EPISODES (TWO) ON SHOWTIME

In their second week, Californication and Shameless continued to look very good, sharp, original, surprising, and enteraining.

The big surprise was episode 2 of Episodes, which was much sharper and funnier than the pilot first episode.

CALIFORNICATION & SHAMELESS - WINNERS

Emmy Rossum
At the Hamptons International Film Festival, 2009
Photo by Eric Roffman


Showtime led off the Winter Season with three premieres.

The Season Premiere of Californication was as wild and wacky as we've come to expect from this continually surprising and entertaining show.

Episodes was not too appealing. Neither the characters, nor the actors, nor the jokes, nor the story, nor the script were particularly compelling. Matt LeBlanc, "Joey" from Friends, who will be on the show as himself, had more face time in the previews than in the story. The most interesting moments of the show came when an old fat British actor played a scene as himself -- and it worked -- then played the same scene in an American accent and it did not work. Comedy is indeed mysterious.

The Series Premiere of Shameless was quite extraordinarily complex, surprising, depraved, and interesting. Acting was excellent -- Emmy Rossum gets better and better each part she plays: she's in Emmy territory here. Top billed William Macy, though, had little to do but snore. He literally slept through most of his appearance. (NOTE: Irrelevant, but I like how the tilt of the "l" in "shameless" shifts from the beginning to the end of the show.)

Two out of three... Pretty good! Sundays are now committed.

Here's a video interview we did with Emmy Rossum at the
Hamptons's International Film Festival in 2009 --

http://qporit.blogspot.com/2009/11/emmy-rossum-dare.html

WEEDS SEASON 6

WEEDS Season 6 begins tonight on SHOWTIME. (Can you believe it's the sixth year already???!!!)

The show is taking a reboot -- moving away after a pretty dispiriting time with sex trafficking and prostitution, murder, and hard drugs. (Didn't "THEY" say that weed is a Starter-Drug??? Remember how it all started as an innocent way to make a little extra cash?)

Mary Louise Parker -- the most interesting actress on TV -- looks like she'll still remain a winner, based on scattered preview scenes.


There's a lot of nice extras here:

http://www.sho.com/site/weeds/home.do

After-premiere-note: Pilot did not disappoint! Looking forward again to Monday Nights.

WEEDS

Darker & darker!

Once it was a wickedly naughty show about a quirky mom who sells a bit o' pot to make ends meet.

Now, on the new season opener of Weeds, we've already had two quick (very cold blooded) murders, a (different) mother kidnapped and nearly murdered so her daughter could cut her up and sell her organs for cash (see * below), and Mary Louise Parker, the first mom (aka Nancy Botwin -- or the "Hemptress" as she's called in promos) now pregnant with the baby of a drug lord who knows she ratted him out and seemed (in a segment played in Spanish with no translation) to be, perhaps, planning to somehow extract the baby by force.

In the last few seasons there have been many murders, the arson of an entire town, young boys (Parker's character's boys) planting, harvesting and dealing weed, hard drug trafficking, forced prostitution and the whole amusing situation just getting really out of hand!

(* This kidnap situation was resolved all too neatly: mom's cancer chemotherapy rendered her organs unfit for harvesting. And her daughter's boyfriend, who had been trying unsuccessfully to raise ransom for the kidnapping -- nobody would pay any money to save her -- got fed up with his nasty girlfriend and kicked the would-be momicidal daughter out.)

This show has always had a different way of looking at people and plots. In normal television the simplest way to resolve a situation like this -- the Hemptress getting deeper and deeper in trouble -- would be to kill off all the bad guys in one big drug raid. I'd guess they'll find a better way to resolve the plot lines.

All in all, the acting, plotting, dialog, characters, and situations are top notch television: humorous, inventive, compelling, and entertaining!

Mondays at 10 on ShowTime.