Notes on Pop Culture: Dysfunctional Showtime Moms, Cancer on TV, Binging on 'Covert Affairs'

Dysfunctional Showtime Moms

When the Wall Street Journal ran a story this past spring saying that Showtime was cultivating a slate of shows featuring dysfunctional, strong women, building on the success of Weeds, I think they were underplaying it.

After watching the first few episodes of the new season of Weeds and the new Laura Linney cancer dramedy The Big C, on top of what they've with Edie Falco’s Nurse Jackie and Toni Collette’s United States of Tara the word "dysfunctional" doesn’t quite cover it. I wrote about Showtime's off-beat moms in my latest pop culture column this week.

Cancer on TV

Speaking of The Big C, watching Linney’s Cathy Jamison -- who’s upending her life in the wake of her stage 4 cancer diagnosis -- got me thinking about TV characters and cancer and how other characters dealt with the news.

As I thought about TV and cancer, for some reason, my mind kept going to Charlie Salinger from the 1990s show Party of Five. While Charlie didn't immediately shake things up in his life when he learned he had cancer, he did make some changes after he went into remission. (The video below features the scene where Charlie learned he'd gone into remission and shared the news with his family.)

My CliqueClack TV post looked at Charlie, Kitty Walker from Brothers & Sisters, Lynette Scavo from Desperate Housewives, Walter White from Breaking Bad and Izzie Stevens from Grey’s Anatomy.



Binging on Covert Affairs

I’d only seen a small number of episodes of USA’s new CIA drama Covert Affairs up until this week, when I decided to binge on them. It’s not Alias. Annie Walker is certainly no Sydney Bristow. But Covert Affairs is kind of light, kind of unexpectedly twisty and fun to watch, plus I get to see actors whom I've admired from other shows, like Anna Dudek (who’s fierce on Big Love, was conniving on House and is distinctly 60s suburban mom on Mad Men), Sendhil Ramamurthy (who was the mysterious researcher on Heroes), Peter Gallagher (of late from Rescue Me where he was an unconventional priest), Kari Matchett (who’d been turned into an alien but didn’t know it on Invasion and a political advisor on 24), plus I got to see D.W. Moffett. (Joe McCoy on Friday Night Lights)

Covert Affairs has been renewed for a second season.

Notes on Pop Culture: Showtime's Women-Centric Dramedies, Put-Upon Political Wives & 'Bright Star' Shines

Showtime’s Women-Centric Dramedies

In advance of the season two premieres of Showtime’s Nurse Jackie and the United States of Tara, the Wall Street Journal ran a feature story entitled, “Showtime’s Bad Girls Make Good: A crop of shows with dysfunctional leading women has given the cable network a burst of momentum.”

Writer Amy Chozick pointed out that, in addition to Jackie and Tara, this is the network that airs Weeds and has a new show slated for this summer called The Big C, about a cancer patient starring Laura Linney. Showtime, the article said, “is reinventing itself with original series largely driven by complicated women. Showtime’s strategy: attracting big-name actresses, of a certain age and experience, who are hard-pressed to find juicy, challenging, starring roles elsewhere.” That is something I can definitely applaud, and is another good reason to keep Showtime as one of my pay channels.

After watching the season premiere of Nurse Jackie I reviewed it for CliqueClack TV and found it very promising. As for the Tara premiere, well, let's just say that I’m going to reserve judgment until I see more episodes.

Put-Upon Political Wives on TV and Real Life

CBS’ The Good Wife has been knocking it out of the park recently. (Entertainment Weekly recently ran a cover urging people to watch it.) The tension has been amped up with Peter Florrick -- the disgraced Chicago state’s attorney who was jailed for corruption and who was found to have slept with escorts -- now under house arrest and living in the apartment with his wife Alicia and their two teens. Alicia’s not sure if she’s going to reconcile with him (he’s sleeping in a guest room) or if she even wants to, despite the fact that, in a recent episode, she slept with him for the first time since the scandal broke. I’m thrilled that the show’s writers aren’t rushing things, like having Alicia simply accept his apology or have her just boot him to the curb. It’s been intriguing the way it’s been playing out.

That being said, Peter still went ahead and hired some political consultants to explore the notion of running for office again, without really talking to his wife or thinking about what this would mean to her, to have his indiscretions brought up yet again if he re-enters politics.

