FX Bakes a CAKE

Article first published as TV Review: CAKE on Seat42F.

It’s hard to describe the new FXX show CAKE. It’s a series of shorts made by different people that the comedy network has edited into a half hour television show. Yes, that describes it, but not well enough to tell you what it is. It’s generally a comedy, but some is live action and some is animated. Some dialogue spoken and some is sung. Some bits are very short, and some are pretty long. It’s a conglomeration of a lot of things rolled into one.

I guess the best way to explain what you’re going to get is for me to ask you to imagine something. Say Saturday Night Live, Portlandia, a popular Snapchat-er, Adult Swim, and a YouTube star all made a single, stand-alone segment each, and then somebody merged all these disparate things together. That’s what CAKE is. Eclectic, with different approaches, but hopefully all will be worth watching.

Because there is not a consistent producer or writing team, there isn’t a consistent feel to the show. The first episode, titled “Cache Flow,” seems to have a similar level of quality from bit to bit, and that level is relatively high, but it will be hard to maintain that over time. Things aren’t connected, but did seem to, for lack of a better word, flow from one segment to the next. The longest story was broken up itself by smaller offerings.

That all may sound like criticism, but it is not intended to be negative. CAKE does something interesting and pretty unique, showcasing shorts by different creators in a single program. FXX has scoured the interwebs and put together a showcase of creative works that would have trouble finding a television home elsewhere. It lets viewers sample programs that aren’t traditional, but are still worthy of one’s time. I especially enjoyed the opener of “Cache Flow,” funny and thought-provoking, relatable but still fresh.

This reminds me of award-winning and nominated shorts. Most people ignore them, but when one gets the chance to sit down and watch a few, they can be quite mesmerizing. It’s about time a network made such things more accessible to a mainstream audience.

The official line seems to be that some stand-out bits may become full-length running programs on the network. That would be a cool thing, using CAKE as an incubator to test writers and producers, rewarding those that catch on more than others. But if that never happens for any of the segments, it’s still a worthwhile attempt, and an interesting piece to add to the lineup.

Much of what is in “Cache Flow” is from people unknown to me, and likely to most viewers. There are new and unheard voices represented. But one part of this pilot did have several recognizable actresses – Collette Wolfe (You’re the Worst), Suzanne Cryer (Silicon Valley), and Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) – so was likely made by more experienced professionals.

This mix of untested and established talent could be a problem, except that care has definitely been taken to make sure different bits feel at least a little bit tonally similar. CAKE avoids being jarring as it jumps around, a credit to a show that could easily be more disjointed. Instead, while the parts do feel different, there almost is a whole feeling to the episode.

I really wish I had more than one installment to view to know if CAKE is going to be worth watching. But the first one is, so why not give it a chance? After all, you’re not going to get this from any other network. In my opinion, television could use more such experiments, and I’m certainly curious to see if this one catches on.

CAKE premieres tomorrow at 10:30 PM ET on FXX.

THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX

Article first published as Review: THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX on Seat42F.

The following contains spoilers about The Cloverfield Paradox.

Surprise! Viewers of the Super Bowl were not expecting to learn that a new Cloverfield movie was on its way. But that’s exactly what happened when, with only a trailer played during the football game, Netflix dropped THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX Sunday night.

THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX is the third film in the loosely connected series produced by J.J. Abrams. The first, titled simply Cloverfield, was a found-footage monster movie that put the audience in the perspective of someone running from a Godzilla-like creature. 10 Cloverfield Lane was mostly a bottle suspense thriller set in an underground bunker after a post-apocalyptic event. The third film is set on a space station in the future, and their experiments to find an unlimited energy supply for mankind rip a whole in space-time that unleashes monsters and other strange things across multiple dimensions. So this movie is both a sequel and prequel to the others which are, presumably, set on different Earths.

Connecting them in this way is pretty smart for a franchise that doesn’t want to tell a linear story. We now have the origin of sorts for the very different monsters we see in all three films, an explanation as to why these things are happening, and endless possibilities for future installments. As a connecting thread, THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX works very well. It’s even better that it comes so late in the series, letting the mystery linger for years before solving it.

However, THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX is, by far, the weakest of the three installments.

THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX suffers from being split into too many pieces that fail to form a cohesive narrative. Our international crew of astronauts, comprised of Hamilton (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Belle), Kiel (David Oyelowo, Selma), Schmidt (Daniel Bruhl, Captain America: Civil War), Monk (John Ortiz, Kong: Skull Island), Mundy (Chris O’Dowd, Bridesmaids), Volkov (Aksel Hennie, The Martian), Tam (Ziyi Chang, Memoirs of a Geisha), and Jensen (Elizabeth Debicki, The Great Gatsby) start off in a somewhat straight-forward, save-the-Earth mission. This morphs into a cross between Alien and Apollo 13 as technology goes wrong and things (oddities, not monsters) haunt the ship. Eventually, as the cast is picked of one-by-one, it feels very familiar.

