9 More Shows That Are Probably Too Good For You

Now before you get upset and tell me I’ve insulted you with my incredibly clever title for this piece let me just let you know one thing; I’ve heard it all before. “Oh, that SOUNDS cool!” “I just don’t have the TIME to watch new stuff!” “TV is STUPID!” Well you’re all wrong and I’ll tell you why; television is awesome right now and it’s only getting better. The ever-growing freedom allowed to showrunners and writers by networks has ushered in a new level of brazen creativity no longer welcome in cinema(at least when it comes to mid-tier budgets).

The “medium budget film” is dead, and TV is here to pick up the slack. Now I understand it can be a daunting process to vet all of these new wonders, to separate them all from the generic filth, but that is why I’m here. To filter out all the awful.

Let’s start with the crème de la crème of what’s currently airing; The Knick.

The most astounding part of this series is that every single episode is directed by the critically acclaimed and highly talented director Steven Soderbergh. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it features a cocaine and opium addicted Clive Owen playing the mad-genius that is Dr. John Thackery, a revolutionary and experimental doctor in the field of surgery.

Couple that with the equally ambitious and brazen black surgeon Dr. Algernon Edwards(Andre Holland) in the very racist early 20th century, add a dash of big-muscled Irish ambulance drivers, hospital directors with a penchant for prostitutes, abortion performing nuns, adorable and incredibly capable nurses, and a thumping electronica score from none other than Cliff Martinez(Drive, Spring Breakers), and you might begin to understand why The Knick is so gratifying.

Honestly, I could go on and on about how great this show is, but if your interest hasn’t been piqued by now you may be a lost cause. The Knick has nearly concluded its second season and airs Friday nights at 10PM on Cinemax.

Switching gears into something a little more soothing, we’ve also been blessed with the show Detectorists(those who metal detect). Detectorists comes to us from Mackenzie Crook who writes, directs, stars in, and created the show. You may also recognize him as the wooden eyed zombie-pirate Ragetti from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the ORIGINAL Dwight Shrute(Gareth Keenan) from The Office(UK), or as Orell(the wildling jealous of Jon Snow) in Game of Thrones.

A dramedy of the finest form, Detectorists is an utter joy to watch. Crook has created a surfeit of interesting characters that reside in a small town in the English countryside. Toby Jones(The Mist, Berberian Sound Studio) stars alongside Crook as his trusted metal detecting partner and closest confidant. The show centers around their love for metal detecting, their interactions with their beloved metal detecting club, their interpersonal relationships, and the competition between other clubs.

Of course, to spice things up a bit, Crook has introduced the incredibly charming and undeniably cute Aimee-Ffion Edwards(Skins, Peaky Blinders) as Sophie, a new girl in town with an interest in the hobby. Beautiful imagery, a gorgeous ever-repeating score,  witty dialogue, fantastic acting, and the charm of the English countryside are what set Detectorists apart from run-of-the-mill shows of the same genre.

Did I also mention it’s a BAFTA award winning comedy series as of this year? It is. Detectorists has recently concluded its second season(yet there is a Christmas special planned!) and airs Thurdays at 10PM on BBC Four.

Speaking of comedy; the best newish comedy from the states is undoubtedly You’re The Worst. It stars Chris Geere(Waterloo Road, Trollied) and Aya Cash(Newsroom, The Wolf of Wall Street) as two of the most morally devoid people in Los Angeles(which is a definite challenge) who sort of fall in un-love.

Not for the faint of heart, this series has it all; raunchy sex scenes, shameless alcohol and drug abuse, an Hispanic roommate with PTSD(Desmin Borges), and an incredibly hilarious and narcissistic woman-child bestie(Kether Donohue).

That’s not to say the series isn’t full of touching and very human moments, in fact it seems to say that there is hope for happiness in even the most unhappy, in even the very worst of us. It’s a show where characters can be honest and real, or in the very least attempt to learn to be, and finally drop the facade of perfection so many of us keep up.

Plus it’s just a really funny show, devilishly clever, and totally different from any other comedy currently on the tube. You’re The Worst has recently finished its second season and airs Wednesdays at 10:30PM on FXX.

