Orange is the New Black

I thought Netflix had nailed it with House of Cards. But then came Orange is the New Black, targeting a whole new demographic, hitting social media and celebrity mentions left, right and centre and taking both on and offline viewers by storm.

The show is addictive viewing.

The acting is great, the storyline is fun and the script is easy and entertaining.

Taylor Schilling finds the perfect balance between weak, innocent yupi and raging, dare devil lesbian, which makes her actions throughout the series believable (those of you who have seen the season finale will understand); she’s come a long way since The Lucky One. But this is a show where you cannot forget the supporting cast. In fact, they make the series. Each woman in this show has clearly taken the time to understand their character and their back story. Every conversation, every look has depth. Even Mendez has his moments of character complexity.

The Cast of Orange is the New Black

And finally, a strong female lead on television. It really doesn’t happen very often, and when it’s done well it’s incredibly refreshing. Again, the great thing about this show is that it has multiple strong female characters. And while they’re somewhat cliched, the tone of the show with equal parts drama and humour, makes this okay.

Apart from Piper Chapman, the stand out for me was Red, played by Kate Mulgrew (best known for Star Trek: Voyager). She evokes strength and determination and tragedy, even without seeing her flashbacks.

Then we have Jenji Kohan. A great show for her following Weeds. I watched Weeds the whole way through, and while it was most definitely time for that show to come to an end, you could tell Jenji had plenty more ideas up her sleeve.

While I don’t give weight to the Breaking Bad comparisons and don’t necessarily think that Piper Chapman is the new Walter White, I love the complexity of the character and am fascinated to see where her flaws will take her.

The Best Pilots and Finales

Best Pilots

1. The Walking Dead (One and a half hours of pure television entertainment. That final scene absolutely hooked me…and here i am, four seasons later.)
2. The West Wing (The opening “walk and talk” scene –  an almost 5-minute continuous shot that exemplified the brilliance of the writing and acting the show had over 7 seasons.)
3. Lost (At the time, it was the most expensive pilot ever made, and rightfully so. JJ Abrams created a movie-calibre pilot that drew you in from the opening seconds.)
4. 24 (Such a unique approach to television season: “The following takes place between midnight and 1.00 a.m. on the day of the California Presidential Primary”. Awesome.)
5. Stargate: Atlantis (I must have seen “The Rising” at least 20 times. A great segue from SG1 to Atlantis.)

JJ Abrams and Matthew Fox filming the Lost pilot

Best Finales

1. Friends (She got off the plane!!)
2. Dawson’s Creek (Skipping a few years into the future gave the show an honest and more “realistic” ending. Michelle Williams gave us a heart wrenching performance and a great sneak peek into how she would become an Oscar nominee… And finally the Joey/Dawson/Pacey love triangle was put to rest. Joey and Pacey 4lyfe!)
3. Sex and the City (New York AND Paris? Its a no brainer.)
4. Buffy (The slayers are all awoken and the Hellmouth collapses. Just another day in Sunnydale.)
5. The Sopranos (That final scene…)

After 10 seasons, the Friends cast in the finale

Veronica Mars

With all the excitement and hype around the Veronica Mars movie, I felt that it was my time to pay homage to the show. So first things first…

The sudden cancellation of Veronica Mars was a travesty.

For a teen drama (made more impressive being on the WB), the show drew you in week after week, not just to see who would end up with who, but also to lure us further down the proverbial whodunit road.

Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars, the “post-modern Nancy Drew”

Rob Thomas created a show for all of us- one that didn’t pander to the lowest common denominator. The show was clever, witty and addictive in every aspect. The characters had depth, the dialogue and storyline was fast paced and premise –a teen detective dealing with daily high school life as well as uncovering the mystery behind the death of her best friend- was new and compelling.

Sadly, this is probably the reason that it wasn’t renewed for a fourth season (but sure, lets allow a remake of 90210 to make it to 5 seasons…a travesty).

