Roseanne: Reviewing the Revival

This week saw the premiere of the most anticipated TV reboot since the beginning of the craze a couple years ago.  Originally debuting in 1988, Roseanne was must-see tv for much of its run on ABC.  Starring Roseanne Barr as the matriarch of the working-class Conner family in fictional Lanford, Illinois and John Goodman as her husband Dan, the sitcom delivered razor-sharp sarcasm while also tackling some serious issues.  One episode dealt with oldest daughter Becky (Lecy Goranson) asking her mom for birth control, and for several seasons youngest daughter Darlene (Sara Gilbert) went through a period of deep depression.  The show even dealt with domestic violence: Roseanne's sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) was beaten by her young boyfriend Fisher (Matt Roth, who Metcalf actually married in real life and later divorced).  Roseanne was notoriously difficult to work with behind the scenes; she was constantly firing her writers and having disagreements with cast members.  In the final season the show went completely off the rails: the Conners won the lottery, and plots revolving around the family struggling to make ends meet were replaced by Roseanne and Jackie taking trips to spas and meeting royalty.  Goodman even left the show for much of this season due to disputes with his onscreen wife.  The final episode was a bizarre mess, revealing that the entire last season had been a figment of Roseanne's imagination: the lottery win never happened, and Dan was actually dead.

The reboot is thankfully ignoring the original's ending, and even poking fun at it.  The opening scene showed Roseanne and Dan in bed, older but still the same (Dan wearing a sleep apnea mask):

Roseanne: "Dan!  I thought you were dead!"
Dan: "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

The show has also seemingly returned to its working-class roots, with the pilot featuring a subplot about Roseanne and Dan trading pills due to high prescription costs (see video below). 

Dan and Roseanne trade pills

Unfortunately, after the first five minutes the episode was taken over by politics: Roseanne (a Trump supporter, which doesn't even make sense since her character was quite liberal on the original) and Jackie (who voted for Hillary) bicker back and forth and criticize each other's political views, but they mercifully make up by the closing credits.  For some reason NBC made politics the focus of the Will and Grace reboot premiere as well, which nearly ruined it for me and almost made me stop watching.  Please keep politics out of my beloved sitcoms! 

Echoing the economic realities of adult children today, divorced Darlene has moved back home with her parents, her two kids in tow.  Teenage daughter Harris, played by Emma Kenney (whose character was born at the end of the original show, even though the timing doesn't exactly make sense), is a typical rebellious teen.  Young son Mark (Ames McNamara) is the standout character of the new show.  He's a bit effeminate and likes to wear skirts and sparkly clothes.  The second episode revolved around the family worrying about him getting bullied at school for his choice of attire.  It delivered a touching message of acceptance along with the show's usual laughs, narrowly avoiding after-school special cheesy preachiness.  Becky is now a world-weary middle-aged waitress ("embalmed in Mike's Hard Lemoande", as Darlene puts it).  She has decided to become a surrogate mother for a rich woman named Andrea to make some money.  In the show's most meta twist ever, Andrea is played by Sarah Chalke, who portrayed Becky on the original show after Goranson left around halfway through the show's run.  Andrea is a better version of Becky and represents how she wishes her life had turned out.  DJ (Michael Fishman), a young child on the original, is now an Army man with a young daughter (his wife is still overseas in Syria).  He had all of one or two lines in the first two episodes, maybe because adult Fishman isn't that great of an actor?  This remains to be seen, and he may play a bigger role in future episodes. 

While the first two episodes did leave a few question marks (Where is Jackie's son Andy?; Are Roseanne and Dan still working?; What happened to Darlene's ex David?), they did deliver quite a few belly laughs, even if some of the jokes felt a little forced.  The nods to the original show were also spot-on: the set of the Conner house was meticulously recreated from scratch, and young Mark's teacher was Darlene's teacher in the pilot of the original.  The premiere delivered monstrous ratings for ABC this week, so I'm thinking that ABC will do anything and everything to keep the reboot going beyond this planned short season of nine episodes.  If the show continues to stay away from politics and keeps its wit sharp, then I'll welcome additional seasons.  NBC has already promised at least two more seasons of Will and Grace, but the Roseanne revival already seems to be much more creatively and financially successful for ABC.  Long live the Conners! 

Best TV Series Finales BONUS: Parenthood

So I somehow forgot one of the best series finales of one of my favorite tv shows of ALL TIME: Parenthood.  This touching family drama followed the extended Braverman family through their many ups and downs.  The finale, which aired in early 2015, was a weepfest to end all weepfests.  This is Us couldn't hold a candle to this episode.  After proud papa Zeek walked daughter Sarah down the aisle as she married Hank, he died in his living room chair, only to be found by wife Camille (sob).  After a moving scene of the family playing baseball together in tribute to Zeek, the show flash-forwarded to show the lives of all of the characters several years in the future.  It was a pitch-perfect sendoff to a show that could have continued for many more seasons (and would have, if I had my way).

Parenthood series finale 

Best TV Series Finales

And now, after my last post about some of the worst series finales in TV history, it's time to discuss some of the best.  These finales provided closure for fans and were just the right amount of sappy.  These are just a handful of what I consider the best; I will likely write about more of them in a later post.  My descriptions also contain spoilers about the episodes (how else could I describe them?), and links to scenes from the episodes are included below my descriptions.  Please comment and let me know if you agree.  Here we go!

