Category: Television Reviews

It’s hard to even remember The Daily Show with Craig Kilborn. What eventually became a comedy institution began life as, essentially, a thirty-minute SNL Weekend Update. It wasn’t as terrible as many people sometimes remember it being, but it was completely unremarkable. But when Jon Stewart took over the show, he single-handedly changed course. In addition to being funny, The Daily Show had the opportunity to be sharply satirical, not only in regard to news and politics, but also the very institutions that create sensationalized stories rather than inform the public. It is impossible to overstate Stewart’s importance to The Daily Show’s success

This obviously gives us reason to worry about The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Without the brainchild at the forefront of the show, how could it be successful? But the truth is, in television, successful shows tend to run on momentum as much as they do creative impetus. Again, Jon Stewart’s influence over The Daily Show was immense, but his contribution was more like building an engine than a single work of art. Behind the scenes, there are scores of writers, producers, and technicians who know Jon Stewart’s vision of The Daily Show inside and out. Stewart was the engineer, but they make up the actual engine.

Even without the engineer onboard, if the first episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah is any indication, that engine is chugging right along. The writing is just as witty as under Stewart, and the actual joke construction feels very similar to what we’re used to. Noah himself also seems extremely game and surprisingly comfortable in the host’s chair. It’s apparent that the writers are still writing material for Jon Stewart’s delivery and mannerisms, but Noah is seamlessly handling the same type of material. It’s almost surreal seeing somebody who looks and sounds so different so quickly acclimating to the show.

This familiarity and comfort is probably intentional, and a smart way to go for a first episode. If there’s a message that the writers seem to want to get across, it’s that The Daily Show with Trevor Noah is still the same show people have enjoyed for the last sixteen years. They hang a lantern on the fact that there is a different person in the seat, but the first episode still feels like comfort food, a welcome return to a successful formula. We may no longer have Jon Stewart delivering the news every night, and Trevor Noah could very well evolve the show into something more suited to his background over time. But for now, we can rest assured that the engine is still running just fine.

It’s incredible that Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp exists at all. The Netflix series consists of eight episodes of inspired absurdity with a star-studded cast that other comedies could only dream of obtaining. This may have only been possible given the future success of the original film’s cast: Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Jon Benjamin…all were still up-and-coming at the time, but are huge draws in 2015. Alongside the more established cast members at the time, including Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Christopher Meloni, Molly Shannon, and most of the cast of The State, Wet Hot American Summer’s cult status has only grown with the success of its actors.

To see all of these actors return with a whole slate of new big-name cameos speaks to the reverence these comic actors have to the original movie. Still, working around so many people’s busy schedules is incredibly difficult (see: season 4 of Arrested Development). Somehow Wet Hot American Summer manages its star availability in a way that it is invisible to the viewer. Like the movie, there really isn’t a central plot to the series, just a vast number of subplots that interweave from time-to-time. Since Wet Hot American Summer feels like it can jump around freely to whatever weird thing it feels like doing, it’s completely fine if we don’t check in on every character in every episode.

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(This article contains spoilers, and is written under the assumption that the reader has viewed the entire series of Hannibal)

“This is my becoming.”

With that phrase, we reached the moment when Will Graham became fully aware of his own descent into evil. It’s something that’s been building over all three seasons of the show, but in this second half, the Red Dragon arc, we see his complete refusal of Hannibal crumble into acceptance. It’s simultaneously a moment of catharsis and defeat. Will tried to stay away from Hannibal and commit to a family, but it was never in the cards. Bedelia tells him in the finale that he’s found his religion, but in truth Will found it a long time ago. His transformation was almost complete; he just needed to consciously give himself over to his darker impulses.

The theme of transformation has been a major focus in Hannibal for some time, but is even more central in this arc. For one, the story they are adapting about the Red Dragon is explicitly about a man becoming something else altogether. For Francis Dolarhyde, the Dragon gives him power, but it also makes him a slave to its own desires. Despite being a relatively faithful adaptation of the source material, Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon, the parallels between Dolarhyde and the TV show’s version of Graham are illuminating. Both are men who are becoming more powerful and dangerous against their conscious wills, and both have people that they love (Will’s family, and Francis’ blind lover Reba) who are bound to fall victim to their darker predilections.

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Back in 2010, The Walking Dead roared onto the scene with a spectacular premiere episode. Director and original showrunner Frank Darabont wasted no time getting to the zombie apocalypse that drove the show, skipping over the initial outbreak and jumping right to the action. He also settled us in by following Rick Grimes, a character who woke up after the outbreak. This way we got to discover the world alongside Rick, and his journey from the suburbs to the city gives us a great idea of how things had changed across all of Georgia

What’s interesting about the premiere of Fear the Walking Dead is that it doesn’t even try to go for scale or excitement. