TV
Crashing – Episode 1 Grade: B
HBO seems to be the network that thrives on series focusing on the uncomfortable lately. Divorce last fall was about how uncomfortable it is to watch a marriage falling apart while Girls is about how uncomfortable it is to be a 20-something girl in New York. And while there seems to be two different audiences for those two series the one thing they have in common is that I’m not a fan of either of them. While “uncomfortable” works in sorter form things like films or limited-run TV series, I’m not sure it works in longer shows. Which is why I was suspect right from the start of the new HBO series Crashing which debuted last week.
In Crashing, Pete (Pete Holmes) desperately wants to be a comedian and has dedicated his life hitting open mics and trying to break through. Pete sees his life as having promise, but his wife Jess (Lauren Lapkus) who’s supporting jobless Pete wants more excitement and begins having an affair, and when Pete catches Jess and her new beau in the act his seemingly comfortable life comes crashing down around him. Pete’s comic career hasn’t taken off yet and when his car gets towed and he’s mugged Pete finds himself sleeping on the couch of Artie Lange since he’s got nowhere else to go.
Much like with Divorce and Girls a lot of Crashing is rooted in uncomfortable comedy. Be it Pete’s attempt at stand-up or him walking in on his wife and her lover—twice. A lot of which I found difficult to watch, especially since Pete seems like he’s a nice guy undeserving of what apparently really happened to Pete Holmes in real life. However, I found much of the episode, and the idea of Crashing overall, to be quite intriguing. I’m not sure there’s ever been a show to deal with things like trying to make it in comedy while finding out that the love of your life is cheating on you while also coming at things from a deeply religious background before.
I could see Crashing covering some very interesting ground story-wise over the course of a season but would hope that the series isn’t all about how uncomfortable it is to bomb on stage night after night.
Movies
Alien: Covenant “Prologue: Last Supper”
“It’s a big old sea of nuthin’.”
Oscars
I think the last time I was invested in the outcome of the Academy Awards was back in 1998 when director James Cameron was up for several Oscars with his movie Titanic. And that wasn’t because of Titanic which I hadn’t even seen at that point. It was because of his previous movies like Terminator and Aliens which were/are some of my favorites so I wanted to see him recognized for being an outstanding filmmaker. But other than that, I can’t really remember a time when I’ve looked forward to the awards or even watched them?
To me, awards like the Academy Awards are meaningless. All awards like those are the same. They’re based on a bunch of people getting together and voting on what thing liked the most. And a lot of times what they like the most just so happens to be whatever movie is generating the most buzz at the time of voting.
But the way people vote means a lot of great films that people still watch and love today lose out to movies that are all but forgotten a year or two later. Don’t believe me? What film won the Oscar for Best Picture during last year’s ceremony? Don’t Google it, try and remember it. I’ll be waiting for you below with the answer.
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That movie was Spotlight. Does anyone still talk about Spotlight? No. Will anyone be talking about that movie in 20 years? Who knows, but if I were a betting man I’d put my money on “no.”
And the same goes for most, if not all of the movies up for awards this year. There’s so much hoopla surrounding them, and there’s so much reporting on who’s a lock to win and who’s got an outside chance of taking home a statue. But in a year or two no one will remember or care.
Ultimately, it only matters what you think about a movie. Do you think that Deadpool was the best movie of 2016? Great, then Deadpool was the best movie of 2016 to you. Or you over there, do you think that The Nice Guys was the best of the year? Super, then that one was the best to you.
That’s why I don’t care about the Oscars. They’re such a big deal at the time that will all be meaningless in a year or two. So why waste the time?
The Reading & Watch List
- 7 Earth-Size Planets Orbit Dwarf Star, NASA and European Astronomers Say
- Warren Ellis Brings Us Inside the Process and Pages of The Wild Storm
- Top 8 Mach 3 fighters
This week in pop-culture history
- 1920: James Doohan, Scotty of Star Trek is born
- 1949: Gates McFadden, Beverly Crusher of Star Trek: The Next Generation is born
- 1985: The TV series Robotech debuts
- 1998: Dark City premiers in theaters
- 2001: The TV series The Lone Gunmen premiers
