Category: TV Review

Firestorm? More like Fire Storm!

This article about the new series LEGENDS OF TOMORROW could have been called “Geting It Wrong.” But writer Marc Alan Fishman takes a much more creative approach, which, fortunately, is neither kinder nor gentler than the subject matter deserves:

Firestormby Marc Alan Fishman

Just as my ComicMix cohort, the Legend of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow Denny O’Neil, I have jumped gently back into the TV fracas again with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Denny was quick to note in the macro that the show harkens to a very base pulp root – that of myth of the voyage. But my gaze is far more acutely focused on but a single moment from the first episode of the CW’s titular team up.

Shortly after The Doctor – um, I mean Rip Hunter – has pitched woo to each of his would-be Legends, we’re treated to the monotony of joining each member as they pack up their lives to go adventuring. With seemingly everyone on board, we assume smooth sailing… until we reach the immaculate home of Professor Martin Stein. There, amidst his country bumpkin bric-a-brac, Stein and his young ward (Jax Jackson, because all other actual comic-approved merger-buddies are not living…) minced mean words. You see Mr. Jackson, with his youth and a future in tact, wasn’t as elated to traipse across time and space with a band of would-be time cops. Stein frankly couldn’t care less. read article

2015: The Year Television Figured Out How to Present Mental Illness

TV has always featured crazy characters. Now, however, television writers are finally being allowed to present mental illness as it really is. Could the Dark Ages when sufferers were depicted as either still or evil be over at last?

illness

by Alison Herman

Television’s defining trait as a medium is its length. We spend anywhere from four to 24 hours a year with our shows, which breeds both intimacy (hence, “our shows”) and inevitable frustrations. It’s no coincidence that we refer to so many of the shorter, pricier series found on cable and streaming, and the more deliberate visual style they allow for, as “cinematic” TV; we still think of the perfunctory direction that comes with cranking out episodes as the price we pay for weekly entertainment. It’s also no coincidence that TV’s greatest leaps forward involve using the platform’s extended, open-ended nature to its advantage.  read article

Diana Vacc Sees ASH VS. EVIL DEAD

ash-vs-evil-dead-bloodby Diana Vaccarelli

Starz Network does it again with their great original programming. First came SPARTACUS, then OUTLANDER, and now ASH VS. EVIL DEAD. The series follows Bruce Campbell as the chainsaw-armed character of Ash 30 years after he was last seen in the film ARMY OF DARKNESS. Ash has been living a quiet life in a small town, but now the evil dead are back and it’s up to him to save the world…again.

THE GOOD:

• This is funny and scary at the same time. I both laughed out loud and jumped in shock at various moments. Sometimes at the same time. read article

munchman sees A VERY MURRAY CHRISTMAS

Robert Mitchum's corpse gives us his best Bill Murray face...and fails
Robert Mitchum’s corpse gives us his best Bill Murray face…and fails

by munchman

Talk about a predicament!

On the one hand, Yer Friendly Neighborhood munchola has to confess here and now that he absolutely lurves Bill Murray. Many’s the night, in fact, that I’ve YouTubed myself to sleep listening to My Hero spend a magnificent 59 seconds doing his inimitable rendition of the STAR WARS theme. Nobody does it like Billy Baby, not even Ella Fitzgerald.

On the other hand, I Netflixed A VERY MURRAY CHRISTMAS the other night, and, well, let me put it this way: Why the hell was the fantastically unfunny – and D-E-A-D Robert Mitchum running around the Carlyle Hotel pretending to be the Murrayman in a Christmas special so unspecial that it made director Sofia Coppola’s snoozily inept LOST IN TRANSLATION (which starred the real Bill Murray) look like (no, not an Oscar winner – never!) a Golden Globe nominee? read article

BLOODLINE: Rooting for the Bad Guy.

bloodline-premiere

by Lew Ritter

Normally, in movies or TV, you root for the hero to conquer the villain and win their objective. However, real life is rarely so clear cut.

One of my binging pleasures for the recent few months has been a NETFLIX series called BLOODLINE. It is a series written and produced by Todd Kessler and Daniel Zelman. They are the successful producers behind the successful multi-year cable series DAMAGES starring Glen Close as a power hungry mega – lawyer.

Similar to DAMAGES, BLOODLINE is a densely plotted serialized drama. It revolved around the celebration of Fiftieth anniversary of the Rayburns hotel in the lush Florida Keys. The entire Rayburn clan has gathered to honor the Mother and Father played by Sissy Spacek and Sam Shepard. read article