I Attempt to Pick This Years Emmy Winners: Week 1, Day 2: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama

 

Wow. Four out of six nominees are African-American, and three of them gave some of the most tremendous performances of the past year. (Like I said, not a Bridgerton fan, and wouldn’t have minded seeing Aldis Hodge here instead.). Here’s how I think it’ll turn out.

 

Sterling K. Brown, This is Us: 7-1. For playing: Randall Pierson, the most troubled member of the Big Three. Pro: Brown is traditionally the stalwart of this incredible cast, but this year he went to new heights. On the outs with Kate and Kevin for much of the season, he dealt with the cries for racial justice his own way. He learned the true history of his birth mother, helped Kevin’s fiancée through labor, aided his wife through a huge loss. And in arguably the season’s finest hour, finally dealt with his and Kevin’s baggage, which went back forty years…and dealt with things we never thought to explore. Con: It really hurts me to consider that such an extraordinary actor as Brown and the series he’s on is essentially ‘old news’ . But just as the Emmys left The Good Wife in the dirt well before it reached its peak, they seem to have forgotten one of broadcast TV’s greatest successes. It’s just not fair.

 

 

Jonathan Majors, Lovecraft Country: 6-1. For Playing: Atticus ‘Tic’ Freeman, a former soldier hunting for his father and his legacy in 1950s America. Pro: There may have been some debate whether Majors deserved top billing or not, but there’s no argument he was one of the 2020’s breakthrough stars. Playing a lover of fantasy who finds himself in a supernatural world, learning his family’s history and birthright in a world that doesn’t want a black man to have anything, Majors covered a huge amount of range as he traveled cross the globe, back through time, and facing his destiny… which ended in his death. A truly stirring performance. Con: The series was cancelled, which rarely helps nominees. It was going to be an anthology series, which means its in the wrong category. And most importantly, for all the nominations it got from everywhere, the lion’s share of the actors have been ignored. And there were bigger stars and better performances in this category. It just doesn’t look good.

 

Josh O’Connor, The Crown: 71-20. For Playing: Prince Charles, heir to the throne. Pro: It’s amazing what Morgan and his actors can do. Last season, Charles was a pretty sympathetic character as we saw how little his own family to love him or respect his wishes. Now, as he finds himself married to Diana, all the viewer’s sympathy is quickly drained as we realize he never loved and that everything the world finds charming and beautiful about her, he finds a distraction and ‘showboating’. The final two episodes where he basically tortures his wife into cheating on him, utterly calls all her actions selfish, and is utterly tormented by his mother were some of the most magnificent drama all year. Throw in his Golden Globe and Broadcast Critics prize, and it almost seems a sure thing. Con: It’s been awhile since Season 4 premiered, and there have been more than a few performances that have surpassed him. Could O’Connor have peaked too soon?

 

Rege-Jean Page, Bridgerton: 5-1. For Playing: Simon Bassett, the Duke of Hastings, back in Regency England to claim his title. Pro: For reasons that beggar my understanding, Page has captivated a large amount of the streaming audience this year. (Ok, I did like his work in For the People, but honestly, he was more likeable there.) As the lone nominee from Bridgeton and by far its biggest breakthrough performer, there will be a lot of draw to him. And considering that there are some aspects to his performance that are brilliant, I can see why some people love him. Con: Though actors do have more of a tendency to win Emmys in Rhimes’ series than female ones, its almost entirely in the Guest Acting category. And for all the effort to make Simon fully rounded, we can’t forget that Rhimes’ series are almost entirely about the women. I don’t think he has a real chance.

 

Billy Porter, Pose: 39-10. For Playing: Pray Tell, going through the final stages of AIDS. Pro: In all honesty, Porter’s performance in the final season of Pose was one of the greatest achievements in the history of television. Watching him collapse into alcoholism as a result of going to far too many funerals, going to rehab only to see the final stages coming on fast. Then we paid a visit to his Southern hometown to finally meet his family and his first love – one who kept denying himself even now, as well as the only relative he had who truly understood him. And that was before the finale, when he finally seemed to be brought back from the dead…only to die in his bed, having sacrificed himself for the man he loved. If this doesn’t deserve an Emmy, I don’t know what does. Con: All of the worship that is being directed towards Josh O’Connor. And he does have one Emmy for this role already.

 

Matthew Rhys, Perry Mason: 13-2. For Playing: 1930s P.I. turned attorney Perry Mason. Pro: When you take over an iconic role, you’re asking for trouble. But under Rhys’ brilliant work, he took the character back to the roots, a divorced man living alone scrambling to get by in the Depression, who gets dragged in to a case by the only man he admires, who becomes an attorney to strive against a corrupt system rather than the fact he even likes his client. Rhys has now moved to the echelon of television’s great actors and I actually thought the series deserved far more attention than it got from the Emmys. Con: The series premiered last June and wasn’t nearly as flashy as some of the other shows or nominees. It’s a remake, which doesn’t traditionally do well at the Emmys. And in a way, its far too retro compared to a lot of the shows here. Rhys will have to wait for Season 2, which is coming…right?

 

Prediction: Barring an upset by Porter – and I have to tell you, that is becoming more and more possible by the day – look for O’Connor to complete the journey that began in January.

I Attempt To Predict This Year's Emmys: Week 1, Part 1: Outstanding Drama Series

 

Every year, I find myself saying: the Emmys will be different this year. And every year, I’m usually wrong. But this year, I’ll have to be right.

Because of so many outside factors, most of them relating to Covid but also because many of last years nominees and winners either ended their series last year or were unable to air during the period of eligibility, it is almost inevitable that anywhere from ninety to ninety-five percent of this years winners will be new faces. And it’s not just that. This year, the Emmy broke all previous records when it came to minority nominees in almost every category – and remarkably, the lion’s share of them more than deserved to be. This is a whole new ballgame.

Following the practice of the last two years, I will make my predictions in the Drama, Comedy and Limited Series categories. The predictions will be based on the odds that I have found on the website Gold Derby, which is based on fans and experts opinions. I’ll also give some of the reason which each nominee and why they might lose.

 

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

 

 

Bridgerton: 8-1

Netflix and Shonda Rhimes’ first collaboration is an adaptation of Julia Quinn’s bestselling Regency romance. Set in a mythical England, the series centers around the Bridgerton family, specifically in Season1 the relationship between newly minted Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and the Duke of Hastings (Rege-Jean Page) as they play a game of faux courtship so that each can get what they want…at least, that’s how it starts. Pro: Admitting that I am far from this series greatest fan, I can’t ignore the huge amount of buzz that has surrounded this romantic series and so many of the cast around it. It became very quickly one of the most binge-able series of the previous series and surely has one of the biggest fan bases. Con: Shonda Rhimes’ series traditionally don’t do well in the Emmys (they’ve only had two winners in major categories in the last fifteen years). And given the controversy that centered on major episodes, I think the combination won’t be enough to get it anywhere. Lady Whistledown will be so dismayed.

 

Lovecraft Country: 17-2

An astonishing accomplishment in both the field of horror and racial history. Centering on Atticus Freeman and his family’s relationship to a mystical power that transcends generations, this show was every bit as visually stunning and emotionally powerful as Watchmen was last season. It had some of the most terrifying moments I’ve seen on television in a very long time. It featured some of the greatest new discoveries in years and used some incredible talents such as Jurnee Smollett and Michael K. Williams giving unforgettable performances. It’s hard to believe a series set in the 1950s would be arguably the most relevant show on TV this season. Pro: It is rare that an HBO series more than lives up to the promotion but this series really earned the Peak TV level that HBO has been working toward but doesn’t always hit. Arguably the biggest mistake the executives made was deciding to cancel the series after just a single season (I really like seeing what Misha Green was planning for a possible Season 2.)  All I can say is wow. Con: I really wish HBO had made the decision to cancel the series before the Emmy submission. (The creator’s plans indicate it was most likely going to be an anthology anyway.) Had it done so, it’s nearly certain that the series would’ve dominated the Limited Series and probably won most of them. As it is, its remarkable cast is almost certainly going to be shutout by the royal family. (Well, not all of them.)

 

Pose: 15-2

I was sad to see it go, but I was glad this Ryan Murphy series left on its own terms. And considering just how it left, it sure as hell saved the best for last. You didn’t think it possible given what all the characters have been through, but remarkably almost everybody got a truly happy ending. Blanca finally became both a wife and a caregiver. Elektra became the rich boss woman she always deserved to be. Angel and Lil Papi, after some struggles made it down the aisle. And for a great shining moment, it looked like our great love Pray Tell was going to survive the AIDS that was killing him – until he made the ultimate sacrifice for the man he loved. Even this bittersweet moment in a note of triumph, which everybody who walked the ballroom deserved. Pro: Honestly, if it weren’t for The Crown, this is the show I’d want to win. A series entirely made up of African-American gay and transgender actors? This is the series the world needed more than it ever could. And unlike so many of Murphy’s other series, there was no campiness and no playing it for cheap laughs. We got to know and love these characters more than any we’ve seen before. This was a hell of a ride. Con: The same thing that’s affecting every series that isn’t The Crown. The opposition. I don’t think the kings and queens of the ballrooms have a chance against the real queen.

 

The Boys: 19-2

A group of vigilantes are going after a group of rogue superheroes run by an evil organization. Also in this world, there are also press junkets, box office movies featuring them and complicated relationships involving evil corporations. What do you know – superheroes really are just like us? Pro: Well, you can’t say the Emmys haven’t finally gotten over its bias towards comic books and sci-fi. Much as I’d rather they’d have broken through with some series in the Berlanti-verse, it does make sense they’d start here – this show is angry, foul-mouthed and bitterly funny. No question it’s a dark show, but it’s definitely one I’d rather watch then some of the other nominees in this category. Con: No major nominations in acting and, save for one writing nominations, little else that isn’t technical. Kind of got the feeling this may be Amazon’s token nominee.

