Jersey Shore Family Vacation (Season 2)

This post is a product of completionism, both from a TV-watching perspective and a blogging perspective.

Everyone has a guilty pleasure show and this is mine. I don't know why I watch this. It's practically scripted and everyone's basically a muted version of their former selves. I reviewed Season One, kind of, and don't have much additional to say this time. The gang wasn't always able to be in the same place at the same time, and between Deena being pregnant and Ronnie going through some serious issues with his wife, there wasn't always tons of fun to be had. Nonetheless, I still consume this content even though it hasn't really been a ton of fun since somewhere around Season Three or Four of the original series.

Grade: C

South Park (Season 22)

South Park re-invented itself late in its run with season-long serialized material, and the novelty has worn off that change and there's now some distance from the excellent Season 19. They've been pretty hit-or-miss with their material since then, with some excellent episodes tossed together with some misfires (see basically the entire back half of Season 20). It's inevitably compared to Family Guy and The Simpsons, and the good news is that the quality has held up far, far better than that of either of those two shows.

One nuance of Season 22 is that libertarians Trey Parker and Matt Stone take aim at some of the opinions expressed in older seasons of South Park. The pro-capitalist stance they took back in Season Two's "Gnomes" is reversed in their two-part season finale in which they attacked Jeff Bezos and Amazon's continual takeover of our way of life (though the principal mouthpiece was effectively a talking Amazon box, so it wasn't a full-on endorsement of communism/socialism, either). Similarly, the two-parter of "Time to Get Cereal" and "Nobody Got Cereal" seemed almost like an apology for Season Ten's "ManBearPig", in which they dumped on Al Gore and his focus on global warming. Though they didn't exactly let up on Gore, they presented 'ManBearPig' as something to be taken seriously and the dangers of kicking that particular can down the road. It certainly resonated.

When they weren't trying to make a point, Parker and Stone did put together some funny material over the course of the season. "Buddha Box" took on our society's smartphone addiction to hilarious effect (and brought a little victory to the hectic lives of PC Principal, Strong Woman, and the PC Babies). Also effective was the Halloween episode "The Scoots", which presented a not-so-subtle homage to The Birds and Mr. Mackey going insane about the plethora of e-scooters being scattered about town.

Less good were "Tegridy Farms", which featured newly minted weed farmer Randy Marsh taking on vape culture. While it was the rare episode in which they focused almost exclusively on comedy rather than messaging, and despite the re-emergence of Towelie, it didn't come out all that funny, (and on a personal note, from someone who neither smokes weed nor vapes, much of it didn't resonate). The plot twist of Randy's new career was used to good effect for the rest of the season, however. Also weak was "The Problem with a Poo", a weird takedown of Mr. Hankey that seemed scatterbrained and lacked focus; it may have just been an excuse for Parker and Stone to create an episode with that title, given the similarly-named attack on The Simpsons.

It's still impressive that South Park keeps chugging along like this after this many years. They've mostly lost the capacity to surprise me, but maybe they'll have another Season 19 waiting in the wings in ten years.

Episode Grades:

1. "Dead Kids": B-
2. "A Boy and a Priest": C+
3. "The Problem with a Poo": D+
4. "Tegridy Farms": C-
5. "The Scoots": B
6. "Time to Get Cereal": B-
7. "Nobody Got Cereal?": B+
8. "Buddha Box": A
9. "Unfulfilled": B
10. "Bike Parade": B

Season Grade: B-

Movie Grab Bag #2!

I mentioned at the bottom of my last post that I was surely forgetting a few films that I had recently seen. And I was! So here's a recap of three more...

American Graffiti

I wrote that The Sting was my favorite of the old movies I watched, but I had completely forgotten American Graffiti when I wrote that. Gun to my head, I think that still holds true, but it's pretty close. This film follows recent high school graduates Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss) and Steve Bolander (Ron Howard) on the last day before they have to leave for college, along with their friends John Milner (Paul Le Mat) and Terry "The Toad" Fields (Charles Martin Smith). The four each get mixed up in their own adventures over the course of the film, and the stories only occasionally intersect.

The film was made in 1973 and set in 1962; accordingly, it has basically every early-60's and late-50's song you're familiar with in its soundtrack. Most of the storylines are entertaining (I particularly enjoyed Toad's surprising success at picking up a girl and Milner's racing rivalry with Bob Falfa, played by a very young Harrison Ford) and gave me a good feeling of what life must have been like for young people back then. All four of the primary characters are given compelling, life-changing arcs, and their development is just as much of a focus as packing the plot with amusing teenage hijinks.

Grade: B+

Fargo

Weird film. But also a really good one.

Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) needs cash quick, and hires a couple of hit men (Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife so that ransom money can be extorted from her rich father. Predictably, the scheme goes wrong, but in unpredictable ways, as a few homicides creep into the mix, which gets the attention of the Brainerd police department, led by Marge Gunderson (an Oscar-winning Frances McDormand).

Jerry's scheme continues to spiral out of control as he gets more and more desperate to both get his hands on the money and keep Marge and the police off of his trail. It's part thriller and part comedy, as the characters (particularly the kidnappers) are ridiculous enough to create humor amidst serious material. The dialogue makes it pretty goofy as well, as many of the characters are just so gosh-darn polite and speak in a Canadian-sounding accent. Fargo is gruesome, violent, and occasionally hysterical, with some excellent acting performances.

Grade: A-

Ralph Breaks the Internet

I'm kind of on record saying that a sequel to the nearly flawless Wreck-It-Ralph was probably unnecessary, and many Disney attempts to build a franchise out of a successful film don't do so at a Toy Story level. Ralph and cutesy racer girl Vanellope von Schweetz had a natural conclusion to their story, but now they take their adventure out of video games and into the world wide web, for some reason.

Well, okay, there is a reason, and it all stems from Vanellope's boredom with her repetitive daily life, which leads to a series of events that threaten the unplugging of her game, Sugar Rush. The pair go on a quest to get enough money on the internet to order a replacement part so that her game will work again, and en route, we get plenty of amusing jokes about how the internet works, which few kids will likely understand. Visually, the internet world is stunning and rates on par with the Sugar Rush world from the first film, if not better.

The best part of the film, both for myself and my daughter, were the cameos from past Disney princesses in which they hang a lampshade on the ridiculousness of the plots, family structure, and gender roles from their older films. I was laughing out loud during quite a bit of this.

Wreck-It-Ralph had a natural antagonist that was present through most of the movie, but this film has a moment with about a half hour left where it realizes that woah, everything is resolved already, so it sort of manufactures a villainous figure to create some suspense down the stretch. I didn't care for it, but it fit the theme of the film, which is that friendship involves supporting others with their dreams and aspirations, even if it's not what we might selfishly want.

Grade: B

Movie Grab Bag!

I'm not as big into film as I am TV, so I don't write about movies quite as often around these parts. I also have a well-documented dislike of older movies and comments like, "It's a classic!" don't do much for me if it's boring to watch and/or has weak characters. So here's what I've seen lately:

Wonder Woman

Most of this movie was pretty good. I thought Gal Gadot and Chris Pine were great, and the use of World War I as the primary setting brought an added dose of realism that many superhero films lack. That being said, the third act was a disappointment and featured a twist that I couldn't quite get on board with from a plot perspective. It further devolved into a run-of-the-mill special effects war, which was unfortunate given how entertaining I found the beginning and middle.

Grade: B

The Godfather

This was the second older film I tried out earlier this year. After seeing it I finally understand dozens of references from modern film and TV (I often have known things were referencing The Godfather, but you get the idea...). Unlike Alec Guinness, I thought Marlon Brando stole the show with his performance and seemed overwhelmingly worthy of taking home Best Actor hardware. It's three hours long, but to compensate the plot moves along at a pretty brisk pace. The one issue with that was that there seemed to be a revolving door of antagonists, all of whom felt underdeveloped and forgettable to me. I know it's the pick of many as the best film of all time, and I respect that, but I didn't get blown away.

Grade: B

The Godfather: Part II

I went ahead with the next one. It was similarly long, but had an interesting flashback storyline of a young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) in New York City. Generally, I found the flashbacks to be the most entertaining part of the movie. Much of the rest of it felt similar in style and plot elements to the first movie, only without Brando's performance. I wasn't as enthralled by Al Pacino.

