The Kominsky Method Takes It's Last Bow

 

I’ve been in quiet awe of The Kominsky Method for the last two years. Watching Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin, two of the greatest actors in history, work together as a failed actor and his agent, who can’t admit how much they mean to each other, even though they’ve seen each other through every horrific event (and at their ages, they’d be the first to admit it keeps getting worse) has had some of the most remarkable comedy I’ve ever seen. And privately, I’d hoped that like the quieter Grace and Frankie, it could go on a bit longer/

But showrunner Chuck Lorre has always danced to his own drum. And while Big Bang Theory and Mom had long successful runs, with his first show on Netflix, he’s decided to go out when he’s on top. And so the third and final season of The Kominsky Method begin with Lorre doing something you don’t know if he’d ever had the guts to do. Kill off one of the leads. Admittedly, he’d always planned for Norman to pass away before the show ended, and you would think losing Alan Arkin would utterly gut the show. But as long as Michael Douglas is around, he continues to carry the day. The third season opens at Norman’s funeral, with Sandy giving a simultaneously hysterical and utter moving eulogy of his best friend. It helps matters a lot that Norman’s children, while mourning, remain as self-involved as ever. (This is particularly true of his grandson played by Haley Joel Osment, who goes full on Scientology in his eulogy.) Sandy is moving on the best he can, which is to say not well at all. His reaction to his friend’s death is to find a dog with Norman’s middle name. This dog is being housesat by a Russian ‘massage therapist’. She ‘thanks him’ and he subsequently throws his back out.

Even without Norman around, the series is still hysterically funny. It helps that several of the actors who made the series work so well are still around. Particularly brilliant is Paul Reiser as Martin, Cindy’s fiancée who’s closer to Sandy’s age than Cindy’s, something that irks his daughter no end. Despite the fact that Sandy and Martin are very close, when Sandy has to bequest $10 million to Cindy, he goes out of his way to say that Martin probably shouldn’t know about it. Considering some of the decisions Martin’s made in the past and that’s he making now, I think Sandy’s on the right side of this. Just as great is the fact that Sandy’s most prominent ex-wife, Roz (Kathleen Turner) is back in town. I have been hoping she’d come back since her cameo last season and can’t wait to see the Romancing The Stone stars in the same scene. (How will they deal with the fact that she gets along with Martin as well as he does?) And as always, its wonderful to see Sandy interact with class and just how different acting is these days. One of his students just got cast in the remake of Quincy (Morgan Freeman is in the title role – and gender fluid) and it now becomes just how different Hollywood has become. When Karen announces her casting, her entire class considers her the enemy. Considering how ridiculous they generally are, this is a bitter pill to swallow.

I’m inclined to consider The Kominsky Method a modern classic. I’ll admit it doesn’t do anything revolutionary like so many other Netflix shows, but there’s something to be said for a comedy series that utilizes all these great actors and just lets them work. I’m honestly not so concerned about how this series will end; comedies don’t have to have great endings these days, though it certainly helps. Besides, considering how dark the series can be with so much of its humor,  even if we get a happy ending we know it’ll be tempered. The opening of the third season revealed as much. Of course what would be a good ending? A lot of Emmy nominations.

My score: 5 stars.

Another Great Actor Left Us This Week: A Eulogy for Ned Beatty

 

Why Didn’t We Appreciate Him in the Present?

 

I’ve been very busy this past week, so I haven’t yet had a chance to pay tribute to an actor I greatly admired who died on Sunday. Ned Beatty was one of the great character actors in history. Once classified ‘the busiest actor in Hollywood’ during the 1970s he certainly was. From his debut in Deliverance to Nashville, All the President’s Men, and his Oscar nominated turn in Network to his memorable turns in The Big Easy and Rudy, he gave some of the most memorable performances on film. He appeared in some of the most memorable TV movies and limited series in the 1970s and 1980s - The Execution of Private Slovik, The Story of Jim Jones, A Woman Called Golda – and continued to be a force well into his seventies.

However, I’d actually like to start with something that makes less sense when you consider his credits and ability. During the 1990s, Beatty seemed to be at the center of a lot of jokes about his level of skill as an actor. I remember an episode of Married: With Children, where Al invokes a huge laugh by wanting to stay home and watch Beatty performer as a singer. On the cult show The Critic, we see a clip of Jay Sherman saying: “That is why the best actor of this, or indeed any generation, is Ned Beatty.” A crowd of Cubans see this and start yelling: “El Critico Loco!” and start throwing things at the screen. These may have been gentle poke, but I remember reading an issue of Entertainment Weekly in 1996 saying directly that Homicide was a much better show now that Ned Beatty was no longer weighing it down. (I strongly disagree with that, and I’ll explain why.)

