Charles Manson to Show Up on 'Mindhunter' Season 2

The official trailer for the next season, which is dropping next Friday, August 16th, looks pretty good and now they tease the appearance of Charles Manson in the FBI interviews. Isn’t that a coincidence. Really excited to see this.

'Fleabag' Tops TCA Winners

The Television Critics Association loved Fleabag, apparently. I know it’s a great show, but that Program of the Year category is supposed to be like a cultural relevance award- is Fleabag really that popular? Or even widely seen? I have my doubts. I still love it though, and I love Michelle Williams winning for Fosse/Verdon, and Leaving Neverland snagging a big win in News/Information programming. Thinking that Chernobyl’s win here over When They See Us may portend Emmy dominance in miniseries, even if I would prefer it to be the other way around.

2019 TCA WINNERS

Individual Achievement in Drama: Michelle Williams, “Fosse/Verdon”

Individual Achievement in Comedy: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, “Fleabag”

Outstanding Achievement in News and Information: “Leaving Neverland”

Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming: “Queer Eye”

Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming: “Arthur”

Outstanding Achievement in Sketch/Variety Shows: “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”

Outstanding New Program: “Russian Doll”

Outstanding Achievement in Movie or Miniseries: “Chernobyl”

Outstanding Achievement in Drama: “Better Call Saul”

Outstanding Achievement in Comedy: “Fleabag”

Program of the Year: “Fleabag”

Could critics love for Michelle Williams as Gwen Verdon lead to an Emmy win?

REVIEW: "Big Little Lies" Season 2

Big Little Lies didn’t have much of a reason to return for Season 2 and despite being inherently watchable, it never really came up with one by the end of these seven episodes. Unless the addition of Meryl Streep counts as reason enough, and for some people it may well be.

She certainly added some campy, enjoyable bitchiness to a show that was always kind of an upper class, prestige version of Desperate Housewives. After the “accidental” death of Alexander Skarsgard’s abusive rapist Perry last year, the women are back and are now being dubbed the “Monterey Five,” as suspicious detective Merrin Dungey keeps an eye on them. The heavy secret takes its toll, especially on Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz), who at first glance seems to have more to do this season, but by the end of it, has probably spent the majority of the last four episodes sitting in a hospital chair, staring at her comatose mother (Crystal Fox).

Celeste (Nicole Kidman) meanwhile, is having nightmares and flashbacks to her life with Perry, suffering under the weight of his loss, as she seeks out the comfort of pills and anonymous sexual encounters with men. She’s also dealing with the arrival of Mary Louise (Streep) as Perry’s mother, who shows up to psychologically terrorize all the women with her passive aggressive commentary and suspicion over her son’s death. Streep is pretty fantastic, obviously having a great time as this mother from hell, lording her authority all over the place under the guise of a deceptive churchlady haircut and a necklace she can’t stop fiddling with (got to love those Streepian mannerisms!). David E. Kelley writes her sparring scenes with not just Kidman but Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern and Shailene Woodley, so that Mary Louise becomes the driving villain of the season (even if it kind of amounts to nothing much but those antagonistic back and forths).

Laura Dern is saddled with a lousy husband and financial problems this season

Witherspoon’s storyline this season is a drag, as Madeline deals with the fallout of revealing her infidelity to Ed (Adam Scott), a repetitive plot that gets hammered to death as we wait to see if he’ll get over it, but Woodley’s is even worse, as Jane gets a boyfriend who looks about twelve (Douglas Smith) and is duller than dishwater to spend time with. Laura Dern fares better, as Renata’s worthless lout of a husband (Jeffrey Nordling) gets arrested for insider trading which forces her into bankruptcy, giving Dern the chance to rival Streep for onscreen hysterics- she’s actually pretty funny as Renata acts out her frustrations in the most wildly exaggerated fashion, episode by episode. She’s the most entertaining thing onscreen this season by far.

Each episode moves quickly and is juicily addictive, melodramatic and performed with command and ease by the actors, but the last couple of episodes don’t exactly wrap up the plot threads in a satisfying manner and kind of make you wonder what the point of it all was. If it’s just about the acting, and the in the moment soap opera, Big Little Lies still delivers (it probably always will). You like it while you’re watching it, but by the end you wonder if it meant anything.

