Tag Archives: fall

Series premiere: The Unicorn

The PolyBlog
October 17 2019

The premise for The Unicorn was listed as recent widower re-enters the dating world. Umm…wait a minute, didn’t I see that last year? It was called Single Parents or something? Okay, let’s go with cancellation.

Except I didn’t realize it was Walton Goggins as the widower. I absolutely loved him as Boyd Crowder on Justified. Sure, he’s been in lots of other shows, but none that I watched regularly. One of the elements in Justified that I loved was his comedic moments — playing straight while the world crashed around him. So I was definitely willing to give him a shot. 

Then, in passing, my wife mentioned having watched the premiere even though she watches almost nothing regularly, and not being too impressed with the show. I still went for it, with my expectations low.

But I like him. I like seeing him in the new show, I like him on screen. He’s not completely goofy or over the top. And even his kids mostly work — Ruby Jay as the older sister Grace and Makenzie Moss as the younger sister Natalie.

The episode spends a bit of time getting to the premise of the show which is Wade starting to date again. His wife has been gone a year, he’s working all the time or spending time with the kids, mostly eating frozen meals that people gave them after his wife died. And he’s down to the last frozen meal. His wacky friends help him prepare an online profile as a six foot cuddler who is widowed. So his phone blows up — he’s a unicorn. A single guy, devoted father, no emotional divorce baggage or lots of singlehood issues, looking to date. With a job. Until he realizes that they want to date him because he’s widowed. He feels like he’s using his wife’s death to get new dates, so he goes back to setting his profile to simply single instead of widowed. And his first date goes awkward fast.

Yet here’s the thing. Most scenes in sitcoms would make that awkward scene be incredibly embarrassing. Beyond awkward, almost geeky, painful even to watch. The show didn’t do that. They played it straight, it’s resolved easily enough with some side humour thrown in, and the date is “saved” through honesty and transparency. Leading to a fantastic set of lines where she’s inviting him over for sex, he realizes he’s not ready yet, and she notes that he’s really sweet, etc. Then she tries to rationalize maybe he’s having a mid-life crisis and perhaps he drives a Porsche. Nope, he says, a dirty pickup. For her? “You’re so hot.” Not raucous laughter, sure, but the scene and the joke work.

Him with his family? Awesome. But the friends are a disaster. Couple one is Rob Corddry (white guy trying to be hip) and Michaela Watkins (Casual) as a bit weird neurotic. Couple two is Omar Benson Miller (Walter from CSI: Miami) who is a bit hip and yet lovable and Maya Lynne Robinson is a cliche as a frazzled mother of 4 kids. They’re barely tolerable to watch, and no real humour in any of them, but at least Goggins gets to play it innocently straight with them.

In the end, my wife is right. Not that great and I’ll predict cancellation. Yet I’ll be watching until it is cancelled. Cuz it’s Goggins.

Series premiere: Sunnyside

The PolyBlog
October 16 2019

So the basic premise that I had for Sunnyside was a city councilman finds a new calling or something with a group of immigrants applying for citizenship. It didn’t seem like it would have anywhere to really go, so I predicted cancellation. Now that I have watched the opening episode, cancellation was a generous prediction. I’m surprised the makers of the show are not in receivership with the studio asking for their money back.

Kal Penn is the lead as the councilman and I generally love him. And no, not from Harold and Kumar. I liked him on How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, and more importantly, Designated Survivor. So when I saw it was him, I was hopeful. But the character is TERRIBLE. Disgraced councilman who spent 15 years freeloading on the public dime, only to get booted off council following a drunk and disorderly charge and a viral video. But he hasn’t changed. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself and that continues for most of the episode. Right up until the end when he SUDDENLY decides he does care, because his sister told him to? No catalyst, just an epiphany and now he’s a supposed good guy. Meh.

The rest of the cast is completely forgettable, one trick ponies. From the replacement councilwoman who is likely to be a future romantic interest to the Asian stereotypes to the surgeon turned cab driver. Yawn. The ONLY character that is the least bit interesting is Griselda, played by Diana Maria Riva — she has tons of different jobs. In just about every scene, she’s working. It’s cute and it works.

But the show has the biggest problem of all — it ain’t funny. Which would be fine if it wasn’t a supposed sitcom. On that front, it is unforgivable. Cancellation would seem guaranteed.

And it was — it’s already been cancelled.

Series premiere: Nancy Drew

The PolyBlog
October 16 2019

Sigh. I love mystery stories, and series in particular. So when I saw that a new version of Nancy Drew was coming, I thought, “Cool beans.” I’d give it a go. I totally missed that it was on the CW, which would have given me a clue as to the type of show it would be. It is definitely not your parents’ Nancy Drew. This is more ND, by way of Stranger Things or The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Yep, there’s a supernatural element.

Here’s the skinny. Nancy Drew is in Horseshoe Bay, Maine, and has grown up solving mysteries. But she’s 18, time for college, right? Nope, Mom died of cancer, and it kind of put her college on hold for a year. So she’s waitressing and using boy toy Ned “Nick” Nickerson for sex. Her and her dad are estranged, she’s just marking time until she can go off to college, and she has given up her detective days.

Well, until the pilot, when a local rich boy comes into the diner after hours for a quick meeting while his wife waits outside, only for her to wind up dead. The Sheriff thinks Nancy and her friends are involved, although really he’s just busting their chops because ND has been a pain in his side for awhile. Nancy plans to stay out of the case, but well, she dabbles. Until it turns out her BF might have a motive. Now she’s all in on whodunnit, drawing up lists, predicting motives and means. The Game is Afoot. And just for fun, a dead girl haunts her with clues.

Nancy Drew is played by relative newbie Kennedy McMann and she does an okay job through the episode. She’s a little uneven in the role, but that should adjust over time (bopping from Veronica Mars one minute to space cadet the next, and don’t get me started on the relationship angst). Not that entertaining for that part, but whatever.

Her boyfriend / boytoy Nick is played by Tunji Kasim and he is even more inconsistent. Angry one second, hurt another, loving a third. Whatever. The rest of the “friends” group isn’t much better…Leah Lewis as Georgia (I have only seen her in an episode of The Gifted), Maddison Jaizani as Bess (also from Into the Badlands), Alvina August (Sabrina!) as Detective Hart, Scott Wolf as Nancy’s dad (terrible chemistry with the daughter), and Adam Beach as the police chief (wtf?). Pamela Sue Martin apparently showed up in the episode as Harriet, and I have NO idea who that was in the Ep. She’s a throw-back for nostalgia as she used to play Nancy Drew in earlier shows (70s).

So, I was expecting a procedural “mystery of the week”, kind of like Veronica Mars or a younger version of Murder, She Wrote. Instead, it is much more Sabrina than that. Which isn’t bad, I guess, just not really Nancy Drew to me. Almost like X-Files in some ways although she’s not really interested in the ghost stuff, just what the clues can tell her.

I predicted renewal, and I’ll stick with that. I may even watch the rest of the episodes to see if it turns out to be who I think it is (Detective Hart, the one protecting Nancy). Motive? I have no idea. Maybe the woman lied in a case and Hart put the wrong person in jail. That’s what I’m going with for now.

Series premiere: Emergence

The PolyBlog
October 8 2019

Ever since Lost went big, various networks try to come up with the “viral” show that will hold viewers. Alcatraz. Time travellers. Time loops. Plane disappearances and reappearances. So not surprisingly, the networks are trying again this year. I already wrote about one (Series premiere – The I-Land) and why I passed. Emergence had a slightly different take on it, which was a plane crash of some sort with only one survivor. A girl. With supposed amnesia and not a scratch on her.

But that wouldn’t be enough for the weird. Just before the plane crash, all the electronics in the nearby town went haywire. After the crash, some supposed NTSB people showed up and tried to take the girl, before the real NTSB people showed up. Meanwhile, the local police chief is protecting the girl. Dun dun dun. There’s other stuff happening, people trying to kidnap the girl, etc., and a reporter guy running around. Plus the girl seems to have some weird abilities — communicating with the TV, freaking out and causing stuff to move (telekinesis), and stopping a moving vehicle dead. Plus she never gets hurt. Cool beans. At the end of the episode, she goes into the bathroom and CUTS HER NECK to remove some sort of tracking tube or interface module that was glowing, without screaming or crying. DUN DUN DUN. Oh, and btw, she also can look at the police chief’s father and see that he has cancer that isn’t being cured.

Allison Tolman plays the police chief, Joanne Evans. She’s separated from her husband, and living with her daughter and dad. For her acting, I have to divide it in three segments. When she’s investigating, she’s a bit meek, but fine to watch. When she’s interacting with family and others, she’s quiet and speaks way too slowly. It’s like watching paint dry. And then when she’s with the girl, she seems like Ellen Degeneres voicing Dory. If I close my eyes, I hear Ellen. It’s very relaxing, and it works. But she does it like FOUR times in the episode. I get it, you can bond with the kid. Please stop. I’ve seen her in nothing else, but some parts here are hard to take.

Alexa Swinton plays the young girl, nicknamed Piper since they don’t know her real name. Swinton is fine, but she really doesn’t have much to do except look scared for most of the episode, with no emotional range except for one freak-out scene. Definitely need more scenes between her and the chief’s daughter. Haven’t seen her in anything before, she’s okay here.