I can understand why some celebrities are the topic of abuse and jokes, but Beatty never seemed to fit that mold. He was never a leading man, he was never a celebrity. Character actors are lucky to be acknowledged by critics, and it’s rare that they get targeted by pop culture. Why was there this fixation on him? I’ll never understand.

As those of you who’ve followed my blog are aware, I worshiped Homicide when it was on the air and beyond. When I first began watching it, Beatty’s character had left the series so I only heard about him when ever Munch complained how much he missed him. Then about a year later I started seeing reruns and I understood why he did and why I’d missed out.

Beatty portrayed Stanley Bolander aka ‘The Big Man’. Like so many of the original case, Bolander was based on an actual homicide detective Donald Worden. (Like Bolander, Worden didn’t mince words: interviewed about the show, his first words were: “The series sucks.”)  In 1993, it was still rare for a major Hollywood actor to appear on a TV series, so Beatty was a huge get. And in the three truncated seasons Beatty was on the show, he made an impression.

Bolander was the twenty-five year veteran on the squad, chugging towards his pension. His main partner on the series was John Munch (Richard Belzer, starting an arc that would last more than twenty years and countless shows). Throughout the series, Munch was in an endless battle for Bolander’s respect, which he didn’t willingly give. Bolander was always complaining about the end of his marriage and how Munch paled in comparison to his old partner, Mitch. He suffered Munch’s conspiracy theories and his old romances by basically ignoring them, something none of Munch’s future partners had the logic to do.

Bolander spent much of the series immersed in melancholy, part of it dealing with being ‘murder police’ part with the end of his marriage. Beatty was always good at showing the humanity in his character. In one of the more memorable moments of the first season, Bolander’s ends an episode with a monologue about love – how it killed Elvis, how he danced to Elvis at his wedding, how he wasn’t sure his wife loved him. The episode ended with Bolander singing ‘Love Me Tender’ to himself. It was a poignant moment. (Indeed, it affected the series run. That moment was supposed to air in the season finale, but NBC executives found it so depressing that they moved another episode with a more upbeat end in its place.)

Bolander was the only detective who you’d confide in rather than confess after intense interrogation. He was also the only detective capable of talking to Giardello (the late Yaphet Kotto) as an equal. There were some very moving moments, particularly when Bolander brought Gee dinner and the Lieutenant confided how much he missed his wife and how much the job had taken from him. You couldn’t see Gee saying that to anybody else.

Beatty left the show on bad terms at the end of the third season. Upset at how the shooting of the series left him no time to appear in the most recent revival of Show Boat, he quit while it was unclear whether Homicide would be brought back for a fourth season. Tom Fontana and company remained angry about it for awhile. In retrospect, I don’t think I blame Beatty for doing so. Beatty was a busy actor before he signed on to the show. In the course of his three years, his character got pushed more and more to the background behind Andre Braugher and Kyle Secor. More to the point, every season Homicide was on the air, everybody on the series had to wait months to know if they would be coming back. Living in limbo was galling for everybody in the cast; I can’t imagine how bad it was for a pro like Beatty.

That being said, it was a loss for the series. For the remainder of the show’s run, there were be many new detectives in the squad, but no one like Stan Bolander, no elder statesman, no one professional. The series stopped trying to get actors that looked like detectives and more like matinee idols, and a lot of fans didn’t look favorably on it.

Beatty was a great actor, one of the few pure character actors still alive. Most of the pure ones – the Harry Dean Stantons, the Jon Politos, - have left us. He deserved to be remembered approvingly, for unforgettable roles like Stanley Bolander.

You Really Wish This Series Wasn't Called Hacks: A Series About Comedy That Isn't That Funny

 

As Edmund Gwenn put it: “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” And even harder is putting together a TV show about how hard comedy is. The reason 30 Rock ended up last seven seasons was because Tina Fey and company made the smart decision early on that the show at the center wasn’t going to be funny and therefore they could make fun of everything else. Aaron Sorkin took the other approach in Studio 60 and despite having an incredible cast, made an utterly disaster of a TV show. The biggest success dealing with comedy, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, is as good as it is because it deals only peripherally with Midge’s act and has a lot of fun with everything other aspect of show business.

This is not the most encouraging way to start a review of HBO Max’s newest comedy Hacks, and there’s a reason for that: despite receiving a fair amount of praise, I don’t think it works particularly well as a comedy. The series focuses on Deborah Vance (Jean Smart, who I’ll get to in a minute) a legendary comedienne who is clearly on the downside of her career. Her Vegas Residency is being threatened by a casino owner who’s trying to push her out with a boy band, and it seems a lot of her income is supplemented from various home shopping network and days on the road.

In the middle of this comes Ava, a millennial comic writer who has just gotten fired for a horrible tweet.  Ava is desperate for work, but seems to want it on her own terms. That basically means trying to find work without saying you need work. She ‘runs into’ an old friend at a café, and seems utterly astonished that she won’t give her a favor. She orders delivery food in order to get a place to sleep. Her agent, Marcus, really wants to help her, but is utterly unable to deal with someone who won’t do her work. He ‘arranges’ for Ava to work for Deborah Vance without either of them agreeing to it before hand. The show is about how Ava and Deborah begin to work together.

