Mon, September 29, 2008

Worst Week

CBS, Mondays at 9:30

Adapted from British television by Matt Tarses (Scrubs, SportsNight; brother to Jamie Tarses, the model for Jordan McDeere on Studio 60), this show follows Sam as he and his girlfriend Melanie spend a week with her parents. They're eager to break the news that they're engaged and expecting a child, but accident-prone Sam keeps straining his already tenuous relationship with Mom (Nancy Lenehan, the cheery, passive-aggressive mom from every sitcom ever) and Dad (Kurtwood Smith, the grumpy dad from That 70s Show). It's a fragile premise – ABC struggled to stretch one day into a season's worth of sitcoms on Big Day – and must straddle the line between plausibility and hilarity with great care. If Sam's pratfalls and screw-ups are too zany, an audience will stop caring (viz. Ally McBeal); if things are too realistic, well, where's the fun in that?

It's a fairly original concept (well, it was on the original show): nobody moves in like on the short-lived Elon Gold/Bonnie Sommerville show In-Laws; there's no set format like on so many family sitcoms. So far, reviews have been mixed – which may indicate missteps in the follow-up episodes reviewers have access to – but the pilot is surprisingly fun, with some good laughs and plenty of cringes. Critical to its success is Kyle Bornheimer as Sam: he's so charming and eager to please, it's impossible to stay mad at him. Occasionally he'll give a defeated shrug (Jim Halpert style) but he's rarely whiny – he just keeps trying to make things better, and things keep getting much, much worse. Whether he's destroying a painting or peeing on dinner, he's always got the best of intentions – he's just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It also helps that the show starts quickly and rarely pauses for breath – the pace improves plausibility, because there's never time to question Sam's decisions. The show does a great job of devolving his missteps into full-blown catastrophes: like the proverbial frog in the pan of boiling water, events become outlandish little-by-little, so it never feels crazy even though it clearly is. When a co-worker is far too drunk to drive, Sam has no choice but to share a cab with her; one thing leads to another, and Sam's stranded, naked and dripping wet, outside Mel's parents' house a few minutes later. See? Sounds crazy. But each step along the way feels logical, if not inevitable.

Worst Week will have to maintain its pace to stay interesting, while discovering fresh ways for Sam to ruin his relationship with the people he wants to become his in-laws. So far, all the pieces are in place – there's no reason it shouldn't work.

The Mentalist

CBS, Tuesdays at 9:00

It's very difficult to break with tradition and award half-stars in the ATGoNFP, but this is a special situation. To give The Mentalist three stars would not do it justice, but four would probably be giving it more benefit of the doubt than it has yet earned.

If you watch Psych (and you should), you're familiar with the basic premise: a fake psychic helps detectives solve crimes. While Shawn from Psych is forced to keep up the psychic ruse, Patrick Jane (Simon Baker, of The Guardian, which was apparently a show) has dropped the act. He used to be the impossibly-coiffed star of a popular John Edward-type TV show ("Mister Bo Ziffer??"), but he quit when his family was murdered by a serial killer angered by all the bogus psychic patter. Now, he uses his sharpened sense of observation and human behavior to profile suspects and find clues. Gone is the annoying zoom-sparkle effect Psych uses whenever Shawn spots a clue, along with most (but not all) of Shawn's goofiness. Patrick is no longer on TV, but he retains his sense of showmanship and his inflated ego. He likes to remind everyone he's smarter than them (which is true, but nobody likes an elitist) and often toys with people – suspects as well as the detectives he works with – for his own amusement. His main foil is Teresa, the lead agent on the team, played by Robin Tunney (Prison Break, Vertical Limit), who is just terrible. She has all the expressiveness of a wax doll who's been botoxed, and she would be attractive except her face is frozen in a hurt/pouting stare. She's irked by his occasional antics, but not nearly as much as she resents the fact that he's always right. She exudes all the charisma of a black-and-white photograph of a grey piece of paper.

On its surface, the show appears to take itself as seriously as Teresa does, with its staid Times Roman credits and brooding camerawork – but there's evidence that all this is in fun, skewering the air of mystique Patrick formerly conjured for his TV persona. In reality, he's quirky and even playful in an understated way – and how can The Mentalist be completely serious when the mentalist isn't? This week, he spars with the squad's new girl, Grace Van Pelt (the fetching Amanda Righetti), whose credulous belief in her psychic cousin funs afoul of Patrick's skepticism. He demonstrates the tricks of the trade with a quick "reading," telling her among other things that he knows her father coached football because "it's obvious from [her] whole demeanor." It's a fun moment, but writing like this must place a lot of pressure on the actors. Now what if Righetti performs some bit of business in a manner unlike that of a football coach's daughter? She'll be laughed out of Hollywood for sure!