This in of itself should have been the movie, and it would have been OK if it had a few different elements to keep us guessing where it was going. While parts of it feel like remakes of other films, there’s enough originality to forge its own path, and an interesting story boosted by some terrific performances and spectacular special effects. But there are also very weird things, like an intelligent hand and arm, that just aren’t satisfyingly explained and make the whole thing uneven. There are also characters who act out of character or make ridiculous decisions no one in their right mind would make, sending the plot off course. Inconsistencies plague this work.

Add to this, THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX forces the DNA of the previous two movies into this one by following Hamilton’s husband, Michael (Roger Davies, Family Affairs), back on Earth. Michael first finds himself in a city being actively destroyed by very big creatures, a la the original, and then takes shelter in a creepy bunker, as in the sequel. These comparisons feel forced and unnecessary, distracting and off-tone. It also spoils what could have been a twist ending otherwise.

There’s also a bit of exposition when an apparent conspiracy theory nut (Donal Logue, Gotham) warns a reporter (Suzanne Cryer, Silicon Valley) about what might happen with the space station. He ends up being right, but I couldn’t help but feel this was a bit more hand-holding that viewers needed. Unless Donal is a set up for another film, in which case, I like him enough to overlook this.

I think if the writers wanted to keep all the pieces they force in, THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX would have worked better as a television miniseries or season. That way, it could take its time exploring each of the facets of the tale in a longer narrative arc. Hamilton could even visit herself on the other Earth, and really dig into what the multiple dimensions presented mean. It also would make more sense to keep Michael in it for a potential second season. In this way, nothing would need to be cut out, and it would almost guarantee more forthcoming story (J.J.’s name and a big budget making a two-season order on a streaming service likely). If they wanted to keep this as a movie, they really should have narrowed in on a few choices and ditched much of the material they went with.

I will say, I did enjoy the other J.J. references present. Keep your eyes peeled, and you’ll see homages to 2009’s Star Trek and the television show Alias, as well as hear some regular Abrams cast voices, such as Simon Pegg and Greg Grunberg.

Overall, I didn’t hate THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX. Like I said, there are some really good elements, and in terms of defining the franchise, it does its intended job. However, there are enough plot holes and weaknesses to keep it from being a thoroughly enjoyable watch, and certainly makes it the low point of the series so far. The potential is strong enough that I want to see it developed further. But care must be taken to make sure the next installment doesn’t go off the rails like this one did, which would surely kill any future stories any time soon.

THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX is available now on Netlfix.

Blu-ray Review: 'Silicon Valley - The Complete Second Season'

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: 'Silicon Valley - The Complete Second Season' on Blogcritics.

HBO’s Silicon Valley is releasing The Complete Second Season next week, just before the third run begins. Although not a novel approach to home video, it is certainly appreciated, as Silicon Valley is a hilarious comedy ripe for binge-watching, and had I not already seen all of the episodes on this release, I would likely be plowing through them. As it is, I am tempted to watch again anyway because the show is particularly good.

If you’re not familiar with Silicon Valley, it takes place in the tech mecca mentioned in the title, and follows a small group of programmers and their start-up company. Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) is the brains, developing a compression algorithm better than anyone else ever has before. Along with his pals, Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) and Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), landlord and loudmouth Erlich (T.J. Miller), organized support man Jared (Zach Woods), and the advice of Monica (Amanda Crew), who works for their first investor, Richard founded a company called Pied Piper to sell his creation.

Season two begins with the Pied Piper team shopping around for new investors, wanting to scale up their product. At first, they’re riding high from a big win at the close of the freshman year. But then Gavin Belson (Matt Ross), the villain of the piece, CEO of huge corporation Hooli (think Google), shows back up and sues Pied Piper, claiming it was developed on his computers. Belson also has Richard’s friend Big Head (Josh Brener) in his employ, a useful pawn in the competition.

The rest of the second year becomes a back-and-forth struggle as Richard and company try to keep control of their invention, while those with a lot more money than they have try to wrest it from their grasp. It’s a classic David-versus-Goliath battle in the world of geeks, and only one of them can win. Will it be our heroes? Or will Silicon Valley show them struggle through defeat and have to come up with something else to rise from the ashes? Honestly, it’s quite uncertain through most of the ten episodes.