Granted that I’ve only seen two episodes so far, I find the central premise of this series flawed from the get go. The lion’s share of the blame has to fall in the character of Ava. I didn’t think there could be more offsetting young characters on TV since We Are Who We Are finished its run last year, but Ava utterly makes them seem warm and cuddly. From the moment we meet Ava, she completely epitomizes the very worst aspects of every level of the entitled millennial. She thinks she’s a successful comic writer, but she doesn’t want to do any of the work of being a writer. And it seems like every aspect of Hannah Einbinder’s performance seems to be determined to bring out the most unpleasant part of her. She doesn’t bother to do any research into Deborah when she meets her, she refuses to put in the minimum of work when it comes to her initial job of writing jokes (something that Deborah calls her on from the very beginning) and she seems to believe that what she thinks is funny, the world thinks is funny. (I’ll get to that in a moment.) In a critical moment in the second episode, she recycles a story a friend of Deborah’s told her to try and get what she wants out of a selfish shopkeeper. In a sense that’s exactly who Ava is. She has nothing new to offer.

Where the series works – and is often brilliant – is entirely from the performance of Jean Smart. Smart has always been one of the television’s most brilliant and versatile actresses; it’s almost impossible to believe this is the same woman we saw in Mare of Easttown just a few weeks ago. It would be easy to make Deborah just seem like another tired old comedienne cruising on her legend, and it’s not easy to like her: she’s brutal to everybody: the casino owner, her agent, even her own daughter. But when she disparages Ava (and those moments are the highpoint of the show), you get a sense of who she is and why she does. The best moment I’ve seen so far comes when Ava tries to convince her of her abilities by saying: “I’m good.” Deborah looks at her, says: “Good’s the baseline,” and in a brilliant monologue lays bare exactly what it takes to succeed in the business and how entitled Ava is. When she flies away in a helicopter (you have to be there) leaving Ava behind, you get the feeling that it’s the best way she could exit. Smart utterly deserves to be in the conversation for Best Actress in a Comedy.

Right now, however, the major problem with Hacks is that the comedy just isn’t funny. In Deborah’s act, you get no sign as to how she became a legend or what makes Ava a brilliant talent. The end of the Pilot, where they try to come up with a joke of the horrible tweet Ava made was an utter mess, not just because Ava’s tweet wasn’t funny, but because the end result wasn’t funny either. This is often the sticking point for those few shows that try to deal with it: it’s why Studio 60 bombed and was the main reason that I’m Dying Up Here (a series about The Comedy Store) had so many problems. Midge’s act on Maisel is often improvised, but at least it’s funny.

I’m not going to give up on Hacks for one reason: Jean Smart. For decades, Smart has been one of the greatest talents on television, and every six or seven years, the medium keeps relearning this. In the 2000s, we all were in awe of her as Martha Logan on 24 and as the messed up mother on Samantha Who? In the 2010s, we marveled at her brilliance as Floyd Gerhardt, the doomed matriarch of a crime family in the second season of Fargo. Now once again, the world has discovered her on her double threat these past few months, coming off a brilliant performance on Watchmen. . Smart isn’t quite Deborah Vance, but she is as close to an icon as television has seen. I’m not sure yet she deserves an Emmy for Hacks, but I think she’d have a better speech that Deb would.

My score: 3.25 stars.

My Choices For The 2021 Emmy Nominations: Week 1, Part 5 Outstanding Supporting Actress in A Drama

 

Let’s get this out front. Nothing will ever convince me to like The Handmaid’s Tale. Even those who love the series must admit on its best day, its torture porn. The fact that it may show a reality we don’t want to face doesn’t make it entertainment, and I don’t care how many of my favorite actresses are in it. Nothing will allow me to consider them worthy of a nomination. Especially when there are so many other actresses out there who deserve to be recognized for going into territory just as dark with a little more presence to it. There are only a couple of nominees who might repeat here. I’ll deal with them, and some new blood.

