Category: TCA Blog 2009 (Page 6 of 19)

TCA Tour, Day 3: “Bored to Death”

August 3, 2009 /

HBO’s “Bored to Death” panel wins the award for Most Likely To Make Me Want To Watch My Advance Screener When I Get Home, but, then again, it’s already a testimony to how freaking busy I was before I left for California that I couldn’t find the time to check out a series that features a triple-threat cast of Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson, and Zach Galifianakis. When the panel kicked off with this trailer, however, I knew that, even though much of my pre-TCA time was spent trying to help my wife put together our daughter’s 4th birthday, I’d clearly spent that time poorly.

By the way, that was obviously a joke about spending my time poorly (the party was a huge success), but I’m completely serious about wanting to watch the screener as soon as I get home. In addition to the trailer, though, every single person on the panel was hilarious…even Schwartzman, who appeared via satellite due to filming commitments on “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”

HBO’s nutshell synopsis of the series…or, at least, the opening paragraph of the press release for the show, which generally tends to be about the same thing…reads as follows: “Jonathan Ames, a young Brooklyn writer, is feeling lost. Heʼs just gone through a painful break-up, thanks in part to his drinking, canʼt write his second novel, and carouses too much with his magazine editor. Rather than face reality, Jonathan turns instead to his fantasies – moonlighting as a private detective – because he wants to be a hero and a man of action.” The idea of Schwartzman as a man of action is funny enough in and of itself, but then you’ve got Danson as the aforementioned magazine editor, Galifianakis as Ames’s eccentric best friend, and a premise (and cast) which lends itself to high-profile guest stars. Basically, if this show isn’t a hit, then it’s at least destined to be remembered as one of the greatest cult sitcoms of all time.

Oh, and did I mention that Jonathan Ames is actually a real person? True story. He’s apparently a rather prolific author, in fact. (My apologies: I wasn’t familiar with him before this.) Having listened to him chat during the panel for “Bored to Death,” I think it’s fair to say that the stars of the shows are going to be in good comedic hands. Personally, I was convinced of this when he was asked to explain why the show – which would appear on the surface to be anything but boring – was given a name which so readily offers journalists a chance to fire back with snarky punchlines.

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External Entertainment, External TV, Interviews, News, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Comedies, Video

TCA Tour, Day 2: “Doctor Who”

August 3, 2009 /

There are no two ways about it: it’s a great time to be a fan of the “Who”-niverse. Not only did the awesome “Torchwood: Children of Earth” miniseries blow away BBC America ratings records, thereby almost certainly insuring that we will see more of Captain Jack and company in the future, but we’ve just been witness to another great “Doctor Who” saga (“Planet of the Dead”) and will have two more coming up in the next few months, with “The Waters of Mars” premiering in the fall and the inevitable Christmas episode arriving…well, you know, somewhere around Christmas, probably. In fact, there’s really only one thing to be sad about: the imminent departure of The Tenth Doctor, otherwise known as David Tennant.

Oh, dear, I’m already starting to get sad about it. Let’s switch gears, then, and talk about how Tennant came to be The Doctor in the first place.

“I first met David when we did ‘Casanova’ together for the BBC,” said “Who” reinvigorator Russell T. Davies. “I remember doing rehearsals, and we used to make ‘Doctor Who’ jokes, which amused us. So he was already there in a way. When you work with these great actors, when you find a great actor, you just cling to them. They’re just so limitless and inspiring. So when it came to putting it together and writing it, we talked surprisingly little about it, really, didn’t we?”

“You just wrote it,” confirmed Tennant. “That was it, really. I just got the script and did it.”

So what was Tennant doing that was different from the other actors who were under consideration?

“He’s a great kisser,” replied Davies, before getting serious. “Actually, I’ll tell you what: it was the ‘Casanova’ audition, because that’s when I sort of thought, ‘Oh, my lord, that’s someone I want to spend many years working with.’ He had auditioned for ‘Casanova,’ and, you know, playing the world’s greatest lover, everyone came in and gave us very heavy and very serious would-be romantic portrayals. And David could just dance over dialogue like…”

At this point, Davies turned and addressed David directly. “I think you’re one of the few actors who understands that dialogue is sort of irrelevant,” he said. “You throw it away and you rattle across it with real speed, and it’s all going on underneath. You get the humor and the comedy, and there’s not many actors who do that. They take it very seriously. And I like stuff on the lighter end, no matter how dark the actual stuff is. It has that throw-away quality to it, and I love that.”

