Category: TV

Direct Beam Comms #64

CategoriesDirect Beam Comms, Feature, Movies, TVPosted on

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

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

Direct Beam Comms #63

CategoriesDirect Beam Comms, Feature, TVPosted on

TV

Humans Season 2, Episode 1 Grade: B

Bishop: “I prefer the term ‘Artificial Person’ myself.”

The whole idea of synthetic people, robots, androids, call them what you will, gaining, or trying to gain sentience is really nothing new. Data, on Star Trek: The Next Generation spent seven seasons of TV trying to do just that and I think there’s an argument to be made that HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey gained sentience, and that’s what drove him nuts. But just because all this has been done many, many times before doesn’t mean that story creators shouldn’t be using those same types of characters or exploring those same kinds of stories today. Even if they’re treading over the same story ground that others have already gone over before their stories will be different since they’re creating them through the lens of the present.

I don’t know if it’s the world we’re currently living in or something else but stories about robots becoming self-aware is really popular these days, with movies like Ex Machina and Ghost in the Shell and TV series like Westworld and Humans all exploring this same idea and coming at it in very different ways.

Humans is a series that originates in the UK and aires here in the US on AMC, the second season of which debuted last week. The series takes place in a very-near future world where “synths” are everywhere, do all the jobs that most people really don’t want to do and have even started turning up in homes to act as housekeepers, cooks, nannies, etc. But one scientist invented a code that made some synths self-aware, and in the first season these synths start coming together to try and escape the officials who want to wipe their memories since the fear is that self-aware synths would be the first step in knocking mankind down a few pegs on the evolutionary ladder.

The second season of Humans continues the story of the synths on the run and introduces a few new characters, namely Dr Athena Morrow (Carrie Ann Moss) who seems to have come up with the next step in computer artificial intelligence except she needs more computing power, and sees these self-aware synths as the final step in her AI quest.

Humans reminds me the most of the movie Blade Runner, in so much as it has the synths on the run from people who are out to kill them. But not so much in the tone and feel of that movie to the TV show. In many ways Humans is a bright series that takes place in gleaming offices and warm homes. I’d say that in tone and structure Humans is more akin to a 1990s series than the more modern series of today — and I don’t mean that as an insult.

Movies

Ghost in the Shell trailer #2

“They created me, but they cannot control me.”

The Reading & Watch List

Rumor Control

So far this year I’ve got articles written, or mostly written, to ones that will start publishing in early April. I’ve got one on Kong: Skull Island, Power Rangers almost complete and my annual summer movie preview in the works too. And another article after that which will either be about movies of 2007 or more probably a self-examination of my TV watching habits then we’ll be in the summer article season. I’ll tell you, it’s much better to be looking forward out a few months to things I’ll be writing when the weather’s started warming up than looking out a few months to things I’ll be writing about when it’s cold and cruddy outside.

This week in pop-culture history

  • 1932: Majel Barrett of Star Trek is born
  • 1969: Thomas Jane of The Mist and The Expanse is born.
  • 1982: Swamp Thing premiers in theaters
  • 1985: Brazil opens
  • 1993: Army of Darkness opens in theaters