HANNIBAL SEASON 2 REVIEW

This review contains spoilers.

and falling headlong 

he burst open in the middle 

and all his entrails gushed out

Acts 1:18

So the second season of the only decent NBC's drama series has ended in a blood bath. I don't like this kind of cliffhangers, when you're left wondering, who, if anyone at all, lives. Make no mistake, I have no issues with the brutal massacre itself, it was actually very much in place; it's the fact that for several months we won't know, who is gone forever that annoys me. The scene in the plane is far more appropriate for the finale, and if the only mystery left was how these two ended up together and why, it would have suffice. Unfortunately, the creators of the show decided to go all-in, and that was the general feeling I got from the entire season.

I thought it was smart of them to gradually walk away from the procedural genre, though they still tried to shock the audience with very peculiar murders. The funniest episode was of course the one with the pig lord getting what he deserved. It amused me quite a bit.

It appeared to me that the psychiatrist-patient dialogues, which I really enjoyed last season, got a lot simpler, and one did not need to think to get the subtext. For example, I personally thought it was unnecessary to say "last supper" out loud in the final episode:  what this meal was to the main characters was clear from how the scene was set up.

The series has less respect (or regard?) for women than Silicon Valley. The only female character that shows any signs of free will is Du Maurier. Miriam, Alana, Beverly, Margot, Freddie, Abigail, Bella - all of them are merely the means to affect other men's behavior and feelings. They die and resurrect as easily as they burst into tears and start yelling. Hannibal explores the world of complicated men and plain and simple women.

Now closer to the plot. If the first season is dedicated almost solely to Will, the second one is definitely about Hannibal, whom we get to know mainly by watching Will change. 

What is Hannibal? Well, he tends to think he's God, so he acts like one. Turns out, killing people, as well as devouring human flesh and internal organs, is not his main focus. Surely, Hannibal enjoys the sacrifice, while comparing his actions to natural disasters, but despite all indications, he doesn't really live to eat. What is more interesting about him is that like God, who created man in his image, Hannibal is turning his patients into some versions of himself. Graham seems to be the first one whom he intended to keep, which means he thought of Will as of his finest creation, although surely not as divine: something like a human son. Only Du Maurier came as close before, which is why Hannibal liked having her around and tried to reveal himself to her, but she preferred to play blind, which was not ideal.

Dr. Lecter felt connection with Will from the moment he's heard his own profile done by Graham at the academy. This shaky brilliant man saw him, understood him, which meant it would have been so easy for him to become Hannibal. In this piece of raw material he saw his future creation. This weird bond, together with Lecter's sense of superiority to Will and his confidence in his own capability to change the guy, and turn him into someone he can reveal his true nature to, inadvertently got him too invested with Will's world and Will's attractions. Du Maurier was wrong about Hannibal; he was not aware of the FBI trap, and he was hurt by the untold truth, the way a psychopath can be hurt by failing to control another person. 

In the end Hannibal asked if Will thought he could change him, the way Hannibal changed Will, and Graham responded that he already did, which seemed to strike Dr. Lecter, as if he realized this statement was true. And the only way to put this all behind was to destroy Will and his world and those whom he loves - everything that reminds Hannibal of his vulnerability, his mistake, his ungodliness. Hannibal and Will were through for good. The cup had to remain broken, and so it did. 

COMEDIES FALL & MIDSEASON 2014-2015

There was a time when I almost exclusively watched comedy series on TV, so it is now painful to watch what the major networks have prepared for this Fall.

First of all, it is surprising to me that multi-cam sitcoms with the laughing track are not dead yet. I thought the finale of HIMYM meant the end of this type of comedy, but I stand corrected. I'll be shocked, if any of the next three shows below will get a second season.

1. The McCarthys (CBS, written by Brian Gallivan) is about an Irish sports-obsessed family, all members of which live in the same place, basically (like they always do in this type of series). In the center of narration is one of the sons who also happens to be gay. Sheldon's mom Laurie Metclaf is playing the mother of the family, that's the only semi good thing I can say about this sitcom after having watched the trailers. 

2. Stand-up comedian with the Mexican roots Cristela Alonzo got her own show on ABC (a channel that seems to focus on minorities this year), ingeniously titled as Cristela, about a woman that wasted six years on studying law without any productive results. The series focuses on how she still lives with her relatives and whatever that implies.

3. Alonzo's colleague and the SNL star John Mulaney also got a semi-autobiographical sitcom on Fox titled with his last name, about what it means to live your life as a comedian. This is what people must have expected from Louie before they watched the trailer or the first episode.

Then we have a bunch of romantic comedies.

4. NBCs A to Z is the classic sentimental comedy with Mad Men's Ben Feldman and HIMYM's Cristin Milioti about two people looking for "the one" and falling for each other in spite of their personal traits.

5. Another NBC show, slightly more bitter, with Ken Marino and Casey Wilson, created by David Caspe (Happy Endings) and Seth Gordon, is called Marry Me. After six years of going out, a couple struggles to pop the question so that it would feel right.



6. Manhattan Love Story (ABC) is somewhat innovative: it's gonna reveal what people think when on a date. The show would have been tolerable if there were any particularly smart lines and the characters wouldn't be such complete idiots, which the workers of television evidently think "normal" people are.  As of now it looks like MLS is based on a number of horrible stereotypes.



7. The modern version of My Fair Lady called Selfie is coming to ABC. It is about an Instagram star who asks a marketing guru to rebrand her in order to get real friends instead of people who just friended her webpage. Features John Cho from Go On.



8. Jealous of the CBS series Bad Teacher, NBC have developed Bad Judge with Fargo's Mrs. Hess -  Kate Walsh, who's playing a reckless individual that discredits yet another noble profession by drinking and screwing around.

The rest of the shows fall under the category that I'd call "WTF".

9. Let's start with CW's creation for the teens Jane the Virgin, which raises questions about the quality of medical help one can get in the US. The person obsessed with her own virginity - courtesy of her neurotic mother, gets accidentally impregnated by her gynecologist. Tam tam tam!

10. Next one is ABC's black-ish with Anthony Anderson and Hannibal's Laurence Fishburne 'bout a black family living in the suburbia and hence losing some of its "blackness".

11. And finally in the nomination "WTF of the year" wins a weird fairytale musical Galavant with Joshua Sasse as the lead (ABC). 

NEW SERIES IN MAY

Fox doesn't seem to be able to let go of Kiefer Sutherland's superhero Jack Bauer, so on the 5th of May he returns with the mini-series 24: Live Another Day (a clear reference to Die Another Day). I absolutely hated the original 24 series, seriously, I can't think of any other show what annoyed me that much, but I'm sure there are many people who can't wait to see it.

Penny Dreadful, which airs on the 11th of May on Showtime seems a bit more interesting. Basically, they take a bunch characters from various spooky novels (e.g. Dorian Gray and Dr. Frankenstein) and put them to Victorian London. The show is created by John Logan, whose writing credits include Skyfall and The Aviator, and features Bond girl Eva Green, who plays one of the main characters.

 

On the 22nd of May a new action drama Gang Related premieres on Fox. The series is created by Chris Morgan (Fast and Furious) and it is about L.A. Police Department's special Gang Task Force and its war on gangs. Latinos will hate it, I'm afraid.

Then we have three new series from NBC. On the 27th of May they release The Night Shift about the night shift ER doctors from San Antonio Medical Center.

Two days later NBC introduce a sitcom Undateable by Adam Sztykiel, which is based on the book Undateable: 311 Things Guys Do That Guarantee They Won't Be Dating Or Having Sex. It's about a bunch of guys and their unfortunate lack of dating skills. The first look promo is here.

Finally, a new show about pirates with John Malkovich as Blackbeard, Crossbones, debuts on the 30th of May. The show was created by Neil Cross (Luther). At first there were rumors that Hugh Laurie would take the main part, but I guess, that wasn't meant to be. Unfortunately, I could not find any promotional video, so here's a poster instead:

BRIEFLY

So the final hours of the second season of Revenge left me as frustrated as every other episode of this show (maybe, with the exception of the first three or so). There was a bunch of chaotic events, completely unrelated to each other, while characters' emotions vanished into thin air just as fast as they peaked, Jack's brother died, although there was hardly any need for it in terms of the story line (frankly, I'd prefer Jack's death, he was a useless, weak and quite unsympathetic character back in the first season, and they made him even less bearable now). And the most annoying part was that there was no resolution whatsoever. However, I'm glad to know that there was no "Initiative" in the first place, that explains why throughout the season it never felt like this group really existed.

The former showrunner, Mike Kelley, parted ways with Revenge, apparently, he had different view on how the series should be from the show's home channel, ABC, so it's rather clear whom to blame on the appalling (even for the soap opera!) quality of this season. The rumor has it that Kelley wanted the series to be a 13-parter (instead of 22), which would help avoid all the bullshit the season contained and all the extra characters that came and went (like Emily's mom and her foster brother, Nolan's ex, Victoria's mom, Conrad's business nemesis).  I'm 100% convinced that it doesn't get better, so the wise thing to do is to spare self from the next season.

The same applies to Vegas. They managed to keep the story more or less logical, but it was definitely too long and thus filled to capacity with unnecessary content, and at the same time it was so full of cliches that one could predict the ending after just ten minutes of the episode. All the law guys were disturbingly annoying and it was quite ridiculous, how they almost never killed anyone, while the gangsters went wild.

I didn't even realize that The Americans was over until a week after the finale, so that says a lot. However, overall, the show was not so bad: at times boring, at times a little idiotic (not to the extent of Homeland or Revenge), but at the same time so straight forward, easy to follow and sympathize with the characters.

Despite Laurence Fishburne, who is in my personal top ten of the ugliest actors alive, the annoying character of Will Graham (and a few others), the extremely visual corpses and the weak script, I quite enjoy watching Hannibal. At times, it reminds me of Jamie at Home, only with a much more pleasant host (I mean the magnificent Hannibal Lecter by Mads Mikkelsen, of course). Yes, the creators of the show like to spritz characters' faces with blood as if it's some sort of adult movie, and invent absolutely idiotic, irrational crimes with far-fetched motivation, but most of the time it's a fun watch. And it's surprising to see something like that on NBC.

Orphan Black is not exactly Utopia, but it's one of a few conspiracy series that doesn't annoy me with the irrational plot. There are some iffy turns, but overall, the story is coherent and full of action, even exciting. But we'll see how it ends, that's usually a weak point for this genre.

SERIES TO WATCH IN JANUARY Pt.2

Deception (US residents already have a chance to watch the pilot online, the official NBC premiere date is January 7) looks a lot like Revenge, if I may judge by the trailer. A rich socialite is killed and her best friend tries to solve this murder.



NBC is also going to entertain us with a comedy series about a presidential family 1600 Penn, starring Jenna Elfman (Dharma & Greg) and Josh Gad. The series is scheduled to premiere on January 10. 



On January 21 Fox will release new psychological thriller The Following about some charismatic serial killer.
 

I think that's enough for now. There's also a prequel to Sex and the City that will premiere on January 14, called The Carrie Diaries, but since I never liked the original series, I don't see a reason why I should watch a teenage version of that crap.

NASHVILLE S01E04: THE STORY'S LOST IN EMOTIONS

So the fourth episode of Nashville in my opinion was no good. The narration turned to a display of different characters' mental meltdowns; the subconscious, inner emotion dominated the story so much, that the feeling this episode left me with could be expressed with the phrase widely used in this very series, namely, "what the hell was that?"

For example, let's take the fight between Deacon and Teddy. I cannot believe this kind of thing never happened before, and more importantly, I think nothing extraordinary has been said, nothing to justify Rayna not wanting to come home after this. Or the scene where Juliette finds her baby photo in her mother's bag: did not seem like a trigger good enough to make her cry.

Neither am I convinced that shoplifting could actually cause that much damage to Juliette's career. And the PR specialist they hired did not look particularly professional. There's been only one instance of stealing caught on camera, so there was absolutely no need to come clean, and Juliette's explanation of the situation was completely plausible, so this is what they had to go with. And so that part of the story seemed quite idiotic to me.

I understand that the creators are going after a character centered  narration, maybe by eliminating logic and basic story integrity they want to build an emotional connection between the characters and the audience.  But sadly, it doesn't work on me.

Oh, and I suddenly realized that Charles Esten, the actor who impersonates Deacon, looks a lot like Mitt Romney.

This time I've decided to try to capture and transmit all this drama using a new format: a photo recap.

UP ALL NIGHT EP. 1 SEASON 2

The last season of Up All Night in my opinion was the only successful attempt to introduce the concept of real modern family without exploiting the gay parenthood topic (there was one episode where we saw a gay couple raising a kid, but from what I understood they weren't doing such a great job). 

Reagan and Chris Brinkley (played by Christina Applegate and Will Arnett) are shown as truly "cool" parents, well educated, initiative, loving and not afraid of letting go and having fun (usually, with the help of alcohol). The elements of the modern type of family are numerous like the fact that Chris is the stay-at-home dad and Reagan is a working mom, that they have weak connections with their other relatives (e.g. Reagan does not really enjoy the company of her mother and clearly has issues with Chris's nanny, whereas Chris can't communicate with his brother in any other way than bragging), even the fact that when baby is born, the lives of parents, though changed, are not over. All of this was new and unusual, and I loved the series for this and for very warm emotions coming from each episode. The acting was also exceptional.

I don't know why would they want to change all of this so dramatically, but the sad truth is that the first episode of the second season of the show was, least to say, disappointing.

Maybe I missed it, but I did not hear explanations why 'Ava Show' got cancelled. What happened with other secondary characters from the last season? And may I say I hate Reagan's brother, Scott, I hated how obvious was the outcome of the episode i.e. that Chris and Scott decided to found a business. Even Reagan and Ava's fight was lame and lacking passion (though Maya Rudolph was phenomenal as usual).

I understand that it's essential to look for new turns, so the show doesn't get boring as the writers get lazy, but even with these new circumstances, the episode was very weak, I'm literally worried.

So creators, pull yourself together, will you?

Score: 4/10

(MY HEART WILL) GO ON

Matthew Perry always seemed a whiteface clown to me; there's so much tragedy behind all his characters that feel like reflections of the same person. He has exceptional comedy talent and it's the type of power you have to decide, if you want to use for good or evil.

I must admit, I am the crier. But up to this point I have not seen a trailer that would make me tear up. There, I said it, I cried as I watched the trailer and then as I watched the pilot of new NBC sitcom (created by Scott Silveri) called Go On. This show is SO SAD. I understand it's aimed at showing people with personal tragedies that there's a way to handle this and go on with their lives, but I'm afraid for unstable people, who skipped antidepressants for a day, watching this may end unfortunately.

So the story is about a sportscaster, Ryan King, whose wife recently died in a car accident. He wants to return to work, but his boss insists he goes to ten therapy sessions first.

Ryan King being sad

I can't really say that the script is exceptional, there are drawbacks in how some of the happenings scripted and directed, for example, Ryan's meltdown seems artificial (I understand they tried to make it funny, but it looked unnatural). Some jokes are predictable, like sympathy-birthday cake part, so it's mainly cast and characters that make this show watchable, i.e. it's how they speak, rather than what they say that makes you laugh and how they act rather than what they do. Facial expressions, tone, moves - this cast is awesome at this!

I love this creepy guy! (Brett Gelman as Mr. K)

Laura Benanti as Lauren Schneider

All in all, I admire Perry's acting talent but I need the right mood to be able to watch this. This will probably have higher than usual critical reception due to the topic, but I'm worried about the actual ratings. As I said, this is just so sad...

Score: 8/10