1.  Frasier (2004): It's pretty difficult to end any long-running sitcom, let alone end the tenure of a character who has been a fixture on primetime tv for over 20 years (Dr. Frasier Crane appeared on Cheers for most of its 11-season run before moving to its spinoff Frasier for another 11 seasons).  But the ending of Frasier managed to be warm-hearted and pitch-perfect, providing closure as well as new beginnings for each of its characters.  Niles and Daphne celebrated the birth of their child in a veterinarian's office after Eddie the dog had accidentally swallowed Martin and Ronee's wedding rings, then Martin and Ronee got married in the same office so that Niles and Daphne didn't miss out.  Frasier accepted a new radio job in San Francisco, then (as revealed in the final scene) changed his mind and instead moved to Chicago to follow his love Charlotte.  Even Roz (who nobody really cared about) got promoted to station manager at KACL.  The next-to-last scene, of Frasier reciting part of Ulysses during his final radio show in Seattle as his friends and family looked on behind him, surely brought tears to the eyes of many fans.

Frasier series finale

2.  Murphy Brown (1998):  Serving as a sort of follow-up to the women-in-the-workplace sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Murphy Brown followed the personal and professional lives of Murphy and her friends, journalists at the fictional newsmagazine show FYI.  In the finale, Murphy faced surgery after another cancer scare, during which she imagined interviewing God while under anesthesia.  She and co-anchor Jim both decided to leave the show, then they had a last minute change of heart and decided to continue doing the show that they loved.  In the end the show flashed forward 10 years, where good friend Eldin proposed to Murphy, but she turned him down and instead hired him to do more work on her house (a sort of inside joke, as Eldin had been endlessly painting Murphy's house throughout most of the series).  The finale plot was unexpected and sweet while keeping the sharp humor and sarcasm of the show that the viewers had loved.  In the clip below, Bette Midler appears in the episode as Murphy's final secretary.  A slew of famous faces had appeared during the show's run in the secretary job; Murphy could never seem to keep anyone around in the position for more than an episode.

Murphy Brown series finale

P.S.  Murphy Brown is jumping on the reboot bandwagon and will be returning sometime next season.  Here's hoping that it retains the wit that endeared fans to the original.

3.  ER (2009): ER went through a lot of ebbs and flows during its 15-season run, but it always remained a must-watch Thursday night staple for its die-hard fans.  Viewers loved the dizzying fast pace of crazy medical cases in the ER, as well as the slower touching moments.  The show was able to successfully turn over much of its cast multiple times during its run, deepening its realistic hospital setting.  The finale was a typical episode in that it featured a mix of funny cases with serious ones (a boy swallowed a rosary, a mother dies during childbirth). It also featured several throwbacks to some of the first episodes of the series (Dr. Carter showed a young doctor how to insert an IV into a patient, just like another doctor had shown him in the pilot).  The best parts of the finale, though, were the return of many fan-favorite characters from earlier in the series (Dr. Benton, Dr. Corday, Dr. Weaver, Dr. Lewis) and the reveal that the daughter of Dr. Greene (who had died tragically several seasons before) was applying for a spot in the teaching program at the hospital as a prospective medical student.  It was a great nod to the early days of the show, as well as the deep family roots of the medical profession.

ER series finale

Worst TV Series Finales EVER

Ending a beloved tv show is difficult.  It's nearly impossible for writers to craft an ending that gives resolution to beloved characters' storylines while satisfying all of a show's viewers.  Most series finales are debated among fans, sometimes years later (Lost and Seinfeld, for instance).  Some endings, however, are so terrible that they forever stain a show's legacy and leave viewers wondering "What were they thinking?"  Here are a few of the worst series finales in tv history.  Beware that spoilers are included in my descriptions, and please click the links below to watch video clips from the episodes.  Also, please comment on the post below and let me know if you agree.

1.  Will and Grace (2006):  I'm not sure if this can be considered a series finale anymore, since the show was revived in 2017 (wisely, the reboot ignored all of the events of this episode), but I'll include it anyway.  The final episode of the beloved sitcom about best friends Will and Grace and their sidekicks Jack and Karen was almost completely devoid of humor.  Pregnant Grace has a falling out with Will and they stop speaking to each other, until their kids meet on their first day of college 20 years later and fall in love (huh?).  While Will and Grace mercifully reunite by the final scene, it just seems implausible that they would become estranged for so long.  The one good part of the episode is Jack and Karen's duet of "Unforgettable", but it isn't enough to save the episode.

Will and Grace final scene

2.  Dexter (2013): For many years, this was a must-watch show.  The premise was just fascinating: Dexter, a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police department, sought out and murdered bad guys (a "good" serial killer).  The show tackled issues of morality while delivering thrilling drama and gruesome death scenes (for those that enjoy that sort of thing, like me).  The season 4 showdown between Dexter and the Trinity killer was thrilling tv at its finest, and it ended with the shocking murder of Dexter's wife Rita.  The last couple of seasons, however, made the show unrecognizable with crazy, off-the-wall plots: Dexter's adopted sister Deb found out about his secret life as a killer, then fell in love with him (?!), and Dexter fell in love with another killer named Hannah.  I had hope the finale would remedy of the show's problems, but I was sadly mistaken.  After Deb's death, Dexter abandoned his young son and Hannah, faked his own death, and became a lumberjack in the northwest (yes, really).  I have hope that Dexter will be revived and return the show to its former glory (like Will and Grace).

Dexter final scene

3.  Roseanne (1997): For several years, this was hands-down the funniest sitcom on tv.  Roseanne's portrait of a poor Midwestern family was both realistic and hilarious.  But the final season of the show went completely off the rails when the fictional Conner family won the lottery.  There was also drama behind-the-scenes when actor John Goodman, who played Roseanne's husband Dan, left the show for much of the season due to disputes with the notoriously difficult matriarch of the show.  In the memorably bad final episode, the character Roseanne revealed that the show was really based on her writings, and that she had changed many details of her life: Dan had really died the year before, sister Jackie (instead of mom Bev) was a lesbian, and Roseanne had switched the boyfriends of daughters Becky and Darlene.  It was all just so bizarre that fans were left wondering what the hell had just happened.  The show, like Will and Grace, was recently rebooted and the revival premieres next week.  Early reviews are positive, so here's hoping that it can erase the memory of how terribly the original show ended. 

