TV Series of the Month – Eastbound & Down

This month’s TV series: Eastbound & Down (2009-2013)

This HBO comedy is about Kenny Powers, a major league ballplayer who flamed out. Now, with no other options left, he must return to his hometown to gather himself and try and mount a comeback. Assuming, of course, he can ever get out of his own way.

The series is created by Ben Best, Jody Hill and Danny McBride. They are the team behind The Foot Fist Way, Observe and Report and Your Highness. Jody Hill and David Gordon Green direct most of the episodes.

Danny McBride also stars as Powers and is fantastically brilliant. Steve Little, Katy Mixon, Elizabeth De Razzo, John Hawkes, Jennifer Irwin, and Andrew Daly have supporting roles in the series. The guest star list is also great, including: Ben Best, Jillian Bell, Tim Heidecker, Ken Marino, Ike Barinholtz, Jason Sudeikis, Don Johnson, Michael Pena, Will Ferrell, Craig Robinson, Matthew McConaughey, Lily Tomlin, Adam Scott, and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Eastbound & Down is hilarious as Kenny Powers just gets himself into more and more trouble. He is an egomaniac but lovably so. We root for him to win in the end, even if he makes it hard on us. McBride is wonderful, but so are the supporting actors. Steve Little is so funny as Stevie, maybe the world’s most pathetic man. Will Ferrell’s cameo as Ashley Schaeffer is also a stand-out moment. This is a must-see series for fans of crude humor, as it is maybe the best the genre has to offer. The series played for four seasons.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Veronica Mars (2014) – Review

Review: Veronica Mars is something enjoyable for the fans of the Veronica Mars TV series, but not much else. The film finds Veronica nine years later living in New York and a law school graduate. She has moved on from her life in Neptune, California, as a teenage sleuth and is about to join a high-powered New York law firm. Her past comes crashing back into her new life, however, when she gets a call from her former boyfriend, Logan Echolls, who has been accused of murdering his pop-star girlfriend. Everyone believes he is guilty, but Veronica knows Logan is innocent and decides to come home and help him out, only to uncover a larger conspiracy.

The film plays as more or less a re-pilot of the initial series, solving its main mystery but leaving other questions lingering for future Veronica Mars installments (which I believe there are plans to pursue in some form). It never feels like a true feature film, both in its narrative and in its visual aesthetics (it basically just looks like one of the TV episodes). The narrative and character relationships also tend to rely on the audience having seen the series and knowing the characters fairly well. It is not a must, but someone new to Veronica Mars would probably miss a lot of the detail and jokes. The plot itself is self-contained however.

The film is probably most interesting because of how it came to be. Veronica Mars was a much beloved series, but only by a small group of fans. It was a great show that succeeded on having one of TV’s best protagonists. No studio would ever make this film, though, as the potential is just not there (at least in their eyes; I am still completely shocked that Universal made Serenity, although that does have greater crossover potential). Thus, the film was funded via Kickstarter. The first film to be successfully funded and produced, potentially opening the door for lots of other small projects with diehard core audiences.

Overall, Veronica Mars takes what would have been a bigger story arc on the show and condenses it into about two episodes (time wise), but leaving the door open for future installments, which is always something smart if the plan is to continue with the character. But, on the other hand, it does leave the film feeling again like just another TV pilot: an introduction to a character (or set of characters) and their world, with lots of story threads left dangling to be address in the future. The film in a sense is both self-contained and not. Yes the main story is concluded, but it feels like merely the beginning and not a full narrative, and it is dependent to a large degree on the viewer being a fan (probably a big fan) of the original series as well to fully appreciate and understand the characters and their motivations. Thus, the film exists as sort of a made-for-TV style bonus for fans of the character that they will enjoy with promises for more; but as a standalone feature film (especially for newcomers to the character) it is a fairly average crime mystery drama. As a fan of the series I did enjoy the film (it would have made a good, not great season finale), but objectively it does leave a lot to be desired when considered as a true feature film.

Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements: The creator of Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, co-writes and directs the film. Again, it looks pretty much like just another episode of the series aesthetically. Thomas does do a good job of giving the fans what they want while still telling a solid mystery narrative. There are lots of cameos and throwbacks to the series. And, of course, the writing is a lot of fun, filled with pop-culture references and sass. Fans will like what Thomas has made.

The cast is good overall. Many are used merely as “oh look its ____” but a few have some good moments. Returning from the series, Percy Daggs III, Tina Majorino, Krysten Ritter, Ken Marino, Ryan Hansen, and especially Enrico Colantoni are strong in smaller roles, while Martin Starr (playing off-type for a change) and Gaby Hoffmann are good too as newcomers. The main stars here, however (and of course), are Veronica Mars and Logan Echolls, played by Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring. They both hit all the right notes, bringing back everything fans loved about their characters. Although, even though nine years have passed and they have grown up a bit, they really have not changed much as characters, leading to the film’s conclusion making all the sense in the world. For Bell, Veronica is a signature role, and one that she brings to life so fantastically.