Kristen Bell shone as the sharp, clever “post-modern Nancy Drew” and she was surrounded by a cast who were endearing and exuded chemistry (Logan and Veronica were not initially planned to get together, but the chemistry between Bell and Dohring influenced this story line. And lets face it, they had scores of it).

The cast of Veronica Mars

Even season 3, which was not as strong as its predecessors, maintained and developed the quirky characters that we loved. The beloved Dick Casablancas progressed from his status as an extra with one line (“Logan”) in season 1 to a douche-bag with emotional layers, earning his place in the title sequence. It also gave us Piz (you can’t help but fall for Chris Lowell’s dimples).

The most tragic part about the cancellation is that there were so many places the show could have gone in its fourth season. We had just been introduced to “the Castle”, a secret society that saw the return of Mr. Kane to Neptune, that had the inklings of some great plot arcs ahead (you say ‘cult’, I say ‘that makes for an exciting season’).

One of the final scenes provided foresight into the doomed relationship between Veronica and Piz, and the perennial tension of the Logan and Veronica will they/won’t they dilemma, sending “LoVe” shippers’ wild imaginations into a fan-fiction frenzy. And, arguably the best part of the next season would have been to see Vinnie Van Lowe attempt to be Mayor.

In lieu of what could have been an amazing season 4, I guess a full-feature film will have to do to give me the closure I’ve been craving for six years.

I am so excited for this movie.

A Review: The Newsroom

For the same reasons that I fell in love with The Hour, I did not fall in love with The Newsroom.

The Newsroom is a show where the actors are so pleased with themselves for being in an Aaron Sorkin scripted show that they overact everything. Even Jeff Daniels, who is arguable the best of the lot, overacts the wordy script that was so expertly acted out by those in The West Wing.

Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy

Poor casting and an over ambitious script are the downfalls of this show. I am a huge fan of “The Sorkin”, but this show just doesn’t do it for me.

Nearly every single character in the show is annoying or irritating or infuriating and each was miscast.

There should be a solid reshuffle of each actor to a different character’s role (Mackenzie, who should be a strong and inspiring character, simply comes across as weak and vexing; and Olivia Munn? Please.) but Alison Pill should simply be fired.

I don’t’ know precisely what it is about her, but I almost visibly cringe whenever she comes on screen. John Gallagher does the best he can to be the other half to a love interest with Pill, but her awkward and aggravating demeanour is simply too distracting.

In fact, the only character I can stand is the narcissistic boyfriend of Allison, Thomas Sadoski. He does a great job with his character and doesn’t overact (although I have noticed that his dialogue is not as full of verbiage as the others, to his benefit).

But perhaps I’m being too hard on the actors. Perhaps Sorkin is trying too hard to produce another West Wing. With Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Sorkin maintained the West Wing cast, but failed to sustain an audience-popular (the critics loved it) show. With The Newsroom, Sorkin’s post-West Wing, post-Social Network reputation precedes him, and I think his dialogue is simply trying to hard.

I have nothing wrong with the liberal tone of the show or the overly idealised setting of an ethical newsroom that doesn’t really care about ratings, where love triangles form and fall apart due to conveniently timed Sex and the City New York bus tours.

For me, it’s the verbose wordiness (yes, the verbose wordiness) of Sorkin’s dialogue paired with miscast characters that leaves me wanting.

The Cast of The Newsroom

One thing I will add is, I loved the 9/11 episode.

Looking Forward to Fall 2013

My Top 5 (returning shows)

1. Breaking Bad (Final Season!!)
2. Vampire Diaries (Season 5 – and The Originals season 1)
3. Chicago Fire (Season 2 – Its my guilty pleasure…although not looking forward to its spinoff)
4. Community (Season 5 – Dan Harmon is back!)
5. Nashville (Season 2 – Really just to find out what happens after the cliff-hanger ending)

New Shows worth a Look:

1. The Blacklist (just watch the trailer. You’ll see. )
2. Almost Human (i think Keith Urban is good in anything he does)
3. The Originals (there better be a Vamp D/Originals crossover soon)