Life in the BRIARPATCH

Article first published as TV Review: BRIARPATCH on Seat42F.

USA has a new stylized mystery drama entitled BRIARPATCH. A police officer and landlord is blown up in her patrol car in her own hometown. When the officer’s sister, Allegra Dill, returns and begins asking questions, it soon becomes clear that there is no shortage of criminal activity and quite a few secrets in what otherwise appears to be a sleepy town, and it’s going to take awhile to find the truth. Allegra is determined to stay as long as it takes, though others would like to claim her time.

Rosario Dawson (Luke Cage, Rent) stars as Allegra, and it is well past time Dawson had her own starring role. She is a fine actress, and excels at adding subtle complexity into any part, be it comedy or drama-based. She has a way of seemingly tough and vulnerable simultaneously, which makes Allegra so much more interesting than the hero archetype. She is magnetic on screen.

The rest of the cast in the pilot is lesser-known, other than Jay R. Ferguson (Mad Men) as Jake Spivey. But USA’s website reveals Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) and Kim Dickens (Fear the Walking Dead) are involved, and those already present from the beginning seem solid. Edi Gathegi (The Blacklist) stands out as Singe, whose allegiance is murky, but he seems relatively reliable, as far as any local is.

Apart from Dawson, the best thing BRIARPATCH has going for it is the tone. It feels a bit noir, though firmly set in the present. It’s definitely slow-burn, but not so slow as, say, The Killing. The atmosphere is of a specific time and place, and although it’s a little hyper-realistic, it’s also grounded. There’s an underlying bizarreness, best exemplified by the escaped zoo animals seen around town, that doesn’t go as far as Twin Peaks, but still makes it seem like this won’t be a typical detective show, either. (True, Allegra isn’t technically a detective, but it’s pretty obvious that she’s a detective.) Surprise twists seem like they’ll be a regular thing.

The questions pile up immediately and get deep pretty fast, starting with how Allegra’s sister afforded the building she owned on her police salary. The town itself is full of shady characters, with each person we meet hiding something. They likely aren’t all sinister, but it’s impossible to know who should be trusted from the start. Below the surface level of the central case, there is a lot going on with Allegra herself, from her past with rich guy Jay, to her current fling with a married Senator (Enrique Murciano, Bloodline). Neither of these things are explained explicitly, but seem to be connected, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they tied into the murder of Allegra’s sister.

The biggest weakness of BRIARPATCH is just how connected everything is. I mean, why is Allegra’s outside life and career following her back to her hometown? Sure, there could be a reasonable explanation for it, but it seems a stretch. And if all the various moving pieces right now end up related, as feels likely based on the connections drawn from the pilot, that could end up hurting the realism of the piece.

That being said, I found BRIARPATCH very enjoyable. If I still had cable, it would definitely be on my recording list, and if I find it convenient on streaming, I’ll probably binge it. Dawson alone makes it worth it, and I like the writing and style of the piece. With hardly a smile to be seen, it somehow still manages to be fun. And it certainly looks like it’ll be put together cohesively, a very important feature in the current era.

BRIARPATCH airs Mondays at 11/10c on USA.

Going on a MYTHIC QUEST

Article first published as TV Review: MYTHIC QUEST: RAVEN'S BANQUET on Seat42F.

A new sitcom on AppleTV+ is MYTHIC QUEST: RAVEN’S BANQUET. Set at a video game developer whose sole product seems to be the titular Mythic Quest, the team releases the first expansion in the pilot, subtitled Raven’s Banquet. But the show isn’t about the game; not really. It’s about the various personalities who work there. Many represent archetypes, but there’s also a lived-in, complex element to nearly every lead that should not only serve to help people better understand one another, but also shine a spotlight on those who are too quick too judge. Also, it’s hilarious.

The creative genius behind the in-show MYSTIC QUEST is Ian (Rob McElhenney, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). He hides in his massive, above-everyone-else office, and manipulates (purposefully?) them into doing what he wants. This is very frustrating to Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao, Kuu Kuu Harajuku), the actual coder who builds the game for him, and who wants to put her own thumbprint on it. David (David Hornsby, Good Girls) is the ineffectual boss caught in the middle of this struggle, and who surprisingly doesn’t always side with Ian. This feels like it may be the central conflict of the show, and is a delight right off the bat, with Ian and Poppy’s division not nearly as clear cut as it at first seems.

They are surrounded by a bevy of other colorful characters. Jo (Jessie Ennis, Better Call Saul) is David’s new assistant who worships and enables Ian. Tester Rachel (Ashly Burch, OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes) has a massive crush on fellow tester Dana (Imani Hakim, Everybody Hates Chris), who is fully committed and focused on the job. Brad (Danny Pudi, Community) may just be evil. HR Carol (Naomi Ekperigin, Broad City writer) wishes everyone would stop treating her like a therapist. Pootie Shoe (Elisha Henig, The Sinner) is the obnoxious child reviewer who decides if the game lives or dies. And the great F. Murray Abraham, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Amadeus) is CW Longbottom, the alcoholic, eccentric writer behind the game.

Not all of these actors in MYTHIC QUEST: RAVEN’S BANQUET are well-known, but it is an extremely solid ensemble. Each brings something great to the plate, and none feels in over their heads. They embody the douchebag, the naïve young adult, the frustrated bureaucrat, and so many others who actually work at places like this – or any workplace, anywhere. It’s a different set of personalities than The Office or Silicon Valley, but it’s still highly relatable, especially in how each individual has rich, inner lives. Whether they be enthusiastic dreamers or cynical paycheck collectors, they know how they fit into the overall picture, and do a great job showing the audience that.

It’s also just a solid win in the humor department. Much of the pilot is spent arguing over a shovel. Is a plain shovel too boring? Or does it transform the way gamers will interact with the world in an exciting new bend? Should it be flashy? Should it have dual purpose as a weapon? You can extend all of these questions into metaphor for so much else about our culture. But you will also chuckle as Ian struggles to smash a watermelon just the right way, or Brad finds a way to make it sexual. You’ll relate to Poppy’s pure love and devotion to it. I could write a whole review about the damn thing, and that’s just one element of episode one.

I love MYTHIC QUEST: RAVEN’S BANUQET. It’s magnetic, entertaining, and not just banal triviality. It’s that rare show that feels like it could just be dumb humor, but ends up being so much more. It should appear to viewers of all types.

Stream MYTHIC QUEST: RAVEN’S BANUQET now exclusively on AppleTV+.

Peachy KEENE

Article first published as TV Review: KATY KEENE on Seat42F.

Note: The review only covers the pilot of the series.

The CW’s newest drama is KATY KEENE. A spin-off of Riverdale set in the Big Apple, it’s about a group of young adults looking to fulfill their career and relationship aspirations. Less highly stylized than the mothership, though still with a healthy dose of hyper-reality and charm, and carrying over one established supporting character, this show should be really good. And it probably would be if not for awful writing.

The fault lies not in the performances. Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) is spunky, cheery, and thoroughly convincing as Katy Keene. Ashleigh Murray’s Josie McCoy feels like a second lead, which makes sense, given that she’s already been developed on Riverdale and should have a prominent role in the new venture. These two are strong enough to hang a show on.

The supporting characters are also delightful. Pepper Smith (Julia Chan, Saving Hope) is the worldly, wild woman with sage advice. Jorge / Ginger Lopez (Jonny Beauchamp, Penny Dreadful) is easy to root for. Francois (Nathan Lee Graham, LA to Vegas) has the early 00s gay best friend vibe now in a boss suit. Gloria Grandbilt (Katherine LaNasa, Truth Be Told) and Amanda (Helene Yorke, Masters of Sex) are deliciously awful villains. KO (Zane Holtz, From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series) serves his role as eye candy and dutiful boyfriend, and Alexander Cabot (Lucien Laviscount, Snatch) seems like he’ll be a slightly better-developed version of that.

But those supporting characters get to the heart of the problem. Their characters revolve solely around the leads. They don’t seem to have their own lives and personalities separate from interacting with Josie and, primarily, Katy. They exist only to further her plot, and so the world feels a lot less realized than other shows on the air right now.

