Welcome to my Monday newsletter. This week, I am looking at the second season of The Gilded Age and the latest episode of The Morning Show, catching up with Frasier and paying tribute to Matthew Perry.
A RETURN TO "THE GILDED AGE"
I was really excited for The Gilded Age when it premiered in January 2022. Although I never watched creator Julian Fellowes' Downton Abbey, I was intrigued by this take on an interesting, and somewhat underrepresented time in American history. While the production values were spectacular and there were things to like in the performances, I ended up feeling a bit cold about the first season. It felt a little bit too stuffy and I felt as though the large number of characters led the plot to meander quite a bit.
I wouldn't say the show has fixed all of its problems for the second season but it does seem to be a great example of a show that leaned into the things that worked and cut down on what didn't work after the first season and the critical/viewer response to it. Unlike The Morning Show (see below), The Gilded Age seems to have realized it doesn't need to be an important show. It doesn't need to try to make incisive commentary on the era. It seems content in its second season to just let the fantastic cast of actors play around with each other and deal with their mostly insignificant problems. That's not to say there won't be some stray commentaries and social issues. It just means the show is leaning into what worked, like the heightened and often comedic relationship between Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon.
It's still glamorous to look at too. I'm still not sure this show is totally for me, but I do appreciate it being a good version of what it is. I don't think it's a show that will get a weekly update from me but I may check in again during the second season.
CHECK IN ON "FRASIER"
Frasier is not really a show I feel the need to write about every week because it's just sort of chugging along. Kelsey Grammer is easily the reason the show is working as well as it is (or at all) but I am just struck by how much weaker the supporting cast is than they were on the original series and Grammer can only save that so much. Toks Olagundoye is a real weak spot and Jack Cutmore-Scott has become increasingly irritating to me after I originally didn't mind his character that much. There are still farcical elements but the show definitely trends much more sentimental than the original series. The original Frasier occasionally had sweet moments, particularly with Niles and Daphne, but every episode of this revival seems intent on ending with an "aww" moment, usually between Frasier and his son, and that is just not what Frasier should be. This isn't a 90s TGIF sitcom.
"THE MORNING SHOW" AND ITS LOSS OF FOCUS
The Morning Show is like a drug I can't quit. I don't think it's a good show by any means and yet I look forward to watching a new episode every week. The most recent episode, "DNF," continued to have the gamut of crazy stories that just make it such a hot mess of a show. In a never-ending quest to find a workable story for Reese Witherspoon's Bradley, they had her going into a parking garage like she was in some 90s John Grisham film to meet up with a source all while Julianna Margulies' Laura Peterson was discovering the big January 6 secret in a really unintentionally comical montage. Nicole Beharie was finally given some things to do again even though her story wasn't particularly interesting. But even when the dialogue is wacky, I can still be won over on a regular basis by Jennifer Aniston, Jon Hamm and especially Billy Crudup in this show.
When some of the characters gathered in the studio of The Morning Show to pay tribute to Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Hannah, who died in Season One, I was struck by how rarely the show spends any amount of time on the set of the fictional show anymore. This show is trying hard to be way bigger than it needs to be. I think it thinks it's an important show that needs to comment on contemporary issues but then it has the tone of a trashy soap. Just embrace that trashy soap side and get back to basics of being a backbiting workplace dramedy. Set more of The Morning Show on the actual Morning Show.
SCRIPTED PREMIERES THIS WEEK
There's a few notable premieres this week to kick off a November that has several buzzy premieres even if it continues to be less than usual. On Wednesday, Hulu has the premiere of Black Cake, a thriller based on the novel of the same name. The series counts Oprah Winfrey among its producers but doesn't seem to have a ton of buzz. Thursday has the four episode limited series All the Light We Cannot See on Netflix. The buzz was big for this adaptation of a Pulitzer Prize winning novel when it announced a premiere date way back in the spring but reviews coming out of the Toronto Film Festival, where it premiered, have tampered the excitement a bit. Thursday also has the second season premiere of Kingdom Business on BET+. Friday has the second season premiere of Invincible on Prime Video. Sunday has the series premiere of Lawmen: Bass Reeves, a Western series that has Taylor Sheridan as an executive producer. It may have a lot of similarities to the Sheridan universe but doesn't have a direct connection to his shows.
THOUGHT TO END TODAY
There have already been a lot of eloquent tributes to Matthew Perry, who passed away Saturday at the too-young age of 54. I think with the sheer amount of annoying Friends fans on the internet or the insane number of copycats that have been on the air since 1994, it's sometimes discounted by the snootier TV circles just how high quality Friends was a show and just how much the cast was the reason for that. So it hurts to lose one of the main six especially after Perry's years of off-screen troubles. What I will always appreciate about Matthew Perry's portrayal of Chandler is how unique his line-readings were. Like all things Friends, the "could it BE ____" lines have been referenced so often (including on the show itself) that it's easy to forget that once upon a time, Perry made the choice to read a line like that when no one else would. I remember seeing the behind the scenes special on Friends for "The One After Vegas" and you can see Perry working with the writers to make a line funnier. He just had an inherent nature of being able to do a little something extra with his words to make everything just a little bit funnier. Although Friends was easily his most successful performance, he had a lot to offer in the troubled Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Mr. Sunshine and really shined in the underrated Go On. He had acclaimed guest turns on The West Wing and The Good Wife/The Good Fight and, most importantly, he inspired many with his candor in speaking about his addictions and his efforts to help others. May he Rest in Peace.
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