Roseanne final scene

Most Shocking TV Moments

Today I thought that I would revisit some of the most shocking moments in tv history (well, those in the past 30 years or so, since I've been able to sit up and stare at the magic picture box).  These were the moments that had me jumping out of my chair, screaming at the tv, or otherwise just left me in complete shock.  Of course, this isn't a comprehensive list, just a few of them (I'll list some more in a later post).  So, in no particular order, here we go.  Click the links below each description to view the moments on YouTube.

1.  Michael kills Ana Lucia and Libby, Lost (2006):  One of the most shocking moments on this time-traveling, mind-bending sci-fi adventure series didn't have anything to do with polar bears or a smoke monster.  After the mysterious "Others" kidnapped Michael's son Walt, he was forced to do their bidding to try to get him back.  Forced to bring back the Others' leader Ben, Michael (unbeknownst to the viewers) had a plan that involved framing Ben for the shooting to make it look like he had escaped on his own.  The fact that the actresses portraying Ana Lucia and Libby (Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros) had recently both received DUI's (on the same night) probably had something to do with the show's decision to kill them off.

Michael kills Ana Lucia and Libby

2.  Dr. Romano loses an arm (2002) and Dr. Romano is killed, ER (2003): At the beginning of season 9 of the hit medical drama, the brash and angry Dr. Romano suddenly and gruesomely lost an arm to a helicopter blade, in what became one of the most played back TV moments in DVR history (a fairly new technology at the time).  Just a year later, after mellowing out a bit and becoming addicted to prescription drugs, Romano met his maker after another helicopter crash-landed on top of him in the hotel courtyard (cue Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'", which played in the elevator just before the crash).

Dr. Romano loses an arm
Dr. Romano dies

3.  Edgar dies during an attack on CTU, 24 (2006):  24 was full of numerous shocking deaths.  Season 5 in particular saw the demise of numerous fan-favorite characters: former President David Palmer, Michelle, Tony (or so we thought at the time).  But the most heartbreaking death came towards the end of the season when the baddies of the season released deadly nerve gas into CTU's ventilation system.  As Jack, daughter Kim, and many others sealed themselves in a conference room, Jack's right-hand woman Chloe watched as best friend Edgar succumbed to the gas just a few feet away, outside of the room.  As the show always did when a beloved character died, it paid tribute to Edgar with a silent ticking clock to end the episode.

Edgar dies

4.  Erik gives up immunity and is promptly voted out, Survivor (2008): Ok, most people wouldn't consider a reality tv moment to be particularly shocking.  After all, these shows manufacture "shocking" moments in each episode.  But this one was different.  The alliance of 5 women were desperate to vote out young, athletic Erik, but they couldn't seem to get rid of him because he kept winning immunity.  After he won yet again, all seemed hopeless, until Cirie came up with a plan to guilt him into giving up his immunity necklace to regain some favor with the tribe (promising that he'd still be safe), and then voting him out.  Nobody thought it would work, including me watching at home, but then it did, and Erik became the dumbest player in the history of the show.

Erik gives up immunity, voted out

5.  Susan dies from poisoned envelopes, Seinfeld (1996): Seinfeld was known for being the "show about nothing".  But this wasn't exactly true.  The show's plots consisted of the main cast behaving pretty selfishly and ending up in unusual (but hilarious) situations.  In season 7 of the show, bachelor George became engaged to the wealthy Susan, but as the wedding drew nearer, he kept looking for ways to get out of it.  Everything that he tried failed, but then he got his wish (albeit not in the way that he had expected) after Susan died by poisoning after licking cheap glue on the envelopes for her wedding invitations (George had insisted that they buy the cheap envelopes).  Did this sitcom really kill off a character for laughs?  Yes it did.  And the most shocking part of it all was the gang's reaction upon hearing of her death: shrugging it off and leaving the hospital to go out for coffee.  It was recently revealed that the character was killed off because the actress (Heidi Swedberg) was extremely difficult to work with and didn't mess with the rest of the cast.

Susan dies on Seinfeld

Rise: A Musical Disappointment

When I saw the first preview for the new show Rise, I was excited.  Airing Tuesdays at 9pm EST, Rise is NBC's attempt to hold onto the huge viewership of This is Us, after that show ended its second season last week.  While This is Us tugs on the heartstrings with time jumping family drama, Rise aims to do the same with the coming-of-age story of a diverse group of high school students led in their theater department by earnest young teacher Lou Mazzuchelli (Josh Radnor).  Creator Jason Katims also made two of my all-time favorite dramas, Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, so I was pre-programmed to like Rise.  But, judging by the pilot episode alone, Rise is a preachy mess of a show, a huge disappointment and rare misstep for Katims.

