Binge Watch: Lost in Space Edition

There is always a risk involved in revisiting the past. Too often you find that the things you thought were great when you were young just don’t stand the test of time. This can be especially true of the things you liked as a child. Case in point, Lost in Space. The campy 1960’s TV show about a family, their arm waving robot, and a wayward saboteur named Dr. Smith seemed much more entertaining in the 1960s than it did decades later, or more accurately differently entertaining. What once seemed like a great science fiction adventure became a hilariously campy study in Jonathan Harris’ chewing up of the papier-mâché sets with his over-the-top performance as the aforementioned doctor. The series didn’t hold up nearly as well as Star Trek. But in Hollywood these days everything that goes around eventually come around again, and like the Lost in Space movie from the 1990’s starring Joey from Friends, this idea has come around again, this time as a Netflix series.

Lost in Space, like the series that inspired it, is about the Robinsons, John (Toby Stephens), Maureen (Molly Parker), Judy (Taylor Russell), Penny (Mina Sundwall) and Will (Maxwell Jenkins), a family of space colonists who lose their way while en route to a colony at Alpha Centauri. Of course, the original series was not all that original, being based on Johann David Wyss’ novel The Swiss Family Robinson. The colonial expedition, composed in this version of several families (each assigned a Jupiter style spacecraft), falls victim to an unplanned disaster, sending several of the smaller ships (including the Robinson’s Jupiter 2) down to the surface of a picturesque but hostile planet. The next ten episodes find the Robinsons, their fellow colonists, an alien robot, and the felonious Dr. Smith, trying to survive all the hazards the planet can throw at them while trying to find a way to get back to the colony ship Resolute and Alpha Centauri.

Lost in Space is almost great television. It is certainly good, but the potential to be great gets lost in its tendency to indulge in the excessive jeopardization of its characters. Often it seems as if they are thrown into dangerous situations just for the hell of it, and having characters get dragged toward the edge of a cliff by a half-inflated windblown weather balloon, or driving into a tarpit and sinking, begins to feel a bit contrived. That said, the series is a solid science fiction adventure. Like most televised (and filmed) science fiction, actual science takes a back seat to the needs of the plot, but this version does better on that count than the previous incarnations. The plot goes in circles that largely involve finding enough fuel to get the Jupiter spacecrafts off the surface to rendezvous with the Resolute. The sudden pending uninhabitability of the planet that adds a ticking clock to that endeavor. The “I have a solution, there is another problem” pattern, like the jeopardy issue, weakens the story by playing out a little too often. This was probably a five-to-seven-episode story arc that had to be stretched out too far to fill the ten episode order.

The best thing about the new Lost in Space is the characters, and the underlying performances that support them. Maureen Robinson is no longer just the mom, although she is the center of the family, but is a lead scientist and planner of the expedition. She’s definitely the brains behind the operation, and her excessive competence might have gotten annoying if not for an outstanding performance by Molly Parker. Toby Stevens also does a good job playing against her as the estranged husband John. That estrangement seemed a little too contrived at first, but it played out well by the end of the season. All of the Robinson children are well cast, but Mina Sundwall stands out as Penny, bringing a credible amount of teen rebellion and angst to the role. Parker Posey, who plays the gender flipped Dr. Smith, is, well, Parker Freakin Posey. The role is more understated than Harris’ original, and the backstory has been significantly altered, but those moments when Dr. Smith is being duplicitous and manipulative are brilliant. Don West’s (Ignacio Serricchio) backstory has also been revised. The actor is competent, but I’m not sure that the discount Han Solo transformation was all that effective. The Robot is also given a different origin in this series, as an alien AI with a dark past that befriends a lost Will. Many questions about the robot remain unanswered at the end of the season, but the design is well done, and the robot’s delivery of the “Danger, Will Robinson” line is chilling. As for the series, Lost in Space is not everything that it could have been, but overall it is an entertaining addition to the Netflix lineup.

Riffling Through the X-Files

I was never a fan of The X-Files. I rarely watched any of the episodes during its first run on FOX and had only seen a handful as reruns or on DVD in the intervening years. But with a new season of six episodes scheduled to debut on January 24th, I embarked on an effort to catch up with the series on Netflix late last year. I was aided in my endeavor by this Reddit page: The Essential X-Files, which lists the episodes that are most important for understanding the mythological arc of the show, the one dealing with the alien conspiracy and Fox Mulder’s search for his sister, who had been abducted as a child. The list also features some of the ‘monster of the week’ episodes not related to the mytharc.

