Wilfred, True Blood, Falling Skies, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Alphas

Posted by The TV Critic on 16 July 2011 | 2 Comments

Tags: Wilfred, True Blood, Falling Skies, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Alphas

Wilfred - 104 - Acceptance

This is the last time I will write about Wilfred for the time being. I've already laid out a bunch of reasons why I don't think the dog-human hybrid comedy is very funny. It may be more helpful if I just say that I don't like the chemistry between Ryan and Wilfred and I don't really buy any of the humans as real people with real lives. The stuff with Ryan's sister felt very shallow.

I know I've said it a thousand times in different ways but I think too many sit coms come from a sketch comedy origin rather than a more dramatic one. By "dramatic" I mean a show which creates a believable universe with real people inhabiting it and then finds ways to make it funny. Wilfred comes from the opposite approach where the idea of a man dressed as a dog is funny and then the writers try to build a show around it. Humour will always be subjective. One person will laugh and another won't. That's why I think sit coms need a believable universe where they can tell real stories which will keep people interested even when things aren't funny.

Alphas - 101 - Pilot

If you are looking for a quick answer on whether you should watch Alphas, all I can say is that I will be watching a few more. It's difficult to tell what Alphas will turn into. The pilot comes across like a cross between Heroes and Breakout Kings and I enjoyed the characterization a lot. So if you don't want to hear more, go watch it.

If you have seen it then I would be interested to know what your first impressions were. It was one of the busiest pilots I can remember seeing and I think there was far too much crammed into it. It was also an hour long (without commercials) which added to the sense that there was far more going on than normal. The reason things were so dense was because we had to be introduced to all the characters and their super powers as well as getting a standalone murder mystery. The producers would have been wiser to pick one or the other.

In case you need reminding the Alphas team are:
Dr. Lee Rosen - The doctor and presumably psychologist in charge of things.
Bill Harken - The black FBI agent with super strength.
Nina Theroux - The lady who can persuade people to do what she wants.
Gary Bell - The autistic young man who can see all electromagnetic waves
Rachel Pirzad - The lady who can heighten any of her five.
Cameron Hicks - the newcomer who has 'hyperkinesis', i.e. is an amazing shot and can dodge things
Don Wilson - The FBI agent who feeds them missions.

Despite the cramped pilot I was encouraged by three aspects of the shows presentation of the characters. The first was the dialogue and their interactions with one another. Bill was annoyed by the amateurs he was working with, Rachel was a little shy, Gary talked back to everyone. Best of all was Dr Rosen (a lovely turn from David Strathairn) who talked to them all like a psychologist might and constantly tried to nudge them in the direction he wants them to go. He really seemed like the caring boss who could keep them from falling out with one another and keep their secrets to himself.

The second thing I liked was the obvious personalities on display. Despite getting a generic introduction Bill soon came alive as an FBI officer who was annoyed to be saddled with a group who hadn't been similarly trained. Gary seemed believably aloof from social norms and responded differently to the way people treated him. There seemed like there was a lot of scope for stories about the team and ones which might focus on an individual.

The third aspect I liked a lot was the explanation of the super powers. Whether you buy them or not I liked the medical descriptions of each power which instantly removed origin stories, spandex or other comparisons coming to mind. Instead it cast all of the Alphas as real people who are struggling with a disability or in their case a heightened ability which has given them unique challenges in life. The writers also grasped something which Heroes never did which was to begin defining the limits of those powers so that drama would come naturally from a scene where they used them. So Bill puts tremendous strain on his body when he uses his strength and Rachel loses access to her other senses when she enhances one of them. I liked the dark hints about Nina's past which imply she has a weakness despite the overwhelming power that her ability gives her.

As I've already mentioned though, that was a lot of information to fit into a murder mystery story. The mystery had no real drama because this was the pilot and so the stakes felt low. The fact that the gang were chasing a fellow Alpha seemed to add an unnecessary complication too. It also meant that the 'twist' in the middle of the story felt very odd. Mike seemed to have caught the bad guy and yet for some reason they all chased the bell hop and left the true culprit lying on the floor. The plot also tried to introduce Cameron as the newest member of the team and explain the tensions with FBI agent Don Wilson, neither of which had enough time to sink in.

I hope the show sharpens its focus as the series continues because there was a lot of promise here. I will be back to update you when I have seen a few more episodes.

