Welcome to my Monday newsletter! This week, I am looking at The Lowdown and the latest episodes of The Morning Show and Task, plus I am continuing my Top 25 Shows Since 2000 with #10 and doing a re-review of Running Wilde!
WHAT'S NEW
The Lowdown premiered this past week on FX and is the new critical darling of the fall. It is the follow-up to Reservation Dogs from Sterlin Harjo and is a Tulsa-set noir mystery dramedy starring Ethan Hawke. While I often tend to like the critical favorites, I couldn't get into Reservation Dogs for some reason (and I watched the whole first season). I definitely enjoyed The Lowdown more than Dogs, but I still am a little more lukewarm on it than a lot of TV critics I have been reading. What I am not lukewarm on is Ethan Hawke. I am not that familiar with Hawke's film work but loved him on the underrated Showtime limited series The Good Lord Bird a few years ago. He is absolutely the best part of this show with a delivery that keeps things loose and fun and is so enjoyable to watch. The show does a great job of helping us learn about his life quickly while still making it entertaining. There was exposition but it was done in a way that didn't feel like exposition.
I liked the show more when it was leaning into the comedy. People like Michael Hitchcock and Keith David were responsible for some very funny moments along with Hawke of course. But the story of the season was only so-so for me. I think sometimes a show that has such great character-building and world-building can get bogged down in an unnecessarily complicated plot to satisfy the season-long arcs that is pretty much par for the course with streaming dramas these days. Wouldn't it be fun to watch Hawke solve mysteries and uncover truths in arcs that were only a couple episodes long? A show like this would have been wonderful as a longer season with a few stories over the course of the year. It feels like we either get the completely contained broadcast drama or the completely serialized streaming drama these days. We need more in between!
I will definitely keep watching The Lowdown even if I wasn't as completely enamored with it. I could see myself getting more into it as the season continues.
Also...
I was away this weekend so I did not get a chance to check out Wayward or the second season of English Teacher but both are on my list so I will get to them eventually! I wasn't sure about Wayward but I am interested in checking out at least the first episode. And English Teacher is a conflicting situation because of the serious allegations against star and creator Brian Jordan Alvarez. Of course, Alvarez has denied the accusations and there have not been any legal charges, but it has put a bit of a taint on a show that had a first season I really liked.
LAST WEEK ON...
There are times when I think The Morning Show is just a bad version of a prestige show and other times where I think they are truly just messing with is and know how crazy the show is. The end of the latest episode is an example of the latter. The episode literally ends with Cory (Billy Crudup) blackmailing Stella (Greta Lee) over the phone. Stella exclaims "Jesus Christ!" and Cory replies, after a bit of a maniacal laugh, "he is risen!" Um WHAT. This show is just so bad in so many ways but it's a pristine production peppered with huge stars so it feels weird to have dialogue that belongs on Days of Our Lives. There were so many things I could knock in this episode - Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston), a very public figure, just now discovered there are deep fakes of her on porn sites? Alex and Celine Dumont (Marion Cotillard) get together just for Celine to tell Alex she is cleared with helping the defector - something that very clearly would have been shared over e-mail or phone if not for a TV reason to have Aniston and Cotillard in the same scene. The protestors. Bradley's completely inept return to the fictional Morning Show. It's all so bad. But I think they know that. And I think they like it.
Task
I watched last night's Task late in the night again (thanks to a thrilling Packers-Cowboys game that turned into a pumpkin when it ended it a tie). So I would probably have more coherent thoughts if I had a little more time to reflect on the episode. This was another episode where there was a lot of world building and character building before the action picked up for the second half of the episode. This show does just a fantastic job at building out so many characters with the limited time they have available. Even when it seems like nothing is happening, the show is doing great character work whether it's the main characters or characters were just meet for a brief time. Creator Brad Ingelsby also does a masterful job at portraying very broken people and giving them humanity when they would so often be caricatures on other shows. The only time I'm not that interested in the story is when it exclusively focuses on the Dark Hearts. I just don't like those characters as much as the other groups (the families, the task force, etc.). Although I tend not to watch these shows while trying to guess the mysteries, it did cross my mind that Martha Plimpton's character could be the mole because it is Martha Plimpton in a seemingly thankless role. But as we learned from Ingelsby's Mare of Easttown, that could also be a misdirect.