 

The Crown: 39-10

This incredible history of the British royal family aired what is arguably its greatest season to date. Moving to the next generation, we learned that the fairy-tale romance of Charles and Diana was a fraud from beginning to end – and everybody knew it. We saw the struggle between and aging Elizabeth and the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher as for the first time she dealt with a Prime Minister who had no respect for her or what she stood for. And we saw just how badly even being close to the throne utterly destroys everybody around it – most tragically Helena Bonham-Carter’s Margaret and horrendously Diana herself. Pro: The series got 24 nominations, including every regular. The series has basically run every major critics prize this years, from the Golden Globes to the SAG awards. And after getting very little from the Emmys in the last few years – and since once again, there will be a changing of the cast for Season 5 – it is more overdue. Con: The world is oversaturated with the interest in the British royal family? There’s no desire to give another British based show a bunch of Emmys? Seriously, if anyone can come up with a reasonable explanation as to why The Crown will not win, this year, send them to me.

 

The Handmaid’s Tale: 13-2

June (formerly Offred) made her run to Canada, and than finally began an attack on Gilead proper. The battle has become truly fierce at this stage, and there is every indication we are nearing the endgame. Pro: I have never truly liked this series, and at this stage even the long-time fans are beginning to become a little tired with the dystopian world the creators have put together. That all said the series features some of the greatest actresses in television giving performances that can’t be ignored even if you have problems with the series. Con: I think the time of The Handmaid’s Tale has truly passed. It was basically shutout by the Emmys last year despite getting fifteen nominations, and its fan base has been complaining about it for awhile. It may still have relevance, but even so, it’s really depressing.

 

The Mandalorian: 6-1

The title character continued his fight against the rising Empire, searching for others of his kinds, rejoining old allies, dealing with the Empire and the Jedi – and in the last moments of Season 2, meeting the icon of the Star Wars Universe. Pro: I’ve made it more than clear how strongly I don’t like this series. That all said, its really hard to argue with the motivation that gives it 24 nominations and has more or less put its streaming service on the map. I wouldn’t go so far as say the force is strong with this series, but clearly there are fans among Emmy voters that aren’t the typical Star Wars group. It could be a major contender…Con…if it weren’t for the fact that the lion’s share of its nominations are in the technical categories. The Emmys will reward it heavily, but unless I’ve very much mistaken, it will almost entirely be on the Creative Arts side

 

This is Us: 10-1

Like every other family in the world, the Pearson spent Season 5 dealing with Covid and the fallout. Of course, there were a lot of other problems – Kevin and Randall spent the majority of the season not speaking, Toby and Beth spent most of the year out of work, Kate and Toby tried to find a new sibling for Jack. There were all the tragedy that were used to by now and some genuine triumphs – and as we saw in the last two minutes of the Season finale, one hell of a future shock. Pro: In all candor, This is Us is more than overdue for a lot of prizes. Many of the episodes we saw this year resonated in a way that was more powerful than usual – Randall finally learning the history of his birth mother, Kevin’s struggle to be a good father, how Randall and Kevin finally ended their fight – which incidentally covered a lot more ground than just the one that ended Season 4. Hell, there was an episode that spent half its focus on the man who developed the internet technology that made smart phones work that was nearly as moving as anything involving the Big Three. And as it’s their penultimate season, they deserve something from the Emmys. Con: The Emmys seem to have made it more than clear that they just don’t want to recognize broadcast television when it comes to any level of greatness. I guess it’s just another obstacle for the Pearsons to deal with.

 

Prediction: Easiest one of the night. Unless Elizabeth II abdicates in the next week, look for The Crown to prevail. (Hell that might just encourage Peter Morgan to do another season.)

A Bittersweet Goodbye To The Kominsky Method

 

I put it off as long as I could, but I knew at some point I would have to watch the series finale for Chuck Lorre’s brilliant Netflix comedy The Kominsky Method. Unlike a lot of other series I delay watching, it’s because I really didn’t want to come to the end. This has been one of the true joys of the Netflix experience – watching one of the greatest actors in history, Michael Douglas, play one of his greatest roles, Sandy Kominsky, a man who spent his entire career trying to become an actor and now has become an acting teacher.

But as almost every lead on that show knows, you can’t run from the end. So I watched the final episode earlier and it was everything I expected, and more. Sandy has been dealing with a great joy and a great sorrow almost simultaneously. Halfway through the season, Barry Levenson decided to cast him as a lead for his first real role: the title role in a remake of The Old Man and The Sea. It was a last act of kindness from Norman, who Sandy couldn’t help but really thank.

Simultaneously, he has been dealing with the engagement of his daughter Mindy to the much older, but still sweet Marty (Paul Reiser more than deserved the Emmy nomination he got for this role) Sandy’s first ex-wife, Roz flew in from South America, and while they spent a lot of time throwing knives at each other, enough time has passed that they have forgotten the bitterness that broke them apart. (It was wonderful to see Kathleen Turner acting again. She’s been a true joy in this season.) But as is always the case, there’s always bittersweet. In the fourth episode of the season, she revealed she’s dying of leukemia and is near the end of her treatment. Her last real wish was to officiate at her daughter’s wedding.

And so in the finale, we got just about everything we wanted. After a really bitter fight between Mindy and Marty involving Marty’s mother (Christine Ebersole really was impressive in looking a lot older than the other actors, especially Reiser) Mindy and Marty got married and it was funny and charming, especially when we learned how they met and Roz’s dig as they reached the end of the ceremony. Then we had a flashforward of a year as Sandy and Roz had one last conversation as he saw the billboard of his movie and couldn’t help but react the way his life had turned out: “I’ve lived my life with a broken heart,” he told Roz. She gave him some encouragement – for the last time. In one of the last scenes, he walked into her room to find their daughter in tears – Roz had passed away.

But rather than end on this dismay, the series ended on a moment of triumph. The movie was released for television and we see Sandy receive the Best Lead Actor Emmy in a Limited Series or Movies. We saw all the people in Sandy’s life – his students, Marty, even the waiter who patiently served him and Norman drinks for years – cheer as their friend made it. And Sandy gave a speech that honestly, all future Emmys nominees should consider it as the model going forward: He thanked Barry for giving him his shot, he thanked Norman and said he wished he were here (‘maybe you are), he thanked his students, his daughter for making him a better person and Roz, for always believing him. Then the last scene showed him returning to his space, putting the Emmy on the stool where we always see him, and simply saying: “Let’s get back to work.”

The finale was funny all the way to the end. In addition to this, we saw Norman’s daughter and grandson trying to hire a hitman to kill Sandy to get the inheritance that he’s been entrusted with – and just like everything else in their lives, they bungle that too. Sandy’s student, the one who got her big break in the new Quincy (kudos for nominating Morgan Freeman for his guest appearance) was seen crying in front of the billboard celebrating her role – and then also being triumphant at the Emmys. And Marty’s battle with his mother – which we saw in that final episode must’ve made his life miserable – was no less wretched as she collapsed in her front yard. The scene where he tried to get into his car with a kid who had no plans on helping him was hysterical, as was the scene where we see that Estelle is alive, but basically unable to speak. This may be the first time in the show’s history that we actually rooted for a character to die. And true to Lorre, there was one last poke at himself as Jon Cryer presented the Emmy to Sandy – and took one more dig at Lorre, who was clearly in the audience.

In a perfect world, Douglas and his co-stars would be rewarded with Emmys in the next month and maybe they will be. But the realist in me – perhaps my inner Kominsky – knows that life just doesn’t work that way. (Of course, Douglas already has an Emmy for Best Actor in a Movie – and won a Golden Globe for The Kominsky Method. So he’s gonna be fine.) But it deserves to be found and savored not just by its demographic – the ones who remember Douglas and Alan Arkin when they were young – but by anyone who knows just how tough life is, how it’s always a struggle, and how they’re can be triumphs along the way. In short, all of us.  No one’s ever going to consider this Lorre’s greatest triumph – too many Big Bang Theory and some loyal Mom fans out there – but it is his subtlest and his most enjoyable. So let’s race a Jack Daniels and a Coke for The Kominsky Method.

My score: 5 stars.

Middle School Sucks, Especially If You're Grown Up: Better Late Than Never, Pen15

 

Usually after I fall behind more than a season with a series, I tend to give up trying to catch up. There were exceptions (Breaking Bad) but it’s more often the rule: I only got halfway through the first season of Orange is the New Black and never tried to catch up.

Over the past couple of years though, I’ve been making a lot of progress with streaming comedies. Considering that they’re usually just half an hour and often have shorter seasons to begin with, I’ve made a lot of progress with some of the funniest series in the past few years. I discovered, just in time for its triumph at the Emmys at 2019, Fleabag. The Golden Globes put me on track with Ramy and I eagerly await the third season. And I got onboard with Dead to Me just in time for its marvelous second season.

Despite this, there are some series that I’m reluctant to get involved with despite the raves because the premise does sound too high-concept. One such series was Hulu’s Pen 15 the comedy series by Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle  about two seventh grade girls dealing with being well…two seventh grade girls. Konkle and Erskine created the series and play fictionalized versions of themselves even though both in their thirties. Sure, I said and passed on it after Season 1. Even after the series got quite a few Emmy nominations for its second season, I still put it at the bottom of the pile. Then I figured what the hell and looked at the first episode. I basically watched the entire first season in a month, which for me is the equivalent of binge-watching. I just started the second season, which seems even more hysterical – and cringe inducing – then the first.

For those of you who are not familiar with the format, the series takes place in 2000 when Erskine and Konkle were in seventh grade. They’re wearing braces and bad clothes and they mutter and mumble in the same way that we all did when we were twelve. It may really be my suspension of disbelief, but there have been more than a few moments when I genuinely forgot that Maya and Anna were adults. That is how well they inhabit the bodies of thirteen-year olds. (And honestly, considering how much viewers like me have gotten used to twenty-somethings playing teenagers, we don’t have to imagine that hard.) It actually helps matter that every other child that Maya and Anna interact with is a thirteen or fourteen year old.

The first season really picked up the mood on just terribly awkward is to be thirteen years old. You’re too old to be playing with dolls anymore, but you’re too young to really know what sex is. In a memorable episode, Maya almost by accident discovered what masturbation was, became obsessed with it and than horrified by it. Anna had to tell her that she’d been masturbating for quite a while. Later on Maya and Anna went to a teenager party which focused on watching a videotape of Wild Things.  During that party, Anna had her first real kiss which was filmed and looked even more graphic than that movie’s most notorious scene. Maya and Anna spent much of the first season trying to dealing with being attracted to boys when most boys that age are – and I speak from the heart – truly not worth your time. There were also sadder undercurrents – throughout the first season it was clear that Anna’s parents were having major problems and in the penultimate episode, they told her they were getting divorced. This corresponded with a period (word definitely chosen for this use) where Maya and Anna had a sleepover and Maya genuinely thought her family loved Anna more.

This is all incredibly awkward and much of the humor is definitely of this type. A lot of Maya and Anna’s relationship with the boys in their junior high is based around their idea of what they think sex is and what locker room talk is. The first season ended at a dance where Maya and Anna ended up getting, well, felt up by a mutual crush. (That’s exaggerating; the kid used one hand on each of their breast for about ten seconds. In all candor, they got more out of it then he did.) The second season premiere (which is as far as I’ve reached to this point) took place two days later when Maya and Anna went to a pool party and looked at the guys there with the seriousness that college sophomores regard a bar – trying to be cool towards the prospects, ‘telling off’ the boys who got to them. Things got complicated when their ‘partner’ showed up, and then started acting like the action in the closet didn’t happen. Maya and Anna’s reaction was to go around the party and basically try to tell without telling what they thought had happened. They were overjoyed when it was acknowledged by the most casual of responses. And they are kind of overwhelmed the next day when they learn from a friend that everyone in the school thinks they’re ‘sluts’ – because of how they behaved at the dance and because the rumors of the closet have spread school-wide. The final scene is both hysterical and very far-sighted as Anna and Maya try to consider just how sexual they were that night – Maya thinks she was in two threesomes! – and when they realize just what’ll happen to the boy who initiated it. “Brandon’s a slut, too,” Maya says. Anna shakes her head. “He’s not a slut. He’s just a player.” The laugh is very hollow.

Pen15 is a very funny series because Erskine and Konkle - both as writers and performer – clearly know what its like to be a seventh grader. It’s not hard to remember that because, in a sense, we never leave seventh grade – the status symbols and awkward behavior we get at that age can be incredibly hard to shake. The fact that they’re dealing with it in the era of dial-up modems and fax machines doesn’t make it any less true now. It also helps that they clearly keep up the memory of what it was like to live in at the turn of the millennium – was it that long ago – with the songs and music cues perfectly timed from that error. This is an incredibly silly and juvenile series at times, but that’s what the lion’s share of comedy is when you’re thirteen – you haven’t outgrown Ace Ventura yet, as Maya clearly hasn’t. You hate your older siblings, you still have a certain kind of ridiculous idealism, you still want to please your parents all the time even when they don’t deserve it, and everybody’s in a clique that you openly disdain but secretly want to join. Erskine and Konkle made it out, and it’s a tribute to them that they so clearly miss parts of it.

I’m glad I finally got caught up on Pen15. Maybe I’ll be caught up him when the second half of Season 2 premieres later this month. Or maybe I’ll try and find another comedy series that I’m behind – Never Have I Ever sounds really fun.

My score: 4.75 stars.

Checking Out Of The White Lotus

 

I was overjoyed beyond words when I heard last week that HBO, arguably without knowing my wishes, decided to renew its exceptionally entertaining comic limited series The White Lotus for a second season. According to them, it will involve a resort of the same name in a different location with different characters. And I was truly happy knowing this – until the Season 1 Finale. Now I still want the series to continue, but I didn’t realize – even after knowing full well how it opened – just how painful it was going to me.

The White Lotus has essentially been a series about the one percent and just how corrupt and self-centered. We were fully aware of this going in – Armand told us as much in the Pilot – and its become even more horribly obvious with each successive episode – but some of part of me was still hoping that at least one of the guests would emerge with some kind of realization as to just how wretched a person they were. And sadly someone did come away with that kind of realization – but it wasn’t the person we hoped.

Tanya went through the series looking like she might get there. Considering she seemed to be realizing just how toxic her life had been under the control of her mother, you really hoped she would get there. She actually seemed to be trying with her relationship with Belinda. Then she found Greg. She seemed to open her life to him, and then she went to Belinda and thanked her for helping her break patterns. And then she crushed Belinda’s hopes for her own business by saying that transactional relationships weren’t healthy for her. She’d been basically ignoring Belinda for the last two episodes, but for a character that was as close to the most sympathetic guest, it was gutting. The fact that she decided to stay close to Greg even though she knew he was dying actually makes it worse – she views this as a better experience than helping someone who is living.

