The 60s Are Back

It happened suddenly, and it seems like it's here to stay:

When MAD MEN debuted in July 2007, nobody could have predicted the impact that it was about to have on the TV landscape. It was an immediate success. Critics and audiences alike fell in love with not only the writing, directing and acting, but with the representation of a bygone era. AMC, the cable channel that broadcasts the show, managed to elevate its profile because of the show and, soon, the nation started getting swept away by 60s mania.

Five years later, the fascination hasn't died down. MAD MEN has received four consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series (one for each of its four seasons), ensuring that the world portrayed in the show remains in the public eye. With the praise received for its strong visual style, and the attention lavished on it, it was only a matter of time until more shows set in the 60s started popping up. Actually, it was a surprise it took so long.

On Monday, September 19, NBC debuted its new drama THE PLAYBOY CLUB, set in 1963, while a week later, ABC debuted PAN AM, also set in the 1960s, in an obvious effort to capitalize on the trend.

THE PLAYBOY CLUB focuses on four Bunnies, Maureen, Alice, Brenda and Jane, who go through your everyday murder cover-ups, secret sexual orientations, secret husbands, and aspirations to become a Playboy magazine cover girl. It's not really a bad show, even though the subject matter seems to have put off many people from the get go. The show actually avoids the chiche of trying to make the Playboy Bunnies sexy and oh-so-scandalous, and instead depends on the actors to project that sexiness that is expected of them. Furthermore, it writes strongly for women, clearly showcasing them as strong, ambitious and determined to achieve their goals and dreams.

Similarly, PAN AM is wonderfully shot and acted, featuring four main actresses who, in this case, work as flight attendants. The show mixes airplane humor with an international espionage plot, and it generally impressed, or at least much more than THE PLAYBOY CLUB. It did extremely well in the ratings and will probably have a good run.

However, both series fail on a very basic level: They do not evoke their era in any real way whatsoever. One of the things that makes MAD MEN so brilliant is the fact that, not only does it pay incredible attention to the clothing and hair style, the props and the sets, but the actors also have adjusted their mannerisms, their behavior, their speech patterns and their delivery of the lines to the best approximation of the 1960s as possible. Watching THE PLAYBOY CLUB, one gets the feeling that they're witnessing a bunch of people play dress up. Everyone walks, talks and acts like they live in 2012. There are swooshy camera moves and montages in both shows that serve to further subdue the feeling of another era. They pretend it's the past, instead of actually re-creating it.

Are the shows and plots still good? Yes, to a certain extent. PAN AM, directed by experienced director Thomas Schlamme, had an interesting visual style, and a fun, light tone, complimented by great music. THE PLAYBOY CLUB seems invested in creating a long-running arc for its characters over the course of the season. But, one has to wonder: If it feels more like Halloween dress-up, than real people living in a different year, do these shows remain topical? Or does the removal of the gimmick also remove any initial interest in them?

One Man, Half a Man and A New Man

In a time when many claim the traditional, multi-camera, live audience sitcom is dying (and they may be right), one sitcom managed to not only get its biggest numbers during the premiere of its ninth season, but it also became an event: Appointment television whose success could not have been predicted even in the wildest of dreams.

Two and a Half Men, the CBS sitcom about two brothers living together and bringing up one of the siblings' child, returned yesterday, Monday the 19th, to resounding success: 27.7 million people watched the episode, a number that surpasses most episodes of American Idol, America's #1 show. Oh, it definitely wasn't a regular episode. Months prior, one of the show's stars, Charlie Sheen, was fired from the program a midst a blaze of controversy and scandal. The eighth season was cut short and rumors flared up as to who would replace Sheen's character and what would become of the show.

As TV's number one sitcom for the past 8 years, Two and a Half Men has never been out of the top 20 and has averaged up to 16 million viewers per episode. Therefore, it is sound to say that there was enough interest in the crude sitcom to begin with. If one factors the buzz around Sheen's life and the questions as to how the show would progress, a slight jump in ratings was expected. But a jump from 12 million viewers (last season's average) up to 27 million is, to say the least, shocking. Dozens of articles documenting the news surfaced, Twitter went ablaze and TV forums were alive with discussion of the show and its numbers. In other words, the show had a sort of water cooler moment.