Similarly, KATY KEENE goes for emotional payoff over a story that makes sense. Katy rebels against a boss and immediately gets a dream job with encouragement to pursue her talents. Ginger gets to tell off a jerk casting director in a speech that, in different context, would feel arrogant and coming from spoiled brat, sure to get him blackballed before his career even begins. If Pepper is so worldly, why is she spending every evening hanging out with Katy? Amanda and Gloria are written to be self-obsessed, but we only see them doing so in ways to hurt our protagonist, and the way high school peers would, not adults.

There is plenty of room for a fairy tale on the airwaves, and you could definitely call KATY KEENE that. If it committed more fully to the hyperreality stylings of Riverdale or The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, it might even be easier to overlook how it thumbs its nose at reality because that would signal to the audience that what they’re watching is not in any way tied to the world we know. Yet, because KATY KEENE feels grounded in an actual place and time, it clashes with those sensibilities and instead feels half-finished at best, or cartoonish at worse. And the fact that so many of the characters are paper-thin is the final nail.

Might the series get better in subsequent installments? Absolutely. A bit of retooling, and this could be something worth watching. But the blatant bad-ness of the pilot turned me off in a major way to the point that I don’t even care enough to watch the second episode and see how the cliffhanger resolves. In a landscape with less quality programming, I’d give it more of a chance because it is spun off of a show I enjoy. But in the current climate, there’s just no room for a show that doesn’t know what it is, or can’t make up its mind.

KATY KEENE airs Thursdays at 8/7c on the CW.

UnLOCKE With a KEY

Article first published as TV Review: LOCKE & KEY on Seat42F.

Netflix now has season one of LOCKE & KEY, a new drama adapted from a graphic novel series. After the horrific murder of the Locke family’s patriarch, the rest of the clan move all the way across the country to their family estate, Key House. The house is old and mysterious, and is soon discovered to host a bunch of magic keys, each with their own special property. Magic can be wonderous, but it also be dangerous, as the Locke children soon find out.

The tone and style of this show makes clear even before the scary elements show up that horror will be a major part of the show. It’s highly stylized, like a number of strong horror contenders of recent years, with the fantasy component overlaid. This combo isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, for sure, but to my sensibilities, if you can mix these two in a quality manner, you’ve got a solid starting point for a series. LOCKE & KEY succeeds on this front, instantly being a show that draws you in and makes you want to learn about its world.

Children-led programs are a whole other can of worms, and in my opinion, harder to make work, Lemony Snicket and Stranger Things aside. However, LOCKE & KEY does this decently well, too. It might help that the two older children, Tyler (Connor Jessup, Falling Skies) and Kinsey (Emilia Jones, Utopia), are teenagers. It might also help that Jessup, at age twenty-five, is actually well into adulthood, and Jones will be eighteen by the time a second season is filmed. They play younger characters convincingly, but also have some prior experience that has helped them become good performers. The youngest Locke, Bode (Jackson Robert Scott, It), is also pretty decent.

The rules LOCKE & KEY have for children and adults are confusing, though. After experiencing the effect of a key, their mother, Nina (Darby Stanchfield, Scandal), quickly loses all memory of the thing. And yet, it’s pretty clear that their father, Rendell (Bill Heck, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), remembered, as does their uncle Duncan (Aaron Ashmore, Killjoys), who is still around. Other adults do, too, so it’s not just a bloodline thing. Perhaps the inconsistency will be explained eventually, but in the first few episodes, it detracts from the believability of the world.

The primary villain revealed so far is Dodge (Laysla De Oliveira, The Gifted), who was introduced as Bode’s echo in a well before tricking him into letting her out and giving her a key that can take her anywhere. She seems convincingly sinister, even if she doesn’t kill the child right away, and her connection to the Locke kids’ dad’s killer leaves many unanswered questions. I think it’s hard to strike terror without being cartoonish when dealing with a bad guy who battles kids, but De Oliveira does it, delivering a stand-out performance in the show.

I will say, LOCKE & KEY doesn’t overall feel like a kids’ show, and that’s to its credit. It’s certainly not geared for young children to watch, with actual harm and violence. I could use a little more development for Nina and Duncan, but while watching, I often forget that most of the characters on screen are minors. The story is compelling enough to stand on its own in the genre, and doesn’t feel like it needs that extra hook, and so doesn’t put any great focus on it. I appreciate that.

I’m slightly torn on LOCKE & KEY, mostly because of the major weakness pointed out above. But it has a lot going for it, and like I said, the specific style of it appeals to me very much, so I’ll keep going. If you’d like to join me, you can stream all ten episodes of the first season now on Netflix.

PICARD Engages

Article first published as TV Review: STAR TREK: PICARD on Seat42F.

I am a huge STAR TREK fan from way back. Even when I didn’t watch much television, I watched STAR TREK (admittedly, mostly the films and spin-offs; I was an 80s kid). I mourned it when it went away, and forced myself to be excited by the movie reboots of the last decade, even though I now admit that only one of the three is any good. (It’s Star Trek: Beyond, for the record, despite a few flaws.)

So when CBS All Access started bringing STAR TREK back, I was super excited. I mean, not about All Access, which is an overpriced gouging of Trek fans. But about the content. Star Trek: Discovery is amazing, a fitting evolution of the franchise that honors the legacy. The Short Treks series are more of a departure, sometimes experimental, but also very good on the whole.

And now, we have STAR  TREK: PICARD. Jean-Luc Picard is one of my favorite characters, and Patrick Stewart is a fine actor inside and outside of Trek. It’s a tall order to continue his story, and the modernization of Star Trek as evidenced by Discovery and Short Treks, not to mention Stewart’s own standards, demanded it be more than just a continuation of The Next Generation.

Three episodes in, it is succeeding admirably by just about every measure. Stewart is delivering a mesmerizing performance that imagines a future very different for Jean-Luc than where we left him, but in line with The Next Generation series finale, “All Good Things,” and the Romulan and Starfleet developments we know about in the intervening years. It’s a slow burn mystery, perfect for Picard the Dixon Hill fan. It embraces the aging themes of the excellent Kirk-led motion pictures, and also tells us something completely new. It’s a character study of a man who has been disillusioned and dissatisfied, but is determined to restore himself to someone he can live with before he dies. Yet, desperation is not present, instead showing his core personality tempted by discovery.

If that were all STAR TREK: PICARD was, it would be enough. And yet, it’s not. It’s a truly interesting story of Romulan politics and lore, a feat because I never found the species all that intriguing. It brings in lots of hanging plot threads from The Next Generation that I wish had been explored in a more serial nature and now they get to be. Data (Brent Spiner) is dead, but his presence haunts Picard and informs the current story, with dream sequence cameos feeling meaningful and necessary, not gratuitous, especially that perfect opening of the show with the Enterprise-D rendered more beautiful than it ever has been before. We hear again about Dr. Maddox (he’s got to be coming back, right?), Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), the Borg, and so much more. Thank goodness, they left B4 in a drawer, right where he deserves to be.

The new characters are as equally fascinating as the lead. Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd, Blindspot) and Chris Rios (Santiago Cabrera, Big Little Lies) are new versions of Starfleet officers, those no longer with the service for traumatic reasons, a character type hinted at in Deep Space 9 and echoing Picard’s current status. Soji (Isa Briones, Takers) is deliciously unpredictable and hard to define yet. Narek (Harry Treadaway, Penny Dreadful), Commodore Oh (Tamlyn Tomita, The Good Doctor), and Lt. Rizzo (Peyton List, Mad Men) are a cadre of magnetic villains. Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill, The Newsroom) is terrific heart and comic relief. I love Zhaban (Jamie McShane, Bloodline), and Laris (Orla Brady, Fringe) has quickly become one of my favorite Trek characters of all time. I will be heartbroken if we don’t check back in with those latter two in the vineyard as the season progresses. Also, Voyager’s Seven (Jeri Ryan) hasn’t even made her much-anticipated return yet, which will surely be great.

By finding the most promising bits of TNG to continue and letting the story and situations evolve as circumstances and modernity demand, STAR TREK: PICARD is a triumph and perfect example of how to do a continuation decades after the original. It has something new to say, but is very much rooted in the existing mythology. It makes us rethink the TNG episodes as we realize the idyllic future we all admired from that show existed on the Enterprise, but not everywhere else (as DS9 also pointed out). It’s truly an amazing series that I am totally hooked on because of strong writing, direction, acting, and perspective.

Like I said before, All Access sucks in its pricing and depth of offerings. But you can’t miss this show, so I recommend you do as I have done, suck it up, and just give CBS your money. STAR TREK: PICARD deserves to be seen.

New episodes currently release Thursdays on the streaming service.

TOMMY Review

Article first published as TV Review: TOMMY on Seat42F.

The new CBS drama TOMMY is about the first female police chief of police in Los Angeles. In this fictional story, the mayor is forced to fire the previous chief after lots of scandal comes to light, from the chief’s own affairs, to officers under his command being involved in illicit sexual activities. Not all of the cops agree with the dismissal, so our hero, Abigail “Tommy” Thomas, has her work cut out for her.

Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie, The Sopranos) stars as the titular character. Falco is amazing in everything she does. She conveys so much subtlety and nuance, and acts the hell out of each scene. Even in the pilot, there are layers to her performance, especially in Tommy’s extremely complicated relationship with estranged daughter Kate Jones (Olivia Lucy Phillip), as well as her interactions with the mayor, Buddy Gray (Thomas Sadoski, The Newsroom), who is careful to avoid taking too firm on a position on anything he doesn’t have to. There is a lot for Falco to work with in those scenes.

There are also some wonderful supporting cast members. Sadoski is a favorite of mine, and Buddy is a terrific role for him. I enjoy Ken Rosey (Michael Chernus, Orange Is the New Black) as lawyer / speechwriter Ken Rosey, who adds a layer of optimism and idealism into the plot. Russell G. Jones (The Americans) is solid as stalwart Donn Cooper. Vladimir Caamano (Runaways) is delightfully playful as Tommy’s protection and unofficial advisor, Abnar Diaz.

I really want to like this show because it is pleasingly political. Tommy and Buddy aren’t enemies in the traditional sense, but in many ways, they’re locked in a struggle. There are interesting turns, like when Buddy’s guy Doug Dudik (Joseph Lyle Taylor, Sneaky Pete) attempts to hurt Tommy while colluding with the former chief, Milt Leakey (Corbin Bernsen, Psych), and instead helps her. Tommy’s dealings with ICE are inspiring, and her scene with Blake Sullivan (Adelaide Clemens, Rectify) about sexism in the work place is touching.

Yet, there’s definitely something missing from TOMMY. Part of it is how manipulative those latter two bits from the paragraph are, feeling designed to play with viewers’ emotions more than tell a fresh story. There’s also a strong element of procedural, as occurs far too often with CBS dramas, which drags it down. Not to mention, there’re a lot of familiar aspects to the story that have shown up in plenty of other programs as of late, which doesn’t help the originality factor. I can’t help but wonder how much better TOMMY would be if it were penned by Aaron Sorkin, as the drama seems to share a bit of DNA with his works, but pales in comparison.

For the record, TOMMY isn’t bad and I haven’t given up on it yet. FOX’s Deputy, which premiered a few weeks earlier, is in the same vein, and I’m watching both to see if either wins out as the better series, or if either earns a season pass on my TiVo. If TOMMY (or Deputy) embraces the character study element in a significant way and puts that at the center most weeks rather than running down this baddie or that on, they could be very good. But if they play to what they think the “common viewer” wants, they’ll never be anything more than easy escapism.

At the moment, TOMMY has a leg up over DEPUTY because of Falco, whom I have to mention again is just so darn good. But she wouldn’t be the first lauded performer to take a role that is beneath her. I’m not saying Tommy is beneath Falco, because on paper, there’s a lot in Tommy’s favor. But I fear that could end up being the case. Only time will tell.

TOMMY airs Thursdays at 10/9c on CBS.