Finally Getting Around To Love In Season 2

The Good: Good performances, Moments of authentic character-building
The Bad: Continued plot delays, Moments of character dishonesty, Annoying drug conceits
The Basics: Love Season 2 manages to progress the protagonists of the show in a realistic and interesting way . . . for the most part.


I was not particularly grabbed by the first season of Love (reviewed here!), as it set up some interesting characters and then used them in unfortunately unremarkable ways. So, as Netflix released the second season of Love, it was one that I found myself surprised to binge. The second season of Love manages to do what the first season tried to avoid doing; actually putting Mickey and Gus together in a romantic relationship . . . while Mickey tries to work out her myriad of character issues.

Love Season 2 works fairly well when the characters are honest - both with themselves and with the people they are interacting with. Unfortunately, in its second season Love continues to find some painfully inorganic ways to progress the characters. So, while many of the character interactions include wonderful honesty between the characters, Gus lets Mickey talk him into doing drugs and Mickey starts to resent feeling like Gus's "fixer-upper." On the plus side, Mickey remains committed to the various anti-addiction organizations she is a part of, sometimes with Gus's help and that makes the second season of Love feel smarter and fresher than the first season.

Opening the exact moment of the first season's finale with Gus and Mickey squaring off in a convenience store parking lot, Mickey commits to a romantic relationship with Gus after the two get stuck in a lock-in situation when she brings Gus home. Mickey remains in SLAA (Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous) and Alcoholic's Anonymous while trying to develop a romantic relationship with Gus. The two struggle to find their place in one another's lives as Gus commits to the relationship while still working on Witchita with Heidi (with whom he had sex) and Mickey deals with her boss being more aggressive about her life during their company's merger.

While Gus and Mickey figure out their relationship, Bertie gets into a relationship with Gus's friend Randy. Mickey acts as guide when Bertie, Randy and Gus help her dispose of her psychedelic mushrooms by taking them. When Witchita gets cancelled, Gus is given the chance to follow Arya onto her next project. Mickey is miffed when Gus meets her father and outs her sobriety to him. The relationship experiences tension when Mickey feels monitored by Gus - especially about her smoking - and the two face being apart for the first time for a significant amount of time.

The second season of Love explores the difficulties of establishing an open, honest, relationship with an addict. Gus is set in his ways and trying to advance his career, while monitoring Mickey. Mickey struggles with being in a relationship with Gus while maintaining her various forms of sobriety. Love captures awkwardness and excitement that occurs early in relationships very well.

What does not work in the second season of Love is when the relationship gets thrown into artificial contrivances. Early in the season, Brian calls Mickey on her bullshit at a party incredibly well . . . but it is one of the few moments of character honesty in the season. There is something exceptionally frustrating about watching characters who have the absolutely right body language (shut off, reserved, arms crossed) for expressing boredom or concern about impending activities . . . but then go along with pitched activities. It is irritating, as well, because many of the characters who are proximate or in relationships with the person experiencing tension do not seem to notice the character who is having difficulty. So, for example, Mickey is very clear about not wanting to continue in discussions that do not interest her while at a dinner party and she generates drama during a game with her friends . . . but then she does not respond with the same respect she wanted when Gus is resistant to trying mushrooms.

The key characters in the second season of Love are:

Mickey Dobbs - Casting aside her reservations about being in a relationship so early in her sobriety, she commits to Gus while working her programs. She manages her sexual addiction by being faithful to Gus, but still gets very frustrated with him. She begins to work on her own career and gets thirty days sober. She tries to manage her relationship with Gus while getting angry a lot,

Gus Cruikshank - He tries to be supportive of Mickey, but often comes across as controlling. He tries to keep Mickey from using her mushrooms by taking them himself and he kisses up to Mickey's father when he visits. Gus continues to work for Arya after Witchita ends and that forces some distance between him and Mickey when he goes to Atlanta for a film project. He is a hugger and has trouble being alone while away from Mickey,

Bertie - Mickey's roommate, she leaps into a relationship with Randy. She tries to give good advice to Mickey and starts to flirt with another one of Gus's friends. She loans Randy some money. She starts to recognize just how many people push her around and begins to become more assertive,

Dr. Greg - He continues to be a narcissitic jackass, though Mickey starts to distance herself from working with him. He meddles in Mickey's relationship with Gus while at a party by spouting his psychobabble at him in a way that makes Mickey look terrible,

and Randy - He is reluctant to accept money from Bertie, despite needing it. He unsettles everyone by talking about killing others while on mushrooms. He struggles to get a job for the first time in his life. He and Mickey start to bond while they are out shopping and he generally satisfies Bertie until she realizes just how many people have pushed her around.

It is weird that in the second season of Love, Arya (a very minor character) acts as the embodiment of "love as sacrifice" for the show. And Love embodies well the difficulties of being in a relationship with a person with a lot of issues and personality, but then it continues to throw up contrivances. The viewer just keeps waiting for Mickey to cheat or fall off the wagon and it is hard not to get frustrated at Gus for how clunky he is in relating to people on a professional level.

On the acting front, it finally clicked with me who Gillian Jacobs was reminding me of in the first season. When Jacobs has moments of her voice cracking or getting raspy, she sounds exactly like Natasha Lyonne . . . or specifically, Natasha Lyonne doing an Emma Stone impersonation. Jacobs also seems like she is doing an awesome Anne Hathaway impression for some of the more emotive moments as Mickey.

Paul Rust has a very consistent affect as Gus in the second season of Love and Claudia O'Doherty continues to play Bertie as a timid pushover. There is more consistency in the performances than there is anything remotely approaching the actors pushing the envelope of their talent in the second season of Love.

On the technical front, the second season of Love features some odd technical glitches. Between the two seasons (season two picks up the same day as the first season finale and is about a month long for the twelve episodes) Brett Gelman lost a noticeable amount of weight and there are some moments when the show does irritating hand-held camerawork. And Love has some troublingly bad editing. There is a moment when an angry character is shown in three cuts - two very angry facial expressions when shown from the front, but a side view of her has the actress smiling entirely incongruently. The second season of Love seems oddly less-professional in its direction and production than the first season.

Ultimately, the second season of Love is better than the first and starts to tackle some of the inherent issues with the key characters . . . while still throwing up obvious roadblocks to keep the protagonists from truly being together.

For other works from the 2016 – 2017 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Santa Clarita Diet - Season 1
A Series Of Unfortunate Events - Season 1
One Day At A Time - Season 1
Travelers - Season 1
"Happy Fuckin' New Year" - Sense8
The OA - Season 1
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
"Invasion!" - Arrow
"Self Control" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"The Wrath Of Savitar" - The Flash
"Land Of The Lost" - Legends Of Tomorrow
"Exodus" - Supergirl
Luke Cage - Season 1
Stranger Things - Season 1

5.5/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Not Really Love - The First Season Of Love Does Not Quite Find Its Stride.

The Good: Good performances, Generally interesting characters
The Bad: Very contrived plot and character interactions, So much more dramatic than funny that many of the jokes feel horribly incongruent when they come up
The Basics: The first season of Love illustrates that Judd Apatow and his staff still have something to say . . . but that they do not quite know how to land it.


