Take a Boat to HIGHTOWN

Article first published as TV Review: HIGHTOWN on Seat42F.

Starz’s most recent drama is HIGHTOWN. Jackie Quiñones is a National Marine Fisheries Service agent, loves to party hard and hook up, both things easy to come by in Provincetown, Massachusetts, a gay-friendly tourist town. But when she finds a dead body, and lets her vices take a little too much control, she ends up battling demons both inside and out.

Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire) stars as Jackie, and could not be a more compelling lead. Jackie’s behavior is abhorrent, but Monica finds the humanity and sympathy, as well as the driving motivations. It’s easy to see why Jackie’s partner, Ed Murphy (Mike Pniewski, Madam Secretary), likes her, and viewers will, too. Despite her substance abuse and womanizing ways, she seems to be a good person who cares about people and isn’t too strict on the rules, seeing the humanity in others. Though, she doesn’t seem to see it in her sexual conquests. The murder victim forces Monica to examine herself, and the audience gets the privilege of watching that introspective character arc.

Obviously, an antihero is nothing new. But there are many types of them, and Jackie feels fresh. It’s not just the fact that she’s not white, straight, or male, though that’s certainly welcome. It’s that her outlook feels a little different than most of the others I’ve seen, her attitudes being realistic and relatable as present. Aside from one big action-related thing, Jackie seems pretty darn authentic. Her pain seems real.

There is a great supporting cast that fills out Jackie’s world and plays varying roles, all of which will surely come together, even if it’s not obvious how right away. Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break) is a kingpin behind bars who is still pulling the strings outside. Riley Voelkel (The Originals) is his exotic dancing girlfriend who is much more capable than she first appears. James Badge Dale (The Pacific) is a police detective who takes his job a little too personally. The three of them are introduced in the same thread in the pilot, but I’m eager to see Jackie interact with them.

The setting is great, with the beauty of Cape Cod and the ocean grounded in grimy reality, a place both lovely and dirty. Much of the series was filmed on location, and it shows. It helps to move a show away from Hollywood and to somewhere more visually interesting, or at least diverse in its look, and HIGHTOWN looks great. I hope more productions keep up this trend of getting away from Southern California, a vista we’ve seen enough of for awhile.

HIGHTOWN is also well-written. I don’t want to give too high praise to a series just getting started, and I’ve only seen the first episode. But immediately, I drew comparisons in tone and style to The Wire Season 2 (which I also happen to be finally watching right now). I’m not going claim HIGHTOWN is as good as The Wire, but the fact that it didn’t suffer for the comparison says something.

The murder and drug plots are far from novel, making up a large percentage of television programming today. I review a lot of these cable or streaming pilots with similar goals and themes, and haven’t been taken in by very many of them. However, there’s a magnetism to HIGHTOWN greater than the sum of its laudable parts, and I found I had a hard time resisting its call. I hadn’t planned to renew my Starz subscription again until Outlander returns for another season, but I’m curious enough about the rest of this one to go ahead and give it a binge.

Check out HIGHTOWN on Starz now.

JUSTIFIED "A Murder of Crowes"

Article first published as JUSTIFIED Review on Seat42F.

FX’s JUSTIFIED gets a change of scenery in the season five premiere, “A Murder of Crowes.” It hasn’t left Kentucky behind, as that is where the episode begins, but the world is expanded a little as Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) travels to Florida and Boyd (Walton Goggins) and Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns, now a series regular) head to Detroit. It’s an exciting way to start the year!

Both of these trips are connected to the main story, as it has played out over the past few years. Boyd is missing some drugs he expected to be shipped in from Michigan, and so is trying to figure out what has happened. Fans of the series are familiar with the particular gang Boyd deals with (played by Dave Foley, Will Sasso, and others), and whatever happens, whether Boyd gets his supply or not, there will be implications back at home.

Boyd may be a little distracted since Ava (Joelle Carter) is still in jail and he’d like to clear her name. This cannot be done from several states away, and so it isn’t long before Boyd heads back, leading to a very tense confrontation near the end of the hour.

At the same time, Raylan goes south to find Dewey Crowe’s (Damon Herriman) family. Dewey’s brothers (Monk’s Jason Gray-Stanford and Boston Public’s Michael Rapaport) and sister (Alicia Witt, Friday Night Lights) have gotten mixed up with a Cuban (Amaury Nolasco, Prison Break) who is bad news. Partnering with Deputy Sutter (David Koechner, Anchorman 2, The Office), Raylan tries to play nice with the kin of his foe.

JUSTIFIED has never been stronger than when Raylan comes across a family of criminals. Margo Martindale headed up a fantastic clan of no-good scoundrels previously, and it looks like season five’s Crowes are poised to be just as enticing.

The casting choices for them are terrific and the story is open-ended enough to run for awhile. Plus, bringing in the Florida Crowes ties the tale to an important recurring cast member (who himself had good development this week), making it feel like a natural part of the established mythology.

