Take It Or Leave It Television Volume 1: Mad About You Season 1 On DVD

The Good: Charming, Decent guest starring bits, Decent acting
The Bad: No DVD bonus features, Seems to need the laugh track
The Basics: Mad About You Season 1 gives nothing the syndicated version of the show doesn’t have, but is a good enough romantic comedy that television fans will find something to like.


In the history of the sitcom, I can think of several shows that I watched fairly religiously while they were on the air, but I have absolutely no need to buy on DVD. Arguably at the top of that list would be Mad About You, a show I caught in college in syndication and recently rewatched the first season of on DVD. In rewatching the first, I was struck by how remarkably, overwhelmingly average the show truly was and how little it appealed to me now. For sure, I enjoyed it; Mad About You is a sitcom which peaks early and then dies a slow, long death. So, returning to season one, was like returning to the glory days of a good friendship.

The other thing that stood out for me with rewatching the first season of Mad About You on DVD was how dependent the show seemed to be on the laugh track. My appreciation of shows like Sports Night (reviewed here!) where the show was thrown off by the laugh track (the pacing of the verbal jokes resisted the laugh track) and the success of the humor of animated shows like The Simpsons (season eight reviewed here!) made the laugh track on this live-action sitcom stand out and pretty much scream at me now. In fact, it was weird watching a show where performers waited for the laughs to die before moving on and it struck me as wholly inorganic in this season.

Newlyweds Paul and Jamie Buchman – a film student/director and a producer – are living in New York City (Manhattan) where they work to make time for one another and live through the foibles that result from their miscommunications. This starts with a night alone where both Jamie and Paul forget to cancel prior engagements they had and instead try to squeeze everyone into one night. Because their marriage is still new, they fumble through things like their first major purchase together (in this case buying a sofa) and Paul getting rid of his original apartment which he had only sublet (in this case to Kramer from Seinfeld).

As the season goes on, Paul and Jamie stumble through an extended visit by Jamie’s parents, a maid who has a thing for Paul and Jamie getting annoyed when Paul is not jealous over the new housepainter, who happens to be an ex-boyfriend of Jamie’s. The two struggle when one of Paul’s documentaries is rejected on the same day Jamie gets the funding to produce her next project and they come together sadly when their friends Fran and Mark split up while visiting their apartment. But as their first anniversary rushes closer, it is clear the two are very much in love.

Mad About You is a romantic comedy about love after marriage and it works fairly well. Jamie gets nervous, Paul is levelheaded, but talks off on weird tangents, but it soon becomes apparent that the bond between the two is exceptionally strong. Mad About You in its first season is more often than not a standard romantic comedy which follows a formula where Jamie and Paul have a plan, something comes up and they scramble to fix the problem. They do not so much learn and grow and ironically, the only two real long-term consequences that come out of the first season’s episodes are the split between Mark and Fran and the coming together of Paul and Jamie (which happens midseason as a flashback episode).

This is not to say the show is without charm. It has charm and it even has some originality to it. On Valentine’s Day, Paul and Jamie find themselves locked in their bathroom together and they bond while surviving on antacids and painting toenails (“Love Among The Tiles”). But more often than not, episodes are like “Sunday Times” where Paul and Jamie try to figure out what they might do on a Sunday together before visiting friends and the end of the day decide for them. In the end, the viewer ends up feeling somewhat cheated because nothing truly happens.

The show succeeds as much as it does, then, because of the verbal humor. Paul is a funny guy, played by Paul Reiser. Jamie, played by Helen Hunt, acts more often than not as a straightman to Paul’s absurd gesticulations and her humor is quieter. They both play well off Anne Ramsay’s Lisa (Jamie’s sister), who stops by frequently and has a dry sense of humor and a darker worldview.

Like most good sitcoms, what separates Mad About You from every other sitcom on the air are the characters. In the first season, the principle characters are:

Paul Buchman – A film director and creator, he makes documentaries. He works hard, but is most accomplished with keeping Jamie happy. For Paul, it was love at first sight and now he is working to make the rest of his dreams come true. He finds it difficult to take orders from Jamie when she has the chance to hire him for a project,

Jamie Buchman – Paul’s wife, she is quietly neurotic about change and surprises. She likes things planned, is very organized and gets stressed when things diverge from the plan. Paul has a calming influence on her. She is more amused than annoyed when the maid falls for Paul, but is irked when Paul does not get jealous about her ex-boyfriend painting the apartment,

Lisa Stemple – Jamie’s sister, she is vocally neurotic and takes a while to warm to Paul. She has a friendship with Selby that takes a turn for the uncomfortable on Thanksgiving. She is happy to help Jamie look good for their parents for money (by making herself look bad to them),

Fran Devanow – Paul and Jamie’s friend, she is the controlling wife of Mark who is very unhappy most of the time,

Mark Devanow – Fran’s milquetoast husband, he is a dentist who she basically has to program. Unable to keep her happy, he leaves,

Ira Buchman – Paul’s cousin, he is somewhat shifty, but a generally good guy. He’s friendly, outgoing and he tends to get Paul into more trouble than he keeps him out of,

And Jay Selby – He shows up for a few episodes, comes to Thanksgiving and disappears from the series.