The Leftovers has to be my surprise pick of this piece. Never did I expect a writer like Damon Lindelof(Lost, Prometheus) to actually deliver a satisfying mystery series. Yet he’s done it with this captivating rapture-inspired drama from HBO.

That’s not to say on initial viewing that I was not worried. The Leftovers takes place three years after the rapture, referred to neutrally as the “Global Departure”, wherein 130 million people just up and vanished. It’s based on the novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta, who also serves as the show’s co-creator.

The post-departure world is obviously one of fear, misunderstanding, and elevating tensions as those that are left behind, the leftovers, try to find ways of coping with and understanding the strange phenomenon that has occurred. At the center of this story is a small-town police chief masterfully played by Justin Theroux(Six Feet Under, Miami Vice) who must confront these issues head on(as his wife has joined a prominent new cult that dresses only in white, chooses not to communicate verbally, and endorses chain-smoking) while they manifest themselves as acts of violence, understandably confused animals, and a growing personal problem of sleepwalking.

Liv Tyler(The Lord of the Rings, The Incredible Hulk) and Christopher Eccleston(Doctor Who, The Shadow Line) also star in this astounding drama, bringing even more impeccable performances into this myriad of talented individuals. The Leftovers also recently concluded its second season but it normally airs Sundays at 9PM on HBO.

While I found the first season to be extremely odd and near-directionless the charm exhibited by Black Jesus has really grown on me during this, its second season.

Black Jesus takes place in Compton, wherein an African-American male(Gerald ‘Slink’ Johnson) believes he is, and dresses like, Jesus. Jesus and his Compton crew get into wacky money making schemes but there’s usually an altruistic twist to every one. Black Jesus preaches charity, brotherhood, and love. Of course, this isn’t enough for his complex’s suspicious superintendent played by Eddie Murphy’s brother(Charlie Murphy) who tries to thwart and oust Jesus and his crew at every opportunity, and who teams up with John Witherspoon(Friday, The Boondocks) a local alcoholic homeless man.

Black Jesus comes to us from Mike Clattenburg, of Trailer Park Boys fame, and  Aaron McGruder, the creator of The Boondocks. As a team they have delivered a solid comedic product with a warm and touching center. As I stated; season one may have some issues with finding its voice but season two has been consistently competent, even great.

You too can save your soul with Black Jesus, which recently concluded its second season, by watching Adult Swim(Cartoon Network) Fridays at 11PM.

For those of us with both a penchant for cheesy horror and a propensity for nostalgia comes the late, but great, Ash vs Evil Dead.

Mega-cult-star Bruce Campbell(Evil Dead franchise, Bubba Ho-Tep) returns as the wise-cracking and still absurdly charming and handsome Ash, a one-handed man with a knack for killing deadites, but Ash vs Evil Dead is no longer a solo adventure for the veteran of evil; he’s joined by  Ray Santiago(Accepted, In Time) and Dana DeLorenzo(A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Impress Me) two formidable sidekicks who can almost hold their own against the armies of the undead. Almost.

I was surprised to find that creator Sam Raimi does very little writing for the show, save for the pilot which he wrote with co-creators Ivan Raimi and Tom Spezialy(who also serves as an executive producer on The Leftovers). He is obviously doing a fine job of producing, though, because the show is very much in tune with the rest of his works. The end result is we receive a fun, funny, and much needed cult-film-inspired TV series that hits the mark in every regard.

If you’re looking for classic cheesy horror-filled fun you can catch Ash vs Evil Dead(Sill in its first season!) Saturdays at 9PM on Starz.

All controversy aside, The Man in the High Castle(based on the novel by Phillip K. Dick) is a striking portrayal of what life may have been like had the axis powers defeated the allies and taken over the United States.

Gone are the swinging sixties, US pride, and any semblance of freedom. Instead the United States has been divided between Japan and Germany, who are still allied together and forcefully control the populations under their rule. Caught in between this are a young San Franciscan woman(Alexa Davalos) whose sister is mysteriously murdered by Japanese authorities and a loyal, yet conflicted, Nazi spy(Luke Kleintank) who successfully infiltrates a network of rebels.

In the positions of power we have the terrifying and infinitely resourceful  Obergruppenführer(Rufus Sewell) and the altruistic yet secretive Japanese Trade Minister(Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). Both men end up working closely with their younger counterparts, yet they all have differing agendas. It seems the future of the Great Nazi Reicht and the Japanese Pacific States is in jeopardy, and deservedly so.

For a taste of dystopian autocracy in North America head over to Amazon, the sole distributor and streamer of The Man in the High Castle, where all of season one is currently available to watch.

For the science fiction fan in most of us there was very little available in terms of quality television to satiate our needs. That was, of course, until Humans broke into the scene.

Set in the near-future wherein synthetic humans are the norm, Humans helps us to question our own humanity and ponder the value of life. Scattered amongst the rows upon rows of hive-minded humanoid robots are a handful of divinely intelligent and mercilessly hunted automatons, blessed so by their late creator and protected thereafter by his son(Colin Morgan), a man with some modifications of his own.

The series also centers around a lady-bot named Anita/Mia(Gemma Chan) who once possessed the divine intelligence bestowed upon her by her father but was kidnapped, had her memory wiped, and was sold into the servitude of a middle-upper-class family in suburban London. Wife, Laura Hawkins(Katherine Parkinson), is furious about the idea and grows rather suspicious of this peculiar robotic slave. Needless to say the “bargain” the family received on said synth turns out to be more than they bargained for.

Humans is a joint production between US network AMC and British network Channel 4 and has already concluded its first season. The series is expected to return next summer, Sunday nights at 9PM.

Wrapping up this gigantic television review piece can only be done once we have gone Into The Badlands and have enjoyed a pulpy romp through a series with deep Kung-Fu film roots.

The series is centered around Sunny(Daniel Wu) a “clipper” or top level assassin working for one of the 7 barons that rule The Badlands. In fact, he is the head of his baron’s army and also bears the title of regent. Sunny is a loyal martial arts master who starts to question everything when he comes across M.K.(Aramis Knight) a boy with a mysterious dark power and ties to Sunny’s long forgotten past.

A power-struggle between barons begins to take place as Sunny’s baron Quinn(Marton Csokas), a Calvin Candy-esque opium plantation owner, begins to exhibit worsening conditions of his already prominent migraines and seeks to secure his future. Needless to say, yet I’ll say it anyway, a lot of blood is shed.

At only 4 episodes in, the series has yet to show us every facet of this life of servitude and violence, but so far there’s been a lot of fighting, mystery, and death. Journey Into The Badlands yourself this holiday season by watching Sunday nights at 10PM on AMC.

I do hope that among this diverse offering of wonderful television that you too can find something you like and if not, thanks for reading anyway.

-Andrew

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Triple Sample: From Dusk till Dawn The Series

The Triple Sample is a feature article in which I write about my impressions of the first three episodes of a new series.

Disclaimer: May or may not contain vampires.

Marketed as a Netflix Original in Canada From Dusk till Dawn The Series is El Mariachi, Machete, and the upcoming Sin City: A Dame To Kill For director Robert Rodriguez’s flagship series for his newly launched channel, El Rey. The show is based on his cult feature of the same name, which starred a tattooed, sly George Clooney and a crazed, intellectual Tarantino(who also wrote the screenplay). Their television counterparts were finely casted, doing well to emulate some of the energies presented by the original characters.

The smart guy is the one with the glasses.

The series itself is pretty interesting, jumping back and forth in time to paint a larger picture of the characters and the narrative while dropping various hints about what’s to come and the mythology surrounding the show. If you’re unfamiliar with the basic plot, the Gecko brothers are on the lamb, heading towards Mexico after pulling a historic bank job, and while in the film we know that south of the border there’s a bar built as bait on sacrificial land, we know very little of what’s in store for the brothers Gecko in this iteration. Fans of That 70s Show and Yo Mama will recognize Wilmer Valderrama (aka Fez) as the mysterious vampire antagonist with unclear intentions.

   

   

“Oh no you did-dant.”

While I don’t yet think it’s watchable enough to make a list like The Nine Newish Shows You Should Probably Be Watching, I do find this series intriguing, especially the mythos, and I believe it’s worth checking out. I will certainly be watching the next two episodes and perhaps more to quell my curiosity.

From Dusk till Dawn The Series airs Tuesdays @ 9pm ET on El Rey in the US and Latin America and subsequently on Netflix in other markets. It was recently renewed for a second season.

-Andrew

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