Grade: B

Meryl Streep is at her best as the self-righteous Mary Louise

New Killers Confronted in 'Mindhunter' Season 2

Yes!! I don’t know why it took so long for Season 2, or why there seems to be relatively little hype for it, since it’s coming out on August 16th, but I loved the first season of this. It was fascinating and not at all like what you’d expect of a cops tracking serial killers show. Not so action-packed, more cerebral and psychological, but the cast was great. I can’t wait to watch it again.

REVIEW: "Veronica Mars" Season 4

As a longtime fan of the cult teen drama Veronica Mars and a member if its target audience (I was in high school when the original series premiered in 2004 and have been there since Day 1), I was pretty excited about its revival, even after the kickstarter revival movie back in 2014 turned out to be too fan service-y. This time the show was commissioned for a new season by Hulu, and thus not dependent on its extremely devoted fanbase for its survival. I thought this would give creator Rob Thomas and co. the chance to reboot the show creatively, take some risks and reinvent it for this new era of streaming and shortened television seasons.

Well, turns out I wasn’t wrong about that, but just because it was no longer dependent on fans didn’t mean it had to actively screw over the ones that stood by it all these years. And yet, unfortunately, that’s exactly what this experience turned out to be. Veronica is in her mid-thirties now and living in Neptune, as per the status quo at the end of the movie (and the two spinoff novels published since then). She’s also working as a P.I. with her dad Keith (the still great Enrico Colantoni) and has a beach apartment and a dog with longtime boyfriend Logan (Jason Dohring). There’s a new mystery set up when someone blows up a motel complex during Neptune’s lucrative spring break season, and several new suspects and characters are added to the mix (Patton Oswalt, J.K. Simmons, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste fit well into the noir-ish world of Neptune).

The father-daughter sleuthing is intact

So far, so good. And happily, the memorable and quippy dialogue from the original series is intact, with the rapport between Bell and Colantoni just as sharp and fast as ever, as is true of the dynamic with Bell and Dohring. They even manage to make good use of Logan in this story, figuring out how to get him hired as a targeted Congressman’s private security officer, which makes sense with his new naval background. So if all of this runs smoothly and feels familiar, yet new and fun enough to ring true as an updated adult version of my favorite teen show, why am I so unhappy with this revival? The answer to that is what happens in the last ten minutes of the last episode, which leaves such a horrible taste in my mouth that yes, it does in fact, retrospectively ruin the relatively fun eight hours that preceded it.

I won’t spoil the nasty little turd Rob Thomas dropped in the laps of fans, but let’s just acknowledge it flips the whole premise of the show on its head and sets it up to become something entirely different if it continues (which apparently is the plan). And to that I ask, and I mean this as genuinely as possible, why not create something entirely different, with a brand new premise and a brand new character for Kristen Bell (who really is still great as Veronica), since that is clearly what you wanted to do in the first place? And what was the point of these eight episodes, if this was the goal you were heading towards? There is nothing redeemable about thanklessly and pointlessly dumping the last cruel twist on the long suffering audience who stood by this much loved series and literally brought it back from the dead with their own money. It would also be another story if this “twist” had been in any way done well, and rendered with meaning to the characters and the show, which it was not. After the initial shock of the event, the aftermath grows more bitter with every passing thought.

If the intention was to strip the show of anything that cemented the passionate love for it in the first place, then that was done successfully, but that also means that I won’t be back for any more of this, and neither will many other fans. Congratulations on your successful suicide bomb, Rob Thomas. It blew up all the good along with the bad.

Grade: C

Enjoy it while you can, folks

'Transparent' Goes Out With a Musical Finale

So, this looks weird. I loved Transparent in general, but everyone pretty much knew the show was over after Jeffrey Tambor’s firing. I guess Jill Soloway just decided to hell with it and is now going to end the show with one musical movie length wrap-up. I’m cool with the movie length wrap-up, but a musical? And it’s centered on Shelly, really? This sounds like it could be horribly annoying, to be honest. But it’s just one episode and I gotta finish it. September 27th it is.

REVIEW: "Fleabag" Seasons 1 & 2

When I first started Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s BBC comedy series (now streaming on Amazon) about a damaged single woman in her thirties, I quickly became wary of it being a slightly older version of Girls, a show that I hated about self-absorbed, toxic narcissists who are unbearable to spend time with. But luckily, Fleabag may feel familiar at first, but then it sneaks up on you with the vividness of its writing and characters who start to feel real. Damaged, yes, but in a very poignant, empathetic way. By its second season it then transcends into poetic brilliance, and I’m so glad that I stuck with it.

