Boss is "Louder Than Words"

Grade: 87%

Starz’s BOSS returns for a second season with “Louder Than Words.” What words is this title referencing? Each episode title of season one was a single word. Perhaps this title is supposed to represent something more? Something bigger?

If so, I wouldn’t say that’s exactly accurate. “Louder Than Words” continues the story of Tom Kane (Kelsey Grammer), picking up soon after it left off. While there are some important differences, mostly concerning power vacuums that must be filled, I would not say that this season two begins in a dramatically different way than season one played out. It maintains the same quality and suspense, pleasing the fans who are already addicted to the heady drama.

Or, as many season one titles do, it could refer to a specific moment within the episode that stands out. In this case, the climatic finale when (SPOILER!) someone decides it is time to take action to bring Tom down, shots ringing out at an important event, the groundbreaking ceremony for the O’Hare project. Tom escapes unharmed, but might his wife, Meredith (Connie Nielsen), have been hit?

Who shot at Tom? The obvious answer is Darius (Rotimi Akinosho). After all, Darius is angry that Tom put his own daughter, Darius’s girlfriend, Emma (Hannah Ware), behind bars. Darius is also shown looking at a gun. There is motive, opportunity, and foreshadowing of such an event. Which is probably why it wasn’t him, because this answer is too obvious.

Interestingly, “Louder Than Words” ends with a shot of Mayor Rutledge (Anthony Mockus Sr.) watching events on the news. This could be a very important clue. Earlier in “Louder Than Words,” Meredith made sure that the news was turned on for her father. Might she be trying to take out Tom, and got caught in the crossfire herself? Or Tom figured out the move and circumvented it? It is unlikely Tom is trying to send Rutledge a message, as Rutledge is in no position to do anything, and Tom’s visits to his father-in-law appear to be done with fondness. But Meredith has reason to believe that Rutledge might feel wronged by Tom, so this could be her way of delivering her dad his revenge. Though if it is, she failed.

Another suspect is Alderman Ross (James Vincent Meredith), who has dropped out of public life. After learning that his wife cheated on him, then punching Tom out in public, Ross has fallen from grace. Rather than persevere, he skips council meetings and hides from sight. The one scene Ross gets in “Louder Than Words” is supremely creepy, and shows a man on the edge. He is certainly capable or heinous acts.

There is also motive for Ross, or one of the other council members. Tom is trying to push through a legislative bill that is very divisive. Ross would not want this bill to pass, even if it seems like he cares about nothing. Or another Alderman could be trying to stop the bill, taking matters into their own hands, since the men previously pulling the strings in the chamber all seem to be suddenly gone.

The only certainty about the shooting is that there is a mystery, and one that might take awhile to play out.

Will Tom be shaken by the near miss on his life? It’s hard to say. He is already facing imminent death, so it seems unlikely that being shot at would bother him that much more. He knows that these are his final days, and does what he can to leave a great legacy, pushing pet projects through, rather than being content to wait around and let them play out, as he has in the past. He may only redouble his efforts, lending even more urgency to his mission.

Unfortunately, Tom is running out of time. Dr. Harris (Karen Aldridge) tells him the disease is progressing rapidly. Mona Fredericks (Sanaa Lathan) is assuming Ross’s mantle and gunning for him. Debra (Jennifer Mudge) is still alive and could expose Tom’s attempt to strangle her. Zajac (Jeff Hephner) is getting restless about the lack of support from Tom. Cullen (Francis Guinan) still holds a grudge, as evidenced by his treatment of Zajac. Kitty (Kathleen Robertson), a jaded employee, may agree to conspire with the persistent newsman Sam Miller (Troy Garity), to expose Tom’s dark secrets. Add these threats to the list of likely shooters, and Tom’s enemy list is long, indeed.

However, as Meredith tells Zajac in season one, do not underestimate Tom Kane. The challenges to his position are numerous and frequent, and yet Tom continues to stay on top. As season one ended, it looked certain he would crumble, but he still stands. No matter how many angles they come at him, he weathers it all.

The question is, how long can Tom continue to do so, given his declining health? His hallucinations of Ezra (Martin Donovan) and continuing bumbling speech patterns betray his weakness. For now, Meredith is the only one alive in the inner circle that knows about Tom’s illness, having finally gotten it out of Emma. But it won’t stay buried forever. Whether Tom does himself in, or his foes finally find that chink in his armor, he will come tumbling down. This is not underestimation; this is reality. The draw of BOSS is watching to see just how long it takes for that day to arrive.

BOSS airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Starz.

The Cleveland Show longs to be "BFFs"

     For the third season premiere of FOX's The Cleveland Show, "BFFs," Cleveland (Mike Henry) is forced to reexamine his friendship with Peter Griffin (Seth MacFarlane), the guy he left behind on Family Guy after getting his own spin-off. Cleveland learns Peter comes to town, but doesn't call. Unable to reach Peter, Cleveland confronts him in person, but Peter says they need to grow apart. Cleveland takes his new friends camping, hoping to form more lasting bonds. But when they are captured by hillbilly rapists, it's Peter who comes to the rescue.

     This is a neat premise because not many spin-offs hark back to their roots all that often. Not only does The Cleveland Show revisit familiar faces and characters from Cleveland's previous series, but it explores what happens to friendship when one moves away. Sure, when the two series do crossovers, it's nice to see the pleasure the characters get from seeing each other again. But what happens when it's not a special event? The Cleveland Show seeks to answer that question, and does so quite well, despite the return to the status quo at the end of the episode.

     "BFFs" is also an incredibly meta episode of the series. Not only does Cleveland talk about Peter, and revisit his old neighborhood, but Cleveland's wife, Donna (Sanaa Lathan), reflects on the housewives of all of the Animation Domination housewives. Also, someone calls Peter "Animation Domination's Peter Griffin."  It's hard to break down the fourth wall more than that.

     There are numerous references to Family Guy, from a picture of Peter and Cleveland with Quagmire making out with Loretta in the background, to Peter's cell phone call tune, to the evil monkey that lives in Chris's closet coming with Peter to save the day. It's a fun treat for those who are fans of both series. For those who aren't, sorry.

     It's a little weird, and not in a good way, that Ric Flair (voicing himself), a professional wrestler, runs the friendship camp that Cleveland and his pals attend. It comes out of nowhere, and there isn't really a reason that the character is Ric Flair. It could be almost anyone, preferably someone more recognizable, and the joke would have the same effect.

     In the B story, Rallo (also Henry) attends a two year reunion at his day care, where Donna is made to feel inferior by the other mothers. Donna enters Rallo into a Quiz Bowl to prove her parenting skills, but learns that there is more to life than the other superficial mothers would have you believe. Mildly amusing, but the whole concept of the day care reunion is out of left field, especially as it is treated like a high school reunion by Rallo.

     Overall, "BFFs" is a very funny episode of The Cleveland Show, better than most weeks. Which makes it a great kick off for the third season. Watch The Cleveland Show Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

     If you like my reviews, please follow me on Twitter!

     To purchase The Cleveland Show DVDs and streaming episodes, please click here.

The Cleveland Show presents "Hot Cocoa Bang Bang"

     On the second season finale of FOX's The Cleveland Show, Cleveland Brown (Mike Henry) and family travel to San Diego Comic Con to premiere Cleveland's comic book he has labored on for years, Waderman. The story is inspired by an incident in high school where Donna (Sanaa Lathan) fell in a fountain, and while Cleveland was removing his shoes and socks, someone else rescued her. At the event, Donna is disturbed to learn that an old Blaxploitation movie she made entitled Hot Cocoa Bang Bang, also the name of this episode, in which she bares her breasts, is screening. Speaking to director Robert Rodriguez (of Sin City and Grindhouse fame, voicing himself), she tries to get the film to go away, but he refuses, so Waderman and Cocoa take Rodriguez on.