In addition to Radnor, the cast of Rise is made up of a variety of mostly-unknown actors.  Auli'i Cravalho is Lilette, the female protagonist and star of the school's production of Spring Awakening.  She works a waitressing job to help her poor family make ends meet, and she's embarrassed by her promiscuous mom Vanessa (Shirley Rumierk), who is having an affair with the school's football coach Sam Strickland (Joe Tippett).  Cravalho and Rumierk do an okay job in their roles, but neither are particularly memorable or captivating onscreen.  In a plot stolen directly from the pilot of Glee, Damon J. Gillespie is Robbie, the star quarterback of the football team who Lou recruits for the musical after hearing him rap at a pep rally.  Thorne is fine, but again he doesn't really stand out enough to be the convincing male lead of the show (or of the musical within the show).  There's also Coach Strickland's daughter Gwen (Amy Forsyth), who's dealing with family problems caused by her dad's affair, and Masshous (Rarmian Newton), a homeless student and lighting designer for the theater department who secretly lives at school until Lou takes him into his home.  Rounding out the main cast are Marley Shelton as Lou's supportive wife Gail, Rosie Perez as Lou's assistant director Tracey, who at first holds a grudge that her lead director job was stolen by Lou, and Simon (Ted Sutherland), a closeted gay student who is afraid of disappointing his conservative Catholic family by kissing another boy in the musical.  Of these actors, Sutherland's performance as Simon is the most compelling.  In the pilot Simon isn't yet ready to admit or accept the fact that he's gay, and Sutherland effectively portrays his internal struggle and deep desire not to disappoint his family.  It's also worth mentioning supporting character Michael Hallowell (Ellie Desautels), a female-to-male transgender student who Lou recruits for the musical after needing more male actors.  Michael plays a very small role in the pilot, but it's interesting to see a young transgender character on network tv, even if not in a lead role.  On the flip side, Perez's role is especially puzzling.  She's known for her over-the-top funny characters in films like White Men Can't Jump and It Could Happen to You, but here she doesn't seem to have any trace of humor and does nothing to stand out.  Maybe this is her attempt to be taken seriously as a more dramatic actress, but so far it's not working. 

The biggest problem with Rise is its extreme earnestness.  Glee worked (at least in the beginning) because of its campy humor.  The writing was sharp, and many of the actors (particularly Jane Lynch as Coach Sue Sylvester) played their characters in an over-the-top cartoonishly funny way.  But there's none of that humor on Rise.  The show is way too serious, and the kids don't even seem like they're having that much fun rehearsing for the musical.  Katim's other shows, and even the weep-fest This is Us, have some funny moments to balance out the heartwarming ones, and Rise desperately needs some of this humor if it has any hope of connecting with viewers.  You'd think that having a former sitcom star on the show (Radnor) would help in this regard, but that's far from the case.  I've never been a fan of Radnor, and this show does nothing to change that opinion.  I didn't find him to be very funny on How I Met Your Mother, and his boyish cheesy romantic charm nearly ruined that show for me.  Even though Radnor is now in his 40s and plays a married man with 3 older children on Rise, he still seems like an unsure young boy and doesn't have a very commanding presence on the show.  The show would benefit from a stronger actor and more powerful teacher figure to lead the more inexperienced younger actors/characters, similar to Kyle Chandler as Coach Eric Taylor on Friday Night Lights.  It also seems a bit unsure about how much music to incorporate into the plot.  Glee was able to put its own spin on popular songs with multiple musical numbers per episode (making a lot of money on album sales in the process), but so far Rise has included very little music for a show about a musical.  At the end of the pilot there was a message encouraging viewers to download music from the show, but I was confused because there hadn't seemed to be much music at all (or if there was, it clearly wasn't memorable).  I'm willing to give this show a shot because I have been such a big fan of Katim's work in the past, but it needs to step things up in a major way very soon, or it will be a distant memory by the next tv season. 

Roseanne: An Appreciation

With the premiere of the Roseanne revival coming in just a couple of weeks, I thought that it was time to revisit one of my all-time favorite sitcoms.  When the show premiered in 1988, there was nothing else like it on tv.  Roseanne Barr played the brash "domestic goddess" matriarch of the lower-middle class Conner family, living in (fictional) rural Lanford, Illinois.  Roseanne was outspoken, loud, and the undisputed boss of her household.  Her husband Dan (John Goodman) was a loveable goofball, a decent man whose temper flared up on occasion, usually when someone threatened his family.  Roseanne's younger sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) was a neurotic mess but very close to Roseanne.  Roseanne, Dan, and Jackie worked various jobs throughout the show's run, always struggling to make ends meet.  Roseanne went through stints as a factory worker (where George Clooney played her boss, by the way), fast food worker, beauty shop assistant, and waitress, eventually opening her own restaurant with Jackie.  Dan worked in construction, later opening a motorcycle shop (which pretty quickly failed) and eventually working at the city garage.  Jackie was the most all-over-the-map with her career choices.  After leaving her factory job with Roseanne, she became a cop and a truck driver before going into business with Roseanne.  The show was true-to-life in that many of its episodes revolved around the struggles of the typical middle American family.  The Conners had their electricity shut off, lost out on jobs because they didn't have computer skills, and faced foreclosure on their home and Dan's business going under. 

Roseanne's oldest daughter was Becky, played by Lecy Goranson and later Sarah Chalke, then Goranson again, and finally Chalke.  Becky was a good straight-A student who began to rebel a couple of seasons in.  She met boyfriend Mark (Glenn Quinn) and later eloped with him in a memorable season 5 arc.  Mark was a James Dean-esque bad boy, at first hated by Roseanne and Dan but eventually welcomed and loved by them.  Second child Darlene (Sara Gilbert) was a young tomboy and later become a dark and moody teenager.  She began dating Mark's younger brother David (Johnny Galecki) and married him by the series' end.  Youngest child D.J. (Michael Fishman) was an adorable young boy and later served as the annoying little brother to Becky and Darlene.  There was also a rotating roster of Roseanne's friends: naïve thrice-married Crystal (Natalie West), fellow waitress and amateur singer Bonnie (Bonnie Sheridan), and wild flower-child Nancy (Sandra Bernhard), who Roseanne and Jackie went into business with at the restaurant.  Some other characters popped in and out: Roseanne and Jackie's shrill mom Beverly (Estelle Parsons), their fun grandmother Nana Mary (Shirley Maclaine), and restaurant boss Leon (Martin Mull).

