[{"blog_title":"Ken Tucker's TV Prime-Time TV commentary","desc":"Prime-Time TV commentary","url":"http:\/\/watching-tv.ew.com","timestamp":1337756556,"post_title":"Political TV ad review: The Republican 'Basketball,' or, 'My Kids Are Grown and They Won't Move Out!'","permalink":"http:\/\/watching-tv.ew.com\/2012\/05\/23\/basketball-ad-republican-basketball-obama\/","content":"

Chances are if you haven't seen it yet, you soon will: It's the ad for the new fall series My Kids Are Grown and They Won't Move Out!<\/em> Oops, no, I mean, the new political ad that depicts adult children who've moved back home with their dying-to-retire mother and they can't move out because, you know, Obama killed the economy. <\/span><\/p>\n

It's an ad co-produced by Larry McCarthy, who brought you the Willie Horton scare ad in 1988 (you love '80s nostalgia, right?), and Karl Rove:<\/p>\n

Featuring waxy animation that has the mom age in a manner destined to send shivers down the spine of anyone who had to sit through The Polar Express<\/em>, the ad titled simply \"Basketball\" makes life seem an animatronic hell for a mom who used to like it when her young children played basketball at home. But now the grown kids -- beefy, indifferent types who ignore Mama and are seen elbowing their way into the kitchen, doubtless planning to tear the door off the refrigerator and eat Mom's last cup of Activia -- can't find jobs and have wracked up student loan bills that the parental unit is having to spend retirement savings paying off.<\/p>\n

The New York Times reported<\/a> that the ad, which will be extensively broadcast starting today, is the \"centerpiece of a $25 million campaign\" designed to convince viewers who voted for President Obama they made a mistake, perhaps because they were hypnotically lulled: as Voice-over Mom says so condescendingly, \"He spoke so beautifully.\" Playing off Obama's first campaign mantra about hope and change, the ad builds to a quietly firm climax: \"He promised change, but things changed for the worse<\/em>.\" <\/p>\n

Too bad Saturday Night Live<\/em> just ended its season; I can see Abby Elliott as the once-youthful, now-haggard mom gazing sadly at her bumptious adult children, played probably by Bobby Moynihan and Andy Samberg.<\/p>\n

Is the ad effective? It is: For all the money that's been poured into the commercial by the super-PAC-affiliated Crossroads GPS, the spot looks drab and amateurish -- which translates on TV terms as earnest and sincere. Furthermore, the voice guiding you through a thicket of accusations about how Obama has bungled the economy isn't a deep. rumbling, angry male one. It's female, wistful, a little tired-sounding, as though the accusations were being registered with deep, hesitant, polite regret. That kind of thing can work at a time when people tell one pollster after another that they're tired of partisan fighting, squabbling, stubborn gridlock in Congress, and politicians trying to put the fear of God into them about how the country is about to come apart at its seams.<\/p>\n

\"Obama started spending like our credit cards have no limit,\" says the increasingly quavery female voice. If you worry, as millions do these days, about your own credit card debt, hey: That's fear you can believe in.<\/p>\n

Twitter: @kentucker<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n"},{"blog_title":"Ken Tucker's TV Prime-Time TV commentary","desc":"Prime-Time TV commentary","url":"http:\/\/watching-tv.ew.com","timestamp":1337690741,"post_title":"The 2011-12 TV season in review: What went wrong, what was done right, and what should have been","permalink":"http:\/\/watching-tv.ew.com\/2012\/05\/22\/2011-12-tv-season-in-review\/","content":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

With the last gaspings of season and series finales this week, the 2011-12 season comes to a close. And any season that gave us Homeland, Girls,<\/em> a great batch of Breaking Bad<\/em>, Enlightened<\/em>, and what's shaping up as a terrific run of Mad Men<\/em> must be deemed a success, right? Or is the quality outweighed by the soggy awfulness of Free Agents<\/em>, Two Broke Girls, The Playboy Club<\/em>, and H8r<\/em> (oh, let's face it, everything<\/em> on the CW except Supernatural<\/em> and the attempt to bring back Sarah Michelle Gellar, who -- much as I like Emily VanCamp -- would have been the perfect star for Revenge<\/em>, not Ringer<\/em>)? <\/span><\/p>\n

By any measure, it was an odd season, with every putative trend yielding a denial of that trend. \"The network sitcom is back!\"? With the arguable exception of the evolving New Girl<\/em>, crap like Man Up!<\/em>, mediocrities like Last Man Standing<\/em>, the Whitney Cummings mini-juggernaut and the slightly-above-average Up All Night<\/em> did not extend to even the prospect of a Modern Family<\/em>-style ratings surge. The most foolish trend chased by the networks was in thinking a period-piece basic cable show that's been winning Emmys -- that would be Mad Men<\/em> -- was evidence of a desire of mass audience interest in such programming. Hello and goodbye, Pan Am<\/em> and Playboy Club<\/em>. And any net still clinging to the notion of launching a new Lost<\/em>-style exotic adventure show with a deep mythology was, I'm relieved to say, disappointed. (Terra Nova<\/em>, we hardly missed you, but memo to CBS: Sign Stephen Lang to a private-eye series with a smart show-runner and you'll have a hit. You're welcome.)<\/p>\n

One heartening trend was an ever-so-slight move away from easy cynicism and toward a more hopeful, optimistic, less ironical or peevish attitude in a number of new shows. In general, I'm pretty tired of the knee-jerk equating of \"dark\" and \"edgy\" with \"quality TV.\" American Horror Story<\/em>, for all of its clever visual and storytelling tricks, was in its black heart a deeply despairing show that made pretty much every one of its humans and its dead spirits miserable specimens. (I'm glad to see Connie Britton escape from its clutches for the promising-looking Nashville<\/em> in the fall.) Boss<\/em>, on Starz, would have been a better show (and as it was, it certainly wasn't bad) had it allowed Kelsey Grammer's Tom Kane a tad more soulfulness, a pol's back-slapping sense of humor, and denied him more stentorian maundering (you know, the stuff that won him the Emmy), and not turned Kathleen Robertson's Kitty O'Neill into a victim rather than further develop the scissory-sexy, witty-worldweary person she began the season by embodying.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Indeed, at this point, the edgiest thing a producer could do would be to mount a stylistically daring, well-acted show that was free of bleakness, snark, or the promise that we are being shown the corrupt underbelly of any given profession. Even though I'm not a great fan of it, Once Upon a Time<\/em> exhibits a generosity of spirit I can applaud, and I'm glad it's a success. While it comes on as a dark, edgy show, Person of Interest<\/em> is another ratings hit that is actually, if you watched its progress over the season, quite open to the goodness of humanity -- for what is this show really about, at bottom, if not the redemption of the wounded souls of Jim Caviezel's Reese and Michael Emerson's Finch, and those to whose aid they come? A Gifted Man<\/em> might have been similarly uplifting in an interesting way, but something about the show took a wrong creative turn early on; perhaps that's what star Patrick Wilson was at least in part referring to when he said the series was ultimately not what he \"signed on for\" in a tweet after it was canceled. And Smash<\/em>: For all the carping that I and other critics did about it, there was never any doubt that creator Theresa Rebek wanted to share with network television viewers the same bursting joy for the musical-theater experience that she has felt, even if it was only Megan Hilty who occasionally came close to embodying it. <\/p>\n

One thing the networks and cable both did well at this season? Canceling the right shows. Ninety-nine percent of the series jettisoned were good calls, and each network could have gone a few further. Had The Biggest Loser, Private Practice<\/em>, and Criminal Minds<\/em> all been erased, prime time would be the more invigorated for it.<\/p>\n

The cancellation that made me the saddest, however, was of HBO's Luck.<\/em> I feel badly for the animals whose pain prompted shutting down the production, and mourn the great promise that was cut short for this David Milch-Michael Mann production. It just got better and better with each week, and looked ready to really burst forth with a second season that would have given Dustin Hoffman and a superb ensemble cast the opportunity for an adventurous second season. (And, I should add, Luck<\/em> was another encouraging example of a show that avoided cheap cynicism, whose heart and mind was pure and full of love -- which only made its real-life difficulties more agonizing for its makers, I'm sure.)<\/p>\n

In their different ways, Homeland<\/em> and Enlightened<\/em> accomplished something very difficult to pull off: Making us care about difficult, often abrasive central characters. Claire Danes and Laura Dern portrayed women who are willful, driven, sometimes deluded, and often condescended to by the men all around them, even the ones they think they can trust. Until the recent arrival of Lena Dunham and Girls,<\/em> these were television's greatest current odd-women-out; you'd have to go back to the Helen Mirren-Prime Suspect<\/em> and Lisa Kudrow's The Comeback<\/em> to find TV women as vividly prickly, intelligent, and brave in the face of simultaneous, tumultuous difficulties. <\/p>\n

I've left out one big genre until this point: reality TV. This was the season that it hit the wall, a dead end, proved what a gleefully depraved or merely barren precinct of human endeavor it is. From H8r<\/em> to the Real Housewives<\/em> franchise, from the Kardashians to American Idol<\/em> and The Voice<\/em>, reality\/competition anoints very few figures that merit any truly intriguing interest. (There are always exceptions, of course: Kelly Clarkson, I'll follow you anywhere.) Dancing With the Stars<\/em> feels played out, The Biggest Loser<\/em> is a blight, and Howard Stern had better get a whole lot more cuttingly funny if he's going to do what NBC hopes he will: Turn America's Got Talent<\/em> into something other than a show that's more gloppily sentimental than the same network's genealogical tear-jerker Who Do You Think You Are<\/em>. But the ratings for these shows are, for the most part (you can't keep the Kardash-clan down, apparently) no longer the mega-bursts of addictive artificial energy -- the crystal meth of television --\u00a0 they were conceived to be.<\/p>\n

More and more, network TV is divided into a few creative\/business models: The shows that bring in big ratings (think NCIS, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men<\/em> -- um, basically only CBS shows), stuff that keeps getting renewed because their networks are praying, willing<\/em> them, to catch on with larger audiences (think Happy<\/em> Endings, How I Met Your Mother, Grimm<\/em>), and shows that innovate but are useless as bellwhethers because they're unique (Community<\/em>) or which revive supposedly dead genres (Once Upon A Time<\/em>).<\/p>\n

And more than at any other time in TV history, if you're a producer of television, what network your show is on is the crucial factor in whether the show thrives, survives, becomes acclaimed, or dies a quick death. The Maria Bello Prime Suspect<\/em>? Had it been on Showtime and scrapped the first few episodes that tried to ingratiate itself to the masses, it'd have been renewed. Revenge<\/em>? If it was on AMC and could have allowed Madeleine Stowe to go further with her slinky evilness, it would have an even more intense fan-base, and reviews to match.<\/p>\n

I'll also add this: You know what? I'll bet if Whitney Cummings had peddled herself to HBO and had accordingly made Whitney<\/em> the way she crafted her brassy stand-up act, it would have been adjudged bold, daring, controversial, and essential to have an opinion about.<\/p>\n

You know, like Girls.<\/em><\/p>\n

What did you think of the 2011-12 season? Are there shows you wish had survived, and others you wish had been canceled?<\/p>\n

Twitter: @kentucker<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n"},{"blog_title":"Ken Tucker's TV Prime-Time TV commentary","desc":"Prime-Time TV commentary","url":"http:\/\/watching-tv.ew.com","timestamp":1337638603,"post_title":"'House' series finale review: All's well that ends musically","permalink":"http:\/\/watching-tv.ew.com\/2012\/05\/21\/house-series-finale-hugh-laurie-robert-sean-leonard\/","content":"