 

Gillian Anderson, The Crown

Has there ever been any doubt that Anderson is one of the greatest actresses in the history of television BEFORE she took on the role of Margaret Thatcher? There have been many great performances on The Crown – I’ve just spent the last few days explaining why they deserve to be honored – but there are almost none as extraordinary Anderson. Leaving aside the makeup and the flawless British accent, Anderson holds her own in every single scene she shares with Colman. Forget everything you thought you knew about Thatcher. Forget what you thought you learned in The Iron Lady. Anderson commands the screen – showing her true thoughts of the monarchy, her thoughts of her family, and why so many people feared her – that even Dana Scully would have trouble facing her. Anderson has won every pre-Emmy award. There’s no way she doesn’t get a bookend Emmy to go with the one she won for The X-Files

 

Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown

Of course, this isn’t anywhere near fair for Carter whose work as the OTHER Margaret on this series has a master class in acting. Princess Margaret has been in many ways the most sympathetic character on the series – always in the shadow of her sister, always being denied happiness and love, always being the one who see the clearest of her family and always being ignored. Watching her suffer in her central episode this year as she learned about the madness in the family was the kind of work that deserves an Emmy in any other year. And can we be honest: Helena Bonham Carter has been acting for nearly forty years. Why does she have nothing – no Oscars, no Emmys, no trophies at all to show for it? Carter deserves to win. But like Margaret, she’ll have to watch as a brighter star eclipses her.

 

Dominique Jackson, Pose

There are a lot of extraordinary actresses on Pose that it’s very hard to make an argument for one over the other. But anyone who has seen Jackson’s utterly fearless performance as Electra knows why she is the queen. In the final season, we got a look at her origin story and it was haunting. We saw her embrace her family as never before. We saw her finally get the riches she was entitled to, and had the power to finally be the kind of boss she always was. And in the final episode, we saw her mourn Pray Tell, reach her heights and name her daughter a legend the same way she was. Jackson is more of a long shot in this category than some of the others. I dare the Academy to tell Electra she hasn’t earned it.

 

Tatiana Maslany, Perry Mason

Everybody who watched an episode of Orphan Black knows just how incredible an actress Tatiana Maslany has always been. So by this point, nothing she does should surprise me any more. Then you see her play Sister Alice, the 1930s Evangelist who embraces the family of a murdered child (much to the dismay of Perry) and then seems to go through a phase of madness where she claims the child will be brought back from the dead. And frankly, the way it takes over the defendant and her mother, you’d really think it was infectious. But it does say something that of everybody in this series, Alice is the only one with a real moral code. When she has her final talk with Perry, you almost want to believe her. That’s how good Maslany is, and it’s more than earned her another trip back.

 

Wunmi Mosaku, Lovecraft Country

There were a lot of great supporting performances from the women of Lovecraft Country, and I really wouldn’t mind if Annajue Ellis or Abbey Lee were brought forward to share the dais. But during the entire season, the supporting performance that sticks with you the most is Mosaku’s as Ruby, Letitia’s older sister, trying to find a place in the world and willing to make a deal with the devil to get there. The longer you watch her work, the more selfish she seems, until the last episode where she makes a critical choice… and pays for it. (Her final scene on the series has the kind of layers that are worthy of a nomination in itself.)  There are a lot of great performances on Lovecraft Country. This one sticks with you like a high hell driven in to your back.

 

Brooke Smith, Big Sky

There were a lot of great supporting female performance throughout the first season of Big Sky and I could see Jessie James Keitel or Valerie Mahaffey getting a nod as well. But of all the performers, Smith had one of the widest ranges. Starting by appearing to be a simple domestic housewife, bullied by Big Rick, we saw her broaden her horizons (albeit with the worst possible person). Then she learned of her husband’s crimes and the man she had been seeing. Then she went through endless verbal abuse by her husband’s lawyer, and in one shining moment at the end of her arc, she knew the truth about him. Partly because of what we knew about Rick, I actually didn’t mind her final action. I don’t know if we’ll see her again, but I do know she deserves a nomination.

 

Susan Kalechi Watson, This is Us

I could speak up for Chrissy Metz, but really Beth has been the secret weapon of This is Us almost since the series started. She’s always needed to stay grounded to support Randall through good times and sad. And there were sad times, not just for him, but as the dance studio she’d poured her life into became yet another victim of the pandemic. Throw into this her struggles with her mother (can Phyllicia Rashad get a nod too) and her daughters, two of whom had romantic struggles that really put her through the ringer and you get the feeling that this woman is as much a saint as the late Jack Pearson. I don’t think her odds of winner are good, but she really deserves a nomination. Far more than any of the women of Gilead.

 

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Britt Robertson, Big Sky

I wasn’t a huge fan of the entire Kleinsasser storyline during Big Sky’s second half, but there was one actress who made it sing: Robertson’s incredible performance as Cheyenne, the youngest who’s the most deserving of the ranch but who will never get it because she’s a woman. Every moment she was on the screen, you could feel the electricity – the way she held her own with her brothers, claimed her power animal, and brought her mother back from being an invalid. You could see the power that Robertson brings here like she has in almost every performance she’s given in the last ten years – and she’s not even thirty yet. I actually wouldn’t mind if she reappeared in Season 2. Now that she has power, I want to see what she does with it.

