TV

BATES MOTEL (1987)

March 5, 2021

(DVD) This isn’t the recently completed BATES MOTEL TV series, but a made-for-TV film that was shot in-between PSYCHO III and PSYCHO IV: THE BEGINNING (which was actually shot after BATES MOTEL).

This isn’t a great film but an interesting curio. (Granted, one could say that about -all- of the sequels.) It’s worth noting that Anthony Perkins doesn’t appear in it; instead, Kurt Paul — Perkins’ stunt double in the prior Psycho films — portrays him. BATES MOTEL takes place after PSYCHO (ignoring PSYCHO II and III) and features Alex West (Bud Cort) who killed his step-father as a youth and was then thrown into the same asylum as Norman Bates. Bates befriended Alex and, upon dying, bequeathed him his hotel. Alex, along with the assistance of Willie (Lori Petty) a plucky young woman, fix up the hotel while fending off fears that the place is haunted by Mrs. Bates.

Meanwhile — and slightly jarringly inserted — a woman (Kerrie Keane) checks into the hotel, as — feeling old, alone and unloved after a recent divorce — plans on killing herself. As she’s about to do so, she’s is interrupted by a teen girl (Khrystyne Haje) who invites her to an after-prom party where she woos a young Jason Bateman and realizes there’s still some life in her bones after all. Then — hardly a spoiler, as it’s telegraphed from the get-go but letting you know just in case — it’s revealed that the teen killed herself in the very same room years ago.

If you read the above and thought: ‘Hey, that sounds like a story I’d see in a 80s TV anthology!’ you can pat yourself on the back. BATES MOTEL was a feature film masquerading as a TV pilot, where each week would tell the dovetailing tales of troubled hotel guests. While BATES MOTEL takes far too much time getting the hotel in Alex’s hands — including a lot of padding involving him simply trying to locate the hotel — and it is far too enamored with the Scooby Doo-ish pratfalls that occur afterwards, the B-story is satisfying enough that I wish they’d moved forward with the show. Obviously, they didn’t and we only have this TV film to show for it.

(Then again, I also unabashed love the TV anthology series FRIDAY THE 13: THE SERIES, which similarly has little to do with its namesake.)

RECTIFY (2013-2016)

February 25, 2021

(AMC+/fubo/VOD) RECTIFY is leaving Netflix on March 3rd, when I imagine it’ll pop up on AMC+, so you have less than a week to watch this heartfelt exploration of a man — Daniel Holden (Aden Young) — found guilty of killing a girl, sentenced to death, acquitted of murder, and his re-entry into society.

Rather than RECTIFY being about society re-embracing him, it darts the other way. This is not about whether Daniel Holden is guilty, but is about him trying to find peace with his community, family (including TIMELESS’ Abigail Spencer), and himself. It’s a singularly human drama from DEADWOOD’s Ray McKinnon that had a surprisingly long life thanks to the Sundance Channel, and is well-worth making time for before it leaves Netflix.

ELEMENTARY (2012-2019)

February 15, 2021

(Hulu/VOD) The year is 2012. A well-received modern adaptation of Sherlock Holmes — SHERLOCK — from the beloved writer/director of classic DOCTOR WHO ep -Blink- was already on its second season. CBS announced ELEMENTARY, which was squarely positioned as a CBS procedural with Johnny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Watson, positioned in modern day New York City. Most folks scoffed, wondering how it could possibly compare to SHERLOCK.

Jump ahead to today, and I found ELEMENTARY to be the superior show for many reasons, but here are a few that stand out:

1) ELEMENTARY let their characters grow naturally, as opposed to solely saddling them with sensational baggage like -some- Holmes adaptations.

2) ELEMENTARY humanized Holmes without detracting from his superhuman facets. He’s an addict, he’s a brilliant asshole, but here he does care about people, especially not hurting folks in his orbit. His arc with Watson is one of the most mature partnership and friendship arcs I’ve seen portrayed on network TV.

3) Liu is the best Watson, and it’s not just because she’s so well-dressed. She has her own voice and place alongside Sherlock, although it takes a bit for the writers to get her there. She’s also one of the few Watsons shown to properly exist independently of Sherlock.

4) It provides the freshest, most interesting take on Moriarty. To say anymore would spoil matters.

While I found the show to have peaked in the second season — if you’re pressed for time, watch the first two and leave it there — all -seven- seasons are extremely watchable, partially because of the reasons listed above, but also because of the strong supporting and guest cast, which included Aidan Quinn as Holmes’ staple Captain Gregson, Steppenwolf regular Jon Michael Hill as Detective Marcus Bell, and Fringe’s John Noble as Sherlock’s father.

Lastly, the title sequence was absolutely lovely, and I would always take the time to watch it.

THE KNICK (2014-2015)

February 12, 2021

(HBO MAX/VOD) Steven Soderbergh’s THE KNICK was part of the ‘auteur TV’ moment that bloomed in 2014, which included shows like TRUE DETECTIVE where the entire series was helmed by a sole director with a vision. Not only did Soderbergh direct all twenty episodes of the show, but he also shot it — not just taking on director of photography duties, but also filling in as the camera operator, -and- he edited it.*

The end result is a spectacularly modulated historical drama featuring Clive Owen as Dr. John Thackery as a brilliant doctor/addict at NYC’s Knickerbocker Hospital at the turn of the 20th century, Eve Hewson (the previously mentioned TESLA) as a nurse who falls into Thackery’s orbit, and André Holland (MOONLIGHT, HIGH FLYING BIRD) as Dr. Algernon Edwards, fighting for his right to practice medicine as a Black man. Its use of wide lenses, extended long takes, and unflinching portrayals of early 20th century surgery made it look like nothing on TV, and it sounded unlike anything else thanks to a throbbing electronic score from stalwart Soderbergh composer Cliff Martinez.

The second season ends with a jaw dropping moment, one that you will never forget — although you may wish you could unsee it — one that seemed to put a pin in the show but, no, there’s been talk of the show being revived; first with Soderbergh at the helm again, now with Barry Jenkins as the show runner. I hope it happens but, if not, Soderbergh gave us two astounding seasons of television that deserve to be seen by more folks.

Here’s the trailer, but you may to skip it — and the show — if you do not have a strong stomach.

NAKED CITY (1958-1963)

February 11, 2021

(Pluto/Roku/tubi/VOD) NAKED CITY was a long-running TV show adapted from the 1948 film THE NAKED CITY, bringing a more grounded police procedural to the small screen, ten years after the film, and seven years after DRAGNET made the leap from radio to TV. While show creator Stirling Silliphant (THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT writer, creator of the previously mentioned ROUTE 66 which was spurred into existence by an episode of NAKED CITY) had nothing to do with the original film, he took to heart the intent of putting NYC and its citizens on display.

The first season features John McIntire and James Franciscus inhabiting the same THE NAKED CITY roles as Lt. Detective Dan Muldoon and Detective Jimmy Halloran although John McIntire quickly grew tired of New York City and the show, so he was written out in a -jawdropping- way, then NAKED CITY was recast and turned from a half-hour show to an hour long, and recast again — this with Paul Burke as the lead detective — and with him it finally found some legs.

The show’s fumbling worked though, as the delay allowed NAKED CITY to capture a completely different New York City than the one portrayed in THE NAKED CITY, a NYC with counterculture, where the youths had started to distrust the police, as opposed to the fantasyland of 60s DRAGNET. (I’ve watched far too much DRAGNET: https://tvannotations.tumblr.com/post/60116769951/dragnet)

Like its modern day companion LAW & ORDER, it made the most of the NYC theater scene and booked a number of extraordinarily talented guest actors who hadn’t been discovered yet, including Cicely Tyson, Peter Falk, Bruce Dern, Suzanne Pleshette, and many more. Even if you ignore the adept location shooting, brisk plotting and deft character work, the show’s worth a watch simply for the faces that pop up.

“There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.”

AWAKE (2012)

February 6, 2021

(VOD) AWAKE was a short-lived high-concept procedural TV crime drama about Michael Britten (Jason Issacs, HARRY POTTER, THE DEATH OF STALIN), a detective who loses his wife (Laura Allen, TERRIERS, THE 4400) in a car accident. He falls asleep and, when he wakes, instead of his wife being dead, it’s his son (13 REASONS WHY’s Dylan Minnette). Next time he falls asleep, his son is still dead. He straddles these two realms, living a fractured life, all while solving crimes and attending therapy sessions with separate therapists (BD Wong in one, Cherry Jones in the other).

The show’s creator, Kyle Killen, previously dabbled in the ‘dual lives’ genre with his infamously truncated FOX series LONE STAR, which featured James Wolk (the Bob in MAD MEN’s ‘Not great, Bob!’. Also, ZOO.) as a bigamist and, while LONE STAR was unjustly canceled too soon, AWAKE feels like a more mature, more interesting take on the material, as it scrutinizes a man who won’t reckon with the schism in his life, so he’s forced to endure all permutations.

AWAKE was one of the rare post-LOST genre shows that used its high-concept to dig deep into the humanity of its characters, while still fueling a remarkable storytelling engine. The season one finale — also the series finale — broke the future potential of the show wide open, or lent the show some closure, depending on how you look at it.

If you do watch it and want to read about what they intended with the finale and potential future of the show, there’s a great interview with Killen here: https://ew.com/article/2012/05/26/awake-finale-kyle-killen-burning-questions/

SMALL AXE (2020)

February 3, 2021

(Prime) Obviously we’ll be hearing a lot about this series over the upcoming months, but a lot of ink has already been spilled as to whether Steve McQueen’s SMALL AXE is TV or film. You’d think that, since Krzysztof Kieslowski did something similar with THE DECALOGUE in the late 80s, critics would have an answer to that by now. Personally I don’t care. Call it a modern successor to the televised theater anthologies of old for all I care. Let him win a bunch of Emmys and Oscars!

It’s a singular achievement in this day and age — each and every segment of SMALL AXE would land on anyone’s ‘best of’ list this year — and to release five masterpieces in one year? It feels like McQueen challenged himself to direct the hell out of a wide range of genres, personally investing himself by showcasing London’s Black community he grew up in, daring himself not to fuck it up.

Visually sumptuous with scenes full of food preparation, simmering, consumption; aurally entrancing with music endlessly throbbing, knives and forks clattering on ceramic; exceptional performances that bolster meticulously crafted scripts — it’s fantastic cinema. Or TV. Or cinematic TV. Or just great art.

Yes, you can watch every film on its own — although I’d suggest going with the suggested viewing order — and you will find each and everyone to be exceptional, but watch them together, watch the timeline of events unfold, watch matters ebb and escalate, and the whole becomes a greater sum of its parts. It’s remarkable.

Oh, and when you’re done, check out the SMALL AXE online zine: https://smallaxe.interactnow.tv/zine

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (2008-2009)

January 31, 2021

(Hulu/VOD) It may be blasphemy, especially since I haven’t seen any of the TERMINATOR films since TERMINATOR 3, but THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES is by far my favorite slice of the TERMINATOR franchise.

It took a bit for the show to find its footing but, once it did, it was blisteringly inventive. One of the closing scenes of first season features creator Josh Friedman and the episode’s director Mike Rohl taking a very big swing, making the most of the show’s limited budget while still serving up a visually arresting — and very memorable — closing number. (You can see the entire scene here. Despite the fact that it is part of the season finale, it doesn’t spoil much. Yes, that’s the scene as it aired — not a fan video.)

The cast is overstuffed with well-known talent and future heavy hitters, including Lena Headey as Sarah Connor, Thomas Dekker as John Connor (I imagine they partially cast him because of his last name), Summer Glau as a terminator ally, prolific character actor Richard T. Jones as an FBI agent, Garret Dillahunt, THE SHIELD’s Catherine Dent, James Urbaniak, Brian Austin Green, Beeper King Dean Winters, GARBAGE’s Shirley Manson, the list goes on.

While the show could have lived longer, the two available seasons are extremely entertaining, and some of best network sci-fi in years. One note: the series ends on a cliffhanger so, if that bothers you, you may want to abstain.

FREAKS & GEEKS (1999)

January 26, 2021

(Hulu/Paramount+/VOD) FREAKS & GEEKS is finally available to stream! If you haven’t already purchased the DVD, or have enough grey hair to have watched it when it first aired, Hulu managed to clear all of the music rights and — after a bit of a stumble out of the gait — have the eps properly ordered.

If you’re a product of the 80s — especially if you were a nerd in the 80s — it’ll be a trip down memory lane. If not, given how absurdly recognizable all of the actors and creatives are, it’ll be another sort of nostalgia for you, as it introduced the world to: Judd Apatow, Linda Cardellini, Paul Feig, James Franco, Busy Philipps, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Mike White. A laundry list of modern heavy hitters, all of whom cut their teeth on this show.

MILDRED PIERCE (2011)

January 24, 2021

(DVD/HBO MAX) I love Curtiz’s adaptation of James M. Cain’s MILDRED PIERCE — he certainly knew how to work the material to fit Joan Crawford — but it’s Todd Haynes’ (CAROL, FAR FROM HEAVEN) version that is truer to Cain’s novel. Yes, most of Cain’s works are lurid and pulpy crime tales, sensational enough to be banned, but MILDRED PIERCE is the exception. Cain paints a detailed portrait of a difficult mother with an even more difficult daughter, both of whom get wrapped up with a exploitative cad. It’s an epic character piece that deserves every minute of the approximately six hours that Haynes gives it.

Haynes enlists Kate Winslet who plays the role with a muted air — not quite the hysterical, over-protective mother that Crawford portrayed — while Evan Rachel Wood brats it up as her daughter, and Guy Pearce gleefully tears into inhabiting a genuine shitheel playboy. As you’d expect from Haynes, the cinematography is lush, the production design department spared not one piece of patterned wallpaper, and everyone’s stitched to the nines.

Most importantly, Haynes knows how to let scenes breath. Cameras track contemplatively, gazes wander, and characters sit with themselves, processing the ramifications of their actions. While it may not be as fondly recalled as the initial adaptation, or even any of Haynes’ prior works, it’s a mini-series that merits the extra time.