TV Reviews and An Endangered Species

The Wife and I enjoy TV.  I realize that’s not the sophisticated thing to say, but I don’t shop at

Whole Foods either and I had a doughnut for breakfast.  So, I’m over trying to impress you with how evolved I am. 

Ours is not a hipster family.  Some may call it "old fashioned".  One day, maybe they’ll call it “old school” when a man and his The Wife are only married to each other and raise a family together.  Maybe being an endangered species will make it cool to be a traditional, American family.  More to that later.

The Wife and I are both very busy (as most people are) and we like to relax together watching television.  Occasionally, we may even talk about the show during the time it takes to fast forward through the commercials (on the 8^th day, God invented the DVR…am I right?).

I enjoy a good story told well.  Even better is a funny story told in a way that earns a laugh.  Here are a few quick reviews of many of the new shows for the Fall of 2013.  Some are good stories told well. Some, you’d be better off fast forwarding through the show to get to the commercials.

Terrible

Goldbergs – If there is an overused, family stereotype this show shamelessly abuses it.  How many dopey, un-affectionate dads do we need on TV? The 1980s deserves a good comedy set in that decade.  This is NOT it.

Hostages – An interesting premise (A surgeon’s family is kidnapped.  The kidnappers will kill them if the doctor doesn’t let the President die during surgery) that quickly falls apart.  The storytelling is lazy and the dialogue is stale. 

Agents of Shield – Since "The Avengers" movie, I have a problem with this franchise of superhero stories.  Once you bring Thor, Iron Man and Scarlett Johansson together (like in "The Avengers") it’s kinda ridiculous that any one of the Avengers is left to fight any super villainous threat to humanity by themselves. 

The Millers – I like Will Arnett (yes, I’m the one).  However, other than "Arrested Development", investing in a Will Arnett show has proven to be the same as bothering to name the goldfish you won at the county fair.  His shows ("Running Wilde" and "Up All Night") just don’t seem to make.  The Millers also leans heavily on tired clichés.  The mother and father of the adult children are constantly bickering.  The mother is over-bearing and the father is a buffoon.  The cast has talent, but the show lacks creativity.  "Up All Night" was a much better show.

Take It or Leave It

Mom – The Wife likes this show, but probably doesn’t want to admit it.  It is funny (with more than a touch

of “semi-crude” humor).  Allison Janney (who was great in "The West Wing") has proven to be a very good comedic actress.  The supporting cast could use some work (or at least use French Stewart more), but Janney is strong and the jokes are funny.

Sleepy Hollow – I don’t know.  There are aspects of this premise I find interesting, but it’s so complicated.  I won’t bother to explain it all because the show itself has a two-minute lead in to each episode to remind viewers what is going on.  Ichabad Crane showing up to battle the Headless Horseman in modern day Sleepy Hollow had some potential.  There are lots of plot problems (Why is Crane still wearing 1770s era clothing when he’s been in the 21^st century for weeks?) but I like the two lead characters. The show just asks for a lot of investment for what will likely disappoint in the end. I don't know.

Good – These are the top 5 new shows from 2013, plus one with special recognition.

1. Blacklist – This is a well-written “spy” drama starring James Spader. Spader is great as the super-smug super-villain who mysteriously starts assisting a new FBI agent in the capture high-profile criminals.  It is a formula-show, but it is a formula that can hold up over time and adds in enough twists of background stories to help keep things interesting from week to week.  It's like "Alias" meets "White Collar".
2. Crazy Ones – Watching Robin Williams do comedy is like watching Peyton Manning play
   
   quarterback.  You have to pay careful attention and maybe even watch it twice to pick up on everything that is going on.  The show is funny and, while Williams carries the show, the supporting cast is good enough. 
3. Brooklyn Nine Nine – I've never been a big Andy Samberg fan.  So, for me to not only like this show but admit that it is “LOL” funny means that it is pretty darn good.  Andre Braugher (who I've liked since "Homicide: Life on the Street"…man, that was a good show) delivers a great dead-pan to Samberg’s silliness.  The rest of the cast has a lot of comedic talent, too.
4. Trophy Wife – I like Bradley Whitford.  I liked him in "The West Wing" (with Allison Janney).  I liked him in "Studio 60".  And, while "Trophy Wife" isn’t nearly as funny as "The Good Guys" (How did that show not catch on?  Watch it on Netflix.) "Trophy Wife" is still a pretty good show with a pretty Malin Akerman as the “trophy wife”.  The rest of the cast (especially the kids) is talented, too.  The name is a problem for the show and it could stand for some other minor changes, too.  I hope it sticks around because Whitford and Akerman are both worth watching (each for their own reasons).
5. Back In the Game – I honestly thought this show would be terrible, so it didn't have a high bar to leap over for me.  The plot of a mom coaching her nerdy son’s baseball team with the help of her curmudgeon father sounded putrid.  However, Maggie Lawson (“Psych”) is adorable and James Caan brings some depth to a character that could simply be a grumpy old man. 

MUST WATCH!

The Michael J. Fox Show – When you look at all of the new shows in 2013, by my count there are two shows that focus on a traditional, nuclear family. One was "The Goldbergs" and the other is "The Michael J. Fox Show".  "The Goldbergs" is terrible.  So, I can’t recommend that.  The Fox show, however, is very good and worth watching.

