TV Review: The Dropout 1.5 “Flower of Life” (dir by Francesca Gregorini)

Posted on March 17, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Who was Elizabeth Holmes?

Was she an idealist who got in over her head and ended up cutting corners with the best of intentions?

Was she a con artist who simply lied for the money?

Was she the abused and manipulated partner in a crime that masterminded by Sunny Balwani?

Or was she a sociopath who was simply incapable of feeling any empathy for the people that she manipulated and, in some cases, destroyed?

That’s the question that’s been at the heart of the first five episodes of The Dropout. It’s also a question that the show’s version of Elizabeth Holmes (played, brilliantly, by Amanda Seyfried) is struggling with. One gets the feeling that she herself doesn’t full understand what’s going on inside of her head. For the first half of the episode 5, Holmes is an almost sympathetic character. Still desperate for Sunny’s approval and seemingly convinced that Theranos can come up with some magic spell that will actually make the Edison work, Elizabeth comes across as being more self-delusional than malicious. For the first half of the episode, it’s like we’re watching the socially awkward but earnest Elizabeth who we first met at the beginning of the series. At her uncle’s funeral, she asks her mother if she ever had any hobbies when she was younger and her mom can only list several competitive activities that Elizabeth took part in. But, as becomes clear, Elizabeth never did anything just for fun or just for enjoyment. Instead, everything the she’s always done has been a part of an obsessive need to not only prove her own abilities but to also prove that she’s superior to other people.

Perhaps this strange mix of a grandiose self-image and gnawing insecurity is why she simply cannot bring herself to settle the lawsuit that’s been brought against her by Richard Fuisz (William H. Macy). Instead, with the help of her newest mentor, George Shultz (Sam Waterston), Elizabeth brings in David Boies (Kurtwood Smith). Boies is one of the leading lawyers in the United States. Before getting involved with Theranos, Boies tried to put Al Gore in the White House. After his involvement with Theranos, Boies tried to keep Harvey Weinstein out of jail. Boies failed on both accounts but he was far more successful when it came to battling Fuisz’s lawsuit. One of the key scenes in the episode comes when Schultz mentions that he and Boies are on different sides politically but that they’re willing to come together to protect Theranos. It doesn’t matter that Schultz is a Republican and Boies is a Democrat. What matters is that they’re both a member of the elite and Theranos, with its prestigious board of directors, is now a part of the elite as well. Richard Fuisz, with his terrible haircut and his excitable manner, is far too gauche to be allowed to defeat Theranos.

Indeed, Elizabeth spends most of this episode worrying about the lawsuit and also what might happen if Ian Gibbons (Stephen Fry) is called to testify. Gibbons’s name is on all of Theranos’s patents, along with Elizabeth’s. Gibbons is perhaps the one person who can testify that Elizabeth had nothing to do with designing any of Theranos’s equipment. When we first see Theranos’s legal team pressuring Ian to sign a statement saying that, as an alcoholic, he can’t testify, we’re left to wonder whether the team is working at the direction of Sunny, Boies, or Elizabeth. When Ian points out that signing such a statement will end his career, no one seems to care. Ian Gibbons goes home, plays with his dogs, listens to his favorite opera, says goodnight to his wife, and then kills himself.

Elizabeth’s reaction to Ian’s death tells us all we need to know about her and it pretty much erases whatever sympathy we may have had for her. She’s a bit like a robot, trying to generate the “right” emotions but not quite sure the proper way to do it. When told that Ian is dead and that the lawsuit is apparently dead as well, Elizabeth focuses on the finger puppets that she wants to stock in the Theranos Wellness Centers. The puppets are for children to wear after getting their finger pricked but they’re also a part of Elizabeth’s fantasy world, a world where Theranos will be fine and she’ll be as famous and beloved as Steve Jobs. And if that means that the Edison had to be built with technology with Sunny stole from another company, so be it.

The episode ends with Brendan (Bashir Salahuddin) quitting the company and George Schultz’s nephew, Tyler (Dylan Minnette), starting his first day. Using her fake voice, Elizabeth gives a speech to her cult-like employees. She talks about her uncle’s death and how it effected her and we know that it’s all a lie but Elizabeth sells it. The only disconcerting note comes from Sunny, who can’t stop himself from casually threatening to fire anyone who doesn’t share Elizabeth’s version. They’re a team. Elizabeth knows how to sell Theranos. Sunny knows how to terrify anyone who asks too many questions.

This was the first episode of the series to not be directed by Michael Showalter. Instead, it was directed by Francesca Gregorini and there are a few scenes where you really do miss Showalter’s ability to balance the absurd with the dramatic. That said, this episode worked due to the performances of not only Seyfriend and Naveen Andrews but also William H. Macy, Kurtwood Smith, and especially Stephen Fry. Fry especially broke my heart, even though I knew enough about the real story of Theranos that I already knew that Gibbons was going to take his own life. Still, Fry plays the role with such a wounded dignity that you are left with no doubt that Gibbons was the last of the true believers. He gave his life for Theranos and, in the end, Theranos gave him nothing in return.

The episode ends with Richard calling Phyllis Gardner (Laurie Metcalf), who was last seen telling a very young Elizabeth that there was no way to make the idea behind Theranos a reality. Phyllis tells Richard that Elizabeth is a fraud. And I have to admit that, as a viewer who had just spent 50 minutes with Elizabeth Holes and Sunny Balwani and David Boies, it was nice to hear someone come straight out and say it.

Next week, Tyler Schultz starts working at Theranos and he discovers that everything is not as it seems! It’s the beginning of the end for Theranos and I’m looking forward to watching it all come down.

TV Review: The Walking Dead 11.12 “The Lucky Ones” (dir by Tawnia McKiernan)

Posted on March 16, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s confession time!

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I was never a regular Walking Dead viewer in the past. And, after Carl Grimes died, I actually stopped watching the show all together. It was not until this current season started that I once started to regularly watch The Walking Dead. So, I have to admit that I had actually forgotten that Hillside and Alexandria were separate locations, with separate leaders and separate governing philosophies. I guess I just assumed that Hillside was a particularly trashy party of Alexandria. But, no …. I was wrong! It turns out that Alexandria, Hillside, and Oceanside are three separate communities.

Go ahead. Take a moment to laugh at me and then we’ll move on.

Done?

Well, we’re moving on anyways!

This week’s episode found Governor Milton and Lance Hornsby visiting each of the three communities and trying to bring them into the Commonwealth. Milton offered security and access to better goods. Alexandria saw that this was a good idea and signed up. Oceanside, on the other hand, said, “We’ll do whatever Hillside does.” Well, why don’t you just become a part of Hillside then!?

Not surprisingly, Maggie didn’t want to join up with the Commonwealth. Maggie was indeed tempted but, when she saw the difference between how the leaders of the Commonwealth lived as opposed to how the community’s workers and soldiers lived, Maggie said no deal. Or, at least, that’s what Maggie claims happened. Personally, I think it has more to do with Maggie not wanting to surrender any of her power. For all of her concerns about the way the Commonwealth treats its citizens, it’s not exactly as if Maggie is running a democracy herself. After Maggie refused to enter into an alliance with the Commonwealth, a few members of Hillside left the community and, quite frankly, I don’t blame them. Hillside’s a dump! Not even Negan is willing to live there.

Anyway, at the end of the episode, we learned that Gov. Milton isn’t as bad as everyone tends to assume. She was okay with not being able to bring Hillside and Oceanside into the Commonwealth, even saying that she expected that Maggie would ultimately refuse. Not okay with Maggie’s decision was Lance Hornsby, who not only takes a disturbingly sadistic glee in shooting walkers but who also is apparently obsessed with controlling everyone. Honestly, I don’t think anyone was really shocked to discover that Lance was not to be trusted. Josh Hamilton hasn’t exactly been giving a subtle performance in the role. Actually, just the fact that Lance was being played by Josh Hamilton should have been our first clue about not trusting him.

Meanwhile, Ezekiel was operated on and Eugene and Max got to know each other. Needless to say, Eugene was not happy to discover that Stephanie didn’t actually exist and he was also a bit freaked out to to discover that Max is Mercer’s sister. By the end of the episode, though, Eugene and Max seemed to be growing close. Max offered Eugene some advice on his novel. Eugene admitted that he had destroyed his only copy. WHY DID YOU DO THAT, EUGENE!? Eugene is never going to succeed as an author with that attitude.

This episode felt like the calm before the storm. While I don’t know if we needed to spend as much time on Gov. Milton’s travel as we did, at least the show managed to get to all three communities in one episode as opposed to stretching it out over six episodes, like they used to do back in the Rick Grimes era. It seems obvious that there’s an invasion coming, it’s just a question of who is going to strike the first blow.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television — 3/6/22 — 3/12/22

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here’s a few thoughts on what I watched this week!

Allo Allo (Sunday Night, PBS)

The Resistance was finally able to smuggle the Enigma machine out of Rene’s Cafe. The effort, of course, led to lot of costume changes and many scenes of Rene rolling his eyes in exasperation. But the important thing is that the plan worked and Michelle had to “say this only once.”

American Idol (Sunday Night, ABC)

The judges were in Nashville and almost everyone who auditioned wanted to be country music star. It got kind of boring. A former Miss America auditioned and Katy tried to steal her crown. That was pretty cool. I relate to Katy Perry far more than I relate to Taylor Swift. Eventually, one girl sang while playing the piano and was declared to be the industry’s next big superstar so I guess the show’s over now. Oh well.

Baywatch Hawaii (Prime)

I finally decided to return to my Baywatch Hawaii binge after taking about two months off. To be honest, the only reason why I returned is because I’m a completist and it’s hard for me to abandon anything. It’s certainly not because this show is particularly good or anything like that. There’s a reason why, after months of watching, I’m still struggling to finish up the first season.

Sunday morning, I got things started with an episode in which Jason was sent to the Big Island of Hawaii, where he got in touch with his native heritage by making his own canoe. A grumpy old man assisted him. Seriously, that was the entire episode. This was followed by an episode in which Sean and Jenna teamed up to rescue a few people and to argue about whether or not it was even necessary for the Baywatch Hawaii training facility to even exist. Sean thought it was necessary, which makes sense when you consider that he would be out of a job otherwise. Jenna felt it was a waste of money. Despite being attracted to each other, Sean and Jenna fought and fought. Despite being first-billed in the credits, David Hasselhoff was nowhere to be seen in either of these episodes.

Later that evening, I watched the next episode, which didn’t really have a plot beyond Kekoa and Dawn having a crush on Sean and Jason and JD trying to hit on every woman they saw. This episode basically felt like it had been put together out of scenes that had been edited out of previous episodes. Perhaps it was. Again …. no Hasselhoff!

And, for the rest of the week, I kind of forgot about the show. So, I guess I’ll get back to binging it tomorrow.

The Brady Bunch (Sunday Morning, MeTV)

On Sunday, I was too congested to change the channel so I lay on the couch and I was tortured by the Bradys. The Brady kid fought over a clubhouse. The Brady Kids fought over trading stamps. The Brady Kids fought over a lost wallet. The Brady Kids fought over feminism. The Brady Kids spent a lot of time fighting. I blame the parents.

Court Cam (Wednesday, A&E)

Court Cam has finally produced some new episodes and, as a result, I was shocked to actually see some new footage on Wednesday. For instance, I saw the Naked Cowboy getting detained in Daytona. Court Cam remains an odd show to me, largely because of how worshipful it is of the legal system. The judges are portrayed as being modern day super heroes, quick to exercise their power to find anyone in contempt. The unquestioning embrace of the court system is, overall, probably not a good thing but that’s the way of the world nowadays. My inner libertarian will always have a hard time accepting it, though.

The Dropout (Hulu)

I wrote about the latest episode of The Dropout here!

Full House (Sunday Afternoon, MeTV)

MeTV is currently showing episodes from the first season of Full House. I watched four on Sunday. Every episode has a sort of bizarre train wreck appeal to it, never more so than when Uncle Jesse gets as serious storyline. First, Stephanie cut Jesse’s hair while Jesse was sleeping so Jesse had to go get a real haircut and this led to him crashing his motorcycle and breaking both his arms. Then, Jesse decided that he would rather pursue music with his dorky band than work in the family garage. Jesse’s father was not happy about this but Uncle Jesse was like 40 years old so who cares?

Meanwhile, on another episode, Danny was hired to co-anchor a talk show with Becky (Lori Loughlin). I believe this was Loughlin’s first appearance on the show but she didn’t share any scenes with Jesse. In fact, it almost seemed as if the show was trying to set her up as a future girlfriend for Danny. While this was going on, DJ threw a party and had to kick out several of her guests when they started drinking beer. Fortunately, in the next episode, she got a horse to make up for losing all of her friends.

Law & Order (Thursday Night, NBC)

Ripped from the headlines! This week’s Law & Order was based on the Gabby Petito case and took a look at the difficulty of solving crimes and getting convictions in the social media era. It wasn’t a bad episode but I still don’t know how I felt about it or this revival overall. The episode was so obviously based on the Petito case that it actually felt a bit exploitive. I mean, I doubt Gabby’s parents took much comfort from the fact that their daughter’s death inspired a TV show.

The Love Boat (Sunday Afternoon, MeTV)

On today’s cruise: Willie Aames, Morey Amsterdam, Richard Deacon, Elaine Joyce, Susan Lucci, Rose Marie, Michelle Phillips, Tristan Rogers, and Jerry Van Dyke! That’s quite a lineup! Willie Aames thought he could steal Dr. Bricker’s girlfriend! A psychiatrist tried to take a vacation from his therapy group but the group decided to tag along! And, best of all, Susan Lucci played a soap opera writer who fell for Tristan Rogers. This was a cruise to remember!

The Office (Sunday Afternoon, Comedy Central)

I watched the two-part season three finale on Sunday. Jim, Karen, and Michael all went up to New York to interview for a corporate position. Michael withdrew when he realized that Jan was going to get fired. Karen showed zero sympathy for Jan so Jim apparently abandoned her in New York and drove back to Scranton so he could ask Pam out on a date. And, of course, Ryan got the job.

Open All Hours (Sunday Night, PBS)

Arkwright and Granville pursued a mouse that had invaded the store. Arkwright continued to obsess on Nurse Gladys Emmanuel. It’s odd that this show apparently ran for 10 years, despite producing only 20 or so episodes.

Pam & Tommy (Hulu)

I reviewed the finale of Pam & Tommy here!

Survivor (Wednesday Night, CBS)

I reviewed the season premiere of Survivor here!

Talking Dead (Sunday Night, AMC)

Yay! Talking Dead has returned to the studio. This week’s episode was pretty good, as any episode featuring Chris interviewing Josh McDermitt tends to be. It was also nice to see the return of Michael Cudlitz to the interview couch.

The Walking Dead (Sunday Night, AMC)

I reviewed the latest episode of The Walking Dead here!

TV Review: The Walking Dead 11.11 “Rogue Element” (dir by Michael Cudlitz)

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Whatever else you may or may want to say about The Walking Dead, you’ve got to love Josh McDermitt and his performance as Eugene Porter.

Eugene has consistently been one of the most interesting characters on this show. He’s gone from being an untrustworthy coward to being one of the strongest people on the show. He’s also gone from being the weirdo who made your skin crawl to being the weirdo who you secretly hope will find everything that he’s looking for. The fact of the matter is that, if there was an actual zombie apocalypse, the majority of the survivors wouldn’t be Darryl or Morgan or Carol or Michonne. The majority would be people like Eugene, people who survive through luck and who still hope to find some sort of normalcy. There’s something very touching about the fact that, even in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, Eugene is writing a science fiction novel.

There were a few plotlines playing out in this week’s episode of The Walking Dead. The two reporters tried to investigate what led to Tyler snapping at the Masquerade Ball. Mercer walked around and glowered in his threatening way. Lance took Carol out to the opium camp and made an effort to win her loyalty for the Commonwealth. (At some point, people will learn to stop trying to recruit Carol to their pet causes.) But the episode’s heart was with Eugene and his attempts to discover what had happened to Stephanie. And that’s really were it should have been. Against all odds, Eugene has emerged as the show’s symbol for every person who is trying to survive the zombie apocalypse without surrendering their emotions and their humanity. Back when Eugene first appeared on the show and was lying about being a scientist, who could have guessed that he would still be around? Who would have guessed that he would have outlasted not only Rick but also Carl? Eugene survives.

This episode was directed by Michael Cudlitz, who previously played Abraham on the show. (You may remember that Abraham was murdered by Negan. It was kind of unfair, I thought, that Abraham was sacrificed in order to make it even more shocking when Negan then killed Glenn but that’s The Walking Dead for you. It’s cold world.) Cudlitz brought a lot of noir style to this episode. I especially liked the scene at the end, with Eugene huddled in that dark alley, burning his dreams, while Max emerged from the shadows and introduced herself as being the real Stephanie. If nothing else, this scene showed that The Walking Dead can create an haunting atmosphere, even without using walkers and blood.

The episode was, of course, dominated by Josh McDermitt’s poignant performance as Eugene but I also liked Paola Lazaro’s work as Princess. She and McDermitt make a good team, as do Eugene and Princess. Josh Hamilton continues to do great work as Lance Hornsby. His rather casual dismissal of Eugene’s outrage was one of the episode’s highlights and it brought up an interesting point. Everyone knows the Commonwealth is corrupt but everyone also knows that they’re safer in the Commonwealth than outside of it. People will accept a lot when it comes to staying safe.