It is probable that my lack of interest in The X-Files stems from a certain dislike for Flying Saucer stories. Sure there is a lot of science fiction available that stretches scientific credibility, but none ever did so as much for me as the idea that intelligent aliens would travel vast distances across the universe to flatten crops, mutilate cows and probe rectums. And why are the aliens always naked? Who explores a possibly hostile environment without a protective suit of some sort?

Another factor in my lack of interest in the series came from a general impression of the two main characters and how they interacted with each other. Mulder, the true believer, never seemed much in awe of the fantastic things he was seeing. Scully, the eternal skeptic, never wavered in her stance no matter how much evidence she was presented (at least not until the later seasons). My imagined interaction between these two always played out like this:

*Fantastic SFX UFO hovers in the sky* 

Mulder (deadpan): Look, Scully, a UFO.

Scully (equally deadpan): I’m sure there’s a valid scientific explanation for this, Mulder. 

*UFO flies away*

This perception may not have been entirely fair, although now that I have watched a considerable number of episodes I can’t say that I was that far off on my original assessment.

I did mange to finish The Essential X-Files, watching all the way to the last episode of the ninth season. I found enough of the series entertaining that I was willing to go to the end, even if the last four seasons were rather weak. The series leads, David Duchovny (Mulder) and Gillian Anderson (Scully), did an excellent job portraying their respective characters, as did the supporting cast from The Smoking Man to The Lone Gunmen. I found Scully’s occasional lapses into poetic monologue rather overwrought and laughable, which I assume was not the point. The show did have a good sense of humor, especially in the ‘monster of the week’ episodes, although not enough of one to keep from taking itself too seriously. I can’t say that I was particularly satisfied with the resolutions to the questions about Mulder’s sister, Scully’s cancer, the alien conspiracy, the super soldiers or Scully’s baby. Like Lost it was another series that drew out these long deep storylines only to resolve them in the most trivial way possible. Although my experience with this series does not make me regret missing it the first time around, I’m glad to be prepared for the upcoming season, which I won’t miss.

Yet now I have another beef with this series. I wonder how much it has contributed to the rise of conspiracy theorists and anti-science propaganda. It wasn’t just that the series promoted the idea of being open minded about unexplained phenomena, but that it posited an active conspiracy by governments and the scientific community to distort facts and deceive the populace. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be vigilant about potential conspiracies to deceive the public (Iraq War), just that the series’ may have inspired the people behind the 911 truther movement, various false flag paranoias, the anti-vaccine movement and climate change denial. Of course the rise of the Internet as a resource contributed more to this nonsense than The X-Files, but the series probably provided inspiration for many of the crackpots out there looking to advance their loony version of the truth.

Season of Disappointment

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

There are a handful of television programs airing in the first few months of the year that I look forward to watching, the last eight episodes of AMC’s The Walking Dead, the new season of Downton Abbey on PBS, and the Netflix original House of Cards, which begins streaming at the end of February. These shows are very different from one another, and each has always had their share of strengths and weaknesses, but in the winter of 2015 they have all been somewhat more disappointing than entertaining.

The Walking Dead has been shuffling toward fatigue since the prison burned in the midseason finale of 2013. Recycling The Governor as a villain may have turned out better than expected, but beginning with the death of Herschel the show started losing too many characters that the viewers cared about. In a show about rampant death you risk losing your audience as much as your actors risk losing their jobs. And maybe nobody misses Bob (except for Sasha), but clearly Beth had fans who are upset over her loss. Killing off Tyrese in the first episode of the back eight didn’t help things. Some fans may be wondering who is left to identify with. But beyond the constant deaths, the old run, kill zombies, find haven, get threatened by human survivors, burn haven to the ground plot can only be used so many times before it is totally exhausted. Because we all already know that Alexandria is doomed.

On the other end of the spectrum is the period drama Downton Abbey, which is populated by strangely compelling (if somewhat too modern acting) characters living on an English estate in the early 20th century. This season saw more that the usual share of contrived plot points, including one that turned the tables on earlier events by having Anna end up in prison on suspicion of murder. And like The Walking Dead, too much of this season spent time going over old ground, Mary’s manipulative way with men, Edith’s self-defeating self-pity, Lord Grantham’s general cluelessness followed by a moment of rare insight. And even developments that seemed more original, Daisy’s pursuit of further education, Barrow’s attempts to cure himself of his homosexuality, and Carson’s proposal to Mrs. Hughes, never proved as compelling as earlier events in the series were.

Finally, House of Cards gave us what we’ve been waiting for since season one, a Frank Underwood presidency. But the Underwoods aren’t nearly as interesting in power as they are when scheming to get power. Yes their power is threatened from the beginning by the Party’s decision to not back Frank’s reelection, but under the scrutiny of being president he just isn’t able to make those classically nefarious Underwood maneuvers. He then manages to screw up by overreaching on both foreign policy and his domestic agenda, not to mention the estrangement of all of his personal and political allies. I understand that Underwood needs to be the underdog in order for this series to work, but he just makes way too many mistakes. And the dynamic of the relationship between Frank and Claire, whatever deep conflicts and problems exist there, is founded upon their mutual desire for power and their mutual dependence on one another to acquire that power. Claire leave? I don’t think so.

Binge Watch: Classic Galactica Edition

At the length of a mere 24 episodes, the first and last season of the late 1970’s space opera, Battlestar Galactica, can easily be watched over the course of an average weekend. Although some might like to argue that there WAS a second season of the series, the dismal Galactica 1980 follow-up, with the exception of a single episode most Galactica fans would rather forget that ever happened. Was that one of the first reboots in what now is a reboot happy industry? If so, the planned Battlestar Galactica movie would make this series one of the most rebooted properties in Hollywood history.

Battlestar Galactica is the story of an advanced human civilization that is attacked and all but destroyed by antagonistic machines, the Cylons. Escaping complete annihilation is a single warship, the Battlestar Galactica, which leads a ragtag fugitive fleet of 220 civilian spaceships in search of a new home on the mythical 13th colony of Earth. Leading the way is the wise Commander Adama, his stalwart son Captain Apollo and the obligatory scoundrel, Lieutenant Starbuck. With the Cylons in pursuit, and a universe full of unknowns ahead of them, the Galactica and her crew make their way across the cosmos.

There is always a certain danger in revisiting something that you enjoyed in your youth, especially something that stands firmly in the shadow of a superior work, such as the mid 2000’s SyFy (still called the Sci-Fi Channel then) reboot of this show. But Battlestar Galactica holds up better than I expected. Yes there were a few too many “warrior out on patrol” gets lost/captured/etc. episodes, and yes for some reason Starbuck had to at one time or another find his father, get accused of murder and chase after a lost love, and yes there was the kid Boxey and that stupid mechanical dog (never called a dog), but between these annoyances and weak episodes there were moments when this series shined. These often involved multipart episodes that played out as small movies. The Annihilation of the Colonies Saga. The Kobol Saga. The Pegasus Saga. The War of the Gods Saga. The Terra Saga. Sure show producer Glen Larson used these sagas to advance his own paranoid political agenda (the Cylons and the Eastern Alliance being not so subtle metaphors for the Soviet Union), but a somewhat blatant use of the Good vs. Evil paradigm is not uncommon in the space opera genre. There were also at least two above average stand-alone episodes, Fire in Space and The Hand of God.

Yes this was before the golden age of the cable TV drama and the special effects industry was still using plastic models photographed against blue screens (and would recycle those shots continuously), but watching the right episodes of classic Battlestar Galactica can still be enormously entertaining. B

Binge Watch: House of Cards (Season Two) Edition

There are few series out there that almost demand one watch as many episodes in a row as possible. Netflix’s political drama, House of Cards, is one of them. Like other programs produced by web-based services (Netflix, Amazon) these series do not release episodes on a weekly schedule, but all at once as an entire season. And when they are as compelling as season two of House of Cards, its damned hard to turn your eyes away and look at something else until you’re done.

House of Cards follows the personal and political machinations of Washington, DC power couple Frank and Claire Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. At the start of the series Frank is an ambitious Congressman from South Carolina. Although he holds a very powerful position in the House Leadership as Majority Whip, he feels slighted by the new President’s failure to appoint him as Secretary of State, a position that would have served both his and his wife’s ambitions. Franks spends the remainder of Season One manipulating his way into the vice-presidency.

Although not every episode of the first season was as compelling as the overall series, episode one of season two hits the ground running. I spent half the episode convinced that Claire was the more ruthless half of the Underwood couple; until Frank did something so shocking and unexpected that I thought at first it must be a dream sequence. Sure it was an inevitable action, considering everything Frank had done in the past, but was so unexpected in time and manner as to be truly shocking, something rare in television.

For the remainder of the season Frank and Claire continue their manipulations of people and events, advancing their own ambitions and dealing with the setbacks and obstacles that continue to get in their way. Frank’s efforts to undermine Raymond Tusk’s (Gerald McRaney) influence over President Walker (Michel Gill) results in a trade war with China and an energy crisis, both events that ultimately benefit Frank’s pursuit of power.

A strong cast portrays the supporting characters, some of who fall victim to the Underwood’s ambitions and others who benefit from them. I’m not sure if the Rachel Posner subplot (the call girl who was involved with Rep. Peter Russo in season one) was more than just pointless filler, although the resolution of that story involved Frank’s Chief of Staff Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly) in a way that will definitely have an impact on season three. And given where this season ended, there has to be a season three. House of Cards is possibly the best TV show not on television.

Binge Watch: Dexter (Season Seven & Eight) Edition

Season seven and eight of Dexter proved to be fairly easy to watch over most of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend and I had finished off the last six episodes by the following Saturday.  If you have not yet seen these episodes (or the series as a whole) and wish to avoid spoilers you should probably not read any further in this post.

The last two seasons focused on Debra Morgan’s awareness of and complicity in the crimes of her brother. This called for actress Jennifer Carpenter to have an even greater involvement in the series, and based on my previous comments regarding her talents as an actress, this was clearly a problem. I may have to reassess whether or not my problems with this character are related to the actress’ performance or the way the character was written. I’m pretty sure, based on the way they tied up her story line, that the writers hated Debra Morgan.

These seasons also featured Hannah McKay  (Yvonne Strahovski) as Dexter’s latest love interest, who was little more than a poor shadow of Rita (Julie Benz) and Lumen (Julia Stiles). As others have pointed out it seems as if Hannah was shoehorned into the last season to give Dexter the possibility of a happy ending, a new distraction for him to deal with and something for him to make a noble sacrifice over at the very end. And the last scene of the series, the reveal that Dexter was still alive and working in the timber industry (in Portland?) was rather pointless. Dexter is no better off alive than he would have been having died in the storm aboard the Slice of Life (his boat). 

Although not quite as good a series as I was led to believe, Dexter is clearly entertaining and compelling television. For those with the stomach to deal with the blood and the darkness, it is an excellent way to spend a free afternoon.

Binge Watch: Dexter (Season Six) Edition

Ostensibly the worst season of Dexter, six didn’t get off to that bad a start. It didn’t really run off the rails until the episode “Nebraska” which inexplicably replaced Dexter’s imaginary father with his imaginary brother and sent him to Nebraska to tie up loose ends regarding the Trinity killer. The season’s whole religious theme, through the introduction of Brother Sam and the Doomsday Killers, wasn’t explored with any depth, and although the apocalyptic tableaus were sufficiently creative, the whole doomsday killer plot became a little tedious. The promotion of Debra Morgan to homicide lieutenant was of course as ridiculous as the rest of that character has been, but I guess her presence is too much a part of the series for that to have changed. Colin Hanks and Edward James Olmos put in fairly decent performances as the DDK (even if I could see the twist coming from the 2^nd or 3^rd episode). Fortunately, even the worst season of Dexter remains fairly entertaining.

 

 

Binge Watch: Once Upon a Time Edition

Honestly, this was the last series that I expected to revisit through binge watching on Netflix, especially after what I considered to be a rather lackluster 1st half for season three. But the reset the curse storyline that emerged in the mid-season finale inspired me to re-familiarize myself with how the story originally developed in Season One. Now OUAT is not Breaking Bad/Mad Men/Game of Thrones quality television, but it has remained compelling enough to for me continue watching through the third season. The decline in quality is not on par with Heroes, which declined rapidly through the 2nd season. Strong performances by Robert Carlyle, Lana Parilla, Jennifer Morrison and Ginnifer Goodwin have offset script logic and continuity problems that have emerged. The rules of magic often seem to be rather haphazardly applied, and the decision to create so many familial connections between the different characters borders on the absurd. The first season had the whole question of Emma Swan’s (Morrison) ability to believe in the curse and magical realms, not to mention the question of whether or not she would be able to fulfill her prophesied role of breaking the curse, to generate dramatic tension. One gets the impression that they have reset the curse for exactly that reason, to bring back that suspense. Let’s hope they do something more interesting than just retelling that story. Perhaps Swan will regain her memories of Storybrooke rather quickly and it will be Henry (Jared Gilmore) who needs convincing that there is a curse and that he is the key to breaking it.