Hi all,
Here's what I watched this past week:
I'm trudging through the first season of the animated spy series "Archer," upon the recommendation of a dear friend and fellow TV lover. While the show never delivers on its promise to be "Arrested Development" meets James Bond, it does offer a few treats. Jessica Walter's Mallory Archer, the main character's mom and boss, is a direct descendant of Lucille Bluth, and easily the best part of the show. Much of the rapid fire dialogue is too "clever" for its own sake, but never quite as funny as it thinks it is. The juxtaposition of graphic violence into animation, though, is fairly funny and amusing, even if this shock has been used before. I will finish the second half of the series, but few things other than Walters really make me want to return after each episode.
2.5/4
On Wednesday night, I attended a high security, advanced screening of "The Social Network," courtesy of SLU's "U News." I'm currently tweaking my review for this week's paper, and I'll post it here when it is finished. But for now, suffice it to say, it's easily the best film of the year thusfar, and quite possibly the most perfect and wildly ambitious American film since "There Will Be Blood." Not to talk it up too much, though.
4/4
Thursday night, I enjoyed by obligatory discount night at the movies with a few friends. This week, we saw "Easy A." I found it to be a very enjoyable, funny and excellent romantic comedy with a sharp, bitingly satirical edge. For a more thorough, and frankly better, review of the film, see Ken Dusold's piece published on this website.
3/4
I finally saw the premiere episode of HBO's new series "Boardwalk Empire." I have been highly anticipating this offering from "Sopranos" alum Terence Winter, and director Martin Scorsese. I'll definitely have more words about this fascinating new series in weeks to come. For now, though, I'm pretty damn excited. Marty brought the touch of a master to the pilot. Steve Buscemi looks to be a nice variation on the macho Tony Soprano he'll likely be compared to. Michael Shannon is curiously intriguing. Michael Stuhlbarg did a 180 from his great turn in the Coens' "A Serious Man." The production values were impeccable, and the 75 minutes accomplished much at a rather deliberate pace. My only complaints are that the usually wonderful Kelly MacDonald was a tad annoying, and I wanted more Omar! I'm quite excited about this series.
(I'll withhold a rating until I can see more of the series.)
I also caught the season premiere of "The Office." To see how far this show has come from being original, funny, and wildly satirical, to what it is now, is incredibly sad. The show once worked so well from "oh, my God, I know someone exactly like that" or "hey, that just happened to me." Now, it relies on unbelievable character traits and ridiculously contrived situations that it no longer feels recognizable. They're just beating a dead horse. Steve Carrell is right in leaving, and so should the rest of the cast.
1/4
Lastly, I watched the season premiere of "30 Rock" season 5. It wasn't great. This show seems to be losing steam, too. The play between Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey is still the best part of the show, but the guest turn from Matt Damon was annoying, and Tracy Morgan just phones in the same performance every week. This episode was written by Tina Fey, who is usually reliable to deliver some clever laughs. But if even she can't fashion a good premiere, maybe "30 Rock" has seen it's best days.
2.5/4
-TJ
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