Tolman's EMERGENCE

Article first published as TV Review: EMERGENCE on Seat42F.

One of ABC’s newest shows is EMERGENCE. A not-so-slow burn mystery drama that is far less soapy than most of the network’s fare (not that there’s anything wrong with soap), it finds a smart sheriff risking everything, including her family, to save a little girl with no memory and strange powers. Or so she claims. Why did she show up on a beach where a plane had just crashed, and who is the secretive (possibly) government agency who cleaned up the site and want her?

Allison Tolman (Fargo) leads the cast as Jo Evans, the sheriff who finds young Piper (Alexa Swinton, Billions). Instantly drawn to the girl, Jo takes Piper, whom she names because Piper doesn’t even recall her moniker, home to meet Jo’s daughter, Mia (Ashley Aufderheide, The Slap), and father, Ed (Clancy Brown, Thor: Ragnarok and a long list of voice acting roles). As the authorities close in around them, Jo seeks help from recent ex and father of her daughter, Alex (Donald Faison, Scrubs), investigator Benny (Owain Yeoman, The Mentalist), and Officer Chris Minetto (Robert Bailey Jr., The Night Shift).

Tolman is fantastic, as one would expect if they’ve seen her in other shows. She has an ability to express complex emotions in ways that few can that feels totally naturally. She balances the duties and power of her job with her familial bonds and noble qualities very well. She alone is worth watching, even in a lesser show. Swinton is also impressive, and the rest hold their own alongside them.

As for the mystery, it’s intriguing. It feels a bit familiar, as with so many sci-fi attempts on broadcast television, most of which unfortunately fail quickly, often not due to a lack of quality. But it also feels fresh, with a specific story that hasn’t quite been told before, at least not in this exact way. As I like to say, it’s all been done, but it hasn’t necessarily been done the way you want to do it.

With fine actors and a decent concept, it falls to the execution to be the deciding factor. EMERGENCE is compelling and mostly well made. It’s easy to get hooked into it, and little about it feels cheesy. The tone and style are engrossing and done competently, and I enjoyed my viewing of it. I am very interested in tuning in for further installments.

One thing I do hope has a larger explanation in EMERGENCE is why Jo and her clan feel such immediate protectiveness of Piper. I totally get taking care of a helpless kid, but Jo is risking her own loved ones to save Piper, and no one seems to mind. It’s not a decision just anyone could make, with most putting their own family above the welfare of a stranger. Heroic, sure, but with grounded characters, it feels a little off. Unless one of Piper’s abilities is to inspire such devotion.

My other issue with the pilot is why is Jo so confident she can keep Piper hidden when the bad guys tracked her down so easily? Even with Piper removing the mysterious electronic ball from her head at the end of the episode, one would think the agency could still find her, especially with the family staying put. Shouldn’t Jo be on the run, not returning to her home?

I’m not saying the above are minor gripes, because I don’t think they are, but the rest of the hour is solid enough that I’m willing to overlook them or suspend belief for now. The first is easily corrected, and the second, while a glaring plot hole, is necessary for the premise set up. As long as EMERGENCE doesn’t make a habit of such things, one can somewhat forgive this one for now.

EMERGENCE airs Tuesdays on ABC.

CASTLE ROCK Is Off the Map

Article first published as TV Review: CASTLE ROCK on Seat42F.

CASTLE ROCK is a new mystery series on Hulu. Set in the titular town, a small place in Maine that is literally not on the map (after unincorporating), there are is much dark and unexplained that happens here. The latest (first for the series) begins with the suicide of Warden Dale Lacy of Shawshank Prison, an event few believed likely to happen, and it only gets more twisted when it’s discovered that Lancy has kept a malnourished man prisoner in the burnt out section of the facility.

You probably recognize the name Shawshank. After all, there was a very popular film called The Shawshank Redemption set there, and that’s no coincidence. CASTLE ROCK is a Stephen King program that is not based on a specific King novel or short story. Instead, the oft-mentioned locale becomes the setting of this new television series that is very much in the spirit of King’s other works. And while there are numerous references to his writing, no prior knowledge is needed to follow this tale, as much as it can be followed at this time. (That being said, there are Easter eggs galore for hardcore fans.)

A lot about CASTLE ROCK is unknown at the start and likely to be for a while. It’s chilling tonally, similar to the best of King’s adaptations. The colors and lighting are dreary, and every character is hiding at least one big secret. It’s highly serialized, of course, and much better than recent King series like Under the Dome. Instead, I would liken it more to an elongated version of the best of King TV movies or similar genre works like American Horror Story. Though, the show does feel distinctly King-like.