Summary & score: Veronica Mars is a film made for fans with money from fans, and thus fans will find it amusing, gratifying, and probably satisfying but those new to the character will likely be not overly enamored (and I suggest they watch the series first). 6/10

TV Series of the Month – Party Down

This month’s TV series is Party Down (2009-2010).

The comedy is about a group of actors and writers in LA trying to make it in the industry, but in the meantime they work for a catering company. The show was created by John Enbom, Dan Etheridge, Paul Rudd, and Rob Thomas (Enbom and Etheridge wrote on Veronica Mars, which was created by Thomas, and Rudd guest starred in an episode). The series has a fantastic comedic cast with Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Ryan Hansen, Martin Starr, Lizzy Caplan, Jane Lynch (season one), and Megan Mullally (season two). It also boasts a great guest appearance list highlighted by Kristen Bell, Ken Jeong, J.K. Simmons, and Steve Guttenberg. Airing on Starz during its run, Party Down is one of the funniest cable shows of the last decade (and probably one of the most unheralded). What works so well is that the comedy is these actors trying to make it having to deal with the almost dehumanizing mundane existence of menial unskilled labor and being treated essentially as lepers. I highly recommend checking it out for fans of Veronica Mars (at least the humor in VM) and series like Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office and Extras. Check out the trailer.

Available on DVD and Streaming

Wanderlust (2012) – Review

Review: Wanderlust is a crude comedy that is ultimately funny, but not well crafted. The film is about George and Linda, two New Yorkers who find themselves bankrupt when George loses his job. To get back on their feet, they move to Atlanta to stay with George’s horrible brother, stopping along the way at a commune to spend a night on the road. When George’s brother becomes too much to bare, they decide to give the commune a chance, having spent a wonderful night there. Writer-director David Wain and producer Judd Apatow sort of know what their intended audience wants: R-rated humor in a comedy with strong characters that actually connect with the audience. For most of their intended audience, they get the humor right. And really, this is the saving grace of the film. It is very funny at times, jokes originating from outlandish characters (and normal people, George and Linda, reacting to them) and explicit material (there is a lot of male and female nudity). Taken at face value, the jokes for the most part work well. However, the principal issue with this film is that it is not very well written both from a character standpoint and in terms of its narrative structure, in both cases holding it back from being a good comedy. The jokes do not have as much impact or meaning because the audience does not care about this characters (especially Linda – who is developed to be a foil for whatever is happing around her void of any real emotion of her own). The narrative structure (built by Wain to be a romantic comedy that only works as one when the plot has nowhere else to go) is not only hollow but also ends abruptly without any sense of real dramatic closure. It is as if the filmmakers did not quite know how to end it, so they played out the first moments of the third act and then cut straight to the prologue, hoping that it would wrap up the story enough for the audience (it does not – at least for those that care about story and are not just in it for the jokes). Even with the best jokes in the world (and this is for from having them), characters and story still need to come first (which seems to be a constant theme in Wain’s work: jokes before story and fully developed fleshed out characters). Wanderlust is going to work for some viewers looking to just have fun and laugh at R-rated Wain and Apatow style comedy (and that is fine), but held against the quality of work (especially from Apatow) we have come to expect from these filmmakers this film is quite disappointing.

Technical, aesthetic & acting achievements: David Wain (as stated above) continues to struggle with getting all aspects of his films right. While Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten and this all have very funny moments, all three ultimately are underwhelming because they lack strong characters and good storytelling (though, for Wet Hot American Summer [being a spoof] and The Ten [being a series of shorts] the style of comedy also contributed to the difficulty in achieving developed characters and a well-done narrative). Role Models, however, is a comedy Wain got right, which made my expectations for Wanderlust higher (and is the reason I am more disappointed). Composer Craig Wedren and cinematographer Michael Bonvillain both do straight-forward work for the genre, but Aaron Osborne’s production design that stands out. His sets for the commune both feel exaggerated and funny, while still seeming real enough to accept. I also found his set for George’s brother’s house to be funny (there seems to be a TV playing somewhere in every shot). Wain incorporates many of his buddies from The State, and to mostly very good results. The supporting cast is good, highlighted by Justin Theroux, Alan Alda, Ken Marino, Kathryn Hahn, Kerri Kenney, and especially Joe Lo Truglio. Leads Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd are not really given much to work with character wise and thus Aniston just sort of does the same thing she always does in subpar comedies and Rudd tries his best to be funny as a likable goofy slightly weird and awkward guy. It works for Rudd, though he is much better when playing a fuller character (as any good actor would be) but Aniston just sort of takes up space.

Summary & score: Wanderlust is funny, very funny at times, but just not a very good film as a whole. 6/10