Waller-Bridge herself plays Fleabag (never referred to by name in either season) a single woman who runs a cafe with her best friend, sleeps around, has strained relationships with her family and is struggling with herself and her tendency to self-destruct. Her frequent asides to the camera relay her perspective on life and the people surrounding her, and the barbed wit is funny but tinged with constant episodes of real bleakness as it’s revealed that Fleabag’s emotional state suffers under the weight of the recent deaths of her mother and best friend. The first season (each is just six episodes), establishes Fleabag, her stressed out sister Claire (a very funny Sian Clifford), her brother-in-law Martin (Brett Gelman playing yet another douchebag), her father (Bill Paterson) and her father’s girlfriend (Olivia Colman, doing her dry, two-faced politeness bit to perfection). The issue I had at first is Fleabag herself being so purposely and nonchalantly self-destructive that it’s hard to root for or identify with her, especially as her many bad decisions are laid out in such an obvious pattern. But the show does a good job of characterizing her pain as it goes along, even if the downish nature of the show tends to overshadow the humor in a season that I would consider far more of a drama than a comedy.

Looks like the old seducing a priest trope still has some life in it after all

But then comes the second season, and as time has passed on the dark ending of the first, the series adds Andrew Scott as the priest who will be marrying Fleabag’s dad and future stepmother. He’s a “cool, sweary priest,” as Fleabag soon discovers, and now that she’s committed herself to being a better person she immediately falls in love with him. The Thorn Birds storyline has been done before (see also: Leon Morin, Priest), but there’s nothing sexier than trying to seduce a man sworn off from sex, and as Fleabag swoons over the charming, extremely likable Scott, so do we. Waller-Bridge manages to find something new in the old romantic trope and this storyline provides a heart and humanity to the acidic humor that was missing from the first season, while building again on Fleabag’s grief for her mother, and bringing the frantic Claire to a peak of joyous final triumph over the worthless lout Martin. Showing the characters grow rather than remaining in place replaces the bleakness with a willingness to fight and overcome, which makes the funny stuff all the more hilarious as we can root for Fleabag fully this time around. I loved the second season of this show, and the joy of making it was clearly not lost on its performers, all of whom are having a great time and displaying a genuine rapport with each other, especially Waller-Bridge and Scott. The show will apparently end now after two seasons, to which I say, good. It goes out on such a high note it would be a shame to spoil it.

Grade: A

Fleabag and Claire make amends

'Game of Thrones' Leads the Emmys With 32 Nominations

Wow. That’s a new record for any show in the history of the Emmys, so I’m guessing despite all the whining and complaining, that Game of Thrones will take one more Drama Series win for its final year. Almost the entire cast got nominated! (Sophie Turner? Alfie Allen? Gwendoline Christie, who had like four lines this season? Really?) In other news, Barry also got its entire cast nominated (even Sarah Goldberg! Awesome!), and I think it has a really good chance to win Comedy Series, even though Veep came back for its final season as well, but with less recognition this time. Chernobyl and When They See Us got a boatload of nominations each in that brutal Limited Series category, where Fosse/Verdon also got lots of (well-deserved) love. One of those first two is going to win there, but I don’t know which one. Fleabag (which is a great show, review coming this Friday) got honored with a bunch of nods in Comedy, and Jodie Comer got in for Killing Eve!!!! So excited about that, and with Best Drama Actress wide open, I’m honestly wondering if she could pull off a surprise win. I know most think it’s Sandra Oh, but honestly Comer was still a standout in the second season while Oh’s character had issues this time. We’ll see. I’m sad that GLOW wasn’t acknowledged more for its second season, but that’s close to my only disappointment (that and Andrew Scott not getting in for Fleabag, since they liked the show so much). Oh, and Bodyguard getting nominated for Drama but Richard Madden not getting a nomination for it is a bit odd. Still, these are some very good nominations overall.

2019 EMMY NOMINATIONS LIST

COMEDY

BEST COMEDY SERIES

• Barry

• Fleabag

• The Good Place

• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

• Russian Doll

• Schitt’s Creek

• Veep

BEST COMEDY ACTOR

• Anthony Anderson, black-ish

• Don Cheadle, Black Monday

• Ted Danson, The Good Place

• Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method

• Bill Hader, Barry

• Eugene Levy, Schitt’s Creek

BEST COMEDY ACTRESS

• Christina Applegate, Dead to Me

• Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

• Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep

• Natasha Lyonne, Russian Doll

• Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek

• Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag

Can Barry win Comedy Series? I think so, as it lands multiple nods for writing and directing, along with acting for Bill Hader, Anthony Carrigan (above), Stephen Root, Henry Winkler and Sarah Goldberg. The buzz is real.

