Sweeney's TV Dump: February 2015

Angie Tribeca: Season 1

I'm honestly surprised this show even exists. A spoof cop show starring Rashida Jones? Worth a shot! Angie Tribeca is a show that is literally nothing but jokes. At no point will it ever try to pull on your heartstrings, or make you think about the difficulties of being a cop, or sympathize with victims or anything like that. There's just nothing but zany, wacky jokes for 22 minutes each episode. It's admittedly a little tough to binge because of this; the novelty wears off quickly- very few movies have been able to pull off this style successfully for a full ninety minutes. But I appreciate the commitment to such a specific genre. Some jokes had me laughing hard, some made me roll my eyes at how dumb they were, but they just kept coming, which is really all I can ask from a show like this. I'm intrigued enough to stick around for season two.

Masters of Sex: Season 2

I drew some parallels between Masters of Sex and Mad Men in its first season, knowing full well how ludicrous it was to compare the two- Mad Men is critically revered as an all-timer, while Masters of Sex has seen its reputation fall off after an excellent first season. And yeah, now that I've watched it, season two started showing some flaws. But hey, so did Mad Men's second season, if I'm being honest. But where did things go wrong for Masters of Sex? There's a few issues here. Two of the main characters from season one were unceremoniously ditched within the first episode. I never felt like I had a grasp on some of the remaining main characters' motivations, and all came off unlikeable far more often than in the first season. As the show starts to enter the period of massive change that was the sixties, it made a clumsy attempt at a social justice storyline that sidelined Libby in a predictable plot for the back half of the season. Still though, there's elements here to like- that central gimmick of a scientist cheating on his wife with his protégé all under the guise of advancing science is a strong one, and Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan continue to shine with some excellent performances and chemistry with each other. The second season also produced a phenomenal episode in "Fight", an episode-long metaphorical boxing match between Dr. Masters and Virginia that only paused for a few moments to check in on the beautifully tragic story of a hermaphroditic baby Dr. Masters delivered. Masters of Sex in its second season was capable of true greatness at times, but unfortunately not often enough to live up to the first season.

Masters of Sex: Season 3

This will be the last Mad Men comparison, I swear, but for Masters of Sex to follow that show's trajectory, it would need to rise from the ashes of an underwhelming second season to new heights in its third. That didn't happen. It feels like the show has started to settle into this groove of good, not great. Again, a few main characters were dropped without mention. A twist hinted at the end of the second season was dropped completely, as the show pulled a sudden time-hop of seven years to start the third season- has that ever even happened on a tv show in the middle of its run? At the very least, this remains an entertaining show with strong performances by its lead actors, even if the good writing's not always there. The finale promises a pretty huge shake-up heading into season four, but similar promises were made in the second season finale. So will Masters of Sex right the ship, or completely collapse in its fourth season? I'll have to wait until this summer to find out.

Madoff

I didn't expect to watch Madoff at all- actually, I hadn't even heard of it until well after it aired- a four-hour miniseries on ABC about notable piece of shit Bernie Madoff and the fall of his financial pyramid-scheme empire. Katie's parents recommended it, and I don't think our tastes in television align all that much, and Katie insisted we watch it since she's a lot more interested in personal finance and wealth management than I am. It was fine. Really the only thing that saved it from being a bore was Richard Dreyfuss clearly having a ball playing the villainous Madoff- narrating his own story, calling out everyone he fooled on being such dopes. It is after all, hard to feel too bad for the billionaires he duped. But then, I'm also a little apprehensive about true stories that glamorize such awful people while they're still around to soak it in and enjoy the fact that everyone's so interested in them. I doubt anyone is interested enough in this for me to recommend against it anyway.

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret: Season 3

What Stan mentioned about Todd Margaret's third season rings true- extremely well-made, yet without much of a lasting impact. For one, it ret-cons a pretty great series finale, moving on from a pretty definitive end to exploring what might be some kind of parallel world or extended dream. And none of the characters themselves are all that memorable or funny just by themselves, especially now that they all have completely different personalities (or in one case, a new actor portraying them). Yet the plot here is excellent- densely loaded with call-backs and connections to the previous season, and obscure in-jokes that will only make sense if you're watching closely. And what did it all accomplish? Another six episodes of dark humor I guess, blowing a giant hole in the original story and leaving the possibility that it could come back for even more seasons. I would come back for more but I have no idea if there are any plans to keep this revival going.

The X-Files: Season 10

Speaking of revivals, this one was just ugly. I briefly got into The X-Files last summer but only made it halfway through its first season- I liked what I saw, but too much got in the way for me to make a serious effort to watch the whole thing just yet. So when the six episode revival showed up, and word arose that you didn't really need to see previous episodes to enjoy The X-Files, I figured I'd join in for the ride. For one episode, it was excellent- a "monster of the week" that turns the idea of a werewolf on its head in a way that was smart and funny. Unfortunately most of the remaining episodes were simply boring, and the finale was just enraging. It blows my mind that with the huge fan-base this show has, and for such a momentous occasion like reviving the biggest cult hit ever after a decade off of the air, almost everything about the miniseries was so poorly done. The popular consensus is that creator Chris Carter ruined it by taking part far too much in the writing. Trev can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe most people think Carter came up with a great premise and two solid lead characters, but the show has always worked better when focusing on little side-stories that he has little to do with writing. So I guess I won't let this ruin The X-Files for me- I still plan on going back and finishing that first season, and continuing further, but now I know the disappointment that diehard fans have had over some of its more questionable episodes and movies.