House<\/em> shuttered itself on Monday night. The first hour, titled \"Swan Song,\" consisted of a retrospective of the series' eight seasons, 177 episodes, with lots of behind-the-scenes interviews with the crew and co-stars, some of them conducted by star Hugh Laurie, and a paintball fight. The second hour, \"Everybody Dies,\" featured a typically baffling medical case for Dr. Gregory House, which was only a first-half-hour cover for what really mattered, including numerous guest faces from the past, and which requires in this spot a SPOILER ALERT<\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n

The final struggle for the life and soul of Dr. House involved him sprawled in a burning building, his self-described \"smack-addled brain\" having visions of previous co-stars, including Jennifer Morrison, Anne Dudek, Sela Ward, and Andre Braugher. Most of them engaged him in philosophical debate about his selfish view of life and career (\"the only thing that ever mattered was the puzzle\"), love (\"I know you believe in love\"), and -- well, his selfishness again (\"you're arrogant, you're self-destructive you only care about yourself\").<\/p>\n

We were led to believe that House died in the fire, and had to sit through a memorial service featuring an urn that was supposed to have contained House's ashes, while Robert Sean Leonard's Wilson delivered the most impassioned eulogy, whose sentiments ranged from \"He was a healer\" to \"House was an ass; he mocked anyone ... he was a bitter jerk.\"<\/p>\n

But he was interrupted by a phone text (all in caps: \"SHUT UP YOU IDIOT\"), and eventually the dying Wilson learned that House had lived, had in a roundabout way devised the whole thing so that he could disappear to be with his best friend: \"I'm dead, Wilson: How do you want to spend your last five months?\"<\/p>\n

So over a montage scored to Warren Zevon singing \"Keep Me In Your Heart,\" we saw that House had brought his former colleagues and students together in his (supposed) death. And finally, we watched House and Wilson, in leather astride motorcycles, presumably going through Wilson's bucket list, this scored to the song \"Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)\" -- the Louis Prima version, I believe. It was an unabashedly sappy ending, and yet a satisfying one, since House<\/em> had, in its final seasons, become a rather sentimental show anyway. A fitting ending, in other words.<\/p>\n

If the hook that sold House<\/em> to Fox was the idea of an eccentric anti-hero who solved medical cases the way Sherlock Holmes solved criminal ones, the success of the show was also due in part to timing. Immediately pre-House<\/em>, the medical genre's hits were dominated by ensemble shows -- ER<\/em> and Chicago Hope<\/em>, for example -- and so it was canny of creator David Shore to realize that the time might be ripe for a solitary all-knowing doctor -- one wise man surrounded by a cast that was very much supporting. It's not a stretch to say that House<\/em> was a rude variation on Marcus Welby, M.D<\/em>., or Dr. Kildaire<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The biggest House<\/em> problem that became apparent as the seasons went by was that the show never developed a supporting cast that was worthy of Laurie's performance or the show's ingenious concept. I exclude from this, of course, Robert Sean Leonard, who, as I have written repeatedly over the years, gave a magnificently sustained performance that could be used in any drama or media studies class in how to be a supporting player. Never showy, Leonard nonetheless took firm hold of every scene that hinged upon his presence, and right from the start, he had a very clear concept of how to have Wilson go toe-to-toe with House while being meticulous about never communicating that he as an actor<\/em> desired to go toe-to-toe with Laurie. This wasn't modesty; it was a great craftsman at work, ever vigilant.<\/p>\n

That said, the rest of them: Mostly ehhh. Before they became romantically involved, Lisa Edelstein's Cuddy was a fine foil for House, one of the few women who was permitted by the writers to match wits with him (again, this was early on -- after a while she was written mawkish and insultingly flighty; think that's why Edelstein didn't return for a final speech?). But Omar Epps' Foreman remained steadfastly a tedious poker-face; Jennifer Morrison's Cameron never met a pout she didn't like; Jesse Spencer's Chase spent every season looking non-plussed at House's barbed eccentricity, as though he never learned anything about his boss from one week to the next. The season that brought in a raft of new candidates yielded only one clear winner: Olivia Wilde's Thirteen was precisely what she was meant to be -- mysterious, a bit alluring to her colleagues male and female, and a smart doc. About Peter Jacobson's Taub and Kal Penn's Kutner I will maintain a polite silence.<\/p>\n