The biggest strength of the show was that it was just damn hilarious.  Its talented writers room was filled with names that later became famous for creating and/or writing other hit shows: Amy Sherman-Palladino (creator of Gilmore Girls), Chuck Lorre (producer of Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory), and Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the tv version).  Most episodes, particularly in the best seasons (2-5) were laugh-out loud funny.  The humor was sarcastic and self-deprecating, especially from Roseanne and Darlene.  The show was also never afraid to tackle hot-button issues.  Season 4 episode "A Bitter Pill to Swallow" dealt with Becky asking her mother for birth control.  Season 5 episode "Crime and Punishment" included one of the show's most shocking storylines: Jackie tried hiding the fact that boyfriend Fisher beat her, and Dan was later arrested for brutally beating Fisher in retaliation.  There was also season 6 episode "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", in which Nancy's girlfriend Sharon (Mariel Hemingway) kissed Roseanne.  This episode was extremely controversial at the time; it's hard to imagine today that a simple same-sex kiss would cause such a hullabaloo.  My personal favorite episodes weren't so controversial, but they were still pitch-perfect.  In season 2 episode "Brain-Dead Poet's Society", Darlene read her poem at a school assembly.  What started as a light-hearted episode about stage fright turned into a reveal that Darlene was actually struggling to fit in at school and was deeply depressed.  This moving episode was a bit out of character for the show's typical cynical and sarcastic tone, but it proved that the show also had a lot of heart.  Another favorite of mine is the season 4 finale "Aliens", in which Roseanne lost her waitressing job and D.J. competed at his school's spelling bee.  When D.J. won the contest on the final word "foreclosure" (Roseanne sits back and smiles when she realizes that D.J. is all-too-familiar with this word), and the family celebrated with a food fight in their kitchen, I realized that this show at this moment was perfect.

It's a shame that the show went so far off the rails in its final season, when the Conners won the lottery.  Most episodes revolved around Roseanne and Jackie living the high life, and the show became completely unrecognizable from its early years when it was about the typical struggling American family.  John Goodman even left the show for a while during this season after disputes with Roseanne (she was notorious for having disagreements with her writers and some of the cast).  The series finale laughed in the face of the viewers by declaring that the final season and some of the series itself were really part of amateur writer Roseanne's book: Dan was really dead, Jackie was a lesbian, Becky was really with David, and Darlene was really with Mark.  Here's hoping that the revival will restore some of the luster of Roseanne's early years.  After seeing early previews and reading reviews from critics, I'm cautiously optimistic (fingers crossed).

Nailed It: Terrible Bakers with Heart

This weekend I binged the new Netflix baking show Nailed It.  I had read about it a few weeks ago, and I decided to give it a shot because I'm a big fan of the host, Nicole Byer.  Her Facebook sitcom Loosely Exactly Nicole is a hilarious treat (check out my earlier post about it).  And her podcast Why Won't You Date Me?, in which she asks guests to look at her dating profile and help her figure out why she doesn't have a boyfriend, is filthy in the best way possible.  Nailed It's 1st season of 6 episodes features host Nicole along with French pastry chef Jacques Torres and a rotating roster of guest judges, the best of which is Sylvia Weinstock, a little old lady who has trouble reading the tele-prompter and wanders off set during breaks from judging.  The format of the show is simple: 3 amateur bakers (some VERY amateur) compete in 2 challenges.  The winner of the 1st challenge gets a small prize, and they get to wear a gold bedazzled chef's hat during the 2nd challenge.  The winner of the 2nd challenge gets $10,000.  To add a fun twist, each contestant gets a "Panic" button, where they can get a judge to help them for 3 minutes during the 2nd challenge.  Also, the worst chef in the 1st challenge gets an extra button: a "Freeze" button, which allows them to make the other 2 contestants stop baking for 3 minutes, or my personal favorite the Nicole button, where the host walks up to the other 2 contestants and annoys them for 3 minutes, to give the other baker a better shot.  In one episode Nicole went up to a baker and made a truly horrible high-pitched noise in their face for about 30 seconds straight, which had me almost falling on the floor with laughter. 

Nicole is clearly the standout here, but Jacques is fun too.  He has a surprisingly good sense of humor, not at all what you'd expect from an upscale French chef.  The challenges are ridiculously hard, even for an experienced baker.  The bakers are tasked with making such ridiculous creations as a cake shaped like a shark eating a surfer, an erupting volcano cake, and a Donald Trump cake.  The challenges basically set the contestants up to fail, and the show usually becomes a contest to see who makes the worst creation.  But everyone is a good sport about the whole process.  The judges watch the bakers from afar and laugh at all the mistakes that they're making, but the bakers laugh at themselves as well, so it's okay.  Some of the standout bad creations are a princess cake with a princess that looks more like a zombie girl from hell, and a shark cake with a deformed shark missing most of its teeth.  The most memorable contestant is retired cop Sal, who never looks at the recipe and gives up about halfway through the final challenge, instead going to sit with the judges and chat.  Nailed It also includes many bizarre and silly moments, which prove that the entire production is kind of a work-in-progress.  But everyone involved is just going along with it and having as much fun as possible.  Nicole constantly flirst with stage-hand Wes, who never brings out the winner's trophy in time for Nicole to present it, she pulls out giant chopsticks to eat the contestants' sushi cakes (with a straight face), and the guest judge for the final episode leaves in the middle of the challenge due to a babysitting issue (really).  Nailed It is a fun little show which made me laugh out loud several times during each episode.  It's perfect for a weekend binge, check it out!

Good Girls: TV Review

And now it's time to get back to my 1st love...tv ❤, after reviewing all of those awards-bait Oscar movies.  First up is Good Girls, an interesting dark comedy airing Monday nights at 10pm on NBC. 

Starring 3 actresses from a trio of fan-favorite shows (Christina Hendricks from Mad Men, Retta from Parks and Recreation, and Mae Whitman from Parenthood and Arrested Development), the show follows 3 struggling moms who are desperate for more money to help keep their families afloat.  Beth (Hendricks) is a suburban mom of 4, married to a philandering car salesman husband (Matthew Lillard) and needing a nest egg so that she can leave him and start out on her own.  Beth's younger sister is Annie (Whitman), a single mom who works as a grocery store cashier; she needs money to fight her ex Greg (Zach Gilford, another fan favorite actor from the beloved Friday Night Lights), who is suing her for custody of their 11-year-old daughter Sadie.  Finally, Ruby (Retta) is Beth's best friend, a waitress struggling to pay for her daughter Lidya's expensive kidney disease treatments.  They jokingly talk about robbing the grocery store to solve all of their problems, until Annie convinces them to actually go through with it.  After a pretty funny robbery (Beth comforts a young girl in the store, while wearing a mask and carrying a gun, scaring her even more), the gang ends up with much more than the few thousand dollars that they had anticipated.  They begin spending their newfound fortune (Annie buys a sports car, Ruby takes Lidya to a high-end doctor), until a Mexican gang comes calling, angry that the women have taken over their territory.  Things just snowball from there, as the store's manager Boomer (David Hornsby) discovers that Annie was responsible for the crime and tries to blackmail and rape her (yeah, this is when it really gets dark).  The women try to get out of their hole, but things just get worse and worse.

This show is definitely not what I expected, but so far I'm liking it.  The strong cast elevates a pretty basic premise and mediocre writing.  The previews made it look more funny than dark, but it's really the opposite.  But I like dark shows, so I'm going with it.  Hendricks brings her strong female working-woman Joan character from Mad Men into the 21st century, really conveying Beth's sense of hopelessness about her predicament while also taking a feminist stand against her unhappy married life.  Whitman basically plays the same young spitfire character that we loved on Parenthood; she does a fine job here too, but there's nothing to show any additional range that we haven't already seen from her.  The biggest revelation on the show is definitely Retta.  She had a small role on Parks and Rec, serving as the sassy black woman who made snarky comments here and there.  She did it well, but that's pretty much all that she did.  Here, she shows a strong dramatic side that was never evident before.  Ruby's need to rob the store makes the most sense of the 3 women; she's just doing what needs to be done to help her daughter survive.  And Retta conveys Ruby's struggle with the range of a much more experienced actress.  In the second episode, the women are sure that the gang is about to kill them, and they each share heartbreaking moments with their families where they believe that they're saying goodbye.  These types of moments really show off the dramatic chops of these actresses.  While the show is clearly taking more of a dramatic than comedic path, I still wish that the writers would sprinkle some more jokes in here and there to lighten the mood a bit.  And after robbery, blackmail, attempted rape, attempted murder, and kidnapping, there's definitely a need for more lightness.  Even This is Us, the biggest tearjerker on tv, has its funny moments.  It's still early for Good Girls and it needs some time to find its voice, but so far I think that it's off to a promising start.  Check it out and give it a chance.

The Post and Get Out: Movie Reviews

Now for reviews of the final 2 Oscar Best Picture nominees that didn't win the award: The Post and Get Out.  Both are worth seeing but not particularly memorable or award-worthy.  Get Out in particular was pretty over-hyped, in my humble opinion.

1.  The Post: This film, directed by Steven Spielberg, follows the controversy surrounding the Washington Post's release of the Pentagon Papers in the early 1970s.  As a brief history lesson, the Pentagon Papers were the top secret government files which detailed how several U.S. presidents, starting with Truman and leading up to Nixon, deeply misled the country about the Vietnam War.  Tom Hanks stars as Ben Bradlee, executive editor of the Post, and Meyl Streep plays Katharine Graham, the owner of the paper.  It's interesting to see Hanks and Streep together in their first-ever film collaboration, and both do a fine job with the material written for them.  The plot revolves around The Post's decision about whether or not to print the Papers, after the New York Times had already been barred from doing so by the courts.  There's a lot of back and forth between Graham and her associates where they question her leadership (she gained control of the paper after the deaths of her father and husband), leading to her ultimate decision to go ahead with printing in the movie's big "yay Girl Power" moment.  Afterwards Bradlee and Graham take their case to the Supreme Court, which (Spoiler Alert) rules in their favor (yay "Freedom of the Press").  Normally I find movies about the press to be pretty boring.  Spotlight, about the Boston Globe's investigation into sexual abuse by local Catholic priests, won Best Picture several years ago, but I found it to be really drawn-out and too intellectual.  There's only so much onscreen excitement that can happen in a newsroom.  The Post, however, kept my attention for its entire 2 hour run time, probably because it ventured a little bit outside of the newsroom to give some insight into Hanks' and Streep's characters, and it lightened the mood at times with little bits of humor.  The nuanced acting skills of the two leads also helps to elevate what could have otherwise been some pretty uninteresting onscreen moments.  The supporting cast, which included such strong actors as Bradley Whitford, Matthew Rhys, Carrie Coon, and Sarah Paulson, also live up to the high acting standards set by their more famous costars.  While I probably wouldn't rush to seek this movie out, I would classify it as a good HBO or Netflix watch, if it ends up on either of those platforms.