Complicating matters are two new faces for the sophomore season. Suzanne Cryer’s (Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place) Laurie takes over Peter Gregory’s company. Gregory’s portrayer, Christopher Evan Welch, sadly passed away last year, and his character is similarly written out. Cryer does a good job, but definitely brings a different energy than Welch had. Chris Diamantopoulos (About a Boy, The Office) enters as eccentric rich man Russ Hanneman, who soon involves himself in Pied Piper’s affairs, both as a help and a hindrance. 

Silicon Valley is a geeky look at a niche subculture that everyone knows about, but few venture into. The actual Silicon Valley is a world unto itself, and it’s great to get a sneak peek inside, especially with this very talented cast of humorous performers, who make dark situations look fun; there are laughs to be found in their misery. I cannot recommend the show enough.

As far as extras go, there are six audio commentaries that are very welcome, featuring creator Mike Judge (Office Space), the hilarious T.J. Miller, and others. There are also the obligatory deleted scenes, and a brief featurette about “The Art & Science Behind Silicon Valley.” In all, not a lot, and I couldn’t help but wish for more. But at least what is present is solid.

I can’t say there are strong, specific reasons for choosing Blu-ray over DVD. There aren’t a lot of special effects, outside of the very cool theme song, and the soundtrack is pretty basic, as it usually is for most sitcoms. But things just look so much better in HD, why would you want an inferior quality if given a choice?

Silicon Valley: The Complete Second Season will be available next Tuesday, April 19, at retailers everywhere.

SILICON VALLEY "Shuffle" in Wake of Death

Article first written for Seat42F.

A hanging question this past year about HBO’s SILICON VALLEY is, how will the show deal with the death of Christopher Evan Welch, who played Peter Gregory? That question is answered in the season two premiere, “Sand Hill Shuffle,” which takes place shortly after season one ends. Pied Piper considers which investor offer to accept, not confident that Gregory’s company is the smart move without its managing partner. During this, many mourn the death of Gregory, whose passing hangs heavy over the story.

SILICON VALLEY is a comedy, and as sad as everyone is over Welch’s passing, to not make his character’s death at least a little bit funny would go against the tone of the show. Some sitcoms have taken the more serious tact when losing a cast member, but it doesn’t make sense for SILICON VALLEY to do so, and so it doesn’t. From Monica (Amanda Crew) very slowly telling the story of Peter’s final moments, to eulogies being hijacked to defend products, “Sand Hill Shuffle” manages to elicit laughs, while still paying fitting tribute to the man. It’s a hard balance to strike, and this show nails it.

A strong personality is needed to replace the eccentric Gregory, who is a great presence in season one. SILICON VALLEY finds this in Suzanne Cryer, who plays the antisocial new managing partner in the firm. She is different enough from Gregory to not seem like an imitation, but still brings some of the same off-putting characteristics that provide screwball comedy in a unique-ish way. While we are only a single episode into season two, I think Cryer seems like the perfect presence to fill the hole.

As Monica adjusts to new leadership, she is caught in a very difficult position. Obviously, she values her career, but she also has feelings for Richard (Thomas Middleditch). When her new boss makes a business decision that will likely hurt Richard, Monica sticks her neck out to protect him, warning him away from the deal.

I can’t help but feel that these two have to find a way to be together. Sure, this is TV, so there has to be drama between them preventing the romance. But that can’t last forever, right? There is no point in stretching this out for six seasons of will-they, won’t-they. Season two is the time to make the relationship happen, even if it’s not until the end.

Richard proves once more that he is the brains of the operation in “Sand Hill Shuffle.” While Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) and Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) bicker over who is CTO, and while Erlich (T.J. Miller) beats the funding firms at their own game by being exceedingly rude, Richard actually considers the situation carefully, paying attention to everything that goes down. It’s Monica that recommends Richard not take the bigger deal, but it’s Richard that decides to make that happen while staying with the firm he wants to, even though they offer the most money, as Monica isn’t part of Pied Piper. Obviously, Monica provides the smarts here and deserves most of the credit for saving them, but as far as the tech company is concerned, Richard is the one who makes the right choice, just as he is the one who saves the day in season one.

It’s interesting that Richard is the savior. Everyone in the cast has their role, and his has been genius programmer. To also give him business sense defies convention a little bit, in my opinion. Normally, I’d appreciate seeing another main character, perhaps Jared (Zach Woods), save the day, but SILICON VALLEY always lets Richard do it. It’s an intriguing choice, and one that works for this particular program.

Basically, I don’t have any complaints about “Sand Hill Shuffle,” which is thoroughly enjoyable. It’s as funny as anything in season one, keeps the stakes alive with the cliffhanger that Gavin (Matt Ross) is suing Pied Piper, and advances the story and growth of Richard. It’s clear that the show has lost nothing during its hiatus, and despite the regrettable departure of Welch, SILICON VALLEY will live on, as good as ever.

SILICON VALLEY airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO.