Failing WATER

Article first published as FALLING WATER Review on Seat42F.

Following the critically acclaimed, ratings-challenged Mr. Robot, USA seeks to copy that, um, I guess you could call it success, with the new, trippy FALLING WATER. (That was not a knock on Mr. Robot, which I love, but a musing as to why a network wants to replicate a show that almost no one is watching.) Like Mr. Robot, FALLING WATER is high-concept drama that blurs the lines of reality and attempts to build a mysterious mythology that will spark much debate and predictions. But it is definitely a whole different show in a lot of ways.

As episode one begins, we meet three separate protagonists, each with their own pain. Tess (Lizzie Brochere, Versailles, American Horror Story: Asylum) is a trend-spotter who believes she may have had a child, though most people think she’s crazy. Burton (David Ajala, Black Box, The Dark Knight) is a fixer who has lost the woman he loves (Anna Wood, Reckless). Taka (Will Yun Lee, Hawaii Five-0) is a cop whose mother (Jodi Long, Sullivan & Son) is in a coma.

The connections between this trio are not immediately apparent, but it isn’t long before it’s explained to us. They are having very vivid dreams, or rather, pieces of the same dream, and if their experiences are combined, they could herald a very real danger.

To this end, the cast includes Bill Boerg (Zak Orth, Revolution, Wet Hot American Summer) and Woody Hammond (Kai Lennox, Legit, Beginners). Woody is bad news, jumping between dreams, and definitely seems like he can’t be trusted. Bill may be no less noble, a tech guy clearly wanting to profit based on his dream research, but at least he’s offering to help Tess in exchange for her assistance. So these are our shady peeps who pull the threads together.

Unfortunately, they don’t pull them together all that well. I’m not complaining about either character, or any of the cast; they all do a pretty good job, it seems to me, at least in episode one. Instead, my problem is that the series is boring, confusing, and I have no confidence that it is going anywhere neat. Granted, I’ve only viewed one episode, and plenty of great shows have poor pilots. It would just take a lot to come back from this one.

I give the series credit for not going procedural. I mean, they have a cop as one of the main characters, so I expected them to do so, but the plot seems completely serial instead. But it’s more a lack of cohesiveness and engagement that hurts it. We don’t get to know any of the characters very well before we’re distracted by all the dream stuff. And the dream stuff isn’t obvious, with viewers sometimes left wondering if what they’re seeing is reality or not.

Don’t get me wrong, on paper this sounds like a show I’d be totally into. I dig a cool premise that tells a new tale. Sure, it has similarities to Mr. Robot and Netflix’s Sense8, but FALLING WATER is far from a copy of either. Tess’s career of being the reclusive woman who sees patterns before anyone else makes sense for someone who sees the world a little more than the rest of us, and I can even extend a similar trait to the cop, as even though I’m burnt out on cop shows, it makes sense to use one here.

However, the execution leaves much to be desired, seeming more messy than anything, and not well thought or mapped out. I don’t know where things are going, and because of the haphazard way elements are introduced, I’m not sure the writers do either. More importantly, I don’t care to find out because I’m not drawn to any of the characters, who all seem like they could be bad people. (They could also be good people, it’s just not clear.) Even the title isn’t explained.

That’s just too much confusion for a series that doesn’t seem, on its face, worth the effort. There has to be some hook to bring people back, and there’s not in this one.

FALLING WATER premieres Thursday at 10/9c on USA.

Blu-ray Review: ‘American Horror Story: Asylum – The Complete Second Season’

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: ‘American Horror Story: Asylum – The Complete Second Season’ on Blogcritics.

Calling this release American Horror Story: Asylum – The Complete Second Season is a little confusing. FX’s American Horror Story is not a continuing series, but several stand-alone, 13-episode miniseries, a new one of which is presented each fall. Thus, while Asylum is, indeed, The Complete Second Season of American Horror Story, the installments on this disc tell a complete tale, featuring characters and plot that are not connected to the first or third seasons, even if some of the cast is the same.

Asylum begins in the present day, with a sex-crazed couple (Maroon 5′s Adam Levine and Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Witches of East End) exploring the run-down and abandoned Briarcliff. It’ll be quite awhile before Asylum really delves into the present again, fully explaining what happens to the pair, as well as moving past those events, but it does eventually get around to it.

Most of Asylum takes place in 1964 and 1965. Briarcliff is a mental hospital for the criminally insane, run by strict, judgmental Sister Jude (Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Coven). Jude lusts over Monsignor Timothy O’Hara (Joseph Fiennes, Camelot) and bullies the younger, meek Sister Eunice (Lily Rabe, American Horror Story). She also hates the twisted Dr. Arthur Arden (James Cromwell, Six Feet Under), and is cruel to her charges.

