American Idol

The rebooted American Idol is just fine so far, thank you.  I had thought that Simon Cowell’s absence would be felt more powerfully but, in fact, the new panel of judges acquitted themselves well on the season premiere of the 10^th round of the Idol merry-go-round and Cowell’s absence barely caused a ripple.

I had wondered how the new judges…Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez…would fare in the Idol fishbowl but they both brought welcome new energy to the proceedings.  Tyler was animated, funny, bawdy, tough but compassionate…he seemed to be having fun (as opposed to Cowell who seemed to be bored and going through his “Mr. Nasty” routine by rote over the past couple of seasons.)  Lopez seemed to wrestle with dashing the hopes of some the clueless non-talents the producers let get to the panel but she rallied and she turned out to be a charming and encouraging judge…often looking for something positive to send rejected contestants away with.

And, perhaps dazzled by the star power of J-Lo and Aerosmith’s legendary lead singer, the rejected ones (at least the ones they decided to showcase) went away with less tears and fewer profane tirades than in previous seasons.

Randy Jackson was still Randy Jackson but he, to his credit, tamped down some of the played out hipster routine, seeming to embrace the mantle of the veteran judge on the panel.  And even Ryan Seacrest was not as intrusive as he might have been previously (the “playful” banter between Cowell and Seacrest, which was increasingly annoying with each passing season, will not be missed at all.)

And, most importantly perhaps, there was a nice rapport between the judges (as opposed to the rapport-free interactions of last year’s panel of Jackson, Cowell, Kara DioGuardi, and Ellen Degeneres) and they managed to display personality while still ceding the spotlight to the people trying out for the show.  A delightful and welcome change that.

The success or failure of any given Idol season always comes down to which of the tens of thousands of hopefuls make the cut.  After a few seasons of (mostly) low wattage competitors, season 10 needs to rally and recapture the charm of the early seasons.  None of the 51 people who picked up golden tickets to Hollywood during the New Jersey auditions seemed penciled in for the finale yet (and, frankly, some of them probably wouldn’t have gotten past Cowell to the next round) but it’s still early, of course.

The addition of legendary producer (and Interscope Records honcho) Jimmy Iovine as the ongoing mentor looks to be a huge plus…as does the apparently scraping of Disco night and other changes the producers have used to tweak the Idol formula…and it could add up to a great Idol season.  Maybe...

No Ordinary Family

There's a gentle charm to ABC's new drama, No Ordinary Family.  The show is at heart a family drama despite the fact that the titular quartet all mysteriously gain super-powers during the first episode. 

The dad, played with relish and winking fun by Michael Chiklis, a mopey police artist finds new purpose as he experiments with his new powers (he basically has the original powers that Superman had in his debut issue:  he is super-strong, partially invulnerable, and he can leap about a quarter of a mile) with the help of his best friend. 

(Mom (Julie Benz), a workaholic with not enough hours in the day, gets super-speed.  The daughter, a high school student with boy issues, gains the power to read minds.  And the son, an underachieving student, becomes able to sort out complex problems.)

There is a conspiracy (of course) and much family angst (of course) and they even playfully name-check one of the X-Men at one point.  It's fun and breezy and the connections of family and friendship are kept in the forefront and, given time,  it could grow into something really engaging.

But it probably won't get the chance.  It will probably be swamped in the ratings by Glee and The Biggest Loser and (if it manages to hang on that long) by American Idol in January but I'm glad that the network took the chance anyway.

Community/30Rock/The Office/Outsourced

NBC's Thursday night comedies...three veteran shows and one much publicized newcomer...came back with amusing but uneven results.

Community went "meta"...becoming self-reverential almost to the point of distraction...but the able cast was able to keep it on track for the most part.  The guest appearance by the ubiquitous Betty White had its chuckles but wasn't really essential to the proceedings.

30 Rock came back with its trademarked blend of absurdity, sharp dialogue, and fast pace.  Matt Damon's guest turn as the love interest of Tina Fey's Liz Lemon had its comic charms.

The Office opened its final season with star Steve Carell with a "wacky" musical number featuring the entire cast that may have gone on just a bit too long (my favorite bit was Jim and Pam dancing like characters from the old Charlie Brown cartoons used to dance.)  Laughs were fairly consistent throughout the episode.  (I enjoy this show but I'm of the mind that if it ended this season with the departure of Carell's indelible Michael Scott that would be fine.  Seven years is a good run for a sitcom...but, of course, that's not the way things work on network television where they most prefer to keep going until people are more than ready for you to go already.)

And then there's Outsourced (see cast above).  The fish out of water comedy...American guy sent over to manage a ragtag office full of workers in a call center in India...did not really get off to a good start.  There seems to be potential...the cast is game and the premise, while creaky and fraught with cultural traps, could be mined for some good comedy...but the first episode was tepid at best (the best bits had already been played...over and over and over...during the summer-long run-up to the premiere.)  To the good is the fact that Parks & Recreation, the show displaced from Thursdays by Outsourced, started off slowly as well but found its footing and became a sharp comedy.  Hopefully Outsourced will follow a similar trajectory.

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Philadelphia

Happy Birthday to Academy Award winner Bruce Springsteen. Many happy,rockin' returns of the day!

Detroit 1-8-7/Glee/Raising Hope/Running Wilde

Detroit 1-8-7 echoes, in a positive way, the grittiness and quirkiness of the seminal 80's cop show Hill Street Blues. The pilot presented a similar cross section of interesting characters in unique partnerships handling murders on the mean streets of the titular city. Michael Imperioli leads a uniformly engaging cast with the first episode sketching out character tics and partnership vibes (some in sync, others definitely not) and, like Hill Street's first episode, the pilot even ends with a poignant and shocking tragedy that will undoubtedly color the proceedings going forward.

If the various threads of the pilot dovetailed together a bit too glibly...and they did...Detroit 1-8-7 is still a drama that bears watching as it unfolds. It has the potential to become a great cop show.

On the other end of the entertainment spectrum, the season premiere of Glee was full of the same soapy, entertaining mix of music, pathos, absurdity, and angst (both teenage and adult) that made the first season such a breakout treat. The formula still works wonderfully (and next week, the much-hyped Britney Spears episode will put that formula to the test) and if the focus remains on the Glee Club (and on the undeniable force of acerbic nature that is Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester) they seem primed to have a successful sophomore season.

Fox's two new Tuesday night comedies...Raising Hope (which seems to be trying, a bit too self-consciously, to tap into the Malcolm in the Middle vibe) and Running Wilde (feeling like they're going for the audience who adored the critically acclaimed, but ratings challenged, Arrested Development) got off to rocky starts with just enough laughs to (partially) overcome some awkward setups and make them both perhaps worth at least another look (but only just barely to be honest) to see if they can find surer footing moving on down the line. We shall see.

The Event/Hawaii 5-0

What is The Event? Heck if I know (actually I have some notions but I'm the first to admit that I am probably wrong.) The first episode was full of portent and mysterious asides and a host of characters doing and saying things that don't yet make sense and multiple time periods doubling back on themselves. It's all very disorienting...all very SPOOKY...and, yes, it's all kind of intriguing.

I am reluctant to buy into this series...despite the stellar cast and the potentially engaging premise...because the networks don't have a good track record with actually finishing these kinds of serialized dramas. For every Lost that actually gets to tell its story (whether you liked the story or not...I didn't stay for the whole ride... at least they got to tell it) there are many, many more that start and then just leave us hanging when the network pulls the plug (Heroes, FlashForward, Surface, Threshold , etc., etc.)

That said, I am probably going to stick around for a while...the ending of the first episode was pretty cool...it certainly made me want to see what happens next...and see what happens next.

Also caught the debut of the new Hawaii 5-0. It basically uses the names and locations from its cheesy 70's predecessor and not really much else. That was a good choice (hey, I watched the old show when I was a kid but it...didn't age well...:-) The new show is glib, action-packed, and not really very deep...but there's nothing wrong with any of that. The cast is likable and the scenery is gorgeous and it zips right along. Nothing here is especially new but it will hold one's attention if you happen upon it.

Sons of Anarchy

Gemma's on the run after being framed for murder at the end of last season...Jax is wallowing in grief and self-pity over the fact that his infant son has been kidnapped (eventually ending up in Ireland) in retaliation for the aforementioned murder...and Clay and the other gentlemen bikers of SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original Chapter) are prowling for clues as to the whereabouts of baby Abel. Much mayhem, pathos, tension, and intrigue ensued.

Sons of Anarchy is back...and off to a dramatic, portentous start.

Hal Holbrook joins the cast as Gemma's addled father (he has memory lapses and he doesn't seem to know that his wife...Gemma's mom...is dead) for what could be an interesting look into the psyche of the hard-as-nails Gemma (who manages to stab a guy in the crotch because the guy had the temerity to object to her trying to steal his car)...not that last season, when she got gang-raped by neo-Nazis trying to send a message to the biker club, wasn't an interesting exploration of her hard-bitten view of the world...

With the plot threads being thrown out in the first episode of the third season it looks like Sons will be ranging near (their home base of Charming, California) and far (presumably across the water to the Emerald Isle)...count me in for the ride.

Summertime Jams #11: Country

As the summer winds down this tune makes for a lovely transition to the cool Autumn days ahead. Keith Jarrett (piano), Jan Garbarek (saxophone), Palle Danielsson (bass), and Jon Christensen (drums) with the remarkably lovely "Country" from their album My Song.

Project Runway

Leaving Bravo for Lifetime was a mistake for Project Runway. At least that seems to be the case since the show has lost its mojo with its wan Lifetime runs and the current iteration has not changed that fact.

This season the show has been expanded to 90 minutes which would be a good thing except for the fact that this year's cast is a colorless, pompous, utterly humorless lot. An additional half hour would have suited the show well when the designers were witty, talented, confident and occasionally self-effacing but that is most certainly not the case this season (or during the last couple of seasons either.)

It's a sad thing when the "villain" the producers are trying to play up is Gretchen (4th from the left on the top row with her hands on her hips), a legend in her own mind manages to combine rampant self-aggrandizement with unceasing blather, insufferable boorishness, and unearned condescension into one boring, unflaggingly irritating TV persona.

The extra time does give us more face time with the always dapper Tim Gunn but even his sly wit and charm can't rescue this season.

It's probably time to stick a fork in Project Runway 'cause it's done.

Summertime Jams #10: Blame it on the Summer

Basia swinging it softly for the season. "Blame it on the Summer" (and why not? It's all good :-)

Project Runway

Project Runway is back (oddly enough, without much fanfare from Lifetime.) The luminous, stern, and impish Heidi Klum is back. The dapper, unflappable Tim Gunn is back. The often delightfully acerbic (and sometimes downright, deliciously catty) Michael Kors and Nina Garcia are back as well (along with a parade of celebrities filling the fourth judges' chair for reasons that continue to elude me.)

And there are another 17 aspiring designers jockeying to win a place showing their collections at New York's fashion week have joined the party.

After a couple of decidedly lackluster seasons, Runway has a ways to go to capture the manic, creatively charged energy of the earlier seasons. None of the designers stood out as particularly interesting at first blush but it takes the producers and editors a few weeks to shape storylines and character arcs so that may change.

The erstwhile companion show, Models of the Runway, has been mercifully put out of its misery (it was a lackluster business that was less than interesting) and Runway runs for 90 minutes now (first run on Thursday nights.)

I still don't care about fashion (I have closet full of jeans, sneakers, and super-hero t-shirts) but I like to see creative people being creative...hopefully that feeling, which the earlier seasons offered up in spades, will come back this season. As Mr. Gunn will say, often, "make it work".

Summertime Jams #9: I Love L.A.

Randy Newman cruising the highways and bi-ways of the grand sprawl of Los Angeles (I haven't lived there in years but I really loved growing up in the eclectic glory of L.A. :-)

Summertime Jams #8: Our Lips Are Sealed

The Go-Go's...exuberant, wonderful, rockin', full of pure pop deliciousness with Jane's pixie charm and Belinda chubby-cheeked and cute as a button...bringing the summertime jam love with the ever delightful "Our Lips Are Sealed":

Green Lantern

Entertainment Weekly, showcasing the Hollywood elements of next week's San Diego Comic-Con (nope, not going...already sold out...too many people (with no parking and overpriced concessions)...too much Hollywood hype and hoopla...many less annoying things to do here in our fair city) with Ryan Reynolds all ringed up and ready to use his might as Green Lantern in the upcoming movie.

First impression is that it's okay (the mask is kinda funky but it's hard to make a mask like that work on real people however cool they might look in the comics)...I'll have to see it more fully...and in action...before I give my full fanboy pontification on it :-)

Summertime Jams #7: Sun Goddess

Smooth as a sunny summer's day...Ramsey Lewis with Earth, Wind, and Fire...the great groove of "Sun Goddess"

Corn Flakes with John Lennon

Music is part of me…it breathes through me…it walks with me even when I don’t consciously notice it. I don’t make music (you would not want to hear me sing :-) but it is a part of me just the same. It is, of course, the music itself…Bach or the Beatles, Coltrane or Miles or Emmylou, the Duke, the Queen, the Godfather, the King, Citizen Bob or P.E. or whomever…that informs, delights, and satisfies my soul.

That said, there are three people whose love of music helped inspire my own love of same. Two I never met, one I love more than anyone else on this planet.

The first was my mother…humming along with Johnny Mathis or the Beach Boys or Motown or whoever caught her ear and her fancy…surrounded herself with music as far back as I can remember…and, in turn, that music surrounded and comforted and thrilled me.

The second was Casey Kasem, whose warmth, sentimental dedications, fascinating trivia, and mellifluous voice kept me fine company on many a weekend hour as he counted down the American Top 40 (and I, dutifully and happily, copied the list down and kept careful track of the movement of the biggest hits of 70’s and 80’s.

And the third was Robert Hilburn, the chief rock critic of the Los Angeles Times. I read his reviews and essays and interviews with rapture and I came to find our tastes to be so similar that I sometimes bought records just because he raved about them…he never let me down. I even sent him a couple of embarrassing (now not then) fanboy letters, all of which he graciously replied to with handwritten postcards that are still among the childhood treasures I have stored in box in my mother’s house.

Hilburn’s engaging memoir, Corn Flakes with John Lennon, is a fascinating...sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, always interesting... journey through his journey through rock and roll and all of the amazing people…Elvis, Bono (who wrote the affectionate introduction), Janis, Stevie, Bruce, Michael, John and Yoko, so many others…he knew, interviewed, admired, and loved.

It’s beautifully written (the man has always had an uncanny way with words, deftly riding the line between hardnosed critic and unabashed fan and drawing us into the experience in a way that made us feel like we were his pals and he was letting us into the worlds of his heroes) and wonderfully charming and thoroughly involving.

It’s a grand ride.

Thanks again, Bob.

Summertime Jams #6: Pull Shapes

Some summertime jammin' girl group grooviness...The Pipettes with the unstoppably infectious "Pull Shapes" (there's a cool retro video that cannot be embedded from YouTube...see it here)

The Sellout

Don't call it a comeback (unless you're talking about the lush, soaring, defiant closing track by that name)...the irrepressible Ms. Macy Gray never really went anywhere (even if it has been 3 years since she dropped her last disc)...but this disc feels like a return to form just the same. Gray has never managed to catch the magic of her wonderful break though, On How Life Is, but that doesn't mean she hasn't put out some compelling music in the years since that great debut disc.

The Sellout isn't quite in the same league as Life but, that said, it is fierce, funny, engaging, and rock solid from beginning to end. There is a positive vibe throughout...even when she's decrying wayward lovers or haters who don't understand her...and it definitely keeps your head nodding and your feet tapping.

From the joyful sunshine of "Beauty in the World" (see below) to the sexy, irresistable thump of "Kissed It"...from the clever word play of the infectious title track to the aching blues of the grand "Still Hurts"...from the acoustic mid-tempo lilt of the plaintive "Let You Win"...from the in-the-pocket funk of "Stalker" to Macy's magnificent rasp of a voice is in fine form and the grooves around her are uniformly tight and engaging (the groove...including a great breakdown in the middle...of the sassy girl group romp "That Man" is so cool I just had to smile all the way through.)

Gray and Brown (Macy and Bobby) come together for a downright golden old school R&B duet on "Real Love" (Bobby Brown's voice blends right nicely with Ms. Gray's.)

Bottom line is that The Sellout is a winner that will be spending a lot of time booming out of my stereo this summer (and for a long time after that.)

2010 Emmy Nominations

Glee is the belle of the 2010 Emmy ball with 19 nominations. Acting nods went to lead actor Matthew Morrison (as the dedicated glee club teacher Will Schuester...see above), lead actress Lea Michele (as the talented but sometimes annoying Rachel Berry), supporting actor Chris Colfer (as the stylish and proud gay character Kurt), and supporting actress the inimitable Jane Lynch (as they relentless force of nature that is Coach Sue Sylvester...see also above.)

They also scored in the guest actor categories with nods to the wondrous Kristin Chenoweth (as the hard-living April Rhodes), Neil Patrick Harris (as Will's disillusioned rival Bryan Ryan), and Mike O'Malley (for his evocative appearances as Kurt's conflicted but unflaggingly supportive blue collar dad.)

The show picked up nominations as Best Comedy series (it's more of a comedy-drama but there's no category for that), writing, directing, yadda, yadda, yadda...

Mad Men scooped up 17 nominations, Conan O'Brien was nominated and Jay Leno was not, and Lost was given some love as it went out the door.

Modern Family and Nurse Jackie picked up nods for Best Comedy Series (though Nurse Jackie isn't really a comedy...but I guess they didn't know what to do with it...and voter inertia led to nominations for The Office and 30 Rock, both of which had uneven seasons, over perhaps more deserving nominees...and fellow NBC Thursday night compatriots... sterling sophomore Parks & Recreation and perky newcomer Community.)

None of it really matters...nobody remembers who wins these things...but it gives the Hollywood folks yet another reason to dress up and pat themselves on the back so it's all good I guess.

Deadliest Catch

There is, as we all know, precious little that's real in "reality" television. Well unless one thinks that there is something real about the drunken/promiscuous antics on The Real World or Jersey Shore...unless one thinks that the legion of vapid ciphers/fame whores who preen through their staged and yet still remarkably empty-headed lives on "super-new" episodes of the dozens (well it seems that way anyhow) of E! shows really merit attention...or unless one thinks that putting the word "real" in the titles of the apparently endless iterations of the Real Housewives franchise lends any kind of merit to the titular characters (some of whom are not married...and none of whom actually seem to run homes, you know like real "Real housewives" do...)

Obviously there is some voyeuristic charge to watching these shows...they wouldn't be multiplying like rabbits if people weren't watching them...but they seem more sad and desperate than entertaining to me. Still and all, "reality" shoes have become the backbone of the summer TV season during recent years.

Even some of the better ones (I'm excluding competition shows like American Idol or Hell's Kitchen from this discussion...they are more in the talent show/game show genre than in the reality TV world)...the ones which follow people doing real jobs (Ice Road Truckers or Ace of Cakes for example) are often blatantly staged and heavily edited with an eye towards crafting "story lines" and creating "characters". I get that, it's television and even cool jobs are boring for long stretches of time and so wouldn't hold viewers' attention.

But, that said, there has always been an engaging, sometimes harrowing, realness to the exploits of the hardworking, hard-living crab fishermen who risk life and limb in the frigid, roiling Bering Sea to pull in their shares of million dollar hauls of crab. There are characters and storylines and the presence of cameras does, as a matter of course, distort the "reality"...but nevertheless Discovery's Deadliest Catch is often as compelling as TV..."reality" or not...gets.

Especially this season as the tragic story of one of the series' most interesting and likable people, the salty and complex Captain Phil Harris (see above, far left), plays out. Knowing the end of Captain Phil's "storyline" adds to...rather than detracts from...the poignancy of his appearances (and those of his sons...and crewmates...Josh and Jake.) Phil's story is part of a rich mosaic of stories of the Captains and crews of the crab fishing boats as they battle the weather, fatigue, and sometimes frustratingly elusive crab.

Deadliest Catch continues to be one of the most eminently watchable and utterly fascinating shows on the tube...and in this dreary television season when even usually reliable summer fare like Top Chef is laboring through a thus far disappointing run, that's a small wonder to be treasured.