Grade: C+

50/50

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with 50/50, but it blew me away. It's a story about a young man named Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who has a form of cancer that effectively comes with the titular odds of recovery. That's a dark premise, and there's plenty of sad moments in the film, but there's plenty of humor along the way, too. 50/50 is more than anything else about interpersonal relationships, particularly between Adam and his friend (Seth Rogen), girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), and therapist (Anna Kendrick). It looks at how tragedy and crisis can test the bonds of those around us and I found myself sucked into Adam's situation and contemplating how I might respond. 50/50 is a thoughtful, entertaining, and emotional film, and I highly recommend it.

Grade: A

The Big Sick

I've been meaning to check out Kumail Nanjiani's project for quite some time, as there's been rave reviews. My wife and I sat down to watch it last month and loved it. Most are at least familiar with the premise: Kumail (loosely based on Nanjiani) is a stand-up comic whose girlfriend, Emily (Zoe Kazan) comes down with a horrible illness that puts her into a coma. The two split up shortly before she was hospitalized, which creates some complications as Kumail attempts to bond with her parents (Holly Hunter, Ray Romano) while she is unconscious. It's a funny movie with plenty of heart -- perfect for a date night.

Grade: A-

The Sting

This was easily my favorite of the older movies that I've been watching. It's about a con man named Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) in the 1930s who finds himself in the crosshairs of hostile mob boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Afraid for his life yet desiring revenge for Lonnegan's murder of his former partner, Johnny teams up with long-time grifter Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) to attempt a huge con on Lonnegan. I found Hooker and Gondorff's schemes very entertaining and the film had an excellent plot. The one thing I thought didn't make any sense and found thoroughly unnecessary was the sub-plot involving the hired killer, Salino, but this is a minor complaint.

Grade: B+

The French Connection

I don't have much to say about this one. I spent most of the movie thoroughly bored and found the conclusion to be pretty unsatisfying. There were a couple memorable action scenes and one-liners but I don't understand what the fuss is about.

Grade: D

That's all for now, but I'm sure I'm forgetting something...

My Recent Trivia Obsession

When I lived in Chicago (until mid-2014), I did bar trivia casually with friends on and off and I've always just sort of accepted that I was bad at it because there were tons of pop culture questions and I was really bad at knowing celebrities, TV shows, movies, and the like. Hell, I began to realize that I'm actually really bad at sports trivia as well. I could do well on post-1990s baseball questions, but was spotty on baseball history and I began to gradually realize that pretty much everything I knew about the other sports amounted to the Chicago Bulls and fantasy football. Bar trivia tends to zero in on those topics because pop culture is well, popular.

A little over a year ago I joined LearnedLeague with a few friends from college, figuring it'd be a fun daily trivia activity that I'd try to compete in but wouldn't take too seriously. As it turns out, there were a LOT more things I knew absolutely nothing about than just the stuff folks do or follow for entertainment. I got stomped. It's head-to-head matches, six questions per day, and you assign points to your opponent based on how likely you think they are to get them right. It took me until the fifth day until I got even a single question right. It was a major relief when I saw the scoring the next day to see that I didn't have the shame of yet another zero.

Still, things did not get dramatically better. By the end of the 25-day season, I had answered 18.7% of the questions correctly, or just over one-per-day. I was in the bottom 3% of all 11,000-ish players in LearnedLeague. It legitimately made me feel dumb. I've felt that way plenty of times before -- just ask me to build something, fix something, or do pretty much any manual task and my mind becomes a blob of goo. But about knowing things? I did well enough in school. I didn't think I could rate this poorly.

However, when I think about the way I've spent much of my life and my general approach to learning, it makes a good deal of sense. In high school and college, unless the topic was math or science related (and sometimes, even if it was), my attitude was to memorize the shit, pass the test, and forget it forever because dammit, there is no way in hell that I am going to need to know anything about the 1938 Munich Agreement for the rest of my life.

Oh give me a break.

Furthermore, I didn't exactly use my free time to immerse myself into the culture. While others explored new TV shows, saw movies, and read books in their spare time, I spent a good deal of time playing video games, often repeating the same ones. Others discovered new music, while I listened to a small crop of songs on repeat, many of which were obscure. For about six years from 2004-2009, I tried to cram as much poker-playing into my life as possible. That made for some fun, interesting experiences, and some good stories, but it didn't do anything for passive absorption of information. Even after quitting poker, it was difficult for me to push myself to experience new things on my time. I'd often opt to watch re-runs of shows or movies rather than trying something new, because God forbid I might not like it and realize I had ::gasp:: wasted my time.

After considering all of this, it's overwhelmingly obvious why I woke up in the year 2017 not knowing anything about anything. I've spent most of my life actively rejecting knowledge except that which I deemed pertinent to my career.

So after my first season of LearnedLeague, I was pretty mad that I performed much worse than people I was friends with and a legion of smart people that I've never met. I can probably count on one hand the number of activities that I both enjoy and am bad at -- golf is probably the only one I can think of off the top of my head (and I am horrid at golf...if you think shooting a 110 is bad, don't talk to me). There were only two options. Either I work to get a LOT better at LearnedLeague or I quit it forever. The problem is that I still had no interest in Da Vinci's paintings, or the Franco-Prussian War, or the states of Australia, or movies made in black-and-white, or TV legal dramas, or boxing, or Shakespeare, or Greek mythology, or the myriad other things that are completely obsolete to my everyday life unless they appear in a trivia question.

So what was going to win out here? My extremely petty level of competitiveness or my honest-to-God apathy toward what I perceive to be useless information? Would it be the gym class hero or the habitual watcher of re-runs?

With me, the gym class hero wins every time.

So I plowed ahead with LearnedLeague and tried to get better. I've tried memorizing new things and reading books on different topics. I now record every episode of Jeopardy!. I began listening to a trivia podcast about a month after making fun of someone in my mind for telling me that they listen to a "trivia podcast". It sounds like a lot of effort, and it is, but there have been some benefits in the form of lifestyle changes. I've basically quit watching TV re-runs and have mostly phased out video gaming. Whenever I'm going to spend my spare time on entertainment, I make the choice to experience something new. Hell, I even sample some old movies now. I watched The Sting the other night and liked it a great deal. Is it all being done due to this stupid push to be competitive at an online trivia competition with no prizes? Yeah, probably. But it's also probably going to make me more well-versed in the culture and such, which is good, I guess.

Make no mistake -- I'm behind the 8-ball here. Trying to rapidly (re)acquire a lifetime's worth of knowledge on the wrong side of 30 is no easy task, as my brain's capacity for memory and learning is no longer what it was. But I have improved...I've since gotten about double the amount of questions right that I did in my first season of LearnedLeague, and while I'm still in the bottom quartile of players on the site, at least I can say good-bye to my days in the bottom 3%. Hopefully this means my learning capabilities aren't quite fried yet.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Season 13)

The big question looming over Season 13 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was Glenn Howerton's level of involvement in the series, as the finale of Season 12 wrote in a plausible exit for Dennis Reynolds and Howerton's other endeavors presumably take up a good amount of his time. The above picture didn't lend much hope, unless Dennis was supposed to be the deranged axe man in the background.

Sure enough, Dennis is absent for the vast majority of the first episode, and it's evident how much the show (not to mention the Gang itself) needs him to function. The reveal that he's back (and not just in doll form) at the conclusion of "The Gang Makes Paddy's Great Again" was such a big, refreshing moment that sealed a very good premiere.

However, it's implied that Howerton's presence would be spotty, and that certainly was the case. Dennis was only present for six of the season's ten episodes, one of which was a clip show and another of which was the cameo in the aforementioned pilot. Not coincidentally, three of the four episodes in which he was absent were among the season's worst (with the finale the only exception, and we'll get to that). Particularly weak was "Charlie's Home Alone", which was interesting in concept but awful in execution, as the episode spent the first half effectively having Charlie act out scenes from Home Alone and the second half having Charlie spring gruesome and horrible traps on himself. Also horrible was the completely unfunny "The Gang Beats Boggs: Ladies Reboot", in which Dee and a cast of recurring minor characters fail to recapture the magic of a classic episode. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is at its best when the core cast is playing off of one another. In isolation, none of these characters are that great.