Into this environment, brave Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson), a closet lesbian and daring journalist, marches forth to expose Jude’s wrongdoings. It doesn’t take long for her to realize just how out of her depth she actually is, and Dr. Thredson (Zachary Qunito, Star Trek: Into Darkness) proves both friend and foe. But Lana does find some friends within Briarcliff’s walls.

Chief among them is Kit Walker (Evan Peters, American Horror Story), a man framed for killing his wife, Alma (Britne Oldford, Skins), who soon takes up with murderess Grace (Lizzie Brochere, R.I.S. Police scientifique). Kit and Lana’s lives are not completely intertwined, with the two traveling very different paths for awhile, but they interact quite a bit over the run.

Asylum is full of twists and turns, with plenty of surprises popping up when they are least expected. Among the more strange developments are human experiment subjects, alien abductions, artwork made from dead people, a truly creepy patient named Pepper (Naomi Grossman), and a son violently reunited with his mother. It’s not as overtly scary as the first season, but its dark tone and sick minds definitely make it disturbing, with a very unexpected last couple of hours, which take the show far beyond the walls of the hospital.

Why the miniseries works so well, though, is mainly the character development. It’s hard to think of one character who ends up anything like the person they started as. I won’t get into specifics, because you really should watch these episodes for yourself, but bad guys can be good and good guys can be soured into villains. There’s a lot of grey area in the middle, and it can be argued whether a few of the main players ended up on the side of right or wrong. What is certain is that each is changed by the experiences we bear witness to, which makes the story that much deeper and richer. And, as in the first season, guest stars pop in and out in memorable turns.

There are a quartet of featurettes and some deleted scenes on this three-disc set. One of the extras is called “What is American Horror Story: Asylum?” which will hopefully clear up the confusion I mentioned in the introductory paragraph. “The Creatures” is fascinating because the makeup and effects of AHS:A really are top notch, though it could remove a little of the fear factor if viewed before the series.

Blu-ray is definitely recommended for Asylum. There are lots of blacks and shadows, Briarcliff being a dreary place. You’ll want to catch those layers and detail as much as you can, though some are obscured purposely for effect. The score is also excellent, with undertones that reinforce the style of the piece, and a certain song played repeatedly will start to make you feel a  bit like the inmates. The blu-ray experience here adds a lot, both visual and auditory, and the result is beautiful, in a macabre manner.

You may have noticed a lack of complaints in this review. That’s because, while I do consider Asylum weaker than the first go ’round, it’s still a very strong presentation, with remarkable acting and production, and they did a pretty good job on this release. American Horror Story: Asylum – The Complete Second Season is available now.

The Hour returns for another bout

As BBC's The Hour begins its second season (recently released on Blu-ray and DVD), it has been over a year since we last left the characters. It's 1957, and in Freddie's absence (Ben Whishaw), Bel (Romola Garai) struggles to keep the show within a show living up to its potential, mostly failing, as even she will admit. Her mission is complicated by the fact that Hector (Dominic West), the face of the broadcast, has let his celebrity go to his head, and has become notoriously unreliable.

Luckily, it isn't long before Freddie is back in town, and a new scandal involving a crime syndicate in Soho, where Hector hangs out, is enough to get the team engaged in real news again, climbing out of the rut they are mired in.

It's funny how The Hour continues to be as relevant today as it would have been in the time it took place. It excels in illustrating that as much as things change, they also stay the same. Hector's behavior is obviously easy to draw parallels to with modern celebs and scandals, and the fight between being journalists over addressing commercial concerns is still current, as cable news goes after ratings and ad money, sacrificing reliability and thorough work.

There are plenty of similarities between The Hour and HBO's effort The Newsroom. Both are inspiring tales that make journalism sexy and something to root for. They build up the people behind a program, casting them as heroes in the fight against the powers that be. It's a trend I'd like to see more of. Forget cops and lawyers and crime scene investigators; we've had enough shows about them already. This decade is about the reporters!

The Hour is very character driven. The relationship between Freddie and Bel, complicated when Freddie comes home with a wife, Camille (Lizzie Brochere, American Horror Story: Asylum), continues to be one of the catalysts that moves the plot along. The actors have fantastic chemistry, and The Hour does as all dramas do, throwing stumbling block after stumbling block in their way, keeping the friction between them alive, and allowing the simmer to propel the plot. I want to see them get together well before the series ends for good, but for now, the dance between them is delightful.

With no Bel to pursue anymore, since they didn't work out as a couple, Hector has to give his time over to other pursuits. It saddens to see his character lose his way, but, on the other hand, it's much better that he sticks around The Hour post-relationship, rather than disappearing from the cast. It gives West the chance to milk the pathos and personality of a larger than life man who just isn't finding his place and purpose in the world, an intriguing concept, to be sure.