 

I’ll be back next week with the comedies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Hopes For This Year's Emmy Nominations: Week 1, Part 4 Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama

 

This is traditionally a character actor’s category. And considering that all but one of last year’s nominees are eligible, there’s going to be a lot of different faces. I should say up front that despite my admiration for Bradley Whitford, I refuse to consider him for The Handmaid’s Tale out of my loathing for that series. Similarly, much as I admire Giancarlo Esposito, I will not consider him for The Mandalorian. (He should’ve won earlier for Better Call Saul or Breaking Bad.) So who does that leave us? Quite a few interesting choices.

 

John Benjamin Hickey, In Treatment

He’s been acting on TV for what seems like forever and over the last decade he’s had an incredible run, from his memorable stint as a seriously messed up brother on The Big C to his twisted turn as the head of the atom bomb project on the two short lived Manhattan to the arrogant head of Chumhum who seems to forever be antagonizing the law on The Good Wife and The Good Fight. But as Colin, Hickey has done some of his best work ever, playing a tech legend coming to see Brooke because of his probation. He claims to be in love with the idea of therapy, but Brooke has his number early, and with each successive week, we begin to wonder if we, like Brooke, can trust a word out of his mouth. Colin makes it clear he wants us to like him and some part of us does; even though we’re not sure we can ever trust him. I’ve been astonished Hickey has never gotten an Emmy nomination despite his storied career. I’m pretty sure that’s about to change.

 

John Lithgow, Perry Mason

E.B. Jonathan is the only person willing to give Perry a chance. He’s been a legend for so long only Della Street knows just how long he’s been cruising. He doesn’t recognize the world he lives in anymore or the justice system anymore. And that’s the main reason he no longer thinks he can handle this brave horrible world. Lithgow’s role on Perry Mason was relatively brief – he only appeared in the first four episodes – but it was more than enough to make a lasting impression. Part of that is due the fact that Lithgow is one of the greatest actors in history and that becomes true no matter what medium he’s working in. His was the only death in the first season that really resonated because he may have been the only pure character on that show. Would I like to see someone like Shea Whigham or Stephen Root nominated for their work, which was just as good? Sure. But Lithgow is the most likely candidate in this category and he’s earned it.

 

John Carroll Lynch, Big Sky

Lynch’s performance as ‘Big Rick’ was one of the best things about Big Sky. He played his character in the Pilot as if he were completely trustworthy, which is why it came as such a shock when he shot Ryan Philippe’s character in the face. For the next four episodes, Lynch gave a masterwork in evil, raging at Roland for everything, just oozing contempt with Jenny and Cassie, right up until the moment Cassie shot him. Then for the next four episodes, he seems completely brain dead, and its testimony to just how brilliant Lynch was that even though we thought it was an act, we just weren’t sure. There was one person he couldn’t fool though, and it cost him. I’m still not entirely sure if the second half of Big Sky worked as well with Lynch’s character dead. What I do know is that it was a masterwork of a performance and he’s another great character actor who never gets his due. He’s earned a chance a nomination.

 

Tobias Menzies, The Crown

As good as Menzies has been in the last two years, I have a feeling he is benefit from one of the more bizarre turns in TV history: the real-life person he’s been playing passed away earlier this year. As great as Menzies has been as Prince Philip (and that comes from taking over a masterwork job by Matt Smith the first two seasons) with most of the attention going to the next generation, he had a bit less to do this season. Which doesn’t mean Menzies did tear into the meaty scenes he had. In the opening episode after Lord Mountbatten was assassinated and he did everything but comfort Charles when it came to mourning, when he gave Diana the pass that Camilla would never get… those were great moments. But more than anything else, we got a feeling more this season that Philip was part of a generation that should well have been left behind years ago. That being said, his work last year was ignobly ignored and he more than deserves on last shot before he leaves the series next season.

 

Anthony Ramos, In Treatment

For the first four sessions, Eladio and Brooke are forced to communicate through video chat. It’s a credit to Ramos that the pure power of his character resonated more strongly than so many of the other characters we met in her office. As a caregiver who can’t sleep and who seems utterly incapable of handling his emotions, Eladio is convinced that there is something wrong with him, and he can’t accept the possibility that there isn’t. Ramos expressed the greatest range of any of the patients on In Treatment, always seeming like no one understood what he was try say, always so upset at the world but never able to tell people why. It’s small wonder that Dr. Taylor really worries about him the most of all her patients; we want to care for Eladio so much. Ramos has been working in the background, and this year likes he’s about to break big. He deserves a nomination.

 

Chris Sullivan, This is Us

Though he’s never been part of the ‘Big Three’ Toby has been since the Pilot, kind of the heart of the show. He’s always been Kate’s biggest defender and he’s always there to give her support through the tough time. And they were tough this season, as he learned about her teenage pregnancy through a terrible relationship and his continued problems with his son and their new child. He also struggled to find a way forward with new employment and being a house husband. He’s always been there for Kate, which was why the last couple of minutes of the Season 5 finale hurt so much. How can Kate marry someone else? (We know from the season 3 finale that Toby’s still alive in the future.) There’s got to be a way they work through this. As someone who’s always Team Toby, Sullivan deserves another nomination.

