It’s been well-documented that, when Conan O’Brien departs the less-stringent 12:30 AM timeslot in favor of replacing Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show,” he will not be taking one of his most renown characters with him: the Masturbating Bear. It’s a shame, but it’s not a big surprise, either. (Can you imagine the number of heart attacks the great beast would cause in middle America if he were to go through his trademark schtick at 11:30 PM?) Fortunately, however, Conan gave the forest’s most famous knuckle shuffler the heave-ho with dignity…and with no less than two Harrison Ford homages, plus a very special guest star.
Author: Will Harris (Page 82 of 261)
Will is a member of the Television Critics Association and has written for Decider.com, the Onion A.V. Club, The Dissolve, Indiewire, Rhino.com, TV Week Magazine, The Virginian-Pilot, Popdose.com, and EW.com along with writing for Bullz-Eye.com and Premium Hollywood.
C’mon, who else out there is a “My Boys” supporter?
I swear, I think I’m the only one within the Bullz-Eye / Premium Hollywood corral of contributors who has a full-on love for this show, but the camaraderie between P.J. (Jordana Spiro) and the boys (Jamie Kaler, Kyle Howard, Reid Scott, Michael Bunin, and the inestimable Jim Gaffigan) feels as real as any sitcom ensemble this side of “How I Met Your Mother,” as does the back-and-forth between P.J. and Stephanie (Kellee Stewart)
If you haven’t seen the show yet, it won’t surprise you that I heartily endorse the Season 1 DVD set, but if your wallet’s about as empty as mine, then you can at least check out this quick but effective wrap-up of Season 2’s events in time to prepare for the March 31st premiere of Season 3:
Tonight brings the first of the two parts of the first-season finale of TNT’s “Leverage.” We’ve commented on the show in the past here on Premium Hollywood, but after a slight false start in the early days of the series, it’s become an enjoyable blend of action, drama, and comedy that allows the viewer to escape into a world where the little guy actually gets to win once in awhile. We had a chance to talk to Christian Kane, who plays the rough-and-tumble Eliot Spencer on the show, and quizzed him about how the show’s gone for him. (We also snuck in a quick “Angel” question and checked on the status of his music career, too.)
1. If you can approach “Leverage” as a viewer rather than a fan for a second, are you surprised that “Leverage” was able to find an audience? Because a lot of series are in, out, and done in just a couple of episodes, but you guys found an audience quickly.
Yeah, we did, man. Y’know, it’s always surprising to me what works and what doesn’t work. I mean, I can’t believe that some of the stuff that’s on right now is on, and I can’t believe that “Arrested Development” ever went off the air. (Laughs) But it wasn’t surprising to know the track record of the people behind it. I mean, it was Tim (Hutton)’s first series (since “Kidnapped”), and I felt comfortable with that, but also John Rogers is an unbelievable writer, and Dean Devlin has had unbelievable success in the entertainment world, so we came in with a couple of big guns pulled out, unlike maybe some of the other people. So I felt confident in that. And then I started watching, and I got more confident. But then I remembered that, with the economy the way it is and the way the entertainment business is going… (Laughs) …it got a little bit scary for awhile, y’know, because you start thinking of stuff. But then when I went back to the economy stuff, and I went, “Y’know what? In this day and age, when The Man is sticking it to everybody, I think people are really going to want to sit back on the couch and really be part of the team and watch some people go out and stick it back to The Man.”
2. The “Ocean’s Eleven” comparisons that were being thrown around in the beginning were obviously really, really apt. Do you think the series has found its own identity yet, or is it still finding it?
Really? They had to start the episode by reminding me about the plotline that loathe the most…?
Fair enough, let’s drive right into the Claire storyline. She’s continuing to get text messages from the mysterious rebel while lying to her mother and being shitty to her father, while HRG continues to offer up threats which are clearly pointless, since we all know that she’s going to ignore orders and do whatever she wants to do, anyway. Well, at least Zeljko is clearly pissed off about it. (We can only hope and pray that he actually acts on it.) By using another comic book store as a set piece, I couldn’t help but feel like the producers were saying, “Okay, let’s keep playing to the diehard geeks, ’cause if we lose them, we’re really screwed.” The sequences of Claire trying to save the life of Comic Book Guy were well-executed, but, again, it all came back to the issue of Claire being totally uncontrollable. If this had been a real government operation, she would’ve been imprisoned (at the very least) long ago, no matter who her father and stepfather were. And now she’s unnecessarily telling her mother what’s going on, knowing full well what effect that could have on her and, worse, leading to a touchy-feely scene at the end with Claire and HRG…? (The only redeeming moment of that sequence was having Comic Book Guy step out of the shadows.)
Dear “Heroes” producers: KILL THE CHEERLEADER, SAVE THE SHOW.
It felt a little too on-the-nose to have “Born to be Wild” playing on the stereo as Sylar set forth on his road trip with his new little buddy, Luke, but that was about my only complaint about their storyline this episode. The relationship between the two of them remains the most interesting thing about this new series, with Sylar doling out examples of his power and being flummoxed by Luke proving more fascinated than scared. The scene at the diner was also really well done, with Luke being irresponsible with his abilities and Sylar actually opening up to Luke about what he wants out of his encounter with his father. I thought sure we were going to see the end of Luke after he made the mistake of trying to be a nice guy by giving Sylar his dad’s address, but then Zeljko’s men invaded, and the end of the scene was…well, how did you feel about it? I’m sure Luke thought that Sylar had betrayed him by leaving him to be captured, but I felt like Sylar imagined that he’d given Luke a bit of a thank-you gift by not just killing him outright. In the end, of course, Sylar clearly felt like he really did owe it to Luke to save his ass, and the sequence in the paddywagon was awesome…almost as awesome as having the two of them drive off into the night to the strains of “Psycho Killer.”
When I think of Fox’s “‘Til Death,” I always think of Philip Baker Hall. When he and I discussed how his series, “The Loop,” never had a fighting chance with its second season, Hall groused about how Fox head Peter Ligouri threw all his energy into keeping “‘Til Death” on the air, “in spite of the fact that its numbers are among the lowest in the history of TV. He’s just pushed the hell out of that show, he just can’t stop talking about how great it is and how funny it is, and he can’t stop pouring money into it. He can’t stop taking whole sections of the newspaper as ads! But the fact is that the numbers are really bad…and he’s still pushing it!” Perhaps these comments from Mr. Hall colored my opinion as I sat down to watch “‘Til Death: The Complete Second Season,” but after screening the set, I was left wondering why Ligouri has battled so hard to keep the series on the air. It’s not bad, but it’s certainly not worth waging a war to save.
When Season 2 of the series begins, the premise has not changed appreciably: Eddie and Joy Stark (Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher) are a long-married couple who live next door to Jeff and Steph Woodcock (Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kat Foster), a pair of newlyweds. In addition to the various lessons about marriage that the naive Woodcocks learn from the jaded Starks, Eddie and Jeff both work at the same high school, though the only time their employment really comes into play is when Jeff gets a temporary promotion to principal and suspends Eddie for a few days for inappropriate behavior. In what can only be viewed as a desperate attempt to figure out how to bring new viewers into the show, the halfway point of the season finds the show adding a new character: Kenny Westchester (J.B. Smoove), a recent divorcee who, due to some clerical error, is selected as Eddie’s “little brother” when he joins a “Big Brother” program. Married couples will certainly recognize a lot of their more cynical moments in the adventures of the Starks, but the problem with “‘Til Death” has always been its interest in going unnecessarily lowbrow, and that remains the primary issue. You’ll laugh, to be sure, but at least half the time, you’ll feel guilty about it.
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