing any sort of sci-fi, my focus will immediately gravitate towards the visuals. Defiance definitely brings the sort of visual effects that one would expect from a show that mixes aliens and Mad Max. The show’s wide angle, ark, and space oriented shots are particularly breathtaking, often providing the sort of ethereal glow one would expect from alien technology. One minor quibble, and one anyone whose ever seen Star Wars will make though: doesn’t underground kingpin Datak Tarr’s (Tony Curran) heavy look a little too much like Chewbacca to be a coincidence? Similarly Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas) looks like a palate swapped Na’vi.

The pilot is incredibly entertaining, as it bounces around a number of areas and incredibly implausible scenarios, giving large amount of insight on a number of characters in a very short amount of time. While many of these characters seem to be cherry picked from your standard issue science fiction tropes (A roguish hero? I’ve never seen that before), Defiance also mixes in your fair share of political drama and story line between two rival families that seems straight out of Dallas. It is also incredibly well paced, taking advantage of its’ two hour time frame to create a story line more out of a movie than a TV show.

One thing I cannot knock is the acting. Most of the Votan seem slightly socially inept while being just human enough to survive in a world full of humans. Graham Greene and Tony Curran both click excellently as rival family heads looking to one up each other even though the Tarr’s control the metaphorical underworld and the Macauley’s control the literal underworld (mining). Similarly, Stephanie Leonidas does an incredible job portraying Irisa as an emotionally aloof and immature alien thrust into a situation much bigger than either she nor Nolan recognize it to be.

The Final Verdict: Defiance might be the closest thing I’ve seen to a live-action Cowboy Bebop that I’ve ever seen. While it seems to blatantly kidnap from aspects of the science fiction playbook (there’s a twist about ¾ of the way through that’s horrendously telegraphed because it happens to be an exact copy of a similar character’s arc in Star Wars), the novel aspects of the show (most notably the Hatfield-McCoy style rivalry of the Macauley’s and the Tarr’s, and Mayor Rosewater’s “little mayor that couldn’t” routine) are enough to distance those similarities into the back of your mind. It’s worth checking out if sci-fi is your sort of taste, though I have no idea what effect the tie-in with its’ video game will have in terms of the long term quality of the show.

On an unrelated note, I would like to take a minute to express my condolences for those whom were lost in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing and wish a speedy recovery to those whom were injured. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

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