In a lot of ways, Patrick Jane is more like Charlie Crews of Life than Shawn Spencer of Psych – he's haunted by a tragic mystery from his past; his world perspective is slightly askew; his unusual methods get consistent results. Does television need more detective shows with offbeat characters? Of course not; there are dozens. But if there are going to be cop shows anyway (and there are) they might as well be this much fun to watch. Simon Baker certainly doesn't hold a candle to Damian Lewis or James Roday, but he beats David Caruso and Vincent D'Onofrio at just about anything other than unintentional hilarity.

Knight Rider

NBC, Wednesdays at 8:00

When NBC announced it would be reviving Knight Rider with a two-hour mini-movie back in February, the groans from critics and fans alike were almost as audible as the eye rolls. Then, at the last minute, the soothing tones of Will Arnett were yanked from the vocal chords of KITT and replaced by Val Kilmer due to a product placement skirmish. Whatever chance the show had of not sucking went with them. It aired and drew decent ratings (though figures on how many viewers stayed through the second hour are open to speculation), but the critical drubbing was enough to force some retooling.

Among the changes is the addition of show runner Gary Scott Thompson, who's had years of success spinning sexy, campy adventures on Las Vegas (whose Montecito casino was featured in the mini-movie). He brings such eye-grabbing moments as the scene where KITT is napalmed with its sexy young secret agents inside, and they have to strip their clothes off to avoid overheating. Also new is the animation for KITT's transformation, which takes its cue from the also-sexy, also-campy inexplicable blockbuster Transformers – dozens of metal panels skew outward, rotate, and reform themselves into different variations on a Ford Mustang or a Ford pickup truck. Sometimes with passengers inside, the results of which are not as fun as you might hope.

Knight Rider is a dated concept – the original KITT would lose a streetfight with an iPhone – so the options for remaking it include dark, gritty black-ops conspiracy (á la the failed Bionic Woman), or campy retro thrills that revel in the anachronism of a crimefighting car in the information age. Sadly, Knight Rider – birthed by Bourne Identity helmer Doug Liman and raised by Thompson – tries to split the difference. Why is hard to fathom. Thompson successfully navigated the good ship Las Vegas through the treacherous Fjord of Guilty Pleasure between the Cliffs of Gratuitous Exploitation and the Sheer Rock Face of Pointless Dumb Thrills, crafting a show that reveled in being pulpy without quite being bad. He'd be wise to do the same here – the show maintains its throwback theme song, why not push further in that direction? Not Austin Powers necessarily, nor Adam West Batman, but quit aiming for something deep and cool; go for dumb and fun instead.

It goes for deep and cool, and it misses. Knight Industries has a whole lair full of techno-goodies: they can crunch any number or hack any database. Seems like they could do without a big expensive car which basically serves as a glorified getaway driver and needs a thorough diagnostic tune-up after every mission. Considering the price of gas, who wants to lug around two Mustangs and a pickup truck wherever they go? KITT can wirelessly tap into any surveillance feed on the fly, monitor the vital signs of anyone (even through walls), and populate its windshield with multiple simultaneous videoconferencing screens – why does this need to be a car? Why not pack all that tech into a suitcase, which can do all the same things and won't be thwarted by a flight of stairs?

Gary Unmarried

CBS, Wednesdays at 8:30

The doofus husband trope is a popular one in sitcom land, and the concept of a middle class nuclear family reconfigured by divorce is at least as fresh as 1987, so Gary Unmarried has little going for it in terms of originality. When Gary's ex-wife Allison reveals she's engaged to their marriage counselor, smoke starts coming out of the cliché meter. But don't tune out yet, because there are a few solid laughs. Jay Mohr is Gary, and acquits himself better than his spotty track record might lead you to expect. Allison is played by Paula Marshall, who's appeared on as many unsuccessful shows (Out of Practice, Snoops) as she has great ones (Spin City) and underappreciated ones (SportsNight, Veronica Mars). His new girlfriend Vanessa is played by Jaime King (Sin City) who has clearly spent her time since the cancellation of Kitchen Confidential refining her comic delivery. She's like an edgier version of Michelle Monaghan, priced for television.

All of these people deliver fine performances, and the writing wavers between passable and insightfully witty. No new ground is being broken – there's no unturned real estate for miles around – but it's better than most studio-audience sitcoms we've seen lately. It doesn't measure up to its lead-in, The New Adventures of Old Christine (which should not be judged on the basis of its lackluster, gimmicky season premiere – it's better than that), but Gary Unmarried is a decent mid-range sitcom. We need those – it's preferable to having a schedule full of misfires like Do Not Disturb.