The show features a hilarious recurring role for Steven Wright (Warren the camera man) in the latter half of the season, but largely the show it tight on Paul, Jamie, Fran, Lisa and Mark the first season.

Unfortunately, in this season, there are no DVD bonus features, so it is tough to recommend this as opposed to just catching it in syndication. There’s just enough charm to it for this season, though. Anyone who is looking for a very typical, generally feel-good romantic comedy will find something to enjoy in the first season of Mad About You.

For other situational comedies, please check out my reviews of:
Cheers
Ally McBeal
Dharma & Greg - Season 1

6/10

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

© 2013, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Ben Affleck Reaches For The Best Picture/Best Director Oscars With Argo

The Good: Pacing, Mood, Plot, Characters, Acting!
The Bad: Too many moments of frenetic camera work/audio fallout
The Basics: Argo tells the story of the six American hostages during the Iranian hostage crisis who made it to the Canadian ambassador’s residence and the drastic and incredible lengths the C.I.A. went to the get them back, virtually assuring Ben Affleck Oscar nominations!


There are very few films I allow myself to get excited about anymore. So far, this year, I managed to keep my cool and limit my excitement to two films: Prometheus (reviewed here!) and The Dark Knight Rises (reviewed here!). But when I saw the first trailer for Argo, I found something unexpected happening: I could not help but get excited. The trailer, for a change, did exactly what it was supposed to. Without telling the whole story of the film, it revealed enough to give me a genuine interest in the movie and make me want to travel 180 miles (each way) to go to a screening.

Before checking out Argo, I decided to brush up on the history of the actual mission, which was part of the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 – 1981. To check out what I could about the historical events, I picked my copy of Jimmy Carter’s memoirs, Keeping Faith (reviewed here!), off my shelf and looked at what he had to say about it. I was pleased when Carter’s memoirs provided no spoilers. Published almost immediately after his tenure as President, Carter could not reveal much about the mission as it was still classified. Ironically, he refered obliquely to the story of the escape of the six hostages as “. . . a real cloak-and-dagger story . . .” (493). If Argo has any truth to it (it is based upon the true story), then Carter was seriously underselling it!

In the hands of director Ben Affleck, Argo is a masterfully-executed historical thriller that keeps the viewer engaged and entertained throughout. Yes, this is a pleasant occasion where it is worth getting one’s hopes up for a film!

Starting with a brief history lesson on Iran and the U.S. (and Canadian) involvement there, the U.S. Embassy in Tehran is overrun by student activists. As compassion gets the better of some of the military officers and the Embassy is taken – with its personnel being taken hostage – six of the workers at the front office escape onto the street. They make it to the Canadian Ambassador’s residence where they are left as the U.S. focuses on the sixty people held hostage within the U.S. embassy. The C.I.A. calls exfiltration specialist Tony Mendez to meet with State Department officials who are planning to get the six Americans out of the Canadian Ambassador’s residence. Mendez quickly realizes that the State Department plans are ridiculous for the time of year, but he has no better ideas of his own.

But watching Battle For The Planet Of The Apes remotely with his son, Mendez concocts a ridiculous and audacious plan. He pitches getting the Americans out by having them pose as a Canadian film crew working on a science fiction film that could be set in Iran. As the situation between the Iranians and Canadians deteriorates, Mendez rustles up support from Hollywood make-up artist John Chambers and executive producer Lester Siegel. As the trio works to make it look like they are preparing a real film, Jack O’Donnell does what he can to hold the agencies together. When Tony, using an alias, manages to infiltrate Iran, he finds the execution of his plan fraught with even more challenges than he planned for!

Argo might seem obvious Oscar fodder, but it is one of those films that could have credibly been released any time in the year and generated Oscar-buzz. Argo is smart, tense, and generally well-crafted. Director Ben Affleck, who also stars as the film’s primary protagonist, Tony Mendez, keeps the pace and tension high and he uses several techniques that make the viewer appreciate his perspective and approach as director. For example, Affleck uses music minimally throughout Argo. At most of the most tense moments, the soundtrack cuts out altogether, so the viewer experiences a sense of realistic anxiety and uncertainty. Affleck does not use music to telegraph the emotions the viewer is “supposed” to feel.