BEST COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Alan Arkin, The Kominsky Method

• Anthony Carrigan, Barry

• Tony Hale, Veep

• Stephen Root, Barry

• Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

• Henry Winkler, Barry

BEST COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

• Anna Chlumsky, Veep

• Sian Clifford, Fleabag

• Olivia Colman, Fleabag

• Betty Gilpin, GLOW

• Sarah Goldberg, Barry

• Marin Hinkle, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

• Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live

DRAMA

BEST DRAMA SERIES

• Better Call Saul

• Bodyguard

• Game of Thrones

• Killing Eve

• Ozark

• Pose

• Succession

• This Is Us

BEST DRAMA ACTOR

• Jason Bateman, Ozark

• Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us

• Kit Harington, Game of Thrones

• Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul

• Billy Porter, Pose

• Milo Ventimiglia, This Is Us

BEST DRAMA ACTRESS

• Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones

• Jodie Comer, Killing Eve

• Viola Davis, How to Get Away With Murder

• Laura Linney, Ozark

• Mandy Moore, This Is Us

• Sandra Oh, Killing Eve

• Robin Wright, House of Cards

Jodie Comer is in! Killing Eve was nominated all over the place too, so I’m rooting for a surprise win for my favorite TV killer in Best Actress

BEST DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Alfie Allen, Game Of Thrones

• Jonathan Banks, Better Call Saul

• Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Game Of Thrones

• Peter Dinklage, Game Of Thrones

• Giancarlo Esposito, Better Call Saul

• Michael Kelly, House Of Cards

• Chris Sullivan, This Is Us

BEST DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Gwendoline Christie, Game of Thrones

• Julia Garner, Ozark

• Lena Headey, Game of Thrones

• Fiona Shaw, Killing Eve

• Sophie Turner, Game of Thrones

• Maisie Williams, Game of Thrones

LIMTED SERIES/TV MOVIE

BEST LIMITED SERIES

• Chernobyl

• Escape at Dannemora

• Fosse/Verdon

• Sharp Objects

• When They See Us

BEST TV MOVIE

• Bandersnatch: Black Mirror

• Brexit

• Deadwood: The Movie

• King Lear

• My Dinner With Hervé

BEST MOVIE/MINI ACTOR

• Mahershala Ali, True Detective

• Benicio del Toro, Escape at Dannemora

• Hugh Grant, A Very English Scandal

• Jared Harris, Chernobyl

• Jharell Jerome, When They See Us

• Sam Rockwell, Fosse/Verdon

Jharell Jerome HAS to win Best Actor in a Limited Series for When They See Us- his devastating performance in the final episode still haunts me

BEST MOVIE/MINI ACTRESS

• Amy Adams, Sharp Objects

• Patricia Arquette, Escape at Dannemora

• Aunjanue Ellis, When They See Us

• Joey King, The Act

• Niecy Nash, When They See Us

• Michelle Williams, Fosse/Verdon

BEST MOVIE/MINI SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Asante Blackk, When They See Us

• Paul Dano, Escape at Dannemora

• John Leguizamo, When They See Us

• Stellan Skarsgard, Chernobyl

• Ben Whishaw, A Very English Scandal

• Michael K Williams, When They See Us

BEST MOVIE/MINI SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Patricia Arquette, The Act

• Marsha Stephanie Blake, When They See Us

• Patricia Clarkson, Sharp Objects

• Vera Farmiga, When They See Us

• Margaret Qualley, Fosse/Verdon

• Emily Watson, Chernobyl

REALITY/VARIETY

BEST VARIETY SKETCH SERIES

• At Home With Amy Sedaris

• Documentary Now!

• Drunk History

• I Love You, America With Sarah Silverman

• Saturday Night Live

• Who Is America?

BEST VARIETY TALK SERIES

• The Daily Show With Trevor Noah

• Full Frontal With Samantha Bee

• Jimmy Kimmel Live

• Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

• The Late Late Show With James Corden

• The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

BEST REALITY COMPETITION SERIES

• The Amazing Race

• American Ninja Warrior

• Nailed It!