Fortunately there were a couple winners during the season. "The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem" walked a fine line but did so effectively, as the Gang desperately tried to conclude their tangential argument with enough time to make it to a Jimmy Buffet concert for once. The running gag about the non-Dennis characters singing "The Piña Colada Song" in anticipation of Buffet playing it in concert was particularly memorable. Probably the funniest episode of Season 13 was "Time's Up for the Gang", in which the Gang attends a sexual harassment seminar that they predictably deconstruct while typically exhibiting the massive disconnect between each character's self-perception and their reality. The episode gets to the next level when it's revealed that the entire seminar was masterminded by the sociopathic Dennis, who set everything up to call out the rest of the Gang for their past misdeeds (with the irony being that Dennis has by far the most history with being a sexual predator). The formula is somewhat familiar, but it's Sunny at its finest.

Yet, without Dennis, the show must seek out a new identity, and the Dennis-less finale of Season 13 was so unlike anything we've seen before from the show. Sunny has experimented with giving actual human moments to its characters before, most notably Charlie, but the one constant is that they never treat one another like human beings; they're just five individuals stuck together by nature of their own shittiness. The weakest relationship in the group always seems to have been between Frank and Mac. It's crazy, therefore, that Sunny turns to those two for its first truly touching moment in, well, ever.

Mac's closeted (and eventually open) homosexuality had been played on by the rest of the Gang for laughs for years, but the Sunny finale shows Mac as a man who is unable to find his place and who's misunderstood by everyone from his father to his alleged friends. The first two-thirds of the episode, in which everyone continues to treat Mac like a caricature, feel intentionally bad; there's ostensibly jokes but none of them are funny or clever. But then Frank comes back to Mac one more time and says something that eventually helps Mac come out to his deranged father:

"You-you see, Mac, I've been in agony the whole day, but I came to this realization that sometimes you got to let the blood flow in order to start the healing. Some cuts you just can't plug up. That's the same for you. You got this thing inside you, and you're trying to plug it up. But you got to let that shit out. You got to let it flow. Otherwise, you're gonna be in agony for the rest of your life."

What follows is a five-minute interpretive ballet dance between a woman and Mac which Mac tries to use to explain his lifelong struggles to his father. It doesn't work, but it resonates with everyone else in the room including Frank, whose epiphany ("Oh my God. I get it. I get it.") is the climax of the season. In any other episode of Sunny, there would have been some sort of joke -- that Frank was setting Mac up to punk him, that Frank's attempt at sincerity would have been misguided, that Mac's dance number would have been horrible, that Mac's dance number would have been impressive but no one cares for it anyway because it's Mac -- but it doesn't happen. There's a level of earnestness and human feeling in the last ten minutes that Sunny has never explored before, and it will be fascinating to see whether it affects the tone of the show in Season 14.

All things considered, between the heights of "Mac Finds His Pride" and "Time's Up For the Gang" and the lows of a couple of the aforementioned terrible episodes, Season 13 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was quite inconsistent. That will happen when a show partially phases out a character like Dennis Reynolds, but at least it showed that it has still has the creative capacity to put together an occasional excellent episode this deep into its run.

Episode Grades

1. The Gang Makes Paddy's Great Again: B+
2. The Gang Escapes: B-
3. The Gang Beats Boggs: Ladies Reboot: D
4. Time's Up For The Gang: A 
5. The Gang Gets New Wheels: C-
6. The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem: B+
7. The Gang Does A Clip Show: B-
8. Charlie's Home Alone: D-
9. The Gang Wins the Big Game: C+
10. Mac Finds His Pride: A

Season Grade: B-

Better Call Saul (Season Four, spoilers)

It was a mistake to jump straight into binging Season Four of Better Call Saul fresh off of marathoning six seasons of The Americans. It was difficult to re-adjust to Vince Gilligan's slow, methodical, artsy style of storytelling after living in Joe Weisberg's fast-action 1980s period drama. Both shows are great in their own right, but it was considerably tougher for me to get sucked into Saul than it had been in years past. To wit, my wife effectively called it quits after the first couple episodes (though naturally, she still wanted me to tell her what happened).

The season did take its time to find its footing, to be sure. The fallout from Chuck's death included extremely weird behavior from Jimmy, who seemingly couldn't find joy in anything until he found out that he was indirectly behind Chuck's suicide. That should have been the first clue for his McGill-severing behavior in the finale. Similarly, Mike meanderings in Lydia's warehouses early in the season wound up not serving much direct purpose, and his arc didn't really pick up until later in the season.

That said, boy did his arc pick up. His effective command of the superlab construction project was probably my favorite Mike storyline of the entire series, and this is the first time I've found myself more invested in Mike than Jimmy. His relationship with Werner and its ultimate termination were heartbreaking, and the scene in which he's forced to kill him is simultaneously one of Better Call Saul's saddest, best-shot (heh) and well-executed (ahem) scenes.

Nacho getting absorbed into Gus' operation was another interesting twist, and I would have liked to see that action play out further. It was horrid to watch him in agonizing pain from the gunshot wounds of Gus' guys, and we really didn't see a whole lot of him after his recovery. The arrival of Lalo* was a new element of danger for Nacho, and we last see him looking at Canadian driver's licences (I think?) for him and his father.

*I've read that the "Better Call Saul" episode of Breaking Bad, Saul asks Walter and Jesse if they were sent by Lalo. That's fascinating how much of this world was built by offhand comments in the predecessor series. It makes me want to re-watch Breaking Bad to catch all of these references.

Kim had a little bit of a weird season as well, as she was often cold and shut off. Her best moment came when she lashed out at Howard over Chuck's will arrangement. The rush she gets when slipping (heh) into Jimmy's schemes continues to fascinate me, but in the end it appears that she was conned more than anyone else in that storyline. She shed tears over Jimmy's impassioned speech to the bar committee and when it was revealed shortly after that Jimmy was totally full of shit, it seriously hurt, as Kim had said she'd be with him no matter what. Thinking back on the season, the moment had plenty of foreshadowing but it still registered as a total shock when it happened.

One wonders whether Jimmy's relationship with Kim has permanently severed at this point. She's pledged allegiance to him through so much garbage over the course of the series, but this was by far Jimmy's most serious betrayal of her trust. It's the first time that Jimmy seriously doesn't seem to give a shit about her feelings and the single point at which there's no doubt that he's beyond redemption*. Breaking Bad had a similar climax at the end of Season Four, when the camera pans to the Lily of the Valley plant, effectively revealing that Walter poisoned Brock. The Saul Goodmanning of Jimmy McGill is effectively complete in this moment, and we're left with one more season to link him up with Walter White. Better Call Saul has had better seasons, but its run of quality largely continued in Season Four. The debate of whether this show or its effective sequel is the better series will continue to rage on -- something that seemed inconceivable when news of this show originally leaked.

*Humor me, assume that there's not a whole, previous television series indicating that he's beyond redemption

Season Grade: A-

The Americans (Full Series, Spoilers)

I reviewed Season One of The Americans on June 19th and almost exactly four months later was finally able to finish the sixth and final season, so this has been one heck of a 75-episode marathon. But let me tell you, it was sure as hell worth it.

As I've covered previously, The Americans is on its surface about the Cold War, spies, and 1980s politics, but more than anything else, it's a show about marriage, family, and how the choices we make in the world affect both. Season One sets up the contrast between Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell). Philip enjoys American life and repeatedly questions the morality of their work as KGB spies. Elizabeth is the unflinching loyal solider (I often referred to her as SovietBot while watching the show), able to carry out heinous deeds for her homeland and allow the greater principles for which she's fighting to supersede the awful things she does to people. Yet, despite their differences, they need each other and have a unique love unlike any I've seen on television.

The pair ruin and/or murder approximately one life of a mostly innocent person per episode (I'll have to check the math there, but that feels right). Philip often cannot see how the ends justify the terrible means, often to the bewilderment of Elizabeth. We're meant to identify and sympathize with Philip, but the show does a good job of conveying motivation and it's far more nuanced than "Americans Good, Soviets Bad" (to wit, the show's most likable character is Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin), who turns out to be so much more than the entitled womanizer he appears to be at first). Elizabeth does have some pure ideals, it's just that these convictions lead her to unquestioningly carry out any deed requested by handlers Claudia (Esteemed Character Actress Margo Martindale) and Gabriel (an absolutely terrific Frank Langella).

It isn't until near the end of the series that doubts begin to creep in for Elizabeth that Claudia, Gabriel, and the mysterious Centre are truly fighting the good fight. In the fantastic sixth season, Philip quits the KGB and actually winds up being asked to spy on his wife by Arkady Zotov (Lev Gorn) and Oleg. Philip questioned the KGB's motives for years, but it took an outright betrayal of Elizabeth to get her to truly contemplate the merits of her actions.