Though it took me a few days to find the time to watch it, this was a good episode. I look forward to seeing what happens next!

TV Review: The Dropout 1.4 “Old White Men” (dir by Michael Showalter)

Posted on March 10, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

If the first three episodes of Hulu’s The Dropout occasionally seemed as if they might be a bit too sympathetic to Elizabeth Holmes (played, brilliantly so far, by Amanda Seyfried), the fourth episode presented us with Elizabeth in full supervillian mode.

Gone was the socially awkward but well-meaning Elizabeth. Now speaking with her trademark deep voice, wearing her black turtlenecks, and possessing the wide-eyed stare of someone who rarely blinks, Elizabeth spent the fourth episode conning Walgreens into investing in her worthless blood testing machine. When she wasn’t manipulating the Walgreens execs, she was coldly firing poor Ian Gibbons (Stephen Fry) and only bringing him back after the rest of the lab team threatened to quit in protest. Of course, it wasn’t Elizabeth who placed the call to Ian and asked him to return. It was Sunny (Naveen Andrews) and, when Ian returned, he was taken out of the lab and given a desk job.

Yes, it quickly became obvious that Theranos had changed a lot since the previous episode. Security was everywhere, befitting a company that claimed to have come up with revolutionary technology. People in different departments were not allowed to talk to each other. The earnest and free-wheeling atmosphere had been replaced by a slick but curiously impersonal office. Even the quote from Yoda now felt out of place. Yoda would have been fired for asking too many questions.

Of course, the majority of the episode dealt with Elizabeth and Sunny’s attempts to sell their “wellness center” concept to Walgreens. It was an obvious con but the Walgreens execs eventually fell for it. One of them, Jay Rosen (Alan Ruck), fell victim to Elizabeth’s flattery and a belief that Elizabeth represented the future. (In a rather endearing scene, Jay compared Elizabeth to a Katy Perry song.) Another exec, Wade Miquelon (Josh Pais), initially understood that Theranos’s claims were too good to be true but, ultimately, he set aside his concerns when it appeared that Theranos might make a profitable deal with CVS instead. Only Kevin Hunter (Rich Sommer) was able to see through Theranos and, ultimately, his concerns were ignored. Ruck, Pais, and Sommer were all wonderfully cast and they all did a good job of showing how Elizabeth, Sunny, and Theranos were able to con so many people who should have known better. By the end of the episode, Elizabeth has tricked former Secretary of State George Shultz (Sam Waterston, radiating gravitas as only he can) into joining the Board of Directors. While the Walgreens corporate leaders performed an endearingly dorky version of What I Like About You, Kevin Hunter curiously looked at the Edison blood testing machine and Elizabeth coldly looked at him.

After being so disappointed with both Inventing Anna and Pam & Tommy, I resolved to be a little bit more cautious when it comes to overpraising the early episodes of The Dropout. And I do think you could probably make the argument that devoting an entire episode to Walgreens is an example of how a miniseries will occasionally drag a story out and will devote an entire episode to something that could have been handled with just one five-to-ten minute scene. But, when you’ve got a cast this good and writing this sharp, it almost doesn’t matter. Director Michael Showalter did a wonderful job of balancing the cringey humor of the Walgreens plotline with the more emotional moments in which Ian Gibbons dealt with his frustrations over the direction in which Sunny and Elizabeth took Theranos. Even if you don’t already know the details about what ultimately happened to Ian Gibbons, Stephen Fry’s performance will still break you heart. Fry plays Gibbons as a man who, despite advancing age and poor health, refuses to surrender his idealism. That makes him a good scientist but also the perfect victim for Elizabeth and Sunny’s syle of manipulation.

Old White Men was a well-done episode, perhaps one of the best that I’ve seen so far this year. I look forward to seeing where the show takes us next week.

TV Review 1.8 Pam & Tommy “Seattle” (dir by Gwyneth Horder-Payton)

Posted on March 9, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Pam & Tommy comes to an end, not with a hard bang but instead with a flaccid whimper.

The final episode of Pam & Tommy opened with Seth Rogen’s Rand Gauthier wandering around with a pained expression on his face. Apparently, this was the one thing that Rand was good at. Rand has been beating up people who owe Butchie money but it’s starting to trouble him. Rand believes in karma and thinks that being a glorified mob enforcer will turn karma against him. Or maybe being a glorified mob enforcer is karma’s way of punishing Rand for stealing a sex tape and trying to sell it online in the first place. It’s hard to say. All I know is that there was way too much Rand and way too much karma talk for me. The show may be based on what Rand claims actually happened to him but the idea of Rand, with his mom jeans and his mullet, becoming a feared debt collector is simply a bit too much. Perhaps because he was just as sick of listening to Rand whine as the rest of us, Butchie offered to let Rand off the hook if Rand would simply pay him $10,000. Rand, of course, doesn’t have $10,000, despite being responsible for coming up with the most profitable and lucrative use of the internet ever. Loser!

Meanwhile, Tommy attempts to make a musical comeback by imitating the 90s Seattle sound while an actual resident of Seattle, Seth Warshovsky (Fred Hechinger), offers to buy the rights to Pam and Tommy’s sex tape. On the one hand, selling the rights to Warshovsky will allow Warshovsky to sue anyone who is distributing and making money off of bootlegged copies. On the other hand, it will also lead people to assume that Pam and Tommy were behind the video’s initial release. Pam wants to do it. Tommy refuses. Their marriage starts to crumble. The episode insinuates that the tape caused Pam to miss out on opportunities to appear in both L.A. Confidential and Austin Powers which …. yeah. I’m honestly going to say that, as far as Pam not becoming a movie star and losing roles to Kim Basinger and Elizabeth Hurley, there may have been factors in play other than the sex tape and hypocritical American puritanism. One can sympathize with what Pam went through while also still being honest about the fact that she was never a particularly good actress. If anything, her talent and persona were perfect for television.