 

Michael K. Williams, Lovecraft Country

Be honest. Williams has deserved an Emmy since we first met Omar Little. For the past twenty years, HBO has given Williams some of the greatest roles any African American has ever had: Chalky White on Boardwalk Empire and the lifer that takes Riz Ahmed’s character under his protection in The Night Of. Only recently has he begun to receive the Emmy nominations he’s deserved. So he’s probably the favorite not so much because he won the Broadcast Critics Award for Supporting Actor but because of everything else. But make no mistake: as the troubled Montrose, Williams went to depths that he’s only recently had a chance to plumb. As a father never sure if his son was his, and never loving him; as a gay man where it’s bad enough just to be black, as the carrier of a legacy that could destroy the world, everything Williams’ said was loaded with purpose. And when he traveled to Tulsa to 1921 just in time to see the defining moment of his life, you could see the heartbreak in everything he did. Should Williams have won decades ago? Of course. Does he deserve to win now? Absolutely.

 

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

James Roday Rodriguez, A Million Little Things

 

This series should have gotten a crapload of nominations by now. It’s one of the best shows on television anywhere. But if there’s one actor in the cast who more than earned a seat at the table, it’s Rodriguez. He’s spent the last two years being considered the joker, but Gary had so many great dramatic moments. From his praying over Eddie’s bed in the season premiere to the agonies of his new girlfriend’s PTSD to the truth we learned about how he got his name and his complicated relationship with his father and the way he utterly exploded at Delilah for how she spent most of the season in Europe abandoning her children. And that’s all without considering the incredible rage he showed during the most haunting story: Sophie’s being molested by her music teacher. He spent the back half trying to find a way not to explode, and even though we knew in the finale it was coming, it was horrifying because of how much we love Gary. The show’s gotten renewed for a fourth long season. It would be nice if after all the suffering, Rodriguez got a nomination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Choices For The 2021 Emmy Nominations: Week 1, Part 3 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama

 

Only two nominees from the previous year are eligible, so once again there’s lots of room for variety. Even with last year’s winner ineligible, there’s a lot of room for diversity: three women of color could very easily end up being nominated. I think that there’s room for a little more variety than usual. So here are my choices.

 

Uzo Aduba, In Treatment

I don’t think I’ve ever given Uzo Aduba enough credit as an actress. I never liked Orange is the New Black, so I never appreciated her ‘role of a lifetime’ and I don’t think I thought she had a chance in hell of winning Best Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series last year for her work as Shirley Chisholm in Mrs. America. But there is no way you can watch this reimagining of In Treatment and not be in utter awe of her work as Dr. Brooke Taylor. It comes clear in each patient she sees: her pleading with Eladio, her ultimate rage at Colin, her desperation with Tessa. And all this while dealing with the passing of her father, the search for a son she gave up as a teenager, and her failing with her sobriety and relationship with a dangerous man. I don’t think I was willing to give Aduba a chance for her three previous wins. She utterly deserves a nomination her.

 

Olivia Colman, The Crown

I’m kind of astonished that after spending the better part of three seasons feeling immense sympathy for Elizabeth, I now spent much of Season 4 openly disliking her. A lot of people began thinking the monarchy was something of a relic, and its rather stunning to see that Elizabeth, as she faces middle age, now sees herself as a failure as a wife and mother…and seems utterly incapable of doing anything about it. That doesn’t mean that there still weren’t a lot of brilliant moments for Colman throughout season 4, as she clashed with Margaret Thatcher, dealt with the new marriage, and in the most fascinating episode had an encounter with a British citizen who told her just how lost she might be. I really think Colman deserves to win before she lives. But she might not, because…

 

Emma Corrin, The Crown

There was always going to be a lot of fuss when Diana Spencer finally entered this series given everything we already know about her. But something remarkable happened. We were introduced to the first truly and purely sympathetic character in the entire series, and through this outsider – not wanted by the family or her husband – we saw just how stale the monarchy was. This was a complete reversal from Morgan’s The Queen, and a large part of the reason it works so well is from the remarkable work of Corrin as Diana. Almost from the beginning, the viewer is completely on her side and we see Diana who makes the mistake of being a human being in a family that views itself more as an institution than anything else. Corrin has already won a Golden Globe and Critics Choice. Barring an upset by Colman, it’s going to be hard for her to lose.

 

Mandy Moore, This is Us

It has been hard watching Rebecca over the last couple of seasons of This is Us knowing her diagnosis and just where she’s going to end up when the series meets its end. And the reason we are so wrenched every time we see Rebecca in the present is because of how brilliant Moore is in every aspect of her portrayal. We see her playing different version of herself every year – the younger Rebecca and her happiness with Jack, raising The Big Three in their tricky early years, trying to get by without her husband, and the variations of all her relationships with her children in the past and the present. Here we saw her make her peace with Kate, the one child she had the trickiest relationship with, dealing with the agony of not being able to be there when her grandchildren were born and her own agony of being a bad mother. I don’t know why Moore has gotten so few nominations for this show. I hope they remember her this time.

