It's that (increasingly vague and amorphous) time of year again!
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It's that (increasingly vague and amorphous) time of year again!
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Last night I watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I liked it more than I expected -- Andre Brougher was especially fun -- but I suspect The Lovely and Talented will be exercising her veto power over this one.
I taped but haven't yet watched the premiere of Sleepy Hollow.
I watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine and I thought it was pretty good. I thought it would have been funny if they had made Braugher's character Pembleton from Homicide. The direction they went though I thought was good.
I also saw Dads. I didn't laugh once and thought it was pretty terrible.
Doctor Hmmm? said:
Likewise here with Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The comedy with Andre Braugher came from him playing it completely straight. He just needed to show the Andy Samberg character who's boss, and once they got that out of the way, he could respect Detective Peralta's capabilities. But I liked how his captain wasn't a humorless martinet; the way he handled that bit with Peralta and the Speedo was sharp.
As for Samberg, well, it is his show, so your liking for the show rests heavily on how much you like him. But the ensemble has potential.
I suspect, however, that the rest of the family in my household sides with The Lovely and Talented on this one.
my reviews of B99 and SH:
http://www.rpsteeves.com/2013/09/wrapped-up-like-tv-review-sleepy-h...
http://www.rpsteeves.com/2013/09/wrapped-up-like-tv-review-brooklyn...
Haven't seen BK99 yet, but I've got high hopes for it, given that one of its creators is Mike Shur, who created Parks & Recreation, and fine-tuned it into what I consider the funniest sitcom on TV right now. It started out shaky, too, at first.
Only one new show appeals to me this year: Crazy Ones starring Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar. I watched the first episode last night and was not disappointed. That probably means it’s doomed to cancellation. None of my favorite shows from last year were renewed, and one of those was cancelled after only four episodes.
I watched Sleepy Hollow because I didn't have anything else to watch. I was under the impression it was Ichabod solving crimes in the modern era, and it wasn't. That's a good thing. I thought it was a fun show with some creepy moments. I'll be checking it out for the time being. While it doesn't particularly bring anything new to the table but it helps that it's got some genuine thrills and the leads are very likeable.
As I already said on another thread, SHIELD was disappointing to me. I've never been much of a Whedon-tv fan so my expectations were in check going in. I'll probably give it a few more trys before making a decision.
I watched Dads and that was pretty bad.
I haven't caught Brooklyn Nine-Nine yet. I forgot to record it and as of last weekend, it's not onDemand yet.
I have the Blacklist, Michael J. Fox Show and The Crazy Ones recorded to watch.
Then I'll be picking up on my old favorites such as How I Met Your Mother, Nashville, Big Bang Theory and Revenge. I'm looking forward to the return of East Bound and Down on HBO as well as the new HBO comedy Hello Ladies.
I caught the second episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, more because I want to see Andre Braugher than Andy Samberg. Samberg's role is The Loveable Cut-Up, and he straddles the line between being entertaining and annoying. The saving grace is that he's supposed to be very good at his job, but I don't think that's been sufficently established. Braugher is, of course, playing The Strait-Laced Authority Figure, but they seem to be going for a mentor-mentee association.
In this episode, Braugher's Captain Holt and Samberg's Detective Peralta are in a car on stakeout, looking for a vandal who has been spray-painting images of penises on police vehicles. Peralta whines that he doesn't need a babysitter; Holt responds that he doesn't want to babysit him, but he will if Peralta doesn't take his job seriously. Peralta says he does -- he catches bad guys. Holt responds that the rest of it -- procedure, paperwork, appearance, even proper footwear -- is important. Peralta, getting in character for this stakeout, has taken on the persona of a yuppie in shorts, polo shirt, and mandals. Holt disapproves, knowing those mandals are going to be a problem. Then Holt declares that Peralta will be followed by a superior officer on every one of his cases until he can show Holt that he can do every part of the job perfectly.
Soon after that, the tagger shows up, spraypainting the very vehicle they're sitting in! They give chase, and within three steps, one of Peralta's mandals falls off. He lamely catches up to Holt, who has stopped the tagger.
Back at the station house, Peralta, as is his way, makes a show of writing the "perfect" report, including such trivia as the weather and putting it in a binder that he covers with sparkles. The arrestee smugly gives him a phony name, and as he runs the boy's prints, he finds out why; the boy's dad is a deputy commissioner.
What to do? Peralta tries to punt, but the Captain won't let him. The boy has tagged dozens of cars, causing thousands of dollars in damages, but his dad always lets him off the hook. He does so again, personally coming to the station, in full dress uniform, declaring the boy is a good kid on his way to Duke University; he actually says, "Boys will be boys," and menacingly makes it clear to Peralta to drop it. Peralta, in the effort to do every part of his job perfectly, hands the deputy commissioner the report, and he promptly tosses it in a trash can.
Peralta goes back to Captain Holt, relieved that he hasn't flushed his career down the drain by crossing a deputy commissioner, but uneasy because, well -- the brat keeps causing thousands of dollars in property damage and keeps getting away with it. Captain Holt makes an interesting point, "It's sad that his father thinks so little of him." And Peralta, in the honest effort to do his job perfectly, as well as to live up to his personal mandate to catch bad guys, rushes outside to catch the deputy commissioner and the boy, and arrests him.
The deputy commissioner blusters, but the captain -- in his full dress uniform -- is right beside Peralta, backing him up. The deputy commissioner threatens Holt but he is undeterred: "I'm an out gay man. You aren't the first one to threaten me. But I'm still here, because I do my job."
If it wasn't for Andre Braugher's gravitas, I wouldn't have much patience for this show. But the contrast between the captain's old-school ways and Peralta's gonzo approach is working for me.
Less so the supporting cast. Terry Crews is being wasted shamefully.
I jumped back on board with Chicago Fire and The Big Bang Theory.
Chicago Fire is from the Dick Wolf, factory, but, unlike the various iterations of Law & Order, it spins personal tales of the crew at the firehouse. Admittedly, it gets a little soap opera-ish, -- there are way too many office romances -- but I like it.
One little bit in the premiere I had to laugh at: They get a call about a fire at a three-story rowhouse. As they're setting up, one of the guys says, "A little help?" because there's a car parked next to a hydrant. So, three firefighters blithely break the driver's window and the passenger window, and thread the hose through the car and hook up the hose to the hydrant. I saw that done in Backdraft as well, which was also set in Chicago -- is that a Chicago thing or a universal firefighter's thing?
We checked out The Michael J. Fox show the other night. It was nice, but not often laugh-out-loud funny. But out of all the new comedies, I'm giving it a fair amount of rope.
Brooklyn 99 has won me over two weeks in a row, now. It's staying on the list.
Agents of SHIELD is probably the only other new show that's gonna make the grade long term. But Top Chef and American Horror Story are both set in New Orleans this year, so I'll give them both a try for the first time.
Arrow's getting a look from us too, this year. I'm sure there's not much in the first season I'll need to catch up on.
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