In-between, there's no shortage of excellent storylines, including:

• Neighbor and FBI agent Stan Beeman's (Noah Emmerich) extremely slow realization of who his next door neighbors really are
• Daughter Paige's (Holly Taylor) somewhat quicker discovery of the same, though she has it spelled out for her after confronting her parents
• The frenemy relationship between Stan and Oleg
• Philip's relationship with, and eventual marriage to Martha, an FBI secretary, whose life becomes completely unraveled
• The outstanding Season Four arc involving bitter biological weapons agent William Crandall (Dylan Baker)
• Philip and Elizabeth dealing with the KGB's wishes to develop Paige as an agent

There were a couple less successful subplots mixed in. I didn't particularly care for the Nina Krilova (Annet Mahendru) story in Seasons Three and Four. She was so disconnected from the rest of the plot that her arc didn't seem to serve much purpose, other than showing the brutality of Soviet "correctional" facilities. Perhaps in recognition of this, the show killed her off in Season Four, but it was about a season and a half too late. Oleg's investigation into the Soviet food supply in Season Five didn't work for me for similar reasons.

These were but mild disappointments, however. The Americans kept the action flowing and there was rarely a dull episode during its run. However, that non-stop excitement meant that a large number of unfortunate souls wound up in the Jennings' destructive path, and the show needed to really fight itself to avoid collapsing into pure misery porn. This is a damning comparison, but the grim mood and minimal humor in the show (the funniest "character" is a primitive mail robot that doesn't do anything but move and beep) occasionally made me think it was like Ozark but with a brighter color palette. 

Of course, that does The Americans absolutely no justice. Elizabeth and Philip Jennings are two of the best characters that TV has ever seen, and the acting by Russell and Rhys could have justified multiple Emmy awards (thankfully, Rhys took home the hardware this year to prevent the pair from completely blanking). Keri Russell played fierce, terrifying, disarmingly friendly, and sexy (often multiple at the same time) throughout the series, and nailed every beat. Her scenes with disguises were particularly great, because no matter which character she played, her dangerous eyes made her nothing short of menacing to the audience, even if her mark was none the wiser.

Rhys was also splendid, but in a much different way. His face carried the pain of the horrible deeds that he and Elizabeth carried out throughout the series, perhaps never more effectively than late in Season Six. He rejoins Elizabeth for a mission that goes awry and has to use an axe to chop off the limbs of a fallen comrade. The sheer anguish that comes through his eyes without him making a sound was probably the best of Rhys' many excellent moments. I flip-flopped throughout the series on who was better between Russell and Rhys and in the end it's a toss-up.

Here's my rankings of the six seasons of the show:

1) Season Four. The biological warfare storyline was the best of the spy plots, and this season had the resolution of the Martha arc along with a maximal allotment of Frank Langella

2) Season Six: The surprising dynamic of Philip and Elizabeth working against one another, plus the excellent finale, plus Oleg being successfully re-integrated into the main plot are just a few reasons that Season Six was great.

3) Season One: The first season accomplished the difficult task of diving straight into the action while setting up the show's dynamics, and the pilot episode is one of the best series premieres I've seen.

4) Season Three: Highlights of this season include Elizabeth and Philip revealing their secret lives to Paige and the outstanding episode in which Elizabeth slowly kills the elderly bookkeeper with pills while Philip bugs the mail robot. Lowlights include literally everything involving Nina.

5) Season Five: The best part of this season is the gutting reveal that Agri-Corp is trying to develop pest-resistant wheat rather than use bugs as a weapon against the Soviet food supply, as it means the Jennings killed yet another innocent person. It's the first of several awful moments in this season that lead to Philip calling it quits.

6) Season Two: A perfectly above-average season of television that had fewer standout moments than the rest.

I'll close with some notes on the finale. The scene in which Stan finally confronts Elizabeth, Philip, and Paige is the pinnacle of the show, as six seasons worth of relationship-building and tension finally come to a head. For lack of a better word, it's perfect. Noah Emmerich brings out Stan's equal feelings of anger, betrayal, and sadness in a wonderful bit of acting. It's cathartic to watch the Jennings finally be truthful (well, mostly) with their closest friend and neighbor after all of these years, and Stan's inability to bring himself to actually stop them from leaving (or shoot them) is crushing, because it renders worthless the chase he's been on since 1980.

Worse still, on the way out, Philip suggests his girlfriend Renee is a Soviet spy. The show makes the excellent choice to never confirm whether that's true or not. The truth is, it doesn't matter. Either way, it completes the destruction of Stan's life because he'll never be able to trust her again. It's just one more life ruined by the Jennings on their way out. The only solace is that Stan still has his relationship with Henry, the boy to whom he was more of a father than Philip ever was.

It's fitting that both children wind up staying behind in America, as its the only life they ever known. Henry's never really had parents, and he's better off in a familiar place. Paige had a relationship built on lies for years, and while she was eventually integrated into aspects of Soviet life, Elizabeth's repeated dishonesty with her and the horrible things she finally realizes her parents had done are what I think led to her hopping off that train.

In this era of Peak TV, it seems like there's no shortage of excellent content everywhere (to wit, just see the high grades I've been handing out all over the place in 2018). I really do believe, though, that The Americans is an all-timer, a show that stands up well to some of the best the creative minds of this medium have ever produced. The Wire still stands tall above the rest, but I'll soon be debating where this stands among the other greatest shows I've ever seen.

Series Grade: A

BoJack Horseman (Season Five)

By clicking on the "BoJack Horseman" label on this post, you'll see that I used to write episode recaps of BoJack in some past seasons. I didn't do that this year, because 1) I'm backlogged with shows to watch, 2) it became a slog to get through the season and 3) I was worried about the show's uneven quality in Season Four (it had three of the series' best episodes but there were some rougher installments) and feared that it couldn't prolong its run of greatness.

That last reason turned out to be a non-issue, as BoJack Horseman bounced back from that minor hiccup and turned in another excellent season of television. Yet, it did so in a different way than in past years: by eliminating the lull episodes. If I were to rank my top ten episodes of BoJack Horseman, I'd go, in rough order...

1) "Escape from L.A." (s2, ep11)

2) "That's Too Much, Man!" (s3, ep11)

3) "Fish Out of Water" (s3, ep4)

4) "Time's Arrow" (s4, ep11) (note the theme of penultimate episodes....)

5) "Let's Find Out" (s2, ep8)

6) "Best Thing that Ever Happened" (s3, ep9)

7) "Ruthie" (s4, ep9)

8) "Free Churro" (s5 ep6)

9) "The Old Sugarman Place" (s4, ep2)

10) "The Showstopper" (s5, ep11)

Now, BoJack Horseman is an outstanding show. All of these episodes get an "A" in my book, but there are varying degrees of  "A", and no installment of Season Five represented "the best of the best" of BoJack Horseman. Still, despite not having any inner-circle Hall of Fame installments, Season Five had consistently high quality.

**SPOILERS ARE BELOW**

The sole exception was "BoJack the Feminist", the annual political hot-button issue installment in which the show becomes merely average. I've said this before, but when BoJack Horseman tackles social issues, it devolves into every other show that's doing the same and presents its (usually correct) message no more creatively than what you get elsewhere (exception: the very good Season Two installment "Hank After Dark"). The show tackled #TimesUp much better later in the season with the promotion of Todd's sex robot Henry Fondle (seriously) to CEO of WhatTimeIsItRightNow.com. The idea of a masculine character being in a position of power and being programmed only to say sexually suggestive things was a much more creative and much more BoJack take on the issue, and that only Todd seemed to understand it's a robot resulted in further comedic value.

Todd: "Uh, Henry Fondle is a sex robot, and he should not be CEO of any company."
Reporter: "When you say 'sex robot', you're speaking metaphorically, right?"
Todd: "No."

The "punishment" of indefinite paid leave for Henry Fondle further drove the lack-of-accountability point home.

There was no shortage of great storylines this season, including Mr. Peanutbutter's continued habit of dating twenty-somethings and never really growing up and the continued exploration of Todd's asexuality (a fantastic and largely uncharted perspective on television). Less effective was the story of Princess Carolyn's attempts to adopt a baby, but her interactions with the thoroughly unhelpful Tracy at the adoption agency were usually pretty funny.