At first, the cast seems sprawling, odd for a show with so few series leads. However, it soon becomes clear that there are a small number of important people that will drive the storu forward, while most play a supporting role, helping the plot along as needed. It seems likely that some of the recurring players will be in most or all of the season.

There are a lot of familiar faces. Terry O’Quinn (Lost) plays Warden Lacy, with Frances Conroy (American Horror Story) along as his wife. Bill Skarsgård (It) is “The Kid,” a.k.a. the man found in the cell that Lacy kept hidden. Noel Fisher (Shameless) is the prison guard who finds The Kid, while Ann Cusack (Mr. Mercedes) is the new warden who has to deal with the discovery and potential fallout. Sissy Spacek (Carrie) is Ruth Deaver, mother to the show’s real lead, Henry (Andre Holland, The Knick). Scott Glenn (The Defenders) is the former sheriff who found Henry when he was lost as a child and is currently shacking up with his mother. Melanie Lynskey (Togetherness) is the creepy girl next door, while Allison Tolman (Fargo) plays her sister. And Jane Levy (Suburbia) is… well, I’m just not sure who she is, but her name is Jackie Torrance, indicating she may be a descendent of Jack Torrance, famously played by Jack Nicholson in The Shining. This isn’t a complete cast list, which should tell you a lot of talented people were all too happy to sign on.

I’m inclined to agree with them all that CASTLE ROCK is worth your time. It’s complex, well-made, visually interesting, and an overall quality production. It’s creepy to the point where I couldn’t watch it right before going to sleep, a distinction I haven’t given a show in awhile. It’s also filled with promise of payoff, as the creators, Sam Shaw (Manhattan) and Dustin Thomason (The Evidence), clearly know their King and having a blast playing in his world.

The first three episodes of CASTLE ROCK are available now on Hulu, with new installments every Wednesday.

MOSAIC Unclear

Article first published as TV Review: MOSAIC on Seat42F.

Note: this review is about the television miniseries MOSAIC. It does not review the app.

HBO is premiering something quite experimental this week. Called MOSAIC and presented on five consecutive nights, the six-hour story concerns the murder of children’s author Olivia Lake and its four-year aftermath. With an all-star cast, Steven Soderbergh cuts together a narrative first developed for an interactive app, which allowed users to follow one of two murder suspects through the story, as well as view related ‘evidence.’ The result here is a professional director’s combining of the plotlines.

Soderbergh (Red Oaks, The Knick) is well-respected and often well-reviewed, known for balancing multiple narratives, a la Traffic, so he seems a natural choice for such an ambitious, ground-breaking project. Not just anyone could pull such a thing off, and so it makes sense that HBO would entrust a talent like his to get it done. He has a certain style that does show up in the series.

The cast has been stocked with some very talented performers, including Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct, Casino) as Olivia and Garrett Hedlund (On the Road) and Frederick Weller (In Plain Sight) as the two main suspects. The supporting players include Jennifer Ferrin (Hell On Wheels), Beau Bridges (Masters of Sex), Jeremy Bobb (The Knick), Paul Reubens (Pee-wee’s Playhouse), Maya Kazan (The Knick), Michael Cerveris (Fringe), Allison Tolman (Fargo), James Ransome (Bosch), and many more. So the cast is certainly not the reason it would fail.

But, in my opinion, despite the immense talent involved, it does fail. As a narrative, it is disjointed, jerky, and boring. I found it extremely hard to follow, and the characters less than interesting. I don’t know if the app provided a better experience, but at least in the one hour I viewed, I found it far below the quality level I’ve come to expect from HBO shows. I was delighted to learn it is a miniseries, played out quickly, airing in a single week, than a drama that would potentially run for a long time. Mainly because of the chance I am wrong and it resonates with critics at large, forcing me to play catch up just to stay current on television, which will be unnecessary for a miniseries.

I can’t say the hour is totally without merit. Most of the actors do deliver good performances. Stone herself is fantastic, and the bits of MOSAIC that do captivate me, few and far between as they are, generally involve her and Reubens, who I also really enjoy. Some of Weller’s stuff, including his chemistry with Stone, is also very good. But those moments are not enough to hold my interest in between.

The story itself just doesn’t feel all that well constructed. There are a LOT of characters and connections to keep track off, and with the constant, abrupt movements in setting, it becomes more of a chore than a pleasure. There just isn’t enough time spent with certain individuals for the audience to grasp who they are and what they want before it moves on, usually to something totally unrelated, or so it seems. Parts shown out of order don’t help. Perhaps if I binged the whole thing at once, some general picture would emerge, mosaic-like, from the fray. I just don’t see the draw in episode one.