Eventually, it was possible to watch House<\/em> primarily as a chronicle of how hard Hugh Laurie was working and what a noble effort he was making to imbue each new pained grimace, each new twirl of his cane, each new patient consult with a fresh variation on the hundreds of times he'd done these things before. And that's no way to keep on enjoying a series, for either star or audience. So it was a good and sensible thing for House<\/em> to end now. The character can live on forever in reruns, and Laurie can get on with the next phase of his career. I'm hoping that after a decent rest period, he makes an attempt to do a wittily wacky sitcom in the spirit of his early days as a TV performer, in Blackadder<\/em> and A Bit of Fry and Laurie<\/em>. Probably on cable TV. Without a cane or a pill in sight.<\/p>\n

What did you think of the House<\/em> finale?<\/p>\n

Twitter: @kentucker<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong>
\n'House' series finale ends on solid note<\/a>
\n'House' series finale recap: 'Everybody Dies'...did House?<\/a>
\n'House' series finale: Cast, creator explain why it's time for the end -- EXCLUSIVE<\/a><\/p>\n"},{"blog_title":"Ken Tucker's TV Prime-Time TV commentary","desc":"Prime-Time TV commentary","url":"http:\/\/watching-tv.ew.com","timestamp":1337083127,"post_title":"Obama on 'The View': Dear Mr. President, please stop appearing on entertainment shows","permalink":"http:\/\/watching-tv.ew.com\/2012\/05\/15\/obama-the-view-mitt-romney\/","content":"

President Obama ambled onto the set of The View<\/em> this morning and said, \"I like hangin' out with women.\" He fielded questions about the economy, gay marriage, and Fifty Shades of Grey<\/em>. Everyone was \"pussycat nice,\" in the squirmy phrase of Barbara Walters. <\/span><\/p>\n

Appearing beneath a banner that read \"Red White and View,\" Obama told Whoopi Goldberg that, regarding the J.P. Morgan disaster, \"Jamie Dimon is one of the smartest bankers we've got.\" He corrected Elisabeth Hasselbeck when she characterized the President's and Mitt Romney's positions on gay marriage as essentially the same (Romney is \"for a Constitutional amendment , and for DOMA , so there are real differences,\" he told Hasselbeck). He also answered a pop quiz conducted by Joy Behar:<\/p>\n

The View<\/em> would have made headlines if this media appearance had gone as originally planned: As was widely reported, Obama had originally thought he might announce his \"evolved\" stance on gay marriage on this episode, but the Vice President's remarks on the subject prompted Obama to go elsewhere and earlier on ABC News. As it was, today's View<\/em> appearance was pretty anodyne, neither illuminating nor amusing, and, well, pointless. If Obama wanted to press the flesh with potential voters, he could have done it on the rope line with the View'<\/em>s studio audience. Why subject himself to the softballs and piffle of daytime TV hosts (or nighttime ones, for that matter)? I know the obvious answer -- that doing these shows offers a huge-audience opportunity to \"humanize\" a candidate. And here I will include the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, in this, who will doubtless start making the entertainment-TV rounds at some point.<\/p>\n

But showing you're \"human\" on these shows usually means two things: You, as candidate, have to answer awkwardly phrased questions about important issues and deliver answers that are sufficiently conversational so as to keep casual viewers from tuning away. (The result: Nothing added to the national discussion.) The second thing it means is that you, the candidate, have to grin and bear it when you're asked questions about your pop-culture likes and dislikes. These exchanges always stink of pre-arranged agreements, material that's been vetted by the candidate's \"people\" so as not to cause the President any embarrassment. (Although even admitting you recognize<\/em> the name \"Kardashian\" docked you a notch with me, Mr. President.) <\/p>\n