This was particularly a great season for Diane, and I really enjoyed "The Dog Days are Over", in which she travels to Vietnam in search of her identity. She's grappling with the fallout of her divorce to Mr. Peanutbutter and tries to find a sense of meaning in writing for Philbert, BoJack's new TV show, specifically with the goal of reducing its emphasis on objectifying women. Growing resentment for BoJack and newfound knowledge of his past sins results in her getting back at him in an extremely creative way -- writing his night with Penny from Season Two's "Escape from L.A." into Philbert and forcing him to re-enact it. It was a brilliant plot twist both for BoJack Horseman and for Philbert.

Better still was Diane's explosive fight with BoJack in "Head in the Clouds", which harkens back to the Season Three bottle episode "Best Thing that Ever Happened". This one might have been even more intense, as BoJack finally comes clean about his New Mexico trip, and it isn't pretty. BoJack's efforts to paint himself as the biggest victim of his own actions are defused rather quickly the second that Diane crushingly brings up the fate of Sarah Lynn. It's a thorough dismantling of BoJack that really hits home.

BoJack, of course, has other struggles of his own this season. His horrible mother, Beatrice, dies off-screen, and in "Free Churro", we see BoJack deliver his eulogy...for an entire episode. The haunting 24 minutes of anecdotes intermixed with oft-sarcastic diatribes makes for a hell of an Emmy audition for Will Arnett, who does possibly the best work of his career in this episode. BoJack comes to terms with what his mother's death (along with the last words she spoke to him) really means for him, and it reflects well on no one. It's a contemplating and cutting half-hour of television.

That episode breaks from the larger narrative of the season in which BoJack progressively has the lines blurred between living his own life and living within the character of Philbert. "The Showstopper" creatively uses that as a storytelling device, as BoJack's frightening dependence on pain medication sends him into a drugged-up haze once again in the penultimate episode of a BoJack season. He has a tepid but consistent romantic relationship with his co-star (though BoJack would resent this term) Gina, and when Gina takes his pills away, BoJack's anger in that moment blurs with a scene from Philbert in which he's supposed to be choking Gina, and even though the showrunner (Flip, played by a brilliant Rami Malek) yells "Cut!", he continues to choke her in a frightening scene. That prompts Gina to respond with, "What the fuck is wrong with you?", a perfect moment for BoJack's once-per-season ration of the word "fuck".

The best moment of "The Showstopper", however, is the pain-pill-hallucination musical number featuring Gina singing her way through scenes of BoJack's past transgressions and all the people he's harmed. It's a terrific visual accomplishment and a great reminder of all the baggage BoJack continues to carry with him. The season ends with Diane, who has absolutely zero reason to be kind to BoJack at this point, driving BoJack to rehab to help him get correct. With Philbert dissolved, Princess Carolyn finally adopting, Todd putting Henry Fondle out to pasture, Mr. Peanutbutter issuing a surprising proposal to his girlfriend, Pickles, and Diane reflectively driving away, still trying to find herself, our season comes to a close, ready for another excellent twelve episodes. I can't wait for what this show has in store for us next year.

Season Grade: A

Season Rankings:
1) Season Three
2) Season Two
3) Season Five
4) Season Four
5) Season One

Atypical (Season Two)

Season One of Atypical was one of my favorite surprises so far this year. Robia Rahsid's show about autistic teen Sam Gardner (Keir Gilchrist) and his family hit a massive home run with its debut and while it was a tough act to follow, the show largely succeeded in continuing the highs in its second season.

Note: There may be some Season One spoilers below, but if you haven't seen the second season, I'll try to avoid ruining much.

The foundation for much of the plot of Season Two was set up during the prior season's falling action, so there were natural places for the show to go. Sam has to cope with life without regular visits with therapist Julia (Amy Okuda), Casey (Brigette Lundy-Paine) makes the move to Clayton Prep to continue her track career and has to cope with a generally hostile environment, and mom Elsa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) has to reckon with the consequences of her affair with the bartender from last season and try to get back into the good graces of husband Doug (Michael Rapaport, whom I recently discovered is in the middle of a weird tiff with Bartsool Sports).

As the season progresses, we witness Sam's attempts to become more independent as he looks ahead to going to college. Life is complicated between Sam and ex-girlfriend Paige, as the latter attempts to draw boundaries on their complicated relationship, which typically does not go according to plan. Similarly, Doug's (understandably) mean-spirited attitude toward Elsa results in rules for when she can and cannot see her children. The strictness of those rules gets tested once the reality of being a single working father begins to set in.

As in Season One, however, the heart of the show is Casey, who's stuck between the challenges presented by living with Sam, fully loathing her mother for cheating on her father, and having to attend a confusing school where she has absolutely no allies. She has to deal with Izzie, the captain of the track team, who is initially a major jerk, but inevitably the relationship between the two evolves over the course of the season. Casey's boyfriend Evan seemed almost too perfect in Season One, and sure enough, we begin to see some cracks in that foundation. Casey finds herself in the middle of two love triangles during the course of Season Two -- one predictable, the other far less so.

One of my favorite parts of Season Two was that we got to see and understand a good deal more of Sam's friend/co-worker Zahid (Nik Dodani), whose obnoxious (yet often very funny) schtick in Season One was carefully balanced out by his genuine affection and concern for Sam. Zahid's loyalty to Sam and willingness to help him in any way continues to be endearing, and we learn a little more about his family and ambitions, which is a welcome development. Zahid scenes were consistently highlights for me, and while Casey and Sam are the clear best characters on the show, Zahid is probably the most entertaining and the one I look most forward to seeing on screen.

The second season wasn't flawless, particularly with its minor characters. For example, I didn't buy Izzie's abrupt character shifts throughout the season, and given the way Evan was drawn in Season One, the few moments where it seems like he's being a dick feel somewhat fabricated. However, they largely did better with Paige this time around (which readers may recall was my lone real gripe about the first season), so that kinda made up for it.

Atypical continues to be a charming show that has a way of investing you in its characters (except Elsa. Elsa sucks). Dramedies seem to be pushing themselves more and more toward the drama end of the spectrum these days, but Atypical does a good job of keeping the laughs involved, even during the more serious episodes. I rate Season One higher, but Season Two was still very, very good.

Season Grade: A-

Jersey Shore Family Vacation (Season 1)

OK, so this is one of the more ridiculous consequences of my decision to write up every show that I watch.

Jersey Shore Family Vacation reunites the Jersey Shore cast five years later for a vacation at a beach house in Miami. The only missing member of the cast that finished off the predecessor series is Sammi "Sweetheart", who apparently wanted nothing to do with this cash grab. It's alright though, because in one of the very first gags of the series, Pauly D unveils a talking mannequin to fill in as Sammi, complete with catch phrases. They actually get pretty good mileage out of that one.

Everyone's a good deal older this time around and generally nowhere near as crazy as they used to be. Everyone in the cast save for Pauly is in a relationship, Pauly, Snooki, and Jenni all have at least one kid, and Ronnie has a kid on the way. That greatly limits the spectrum of antics that the gang can get into, and on multiple occasions they have to confess questionable (at best) behavior to their significant others.

Much of what they do is contrived and obviously scripted / set up by the show's producers. They're closed off from the general public at pretty much every bar or club that the gang goes to, and the background is just littered with people filming them or shooting pictures with their phones. Pauly "pranks" the house by inviting Angelina back, in a move very clearly set up by producer Sallyann Salsano & co. In another episode, Vinny's mom and uncle are "concerned that Vinny isn't answering the phone" (the crew happened to be in the Bahamas or whatever) and fly down to Miami to "check on him". I don't know why they even bothered to invent that reason -- why else would the crew be filming Vinny's mom and uncle at their home if it wasn't pre-arranged that they were going?

Mike "The Situation" is in a bit of legal trouble for tax evasion and will face a possible/likely prison sentence this upcoming September. He's a completely different person from his original stint on Jersey Shore, as he's completely sober (in the worst environment to test that commitment), generally doesn't make trouble for people, and eats enough to kill a horse. His pending engagement to his long-time girlfriend is one of the show's running storylines. Vinny's even more subdued than before, Ronnie's still a somewhat off-putting idiot that makes bad decisions, and the girls are basically shells of their former selves from a partying perspective. Pauly's the only one that's consistently likable. I honestly wonder what they do and talk about all day in that house, because it seems like most of them just sit around, bored to tears most of the time.

All of that being said, it's light and entertaining enough to watch for fans of the series. It's certainly no worse than the last season of Jersey Shore, which aired while Snooki was pregnant and Mike had already gone sober. There's a second season of this coming out soon because MTV is aware that it doesn't put out any other programming that people care about, and we'll definitely be watching. There's basically no reality TV in my rotation (it's this and Top Chef) because it's mostly garbage, and Jersey Shore Family Vacation is no exception. But these seven goofballs find a way to make it delightful garbage.

Season Grade C+

The Big Bang Theory (Season 11)

I'm more or less putting this up not because I really have strong thoughts on The Big Bang Theory, but because I'm trying to make an effort to at least have a log of the seasons of shows I finish this year. For awhile now, this show hasn't shown much special; it's mostly empty calories that we'll put on during dinner when we don't need to worry about having a full attention span. The show takes a lot of crap because it's far more popular than its quality, but if it weren't for its Nielsen rating, it'd be just another big-network sitcom you don't know anything about and there'd be no reason for you to throw rocks at it. Also, it would have been cancelled a long time ago.

This deep into its run, the story for all of these people is largely played out and they're more or less pushing these characters' lives forward because CBS is paying top dollar for it. 11 years in, four of the five original main characters are married (two of them to each other), and the remaining one, Raj, has been a relatively consistent weak spot throughout the show's run. The humanizing of Sheldon and Howard has given the show good material in the past, but by this point, they've become self-aware enough that it doesn't register as a "big" moment when they do something selfless. Leonard is a nothingburger who's basically been unchanged over the course of the show, is often annoying, and these days takes a back seat to the stronger characters.

Penny, who has somehow gone 11 seasons without being assigned a last name, has become a bright spot for the series, particularly because she's come so far from being treated as the naive "dumb one" by the show. Amy has also changed quite a bit between the robotesque character that met Sheldon in the coffee shop at the end of Season Three, so much so that it's hard to believe the current iteration is even the same person, but Mayim Bialik has been a consistently great presence on the show. Bernadette has been thoroughly unlikable for a long time.

While the show usually gets in some good jokes in an episode, the real reason this show became interesting in the first place was because it had strong characters like Sheldon (most obviously), Howard, Penny, and Amy. By now, everyone's become pretty stagnant and the show spent Season 11 churning out mostly forgettable plot lines. The exception was Sheldon and Amy's wedding, but they goofed that up by turning it onto an excuse to have Mark Hamill on the show for some reason, which distracted from what could have been a good tribute to the former pair's lengthy relationship.

We'll probably keep watching this show until the end, if for no other reason that it's light, digestible, and somehow has avoided completely jumping the shark (if the history of sitcoms has taught us anything, it's that shows containing uber-brilliant scientists have a tough time keeping things grounded in reality). There's just no reason to expect much from it.

Season Grade: C+

The Bridge on the River Kwai

I have an irrational and unfortunate prejudice against old movies. I don't know why, but if you hand me any element of pop culture, be it movies, TV, or music, that was created before 1980, my knee jerk reaction is, "No thanks." Athletes have become progressively better at sports over time, and my theory is that the same goes for the ceiling of other aspects of pop culture. Modern actors are better, modern cinematics are better, modern writers are better, modern instrumentals and sound systems are better, and today's creators are able to build on a rich history of what works and what doesn't. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of people butchering all three of those forms of entertainment today (particularly music....damn kids), but I think that at their peak, all three are superior to anything that existed forty years ago.

That's why I'm damn surprised that I actually decided to sit down and watch a consensus all-time classic in Bridge on the River Kwai. It's further surprising because I am not big into war films, and it I think it's honestly because I tried to memorize the AFI Top 100 a long time ago and it had a cool title that was always easy to remember. I looked up a plot summary years ago and it seemed interesting enough. It happened to be airing early on Father's Day, so I recorded it and watched it over the course of the following five days (this is how watching a movie operates when you have two children and a spouse who is not directly invested in the film).

Bridge on the River Kwai is the story of British prisoners in a World War II era Japanese prison camp. The Japanese commandant, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), is under great pressure to construct the titular bridge over the titular river to connect Bangkok and Rangoon, as this is will be of great military benefit to Japan. The British prisoners are under the command of the respected Lt. Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guiness). Nicholson is principled to a fault (key word) and bravely insists that high-ranking officers will not perform manual labor on the bridge. At first, Saito reprimands him for this refusal, but his desperation to complete the project on time eventually leads him to concede this demand, as there are skilled engineers among the British officers.

Nicholson is appalled to see the British soldiers are intentionally doing poor work to sabotage the bridge (and thus abet the Allies' war effort). He takes command of the operation and insists that the British army should take pride in their work, both for morale reasons and to maintain their identity as soldiers. Meanwhile, an American in the prison camp, Commander Shears (William Holden), escapes from captivity. He eventually winds up as part of a four-man expedition under the command of the British army to plant explosives on the bridge and destroy it when a train carrying soldiers attempts to cross it.

The most important relationship in the film is between Saito and Nicholson. Nicholson's a prisoner, but Saito will be forced to commit ritual suicide if he can't complete the bridge on time, and he can't do it without Nicholson's help. The fact that Nicholson has superior leadership skills gives Saito great grief, but there's a palpable deepening respect that the two have for one another over the course of the movie. In the events leading up to the film's climax, they're practically one another's closest allies. That begs the question of whether Nicholson's attempts to maintain a sense of pride in the British soldiers actually bleeds into treasonous activity, as a proper bridge is of critical importance to their Japanese enemies. There's rich irony built into this story every step of the way.

The Saito/Nicholson plot is very strong, and Guinness wound up taking home Best Actor hardware for his efforts, which kind of surprises me after seeing the film. He was decent in the role, but I wasn't blown away. I thought Holden gave a better performance, even though Shears' arc was probably the most problematic thing about the film from a plot perspective. His team's journey to blow up the bridge was unnecessarily drawn-out and rather boring, despite Holden's charisma. Bridge on the River Kwai is a very long film, at 2 hours and 41 minutes, but there is certainly not 2 hours and 41 minutes worth of story here. They could have cut a good amount of Shears' scenes and been no worse for the wear.

I'm glad I watched this movie, but I don't think it did much to dispel my stubborn beliefs about things made more than a half-century ago. Bridge on the River Kwai is regarded as an all-time classic and a culturally relevant film. I can certainly understand that, as I could believe it was much better than anything that came out at the time. However, I just don't think it holds up against modern filmmaking, and the excessively long Shears storyline dings it, because it got just as much screen time as the good stuff. Rake me over the coals for this if you must.

Grade: B-

The Americans (Season One)

Modern TV is replete with antihero sagas and The Americans is yet another show to contribute to that ever-growing pool. Season One aired back in 2013 and the show has just completed its run. Naturally, given my proclivity to pick up things 5-10 years after they gain a foothold in the culture, 2018 was the perfect time for me to check out this show.

The Americans is a period drama set in the early 1980s during the Cold War. Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip (Matthew Rhys) Jennings are the mother and father of two kids and own a cozy house in the suburbs. The catch? They're both KGB spies that have managed to hide this fact from their teenage daughter Paige and younger son Henry. The series juxtaposes their KGB activity (which involves murder, intimidation, deceit, extreme violence, sex, torture, and a whole lot of hand-to-hand combat) and mundane activities around their house and hanging out with their neighbors, who are none the wiser.

That last bit is particularly important, because their new next-door neighbors, the Beemans, include an FBI agent. Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) reveals his occupation when the families first meet, and the look on Philip's face is absolutely priceless. Despite Stan's initial suspicions, he and Philip become good friends, as do Elizabeth and Sandra later on in the season. Stan's a key man at the Bureau in charge of trying to track down Directorate 'S' KGB spies, and little does he know that the Jennings next door are exactly the man and woman that he's trying to catch.

Over the course of the season, Philip and Elizabeth meet their new handler, Claudia (a.k.a. "Grannie"), played by Esteemed Character Actress Margo Martindale. Their relationship with her is very complex, as she's extremely mysterious and they're never sure whether she gives a damn about either of them, whether she's just following orders, or whether she's got an agenda of her own independent of what's coming from Moscow. For Philip, Claudia may as well be a proxy for Moscow itself, as it's revealed as early as the first episode that he's not as beholden to the motherland as Elizabeth and he questions much of what they're doing over the course of Season One.

At it's core, The Americans is a show about relationships and how our lives -- whether we're spies in a foreign land or not -- relentlessly test how we feel about one another. As one might expect from an espionage show, the theme of trust is examined constantly, and it's not tied to the highs and lows of typical human relationships. Elizabeth and Philip were an arranged couple, so part of that relationship is going to be fake to some degree, but at the same time, their love for their children is completely real and everything they've been through on their mission forges a strong bond between them. Their marriage is a facade, but it has plenty in common with a real one.

There's a ton of action in Season One of The Americans and the compelling plot moves at a very brisk pace. There's some nits to pick in there (in particular, the murder of a minor character motivates another to reconsider their loyalties, but the relationship between the two was woefully underdeveloped, so much so that the change-of-heart barely makes sense), but it's certainly a very good show, and everything I have heard makes me pretty stoked to plow ahead with the rest of the series. At six seasons, it's going to be a bit of a marathon, but most likely a fun one.

Season One Grade: A-*

*if you're curious as to why nearly every show I've reviewed this year has a very high grade, I've made very little progress on lesser ones, and those I've finished (e.g. Top Chef) often don't merit a writeup. I promise that reviews of worse shows are coming, so get excited!

Ozark (Season One)

Disastrous season finale undoes some built-up goodwill, bringing the show's flaws into focus

*******************************************************

I mentioned in my year-end TV review that we dropped Ozark after the first couple episodes, not necessarily because it was bad, but because we sort of ran out of TV time and the early installments of the show didn't build up enough momentum to get us racing to the remote during a busy period of our lives. Eventually, months later, I picked it back up again and finished off the season, leaving me with some mixed feelings on the show.

Ozark is the story of Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman), a financial planner in Chicago (living in Naperville!) whose primary job is to launder money for a Mexican drug cartel. His primary contact with the cartel, Camino Del Rio ("Del", portrayed by Esai Morales) is a frightening man who seems to be highly intelligent, great at reading people, and also ruthlessly violent. In the first episode, a scheme goes wrong thanks to Marty's partner and Marty is forced to repay a debt to Del. He tries to do so by relocating his family to a small town in the Missouri Ozarks, where he must find a means within local businesses to clean a large sum of money for Del. Unfortunately, the locals don't prove to be quite as unassuming and manipulable as he expected, and the town has a dark underbelly of its own that becomes just as much of a threat to Marty and his family as the Mexican cartel.

Shortly after their arrival in town, the Byrdes become entangled with the Langmore family, trailer residents with varying degrees of greed and violent tendencies. Young adult Ruth Langmore (Julia Garner) is probably the show's strongest character in performance and writing (though I could have done without her wearing out the impact of the word "fuck" and its variants by the third episode). She originally steals some of Marty's money, but eventually becomes an ally of Marty's in his laundering scheme, despite continuing to plan to murder him and take all of Del's unwashed cash.

Marty's relationship to his family is tenuous at best, as in the first episode it's revealed that his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) is anything but loyal. Both are somewhat distant from their children due to a lack of being forthright about their business and their reasons for uprooting their lives. A particularly good (and necessary) flashback episode shows how Marty wound up in illegal dealings in the first place, and it's both an argument for and against whether the pair truly deserve the scorn that they get from their children.

The tone of the show is constantly dark with almost no room for humor, and as the latest in the long line of anti-hero dramas that have sprung up since Tony Soprano graced the small screen, that would basically require Ozark to boast a combination of strong characters, great acting, and heart-pounding drama for it to stand out. It doesn't quite complete that trifecta. Generally, both Bateman and Linney leave a lot to be desired from an acting perspective, but fortunately Garner, Morales, and several others in minor roles effectively bring their characters to life. The show does a good job of world-building once you get beyond the first couple introductory episodes and largely keeps the plot riveting throughout (Marty almost constantly has three different entities out to get him, which makes breathing room hard to come by).

Unfortunately, the season finale undermines much of what comes before it, as the show makes three major mistakes in going for misery-porn shock value and having someone make a blunder that's so out-of-character that it not only destroys a season's worth of development, but calls into question whether the show is interested in any of these people beyond their ability to advance the plot. The horrid finale shone a greater light on some of the show's season-long issues, which were forgivable until it lost sight of the things that were working. Suddenly, the relentlessly gloomy mood, the predictability of most plot twists (nearly every ostensibly low-key scene in the show either leads into or blatantly foreshadows something significant that will happen next; Ozark isn't interested in just slowing down and casually hanging out with its characters), and the weakness of the performance from the two leads weren't things that the fast-paced action could allow me to forgive.

The remainder of this post will contain specific spoilers regarding my problems with the finale and is only for people who have seen the show. If you'd like to read it, highlight the text below.

In the sixth episode, Jacob Snell threatens to cut Pastor Young's baby out of his wife's womb if Marty doesn't halt construction of the church. That's a horrific threat, but with a target that doesn't make a great deal of sense when directed at Marty. It's easy to shrug off as something that will never actually come to pass. When Pastor Young falters in keeping up his sermons on the water, preventing Snell's drug distribution operation from continuing, Snell actually follows through on that, and we cut to Pastor Young finding his new baby, which one of Snell's underlings must have actually cut out of his wife's body during or after murdering her. Moving past the fact that Pastor Young's wife didn't actually wrong anyone good or evil during the plot, it's just a universally disgusting thing to do. We didn't need any further evidence that the Snells were dangerous people; we got that from the very first scene they were in and got more of it later in this very episode. Even though nothing graphic was shown, there was absolutely no upside to putting that image in peoples' heads.

That was the least of the episode's three grave sins. The second involved the conclusion of the huge business deal between Del and the Snells. The whole season, Del is portrayed as a careful, calculating man who has a sixth sense for judging character. He's ruthless, but also very smart and generally speaks respectfully to those with whom he is dealing, even if he's about to have them killed. That makes what he does next so infuriating from the perspective of anyone who had already spent almost ten hours watching the show to this point. He turns away with Marty and says -- within clear earshot of the Snells --

"Only Marty Byrde can move to Missouri and somehow convince me to partner with a bunch of rednecks."

Darlene Snell asks him to repeat himself, and he's actually stupid enough to say it again! Only this time, Darlene shoots him dead before he finishes the sentence. The one nice touch is that it ties back to the Snells' earlier strong insistence that they are "hillbillies", not "rednecks", but that doesn't redeem it. To take a character like Del who has been portrayed as cunning and intelligent for the whole season and have him die because of such a foolhardy and unnecessary comment (which contained a slur uncharacteristic of the way he spoke all season long) is simply ridiculous. It seems like they were set on having Del killed off in the finale, but couldn't think of a natural way to do it and landed on this.

Finally, Pastor Young is unhinged after discovering his wife has been murdered. When Marty comes to visit him, he makes the comment,

"Why would I want to keep a baby alive in this world?"

Marty tries to talk him down, but then later in the episode, we see the pastor driving to a lake with the baby that was very recently cut out of his mother's womb. He stands in the lake and sort of violently pushes his infant son under the water and holds him there while the camera focuses on his determined face. The baby is fully submerged in the water for THIRTY SECONDS (I timed it) while the audience is mostly convinced that the pastor is drowning his son. The only possible alternative, of course, is that it's a baptism, and sure enough, the pastor eventually pulls his air-deprived son out of the water and makes the sign of the cross on his forehead. 

This is completely absurd, and involves a character behaving in an unrealistic way to trick and shock the audience. Holding a newborn underwater for thirty seconds is not anyone's definition of baptism; it more closely matches the definitions of "child abuse" or "murder". There is not a branch of religion or a human person stupid enough to do this. It's a completely unbelievable stunt that serves no purpose but to horrify its audience for a half-minute. Mission accomplished, I guess.

Season One Grade: C+

Barry (Season One)

For everyone who got here just after finishing this inaugural season of Barry....holy shit.

And for everyone else, um, welcome, I guess?