I really like the new addition Randall Brown (Peter Capaldi, Torchwood: Children of Earth, The Thick of It) as the boss. He is someone who not only proves worthy of matching wits with the employees under him, our protagonists, but his secrecy and the way he clouds his motivations make him interesting in of himself. He's a good wrench to throw at our main characters, and he keeps things interesting at the news station, providing the internal pressure to balance out external concerns.

Sadly, the special features on the Series 2 DVD comprise a single behind-the-scenes featurette. With the historical context, this season featuring Caribbean immigrants and the Space Race as plot points, one wishes there were something to explain the choices of tying certain real events into this fictional world. There is not.

Aside from that, though, the episodes are solid, and the performances continue to deliver. I would definitely recommend checking out The Hour 2, available now.

Want to read some of my fiction? It's on my website, JeromeWetzel.com! Also, for the latest updates and article links, as well as commentary on episodes I don't fully review, please follow me on Twitter!

Article first posted on TheTVKing

"Dark Cousin" visits American Horror Story: Asylum

Overall, I have been disappointed with season two of FX's American Horror Story, subtitled Aslyum. Season one had awesome characters that I really cared about, the Harmon family. They were what drove the plot, and kept me returning week after week, even as all the craziness went on around them, constantly adding new players to the story, much as this season is doing. They were decent people (for the most part), who didn't deserve what happened to them.

By contrast, the characters that populate season two make much of their own trouble. I'm not saying that Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) deserves to be kept in the basement by Dr. Thredson (Zachary Qunito), or that Kit (Evan Peters) should be in Briarcliff at all. But, the characters this year are more flawed, do not always do the smartest thing, and put themselves in danger. They are also less relateble than the Harmons.

That being said, the deeper we go into the season, the more I begin to appreciate them. Sister Jude (Jessica Lange), who started out the season looking like a villain, almost cruel in the way that she ran the "hospital," is now almost as much a victim as the others. Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) has become so much more intriguing when possessed by the devil.

This past week's installment, "Dark Cousin," was fantastic! A lot of the credit should go to Frances Conroy as the Angel of Death. Here is this character dressed in black that can kiss you and take away your life. And yet, she is kind, non-judgmental, and is here to bring relief, not cause suffering, a stark contrast to the others around who have power over people. As Briarcliff dissolves more and more into chaos, and there doesn't appear to be a happy ending possible for any of the characters, death may be the best release. Coming at the midpoint of the season, "Dark Cousin" offers a desperately needed ray of hope, even if the result is permanent sleep.

It is also cool to see Death clash with Satan, as he lives inside Sister Mary Eunice. Clearly, Dr. Arden (James Cromwell) doesn't realize what he is dealing with in Mary Eunice, and Sister Jude is in no position to save anyone. This has made Briarcliff a sort of playground for Satan, and Death may just be the only one who can stop her.

This is good, because Lana's plot is pretty depressing in "Dark Cousin." She escapes from Briarcliff, ends up somewhere worse, and then escaps back to the asylum. Even should she get out completely, her lover is dead, and her secret homosexuality, a major scandal in the 1960s, could hurt her professionally. While she is the one I most want to see get out, and I would hope that she gets to publish an article blowing the lid off of the facility, I could also see her dying instead, and that might actually be a blessing.

Grace (Lizzie Brochere) actually did die this week, and I'm conflicted as to how I feel about this. On one hand, I don't know where else her character should have gone, and she was the most expendable, in my opinion, of the series leads. On the other, I was somehow rooting for her, even once she has been revealed to actually be a murderer, and she has sex with Kit after telling him that his wife, Alma (Britne Oldford), is still alive. This kind of makes her despicable.

What will be more interesting than Grace's death is what the effect of it will be on Kit. I honestly can't predict this.

So, despite a rocky start, American Horror Story: Aslyum is finally picking up the pace, and making itself worthy of the title. It's not that the first part of the season wasn't good; it was still better than most shows. It just didn't live up to season one. With a third outing already ordered, hopefully season two will only grow from here, continuing the trend of improvement.

American Horror Story: Asylum airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on FX.

Want to read some of my fiction? It's on my website, JeromeWetzel.com! Also, for the latest updates and article links, as well as commentary on episodes I don't fully review, please follow me on Twitter!

This article first posted on TheTVKing

American Horror Story checks into an Asylum

Grade: 94%

Some who have heard the premise of AMERICAN HORROR STORY ASYLUM might be surprised when the story begins in present day. Leo (Maroon 5′s Adam Levine) and Teresa (Jenna Dewan-Tatum, The Playboy Club) are a fear-addicted couple on their honey moon, intent on having sex in the scariest of places. Their travels bring them to Briarcliff, a former mental hospital. While there, something attacks Leo, making their good times turn to bad.