The Mossbacher family was probably the most oppressive group of the bunch. Nicole controlled every aspect of the vacation as if it was work, and with each successive episode we realize just how toxic her job has made her. Mark seemed to keep going through epiphanies every day on his trip as he dealt with realizations about first his health, then his father’s sexuality. But each successive made you realize how fundamentally hollow he was – he might have been symbolically castrated by Nicole, but he really had nothing to offer. And Olivia, who spent most of her time appearing to be a challenger to her parents, was basically as shallow as any of them. She went after her best friend Paula’s boyfriend, for the sole purpose of thinking she should have what she wanted.  Paula actually seemed the one closest to be truly aware of everything – she was, after all, the only guest of color we met - and of the entire clan, she came the closest to saying the truth to Olivia – “I’m a prop to piss off your parents.” It really did make you question everything about their friendship. But even the end, after she essentially set someone up to go to jail because of her actions, she seemed more concerned with her friendship than the man she’d slept with.

There was a fair amount of chatter online about whether Steve Zahn’s portrayal of Mark made him the cliché of the useless, offensive white protagonist. This is a little ridiculous because there was one in The White Lotus – Shane. Shane spent the entirety of the season more upset that he hadn’t gotten the room he paid for than enjoying the company of his wife. When we actually saw the suite he got (arranged by his mother) and it was clearly inferior, we realized the point of the exercise. Shane has always gotten what he wants, even if what got was better. And over the course of the series, as his psychological warfare with Armond clearly became more and important to him, Rachel seemed to realize what a mistake she’d made marrying him. In the finale, it actually seemed like she was going to make a break from – the first real action of consequence – and his mind seemed more concerned about his room.

Which actually brings us to what made this comedy turn, in the last ten minutes, truly tragic. Because the person in the coffin that we saw in the beginning turned out to be the only person we cared about during the length of the series – Armond. His psychological warfare with Shane pretty much cost him everything, though it’s pretty clear he was as much the architect of his own destruction as Shane was. He chose to steal Paula and Olivia’s drugs and get high when things got hard. Then after Shane made an effort at apology, he decided purposely to ruin his honeymoon. He kept going back and forth between decorum and utter chaos – trying to be cool at the desk one minute, snorting lines and screwing the help the next. But in the last episode, he did come to a conclusion that trying to tend for these spoiled rich people – who he fully admitted in the previous episode he loathed – was a waste of his life. On the verge of getting fired, he engaged in an orgy of drugs and debauchery and in a last action of defiance, took a shit in Shane’s luggage. And that was one step too many – when Shane returned, he accidentally stabbed and killed Armond, who died in the tub that Shane had wanted so badly.

And what makes this all so sad is that everybody who checked in gained nothing from the experience. Nicole and Mark are happy at the moment, but having been with them in close quarters, we know it’s a matter of time before they stop having sex. Olivia and Paula will go back to being the kinds of college girls you don’t want to know at college.  Jennifer will be with Greg, and after he dies, will be exactly who she was before. Shane won’t have to pay anything for his crimes – it’s basically understood the police will let him walk because of who his family is. Even Rachel, who knows everything her husband and her family are and that they basically consider her a possession, left Hawaii with her husband. She’ll say she’s happy, she won’t be, but she’ll just find a way to live with it, just like the Mossbachers. Only Quinn, the son who started the series unable to look away from his phone, and who now seems to truly appreciate the beauty of nature might be able to get away from this. As we see him in the final moments, paddling with the natives, he gives perhaps the only pure, unadulterated smile we’ve seen on the entire show.

The only one who might have gained wisdom is Belinda. In the last episode, we see her listening to Rachel, whose complaints are actually more real than Tanya’s ever were. But having spent her hopes on Tanya, when Rachel asked for advice, she simply says: “I’m out,” and walks away. There’s a sort of catharsis in this – but I can’t escape the final image of her, near tears mourning her mentor – and then putting another fake smile, waiting to welcome the next group of guests who know only the vaguest of details about the last group but want the same treatment anyway.

That’s a lot from a series that basically spent most of its run as a comedy. And yet, one can find a lot of links to many of the great HBO series of the past. You see the false epiphanies that Tony Soprano kept going through without any real change. You see that the utter triumph of capitalism that the men like George Hearst on Deadwood represented that allows them to literally get away with murder. And in a lesser sense, you see the continued breakdown of system that allows minorities like Kai, the native who owned the land the hotel was built on, is exploited by the people who now own it, and pays the price when he tries to go against the system, that we saw taken to its natural conclusion on the streets of Baltimore in The Wire. Pretty good for a comedy set in a Hawaii resort.

I don’t know how well The White Lotus will end up doing among the award shows this coming year, leading up and including the Emmys. There’s a lot of bigger limited series coming up in the next month  - David E. Kelley’s and Nicole Kidman’s latest adaptation Nine Perfect Strangers, the much delayed next installment of American Crime Story, centering on Clinton’s impeachment, and HBO’s heavily publicized remake of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From A Marriage with Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain in the leads. And it’s not like humorous series do that well in awards races. (Granted the field is small, but it does include such recent works as TBS’ hysterical Miracle Works, Amazon’s Good Omens, and HBO’s Mrs. Fletcher, all of which had good casts and excellent stories but received no love from any awards show.) That said Murray Bartlett’s star-making turn as Armond and Jennifer Coolidge’s scene-stealing work as Tanya certainly deserve recognition, as does Mike White’s writing. The White Lotus is a gorgeous, funny and very dark series. I’m very glad I stayed there, and I’ll be more than happy to take a return visit.

Jeopardy Guest Hosts Reviewed, Conclusion

 

LeVar Burton

This week may have been the most consequential one. Ever since the search for a new host of Jeopardy began, there have been online campaigns for Burton. Considering everything he means to a certain generation, it was a huge deal when he agreed to host and probably the most pressure-filled for that person.

Burton was, as you’d expect more than up to the challenge. He was charming, warm and comforting in every aspect of the show. He sounded joyful when the winner was announced. (Which we’ll get to, by the way.) And he was equally unfazed when a new record was set for the lowest score by a contestant going into Final Jeopardy. I’ll leave his name out because I have a feeling this is one person who would rather not have this place in Jeopardy history.

But as seems to be Burton’s place, he was set aside for a brighter sun. This week was dominated by one of the best champions in recent years, and certainly one of the best in the post-Trebek. Matt Adadio continued his streak from Robin Roberts’ week and, if anything, got more formidable as the week progressed, winning $74,000 in his seventh game. And just a good contestant makes the show look good, it made Burton look good as well, he continued to express exuberance with every win. As well he might. Matt’s performance guaranteed that Burton’s charity would receive just shy of $200,000 this week, news that can make everybody happy.

Burton was properly thankful on his last day. Will he actually get the job that so many people want him to have? That remains in question. My only disappointment with his week? He never once ended the game by saying: “See ya next time.” Who knows? Maybe he’ll say it if he gets the job.

My score: 4.75 stars.                              

 

David Faber: Like Bill Whitaker, I had no idea who David Faber was. And apparently I’m not alone; the online response to Faber has been favorable, but there have been a lot of people asking: “Who the hell is he?”  I guess that’s the difference between a journalist and a financial analyst: even fewer people know who you are. Another key difference, you’re actually allowed to show a little personality.

Faber has been doing a fine job as the guest host; like Mike Richards he seems to be relishing in his relative anonymity. And it actually has let to some decent anecdotes along the way: following an exceptional match which ended with Matt (we’ll get to it in a moment) ended Double Jeopardy with more than $43,000 and ending Final Jeopardy with just over $6,000 Faber could make the perfect time remark for the following day that watching Matt perform was like his job at CNBC, a real roller coaster.

Just as with LeVar Burton the previous week, Matt Adadio does what great Jeopardy champions did with Alex Trebek: he makes the host look good. Having won 12 consecutive games and just under $400,000 (well within the top ten of both categories in Jeopardy history) Matt has continued to wow fans and guest hosts alike. He’s had highs ($52.000 on Tuesday) and lows ($6,200 Wednesday) but he makes the game interesting and even the contestants he beats regularly seem to enjoy being in his presence.

Faber, of course, will go back to his day job after Friday.  But apparently being in the news business but not quite a reporter does seem to make you a better host. At the very least when this week is over, no one will be asking: “Who the hell is David Faber?”

My score: 4 stars.

 

Joe Buck: And so we come to the end of this strange season. And in an odd way, its actually fitting that Joe Buck, one of the sports broadcasters for Fox has finished up the year. Frankly, I’m a little astonished Jeopardy didn’t try to have more sports commentators hosting the show – Jeopardy is a competition series after all; albeit a mental one more than physical. If anybody can appreciate that and know the right things to say, it’s someone like Joe Buck.

More than that, Buck came around at exactly the right time. Matt Adadio continues to dominate the game and rank himself among the greatest of the greats. This is something a commentator could appreciate and its clear that Joe was more prepped for this than some of the other guest hosts. When Matt won his seventeenth game and became third all time on the money-winners in regular seasons second only to Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer, Buck knew how to express the significance both to Matt and the audience. This is something that only someone like Alex would’ve been able to appreciate. And when Double Jeopardy for that game ended with Matt not having a runaway, it sounded appropriate that Buck could list the exact date this had last happened.

In handling the other aspects of hosting, he’s done a fairly good job there as well. When a category involving colorful sports teams up and one of the clues referred to the St. Louis Cardinals (the team for which his father broadcast) he expressed gratitude when Matt got it right. And he has the right level of humor and gravitas – he clowned around with a contestant on a Rodney Dangerfield clue which seemed pretty decent. He has the right level of explanation when it comes to Final Jeopardy and he’s done a better job than many of his fellow hosts at acknowledging Alex’ legacy – something you get better if you work in his field.