Really, the only time these entertainment venues yield news -- or, more accurately, pseudo-news -- is when the politician discloses some unexpected quirk in taste, or does something show-bizzy (see: Clinton, Bill; saxophone). It's usually, however, just a polite waste of time.<\/p>\n

At a moment when a New York Times<\/em> poll<\/a> says that most people think Obama's \"evolving\" position on gay marriage was \"mostly for political reasons,\" going on places like The View<\/em> just adds to the idea that many public statements are mere media calculations. Had Obama made his gay-marriage announcement on The View<\/em>, that jaded public belief might have been increased. If you're going to spend time on TV, Mr. President -- and Mr. Romney -- do us all a favor and skip Whoopi and The Daily Show<\/em> and Jay and Dave and the Jimmys and all the celebrity news anchors on the networks. Just speak to us directly, or engage in debates that are real debates which will allow for considered thought and direct questioning of your opponent's positions.<\/p>\n

Thanks. Now, hey, did you see this funny Mitt Romney mash-up<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Twitter: @kentucker<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n"},{"blog_title":"Ken Tucker's TV Prime-Time TV commentary","desc":"Prime-Time TV commentary","url":"http:\/\/watching-tv.ew.com","timestamp":1337033613,"post_title":"'America's Got Talent' season premiere review: A Stern for the worse?","permalink":"http:\/\/watching-tv.ew.com\/2012\/05\/14\/americas-got-talent-howard-stern\/","content":"

Howard Stern joined America's Got Talent<\/em> on Monday night, as you know from the publicity blitz he's been doing on every NBC outlet except for Betty White's Off Their Rockers.<\/em> I think he's recycled the line about how \"these executives at NBC are out of their minds taking a risk on me\" during every appearance including this America's Got Talent<\/em>. He says this, even as, in the next breath, he tells interviewers he \"knows how to behave\" on prime-time television. A man as intelligent as Stern must have known that this was a losing strategy: Why would he defuse any promise of surprise, or the blunt humor that's made him so entertaining? <\/span><\/p>\n

As it turned out, Stern was, for the most part, perfectly fine, especially when placed beside Sharon Osborne and Howie Mandel -- he couldn't help but deliver better commentary. I had forgotten what a tiresome talent show AGT<\/em> is, and the way the studio audience never encounters a \"dance crew\" it doesn't adore. Even so, I was startled that the judges gave full approval to a lame rapper who offered obsequious rhymes about Stern, Osborne, and Mandel. When Mandel asked the rhythm-impaired fellow, \"You don't pre-write that?\" and the contestant responded, \"That was 100% off the top of my head,\" everyone actually seemed to believe him<\/em>. It was as though they'd been hypnotized into momentary gullibility.<\/p>\n

Granted, much of this stuff is a matter of personal taste -- maybe you thought the guy who put a scorpion in his mouth really did deserve to be voted through to the next round, even as I, with my soft spot for ventriloquism, enjoyed the vent who spoke through his live dog. To each his own, to a certain extent. But can we all agree that one of the worst moments this evening came not from the contestants, but from the strenuously phony spontaneous chatter between the judges during the sponsored \"Snapple Chat\" segment? <\/p>\n

I like Howard Stern a lot, but I doubt I'll be sitting through many more AGT<\/em>s if he's going to praise a perfectly nice performance by a charming man who played what he called an \"earth harp\" by saying, \"I made my career out of originality, and I bow to you.\" That's laying it on a bit thick. Stern has long proclaimed his fondness for reality-TV junk, and now he's putting his body where his mouth is. I can respect that, but I don't have to keep watching it.<\/p>\n

May the best act win. As long as it's not the sobbing Loyalty Dance Crew. Or the guy who can hold a scorpion in his mouth.<\/p>\n

What did you think of Stern's first judge job?<\/p>\n

Twitter: @kentucker<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n"}]