After 8 hours, the finale of Pam & Tommy didn’t add up too much. We start to see that Pam is getting sick of Tommy’s immaturity and that Tommy can’t control his temper, even around Pam. But it’s not until the end title cards that we’re informed that Pam and Tommy divorced after Tommy was arrested and did jail time for spousal abuse. (We’re also told that both Pam and Tommy consider each other but the love of their lives, which is kind of a bold statement to make when neither Pam nor Tommy had anything to do with the production of Pam & Tommy.) Seth Warshovsky pays Rand a total of $10,000 for the original copy of the sex tape and then goes on to make several million dollars off of it. Rand considers using the money to settle his debt with Butchie but instead he gives the money to his ex-wife because that’s what karma would want him to do. (One has to wonder if anyone involved with Pam & Tommy ever watched a little show called My Name Is Earl.) Those helpful title cards inform us that Rand moved to North California and now works as a marijuana grower and that he still struggles to get people to believe that he’s the man who actually stole the tape. It doesn’t mention whether he did anything about his hair.

The main problem with Pam & Tommy is that the story itself just wasn’t interesting enough to demand 8 hours of screen time. The second biggest problem, and this is a problem with a lot of streaming miniseries, is that the show itself never really settled on a consistent tone. Was it a drama or was it a live action cartoon? The show couldn’t seem to make up its mind. Themes were raised and then abandoned, as if the show itself was desperately trying to justify its existence. Lily James gave a good performance as Pam. Sebastin Stan has a few good moments as Tommy Lee. Seth Rogen, Taylor Schilling, Andrew “Dice” Clay, and Nick Offerman all gave their characters one-note interpretations that didn’t add up too much. Considering the talent involved, it’s all a bit of a shame.

Oh well. It’s over now.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 2/27/22 — 3/5/22

Posted on March 5, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yes, I watched a lot this week. Here’s some thoughts:

Allo Allo (Monday Morning, PBS)

Rene attempted to abandon his wife and his café so that he could elope with Yvette but Michelle had one “last” mission for him. It involved smuggling the Enigma machine to the British via the sewer system and, needless to say, it involved a lot of digging. It made me laugh, that’s what is important.

The Amazing Race (Wednesday Night, CBS)

You can read my thoughts on the finale here! I wasn’t particularly happy about who won but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

American Idol (Sunday Night, ABC)

I am as stunned as anyone by the fact that American Idol still exists. I stopped caring about the show a lifetime ago but I still watched the premiere of the latest season on Sunday because I was cleaning around the house and I thought it would make for acceptable background nose. I love Katy Perry but the rest of the judges are pretty dull. No one’s willing to be as mean as Simon Cowell was back in the day. The whole thing is just too damn positive.

The Bachelor (Monday Night, ABC)

I haven’t really been keeping up with this season but I did watch Monday’s episode, just to see if the Claytonbot had developed any sort of individual personality over the past few weeks. He has not but apparently, everyone can still see themselves falling in love with him and spending the rest of their life with him.

Bar Rescue (Friday Morning, Paramount)

It had been a while since I watched Bar Rescue so I watched the Friday morning bloc of reruns. I guess, due to the fact that I don’t drink, I always find it amusing how worked up everyone on the show gets over the mismanaged bars. Whenever Taffer starts to yell about a bartender not knowing how to make a certain cocktail, I’m always like, “Well, can’t you just order something else?”

Couples Court With The Cutlers (Sunday Afternoon, OWN TV)

I had forgotten this show existed but when I stumbled across it on Sunday, I have to admit that I immediately got sucked into the case of Bacon vs. Bacon and the question of whether or not Mrs. Bacon was cheating on Mr. Bacon. They even brought in a cybersecurity expert to go through Mrs. Bacon’s phone and it was discovered that she was using an app to send out secret text messages! Mrs. Bacon claimed she was talking to other men but not actually cheating with them. However, “licensed polygraph examiner Kendall Shull,” (as he’s called in every single episode) determined that she was cheating. Mr. Bacon walked out on her husband while the audience gasped. Poor Mr. Bacon! I later looked this episode up on the imdb and I discovered that it was 5 years old so I can only imagine how the Bacons feel whenever they come across it playing on TV.

Court Cam (Wednesday, A&E)

To be honest, I thought this show had been canceled but, on Wednesday, I discovered that it still exists and it’s going strong. Featuring actual court footage and breathlessly narrated by Dan Abrams, Court Cam is the equivalent of true crime junk food. I watched about four episodes. Judges yelled. Defendants yelled. The bailiffs were ready to spring into action. The lawyers were usually smart enough to stay out of the way.

The Dropout (Hulu)

I wrote about the latest Hulu miniseries here!

Full House (Sunday Afternoon, MeTV)

Uncle Jesse was upset that he wasn’t getting to spend as much time with his cool friends as he wanted to because he was always spending all of his time taking care of Danny’s children. So, Jesse went skiing with his old friends but they all turned out to be just as dorky as Joey and Danny so I kind of think Jesse was fooling himself as far as the old gang was concerned. Jesse’s life didn’t get any better in the episode that followed, as he was forced to take a job as an Elvis impersonator to pay the bills. Poor Jesse! At least he had adequate hair.

Inventing Anna (Netflix)

I watched episodes 3, 4, and 5 of Inventing Anna early Monday morning. They didn’t do too much for me, largely because Vivian isn’t a very interesting character and every minute that we have to spend listening to her whine about her career is a minute that we’d rather be spending with Anna and her wealthy friends. This show makes a lot more sense once you know that the journalist upon whom Vivian Kent is based is also one of the producers. She made the mistake of thinking she was the star of the story.

King of the Hill (Hulu and FXX)

On Sunday morning, I watched three episodes of King of the Hill on Hulu. The first featured the possibility of Bobby being a reincarnated holy man. The second found Peggy getting involved with a pyramid scheme. (“No, it’s a triangle.”) And the third featured Hank getting a haircut from Bill and then demanding that the Army charge him for it. It turns out that it costs $900 for the army to give a man a haircut.