Other actors and characters include:

  • Ashley Aufderheide as the chief’s daughter, okay;
  • Robert Bailey, Jr, as a young police officer, also okay;
  • Zabryna Guevera as a doctor, although I liked her better on New Amsterdam and Gotham; and,
  • Donald Faison as the ex-husband, who has a lot of series experience, none of which I saw, also okay.

Clancy Brown plays the Dad, and I liked him a lot in Sleepy Hollow as Sheriff Corbin. He’s always solid, even way back to Highlander as Kurgan, although he’s a bit of a caricature as a General on The Flash. Nice to see him here, although not sure about the role of the character.

The other main character is the supposed reporter, Benny, played by Owain Yeoman. I loved him on The Mentalist, and love him using his natural accent here. He doesn’t have a huge part yet, but I’m hoping that grows. I’m curious if he is supposed to develop a love interest with the Chief, but I hope not, she had no chemistry with him at all.

So where does that leave us? A couple of solid veterans to support the relatively newbie cast, two leads with limited emotive range, and a decent plot. Except I don’t see where it can go after Season 1. My original prediction was cancellation, and I’m going to stick with that. But I like it enough to watch for the plot.

Series premiere: Batwoman

The PolyBlog
October 7 2019

The DC Universe on TV burst out with Arrow, added Flash, added DC Legends of Tomorrow, added Supergirl, added Black Lightning, and this season has gone full series for Batwoman. And, while Arrow is ending, a “birds of prey” by another name is set to spin off too. Since I like superhero shows and the tropes they follow, I tend to watch all of them. I’m not a equal fan of all of them, but I enjoy them. Arrow used to be dark, and I liked the difference. Flash is white innocence, as is Supergirl, while DC Legends is quirky and irreverent. I like Black Lightning probably least of all, as it seems more campy as they figure out their powers — less super hero than people with fun tech or mutants with glitz. Anyway. I love the Bat, so I was definitely going to be all in for Batwoman. Heck, I even watched Gotham and have burned through Season 1 of Pennyworth.

Yet, I’m not steeped in Batman lore. I have no idea all the different versions, nor the various links with Robin incarnations, and no idea why “Batman has left Gotham” three years ago as the story opens. But Kate Kane is his cousin (cute, huh? kind of like Kara and Clark) and while she didn’t know that Bruce was Batman, she loved him and hated Batman after Batman failed to save her and her family after a bus crash from the Joker (he thought he had saved them until the car materials gave way and the car fell).

Anyway, Kate is a badass who has been training to be a super private soldier in her father’s company, training all over the world kind of like the Dark Knight backstory (in the Christian Bale version of the Bat). She returns to Gotham, discovers Bruce’s lair, puts on the suit to protect the city and her family. A lot happens in the first episode, and overall it’s great.

Ruby Rose plays Kane, and other than other EPs of the DC shows, the only thing I had seen her in was Dark Matter where she played a kickass android. She was awesome in that EP, but it is her presence that defines her performance. She owns almost every scenes she’s in. I confess I was less impressed in a scene where she’s strung up and talking to Alice, the villain, and she didn’t look awesome in the first view of her in the suit when she’s not fighting. It seems awkward to me.

The villain, Alice, is played by Rachel Skarsten and I am a little embarrassed when it comes to her. Every time I see her, I can’t place her. AT ALL. Which makes no sense. I really only had a reason to pay attention when she played Tamsin on Lost Girl. She was fantastic, loved her and loved her various episodes. I went back and binged Birds of Prey at one point, and didn’t recognize her. Sure she was ten years younger, but still. She was also in The Listener, didn’t recognize her. Republic of Doyle, nope, no clue. Wynonna Earp, no clue. And here as Alice? Nope, couldn’t place her. Sigh. I generally love her, and while I even like her fight scenes, the fight scene here with Batwoman wasn’t that great. And it was no surprise ** spoiler alert ** to find out that she was Kane’s supposedly dead sister, as soon as they said they never found her body. They held that detail back or it would have been WAY too obvious upfront. Meh.

There are a bunch of other roles buried in there:

  • Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox, aka Alfred to her Batwoman;
  • Elizabeth Anweis as a flaky step mom;
  • Nicole Kang as a weird, completely inconsistent step-sister — one minute flighty, one minute suburban underground clinic doctor; and,
  • Meagan Tandy as a previous GF of Kane’s.

None of them are really worth writing about, but they were all fine. The only real other role in the pilot is that of Kane’s father, played by Dougray Scott. I don’t recognize him, although there’s a cute in-joke in the opener that his character is showing Zorro in the park, and Scott played in the Zorro TV series back in the day. Most of the episode, he seemed like a low-rent Russell Crowe wannabe, but he’s okay. Nothing great. If he turns out to be an evil Doc Ock-like turncoat, that will work probably just as well.

Will I watch? Yes. That was a given. Was it great? For the genre, sure. Will I predict renewal? Of course, it’s the CW and all the DC shows get renewed.