Well before Judd Apatow made a R-rated comedies commercially viable for the first time in decades, he build a loyal fanbase on television with his show Freaks & Geeks (reviewed here!) and its rework Undeclared. While Apatow has been involved with a few television projects since, shows like Girls (season 1 is reviewed here!) - which Apatow was an executive producer for - did not grab me nearly as much as his early works. So, when Netflix decided to produce a new Apatow production, I had fairly low expectations (Apatow had a great start, made a number of movies that did not grab me, and has not managed to find a groove since that has grabbed me). But, today was a real rough day for me (my beloved Siberian Husky, who has been my steadfast companion for the past five and a half years, had to be euthanized after her kidneys started to fail so she did not suffer) and I was in the mood to laugh. So, I decided to binge watch the first season of Love as I was cocooned for the evening.

The first season of Love is an intentionally tough sell of a television show. Like most of Judd Apatow's works, Love is a dramedy and just around the time I was ready to state that I was not actually enjoying the show, "The Date" (the fifth episode) came up and it transitioned from awkward to actually laugh-out-loud funny. Love Season 1 treads more toward drama than comedy as it pursues a season-long romance arc between two characters who are horribly mismatched, but the obvious subjects of the titular love. Love deliberately captures the awkwardness of an early relationship between two residents of Los Angeles in their early thirties as they struggle to find happiness after a series of horrible attempts at romance.

Mickey Dobbs is in an on-again, off-again relationship with a loser of a guy who goes off pants shopping with his mother rather than satisfying Mickey. Gus works as the set teacher on a genre television show, getting pushed around while trying to teach a reluctant child actress, when his girlfriend whom he recently moved in with, tells him she cheated on him. Gus breaks up with her and moves into an apartment complex where he struggles to make new friendships and develop new relationships while getting over Natalie. One morning, after Gus ends up in an awkward sexual situation, Mickey ends up at a convenience store without money and Gus comes to her aid. Mickey is not keen on just being bailed out, so she has Gus walk with her back to her house to give him the money she owes him. That starts the pair on a journey to find Mickey's wallet, get Gus high, and begin the friendship between the dorky young man and the abrasive young woman.

Gus and Mickey begin an unlikely friendship, which gets off to a slow start as Mickey struggles with her own drinking and drug use and Gus is frustrated when Mickey sets him up on a date with her new housemate. After Gus and Bertie's terrible date, Mickey makes her move, but she finds her old patterns very difficult to change.

Love Season 1 is more like a few random flirtations that lead to the Fundamental Bedrock Of Love. Unfortunately, Love quickly gets into a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation with the concept. Love Season 1 is essentially a tease of "will they or won't they" for the romance between Mickey and Gus. The show is damned because the early references to the lack of reality in romantic comedies and great cinematic romances sets Love up to be unsatisfying if the often-opposite protagonists hook up . . . but also seems to be reflecting the very works that it is criticizing. The show is equally damned because when it seems like it is going in the obvious direction of establishing a romantic relationship between Mickey and Gus and the roadblocks start being thrown up. The show has painfully artificial roadblocks in the form of an Andy Dick guest role that distracts Mickey and a potential workplace romance for Gus. The thing is, Love has reasonable roadblocks in the form of Mickey working to kick her bad habits. Mickey has addictions and is uncertain who she is when she is sober and finding the right balance of trying to find herself and save the relationship she has found herself in and that could be an interesting story for her character and for Judd Apatow to attempt to explore.

The first season of Love struggles to find its balance and because it does not quite find the right narrative balance between creating something original and conforming to the paradigms of the genre, it ends up feeling less satisfying than audacious.

The essential characters in the first season of Love are:

Mickey Dobbs - The program director at a satellite radio station, she is coarse and hard-drinking. She smokes, does pot, and has a number of ex-lovers and a history of infidelity. She takes in Bertie as a roommate after her ex-boyfriend finally permanently moves out. She is briefly rescued by Gus and is able to return the favor shortly thereafter when she helps Gus out when they end up at his ex-girlfriend's house. Soon, the two become friends and Mickey tries to kick her bad habits for Gus,

Gus Cruikshank - A very traditional geek, he is considered "too nice" by Natalie, who maneuvers him into dumping her. He is straightlaced, though when he meets Mickey he starts getting high and loosening up. He starts to open up to Mickey about things he actually likes, like magic. He plays music with his friends, but spends his days being pushed around as the set teacher on Witchita, where he wants to be a writer,

Bertie - An Australian who comes to live with Mickey, she works for a focus group company. She is a nice young woman who is initially charmed by Gus, but discovers quickly that they are not compatible when they go on a date. She has an incredibly good memory,

Dr. Greg - Mickey's boss, a radio talk show host. He is legitimately interested in Mickey and frustrated when she has sex with him only because she believes he is about to fire her. He uses Mickey to fire others, but actually cares about Mickey and wants her to work through her crap before she tanks her new relationship,

and Susan Cheryl - The producer of Witchita, she initially shows disdain for Gus as he tutors Arya. When an actress takes one of Gus's notes, she begins to take notes of his talents.

On the character front, the first season of Love is hampered by an unfortunately common problem. The first thing is that the main characters are all given decent characterization - they each have quirks and preferences - but as a matter of plot, most of them simply go along with the requests of the others. The problem with this conceit is that when the main characters of Love try to articulate their preferences, they tend to completely fall down on being as articulate or compassionate as their characters ought to . . . if they actually have affection for one another. So, when Mickey talks about not liking magic, she is articulate about being willing to go to the magic show, but resenting that Gus wants her to like specific aspects of it. But then, Mickey becomes even more abrasive about it in such a way that she comes across as mean. This guts the reality that the opposite characters might actually be able to develop a viable, strong, relationship.

As for the performances, Judd Apatow utilizes some of his familiar performers for supporting roles - Dave Allen and Charlyne Yi - while giving the leads to new performers. Gillian Jacobs plays Mickey and she seems like she is doing a five-hour Leslie Mann impersonation. Jacobs steps into her own on the performance when she plays Mickey as frustrated. She has good range for her facial expressions, but is most surprising when she plays romantic chemistry opposite Paul Rust. Opposite Rust, Jacobs smiles in a way that seems incredibly organic and real!

Paul Rust hits his one note as Gus. Gus is the archetype of a geek and Rust embodies that incredibly well - more than just with his physique. He mumbles through many of his lines and breaks eye contact a lot. He steps up to make Gus more than just a parody of a geek by playing Gus as assertive at key moments.

Love Season 1 creates a handful of interesting characters, but then uses them in the most contrived way possible . . . undermining the point of the show and the titular emotion.

For other works from the 2015 – 2016 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Agent Carter - Season 2
Orange Is The New Black - Season 4
The Flash - Season 2
Game Of Thrones - Season 6
Grace And Frankie - Season 2
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 3
The Walking Dead - Season 6
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - Season 2
Legends Of Tomorrow - Season 1
Jessica Jones - Season 1
Daredevil - Season 2
House Of Cards - Season 4
Rick And Morty - Season 2
Doctor Who - Season 9

4.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Serious Sandler: Funny People (Mostly) Succeeds.

The Good: Good performances, Interesting characters, Moments of empathy/themes
The Bad: Mood is often oppressive, Pacing issues
The Basics: Adam Sandler effectively delves into his dramatic side with Funny People, a Judd Apatow flick that reasserts the writer/director’s ability to plumb the depths of drama . . . with mixed results.