I watched two episodes of FXX on Wednesday. One episode featured Hank becoming the substitute shop teacher and teaching the kids how to fix things. Unfortunately, he had the kids bring tools from home and that got him fired. I love this episode, largely because of the wonderful voice over work of the late Dennis Burkley, who played Principal Moss. This was followed by Aisle 8A, in which Connie spent a memorable few days with the Hills and Hank had to find the courage to take a trip down Aisle 8A.

Law & Order (Thursday Night, NBC)

I watched the latest episode of Law & Order to see if McCoy had gotten around to firing his ludicrously idealistic Executive D.A. yet. He had not.

This week’s episode was based on the relationship of Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani so it was interesting to watch it after having binged the first three episodes of The Dropout. It was an okay episode, even if it still sometimes seemed to be trying a bit too hard. The Law & Order revival needs to calm down a little and give the new characters (and the actors playing them) a chance to define who they are.

I kept hoping the ghost of Adam Schiff would materialize and rasp, “Take the deal….”

Law & Order: SVU (Thursday Night, NBC)

What if Joe Rogan confessed to a decades-old murder!? Well, I guess you’d have to send someone in undercover to catch him. This was not one of SVU‘s better episodes.

The Love Boat (Sunday Evening, MeTV)

On Sunday’s cruise, Kim Richards played a 13 year-old who, after putting on a good deal of makeup and taking off her glasses, could pass for a 22 year-old. Fortunately, Gopher found out the truth about her age before committing a crime. Meanwhile, Eve Plumb learned to forgive the man who she thought was her father for walking out on the family 20 years earlier. Yay! Quite a cruise.

Open All Hours (Monday Morning, PBS)

A woman wished Granville a happy birthday so Arkwright pushed Granville off of a step ladder. This is something that appeared to happen fairly frequently with Granville. He was always getting shoved off something. Poor guy.

Pam and Tommy (Hulu)

I reviewed the latest episode of Pam & Tommy here. Unfortunately, the character of Rand Gauthier has returned. I’m glad this show is almost over.

The SAG Awards (Sunday Night, TNT)

I caught the second airing of the awards. It was nice to see CODA win the award for Best Ensemble. I loved Marlee Matlin’s speech.

Secrets of Playboy (Monday Night, A&E)

This A&E docuseries is all about exposing Hugh Hefner as being kind of a creep. The episodes that I saw on Monday certainly accomplished that goal. It’s kind of amazing that, for years, Hefner was able to get away with presenting himself as being some sort of benevolent father figure when basically, he was just a jerk with a mansion and smoking jacket.

Silk Stalkings (IMDB TV)

On Wednesday, I returned to binging Silk Stalkings. I started with the 35th episode of the series, which was called Dead Weight and featured Chris and Rita investigating the murder of a businessman who was played by John O’Hurley. I was pretty sure that I had seen this episode before but no matter. It was fun and trashy and O’Hurley played his brief role like a soap opera villain come to life. The 36th episode was called Kid Stuff and it told the story of a 17 year-old prostitute who shot her older lover’s wife. The older man was a doctor who was played by the great Andrew Stevens. Even by the standards of Silk Stalkings, this was a sordid episode but that’s one of the fun things about Silk Stalkings. It may have been shameless but it also clearly wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. Later, that night, I watched the 37th episode, in which Chris and Rita investigated a shooting that was connected to a couple’s kinky sex game. That said, Chris was more concerned that Rita might accept a job offer and move to San Diego. Awwwww! No need to worry, Chris! Rita would never leave you!

Thursday, I watched Episode #38. After a murder turned out to be connected to a shady modeling company (which was actually a front for a trafficking scheme), Chris and Rita went undercover! Chris pretended to be a mobster! Rita pretended to be a model! Any episode in which Chris and Rita go undercover is guaranteed to be a gem, especially if it requires Chris to wear a red suit and talk tough. This was followed by an episode in which Chris and Rita investigated a death at a birthday party and Rita dealt with some issues from her traumatic childhood. It was actually a pretty effective episode. As silly as the mysteries on the show were, both Mitzi Kapture and Rob Estes were good actors who managed to find a sort of emotional reality amongst all the neon and lingerie.

Finally, on Friday, I watched Episode #40, “Soul Kiss.” Chris and Rita investigated what appeared to be a suicide but what was actually a murder that was connected to a tantric sex seminar. Rita was intrigued but Chris thought it was silly to suggest that he needed a seminar to learn anything new. Rob Estes and Mitzi Kapture both kind of laughed their way through this episode.

Snowpiercer (Sunday Night, TNT)

I watched Snowpiercer while waiting for the second showing of the SAG Awards to begin. Visually, it’s an impressive show and there’s a lot of actors in the cast who I like. And I also liked the movie upon which the show is based. That said, I don’t have the slightest idea what was going on in the majority of the episode.

South Park (Wednesday Night, Comedy Central)

This week, South Park not only took on Russian aggression but it also took a look at the way adults specialize in scaring and emotionally traumatizing children “for their own good.” As usually happens in a time of crisis, South Park was the only show to come across as being the least bit sensible. The new episode was followed by the “Zipline” episode from 2012. That episode was only ten years old but seemed to come from a totally different universe.

The State of the Union (Hulu)

I skipped the State of the Union address on Tuesday and I wasn’t planning on watching it at all but then I heard from several people about how weird it was so I decided to give it a watch. And yes, it was very, very weird. All of our leaders are very, very weird and there’s no point in pretending otherwise. What’s the deal with Biden’s creepy whispering thing? Can no one tell him not to do that? For that matter, most of the members of Congress appear to be deeply weird as well. As much as we Americans love watching British and Canadian lawmakers heckle their prime ministers, we’re still not used to the idea of people in Congress doing it to the president. At times, I felt like I was watching a sci-fi film in which society had moved underground.