Unfortunately, the retooling that saw the replacement of the original Project Gary title also took away Laura Marano as Gary's daughter Louise, who was awkwardly written like a ten-year-old version of Hayley from American Dad. Marano is funny and natural, and can be seen portraying Sarah Silverman in childhood flashbacks on The Sarah Silverman Program. For whatever reason – certainly no fault of hers – they put some blond bimbo in her place. Get used to it, honey; it's the oldest story in Hollywood.

Little Britain USA

HBO, Sundays at 10:30

Little Britain USA is an import of a British comedy show. (Import in the sense of Da Ali G Show, with the same people coming to do new material here; not like Coupling, with new people ruining the same material.) Despite the involvement of people who know comedy, like David Steinberg and The State alum Michael Patrick Jann, it is almost universally terrible. It aims for shock value in areas but succeeds only in making a sad spectacle of itself. Its principal actors don all sorts of wigs and makeup to play different characters, then infuse each with tiresome verbal tics and overblown accents, as though these eccentricities might spontaneously generate comedy where none exists on the page. (Sorry, guys: crossing your eyes will not automatically make it funny.) Sketches run on for minutes after they've exhausted their weak premises. (Sound familiar?) The weight-loss advisor who's bigoted against fat people – and everyone else – in a tame retread of the Heather Locklear "Amazing Timesavers" sketch. A guy in a wheelchair who isn't really crippled. Two roided-up jocks with teensy dangling penises. It begs you to laugh at it. But you don't. It even has a laugh track over the sketches that are filmed outside the studio (about half of them). It should probably have a shock-value track added as well, considering how often it misses the mark.

The Life & Times of Tim

HBO, Sundays at 11:00

In the style of Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist or early South Park, this show is animation at its very cheapest. Which works as well here as it did on those shows; the visual isn't the key. Tim is a middle-class office drone – a slightly lazier, more vulgar version of Jim from The Office. He talks in an unrushed monotone that sounds uncannily like someone imitating Jon Benjamin from Dr. Katz, but may in fact be the voice of his creator, Steve Dildarian.

Tim's show is two 15-minute episodes each week, in which he gets into various situations and deadpans his way– not "out of them" per se, just sort of... through them. First up this week is "Angry Unpaid Hooker", based on the short film that launched the character. She's hanging out in Tim's apartment when his girlfriend and her parents return from a cruise, and ends up spending the evening with them despite Tim's insistent denials that he ever called her, invited her over, or made a special request for "backdoor action." In the second episode, Tim and his friends decide to concoct stories to make a dull bachelor party sound more interesting, and things get out of hand, causing everyone at the office to believe Tim has been raped by a bum. This triggers a policy the Human Resources department has in place for just such an occasion, which results in an uncomfortable visit with the HR lady, who keeps cracking herself up with "bum rape humor" while she tries to get Tim's side of the story.

The stories are somewhat more outlandish than they need to be, because the best part of the show is Tim's unflappable deadpan response to every situation. He combines elements of Dr. Katz with some Ray Romano and a lot of Larry David – he refuses to accept society's rules in some situations, and calmly attempts to reason his way out of them. It's very funny; you can probably get a better sense of it from the clips on HBO.com.

Premiering This Week

The IT Crowd (U.S. premiere): IFC, Tuesday at 10:00
The Ex List: CBS, Friday at 9:00
Sanctuary: SciFi, Friday at 9:00
Valentine: CW, Sunday at 8:00
Easy Money: CW, Sunday at 9:00

Returning This Week

Chuck: NBC, Monday at 8:00
Life: NBC, Monday at 10:00
Pushing Daisies: ABC, Wednesday at 8:00
Friday Night Lights: DirecTV 101, Wednesday at 9:00
Dirty Sexy Money: ABC, Wednesday at 10:00
Life: NBC, another episode Friday at 10:00
NUMB3RS: CBS, Friday at 10:00

In the Weeks Ahead...

Due to travel and other considerations, it's unlikely the next ATGoNFP update will publish on schedule. Thus, here are the shows that would've appeared in its "Premiering This Week" and "Returning This Week" section.

Kath & Kim: NBC, Thursday 10/9 at 8:30
CSI: returning on CBS, Thursday 10/9 at 9:00
Eleventh Hour: CBS, Thursday 10/9 at 10:00
Life on Mars: ABC, Thursday 10/9 at 10:00
Testees: FX, Thursday 10/9 at 10:30
My Own Worst Enemy: NBC, Monday 10/13 at 10:00

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