TV Report: April 2005
April 17, 2005
It’s been so nice out recently that I wanted to talk about something besides hermetic obsessions with TV and movies, something like baseball or golf, but I can’t muster the enthusiasm this early in the season. Yes, Tiger’s win at Augusta a few weeks ago was pretty sweet, especially that chip on 16 that hung on the lip of the cup like a mosquito waiting for the right moment to land his stinger, and I’m moderately excited that my beloved Mets have turned around a pitiful 0-5 start with a six game win streak to get back to respectability, something they haven’t had in a while, ditto my equally beloved, simply wretched playoff-missing Knicks, but we have a long summer for baseball and golf talk, so for now, a week or two before May sweeps, lets talk TV again. There is a long list of shows I’m watching right now that would make good review fodder, like the continuing mysteries on “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives”, two shows that have matched their hype with great first seasons, or Doug getting bullied by a disgruntled waitress on “King of Queens”, still one of the funniest sitcoms on TV, but today I’m going to focus on three ratings-challenged shows I particularly like, two of which may not live to see the fall schedule.
Before those two bubble items, I’ll start with the current best show on television, “Deadwood”, HBO’s gritty anti-western about the ongoing struggles of a mid-19th century mining camp in the muddy depths of a Shakespearian South Dakota. That “Deadwood” gets whipped weekly by “Desperate Housewives” is not a surprise, the equally-as-great “The Wire” suffered the same fate, but was thankfully picked up for a fourth season, but the amount of praise (and awards, including a recent Peabody win) is kind of staggering, considering how off-putting the show can be. Just take one of this seasons main plotlines, Al Swearengen’s debilitating near-death battle against kidney stones, a story that was both interesting for its look at 19th century medical practices in the west (i.e. limited and barbaric), and quite disgusting (i.e. realistic). For three episodes Swearengen, the ruthless town elder and owner of the Gem Saloon, was crippled in agony as Doc Cochran (Brad Dourif) struggled to find a way to alleviate the pressure without a full out operation- risky to no end- involving a circumcision below the groin. The agony on Swearengen’s face was hard to take, and the make-up department spared Ian McShane no wiggle room in turning the man into a writhing monster, enhanced even more when Al has a minor stroke as a result of the stones, but the story made for great drama, effecting nearly everybody in the camp, some personally, and others from afar, as Swearengen’s cries traveled through the misty air like screams of vengeance traveling along the newly built camp telegraph wires, for which Al was noticeably frustrated with.
McShane’s performance as Swearengen won him a Golden Globe last year, and if the Academy is watching, will win him an Emmy this season, to make amends for the snub last year. He has turned the brutally foul mouthed (his favorite word is unprintable, but take the first letters in the two-word phrase Caught Smoking and use your imagination, and then multiply by about 15 times per hour-long episode) Swearengen into the shows centerpiece; a king maker, entrepreneur, and SOB rolled into one, balanced almost perfectly by Timothy Olyphant’s sheriff Seth Bullock, who has personal problems of his own as deep and painful as Al’s stones this season. The language of David Milch’s show is so carefully constructed that the liberal use of obscenities is comparable to Mamet meeting Shakespeare, and it often takes repeat viewings (like any truly great show) to fully comprehend what is going on, and being said. There are scenes of pure murderous tragedy, like the death of three prostitutes by Hearst spy Francis Wolcott April 10th, and scenes of Abbott and Costello-esque comedy between Al and English-deprived Chinese boss Wu (Keone Young), and what keeps the show together is the sense that Deadwood is a harbinger of American transition, where death, development, and deception come hand in hand with the somewhat false American Dream of power, pride, and purgatory.
When HBO gets a show that the critics love, but the audiences tend to only gradually accept, they usually pick it up for another year, and “Deadwood” seems safe, but my final two shows here are anything but. On ABC, home of many big ’04-’05 hits this season, one of their better mid-season dramas, “Eyes”, is performing weakly Wednesdays at 10. John McNamara’s slick and funny spy show is perfectly situated to follow “Lost” and “Alias” on Wednesdays, what with its fast paced, twisty plots and beautiful, talented cast, but in an era where boring procedurals like “CSI” and “Law & Order” choke the airwaves, an original, involving tech-heavy spoof like “Eyes” is floundering. The same happened a few years ago to “Boomtown”, but at least that great show managed over 20 episodes before it was unjustly pulled, as of now, “Eyes” has an order count of 8, and if the show, starring a revitalized Timothy Daly and “NYPD Blue” bombshell Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, doesn’t add viewers fast, than critical praise probably won’t save it from ABC’s executive axe.
If “Eyes” is cut it won’t hurt as much as it did when “Boomtown” was killed, because it wasn’t around long enough to elicit deep feelings, but I swear, if Fox eliminates the Emmy-winning masterpiece “Arrested Development” this summer, after a brilliantly funny and inventive second season of 18 perfect episodes, I think I’ll literally scream. The funniest show on TV, “Arrested Development” just can’t buy viewers, averaging a paltry six million per episode, despite much praise, awards, and an decent amount of support from Fox, who recognizes that they do have other shows besides “American Idol”, and has done everything they can to help ratings, other than move it to a new timeslot. Me, I hate the ratings and advertisement game, and go with the philosophy that when a show is as masterful as “Arrested Development”, with its free-form camera style, surreal humor, impossibly good acting, and gonzo narrative structure- helped out by a hilarious running voice-over by Ron Howard- it deserves to be on the air no matter who is or isn’t watching. The most talked about solution is to move the show to F/X, where ratings aren’t as important as edgy material and artistic freedom is, but I have a feeling that won’t be necessary, because Fox just won’t want to let go of such a comedic gem, at least I hope so anyway. Any show that has a main character’s right hand bit off by a seal, and frozen sperm as a crucial plot point, not to mention a hilarious “Mrs. Doubtfire” rip off, and a politically incorrect puppet named Franklin, is worthy of a long and happy shelf life.
by Adam Suraf