My main impression is that this country is led by a group of very old people. Maybe we should try electing some younger people the next time we have the opportunity. Just a thought.

Talking Dead (Sunday Night, AMC)

Just like last week, Talking Dead did not feature a studio audience and, as a result, it fell somewhat flat.

The Walking Dead (Sunday Night, AMC)

I like the Commonwealth. Their Halloween looked fun and I don’t really care about the income inequality. The world’s ending. Let people enjoy themselves, Carol. I reviewed the latest episode of The Walking Dead here.

Worst Roommate Ever (Netflix)

Netflx’s latest true crime series tells the story of four terrible roommates. Three of them turned out to be murderers. The other one attempted to kill two people that we know about and the fact that both of them survived is something of a miracle. I binged this frequently fascinating but often disturbing series on Tuesday morning, before Erin and I left to the vote in the Texas primaries. The fact that this series is only five episodes long and doesn’t resort to dragging out any of the stories that it tells should really serve as a lesson for some other showrunners out there. That said, I also have to say that the final two episodes, which dealt with the nightmarish crimes of Jamison Branch, left me feeling deeply unsettled and there’s a part of me that wishes that I hadn’t watched them.

TV Review: The Dropout Episodes 1, 2, and 3 (dir by Michael Showalter)

Posted on March 5, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

On Thursday, I binged the first three episodes of Hulu’s The Dropout.

The Dropout is Hulu’s miniseries about the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes (played by Amanda Seyfried), the enigmatic Stanford dropout who founded Theranos and became a billionaire before she turned 30. She promised that Theranos would revolutionize both the way that blood was tested and the world of health care in general. She was known for black turtlenecks, her deep (and possibly fake) voice, and her habit of not blinking. Of course, as common sense should have made obvious to just about anyone, it turned out that Elizabeth Holmes was lying about the blood testing machinery that her company was marketing. She and her business partner and former lover, Sunny Balwani (played, in The Dropout, by Lost‘s Naveen Andrews) were eventually charged with defrauding their investors. At trial, Holmes argues that her intentions were good and that she was trapped in an abusive relationship with Balwani. While Balwani’s trial is scheduled to being later this month, Elizabeth had already been convicted and currently await sentencing. Theranos, of course, no longer exists.

After the first three episodes, I would say that I’m cautiously optimistic. Seyfried and Andrews seem to be perfectly cast as Elizabeth and Sunny and the story itself is an interesting one. The miniseries format seems like a good one for director Michael Showalter’s trademark mix of dark comedy and drama. Much as with Showalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye, there were a few moments that felt a bit too cartoonish, most of which involved William H. Macy as Elizabeth’s former neighbor and eventual business rival but, for the most part, the first three episodes managed to establish and maintain a consistent tone. Before she lowers her voice and dons her black turtleneck, Elizabeth comes across as being socially awkward but likable. It’s only towards the end of the 3rd episode that we really start to see her as being the villainous figure that she eventually began. The first 3 episodes are like an origin story.

Of course, the fact that it took 3 hours to tell her origin story is one reason why I’m cautious in my optimism. Streaming services are currently full of miniseries that all take stories that should be interesting but then drag them out to such a length that it’s hard not to eventually lose interest. (If you need an example of what I’m talking about, go check out Netflix’s Inventing Anna.) The Dropout‘s first three episodes were well-done but it’s still hard not to feel that the story told in those three hours could have just as easily been told in 20 minutes, without denying the viewer anything that they needed to know to understand Elizabeth and Sunny. There are five more episodes to go. Can the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos remain interesting for 8 hours? I’m hopeful but I’m not totally sure.

With all that in mind, I’m recommending The Dropout, on the basis of the first three episodes. But remember …. I was originally pretty enthusiastic about Pam & Tommy as well.

TV Review: Pam & Tommy “Destroyer of Worlds” (dir by Lake Bell)

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

After two blissfully Rand-free episodes of Pam & Tommy, Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogen) returned to dominate this week’s episode. As soon as things opened with a close-up of Rand looking like someone had just run over his favorite pet, I groaned very loudly. Rand is such an unlikable character and the show insists on trying to make us feel sorry for this loser. Even if Seth Rogen wasn’t both miscast and intent on giving the worst performance of his career in the role, Rand would make Pam & Tommy difficult to watch.

Rand (or Reed or whatever his name is supposed to be) was basically upset because he wasn’t making any money off of the Pam and Tommy sex tape. Instead, the bootleggers were making all the money. Rand/Reed also got upset because cocaine addict Uncle Miltie (Nick Offerman) turned out to be a bad business partner. Meanwhile, Butchie (Andrew “Dice” Clay, acting up a storm with little to show for it) wanted his money and demanded that Reed/Rand turn into a debt collector. “I AM THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS!” a frustrated Rand declared as he collected a debt and seriously, what the heck? (Folks, I gave up cursing for Lent. Just go with me here.) The episode’s best moment was when Rand tried to blackmail Tommy and Tommy reacted by setting the money on fire while Randy Reed watched. What made this scene so great was that Tommy called Reedy Rand a loser. Again, I got the feeling that we were supposed to feel bad for Rand but …. eh. Who cares? Rand is a loser and the mullet isn’t making him look any better.

If the highlight of the episode was Tommy setting that money on fire while taunting Rand, the show’s second best moment was Pam appearing on The Tonight Show and having to deal with a series of disrespectful and infuriatingly sexist questions from Jay Leno. The actor playing Leno essentially played him as being the devil, which was kind of amusing. Watching the scenes with Leno acting like a member of the Spanish Inquisition, I found myself thinking about how Ken Russell probably could have done something amazing with this material. The scene ended with Pam having to talk Tommy out of beating up Jay Leno, which again was kind of amusing. Just imagine if Tommy had stormed onto the Tonight Show set and thrown a punch while Jay was introducing Hugh Grant. That would have been classic television.