Regardless of how both films might have underwhelmed at the box office, Judd Apatow’s Funny People owes quite a debt to P.T. Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love (reviewed here!). Punch-Drunk Love was the first major film to truly use Saturday Night Live alum Adam Sandler in a dramatic role with any real success. Funny People also explores Sandler’s ability to play a deeply serious role and had Punch-Drunk Love not softened American audiences up for such a twist from the comedian, it might have been even more off-putting than the film already was.

Unfortunately, Judd Apatow’s endeavor into getting a serious performance out of Adam Sandler feels more clogged and problematic than Anderson’s more compact, focused role for Sandler. Sandler’s ability to play rage in Punch-Drunk Love plays somewhat better than his character’s apathy in Funny People and the somewhat sprawling nature of this film. Even so, George Simmons is one of Sandler’s better performances and more memorable roles following his career in dippy comedy blockbusters. Sandler makes Simmons substantive and compelling to watch, even if he is not always interesting.

George Simmons is a highly successful comedian who came up from the stand-up circuit before he started making million-dollar blockbusters and became one of the highest grossing actors in America. Depressed and somewhat lethargic, Simmons encounters aspiring comedian Ira Wright and his roommate, Leo Koenig. Wright hates his job serving sandwiches and he leaps at the opportunity to write jokes for Simmons for a MySpace event – if for no other reason than to show up his hack roommate Mark. After the big event, Ira begins working for George and George admits to his new assistant that he is dying of leukemia. As George has Ira start selling off his stockpiles of swag, he starts pining for the woman who got away, Laura.

Ira finds working for Simmons to be a largely losing proposition. Working for George keeps him distracted, which gives Mark time to move in on his love interest, Daisy. It does, however, get him some exposure on the stand-up circuit, but he finds that hanging out with Simmons doesn’t get him laid and he gets mired in Simmons’ depression. But as Simmons wrestles with his own mortality, Ira helps him find Laura and George disrupts her unhappy marriage. The result makes Ira a witness to a life he has always dreamed of having and forces him to decide if it is the way he wants to live going forward.

Funny People departs from Judd Apatow’s other films by, despite the title, being anything but a comedy. The film reminds viewers of the more character-based, dramatic moments that made Apatow’s Freaks & Geeks (reviewed here!) a cult-smash. Unfortunately, while Seth Rogen has no trouble embodying a serious Apatow-written character (Rogen plays Ira), the role has him meandering around the much more cinematically-powerful Sandler. Even when Sandler’s Simmons is acting bored and depressed, Rogen is unable to steal the spotlight from him. The more significant character journey in Funny People is, arguably, Wright’s arc, but Rogen does not make the film feel like it is truly his.

To his credit, writer-director Judd Apatow manages to create a film where almost every significant (male, at least) stand-up comedian alive shows up. For sure, many – like Paul Reiser, Norm MacDonald, and Dave Attell – have roles that are little more than cameos, but the fact that they show up at all makes the world of Funny People feel very real and the drama within it compelling.

That said, Funny People takes far too long to get going. Apatow thoroughly develops the relationship between Simmons and Wright and by the time the viewer is bored with the two of them, the film makes the shift into the relationship between Simmons and Laura. When that transition is made, Wright becomes something of a hapless sidekick and his role as witness robs him of a character arc where he actually keeps real control over his life. Instead, he reacts to how Simmons throws a bombshell into Laura’s family and the result hardly makes Wright compelling. Apatow alum Leslie Mann plays a less-bitchy version of her prior characters and Apatow makes viewers wait for Eric Bana long past the point that he is able to carry any enthusiasm from seeing his name in the opening credits.

Bana and Mann have pretty poor on-screen chemistry, but their characters are supposed to be estranged, so it is hard to complain too much about that. Unfortunately, Sandler and Mann have no real on-screen charm together and the result is that it is hard for viewers to be convinced that they have more of a chance than the married couple that seems set in every way, but the passion department. The problem with Funny People is that none of the characters have innate chemistry with the others: Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman lack real chemistry with Seth Rogen in Funny People, so it is off-putting at the beginning even to make the viewers believe that they are all actually roommates!

Despite the chemistry problems and the fact that Mann plays a very familiar type of character, Funny People is well-acted. Seth Rogen plays the up and coming, very awkward comedian well and Jason Schwartzman plays the jackass roommate with complete plausibility. Jonah hill is fine as Leo, though his character does not get nearly angry enough when Ira’s big secret is finally revealed to him.

But that is the way of Funny People: the film takes a long time setting up, developing, redirecting and expositing until, like life, if just goes nowhere. That makes it a film with so many winning elements, but an ultimately underwhelming resolution and execution.

For other works with Eric Bana, please visit my reviews of:
Hanna
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Star Trek
Hulk

6.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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With This Is 40, Judd Apatow Returns To Smart Dramedy!

The Good: Funny, Decent character conflicts, Entertaining story
The Bad: Somewhat formulaic in its resolution, No performances that truly “wowed” me
The Basics: Smartly capturing the angst of adult life, This Is 40 is a rare instance where the sequel is vastly superior to the original work!


For a few days now, my wife has been on me to watch This Is 40 with her. I had, admittedly, no real interest in seeing what was buzzed as the “sort of sequel” to Knocked Up (reviewed here!). I was not exactly motivated to watch This Is 40 because Knocked Up did not thrill me (though, admittedly, it grew on me some by the time I had my third viewing of it), so I went into This Is 40 last night with ridiculously low expectations.

And I was very pleasantly surprised.

Gone were the juvenile jokes that have plagued so many of Judd Apatow’s recent works and in its place was the Judd Apatow who originally got my attention with the magnificent Freaks And Geeks (reviewed here!). Despite its simple story and no real acting triumphs, This Is 40 is solidly entertaining and it explores well life in middle age when relationships take work and people get to the point where honesty trumps comfort and a couple has to find a way to live with the truths they expose to one another. This Is 40 has some wonderful lines – “J.J. Abrams is ruining our child!” – and a very modern understanding of the world and how it is to raise a child today.

As Pete and Debbie’s 40th birthdays approach, with Debbie insisting she is only turning 38 and going so far as to lie to her medical practitioners (and their billing departments), the couple experiences above average torsion associated with aging and the specific problems of their family. Pete has a record label that signs classic rock artists for new recordings and has been tragically unsuccessful. This comes at a time when Pete has loaned his father a lot of money and his current artist, Graham Parker, is dropping an album that all of Pete’s backers are convinced will not sell. With their money stretched for their joint 40th birthday party, financial problems overwhelming them and trying to help their children with bullies at school and their dependence upon technological devices, Pete and Debbie struggle to stay together and recall why they wanted to be together in the first place.

This Is 40 has a number of moments that any healthy couple who has had a dynamic relationship will recognize, from the moment where Debbie and Pete lovingly tell one another that they desperately never want to fight again to the moment they return from a retreat together to the first problem their children have and realize life never offers a full-time vacation. Judd Apatow, who wrote and directed This Is 40, is smart enough to include a multi-generational sense of conflict and comparison in this film. Debbie’s father is almost entirely absent and when he pops up for the birthday party, he mis-identifies Debbie’s employee, Desi, as one of his grandchildren. Conversely, Pete’s father is around more often than Debbie would like and his financial woes – the result of having three children very late in life – make his presence much more draining than enjoyable.

The presence of the parents to Pete and Debbie and their assorted issues – along with the comedy of adults now having siblings younger than their own children (Pete and Debbie’s children are older than the half-brothers and sisters both Pete and Debbie now have from their respective parents!) – puts the strained couple at a serious crossroad. In fact, one of the unfortunately dangling plotlines in This Is 40 is Debbie’s pregnancy. Debbie spends more time trying to track down who stole $12,000 from the boutique she runs than actually addressing what she and Pete will do about her unplanned pregnancy. Glossing over that is unfortunate given how straightforward This Is 40 is in tackling the other real world issues the movie takes on.

As for the acting, Judd Apatow uses his considerable cache to bring together some truly amazing talents for This Is 40. Despite oblique references to Ben and Kate (how the film gets around Kate missing her sister’s 40th birthday party is entirely dodged, though the presence of weed in the film is explained by the movie’s lone reference to the central protagonist from Knocked Up), the film employs remarkably few performers from Knocked Up. Apatow regulars Jason Segel and Charlyne Yi have supporting roles which are little more than cameos to service Debbie’s character (otherwise, Leslie Mann’s presence in the film would be entirely to react to relationship issues her character has with Pete). Graham Parker makes the most of his limited time on screen, though is oscillates between seeming like an advertisement for his new projects and making him seem like a bit of a dick (Pete is losing everything investing in the guy and he blithely notes, “I’ll be fine . . . they’re doing one of my songs on Glee.”). Sure, Apatow goes for some obvious eye candy – Megan Fox appears as Desi and is sure to show off most of her breasts – but he also goes with substance and quirky comedic deliveries with heavyweights like John Lithgow and Albert Brooks, respectively.

Much of the film hinges on Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (Pete and Debbie) and they do a great job of taking two background characters who were closer to non-entities (Pete) and annoying (Debbie) in the prior outing to make them entirely interesting and viable characters worth spending two hours watching. Rudd is wonderful at playing a man with a quiet dream who is slowly watching it fail and slip away and his body language and deliveries – where almost everything comes out in quietly exasperated tones with only a hint of hope (which often borders on desperation) sneaking in at the end – are spot on. Mann makes Debbie sympathetic and not at all annoying, which is a nice step up from her portrayal of Debbie in Knocked Up. She is a fighter, fighting for her family and the “guard dog” mentality she presents is much less abrasive than in the first film.

In the end, This Is 40 does well what so many films try to do, but fail; it straddles the borders of comedy and drama to create a movie that explores serious, real-world issues and the consequences of relationships, while managing to be entirely entertaining (and not emotionally oppressive in any way). That makes This Is 40 one of the late-release gems of 2012 and a must-watch now that it has dropped on DVD and Blu-Ray.

For other works Judd Apatow has been involved with, please visit my reviews of:
Girls - Season 1
The Five-Year Engagement
Wanderlust
Bridesmaids
Year One
Pineapple Express
Step Brothers
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby
The 40 Year-Old Virgin
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
The Critic

7.5/10

For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Stupid Girls (Season One)

The Good: One or two lines, Most of the cast
The Bad: Not terribly funny, Utterly unlikable (and dumb!) characters, Predictable, Not stellar on the acting front
The Basics: The first season of Girls presents four vacuous, stupid, and/or spoiled twentysomethings living in New York City who utterly fail to engage the viewer.


When it comes to television trends, there are very few shows that I won’t give a try, especially of the stuff that is recognized and acknowledged at award’s season. Sometimes, I find myself very much against the grain and with Girls I know I am in the minority. But, having just sat through the ten-episode Girls Season 1 DVD set, I find myself utterly uninterested in the series and the characters. In fact, with my issues with Girls leave me absolutely baffled as to how and why anyone who would nominate shows, actors, writers and/or directors for awards would give this show any attention.

Girls is yet another HBO show that tries to promote the idea that New York City is the center of the known universe and that everyone there does virtually every known form of drugs and indiscriminate sex. And, unlike the youth culture who continue to watch this show or HBO executives, I’m so over that. How the people who want to honor television’s best are not over the obvious, predictable, and repetitive HBO conceits gave Girls any notice leaves me, at best, disappointed. Girls is essentially the newer, younger, version of Sex And The City (season 1 reviewed here!), but unlike that show where the first season left me on the fence, Girls Season 1 left me disappointed, at best, and annoyed and bored most of the time.

Over ten episodes, Girls Season 1 presents half-hour episodes of “comedy” that do not rise to the level of intelligence that Judd Apatow’s prior television series, Freaks & Geeks (reviewed here!) rose to. Judd Apatow is the co-executive producer of Girls, but Lena Dunham who wrote, executive produced, and directed most of the episode and stars in the show as Hannah is the driving force behind the series.

Starting with Hannah having dinner with her professor parents, who decide it is time (two years after she graduated college) to cut her off from their financial support, Hannah realizes she is on her own in life. She goes to her internship and asks the boss to take her on full-time and is let go instead. While Jessa returns from her travels abroad, Hannah hooks up with Adam, who is mean to her pretty constantly. Hannah’s roommate, the working professional Marnie, and the innocent student Shoshanna try to be emotionally supportive as Hannah lists from interview to interview and crappy jobs under the pretense of being a writer who is working on a novel.

As Jessa gets a job as a nanny, Hannah blows an interview by making a terrible rape joke to the interviewer and then quitting her job at a law firm after threatening to sue her boss who might be touchy-feely, but is not interested in having an affair with her. Meanwhile, Shoshanna moves to her first sexual experience and Marnie struggles not to dump the boyfriend she is not interested in at all. When her boyfriend Charlie finds Hannah’s diary and realizes Marnie is just waiting it out, he dumps her and she pines for him.

There are so so so many things wrong with Girls Season 1. Immediately, Hannah is utterly unlikable. She is spoiled and boring and I have no idea what the hook is for her character or the series as a result. While I think it is wonderful to see a plus-sized protagonist (though Hannah is the Hollywood version of plus-size, not the real-world version of plus-size), Hannah is hardly a compelling character to make one want to watch her. As my wife was quick to point out, what is utterly inexplicable about Hannah is how she looks more or less normal, but every one of her friends and associates (from when she returns to Michigan) is a stick-figure who could be a model. Seriously, every one of the people in Hannah’s life could be a model, she is the only non-model person who exists in her world and yet they all have interest in being around her. I call bullshit.

It’s also important to note that I am not entirely unsympathetic to Hannah or her plight. One of the huge problems with Girls is that it exists without consequences. Hannah has had everything in her life handed to her until the first five minutes of the pilot episode. Okay. So, of course, she would be entirely unable to exist in the real world as it exists when she is forced to take care of herself. But the fundamental problem with this approach to television storytelling is that neglects the realism of the situation it sets up. Hannah Horvath is cut off from her parents and has no money survive on. But, just because she has a huge change in her life, the world she lives in does not change . . . except that in Girls the world completely changes around her. What I mean by this is that when Hannah loses her financial backing from her parents, her world should be thrown into utter chaos. But, it is not. Hannah does not starve, she does not get evicted, her friendships do not suffer when she cannot make her half of the rent. In fact, nothing happens to Hannah when she has no money living in New York City. She doesn’t even have to trudge miles a day to try to get to her job interviews or get frustrated because the cell phone she obsessively texts Adam on gets shut off because she can’t afford the bill any longer.

Damn, this show just pisses me off.