The job is settled now, but in my opinion Joe Buck more than did himself and his profession proud. In fact, now that were all finished, it makes me wonder – why wasn’t Bob Costas asked to guest host? Then again, he’s even busier than a lot of the journalists involved.

My score: 4.5 stars.

 

The season is over. I’ll be back at this spot to discuss the new hosts and why we shouldn’t be upset as to who got the job and a slightly more detailed ranking as to who did the best and worst at filling Alex’s shoes.

Why Christina Applegate Means So Much to Me

 

The TV industry’s had some major losses the last several months. From Yaphet Kotto and Jessica Walter earlier this year to the passing of two of Night Court’s greatest talents Charles Robinson and Markie Post in the past month. But yesterday from a simple tweet came a blow that hit me very hard.

Christina Applegate, one of the greatest comic actresses in the history of television, told the world that she has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. This most well-known autoimmune disorder has had more than its share of famous patients, most tragically Richard Pryor, who struggled with the disease for more than a decade from his initial diagnosis before passing away in 2005.

In Applegate’s case, it hits me harder even then Bob Odenkirk’s heart attack a month ago. Part of it has to do with her relative youth (she’s not even fifty yet). More of it has to do with the fact that Applegate has, in a way, strange way has always seemed to be there in a way even actors and comics who’ve had longer careers have been.

I’ll admit a large part of it has to do with her breakout role in Married…With Children. It wasn’t just that the series was around practically since the time I really started watching TV at all, its that for much of my teens and twenties, the series was always in syndication somewhere, usually around the time I was watching Jeopardy. So every commercial break, I always seemed to run into the misfortunes of the Bundy family, so much of which revolved around Kelly. And I’ll be honest, it wasn’t until well after the series ended its initial run that I realized what the writers of the series were really trying to do with Married…They were trying to put together a true satire of the traditional family sitcom and they were so good at it that I think millions of viewers (myself included) missed the point of the writing and the performances. Like so many great comics, I didn’t realize until at least five years after the show had ended, the true genius of Applegate’s work. It takes a serious amount of talent to play that dumb.

By that time, of course, Applegate had moved on to sometimes bigger and often better things. I’ve written quite often how little use I had for Friends, then or now, but I found Applegate’s turn as Rachel particularly self-involved sister truly hysterically and actually worthy of the Emmy she won for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy. By all rights, she should’ve won at least one more in the last decade.

Samantha Who? was a superb comic vehicle for Applegate as a woman who spend two years in a coma and wakes up with no memory of her life beforehand. Applegate was a diamond backed up by one of the best casts in memory – Barry Watson, Kevin Dunn, Melissa McCarthy (at the exact halfway point between the end of Gilmore Girls and the start of Mike & Molly) and Jean Smart, who did win an Emmy for her work as Samantha’s mother. It was a superbly funny show that had the grave misfortune of premiering right on the cusp of the 2007 writers strike). Like so many ABC series, the network renewed it as an act of faith… and then aired no reruns in the year after its first season ended. And like so many potentially brilliant ABC shows (pour one out for Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money), the audience forgot about it and it was cancelled after its second season.

Applegate’s next vehicle wasn’t as widely acclaimed, but in my opinion was just as funny. Up All Night was a hysterical NBC sitcom about two thirtyish parents (Applegate and the always wonderful Will Arnett) trying to balance work and family. Applegate actually had the better role in the first second as an executive producer to a daytime talk show host, wonderfully portrayed by Maya Rudolph. It was truly one of those brilliant comic series that NBC produced during this era. Unlike Parks and Rec or Community, however, the network was not willing to overlook its low ratings and keep it on the air for more than two seasons.

It was nearly six years before we saw Applegate in another comedy series. But as those of who have seen Dead to Me, it was more than worth the wait. A blistering funny comedy with one of the darkest subjects that Netflix, Applegate has truly found her perfect match – Linda Cardellini, another actress who started as a teenager and has starred in some of the best series on TV (though in her case, they’ve mostly been dramas). The comedy is built on one of the most unlikely friendships possible between Jen (Applegate) a widow who really has anger issues and Judy (Cardellini) a very cheerful woman who has just suffered her fourth miscarriage. The friendship they form is unlikely from the start and we quickly see mixed in death. (If you haven’t seen this series, you really should so I’m not going to give anything away. Start bingeing it now.) Applegate is both hysterically funny and extremely raw emotionally, and while I doubted the reasoning for her first Emmy nomination in 2019 not only do I support it now, I fully back the one she got last year (ditto Cardellini’s)

Perhaps dealing with the really dark territory of this series may have given Applegate the props to deal with the diagnosis she has recently received. She certainly tried to sound optimistic in the tweet she sent the world. I know there are various courses of MS that affect people (the television world got an education on it watching The West Wing) and there are new treatments and medicines for it every year. But I’m not going to lie. This hurts. Not quite as badly as Alex Trebek’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer two years ago, but it does sting. I hope that she can find a way to keep going and that, like with Michael J. Fox, she finds a way to keep working as long as she possibly can. Her big break came as part of one of America’s most famous sitcom families. And in a sense, she’s never stopped being part of mine.