As for the actual episode? It dealt with the death of Charlie Sheen's character and the arrival of a new roommate for his brother and nephew. The new roommate was none other than Ashton Kutcher, making his triumphant return to the world of sitcoms as Walden Schmidt, a broken-hearted billionaire with suicidal tendencies. Before long, Kutcher was naked and we were given every possible information we could have possibly needed to familiarize ourselves with this new character. Namely, his penis size and how much money he has. Surprisingly, Kutcher was a lot of fun and managed to capture the feeling of a rich, yet innocent, man whose life changed from one day to the next.

I've never been a huge fan of the show. Admittedly, it can be funny at times, but there is only so many times you can have random fart jokes before it becomes redundant and tiring. However, it was refreshing to see that the show did not delve into any sentimentality and remained, as always, inconsiderate, rude and over the top. All of Charlie's scorned women attended the funeral, during which they all proclaimed what a jerk he was and how they were not sad to see him go. When Charlie's widow, Rose, spoke, she admitted to pushing Charlie in front of an oncoming train, after which he "exploded like a bag of meat." It was morbidly funny and left you mesmerized at just how mean it all was. From there on, it was all downhill.

Jon Cryer, who portrays Alan and is often overlooked because of Charlie's shenanigans, was exquisite throughout, finding an amazing balance between mourning and assuming a new role in the house. Always a very funny, nuanced actor, Cryer managed to bring a  real sense of loss to his character as he spoke to Charlie's ashes. When confronted with Walden's wish to die, Alan has to become a mentor to this man who's half his age and, shockingly, far less experienced than Alan is. Now, Alan has to be Charlie to Walden's Alan--and if that is not a recipe for wonderful, comical disaster, I don't know what is. Poor little Jake, however, is reduced to farting and eating. Literally, that's all he does throughout the whole episode. Perhaps this will be dealt with in upcoming episodes, but there was almost no time given to his grief in regards to his uncle's death.

And, thus, Two and a Half Men became one of the most-discussed events in television currently. There's something very fascinating about observing a pop culture moment such as this one. One can safely assume that all these extra viewers tuned in based on a curiosity to see how the show would handle such a momentous change in its premise--after all, such changes are almost never made and, if they are, they usually lead to disaster. It's too early to tell if the show will survive under its current incarnation. After all, all we know is that Walden (or Kutcher) does not suck and that the show remained its usual brand of funny. Will it be able to sustain success and continue as is? Who knows. But I'm sure the farts will live on.    

 

Turning the TV On

Hey everyone!

My name is Athos and I'm plunging into the world of blogging for, basically, the first time. I chose this subject because TV is a medium in which I would really love to work in, contribute and excel. There is something utterly fascinating about the world of serial television; long months and years of a continuing narrative, of characters coming, going and changing; of twists, stories and surprises.

In a world where TV offerings are so broad and varied (or so it would seem), the prospect of taking a long, inquisitive look at what works and what doesn't, what attracts and what repels, is enough to at least keep someone perennially occupied.

This blog was created not only to offer reviews of this or that show, but to also experiment a bit--to look at genres that I do not usually watch, to try new things and maybe even re-evaluate other, long lasting, beliefs.

Despite its, by now unfair, low-brow reputation, TV has evolved to often include writing, production and acting on par, if not better, than many feature length films, while films continue to be thought of as higher quality entertainment than TV. Then again, maybe you cannot blame those who hold that belief, considering Bad Girls Club or Toddlers and Tiaras (that shows hurts; it physically hurts).

Furthermore, it would be interesting to examine the effect and influence that TV has in our everyday lives, our attitudes and our perceptions.

So, this is why I chose The Box That Speaks! To offer my (sometimes not so) humble opinion and to hopefully take whoever bothers to read this blog through a world of terror and confusion: TV!

Athos