Now, I concede there are likely fans of the app who got really into solving the mystery and following all the clues. Those people might like to see the whole story edited together like this into one narrative, and already having prior knowledge of the proceedings, could follow it more easily.

But if you’re just planning to tune into MOSAIC as a show, I’d recommend skipping it.

MOSAIC premieres Monday at 8/7c and runs throughout this week on HBO.

FARGO Miniseries Finale Review

Article first published as TV Review: 'Fargo' - Finale on Blogcritics.

FX’s Fargo has sadly come to an end. Ten episodes of brilliant, thrilling, suspenseful storytelling ends tonight with “Morton’s Fork.” The tale concludes with finality, tying up the loose ends from this excellent freshman run, leaving a possible (probable) season two to seek out new characters and new cases. It’s both satisfying and regrettable to see it go.

An important element of “Morton’s Fork” is that both Lester (Martin Freeman) and Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) get what they deserve. The airwaves are full of dark, gritty crime shows these days, and those do not always leave the viewers with a good taste in one’s mouth. Bad guys get away to kill another day, and heroes question their moral compass. Fargo is lighter fare, though, mixing lots of off-beat humor and quirky charm in, so those who deserve to go down have to for it to be an ending that fans feel good about.

Equally crucial is that Molly (Allison Tolman), Gus (Colin Hanks), Greta (Joey King), and Lou (Keith Carradine) survive. They are a sweet family unit, and because of, not despite, their coming together late in the season, they have to have a happy ending. We cannot bear to see these characters who are so good at heart suffer more misfortune and pain. They need to win the day and come out the other side intact, and they do.

Gus has an interesting arc. He leaves law enforcement for good reason, being bumbling and inept. He runs into Malvo early, but backs off because he can’t handle that type of villain himself. Yet, with his family on the line, Gus steps up as a man, protecting those he cares about, killing someone his family will never be safe having in the world.. I’m not sure he should go back to being a cop again, but he certainly gets a chance to redeem himself here, which I think he deserves.

One might wish that Molly is the one who takes down Malvo, since she is really the main heroine of the miniseries, but she doesn’t get the short shift in “Morton’s Fork,” either. She still gets pay off for the detective work she’s completed, and she finally earns the respect and admiration of her boss, Bill (Bob Odenkirk), as he steps aside and recommends her for promotion. There is major triumph in this, even if she isn’t the one to bring in Lester or Malvo, which she is still instrumental in getting to a place where they are taken down.

Fargo proves that good and evil battles can still be thoroughly engrossing and entertaining without the grey areas that pervade a lot of modern fare. I have nothing against its peers, loving many of them dearly and intrigued by shifty players, but its also nice to get a whiff of Fargo‘s scent, unique for the time in its lightness when dealing with such heavy subject matter, and almost miraculously staying as well-developed as those darker programs.

Part of the reason for this is because at many points during “Morton’s Fork,” the audience thinks Molly, Gus, and / or Lou may not make it out alive. Whether it’s Molly rushing off to Lester’s house alone, not realizing the FBI agents there are dead and no back up is on the way, or Gus sneaking into Malvo’s hideout, then confronting the scary man mano-a-mano, or even Lou sitting on the porch with his shotgun, there are moments where things could turn dire.

Fargo does a terrific job with presenting danger, but knowing who it can and cannot spare. Agents Pepper (Keegan-Michael Key) and Burdge (Jordan Peele), lonely men with no real lives? Sure, they can die. Gus, who has a teenage daughter and is expecting a baby? No way. The sense that Fargo just might let Gus perish anyway keeps the action intriguing, but when the writers don’t go through with it, it’s a relief, not a cop out.

There’s a feeling of authenticity that is in the proceedings. The not-actually-based-on-truth story, even as the opening proclaims otherwise, is tongue in cheek, but always keeps itself grounded. There isn’t anything in the show that couldn’t actually happen, and Molly won’t be solving more major crimes like this week after week or even year after year. In this, Fargo is mostly unique.

There’s also an extremely high level of consistency in the miniseries. All ten episodes are written by the same guy, Noah Hawley (Bones), and that provides solid through-lines. There aren’t weak points or people acting out of character because no other voices go into writing dialogue for the players. Mix in an unusually talented cast with no weak links, handling the material like pros, and Fargo is very successful in what it sets out to do.