TV husbands blowing off their wives’ concerns for their political ambitions – including with Big Love’s Bill Henrickson – are the focal point of my new Mommy Tracked column this week in a piece that asks how much bad behavior wives can and will take when their husbands run for office. Real-life political wife, Elizabeth Edwards, unfortunately, was included in the column because she's plastered on the cover of People after her husband’s mistress and baby mama, Rielle Hunter did a high profile interview with GQ.

Bright Star Shines

While researching a recent column about women’s power in Hollywood in light of Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar win for best director for The Hurt Locker, I read that a number of film critics had heaped praise upon an indie flick, Bright Star, written and directed by Oscar winning screenwriter Jane Campion. The critics said that the film -- set in 1818 and about the love affair between 23-year-old English poet John Keats and his next door neighbor Fanny Brawne -- was criminally overlooked during awards season yet it still made dozens of critics top 10 lists for best film of 2009.

I finally saw it. (It's out on DVD.) And I loved it. Not only was it beautiful and deeply moving on many levels, it was extremely thoughtful, witty and possessed a quality about it that will linger in your mind long after the film’s last frame. Plus, it’ll make you long for springtime. And butterflies.



Image credit: Entertainment Weekly.

Notes on Pop Culture: 'FlashForward' Retooled, 'Nurse Jackie'/'US Tara' Return and 'Wimpy Kid' Flick Premieres

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the latest episode of FlashForward.*

FlashForward Retooled

I wasn't among the FlashForward haters per say, but by the time ABC late last year decided to put FlashForward on hiatus until mid-March, I wasn't sure what that meant for the sci-fi drama's future. New creative folks were brought on board and I wondered if it was the beginning of the end for a show with a promising premise but which didn't consistently deliver and frequently got caught up in intrigue and complexity at the expense of character development.

I watched the two-hour FlashForward return last night -- while checking in on the NCAA tourney games, go underdogs! -- and was pleased by what I saw: Interesting people, thoughtful connections and more depth when it came to the characters. Plus a whole lot of answers. We were told who the guy in the baseball park was who remained awake during the blackout and why (some mysterious ring). We found out more about the flashforwards of Mark Benford, Simon "Charlie from Lost" Campos and Lloyd Simcoe. We learned that Simon's not as evil as he may seem but was instead being played by a sinister uncle who worked for a nameless, faceless sinister boss.

We saw the introduction of a group called Sanctuary -- run by a former window washer who didn't die on the day of the blackout because he believes he was saved by God (Gil Bellows from Ally McBeal) -- and we learned that perhaps Nicole Kirby (who plays Jane Sterling on Mad Men) didn't really see herself being murdered in her flashforward, drowned and punished for something, but maybe she was freaking out during a full body baptism. And that penny wall thing . . . cannot forget the penny wall being created by Nicole's mother, who lit a Bible on fire and wears angel wings over her bathrobe.

If the rest of the season is this intriguing, I'll be there.

Showtime's Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara Return on Monday

I completely bought Edie Falco as an ER nurse Jackie Peyton during the first season of Nurse Jackie. Fierce, strong, compassionate, smart, unfaithful and addicted to pain meds, Falco's former persona of Carmela Soprano quickly fell by the wayside as the episodes unfolded.

By the time the season one finale concluded, her lover Eddie had been fired from the hospital and found out that Jackie was married and had kids, visited Jackie's husband Kevin's bar and then made a drunken scene at the hospital. Plus Jackie had been experiencing adverse reactions to the copious amounts of illegally obtained meds she was consuming. (Paging Dr. House.) My guess is that we haven't heard the last from Eddie or Jackie's drug issues.

Airing after Nurse Jackie is the season two premiere of the United States of Tara, featuring the Emmy-winning Toni Collette playing Tara Gregson, a woman struggling with multiple personalities she can't control. The first season ended with her coming face to face with the person who sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager. This season starts with Tara having been alternate-personality-free for months.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie Premieres

My three kids are thrilled about the fact that a movie based on one of their favorite book series -- Diary of a Wimpy Kid -- is being released today.

Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+ and called it, "a jaunty and forthright production with a lively look reflecting the book’s illustrated pages, [the movie] does a great job of being in two places at once: In the head and gangly bodies of kids, and in the hearts of those of us who have survived grades 6-8."

However a Boston Globe movie reviewer gave it one-and-a-half stars (out of four), saying that the film makes the main character, Greg Hefley, an unlikeable jerk: "In his quest for instant fame, our hero treats his friend like dirt, trash-talks the school’s perfectly reasonable alt-girl (Chloë Moretz), ditches a group of kindergartners in a construction pit in the rain (and blames it on [best friend] Rowley), and otherwise behaves like a little Hun."

