HBO Sunday night: the new batch
As The Sopranos wimpers into its final lap, it’s curious as to what exactly HBO is going to bank its future on. Right now signs, unfortunately, point to Entourage– the greatest dramedy ever about people whose lives have little unresolvable drama. This summer HBO is bringing out the bench players, doing their best to convince subscribers the network is still valid. It is. Kinda. Check out the lineup after the jump…
The Wire (8pm)
Now that The Sopranos is over, I think its safe to say that this is the best that HBO has to offer. Season 3 is what’s currently being shown (new episodes will air in August). If you’ve never see the series, don’t bother. No show is more involving of its audience (maybe Arrested Development), though DVD renting promises to deliver the goods. Rent it.
Deadwood (9pm)
I wish I could talk like these guys. Seriously. If I conducted all of my affairs using this kind of made-up old-west curse-strewn vernacular (in iambic pentameter), I suspect I’d be involved in more bar-room fights and/or prospecting adventures. Deadwood is great because the action in the show has little impact its momentum, but it’s the small, sometimes indecipherable, throw-away comments that really move the plot.
Entourage (10pm)
I hate Entourage. Now that I’ve said that, season 3 seemed to open without much of a notion as to what’s in store for the next 3 months. Though let me say this: my hatred of this show is entirely due to the series inability to create any sort of tension (it started to show signs of promise shortly before season 2 came to an end, but then everything worked out ok, which seems to be the message– if you’re rich and famous everything will work out okay), but this could quickly turn around if Vince’s Aquaman is a complete bomb. That’d be interesting. Also, Entourage was curiously in wide-screen all of a sudden after 20 episodes in full screen. While everything will eventually be in widescreen, I find it interesting to see which programs choose it.
Lucky Louie (10:30pm)
By taking a step back we might finally be able to take a step forward. Or at the very least we’ll be reminded of how far we’ve strayed. Lucky Louie, the only new show that premiered on Sunday not featuring Dane Cook, is a sit-com. It’s a sit-com the way I Love Lucy was a sit-com more than the way Seinfeld was a sit-com. In other words, it’s like a one-act play performed in front of an audience, then televised. Thematically, it’s closer to Roseanne, but the laughs seem to come from actual funny situations instead of snappy comebacks. This episode, the pilot, centered on the titular Louie feeling his family is too poor to have another child, even if it means he won’t be having sex. Nothing groundbreaking here, but that’s kind of what’s magical. This isn’t going to be a show where one will look back in twenty years and say, “Goddammit, that was something special,” because what the show succeeds at is not a breakthrough for the medium. Instead, Lucky Louie simply illustrates to the modern audience just how horrible the American sit-com has become. History may forget this show, but hopefully someone at a network takes note: less (get this) can sometimes be more.
Picture via HBO.com
Tags: Deadwood, Entourage, HBO, Lucky Louie, The Sopranos, The Wire
June 13th, 2006 at 10:54 pm
what? I have to disagree. The full 98 seconds I saw of Lucky Louie was not in the least bit entertaining. It was akward, dull, and cheaply made. Also, call me crazy, but lets not talk about getting high infront of sweet, little five year olds.
In one word: Booooo
June 13th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
I would also disagree. Lucky Louie seemed to me devoid of anything new. If I wanted to watch the same old jokes I’d plant myself in front of re-runs all week. Also, the laugh tracks were unnecessary and annoying. I don’t want the show to tell me when to laugh. I was bored and shut it off within the first five minutes. If a show can’t hook me within the first five minutes, then it is a waste of time.
June 14th, 2006 at 1:09 am
Yes, but that is precisely my point! Lucky Louie is significant (good or bad is debatable) because its television stripped down to its absolute essence. It’s an homage (but with swearing). Also, I absolutely cannot stress enough the difference between a laugh-track, and actual laughter. The New Adventures of Old Christine, which I watch and find mildly enjoyable, has a laugh-track, meaning someone layed a recording of laughter over the video. Lucky Louie is taped in front of a live studio audience (like I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, and The Cosby Show) so the laughter we hear is real. There are HUMAN BEINGS sitting 20 feet away watching the action unfold… and laughing (similarly, if a joke doesn’t work, the laughs won’t be there).
And Steph: c’mon, nothing is funnier than being incredibly inappropriate in front of small children. It’s the entire basis for “Bad Santa.”
June 14th, 2006 at 10:20 am
As far as the laughtrack/live audience debate goes, i’ve sat through tapings of King of Queens, the Pilot of Joey (all 12 hours of it… felt like i needed some rat poison), Two and a Half Men (make that a double), and “I’m with Her” (remember that gem?)… thankfully i wasn’t one of the people in our group that had to sit through “The Help”… go ahead and look it up. Anyway, all of those shows had live audiences, yet when you watched on TV you got the distinct impression that it was a laughtrack. I’m sure the people when cutting the episodes together add canned laughter to the mix just to make it seem like it’s actually funnier than it is. Also, when you’re in an environment like that, you really feel obligated to laugh at anything that’s even remotely supposed to be funny. What’s interesting about this to me is that we’ve been trained by the setup-setup-punchline-even “funnier” punchline formula that even when something is not funny at all, we automatically know when to laugh. It’s even more painfully hard to laugh at everything the third time they shoot the scene, so i’m sure they embellish the laughter at least a little.
June 14th, 2006 at 10:24 am
Is it possible that i those cases, the audience is brought in no so much for the laugh track, but so the writers can get a sense of what does and doesn’t work– also so the actors know when to awkwardly hold what they’re about to say until the laugh dies down?
June 14th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Significance aside, the show is hard to watch….because it is not entertianing. And the kid in Bad Santa was at least 12. He could handle it….mostly. I reiterate my point: boooooo
June 14th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Why are you defending this horrible show to your death? Are you sleeping with a producer or something? Maybe the one that deals with the laugh tracks. Excuse me….the laughter of the live studio audience. She must be good in bed. I really hope so.
June 14th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
For what it’s worth, I tuned in for about two minutes and found the show unwatchable.
June 15th, 2006 at 9:44 am
actually rick, that’s exactly why they do it. in fact there were times when the second and third tapings of the scene included different punchlines, because the writers didn’t know which one was funnier and they were going by audience reaction. it also doesn’t hurt for actors to be able to play off of the crowd’s energy. I know that way back when I used to do plays it was much easier to do it for a crowd that was into it than one that wasn’t, and i’m sure having one that laughs at everything (whether they find it funny or not) is better than no audience at all.
June 20th, 2006 at 9:52 am
I thought this week’s episode was a lot better than the pilot.