 

MJ Rodriguez, Pose

One of the more remarkable things about Pose is how we see each of its characters rise from their nadirs. And while Porter has gotten the most attention from the Emmys, Rodriguez’s stunning work as Blanca may be the greatest achievement of the show. We’ve watch her come from to streets to raise a surrogate family and see them grow up. We watched her become a caregiver and remarkably end up becoming a nurse. We watched her finally become a wife after years of struggling. And in the finale, we saw her pass on what she has learned to a new generation of terrified young black women. The best moment for her wasn’t just her being named a legend in the ballrooms where she became one. It was when her ‘mother’ Electra, who she’s had her ups and down with, admitted that she’d never been prouder of her daughter. Rodriguez deserves a trip to the runways.

 

Jurnee Smollett, Lovecraft Country

She never seems to get her due, even though she’s been acting forever from Full House  to the last two seasons of Friday Night Lights to the criminally underwatched Underground. Well as Letitia F-ing Lewis, this is where she gets what she’s owed. Atticus may have been the protagonist of Lovecraft Country but most of the great moments – from her shooting white people chasing her out of town to her smashing windshields during a party in order to bring the police – and then getting tossed in a paddy wagon – were hers. And that’s before we find out she’s in the middle of a century long quest for power.          For all intents and purposes Letitia was the soul of Lovecraft Country and Jurnee Smollet utterly commanding the screen in every scene she was in. She’s more than earned a nomination.

 

Katheryn Winnick, Big Sky

From the moment she worked out that her ex-husband was having an affair with their other partner in the PIs which led to a barroom brawl with her, which led to sex with her husband… and that was before the real trouble started. Anyway, Jenny Hoyt has been one of the most memorable new character to appear on TV in awhile – a ballsy woman who has a perfect BS detector, who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, and can hold her own with the most unlikely bad guy. The worst thing anyone with a secret can do is underestimate Jenny Hoyt. Winnick is one of the greatest talents I’ve seen on any platform in a while, and her work more than deserves a nomination. (I’d like them to find from for Kylie Bunbury, her partner in policing but I don’t know if the Emmys can.) I think she’ll survive the cliffhanger. But she deserves a nod just in case.

 

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Chiara Aurelia/Olivia Holt, Cruel Summer

If this series had aired on Netflix or Amazon, I wouldn’t have to plead for these two brilliant actresses to get nominations. They’d be in the frontlines already. Jeanette Turner and Kate Wallis are two very different teenage girls whose lives would never interact under any circumstances… until a truly horrific event happens and a more horrific accusation is made. Aurelia and Holt give two of the best performances in three separate years, showing remarkable range not only in physical appearance but in psychological behavior. You couldn’t imagine one working without the other, which is why its so remarkable their longest scene together was in the season one finale. But even though this series was a monster hit, it aired on Freeform a network that has been ignored by almost every award group. Forget the network. These two actresses can stand with anybody prospective nominee or winner. And they’re going to be around for a long, long time.

 

 

 

It Was The Best Summer Ever: Cruel Summer recap

 

(Warning: The following contains spoilers for the entire first season of Cruel Summer.)

 

Usually, in any crime story, the revelations in the final episode of the season can be a complete disappointment. There are still fans angry at the end of Season 1 of True Detective and The Killing.  But the last two episodes of Freeform’s incredible drama Cruel Summer did exactly what they said they would: they revealed the central mystery… and more.

For most of Season 1, the story that Kate Wallis (Olivia Holt) has been telling the world is that she was abducted by Martin Harris and that he held her prisoner for almost a year. In the penultimate episode, we learned that was anything but the truth. Throughout the therapy sessions that Kate had been going to, we learned that Kate had been going through the practice of ‘grooming’, the predator convincing a younger person that they are an adult so that they will learn to depend on them. That being said, it came as a huge shock when he ended up learning, not only that Kate ran away to Martin’s house the night she disappeared, but that for the better part of three months, their relationship was almost…romantic. What we saw in the early stages of the ninth episode was that Kate truly believed – and indeed, Martin may have believed – that they were truly on equal footing. For that reason, they stayed happily in ‘a bubble’ – the house for weeks. It was only after a few months that the ugly side of Martin’s nature began to come out.

That was before the biggest shock of the penultimate episode – Jeanette was in the house. However, Kate hadn’t revealed the truth, either. When Jeanette came in, Kate ran upstairs. As Kate would tell her therapist later, part of her wanted Jeanette to find her – to take the decision out of her hands. Jeanette heard her, but never saw her. Kate did leave the house, went home, and in a case of horrible misfortune saw her parents laugh for perhaps the only time they did while she was gone. Kate went back to Martins, where things got worse quickly. She tried to leave, and then ended up in the basement.