Moreover, Argo is well-balanced to be exceptionally entertaining. While the opening is chaotic and legitimately scary (even though the viewer knows what is coming with the fall of the American embassy), the middle portion of the film, which focuses on Mendez in Hollywood working with Chambers and Siegel, is actually funny. The film continues in the final act as a tense, but intelligent and well-crafted movie that details the mission and is smart enough to include the complexities of the real human elements (one of the Americans, for example, is afraid and overly cautious, terrified that this plan has no real chance of success). Ben Affleck deserves some further credit for his technique by judiciously using subtitles in some of the later scenes, to help illustrate the confusion of the non-Farsi-speaking Americans and heighten the level of fear for the audience.

The only real drawbacks to Argo are the sheer number of frenetic camera movements over several scenes that Affleck uses to heighten tension. While I was content with the one at the beginning, the ones near the end gave me a headache. I also noticed a few instances of audio fall-out, where characters who were speaking quietly became inaudible.

On the acting front, Argo might seem like an argument for stacking the deck or expected greatness. After all, the cast is pretty amazing, with strong roles for John Goodman, Alan Arkin, and Bryan Cranston. Clea DuVall is virtually unrecognizable (and completely convincing) as Cora Lijek and Philip Baker Hall is granted little more than a cameo. Victor Garber has another memorable role for his resume as the Canadian Ambassador, Kenneth Taylor, though his role is very much a supporting one.

Ben Affleck is given most of the heavy lifting to do and what is arguably most impressive about Argo is how incredibly he performs as Tony Mendez while directing such a rich, complex film. Six months ago, had you told me that I would get excited about a Ben Affleck film and would be arguing for him to get the Oscar nomination for Best Director (he deserves it; despite the faults it has, Argo is a better-directed film than Prometheus, despite that being an overall better use of the film medium), I would have called you crazy. But with Argo, Affleck pulls it off. He is a serious contender and Argo is his legitimate masterpiece and well worth your time and attention.

For other works with Alan Arkin, please check out my reviews of:
The Change-Up
Get Smart
Little Miss Sunshine
America's Sweethearts
Glengarry Glen Ross
Edward Scissorhands

As a winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this film is part of W.L.'s Best Picture Project, by clicking here!

9/10

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

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Upon Further Review, Spin City "Season One" Is Far More Average Than Extraordinary.

The Good: Moments of humor, Interesting characters, Decent acting
The Bad: Quickly sacrifices concept for familiar, Several gags that hold up poorly over rewatching.
The Basics: All twenty-four episodes on two discs from the first season of Spin City remind viewers how the show started high and quickly became something familiar.


For celebrities who peak young, there is often a lag between the project that makes them a household name and the one that illustrates that that initial success was not a fluke. There are few actors who create iconic characters who are later able to come back and form equally iconic roles afterward. Take, for example, Ted Danson. Danson's role on Cheers was his defining role and while he had Becker afterward, it was never as popular as Cheers and he is likely never to be identified more as Dr. Becker than Sam Malone. See? Even though it has been over a decade since I last saw an episode of Cheers, I could recall the character's name.

One of the other 80s actors that comes easily to mind as one who has created a seminal role for himself is Michael J. Fox. Fox arguably peaked early with his role of Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. Still, as Fox searched for roles after that comedy, it seemed like more often than not, his projects were referred to as "vehicles." The most successful Michael J. Fox vehicle to date - and possibly the final chance Fox might have to make a recognizable character for his resume - was Spin City. After years stuck on DVD with mediocre "best of" collections, Spin City has been released as complete season DVDs. The thing is, upon rewatching Spin City "Season One" the show seems suddenly less audacious than it did when it originally aired and my excitement over it diminished when watching the set twice.

Mike Flaherty is the deputy mayor of New York City under Mayor Randall M. Winston, Jr., a wealthy ridiculous mayor whose marriage is on the rocks. But Mayor Winston's idiocy aside, Mike's job is made a hundred times more difficult by the fact that he is dating a prominent reporter, Ashley. Having moved in with Ashley, Mike works to keep his home life and work life separate, though he often finds himself working with his problematically witless staff to keep Ashley from breaking stories that Mike is not yet ready to become news.

As part of his daily job, Mike finds himself voted Sexiest Man in New York City, negotiating a strike with the sanitation workers, haggling with a real estate developer who is a personal friend, keeping a Mayor For A Day contest winner from undoing Mayor Winston's agenda, dealing with a snowstorm, appeasing the deaf community, and ultimately, dealing with a missing mayor. Mike's team keeps him on his toes as he takes onto the staff a militant gay rights activist, an egoist, and more idiots than most people should ever have to deal with!

I remember loving Spin City. In fact, I recall loving it so much that when my Creative Writing professor in college noted that Carla Gugino's Ashley was being booted from the series, I was as outraged as one could be. Actually, I remember raising my voice and scoffing about how stupid a move it was and that Ashley leaving - which she does after about eleven episodes - gutted the concept of Spin City. And it is true. The show begins as a clever play wherein Mike Flaherty must juggle his home life and his work and for the first dozen episodes, the show is original, funny and has almost limitless potential. The latter dozen episodes in this boxed set feature Mike Flaherty simply going through the motions of dating.

This is not to say there are no funny moments in the second half of the season; "Deaf Becomes Her" and "Hot In The City" have some hilarious lines. In fact, "Hot In The City," wherein an ex-girlfriend of Mike's seeks to have his baby by capturing some of his sperm, is enduringly funny. But episodes like "Kiss Me, Stupid" and "Bone Free" could belong to virtually any sitcom in the past fifty years. That unfortunate level of interchangability in the characters and situations - and even the writing with the gags that the show is supposed to hinge on - is not present in the first few episodes and the show suffers some as a result.

Fans of Spin City who were attentive to the show will be glad to know that the DVD boxed set of Season One contains the original episodes as they aired. For those who watched the show, there was a disturbing trend; several episodes (like "The High And The Mighty") appeared on television in two ways. There was the original aired version - with Ashley present and in a supporting role - and a rerun version following Gugino's departure from the series where Ashley was removed from the episode and the scenes with her were reshot with other reporters asking questions of Mike or Paul.

Still, at its best, Spin City works because it is a character-driven sitcom. In the first season, the primary characters include:

Mike Flaherty - Deputy Mayor. He is constantly putting out brush fires around city hall. He goes head to head with his girlfriend, Ashley, about what the public has a right to know and what is a work in progress. He loves Ashley and when she leaves, he is heartbroken . . . for a time. Sexy and fun, Mike delegates responsibilities and largely attempts to keep City Hall functioning by keeping the Mayor out of the loop whenever possible,

Mayor Randall M. Winston Jr. - The Mayor of New York City. He is addle brained and trusts Mike implicitly. He and his wife are on the rocks and as he turns 50, he discovers Mike might be his best friend as well as subordinate,

Paul Lassiter - Press Secretary. More or less an idiot, Paul is constantly stymied by the press and Ashley walks all over him. He is mugged and lives in fear for a time, but finds a strange companion in . . . the Mayor,

Carter Heywood - A vocal activist in the gay community and the most prominent black member of the staff. Brought on by Mike to solve a p.r. problem with the gay community, he is energetic, eager to initiate change and finds himself torn when a past love surfaces to reclaim him. He and Stuart clash frequently,

Stuart Bondek - Deputy deputy mayor. Stuart is acerbic, offensive and prejudiced. He and Carter clash frequently and he basically sits around making sarcastic and sexist remarks for comic relief and to torment Paul, Nikki and James,

Nikki Faber - Mike's secretary. Constantly falling for the wrong guys, she works to support Mike when Ashley leaves,

James Hobert - Speech writer. James comes from Wisconsin and is green. He is picked on for his naivete,

Janelle - The Mayor's assistant. She serves largely in a supporting role this season,

and Ashley - Mike's girlfriend and a leading member of the New York City press. She ruthlessly asks the questions that no other reporter will, constantly putting Paul on the spot and leaving him sweating. She is offered a better job, which she takes, leaving Mike behind to advance her career.

Spin City has a pretty amazing cast, which includes Richard Kind (Paul), Michael Boatman (Carter), Barry Bostwick (Winston), Alan Ruck (Stuart - he was perfectly cast. Having met him in person, he is utterly hilarious and Ruck's personal sense of humor was a great fit for the Stuart character), and Connie Britton (Nikki). The show rounded the cast out wonderfully at the beginning with Carla Gugino who is now finding some success as Sally Jupiter in Watchmen (reviewed here!). Far more than just a pretty face, Gugino is plausible with the depth and tenacity of a reporter in the first season of Spin City and it is unfortunate to see her cast aside as she was.

But much of the show hinges on Michael J. Fox and he is memorable as Mike Flaherty . . . until the show alters its concept. After the initial episodes, Fox's performances seem more like a twist on the Alex P. Keaton overachiever than the juggling deputy mayor. In other words, Fox is used in more of a familiar than groundbreaking fashion. Still, he has an excellent sense of comic timing and the show works.

On DVD, Spin City "Season One" comes with minimal DVD extras, which include a featurette on the first season with interviews from all of the main cast (notably lacking Gugino) and the show's creators. There are also a couple of commentary tracks which are decent, but not earth shattering.

Ultimately, the first season of Spin City serves to remind viewers of the benefit of syndication; when a show works and is truly audacious and interesting, sometimes it is changed and the best episodes might be available without purchasing the entire boxed DVD set. Still, there is just enough with this DVD set to recommend it. The show was at its best right out of the gate and this boxed set has most of the best episodes the series produced. It is just unfortunate that so many of the best ideas for the show were mortgaged so quickly.

For other works featuring Carla Gugino, please check out my reviews of:
Sucker Punch
Night At The Museum
Snake Eyes

7/10

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

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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