Though, it’s also awesome when Boyd and Raylan clash, and that’s little in evidence in “A Murder of Crowes,” with the two on completely different paths. I assume that will come later in the season.

The other central figure in Raylan’s existence, besides Boyd, is Winona (Natalie Zea). Without giving anything away, the dynamic between the two of them has definitely shifted since the last we saw them together. It makes one wonder what kind of person Raylan is, and if he will always make the right decisions, as he usually seems to do. This, more than anything, illustrates Raylan’s flaws, Winona being a weakness for him, and that’s an interesting area to explore in our hero’s psyche.

There are already quite a few guest stars listed in the preceding paragraphs, but those are just the tip of the iceberg. In the first hour alone, besides everyone mentioned above, we get Stephen Root (King of the Hill, Boardwalk Empire), Karolina Wydra (House M.D.), Sam Anderson (Lost, ER), and more. It’s a very impressive roster, and it means we’ll have a very full year of players and plot.

You may notice that several of these names are primarily comedic actors. That doesn’t mean they are used to lighten the mood on JUSITIFIED. As done with Patton Oswalt (who will be returning) last season, the series coaxes dramatic performances out of its funny people, showing range and skill viewers may be pleasantly surprised to find.

My only complaint about all of these new faces, other than that not everyone will get the opportunity to repeat their performance, is that it leaves little room for the main cast. Boyd, Wynn, and Raylan have screen time, of course, and Art (Nick Searcy) will continue to be important every now and then, but Rachel (Erica Tazel) and Tim (Jacob Pitts) are already seen so little that this can only be bad news for them. They deserve to be a bigger part of the show, too.

JUSTIFIED remains a great series, well worth watching, and “A Murder of Crowes” is a strong start to the fifth season. JUSTIFIED premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.

New January sitcoms bomb one and all

    January brings the return of midseason favorite and cable series. But it also heralds a batch of "second tries" by the networks to replace falls shows that just didn't work out. All three major networks, NBC, CBS, and ABC have launched new sitcoms recently, including one last night. All three sitcoms should soon be gone, with any luck, because these are not examples of what good comedy television is.


     First out of the gate was ABC's Work It. Lee (Benjamin Koldyke, How I Met Your Mother, Big Love) and Angel (Amaury Nolasco, Prison Break, Chase) have been out of work for awhile. Lee, in a desperate move, dresses as a girl and gets a position as a pharmaceutical rep, and Angel rides his coat tails. Rebecca Mader (Lost) does a great bitch, but that doesn't mean she brings much to the table. This series does earn a few laughs, but only because it is so incredibly bad. It's the sitcom version of SyFy made-for-TV movies. That's not the way a show wants to be laughed at, because it is certainly not laughing with. But it's a cheesy pile of gristle that still (barely) manages to entertain. Which means I may continue to watch it until it gets canceled, which should happen soon enough. But a classic, it is not. And if it doesn't get canceled soon, the joke of how truly horrific it is will wear thin, and it will definitely go off my TiVo.

     Next comes along NBC's Are You There, Chelsea?, the worst of the bunch. Based on Chelsea Handler's book, Are You There, Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea?, but of course with a shortened title, the first episode fails to amuse even slightly. Handler herself plays the religious, uptight, older, pregnant sister of the titular character, and it doesn't work at all. Laura Prepon (That '70s Show, October Road) tries valiantly with playing a version of Handler, but even Prepon's considerable talents cannot rise the material above drivel. Greek's Jake McDorman adds little as the bartender who couldn't have sex with Chelsea because they both like to be on top, though Lenny Clarke (Rescue Me) is not bad as her father. Lauren Lapkus and Ali Wong (breaking_in) have it worst as Chelsea's friends. An annoying, intrusive laugh track doesn't help. Skip this one entirely.

     Finally, CBS's Rob is the one with the least amount of promise, yet, perhaps by sticking to a traditional sitcom feel, it is the best of the new class. Which is not to say that it's great, by any means. Rob (Rob Schneider, Deuce Bigalow) marries Maggie (Claudia Bassols, C.L.A. No somos angeles), a girl that is way too hot for him, after six weeks of dating. Then he is introduced to her loud, obnoxious, Mexican family. Uncle Hector (Eugenio Derbez, La familia P. Luche) is the worst character, being a mooching recent immigrant. But Cheech Marin, as Maggie's father Fernando, is not at all what one expect from the character or the actor, which is a redeeming quality for the show. The cast also boasts Diana Maria Riva (The Good Guys, The West Wing) and Lupe Ontiveros (As Good As It Gets, Los Americans) among the cast. Despite some ridiculous situations involving Rob acting too much like an idiot, if the series tones down the main character, there may be something there. Unfortunately, it's something many a sitcom has already found before it.

     All in all, not an impressive batch. But then again, neither were the fall premieres. Maybe next year will be better. Until then, enjoy the tried and true wealth of funny series already running.

     Work It airs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC.

     Are You There, Chelsea runs on Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

     Rob is Thursdays, 8:30 p.m. ET, on CBS.

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