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External Entertainment, External TV, Interviews, News, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

True Blood 2.7 – Her Lips Are Warm (While Yours Are Cold)

August 2, 2009 /

There are no two ways around it: last night was a very strange night.

I’ll post more details about it later, but in a nutshell, the Television Critics Association Awards took place on Saturday, Aug. 1st, where “True Blood” was named Outstanding New Program. As with all good awards shows, there was a pre-show party and a post-show party, and although neither Anna Paquin nor Stephen Moyer were available to stand with executive producer Alan Ball as he accepted the award, several of their fellow cast members were in attendance, including Sam Trammell, Nelsan Ellis, Rutina Wesley, and Michelle Forbes. Actually, Alexander Skarsgard and Deborah Ann Woll were there for awhile, too, but Mr. Skarsgard disappeared moments after the ceremony was over, and although Ms. Woll stuck around for a bit longer, she managed to slip out before I ever had the chance to speak with her. I hope you’ll enjoy the photos of the folks I did manage to chat with, though. They’re scattered throughout this week’s entry.

Speaking of that, I should probably offer one small warning: I’m out in L.A. for the TCA press tour, and although I had an advance copy of tonight’s episode to watch, I’ll be the first to admit that my mind was going a dozen other places while I was watching it. So if I missed out on anything or perhaps misinterpreted something, let me go ahead and apologize right now.

And, now, on with the show…

Well, obviously, we knew Sam was going to find a way to escape from his captivity, but they managed to wring the suspense out of it nonetheless; we even saw him manage to transform into something other than a dog – a significant accomplishment, I dare say – and fly away to safety. From there, Sammy got his gun and made it quite clear that he wasn’t afraid to use it, but…am I the only one who thought he was heading off to find Maryann? Not that it didn’t make sense that he’d go after Daphne, given that she’d committed such a personal betrayal, but I was still figuring that he was heading to take down the big dog. Daphne managed to stay pretty cool for somebody who was having a gun waved in her face, but Sam was plenty emotional for the both of them. How could you not feel bad for the guy? He thought he’d found his soulmate. Instead, he got stabbed in the back…which is why there was a certain temptation to cheer a short while later, when Daphne got stabbed in the front. Not that you didn’t know it was coming. I think we can all agree that there has rarely been a scene featuring the line “thank you for your service” which has ever ended well for the person being thanked. As far as Maryann, she’s clearly not God, but…what is she? A maenad? Well, I can’t say as I expected Greek mythology to tie into this storyline, but it’s certainly getting more intriguing all the time, that’s for sure.

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External Entertainment, External TV, Reviews, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, True Blood, TV, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

TCA Tour, Day 2: “The InBetweeners”

August 2, 2009 /

If your name is Will, you wear glasses, and you occasionally had a rough time of it in high school when it came to fitting in, then you will likely find that it’s quite easy to enjoy the new BBC America sitcom, “The InBetweeners.”

Actually, I guess that’s a pretty tiny demographic, so let’s try this: if the idea of an amalgam of “Freaks and Geeks” and “American Pie” delivered in a British accent fills you with joy, then, boy, do Iain Morris and Damon Beesley have a show for you.

Their best-known American credits…okay, fair enough, it’s really their only one…are as the writers of a couple of “Flight of the Conchords” episodes, but with “The InBetweeners,” they’ve put together a raunchy look at teenage life that, at least based on the episodes I’ve seen, is a bit like “Skins” without all the depressing bits…which is to say that the teenagers here are committing the sort of debauchery that you’d like to think that your own teenagers wouldn’t indulge in, even if you’re pretty sure they do, anyway.

“It’s not in any way, I think, really heavy,” said Joe Thomas, who plays Simon on the show. “I suppose it’s heavy in the sense that it’s sort of about inadequacy and expectations not being met and teenager years being sort of perpetually disappointing to a degree you wouldn’t even have thought possible given the last disappointment. But ‘Skins’ has, like, death in it and big themes, whereas we have…”

At this, Morris interrupted his star. “The best example is probably that, in the first series, you might see Joe’s naked bottom. In the second, you’ll see his penis in a wet sock. That’s how we moved it on. That’s how we’ve tried to develop the show and try and just get those themes going through. Of humiliating Joe Thomas.”