2.  Get Out: This was a fine suspense/horror film, but I'm a little puzzled by all of the hype that it has received amongst critics and fans.  It's said to be a commentary on race relations in America, but to me it really just kind of made fun of the differences between whites and blacks.  Starring Daniel Kaluuya as Chris, a young black man visiting his white girlfriend Rose's (Allison Williams) parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) in upstate New York for the weekend, the film's light tone begins to darken when Rose's psychiatrist mother hypnotizes Chris.  She claims to be trying to rid Chris of his smoking habit, but she's really just trying to get inside his head.  Chris also notices that the country house's staff, black maid Georgina (Betty Gabriel) and black groundskeeper Walter (Marcus Henderson), are acting strangely.  Georgina stares creepily into space, as if missing a soul, and Walter runs at high speed on the property in the dead of night.  Other creepy events follow, and the film culminates in an unexpected and strange reveal.  The creepy events taking place during the film really didn't have all that much to do with race at all.  I'm not going to give anything away, but the final scene was a little too predictable for my liking; a more twisted and less conventionally "happy" ending would have had a much greater impact.  Kaluuya did a fine job of acting bewildered at the strange events around him, but he had no business being nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.  Jordan Peele's script was one of the best parts of the movie, so I can't argue with his Best Original Screenplay Oscar win, but the film at its core is really just a standard (but very good) horror movie.  I also have to add that Lil Rey Howery, as Chris's best friend Rod, provided some of the funniest moments of the film with his hilarious commentary on the strange goings-on around Chris.  His analysis of Chris's predicament, all through cell phone conversations with him while working as a TSA agent back home in New York City, removed from the action, grounded the film back in reality.  I would definitely recommend this movie as a decent horror film (and decent horror movies are hard to come by these days), but an Oscar-worthy classic it's not.

Dunkirk, Darkest Hour, and Call Me By Your Name: More Movies that didn't win Best Picture

So I'm a little late, but it's time for me to review the remaining 5 movies that were nominated for Best Picture at this year's Oscars.  None of these movies won (that honor went to The Shape of Water), but a couple of them (only a couple) are still worth seeing.  First up are Dunkirk, Darkest Hour, and Call Me By Your Name.

1.  Dunkirk and Darkest Hour: I'm lumping these two together because they are basically about the exact same thing, and neither of them are very good.  Dunkirk tells the story of French and American soldiers stranded at Dunkirk Beach, France in 1940 during one of the darkest periods of World War II for the Allies.  After multiple air raids and bombings of the beach, British civilians use their private boats to rescue most of the soldiers (cue the swell of triumphant music).  This movie is full of stunning cinematography and things blowing up, but there really wasn't much of an actual plot.  There's no point in describing any of the characters, because they all kind of blended together onscreen.  Pop star Harry Styles played one of the soldiers in an okay but unremarkable performance, but the viewers didn't learn any sort of backstory about him or anyone else.  It is possible to make a war movie where viewers get to know and care about the characters (see Saving Private Ryan), but this movie definitely wasn't that.  It was all flash and no substance. 

Darkest Hour, meanwhile, followed the Dunkirk crisis from the perspective of newly elected British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman).  Oldman plays Churchill as a fussy but brilliant old man, in a showy but unremarkable give-me-my-Oscar-now performance (it worked, he won).  John Lithgow gives a much more nuanced Churchill performance in the Netflix show The Crown; I would definitely check that out before seeking out this movie.  Rounding out the main cast of Darkest Hour are Lily James as Churchill's private secretary Elizabeth Layton and Kristin Scott Thomas as his wife Clementine.  Both are fine, but this is really the Gary Oldman show.  Darkest Hour is superior to Dunkirk in that it at least has a plot, but it's a typical fussy British period piece: fine but not memorable in the least.

2.  Call Me By Your Name: This film would have been my pick for Best Picture.  It's the type of movie that sticks with you long after leaving the theater.  The main character and protagonist is Elio (Timothee Chalamet), the 17-year-old son of an archaeologist living in a small Italian town in 1983.  His father's assistant Oliver (Armie Hammer) arrives for the summer, and the two young men soon form a deep friendship that develops into something more.  The most refreshing part of this movie is the support that Elio receives for his new relationship from his family.  Rather than the typical forbidden gay love story, this is just a love story.  Elio is at first uncomfortable about the romance, but he soon comes into his own and falls head-first in love.  As with any other love story, this comes with a deep sense of despair when Oliver leaves at the end of the summer and Elio later learns that he's engaged to someone else.  Refreshingly, the film also doesn't define any of its characters as gay or straight.  Elio also briefly dates and has sex with a young local girl named Marzia, and Oliver is attracted to another girl named Chiara.  All 4 characters dance to the 80's hit "Love My Way" in one memorable scene, an expression of pure joy that the viewer gets sucked up into.  Hammer is good in his role as a masculine young guy that just happens to love another guy, but Chalamet is the real revelation here.  He imbues Elio with depth and heart, with mostly just his expressive eyes rather than extensive dialogue.  We feel his joy in the dance scene and in his love scenes with Oliver, and we also feel his deep sense of loss when Oliver leaves his life.  Chalamet also appeared in Lady Bird (another Best Picture nominee this year) in a small role, but in that movie we didn't get a sense of his true talent.  After this role (and his Oscar nomination) I expect his film career to continue for many years to come.  It should also be noted that this movie is rather graphic in its depictions of sex and nudity, but these only add to the story and aren't gratuitious in the least.  One scene involving a peach is kind of weird and icky, but I went with it because by that point I was fully invested in the characters.  This is a small independent film that didn't make much money at the box office, but I would suggest seeking it out.  As long as you're not a homophobe, you won't be disappointed.