This glimpse into the present day, while one hell of an opening scene, is not just that. Some scary movies may have a stand-alone tease before getting to the main story, but the fact that Leo and Teresa are visited later in the episode, “Welcome to Briarcliff,” points to a different agenda. Like season one, time is fluid, and what has happened influences what will happen and vice versa. The two are not main characters, but it is very likely we will see them again.

Thus, AMERICAN HORROR STORY ASLYUM establishes right off the bat that it is going to be as good and complex as the first season. The actors are fantastic, the setting is rich and detailed (and even more creepy), and the story is just as interwoven with itself as ever. Little tidbits are teased out, with many things remaining a mystery. The characters are written in such a way that feel authentic, and yet, remain unpredictable. Viewers cannot possibly see where this is going from one episode alone, but the first installment is so tantalizing, they should want to keep coming back.

The main plot, as advertised, happens in 1964, when Briarcliff is still a functioning facility. The institution is run by Monsignor Timothy O’Hara (Joseph Fiennes, Camelot, FlashForward). His favorite nun, Sister Jude (Jessica Lange, American Horror Story), is quick to judge and likes to whip people, considering sin a horrible thing, but not hypocritically above engaging in it herself. She has plans for Briarcliff, and O’Hara has plans for her. She just wishes that they included sex.

Jude is definitely the most interesting, right out of the gate. Played with a strange accent that doesn’t quite define itself, she has an iron fist, and even her compassionate acts come across as trying to force what her narrow mind thinks of as god’s will, rather than to help people. She wants to cleanse the place, making it her own. It would not be surprising if she gets her way, at least for a time, but it won’t help the patients interned there any more than playing the same cheery song on loop, which she insists happen in the common room, does now.

Jude is challenged by Dr. Arden (James Cromwell, The Artist, Six Feet Under), a man of science. Or so he says. His “advanced” techniques include removing brains from still living patients, and he doesn’t use anesthetic because it messes with his tests. As cruel as Jude can be, and make no mistake about it, Jude is cruel, Arden, with whom she clashes, does not present a better option.

And then there’s poor Sister Eunice (Lily Rabe, also AHS), who is torn between Jude and Arden. A pathetic soul, she may just turn out to be a hero of the piece. At least, that’s my initial guess. Or she may remain too weak to do anything of note.

There’s also another doctor played by Zachary Quinto, the lone main character billed who does not appear in the season premiere. I wonder what role he’ll play in this dynamic?

The hospital’s entire world is threatened by a reporter named Lana (Sarah Paulson, AHS again), who wants to know what is really going on in Briarcliff. Jude tries to shut her out, but Lana is determined, which leads her into serious trouble. Unfortunately for her, Jude is not at all above resorting to blackmail to protect her work, and Lana, being a homosexual in 1964, is ripe for the picking.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY ASLYUM deals with bigotry in an interesting way. Jude, the only obvious hater from the start, is, of course, a detestable character. But it’s interesting there is both a lesbian (Paulson and Clea DuVall, Carnivale) and a interracial couple in this episode, given the time period. It’s not that this sort of thing didn’t exist back then, it’s just that both are living as openly as can be expected, given the societal norms, and both are part of this story, which has only a limited view of the world. Credit Murphy and Falchuk for their continued themes of inclusion in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

The black and white pairing are Kit (Evan Peters, AHS) and Alma (Britne Oldford, Skins). When Alma is found dead, skinned alive, Kit is assumed to be the serial killer behind it, and it placed in Briarcliff. Yet, Kit thinks he was abducted by aliens that night, an occurrence backed up when Dr. Arden examines him. So it Kit real, or crazy? And is Dr. Arden’s involvement in the story imagined, or does it actually happen? My instincts tell me that Kit is not the killer, because that was Peters’ character’s secret in the first season. And having aliens actually be a part of this story doesn’t seem likely. But you never know.

It’s this blurring of reality that is bound to make AMERICAN HORROR STORY ASYLUM great. In a mental hospital, who’s to say what is real or not? It is a place stocked with crazies (including Lizzie Brochere, R.I.S. Police scientifique, and Chloe Sevigny, Big Love), and depending on the perspective of the scene, things might be seen that don’t really happen. Add to that, visual fantasies and an actual monster, and this is a very strange, terrifying place.

Let’s be honest. What viewers really want to get out of this series is a good scare in a vivid world. Like season one, maybe even more so, the latest installment delivers this in spades, and with a large, talented cast that will provide plenty of tangents to keep the plot moving at an acceptable intensity. If you liked the first season, season two should not disappoint.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.