     This episode is quite a bit of fun, poking the humor in a number of different genres, including comic books, sci-fi, Blaxploitation films, and others. Besides the obvious bits about Cocoa, Cleveland Junior (Kevin Michael Richardson) realizes that Comic Con is now used by broadcast networks to promote any number of shows that have no business being at the event, and so plays off of the event itself. Junior raises an army of geeks to try to take back their convention, leading them in a bloody war for control of Comic Con. Ironically, while the geeks wear costumes from Star Trek, Star Wars, Avatar, Batman, and others, it is the network execs that display actual sci-fi abilities, such as a killer alien stalk that shoots out of one man's mouth. So perhaps Comic Con is the right place for executives, after all?

     While confronting each stereotype, The Cleveland Show uses their elements to battle them. For instance, while Donna is trying to stop Cocoa from seeing the light of day, she falls back into the Cocoa character. This lets the audience in on the joke, proving no one at The Cleveland Show is actually against the conventions they go after, but rather, are fans of them. It's an ironic sort of humor, and one Seth MacFarlane, co-creator of The Cleveland Show, as well as creator of Family Guy and American Dad, does well.

     Any series that visits Comic Con would be remiss without sticking in some fun cameos, and The Cleveland Show does not miss the opportunity. A number of actors lend their voices to play versions of themselves in brief sequences, including Danny Trejo (Machete), Emily Deschanel (Bones), Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica), and Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse). In perhaps a coup of coups, The Simpsons's Comic Book Guy (Hank Azaria), a nerdy character from another cartoon that also airs on FOX, pops up in what he himself dubs the "Worst. Cameo. Ever."

     Although Seth MacFarlane struggles for originality with three simultaneous series on the air (on the same night on the same network, no less), each of his shows does have a unique perspective. To find out what The Cleveland Show's is, tune in next fall when the series begins a third season on FOX.

     If you like my reviews, please follow me on Twitter! Click here for all of my Current Season Reviews.

     To purchase The Cleveland Show DVDs and streaming episodes, please click here.

Article first published as TV Review: The Cleveland Show - "Hot Cocoa Bang Bang" on Blogcritics.

The Cleveland Show Tells Both "A Short Story and a Tall Tale"

     This week's episode of FOX's The Cleveland Show promised both "A Short Story and a Tall Tale". Really, you could often apply that description to any episode of the series, or any episode of any of FOX's Animation Domination shows. However, this being a Seth MacFarlane production, it's logical to assume that somehow the episode title should be offense, even if it doesn't appear so at first glance. Having watching the half hour, I can tell you that both the short and tall references are about height, and they lead to one of the most bizarre fight scenes ever shown on television.

     To set the scene a little, Cleveland (Mike Henry) and his wife, Donna (Sanaa Lathan), are given tickets to the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles. Of course, on the way to the game, Cleveland takes every possible easy pot shot at the city itself. While there, Cleveland insults a number of the players, including LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal, and others I haven't heard of because I don't watch basketball, all voiced by themselves. At least that proves they have a sense of humor about themselves. The players decide to follow Cleveland home and get even for his taunts.

     At the same time, Cleveland's five year old son, Rallo (also Henry), has fallen in with a gang of midgets, believing them to be children. The midgets somehow think Rallo is an adult. If this wasn't a cartoon, there is certainly no way the plot would work, yet somehow it kind of does. Rallo stands one of them up at the altar, and they also want revenge. Even the gathering of the troops plays on mythical stereotypes. If MacFarlane hadn't already proven he is an equal opportunity offender by going after every other group first, the short American community may be offended. Heck, they still might be.

     Through a comedy or errors, the midgets and NBA players end up fighting each other on Cleveland's front lawn. Offensive? Incredibly, but then again, so were many of the things leading up the fight. Hilarious? Also, yes, though certainly not in any way that is politically correct. It's a good thing people watch this show and laugh in the privacy of their own homes, or it would have no viewers.

     If you think any of the above sounds funny, then I have a show for you. Watch The Cleveland Show Sunday nights at 9:30 p.m. on FOX. If you don't find midgets fighting seven foot tall athletes amusing, then stay away. You likely won't like any other episodes, either.

Article first published as TV Review: The Cleveland Show Tells Both "A Short Story and a Tall Tale" on Blogcritics.

For frequent mini-reviews and occasional TV news, follow Jerome on Twitter.

The Cleveland Show celebrates Halloween... a week late

    FOX made a bad move this year by airing The Cleveland Show's (along with the rest of the network's Animation Domination lineup) Halloween special, "It's the Great Pancake, Cleveland Brown", a week after Halloween.  Sure, if they had aired it a week early, that would have been ok.  People anticipate, and get in the mood for, holidays before they occur.  But I've never heard of a network running holiday specials so long after the day has passed before.  I realize that FOX has commitments to baseball, but if they were going to go ahead and make Halloween episodes of everyone's favorite animated series, they should have been put on the air before Halloween, even if it wasn't on their normal night.

     That being said, last night's The Cleveland Show was not a bad episode.  Funny, yes, at times bizarre, but not bad.  A couple of memorable gags were shown.  Upon returning home and finding his house toilet papered, a carved jack o'latern volunteers to Cleveland (voiced by series co-creator Mike Henry) what happened.  Roberta (Reagan Gomez-Preston) claimed not to know what she was (barely) dressed up as, and replied off handedly that she might be a ghost.  Later, in the same costume, she made ghost-like sounds for no apparent reason.  Kendra (Aseem Batra), clad far too skimpily, chased Lester (Kevin Michael Richardson) down the street, as Lester frantically tried to remember their safe word.  Cleveland attended David Carradine's funeral, laughed at seemingly dirty words, then cried when he found out that auto-erotic asphixiation could be fatal.  Sure, some those things were silly, and the latter was a bit wrong, but all elicited chuckles.

     The main plot focused on Cleveland Jr. (also Richardson), Cleveland's childish, dorky son from his first marriage.  Junior wanted to go trick-or-treating dressed up as a pancake, but Cleveland told him that fourteen was too old for such things, and ordered him to stay home and pass out candy.  Junior went out in a rare act of defiance, and was bullied for it.  After that, he agreed to listen to his father as Cleveland transformed him into someone cool, but was still picked on.  Finally, partially at the urging of Junior's step-mother, Donna (Sanaa Lathan), Cleveland realized that he had to let his son be who he was.  But he did not have to allow bullying.  Cleveland and his friends dressed up as other breakfast foods and accompanied Junior on a revenge mission to egg the bullies.  In a last toungue-in-cheek remark, Cleveland admitted he couldn't protect his son from what might happen to him at school the next day.

     The B plot involved Rallo (also Henry) loosing a tooth, he thinks from eating too muich candy, and hiding it under his pillow.  The youngster is shocked and terrified to discover that the tooth is replaced by a quarter, not knowing about the tooth fairy, or realizing that he hadn't managed to slip the gap in his smile past his mother's notice.

     And that pretty much sums up The Cleveland Show.  Cleveland is a loving father, who is a bit too self-obsessed, and thinks he's right far more often than he is.  He often doesn't consider consequences.  Yet, somehow there is a sweet family drama here.  More so than on Family Guy, Cleveland has to be a parent, ironic, considering the title.  It's found it's own niche.  The neighborhood is a little less refined than the show it spun off from, and there aren't as many off-topic side scenes, and Cleveland has proven itself more than a carbon copy.

     The Cleveland Show will never replace Family Guy, nor rise to it's popularity.  But it's worth a watch.  The Cleveland Show airs Sunday nights at 8:30pm.

For frequent mini-reviews and occasional tv news, follow Jerome on Twitter.