TOP 25 SHOWS SINCE 2000
It's hard to believe it now but there was a time when dramatizations of real-life crimes were not a dime a dozen on TV. This is one of those shows that spawned way too many knockoffs that it might be easy to forget just how good the OG show is. It was Ryan Murphy and his most restrained and most thoughtful. The show evoked the Crime of the Century and 90s-era LA with utmost precision and flair. And with dynamite performances including the commanding Courtney B. Vance and complicated Sarah Paulson, it was everything you want these types of shows to be. The shows that have come since, including later editions of American Crime Story, have had varying degrees of quality and success, but there was nothing like the original. For those of us who remembered the OJ Trial but were too young to really pay attention, like myself, it was also a history lesson - but an incredibly gripping and compelling one.
PILOT RE-REVIEW
This season, I am traveling back in time to the 2010-11 season, the first season I did this blog. I will be re-reviewing the pilots from that season, at least as many as I can find!
Original Review: Click Here!
What I Think Now: Running Wilde had an embarrassment of riches in terms of the talent involved. Not only was it notable for being a reunion between Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz and co-star Will Arnett, it also had the eminently likable Keri Russell sharing top billing with Arnett while other comedy vets like Mel Rodriguez and David Cross (in a guest starring role) also turned up. At the time, I think Arrested Development was still pretty fresh in people's heads. I know it was in mine as I did not watch it during its original run but in the years right before Running Wilde debuted. It paled in comparison to that inspired comedy, but it has its merits watching it back and with more of a removed perspective. I think this show was stuck between being a wacky and absurd sitcom as evidenced by Arnett's character and some of the sight gags while also trying to be a really sweet comedy in the scenes with Russell and her daughter and even their relationship to Arnett. It didn't really want to plant its feet firmly in either camp so it struggled with an earnestness in an Arrested Development shell. But I still finished the pilot thinking it actually did show more promise than I thought back in 2010. I thought Arnett was more funny than annoying (and it's always a toss-up with him) and I found myself buying what this would have looked like as a series. With its winning cast and an interesting dynamic between Arnett and Russell (I'm still not sure they had chemistry), I think it could have found its voice if it had the time.
What Happened to the Show: Running Wilde was already a show in trouble before it premiered as they scrapped their first version of the pilot. Expectations were high with critics thanks to the Arrested Development auspices but bad reviews and bad ratings out of the gate made it a dead show walking. It aired on a night that included mega-hit Glee and the more promising freshman Raising Hope so it stumbled through the fall and was off the air by the end of December with four episodes unaired. Arnett stumbled through a couple other failed sitcoms in the 2010s (Up All Night, The Millers) while finding success on Bojack Horseman and cranking out two revival seasons of Arrested Development. The failure of this show meant Russell was free to star in the acclaimed The Americans a few years later. Mitchell Hurwitz is still looking to recapture the Arrested Development magic. I only watched the pilot of Running Wilde if I remember correctly. From what I hear, it didn't show much improvement.
COMING UP
It's not as busy a week as last week but there are still lots of premieres this week with the fall season in full swing. On Tuesday, Hulu has the premiere of Chad Powers, the football-themed comedy that will hope to follow the Ted Lasso path and turn into a popular show from something much smaller (a commercial in Ted Lasso's case, a sketch in Chad Powers' case). Reviews have been mixed. On Wednesday, there are several broadcast shows back. Season 2 of Shifting Gears and Season 5 of broadcast darling Abbott Elementary return while NBC has the return of its One Chicago lineup with Season 10 of Chicago Med, Season 14 of Chicago Fire and Season 13 of Chicago PD. Yep, these Dick Wolf shows run forever. Finally on Friday, Netflix has the premiere of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the third installment of the anthology series. The first two, based on Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez Brothers, received mixed reviews but did get some awards attention and were very well-viewed. Finally on Sunday, Prime Video has the second season premiere of biblical drama House of David, coming just five months after the first season ended, which is a very quick turnaround for a streaming drama.
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