“Yeah,” confirmed Thomas, “that’s one of the themes.”

Regarding comparisons to the work of Judd Apatow, Morris is more than happy to consider his work part of the tradition of comedy humiliation. “It’s those things like ‘American Pie’ and ‘Animal House’ and ‘Swingers’ and things that were sort of character stays of men in a way that had humorous content. And in one of the episodes, the last episode, there’s a sort of homage to ‘Freaks and Geeks,’ by which I mean a joke we stole wholeheartedly. Do mention it to Judd if you see him.”

Now, there’s one thing for Americans to keep in mind (as if we’d ever forget): our television standards are more stringent than those of the Brits. This necessitates certain changes in various episodes that air on BBC America, and you can bet that “The InBetweeners” is a series which will require a bit of tweaking.

“We actually do bleep certain words,” said Garth Ancier, President of BBC Worldwide America, then backpedaled slightly and clarified, “We don’t bleep them. We do audio deletes, which is actually a different way of dealing with it. But we do do audio deletes on certain words that start with ‘F,’ and we do pixilate occasional nudity and things like that. Look, we have to live within the U.S. system. These are shows that are airing on free over-the-air television in the UK on E4 and Channel 4, but the U.S. audience is a little tamer, and so we have to calibrate where it should be, and we do. We do it with ‘Skins,’ too.”

“Sounds like bad news for Joe Thomas bottom fans,” said Morris.

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External Entertainment, External TV, Interviews, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Comedies

TCA Tour, Day 2: “Being Human”

August 1, 2009 /

Be honest: if someone told you about a new TV series about a werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost who share an apartment, wouldn’t you think it was a cartoon? Or, at best, a wacky tweener sitcom, a la “The Munsters”? Given that I grew up on such Saturday morning series as “Drac Pak” and “The Monster Squad,” I could actually get behind either of those things, but “Being Human,” the new TV series in question, is actually an hour-long drama, one which made its Stateside premiere on BBC America on July 25th.

I could hear a lot of you suddenly exhaling with relief after reading where the show was airing, and it’s understandable. The concept sounds positively ridiculous, but there’s something about the knowledge that it’s airing on BBC America that lends credibility to even the most ludicrous of premises, simply because you know they’re going to treat it seriously. You might not know how, but you know they will. And, of course, it adds immeasurably to the show’s credibility to know that it was created by Toby Whithouse, who’s written for “Doctor Who” and “Torchwood.”

Still, it’s comforting to know that the cast of “Being Human” – Russell Tovey (the werewolf), Aidan Turner (the vampire), and Lenora Crichlow (the ghost) – were equally uncertain when they were pitched the idea of the series.

“We’ve been asked the question quite a bit about how we felt when we first heard it,” said Crichlow, “and even when I explain now to people what the show is about, I see them…”

“Glaze over,” chimed in Tovey.

“To be honest with you, it’s in the scripts and in the characters,” Crichlow continued. “I mean, it just works. But it’s almost the most ridiculous idea in the world. I remember getting the call, and I didn’t know if it was comedy or drama or what the hell it was. But I was two or three pages in, and, ‘Oh, wow, I get it now.’ It’s the fact that these guys want to be human, that it’s steeped in this realism, and that makes it work so well. It’s a credit to Toby. He just made it very easy for us. This was a job that you couldn’t say ‘no’ to. First on, we knew it was something quite special and different and, dare I say, even kind of original in some ways.”

“Yeah, it’s an actor’s show,” agreed Tovey. “The characters go through so many emotions, and there’s so much you can do. I mean, I’m screaming one minute and naked the next minute. I’m crying. I’m laughing. Naked again, screaming again. It’s just such an amazing writing and a great concept and exactly what you want to do as an actor in your mid-20s.

“Oddly enough, I think we’re playing real people in this as opposed to playing supernatural,” said Turner. “That’s why it’s so interesting for us to play a vampire, to play a werewolf, and not the sort of typical way, if there is one, which wouldn’t be as interesting as playing these real characters with real afflictions and real problems and real issues. It’s just so much fun.”

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External Entertainment, External TV, Interviews, News, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

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