Wonder who's right?

Image credit: Craig Sjodin/ABC.

Pondering 'Big Love' Premiere, 'It's Complicated' and Midseason TV

What do I do when I'm not blogging here at Notes from the Asylum? Write and write and write, read, watch TV/films, consume caffeine and, on occasion, sleep. Here are some the recent pop culture musings I've recently composed:

Big Love Premiere: I was disappointed in the Big Love season four premiere because I felt as though it was consumed by dark, weird humor and not a sufficient number of meaningful moments. Likening it to Weekend at Bernie's gone awry, I wrote a guest column for the TV-centric web site CliqueClack TV complaining about how the Romansicle in the white hat which traversed the southwest in the back of various vans unfortunately dominated the night.

It's Complicated: After watching the delightful Meryl Streep in her light, enjoyable comedy It's Complicated (Alec Baldwin was fearless), I found myself asking in my Pop Culture column on Mommy Tracked whether it was just Baldwin's character or whether women who are in the midst of the heavy-lifting phase of childrearing are viewed as unsexy.

Midseason TV: Big Love isn't the only show that's kicking off a new season this winter. In another Mommy Tracked column I highlighted several TV programs which are premiering in the next several weeks. In addition to Big Love, I mentioned 24, Lost, Nurse Jackie, the United States of Tara, and the new NBC show starring Gilmore Girls Lauren Graham and Six Feet Under's Peter Krause, Parenthood.

What mid-season shows are you looking forward to watching? Any on-going shows (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, House, etc.) for which you’re eagerly anticipating new episodes?

Image credit: HBO.

Golden Globe Nominations: The Good, the Bad & the Odd

Meryl vs Meryl. Meryl Streep is legend for her superb, award winning dramatic acting chops. Now it appears as though she’s conquered the world of comedy as well. This morning’s announcement by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, that she’s competing for a Golden Globe best actress in a comedy film award against herself, just makes it official: Meryl is the greatest actress of all time. This year she was nominated for her portrayal of Julia Child in Julie & Julia, and for her dramatization of a divorced mom who has an affair with her ex (Alec Baldwin) in the yet-to-be-released It’s Complicated.

Love for the Families. HBO's Big Love got three nominations for its solid third season in the categories of best TV drama, best TV actor in a drama for Bill Paxton and best supporting TV actress for Chloe Sevigny. ABC's Modern Family – which just aired one of the funnniest Christmas episodes I’ve seen – got a nod with a best comedy show nomination. I hope it kicks some comedy behind at the Golden Globes.

Enough with the Boring, Spoiled Boys Already. Why is Entourage even in the best comedy series running this year? Why not Parks & Recreation instead? Entourage was wildly uneven and I found myself getting seriously bored on many occasions and feeling as though the adolescent boy/never grew up/has no responsibilities shtick was getting tiresome.

In Dire Need of Some Texas-Sized Love. Where was Friday Night Lights, trusty Coach Eric Taylor and Principal Tami Taylor in the mix here? This show gets no love, honestly, it’s like the Gilmore Girls of the awards set.

Baffling TV Comedy Actress Selections. Why on earth did Courteney Cox get nominated for the abomination that is Cougar Town? Certainly Amy Poehler from Parks & Recreation is loads funnier, in that wry, Bob Newhart kind of way in its much-improved second season. The Association could’ve also, instead, put Sofia Vergara from Modern Family into that slot, or even Patricia Heaton from The Middle.

And while I’m on the subject of comedy actresses, why is Edie Falco’s excellent Nurse Jackie depiction competing in the comedy category? I really like Showtime's Nurse Jackie but as a comedy? Dramedy maybe. Straight out comedy, no. Ditto for the United States of Tara, also from Showtime and whose lead actress, Toni Collette, is nominated in the comedy category.

HBO Crushes Other Networks. One stat that is likely horrifying the brass at the broadcast networks: HBO got 17 nominations, one less than the combined number of nominations of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. AMC – home of Mad Men which got three nominations for best drama, best actor (the exquisite Jon Hamm), best actress (January Jones) -- got as many nominations as did ABC.

Anything please/displease you about the slate of Golden Globe nominees (find the whole list here)?

Image credit: Adam Taylor/ABC.