I think it is interesting that so few shows have a dad and a mom living together while raising their children. Is it so rare that a family looks like mine, or the Romanos or the Huxtables?  I'm not making a judgment against anyone's family situation.  The American family has changed over the years and Hollywood has changed with it.  I'm just asking if it's taken that change too far.

Mom is a show about three generations of single moms.  Trophy Wife is about a man and his relationships with his 3^rd wife and his two exes.  Both are funny shows that I enjoy.  Both portray family situations that, I suppose, are more and more common in America. However, how many shows (new or not) are on TV now that portray “traditional” families?  The Middle?  The Simpsons? The Fox Show does this, so it is an important addition to the TV lineup for that reason alone.  

Ultimately, it’s important that the jokes on The Fox Show are good, which they are.  Also, the battle that Fox (and his character on the show) has with Parkinson’s is dealt with in a very creative way (it’s part of the show, but doesn’t overwhelm the story line).  The Michael J. Fox Show is worthy of watching because it tells funny stories in a way that earns a laugh.  While I doubt the producers intended this, it is also worthy of watching as it celebrates that endangered species known as the traditional, American family.

Loni Anderson Is Not My Hero

“You’re my hero”…that’s what she wrote. 

I’ve told you before how The Wife and I use our bathroom wall to post graffiti.  Bible verses, quotes, propositions, love notes, etc. are the typical subject matter.  But, “you’re my hero”? I had two immediate thoughts: First, I don’t leap tall buildings in a single bound.  I don’t even leap at all anymore.  Second, she’s once again confused me with Thor (I get that from a lot of people.  Easy mistake).

So, how do we choose our heroes?  When we are young, we typically choose quite poorly and equate fame to heroism. If you google disgraced athletes (and “googling” may be what got some of them in trouble in the first place) you get an insanely long trail of fallen heroes.  Let’s see: Clemens, Sosa, McGwire, Tiger, Rodriguez, Hernandez, Armstrong and OJ, just to name some of the most successful men to play their respective sports only to have their reputation decimated by their own hand.  Perfect shouldn’t have to be the standard for any hero, but you have to draw the line somewhere, like maybe cheating at a criminal level, rampant infidelity, fraud, perjury and homicide.

Personally, growing up I had two posters on my wall: Pete Rose and Loni Anderson.  Pete Rose was a hero because I loved how he played the game.  If the team needed him to play second, left, right, third or first he did it and he did it well.  He approached every play like his bowl-cut hair was on fire.  Oh yeah, he could hit a little bit, too.  How did that “hero” turn out though?  “Not too good” would be a safe bet.

Loni Anderson wasn’t what I’d call a “hero”, but she had to be brave to work with that Herb Tarlek guy (and pretty brave to wear that white bikini…am I right?). Of course once I found out she was married to Burt Reynolds…well she might as well have bet on baseball.  What a disappointment.  Burt and Loni: the less talented Brad and Angelina of the early 1980s.

With a lot more age and, hopefully, a little more wisdom I think I have a little better perspective on who my real heroes are.  I can start with The Dad.  When I was a kid, my dad worked crazy hours, often worked two jobs and when he went back to night class to earn his college degree he was probably a dozen years older than the others in his graduating class.  (If I had half the work ethic that he does, I would have finished this blog post hours ago).  Now that I'm an adult, I see how much he cares for my mom and that there isn't a man in the world more reliable and dependable than my dad (no, my father is not a Volvo). 

The Father-in-law is another “hero”.  First, he let me marry The Wife.  That was act of bravery like he was in a Die Hard movie.  I’ve also seen over the years how he’s modeled trusting God in difficult situations (hopefully, my being married to his daughter isn’t one of those “difficult situations”).  He is also a great example of helping people feel loved and appreciated.  He is generous and kind-hearted and often goes out of his way to serve others.

I know neither The Dad nor The Father-in-Law would refer to themselves as a hero.  I would say most people don’t consider themselves to be heroes.  (If they do, they probably ARE NOT heroes, but they definitely ARE insufferable a$$-hats).  I certainly don’t feel like a hero because I know how flawed I am and I hear every un-heroic (or is it “non-heroic”) thought that passes through my brain.  Hopefully, I’m somewhere between “insufferable a$$-hat” and “hero” and by the grace of God trending towards the latter and not the former (Did I use that expression right?.  If I didn't, I meant to say I'm not becoming more of an a$$-hat. Either way, I'm gonna get in trouble with The Wife for using the phrase "a$$-hat" so much.  Even though I used a $ instead of an S, so it really isn't a bad word).

It does make me feel a little more like a hero, however, to have a wife who calls me one.  A Wife who, as Melvin Udall said in "As Good As It Gets", "makes me want to be a better man". Maybe The Wife is the true hero in this marriage and not me (and definitely not Loni Anderson).

Two random pop culture references I wanted to work into this post but couldn't make them fit: The song "My Hero" by The Foo Fighters is awesome and supports my point on the topic.  The TV show "Heroes" was outstanding in its first season.  The rest of them stunk.