• RuPaul’s Drag Race

• Top Chef

• The Voice

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s excellent show Fleabag got much deserved attention and nods for all its women, but Andrew Scott (above) really should have been in there too- he was kind of the heart of this last season

REVIEW: "Stranger Things" Season 3

Stranger Things is back for its third season and overall, it’s pretty fun! The show is known for its references and homages to 1980’s movies and pop culture, but the first two seasons were limited to nods at the kids movies of that decade, stuff like E.T., The Goonies, Gremlins, Stand By Me, etc. This time they’re branching out with a whole Fast Times at Ridgemont High vibe going on. Makes sense. The young stars are getting older after all- by the time the show ends they might all be out of their teens as it is.

Season 3 is set in summer of 1985, which is a new feeling for it (previously always taking place in the fall), and with that comes summer romances and nods to those 80’s comedies, but also this time a bunch of 80’s action comes into play, with David Harbour’s Hopper essentially taking on the Rambo role as he’s hunted by a Terminator-like Russian assassin (yes, that’s right, the Russians are now antagonists on the show, as they’ve discovered the secret portal to the Upside Down, which I can’t imagine would benefit anyone much in terms of weaponry). But before all that, Eleven and Mike are still dating and now making out all the time, which Hopper can’t stand, and this season sees El spending much of her time learning how to be a simple teenage girl, as she becomes friends with Max (Sadie Sink), who tells her there’s more to life than boys.

The boys are obsessed with girls now too, except for Will (Noah Schnapp), who may be gay, but it’s not quite articulated yet, only hinted at. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Nancy are still together and inexplicably still on the show, now working at a local newspaper, and former high school jock Steve is employed at the ice cream shop in the Starcourt mall (the setting for much of the season) with co-worker Robin (new addition Maya Hawke). 

Hopper kind of turns into a crazy psychopath this season and I continue to believe he should not be dating Winona Ryder’s Joyce

This is the most overtly comedic season yet, and I’m not sure it’s remarked upon enough just how wacky and downright campy this show’s tone can be. The characters are well established by now, but the humor, especially in the early going, is so broad and over the top, with music cues on point for so many big 80’s radio hits that it can feel like a parody of the movies it’s referencing at times. It’s enjoyable, but in a slightly bizarre, goofy way. But then the horror stuff kicks in, this time with the Mind-Flayer they got rid of last season trapped on this side of the gate and shaping itself into goo that possesses people, namely the abusive Billy, who becomes even more of a villain this year (and a victim). The gang has to fight the goop monsters (well, Eleven fights them while the rest of them stand around and watch), and the season is broken into three teams- El/MIke/Max/Will/Lucas take on Billy and the pod people while Hopper and Joyce fight the Terminator and Steve/Dustin/Robin/Erica deal with the newly formed Russian underground base below the mall.

The Duffer Brothers tend to listen to fan and critical reaction, so no more mutants from Eleven’s solo episode last year (doubt we’ll ever see them again), and they repeat the fan favorite Steve/Dustin pairing to a second successful go round, this time adding in another fan favorite Erica (who to me is far more annoying than amusing, but whatever), and Maya Hawke’s Robin is a good addition too, also paired with Steve. In fact, I think Steve and Robin have the older teen roles locked down, so can we please get rid of Jonathan and Nancy now, Duffers? Really, their irrelevance is painful. Even split into groups, the teams are entertaining enough so that everyone gets something to do and no one feels pushed to the side or wasted. The finale presents a kind of cliffhanger involving Hopper, but it’s the sort of ending that has you wondering exactly how someone is returning rather than if (of the irrelevant characters on the show, Hopper is not one of them). All in all, it was a fun summer excursion for the Hawkins gang, and the show’s characters are now loved enough that the monster attacks they suffer have become secondary to simply seeing them again, which is how the series has managed to continue, maybe beyond its natural self life. And so I continue to enjoy them.

Grade: B+

The Dustin/Steve duo works once again, with new girl Robin joining in on the fun

Holly Hunter Joins New Season of HBO's 'Succession'

This is the best trailer yet for this new season and I’m actively looking forward to this show coming back now. Holly Hunter and Cherry Jones are always good additions to anything. I’m wondering if Succession will wrack up many Emmy nominations next week, as it kind of flew under the radar last summer, but hype increased towards the end of its run and in retrospect.