Like every HBO show, Girls hinges on having characters the writers and producers hope will engage the viewers. They do not. Still, the main characters in the first season are:

Hannah Horvath – A twentysomething woman who keeps a diary, but otherwise is never shown writing (she never, for example, misses a job interview because she gets lost in writing her novel and loses track of time), but seems to have plenty of time to text, tweet, and go visit her boyfriend who is not actually interested in her. She is self-centered, boring, and awkward,

Marnie – In a relationship with Charlie, a guy she does not love, but who does not dump because she acknowledges his love for her, she has a steady job and is Hannah’s best friend. She jerks Charlie around after he breaks up with her and almost ends up in a threesome with Jessa when they are hit on at a bar. For a woman who looks the way she does, has an amazing job, and double-digit friend requests waiting on Facebook, she unrealistically is unwilling to move on to any number of the other guys who must be expressing interest in her,

Jessa – Self-centered and self-absorbed, she loses her charges while trying to unionize the local nannies. She has a lot of sex, skips out on her abortion and comes close to seducing the guy she babysits for (only surprise of the season was that she does not actually have sex with him). Otherwise, she is a partier who is not sure what she wants,

Shoshanna – Jessa’s cousin who is still a student. She shows up, says delightfully naïve things until she goes on a date and the viewer has no investment in her,

and Adam - Hannah’s boyfriend who is utterly indifferent to her and might well be a creepy pedophile. Gross and not terribly smart, he makes one want to smack Hannah upside the head and say, “You can do better!”

Unfortunately, the longer the first season of Girls goes on, the more the viewer realizes that Hannah is not necessarily smart enough to do better than Adam. Adam is an idiot and creepy, but Hannah is self-centered, boring, and not terribly smart, so maybe they actually do deserve each other.  Moreover, none of her friends are particularly smart.  For example, Shoshanna makes a reference to <em>Sex And The City</em> to Jessa, who tells her she has never seen an episode or movie from that series.  Shoshanna then proceeds to go through the list of what character combinations of <em>Sex And The City</em> characters she is, apparently oblivious to the idea that that would mean absolutely nothing (listing what percentage of which character's name she is) to someone who had never seen the show.

On the acting front, Girls left me unimpressed as well. Lena Dunham’s performance style seems to be looking blankly and opening her mouth. Similarly, Jemima Kirke’s big acting moment as Jessa comes when she stares emotionlessly at the camera and slowly lets her jaw drop. Her ability to emote is limited with her voice and her presentation style is not particularly interesting or enough to get the viewer invested in her character. Allison Williams is the most dynamic of the performers and one has to hope Zosia Mamet is smarter than her character Shoshanna, making her a wonderful actress.

In its first season, Girls is an awkward, dull season of television with characters who are some range of emotionally or cognitively stupid. This might be a great point from which the characters can grow and develop, but the show is not engaging enough for me to care where any of the characters go from here. Like some lesser HBO works, Girls immediately strikes me as a show that may be a phenomenon now, but will be utterly forgotten when it is off the air.

For other shows from the 2011 – 2012 television season, please check out:
Parenthood - Season 3
True Blood - Season 5
Two Broke Girls - Season 1
Suburgatory - Season 1
Modern Family - Season 3
The Walking Dead - Season 2
30 Rock - Season 6
The Big Bang Theory - Season 5
Happy Endings - Season 2
New Girl - Season 1
Once Upon A Time - Season 1
Weeds - Season 7

2/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Oh Judd Apatow, You (Sort Of) Make Me Laugh! Knocked Up.

The Good: Moments of humor, Interesting enough characters, Good casting
The Bad: Nothing extraordinary on the DVD bonus features, Very predictable
The Basics: In a just-funny-enough-to-recommend movie, Judd Apatow uses Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl to tell the story of a stoner and a successful woman who have sex, then work to fall in love.


Culturally, it does seem like the United States is at a place where pop-culture is rather preoccupied with the whole concept of movies that start with sex and let the love come later. This was a pretty weak concept in Juno (reviewed here!), but it makes for a very simple and direct premise for Knocked Up. Knocked Up is another young stoner comedy film from writer and director Judd Apatow. I became familiar with Apatow's work when he was half of the creative genius behind the one-season-wonder Freaks & Geeks (reviewed here!). Since then, Apatow had been a writer and director who seems to have gone for some of the most obvious comedies and there has been a slight sense of disappointment from those of us who began our appreciation of his works with what appears to have been the high point in his career.

Knocked Up does not change that; while far funnier than many of Apatow's other cinematic attempts, it is still far too obvious and less well-developed than it could be. This makes for good, casual viewing for a night when one needs a laugh from something they do not have to think too much about, but it's a tough sell to argue in favor of buying the DVD. This movie has pretty limited appeal outside the target demographic of young college students who might well get drunk at a club, have fairly anonymous sex and end up pregnant. One hopes that is an ever-shrinking demographic, but I'm not holding my breath.

Ben Stone is a slacker who is living with his four friends and living off money from a lawsuit, money which is rapidly drying up. Ben and his housemates spend much of their time getting stoned and watching movies to find what celebrities get naked and at what point in a movie they are shown naked to make a website with that information. One night, after being promoted at work to on-air talent at E!, Alison Scott goes out to a club with her sister, Debbie. After a few too many drinks, Alison takes Ben back to her home - the pool house at Debbie's - and the two have sex.

Eight weeks later, Alison realizes that she is pregnant and decides to keep the baby. She informs Ben of the pregnancy and - despite his limited means and his initial freaked out reaction - Ben decides he wants to be there for Alison and his child. As a result, Ben and Alison begin dating in earnest to try to prepare for parenthood and in the process, they try to fall in love.

Knocked Up is a remarkably formulaic romantic comedy. Two people who have no real connection and few shared values begin to see the value in one another's lifestyles. There are the usual predictable events including attraction, repulsion, acceptance, misunderstanding and then resolution. This could pretty much be one of the defining films for following a formula for romantic comedy. Like many romantic comedies, Ben and Alison's relationship is set opposite a more obvious and loving relationship, that of Pete and Debbie. Pete and Debbie have their own fallings out which contrasts with Ben and Alison's and allows Ben to make a more normal and likable companion than his four stoner buddies.

The friendship between Ben and Pete allows Apatow to actually say something useful with Knocked Up, though, even if it is only one line in the entire movie. Pete's issue with Debbie has him sneaking around with his friends at odd times just to have some "me time," which is - of course - uncovered in the course of the movie. In trying to resolve this pseudo conflict, Pete realizes that the biggest problem in his marriage is that he has a wife who wants to spend more time with him. This is a concept too infrequently realized in any type film and it is refreshing to see it be realized in Knocked Up.

This also contrasts with the relationships of Ben's friends. Rarely has a more pathetic collection of miscreants been collected on film and while the sheer pointlessness of their attempted business venture eventually becomes revealed, far too much of their screentime is dumb jokes performed by post-teens who ought to know better. The peak of this is the character of Jodi who enters the household as Ben departs. She speaks in a giggly incomprehensible dialect that utterly wastes the viewer's time. Bad enough to be subjected to several minutes of stoners being idiots; even worse to have to watch the idiotic attempt to portray one of their wasted girlfriends.

Knocked Up manages to work - when it does - because even though it follows a remarkably predictable formula for romantic comedies, the concept is presented in a way that makes it feel just new enough to be amusing. Watching Ben and Alison learn about one another and discover the simple charms each possesses almost makes up for the fact that the viewer can see what is coming about a mile off.