Curb Your Enthusiasm - 802 - The Safe House

This was less fun than last week. I felt like there was a lot of unproductive talking instead of the plot moving forward. The show is at its most unconvincing the longer Larry talks to people like the battered women. They didn't seem like real people by sitting sullenly as he babbled on and he seemed like an idiot. Again Larry chose to play with racial issues which can be tricky. In general I think he put a new spin on the familiar "black people all look the same" perception but it was nothing special. I thought the funniest bit of the episode was the guys all teasing Richard about his buxom girlfriend. Marty Funkhouser looks like he will be aloud to cut loose now he is single and I laughed at him sternly asking Richard "Have you set a day aside when you're finally gonna look at her face?"

True Blood - 404 - I'm Alive and On Fire

It's getting increasingly difficult to watch True Blood as it moves further and further toward being a kind of degenerate pornographic blood festival. As usual though my main complaint is about the lack of connection between the characters and the audience.

What are we supposed to feel for Tommy as his father wraps a chain around his throat once more? Tommy is one of those awful TV creations who just opposes common sense for no good reason. Throughout his interactions with Sam he has simply opposed him for the sake of it. There's no real damaged only-child character on display, he is just a walking plot point. Every person he has been in contact with he tries to take advantage of and he can never see why his behavior was wrong. There's no sense that he is real, he is just the anti-Sam. So here he goes back to his parents and suffers more physical and emotional abuse. Do I care? No.

It's also difficult to care about someone being violently choked in the same episode that Jason was raped and hunted. Again the whole clan of panther-people feel like plot points and not characters. Like Tommy they seem to exist only to turn red neck stereotypes into supervillains with all their ludicrous talk of Brother-Husbands and Father-Uncles. The idea that Jason was going to seed all the females of the clan was pretty grim and these gross ideas seem to serve a texture purpose and not a plot one. By that I mean the texture of the show has become about freaks and misery. In previous seasons it was Tara and Lafayette who were tortured and this season it's Jason's turn. These traumas never lead to anything important in the show I just think Alan Ball likes to showcase misery.

The final red neck super villain is the baby now apparently possessed by the evil spirit of his father Rene. Again this feels like a story entirely designed so that we can watch people suffer. There's not a lot you can do when your villain is a baby. It can't speak or walk or do anything useful. So we are just going to be subjected to watching a family tear itself apart. That's not why I watch TV.

The remaining plot between humans and vampires (and a werewolf) was ok. Perhaps poor Bill should move a little further away from his home town if he wants to avoid sleeping with his descendents. Realistically though what does that matter at this point. As the spell cast on Pam showed (in graphic detail), vampires are just walking corpses and if you are willing to sleep with one does it make any difference if you share DNA? I guess it's just another perversion to throw on the pile. In another show the nature of memory and personality might be being explored through Eric but this isn't that show. His story remains just an excuse for fan girls to see Eric and Sookie together.

I might be happier not writing about True Blood. I will keep an eye on it. I feel compelled to see where it's going even if I find it all so unappealing.

Falling Skies - 106 - Sanctuary (1)

I do like the kid trading plot in general. This idea that the Skitters care for human children well is interesting and this episode provided a major twist. The Skitters clearly value the children more than they feel the need to exterminate the adults. It all makes their ultimate motives more intriguing though with the endless parent-child love festivals going on, I hope this isn't building up to the aliens lecturing humans on how to care for their young: "Spend more time with them, listen to them, drill holes in their spines and make them do push ups" etc.

This episode suffered from a real excess of cheese. I don't remember seeing so many hugs in one episode of television. The parent-child stuff was an understandable focus for the story but there were way too many tender goodbyes and pep talks. The shot of a Skitter picking up a class room globe and smashing it was pure cheese and way too silly. I'm sure Stephen Spielberg isn't doing too much of the day-to-day work on the show but the attack on the bus was very reminiscent of Jurassic Park.

The Terry Clayton character was just the right side of subtle. He was insistent enough on his plan to make you suspect he was up to no good but he didn't do anything that made the others look stupid. It was only once he took them to his hidden frontier ranch that I began laughing. Why you ask? Because there was a sign hung up outside that read "HIDDEN FRONTIER RANCH." Seriously?! Who would put up a sign with the word hidden in it? The Skitters can no doubt read English as can Pope and other strangers so whoever thought that up was a moron. The show is already saccharine and cheesy enough without moments of hilarity like that.