Ranking the Oscar Best Picture Nominees

Now that I've seen all 9 2018 Oscar Best Picture nominees, I thought that I'd rank them from worst to best.  My favorite never wins, and my least favorite usually does win, but here goes anyway.  Full reviews of the remaining 5 films that I have yet to write about will be coming soon.

9.  Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri: I like a good revenge movie, but the plot here was completely illogical, and there was some definite overacting happening onscreen.  None of the characters had any redeeming qualities and most were flat-out racists, so it was hard to root for anyone.

8.  Dunkirk: The cinematography was beautiful and the battle scenes were realistic, but the movie didn't spend any time developing any of the characters or constructing much of a plot.

7.  Darkest Hour: This film basically told the same story as Dunkirk, but from the point of view of Winston Churchill.  Gary Oldman was just okay in the title role, and the movie was so highbrow that it felt like it was made just to win awards.  I hate this tactic (see: The King's Speech, The Iron Lady).

6.  The Post: I expected to hate this movie, because I hated Spotlight, another film about the behind-the-scenes goings on at a newspaper during a famous breaking news story.  But the plot (about the legality of printing the leaked Pentagon Papers) kept my attention throughout, and Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks skillfully elevated what could have been a pretty boring story.

5.  Get Out: Jordan Peele made a funny and twisted horror/thriller, but I'm not sure that this is an Oscar-worthy movie.  The film was probably only nominated for its comments about race relations in America, but the kooky plot is really only partly about that.  Also, I easily came up with a much-better ending in my head.

4.  The Shape of Water: Guillermo del Toro crafted a beautiful and colorful film, and Sally Hawkins as the lead conveys every possible emotion without speaking a word (her character is mute).  But the plot drags a bit in the middle, and the human-sea creature love story comes across as pretty goofy at times.

3.  Phantom Thread:  This started as a fussy movie about fussy dress designer Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis), but it took an unexpected yet awesome dark turn about halfway through.  The ending was especially weird and twisted, in a good way.

2.  Lady Bird: A quirky coming-of-age story led by Saoirse Ronan, the best young actress working today.  The supporting cast is also strong, and the film's sweet moments are balanced by distinctly sarcastic and sharp-tongued humor.

1.  Call Me By Your Name: A touching same-sex love story set in beautiful small-town Italy, with an unforgettable performance by Timothee Chalamet.  The 80's setting and music were an added bonus.

Unreal: Inside the World of Reality TV

Unreal, which just began its 3rd season on Lifetime, aims to show viewers what really goes on behind the scenes of a reality dating show.  Everlasting, a fictional version of the real long-running ABC show The Bachelor, is led by uber bitch executive producer Quinn (Constance Zimmer).  She sits in the control room, barking out orders to her minions and cackling to herself as she manipulates the contestants for maximum dramatic effect.  Producer Rachel (Shiri Appleby) is Quinn's right-hand woman.  She uses her false friendships with the contestants to make them do whatever Quinn wants.  Chet (Craig Bierko) is the show's creator, whose presence serves only to distract the cast and crew.  He has a volatile, on and off relationship with Quinn and later dates a string of dumb young women.  There's also several other supporting players: Jay (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman), a gay producer and friend to Rachel, Jeremy (Josh Kelly), a camera operator who dates Rachel and later tries to rape her in a drunken rage, and Madison (Genevieve Buechner), a meek production assistant who pleasures Chet to get ahead on the show.  Finally, the host is Graham (Brennan Elliott), a full-of-himself clone of real Bachelor host Chris Harrison.

The show is full of insane moments, which have become pretty commonplace by this point.  In season 1, Quinn intentionally meddled with a contestant's medications to make her appear crazier on camera, leading her to jump off the roof of the mansion where the show was being filmed and commit suicide.  Season 2 saw the best friend of Darius (B.J. Britt), the first black suitor, getting shot by the police.  Also in season 2, Coleman (Michael Rady), the producer temporarily hired to replace Rachel, got into a car accident with a contestant, who was actually an investigative journalist trying to expose the show for its manipulations; they were presumably both killed in the accident, since they are so far absent from season 3.  And just in the first episode of season 3, Anna (Johanna Braddy), the first female suitor, had sex with a jockey, cast on the show only for laughs due to his short stature, in her bathroom. 

The biggest strength of the show lies in the performance of Zimmer as Quinn.  She commands both the fictional Everlasting and Unreal, savoring every minute onscreen in her bitchy boss lady role.  Appleby is also strong as Rachel, although her character comes off as pretty annoying most of the time.  She pretends to care about the people around her and judges Quinn for her actions, but she's really just as bad (if not worse) because she's so fake.  The rest of the characters are mostly one-note, although they all shine when they share scenes together in the control room, making bets with each other about which contestants will make it the farthest on the show.  Despite the outrageous moments, which are pretty entertaining, the show can sometimes feel pretty repetitive.  In season 2 it tried to keep viewers' interest with a faster pace and the twist of a black suitor, but the plots tended to be really all over the place and didn't make a whole lot of sense.  Season 3 so far seems more promising, because Anna is an interesting suitor and the show has toned down the craziness a bit.  While it seems unbelievable that Everlasting would still be on the air after so many deaths and scandals, it's still interesting to get a glimpse into the true fakeness of reality tv from this show.  Despite its flaws, I recommend Unreal, because it's genuinely unique and its comments on the tv industry are bold and intriguing.