Fans of Freaks & Geeks will enjoy seeing Knocked Up in that it stars Judd Apatow regular Seth Rogen, as well as Freaks & Geeks alums Jason Segel, Martin Starr (who looks nothing like he did in his television role) and a cameo by James Franco. Fans of Grey's Anatomy will no doubt enjoy seeing Katherine Heigl in a role outside her star-making role on that. Knocked Up works in part because when they sit opposite one another, Rogen and Heigl are able to portray a realistic amount of romantic chemistry.

Rogen has an unassuming quality to him and a look that is anything but Hollywood typical. As a result, Apatow frequently uses him in roles where he appears as a slouching slacker. In Knocked Up, Rogen is allowed just enough moments where his character assumes the mantle of respectability and comes into his own in a way that implies he might have the chops for serious drama. Despite things like the on-air prank that makes up the "topless" scene on the unrated DVD, Rogen has moments where he plays Ben quiet and contemplative in a way that genuinely works for him.

It is not a real surprise, for most viewers, that Katherine Heigl holds her own with Rogen. She has all of the qualities for a classic Hollywood star from the figure to her delivery of serious lines. She plays the straightman throughout the movie, while Rogen plays wacky. Heigl is a good choice, though (Anne Hathaway turned down the role) and she lends a seriousness that helps to exaggerate Rogen's absurdities. At the right moments, though, Heigl illustrates she has her own decent sense of comic timing, playing out a few physical gags in the movie.

Largely, though, Knocked Up is an unsurprising romantic comedy that unfolds in exactly the way a seasoned cinephile might expect it to. On DVD, there are a bevy of deleted scenes, a commentary track and a few alternate scenes, including a gag topless scene (It's not Heigl). The film looks good on DVD, but it's one I recommend solely for the rental as opposed to the buy. At least it is not unfunny and it's a fair way to kill an afternoon.

For other works with Seth Rogen, check out my reviews of:
50/50
Paul
The Green Hornet
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Observe And Report
Zack And Miri Make A Porno
Pineapple Express
Step Brothers
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
Donnie Darko

6/10

For other film reviews, be sure to visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy: Very Funny, But Very Average Comedy.

The Good: Funny, DVD bonus features, Generally the acting
The Bad: Somewhat repetitive humor
The Basics: Funny, but often a one-trick pony, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy excels on the acting front more than on the character or plot points.


Some part of me has come to entirely embrace the old axiom that it is easier to get work if you already have it. I come to this acceptance by way of watching more and more movies my wife loves. She is a big fan of films I derisively call "dumb comedies." She doesn't argue; she's looking for light fare full of dick and fart jokes, unburdened by social commentary. She wants foul language, nudity and jokes that are racy and while I have not, traditionally, been a fan of such fare, I have found a few that I enjoy. Largely, the ones that she enjoys are the works that feature Will Ferrell in them. She's a fan and there are a few works by or featuring Ferrell or from his production company that I have come to enjoy.

The latest in the parade of movies my partner has subjected me to is Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy. This brings me back to my original premise. Having just seen The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard which is by the same creative team as Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby, it is easy to see how the production company makes its friends and sticks with them. The primary cast for the three films is startlingly similar, especially with the troupe surrounding Ferrell. It seems David Koechner and Kathryn Hahn, for example, have comedic talents Ferrell and his team enjoy exploiting. The only problematic aspect of their continued cinematic associations is that they never seem to be asked to do anything other than their initial shtick. Fortunately, Ferrell and his team mix it up by infusing other talent, like Steve Carell and Christina Applegate into their otherwise familiar mix.

In Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy, Will Ferrell plays Ron Burgundy, a newscaster in San Diego who is at the top of his game. He wins the nightly ratings battle for the attention of his audience and reports the news with his team, smoking and drinking his way through his sappy deliveries of the nightly news. In the 1970s, Burgundy becomes a legend and his arrogance grows, in part because he is surrounded by sycophants like Champ Kind, Brian Fantana, and weatherman Brick Tamland. But when diversity becomes the word of the day, Burgundy is teamed up with investigative reporter and newscaster Veronica Corningstone.

While Ron works to seduce Veronica, she finds his advances both annoying and charming. When they do hook up, Ron almost immediately violates their privacy by reporting the act. After further incidents which disrespect her, Veronica sets out for revenge. She gets it through Ron's Achilles heel; having Ron swear on air by simply changing his call line on the teleprompter. As Veronica takes over, Ron flounders and his team struggle to get on without him.

Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy is essentially a mock documentary of the life of Ron Burgundy and the humor is derived largely from uncomfortable deadpans and such things as one of the characters (Brick) being mentally retarded and socially awkward. The reversals, like Ron promising Veronica he will not say anything about their sex immediately followed by him telling all of his friends, tend to happen quickly and be very predictable. This is not to say the film isn't funny, but it is a very standard sort of absurdist humor for which Will Ferrell is famous. That said, there's not much surprising here.

Ferrell presents Ron Burgundy as a stiff, strangely formal character whose on-air persona never goes away. As a result, when he tries to interact with friends or with Veronica, there come strange deliveries that seem inappropriate for the setting (imagine having a newscaster on a dinner date who spoke with the same deliveries as they did on-air). Ferrell is adept at the deliveries and he makes Ron Burgundy funny as a result. However, because most of the humor is related directly to either delivering the news or scoring with Veronica, much of the movie seems repetitive.

This is where DVD truly pushes a film up; in the bonus features, where Will Ferrell plays Ron Burgundy for an interview, the result is absolutely hilarious. Ferrell is fearless in his presentation of the parody opposite a serious interviewer and the result is comic gold. Similarly, the outtakes and deleted scenes are very funny.

What Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy does best is lampoon the pretensions of the news industry, especially in the way it attempts to make information entertainment. Things like the repeated joke where Burgundy and his team stride toward the camera and look earnestly at it and one another effectively skewer the way actual news organizations try to blur the lines between disseminating information and keeping an audience hooked with personalities. Of course, the movie is not at all just social commentary, which is made evident by the battle royale that occurs between Ron Burgundy's news crew and those of the competing stations (which is little more than an excuse for cameos by people like Ben Stiller). That scene creates a parody of violence and offsets the predictable and slow moments revolving around the news story of the decade, a pregnant panda at the San Diego zoo.

All of the actors are thoroughly invested in their roles and it is hard to actually criticize the acting here. While Ferrell and Koechner do their usual schtick - they play off one another wonderfully - and Fred Willard plays the station manager pretty much exactly as any fan of his would predict, other performers nail their roles. Steve Carell, for example, establishes his dry wit on the big screen perfectly as Brick. He has a dry delivery that underplays any form of sarcasm and given that this is one of his roles before The Office, it is easy to see how he got that role. He plays Brick as a hapless mentally challenged individual and that works.

But the real standout for acting has to be Christina Applegate. Yes, Christina Applegate, whose fame was predicated on her looks, appears in Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy as Veronica and she is impressive. Veronica is basically the straightman to Ron's absurdity and Applegate plays off Ferrell's over-the-top comic sense with an understated delivery that makes her the perfect foil. More than that, she plays Veronica as incredibly smart and she seems mature and intelligent enough to plausibly be in the place she is. Applegate is a surprise who steals all of her scenes.

This is quite a feat when one considers that much of the movie is spent with the characters staring at the camera delivering lines. When not doing that, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy is simple hoping to grab laughs off the look of the 1970s personas. Ron dresses in a maroon suit and he and his companions have big-70s hair. Those jokes replay less well than the satirical comments on the news industry but they still work.

Largely, though, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy is good, escapist humor that sets out to get some laughs and it does that. It does little more than that, but it works for what it is.

For other works with David Koechner, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Piranha 3DD
Paul
Extract
Sex Drive
Get Smart
Let’s Go To Prison
Farce Of the Penguins
Thank You For Smoking
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Waiting . . .

6/10

For other movie reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Judd Apatow, What Were You Thinking?!

The Good: Amusing concept, Acting
The Bad: Terrible execution of concept, not funny, most of the characters
The Basics: Not terribly funny or even entertaining, The 40 Year Old Virgin gives some decent actors work, though it's not worth it for them or us.


Judd Apatow, creator of Freaks And Geeks (a worthy show, reviewed here!) was the key selling point for me to sit and watch The 40 Year Old Virgin. Apatow created a funny, endearing and clever show that I loved. That got him a lot of points in my book. He pretty much used all of them up with The 40 Year Old Virgin. Under the heading that "life is too short for softcore," I viewed the Unrated version of the DVD for my review and while I can see how the regular release might have been "R," there's nothing here in the unrated edition that seemed like an 18 year old could not handle.

Andy Stitzer is an introverted 40 year-old who has never had sex and works at a Circuit City-type store with his three much more experienced friends. One day, he meets Trish a woman who works across the street and instantly shows interest in him. Andy's friends David, Jay and Cal begin to prepare Andy for a relationship under the notion that if he wants the relationship to truly work, he has to go through some women as practice so his first sexual experience isn't terrible.

The 40 Year Old Virgin suffers not so much in concept, but in execution. I can see how the idea of a 40 year-old virgin could be funny. A guy who has never had sex and wants to start faces any number of difficulties that could be funny. The problem is that The 40 Year Old Virgin isn't terribly funny and the moments that are are almost completely mortgaged by the beastly parts that aren't funny.

So, for example, there are large portions of dialogue that have nothing to do with the rest of the movie that are more mortifying than related to the story. The peak of these is a confrontation between Jay, Andy's token black friend, and a black customer in the store. The two fight and the point of the episode is too opaque to describe in context.

Similarly, the characters are mostly idiotic and stereotypically male. Jay exhibits the prejudicial misogyny and promiscuity associated with black men and David and Cal are equally emotionally shallow for the bulk of the movie (especially Cal). The men are opportunistic, predatory and treat sex as a means to an end for their own personal release. It means nothing to them beyond their own satisfaction.

And the women in The 40 Year Old Virgin are only slightly less stereotypical, though often no better portrayed. Trish is angry and only happy with Andy when she is trying to change him, the rest of the women are drunk idiots who are ready to put out with any man who shows them any attention. Jay's girlfriend is ignorant of his extra-relationship activities and oblivious to his misogyny.

All around, The 40 Year Old Virgin is populated with characters who are entirely unintelligent and emotionally disconnected, unlike characters in Apatow's other works. The movie was co-written by Judd Apatow and lead actor Steve Carell, though I would think both would want to distance themselves from this work. For two people used to being funny, it's amazing they created something so unredeemably stupid.

The best character in this movie is Trish's teenage daughter, who is looking to become sexually active herself. While she plays the stereotype of the indifferent teenager with a heart of gold, the character is a welcome change from the imperceptive morons embodied by the other characters.

The only thing that makes The 40 Year Old Virgin even bearable beyond the trailer is the acting. Outside the witless dance number at the climax of the movie, the actors remain in character and do a good job of convincing the viewer of their character's narrow views of the world. It's always nice to see Seth Rogen getting work and his portrayal of Cal is amusing throughout. Rogen is able to play the straightman and deadpan well.

Catherine Keener does well as Trish. Keener plays a believable small business owner and mother who is struggling to meet decent guys. Keener has a quiet sadness to her that she allows to come through in some of the movie's softer scenes.

It is Steve Carell that the movie ought to rest on, but the script and airtime of the other characters drags even his performance down. Carell plays Andy with humor that never breaks from the character. Carell plays the nervous geek quite well and as Andy he creates something of an archetype. The problem comes in the hair removal scene. As he has a waxing, he begins to swear up a storm and Carell delivers his lines extraordinarily well and with a fury that is formidable. The problem is where Andy delivers his anger. Carell plays the anger perfectly, but because the anger is directed at the worker and not his friends, the character is revealed to be as base as his comrades.

What ultimately knocked this further for me was the constant, juvenile exhortation of "gay" as a pejorative. Cal and David have a whole scene - extended on the Unrated version - of why the other is gay and it's just a collection of stupid, lame and/or hateful statements that only reinforces the meanest concepts in the minds of the people this movie is most likely to appeal to.

For other works with Kat Dennings, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Two Broke Girls - Season 1
Thor
Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Charlie Bartlett

3/10

For other movie reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the films I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Short Lived Series With Passion Makes For Best Possible DVD Release: Freaks And Geeks Stand Up!

The Good: Original! Acting, Characters, DVD extras, Plotlines
The Bad: A vastly better (and more expensive) set available, Slightly less replayability than I’d like
The Basics: An amazing series about high school life in the '80s at a midwestern school, Freaks And Geeks turns into one of the best DVD boxed sets you can own! No kidding!


I remember the first time I saw Freaks and Geeks. I was on a trip and it was a Saturday night and NBC was doing a marathon of Freaks and Geeks and as I was flipping through the channels, I caught a glimpse of one of the weirdest exchanges of dialog I had heard on television (for fans of the show, it was the fight scene from "The Little Things") and I was caught. I watched the next episode they showed, the season finale "Discos and Dragons" and I was impressed. Hooked might be more like it. And that was the last time NBC showed an episode. I returned home from my trip, looked it up on-line and learned that NBC had canceled the show and that it was pretty much a dead and buried series. Man that stunk. I ended up going on eBay and doing something I never thought I was capable of doing; I bought bootlegged copies of the entire series so I could see the whole thing. It was the worst (ethically) and one of the best (I was so impressed by this series!) things I had ever done. So, when I was at Media Play back in the day and a salesperson snared me and actually made me look over the list of upcoming releases on DVD and I saw that Freaks and Geeks was one of them, I instantly put my money down (ALWAYS buy legitimate, kids!). Read on to find out why.

In Michigan, in 1980, at a small high school, Lindsay Weir finds herself feeling disenchanted. Always a good student, she dons an old army jacket and falls in with a fringe crowd (the Freaks) and her life opens up. At the same time, her brother Sam, a freshman and a geek, and his friends struggle with growing up and learning the ropes of high school. And at the same time, their parents Harold and Jean, cope with being middle aged and falling out of touch with their children.

Of course, it's more complicated than that. Lindsay has always done everything by the book and her falling out with her life has come from her grandmother dying and calling into question all of her beliefs. She befriends a slacker named Daniel, who is lazy and underachieves. Daniel introduces her to the aspiring drummer, but druggie burnout Nick and their sarcastic friend Ken. Add to the mix Daniel's somewhat psychotic girlfriend Kim Kelley and Lindsay is left unsure of pretty much anything in her life.

Kim Kelly is one of several people who torments Sam. Sam and his friends are plagued by bullies, cheerleaders and trying to establish their own ways. This is made especially difficult as his friend Bill is the archetypal geek with thick glasses and a goofy ability to quote from all sorts of science fiction and his equally disturbing friend Neal who acts as if he is far older and more world weary, despite being the same age. And Sam likes these guys and fits together perfectly with them. So, despite his pining for cheerleader Cindy Sanders, he finds his friendship with Bill and Neal to be the real thing he cannot live without.

And what binds them together is their parents, Harold and Jean. Harold is a conservative, emotionally distant man who served in the Korean war and is troubled by the way the world is changing. Jean acts as the emotional nexus of the family and her love for her children is quite clear and charming. They are the two most significant adults in the lives of Sam and Lindsay, though they find themselves continually getting the attention of the former-hippie guidance counselor, Mr. Rosso, as well.

What makes Freaks and Geeks work so very well is the casting. Hands down, this is one of the best ensembles to ever hit television. In fact, outside Sports Night (reviewed here!) and Star Trek Deep Space Nine, I have not seen a show where the actors so instantly and perfectly fit their characters. And I love great television. Freaks and Geeks has each individual actor playing a part that they look and sound like so there is never a single moment when their characters do not feel natural or genuine.

The plots of the show tend to follow a typical a-plot, b-plot format and typical stories include Lindsay throwing a kegger while her parents are out of town while Sam and his friends swap the beer for non-alcoholic beer ("Beers and Weirs") and Ken actually falling in love while Sam reveals to Neal that his father is having an affair ("The Garage Door"). The magic of the plots of "Freaks and Geeks" is that some of them are absurdly simple, like Bill eating a peanut and he is allergic to them ("Chokin' and Tokin'") and the fact that most of the episodes do not go where one would expect. For instance, in "The Diary," Harold and Jean sneak a read of Lindsay's diary. On pretty much any other comedy or dramedy, Lindsay would find out and the story would be about her outrage at having her privacy violated. Instead, Judd Apatow and Rebecca Kuirschner (the writers of that episode), take it in a completely different direction, wherein Harold and Jean are shocked by Lindsay's impressions of them and they work to change them.

And that's one of the real strengths of "Freaks and Geeks;" when you think it will zig, it zags. When you think you'll laugh, you find yourself intrigued by how heartwrenching the characters are. Or when you think a positively significant moment has arrived (i.e. the geeks celebrating when Bill catches a fly-ball in gym class), they turn it into something hilarious (it's only the first out and while the geeks are celebrating other runners tag up and score runs). This is something that is aided by the fact that each episode is a full hour as opposed to a twenty-two minute "half hour" comedy. It allows them to develop the plots and make for vivid characters.

So, let's look at how the characters develop over the series:

Lindsay Weir - This is arguably her story as she finds herself an atheist looking for something to believe in. As her friendships with the freaks grow and are tested, she finds herself alienated from her past, studious friends and growing into an independent, intelligent, young woman who is not afraid to stand up for herself and question the establishments,

Daniel Desario - Is a user and his quest to discover how much he can be leads him to love Kim Kelley, explore being a punk rocker, though he finds himself continually cheating and not caring about life,

Nick Andopolis - Goes from being a burned out drummer junkie to exploring all sorts of music, while rebelling against his oppressive, conservative father. His journey leads him to love Lindsay and be devastated when she breaks up with him. That causes him to question even more and leads to an awakening that may change him forever,

Ken Miller - Starts out as monolithic and sarcastic until he falls in love with one of Lindsay's old friends which forces him to examine himself and his sexuality,

Kim Kelly - Seems to be a simple, bullying girl who enjoys nothing more than tormenting the geeks until Lindsay gets closer to her. Kim is revealed to be a young woman with deep trust issues stemming from an abusive stepfather and a domineering mother,

Sam Weir - Lives in fear of Kim until he gains the courage to ask her why she does what she does. His friendships are tested as he falls in love with the beautiful cheerleader Cindy Sanders and is forced to question all he thought he knew about relationships when he discovers that just because she is cute, does not mean she is nice,

Neal Schweiber - Goes from being a know-it-all jokester who seems far older than he actually is to shell-shocked upon learning that his father is an adulterer and, more important, that his mom knows and stays with him for the sake of their children,

Harold Weir - Guides Lindsay and Sam using his array of parenting skills that usually make him appear distant and robotic. He is, however, deeply in love with his wife and very protective of his children which he illustrates through his actions,

Jean Weir - Becomes troubled by Lindsay's thoughts that she is simply a woman in a rut in life and attempts to become more involved with her children and their world as they begin to distance themselves from her,

and Bill - The son of a divorced woman who begins to see his nemesis, the gym teacher, Bill is the consummate geek. He eats a peanut.

All of the characters come across as very real and the producers and writers expertly recreate a time and place with amazing insight to the people and issues of the time. Watching Freaks and Geeks is like a time machine back to a school in the '80s and if you lived through it it is an amazing experience to be so transported back to somewhere so familiar. And if you didn't, the characters make it all come alive with such intriguing realism that you'll feel like it was a familiar place.

And a lot of the credit has to go to the actors. All of them are perfectly cast, but they each add depth and shading to characters that could easily be simple archetypes. Joe Flaherty, for example, has an amazing ability to deadpan such that his deliveries of Harold's stern warnings about life and his experiences often come across as hilarious. Similarly, Seth Rogen has an amazing sense of tone and timing for sarcasm, which makes Ken incredibly vivid. Moreover, his range extends to making his more sensitive scenes feel completely authentic to such an apparently distant character.

The real winners, though, are the series' two main stars. John Francis Daley plays Sam Weir and his every movement seems authentic by his ability to understate his body language. Daley has an incredible ability to seem nervous and trapped within his own skin, the perfect balance of uncertainty and individuality that defines a nervous high school freshman, especially a geek.

Arguably, though, the show hinges on Linda Cardellini as Lindsay Weir. Cardellini's ability to deliver complex lines and to emote makes her an ideal star for a show that wants to be intelligent, funny and emotive. Freaks and Geeks often does not look for easy answers and Cardellini's ability to take Lindsay from rebellious to horrified in less than a second makes her an asset to this show. Her ability to turn her emotions on a dime makes for realism that is not found in most television shows.

The lone, real, drawback is this: there are 18 episodes. That's it. There aren't more, there's never likely to be more. This is the complete series and it is exceptional, but I imagine that after years and years of watching it, it may begin to get old. It hasn't yet, though and it is so different from all of the crappy reality television and the uninspired scripted garbage on television today that it becomes essential to anyone who wants to see anything truly amazing in comedy/drama these days.

This DVD set is the ideal set for a television series, though, as every episode has commentary - most have two different levels of commentary! And the commentaries are interesting, funny, insightful and diverse, based on who is doing the commentary. One of the episodes even has commentary from parents of some of the child actors, so extensive is the set! As well, every single episode has deleted scenes and some even have outtakes and bloopers. There are screen tests, alternate takes, you name it. For a show that only produced eighteen episodes, you'll find this set packed with vastly more than for any other television show.

For those who fall in love with the series, there is an exceptionally limited edition DVD set that has even more bonuses available directly from the producers.

And it's clear that those involved love and miss Freaks and Geeks. Give it a chance; you'll feel that way too.

For other dramedy series reviews, please check out my takes on:
The West Wing
Wonderfalls
Six Feet Under

9.5/10

For other television boxed set DVD reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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