As the Tonight Show debacle indicated, the release of Barb Wire was overshadowed by Pam and Tommy’s court case against Penthouse. The judge ruled that the 1st Amendment gave Penthouse the right to publish still from the tape. Tommy was too stupid to realize that the judge had ruled against him. Pam responded with a monologue about how the judge was actually saying that it was okay to exploit her because she wore a swimsuit on Baywatch and she also previously appeared in Playboy. Pam had a point but, as so often happens on this show, that point was somewhat negated by the fact that the real-life Pamela Anderson never signed off on having her life dramatized in Pam & Tommy and, as a result, the show is itself a bit exploitive.

The show also continues to feel a bit pointless, despite Lily James’s frequently excellent performance as Pam. Again, it’s hard not to wonder why exactly this story demands the limited series treatment as opposed to the 90-minute movie treatment. Indeed, by stretching thing out over 8 hours, Pam & Tommy just reminds us of how superficial this story really is.

One final note: early on in the episode, Butchie is shocked to discover that there’s a new coffee company in Seattle that’s called Starbucks. I’ve noticed this is a joke that’s popped up in a lot of movies about the 90s and it feels rather lazy. They should have made an AOL joke instead.

8 Things To Which To Look Forward To In March

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s March! March is the 3rd month of the year and it’s always been a favorite of mine, just because it has one of the best names of any month. March! It sounds so decisive and forward-looking. Who doesn’t love that?

Here’s what I’m looking forward to in March:

The Batman

Okay, honestly, I don’t know that I’m so much looking forward to The Batman as much as I’m just happy for everyone who I know can’t wait to see this movie tomorrow. I will say that I support anything that brings Paul Dano to the public eye. And I’m happy for Robert Pattinson, though I hope he will continue to also make challenging films like Good Time and Cosmopolis. The Batman seems guaranteed to become the first really big hit of the year. With Pattinson starring in this and Kristen Stewart having a decent chance to win an Oscar, it may be time to seriously reconsider the legacy of Twilight.

Critically, The Batman has been receiving the best reviews of the year so far. If I have any doubts about the film, that’s due to the fact that it’s a 3-hour film and Twitter, which is where I’ve seen the most enthusiasm for The Batman, tends to be an echo chamber when it comes to evaluating the box office potential of comic book films. If I’ve learned anything over the past year, it’s that you really can’t use Film Twitter as a way to gauge how enthusiastic the general public may or may not be for a movie. If The Batman somehow does fail at the box office and we get yet another reboot, I guess they’re going to have to call it “A Batman.” It’s hard not to feel that we’re running out of titles here.

2. The Oscars

The Oscars will finally be handed out on the 27th and, as always, we’ve got a lot planned for that day here at the Shattered Lens. With all the controversy surrounding the show and the decision to do stuff like give out “Fan Favorite” awards, this year seems primed to be an even bigger fiasco than last year’s show. Every “fix” that’s been announced for the show feels like a “threat.” I mean, when you announce that the show is going to be hosted by Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes, that also makes the promise of “time for more comedy bits” seem rather ominous. (You’ll notice that I didn’t mention Regina Hall because she’s the best and really, she’s the only host the show needs.) The Academy and ABC are so desperate to not go over that three-hour running time that I’m personally rooting for a four-hour show. I want people to ramble on interminably in their speeches. I want technical difficulties to slow things down. I want the ABC execs to freak out as the clock strikes ten and the show is nowhere near being over.

Of course, the only question that really matters is whether the ratings will improve or not. To be honest, I’m kind of hoping the ratings don’t improve because I don’t want the Academy thinking that “Fan Favorite” and less categories is the way to go. My hope is that less than 100,000 people watch and the Oscars move to a streaming platform. Next year, I want to see the Oscars on Peacock, with Mario Lopez and Elizabeth Berkley hosting. Hmmm….maybe I shouldn’t watch this year….

3. A New Season of Survivor

Admittedly, the most recent season of Survivor was weird. Jeff Probts kept trying to be nice and every member of the cast had some big, dramatic story to tell about their life back home. There were a lot of emotional tribal councils. There was a lot of hugging. That’s not what we watch Survivor for. Survivor is not meant to be a show that makes you feel better about humanity. Survivor is supposed to be a show that celebrates betrayal and ruthlessness. Survivor is about great villains, not sob stories. Fortunately, a new season of my second-favorite (after The Amazing Race) reality show is starting in March and I hope it will be a return to the Survivor of old.

4. Deep Water

Finally, this Ben Affleck/Ana de Armas film will be getting its release! Earlier this year, it went from being a theatrical release to a movie that’s going to premiere on Hulu. Some people may think that’s a bad sign but personally, I think that indicates that the film will be enjoyably trashy. We’ll find out this month!

5. A Day To Die

Another Bruce Willis film? This will be Willis’s third film of the year and it’s only March! I’ve made it my goal to watch every Bruce Willis appears in this year. I still haven’t gotten started so I guess I’ll have to do an American Siege/Gasoline Alley/Day to Die marathon sometime this month. My hope is that, at some point this year, we’ll get the Nicolas Cage/Bruce Willis/Frank Grillo collaboration that VOD fans have been waiting for. (For the record, Frank Grillo is in A Day To Die but Nic Cage apparently is not.)

As for A Day to Die, I wonder how many people will accidentally watch it because they think it’s a Die Hard sequel. You have to admire the hustle, that’s all I’m saying.

6. American Song Contest

Wow, that’s a bland title! Anyway, this is America’s version of Eurovision. Singers from all 50 states will be competing and I’m sure our media will not use this as a way to push this whole Blue State vs. Red State narrative that they are so proud of. I’m looking forward to this because I can’t wait to hear how bad the songs are. Vermont’s song will probably be some sort old folkie nonsense and I can’t wait to ridicule it on Twitter. I know that’s kind of a negative way to look at things but fug it. It happens.

7. Lent

I gave up cursing for Lent!

8. After Yang

I’ve heard very good things about this film, which will be premiering this Friday on Showtime. I look forward to seeing it!

What are you looking forward to in March?