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TV Review – Northern Exposure Season Two

Northern Exposure Season Two (1991)
Written by Robin Green, Henry Bromell, Andrew Schneider, Diane Frolov, Ellen Herman, and David Assael
Directed by Stuart Margolin, Sandy Smolan, Nick Marck, Steve Robman, Rob Thompson, Bill D’Elia, and David Carson

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a deftly handled realignment on a show as I have with Season Two of Northern Exposure. While Season One wasn’t terrible, it was pretty one-note until the end. For the most part, the show was a fish-out-of-water story about Joel Fleishman (Rob Morrow), an NYC doctor transplanted to the remote environs of Alaska. There’s only so much you can do with that premise, and by season two, the showrunners understood this and pivoted away from making every episode center on that concept. What we get instead is a wonderfully written & performed ensemble piece that is clearly influenced by the flights of fancy found in shows like Moonlighting.

TV Review – Foundation Season One

Foundation Season One (AppleTV+)
Written by David S. Goyer, Josh Friedman, Olivia Purnell, Lauren Bello, Leigh Dana Jackson, Marcus Gardley, Caitlin Saunders, Sarah Nolen, and Victoria Morrow
Directed by Rupert Sanders, Andrew Bernstein, Alex Graves, Jennifer Phang, and Roxann Dawson

You’ve bought a reprieve, but war with Empire is inevitable. In the meantime, remember this day, remember what we’re striving towards. I know a thousand years can seem like an eternity, but it’s the blink of an eye when measured against the whole of human history, and it could so easily slip through our fingers if we’re not vigilant. – Hari Seldon (Jared Harris)

TV Review – Neon Genesis Evangelion Episodes 13 thru 18

Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episodes 13 thru 18
Written by Hideaki Anno, Mitsuo Iso, Akio Satsukawa, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Shinji Higuchi
Directed by Tensai Okamura, Masahiko Ōtsuka, Ken Andō, Naoyasu Habu, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Minoru Ōhara

Neon Genesis Evangelion is finally unfolding its mystery with this batch of episodes. Of everything I have watched so far, these were the ones that grabbed me the most. I won’t say I understand every detail of what is going on, but the ideas presented here are both about how the Angels are evolving and what NERV’s true end goal is with the development of Evas. Some very anime-trope-y things are still going on, but they feel toned down in this section of the series. I think that was the right idea because now we’re starting to see who the real villain of this story is, and I don’t think it’s the Angels.

TV Review – Northern Exposure Season One

Northern Exposure Season One (CBS)
Written by Joshua Brand, John Falsey, Stuart Stevens, Karen Hall, Jerry Stahl, Sean Clark, David Assael, Steve Wasserman, Jessica Klein, and Charles Rosin
Directed by Joshua Brand, Peter O’Fallon, Steve Cragg, Dan Lerner, David Carson, Sandy Smolan, Max Tash

I was a weird kid, if you haven’t picked up on it. I read TV Guide every week when I had access to it. It was through reading that magazine that I came to learn about the show Northern Exposure and the comparisons to Twin Peaks. I watched that program as a kid, and on rare occasions, I caught an episode of Northern Exposure. What I liked about Twin Peaks was the horror of it, and this show about a small town in Alaska didn’t have any of it. Many decades later, I still hear very positive things about Northern Exposure and decided I should sit down and watch it with more mature eyes.

TV Review – Kingdom: Exodus

Kingdom: Exodus (Mubi)
Written by Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel
Directed by Lars von Trier

I just can’t hate Lars von Trier. I think he’s a massive asshole, and he often has a horrible sense of humor. However, I find his work enjoyable…mostly. He’s frequently on the cusp of a breakthrough but then misses the point. While David Lynch’s Twin Peaks inspired the Kingdom series, I do not think this comes close to that masterpiece. Part of this is Lynch’s willingness to grow and change as an artist. Von Trier, instead, has entered his grumpy old man phase, and Exodus puts much of that on display. It’s eye-rolling & annoying. He has such a cynical viewpoint in the way he ends this story. Lynch wrapped up Twin Peaks: The Return with a dark ending, but it’s clear he doesn’t see things as hopeless.

TV Review – Irma Vep

Irma Vep (HBO)
Written and directed by Olivier Assayas

I can’t say I have ever been enamored with the work of Olivier Assayas. I’ve seen several of his films: Irma Vep, Summer Hours, and Personal Shopper. They are not bad films by any means, but I never fell in love with his work like I have with other directors. Having just recently watched and reviewed the original Irma Vep, I decided to check out his 2022 television adaptation of the film, wondering why he would choose to revisit this and what the project would add to the original movie. Once again, I walked away, unsure how to feel. I was not unimpressed but certainly not head over heels.

TV Review – The Kingdom II

The Kingdom II (1997)
Written by Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel
Directed by Lars von Trier and Morten Arnfred

Trying to describe where Lars von Trier’s sequel to his 1993 mini-series The Kingdom goes is quite a challenge. The thing your 21st-century sensibilities will be struck with first is going to be the cinematography. A lot of The Kingdom looks like absolute shit. This isn’t a byproduct of a filmmaking amateur but a stylistic decision made by von Trier. His 2000 masterpiece Dancer in the Dark employs early digital and has a similar grainy look to it. While the director was inspired by David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, he wasn’t simply going to mimic that style and instead employed his unique visual take on this horrific & comedic story. Through grainy handheld camerawork and especially the editing in post, he can construct a comedic rhythm that makes this show genuinely hilarious.

TV Review – The Kingdom Season One

The Kingdom (Mubi)
Written by Lars von Trier, Niels Vørsel, and Tómas Gislason
Directed by Lars von Trier & Morten Arnfred

Twin Peaks is my favorite television show, and it was a worldwide phenomenon that we rarely see these days. As choices in media have expanded exponentially with streaming, in 1990, broadcast television was still the dominant home entertainment option. Twin Peaks was unlike anything American TV networks had ever shown, and this uniqueness allowed it to flourish outside the States in places like Japan, Denmark, and more. Filmmaker Lars von Trier was so inspired he developed his own TV series about a Copenhagen hospital filled with similarly eccentric characters with a supernatural bundle of secrets roiling beneath the building’s foundations.

TV Review – The Venture Brothers Season Six

The Venture Brothers Season Six (Adult Swim)
Written by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer
Directed by Jackson Publick & Juno Lee

If you weren’t around or paying attention when these seasons were aired initially, you wouldn’t understand the vast chasms of time fans had to wait for the next installment. The time between the end of season one and the start of season five encompasses eleven years. A lot happened in the world and in popular media during that time, and often, it took a little while for the show to reflect those changes. One thing I wondered when I sat down to finally watch the entire Venture Brothers series was if, at any point, the emergence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe would play a role. With season six, we finally got to that point. It is, in my opinion, the superhero season.

TV Review – The Curse

The Curse (Showtime)
Written by Nathan Fielder, Benny Safdie, and Carrie Kemper
Directed by Nathan Fielder, Nathan Zellner, and David Zellner

I will not sit here and pretend to tell you I know exactly what The Curse was about. Having watched the series only once, that would be an absurd claim to make. Not since Twin Peaks: The Return have I felt I was in the presence of a piece of art that seemed like an impossible thing made reality. The fact that Showtime greenlit this is a monumental achievement. Nathan Fielder enters a new era, taking the themes and threads of his pseudo-documentary programs like Nathan For You and The Rehearsal and developing a narrative experience that is so incredibly rich & dense. He’s also a damn good actor, which reminds us that the Nathan we think we know has always been a performance and not the actual person.