All of this was a big shock, but most of it paled in comparison to last night’s finale. The lawsuit began, and all of Kate’s truth (which she had been inadvertently revealing to her stepsister Alex for the past several months) came out. This led to the highpoint of the season and one of the great moments of television in 2021 so far.

Trying to get the truth of what really happened Kate and Jeanette – who have barely interacted throughout the entire series – finally had a showdown in Martin Harris’ house. All the hostility of the past year came out in perhaps the most meaningful exchange:

Jeanette: “You ruined my life!”

Kate: “You stole mine!”

Jeanette: “You didn’t even want it!”

 

In a nutshell, that is what everything both women have gone through all season was about. But there were bigger revelations ahead.

There was a replay of Christmas night 1994. And we saw one more thing. Kate has believed all this time that Jeanette made eye contact after she left the house, and that she knew Kate was there. But someone did see her – only it was Mallory, Jeanette’s former best friend, and now Kate’s. She had followed Kate there to see her breaking into the house, and saw her come out with a snow globe. The two had another angry exchange – one where I think Jeanette was justified – and Mallory left with the snow globe.

This revelation was so explosive that the front Kate had put up all these year finally buckled, and it seemed remarkable that Jeanette accepted everything. This led to another stunning scene. The two girls went to the basement where Kate had been held prisoner – and Kate finally remembered what happened on the last day. We also learned who ‘Annabel’ was. It was shotgun that Martin owned – that his father had killed himself with. The final confrontation between Martin and Kate was frightening, moving and shocking. Martin initially seemed at peace seeing the end was near. He seemed about to let Kate go. He put the gun to his head…but couldn’t pull the trigger. Ultimately, Kate finally shot him. The story that there was a shootout was just one they told the cops.

Jeanette and Kate finally made peace. Kate said Jeanette should sue her for what she did. And Jeanette told the truth, it was never about the money. And that part of her really thought she deserved what had happened this past year because she never thought she deserved to be special or loved. Kate made a public apology (and no surprise, the media would turn on her and embrace Jeanette)

The last ten minutes were beautiful. Mallory was about to runaway when Kate confronted her. She admitted that she had seen someone in the window, but she had always assumed it was Martin’s girlfriend or sister. Never for a moment had she even considered it was Kate. Why would she; it went against the story Kate had been telling all this time? But now because she realized just how badly she had failed her friend, she planned to leave town. And Kate showed the same level of forgiveness she had shown Jeanette.

The last two minutes seemed like we were getting a real happy ending. Jeanette appeared on the same show that Kate had destroyed her on in the Pilot, and expressed real forgiveness and love. Kate and Mallory drove out of town, danced in the street, and then the two kissed. It really seemed beautiful…which was why the last thirty seconds were such a kick in the teeth. In 1994, we see Jeanette go into the house. Kate is in the basement, knocking on the door shouting for help. Jeanette puts her hand on the knob, pauses…and removes it. It was one of the most gutting moments I’ve seen all year, and threw into question everything we thought we knew about Jeanette.

If this was a perfect world, the Academy would reward Cruel Summer with lost of Emmy nominations, starting with two for Olivia Holt and Chiara Aurelia for giving two of the best performances I’ve seen this entire season. I always give extra credit for performances with extra layers and considering how different each one was in 1993, ’94 and ’95, as well the secret each one was carrying, and both deserved nominations. But all of the performances from Harley Quinn Smith as Mallory to Blake Lee as Martin Harris were magnificent. And every technical aspect, from the makeup to the hair to the cinematography, deserves recognition.

I think I let out a cheer when I learned yesterday that Cruel Summer had been renewed for a second season. It wasn’t a hard choice: apparently this is the highest rated series of any kind in Freeform’s history. Of course, then comes the question: What will Season 2 look like? Even the showrunners admit they don’t know yet. Maybe it’ll be an anthology series with different actors.

But part of me really hopes they try to carry on with the current cast in a new season because there are so many unanswered questions. What really broke up the Turner marriage? Can Jeanette work things out with her mother? Can Vince and Ben work out their relationship? Will Mallory and Kate’s kiss mean more than just friendship? Will Jeanette ever be able to forgive her stepsister? What will happen between her and Derek now that the truth has come out? And will the real truth about what Jeanette did ever come out?

Whatever happens in Cruel Summer’s future, no one can deny what it accomplished this year. It dealt with a psychological issue far more disturbing than so many that have been made conventional on Law and Order: SVU and Criminal Minds. It told a very complicated story in a very unusual way. And it featured some of the greatest writing, directing and acting I’ve seen so far. It’s going to be really hard to regard this series as anything but one of the year’s best shows.

My score: 5 stars.