I could pick apart “Morton’s Fork” in a 10-page review and praise every scene for something special; it’s that good. But I won’t because I feel works of art on this level are meant to be appreciated and re-watched for new meaning frequently, not analyzed to death by any single perspective. For me, Fargo is right up there with The Walking Dead in that I couldn’t wait to watch it each week, growing excited at the prospect of each new installment, and rarely waiting until it actually aired to view it. (Thanks to FX for being more generous with early screeners than any series on any network in recent memory.) I rank it one of Top Five shows of the year, easily, and cannot wait to see what Hawley comes up with for Fargo next season, assuming its renewed, which it likely will be.

Whether to Watch FARGO is Not a "Dilemma"

Article first published as FARGO Review on Seat42F.

FX’s new FARGO is the story of a pregnant police chief (Frances McDormand) tracking a pair of hit man (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) near the town of Fargo. The guys have been hired by a local failure (William H. Macy) to kidnap his wife in order to extort money from the woman’s father. But during the abduction, she is accidentally killed, setting off a series of dangerous, somehow funny, events. And bodies get put into a wood chipper.

No, wait a second. That’s the excellent 1996 film of the same name. Remarkably, pretty much none of what I said in the preceding paragraph applies to the story of the series, which goes in its own direction. I’m not saying that FX’s FARGO abandons the premise entirely. Although none of the character names have been changed, there are some very familiar character types.

Wimpy Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman, Sherlock, The Hobbit) encounters by chance a hit man named Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton, Armageddon), who encourages Lester to find his inner man. The local police chief (Shawn Doyle, Big Love), who has a pregnant wife (Julie Ann Emery, Hitch), and his deputies, Molly (Allison Tolman, Sordid Lives: The Series) and Bill (Bob Odenkirk, Breaking Bad), are looking for Lorne, though they don’t yet know who he is.

By taking some characters that seem a lot like the ones in the movie and keeping the setting and the accents, FARGO ties itself to the earlier work enough to bring the fans of it in. Yet, in making some very different choices with the story from the first scene onward, it makes the action unpredictable, keeping viewers guessing what might happen and who could die next.

This FARGO expertly maintains the balance between blood and laughs that one might expect. Characters (yes, plural) that might be considered important die in the very first installment. At the same time, the dialogue and bumbling happenstances, especially when Lester is around, make the proceedings enjoyable and lighter than one may expect from a program with a high body count. There are numerous occasions when I could not help but laugh out loud, a distinction most sitcoms fails to reach on a weekly basis.

The pilot is titled “The Crocodile’s Dilemma.” For those unfamiliar with the logic paradox, this refers to a crocodile kidnapping a child. The croc promises the father that he can have the kid back if and only if the father is able to accurately predict whether the crocodile will give him back the boy. If the father states that the crocodile will not give back the son, then he has correctly predicted and the croc must hand over the boy, though then that means the father didn’t correctly predict because the crocodile didn’t keep him.

If that makes your brain hurt, I understand. FARGO isn’t quite as complex as all that. What it is, though, is a well-crafted series of events, some from cause and effect, others arising by chance, that intermix in such a way that there doesn’t seem to be an easy, logical way out for the main players. Since the show has ten episodes to tell their story, it isn’t obvious yet how unwinnable the scenario will be, but it does feel like this is the type of situation set up in “The Crocodile’s Dilemma.”

The cast is truly fantastic. Freeman and Thornton, of course, have a body of work that implies they can handle themselves, and they do, beautifully. But so do the rest of those named above, along with Kate Walsh (Private Practice), Colin Hanks (The Good Guys), Keith Carradine (Dexter), and numerous other guest and recurring roles, with a heck of a lot more famous folks signed to appear in later hours. Whoever put together this crew deserves major credit, as FARGO would not work without its cast.

Strangely, there are also a couple of parts that are left wanting, mostly because they are not played by big names, but seem like big names should have been obtained, meaning it feels like FARGO failed to get its first choice and settled for a replacement. The bully introduced in the first hour is definitely a “Tom Wilson type,” but is not portrayed by Tom Wilson. We also meet a “Stephen Merchant type” later on. I could be wrong about the second-choice standings, but these parts feel just too close to those performers to be played by anyone else.

Other than that, though, I have no complaints. FARGO is a compelling, highly entertaining masterpieces, crafted so intelligently, and executed in the best of methods. The tiny touches, such as a message spelled out on Lester’s refrigerator, kick the quality up yet another notch. I am already a firm fan of this miniseries. FARGO airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on FX.