Unlike some of the other stuff I've been watching lately, Barry is a relatively easy show to explain. The main character, Barry Berkman (Bill Hader), is an ex-marine who became a hitman after his service, often applying a Boondocks Saints-like moral code to justify what he does; the people he kills are generally bad. His boss, Fuches, is friendly/chummy enough with Barry but there isn't a lot of regard for Barry's well-being there. One day, Barry's job leads him to an acting class led by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler). Attracted by the normalcy of it all, the camaraderie of the other people in the class, the chance to have a real hobby outside of his grim job, and to one of the other students, Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg), Barry winds up taking the class. It becomes a bright spot for his otherwise bleak existence, but obviously, the difficulties of living a double life manifest themselves, and Barry spends most of the season staving off either getting caught or killed.

Despite the high stakes, Barry is a dark comedy, and most of the episodes pack plenty of laughs in addition to big dramatic moments. You'd typically think that the Chechen mob bosses that Barry becomes involved with would make for frightening individuals (and make no mistake about it, they mean business), but Goran (Glenn Fleshler) and Noho Hank (Anthony Carrigan) provide consistent comic relief. Noho Hank is small and polite to a fault, while Goran is built like your typical hulking thug. The show gets a lot of comedy out of Goran having a normal-ish family life outside of his mob dealings, sort of like a Chechen Tony Soprano (in a nice choice of props, there's a red Cozy Coupe with goofy eyes sitting in his garage, just lurking in the background while extreme violence and murder plots take place).

The show also plays plenty of attention to Gene's personal life, including his romantic pursuit of Detective Moss (Paula Newsome), who also happens to be investigating murders to which Barry is connected. Sally gets plenty of screen time too, as her efforts to land acting gigs are thwarted by both her mediocre (at times) ability, and more painfully, Weinstein-like characters that serve as gatekeepers to important roles. If there's one thing I have to pick on with this season, it's that there's a point in the Barry/Sally storyline where her personality and attitude toward Barry seem to shift without cause. Barry's left pretty confused by the sudden change, and as the audience, we feel that confusion as well. That'd be perfectly fine had we not spent so much time getting to know Sally independent of Barry. Because we're somewhat accustomed to seeing scenes from Sally's point of view, the abrupt character change without explanation leaves something to be desired.

Barry takes a bit to find its footing, and any minor sins from the somewhat uneven early episodes are compensated for by the action and hilarity in the last four. The season's falling action is a speed rap of plot developments, all of which are given the appropriate dramatic weight and some of which will leave you gaping open-mouthed. Anchoring all of this is the fantastic performance of Hader, who absolutely disappears into the role and captures a huge array of emotions from the vacant, dead countenance he often wears early in the season to the horror, anguish, and occasional happiness he shows later on.

I feel like I'm giving out very high grades for most things I've been checking out this year, but bear in mind that for me to actually watch a show to completion and feel compelled to write about it, there's probably a bias toward things I like a lot. I don't consider myself to be a 'soft' critic of TV, it's just that I'm on a big streak of watching pretty good stuff.

Season One Grade: A-

Atypical (Season One)

Continuing the high school drama kick I'm apparently on, I checked out Atypical on Netflix, which is about an high school student named Sam -- who is on the autism spectrum -- and his family. I have very positive things to say about the show, but before I do, I feel like I need to discuss something.

After watching the show, I decided to check out some reviews online, one of which was rather scathing (and judging by the comments, the author was not alone). That review came from someone who identified themself as being on the spectrum (a very useful perspective for a show like this, to be sure) and was disappointed by the characterization of Sam. In particular they felt that Sam was portrayed as an exaggerated and stereotypical caricature who misses social cues far more often than is realistic and whose "utter lack of tact is jarring". From this perspective, I could understand why Atypical's portrayal of Sam could be seen as damaging, as people on the autism spectrum are under-represented in television and characters who are written like someone on the spectrum may not be identified as such (thinking specifically of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory). While watching the show, I did not process Sam as being representative of people on the autism spectrum in general and just thought of Sam as representative of Sam, a person with a condition that affects different people in unique ways. That's the direction from which I am reviewing Atypical, but I wanted to acknowledge the other viewpoint above because I feel it is important.

*****

Atypical is nominally the story of Sam Gardner (Keir Gilchrist), but it quickly becomes clear that the show is just as much about his younger sister Casey (Brigette Lundy-Paine), his mother Elsa (Jennifer Jason Leigh*), and his father Doug (Michael Rapaport). Despite spending a considerable amount of time with Sam's parents, it's a high school show, and one that runs afoul of my biggest pet peeve about high school shows: inappropriately aged actors. At the time of release, Gilchrist, Lundy-Paine, and Jenna Boyd (who plays Paige, one of Sam's potential love interests), were all 24 years old. This does a disservice to the realism** of the genre.

*I know Jennifer Jason Leigh from two things -- this show and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I am therefore only aware of her existence at two ages, 20 and 55. I feel like I am trying to see Stacy Hamilton in her face every time I watch her on this show and it's super difficult.

**In one accidentally hilarious scene, one of the over-aged high school kids tries to order a drink at a bar, only to be told, "You're clearly not 21".

That complaint aside, nearly every arc and character on this show are great, and Atypcial builds them all into fully realized characters who behave in believable ways (with one exception, which I'll get to). The principal storyline of the season is Sam's attempting to enter the dating world, which is difficult enough for anyone but is even tougher for him given his condition. He tries to work through his issues with his therapist, Julia (whom the show smartly fleshes out beyond just her interactions with Sam), and many of the dating ideas he tries out are built from their sessions together. Gilchrist's performance in the role is excellent and Sam winds up coming off likable despite some of the things he does, because you can tell he's well meaning and just trying to figure out the "rules" of something unfamiliar to him.

As fun as it is to watch Sam, his sister Casey is the show's strongest character and has the most to deal with. She's a track star who's navigating her relationship with her first boyfriend, Evan (Graham Rogers), trying to do what's best for her future track career, dealing with extreme peer pressure from her friends and coach, dealing with pretty substantial issues with each of her parents (we're not talking about typical teenage bullshit here, either), struggling with the ways that Sam's condition has altered her upbringing and family life, all while serving as Sam's de facto guardian through the harsh social waters of high school (when she's not semi-lovingly pushing him around and making fun of him herself). Casey can be very cold and biting, and usually she has a pretty good motivation for it. I think the show strikes the perfect balance between Casey's righteous rage and moments of unnecessary teenage jerkiness, making her someone who's easy to like, yet grounded in reality.

Elsa and Doug are also given quite a bit to do as the parents of these two. For years, Elsa has taken upon herself to responsibly (yet aggressively) manage Sam's autism. She attends support meetings with other parents and has a deep understanding of Sam's condition and what he goes through. She's essentially the primary caregiver, but feels stuck given that it can often be an unrewarding job (and the litany of shit thrown her way by Casey makes it all the more difficult). Her loyalty to her family and role begins being significantly tested before the curtain closes on the first episode. Doug is coming from a different place, as he's been historically uninvolved with Sam, but with Sam's newfound interest in dating, he sees a second chance to connect with his son.

The non-Gardners on the show are generally quality characters as well. Sam's friend and co-worker Zahid is something of a womanizing bonehead, but he's good for comic relief and the way he's invested in Sam's problems is legitimately endearing. Casey's boyfriend Evan has his moments as well and seems pretty relatable, especially given the situations he gets put into by Casey and the rest of the Gardners. The one character on the show that doesn't really work is Paige, who is interested in Sam but we know so little about her that it's not really clear why. Sam isn't particularly nice to her and she's openly condescending about Sam's most prominent interest (Antarctica). It would work better if Paige's affection for Sam was a little more well-developed, because as far as we can tell, she either 1) thinks he's really hot, or 2) just wants someone to label as her boyfriend. Neither of those would provide the required weight for her apparent emotional investment. Then again, I guess teenagers are goofy.

Little problems aside, Atypical has a stellar plot that seamlessly weaves in twists that pack some major highs and emotional gut-punches. This is in stark contrast to a show like, say, This Is Us, which drops random, occasionally nonsensical bombs out of nowhere just to try to give you all the feels. In Atpyical, every place the story goes seems logical and works well within the universe that the show has created for itself. With just eight half-hour episodes, the show doesn't try to do too much and spends just the right amount of time playing out each arc. It's an addictive watch that sucks you into its world and compels you to root for its characters (a happy Casey is just as satisfying as a happy Kate from Everything Sucks!). It does all of this while offering a unique perspective on our world that isn't commonly seen on television (Sam's voice-over narration is a great feature). I've seen some pretty great TV so far in 2018, and Atypical is likely to wind up near the top of the list.

Season One Grade: A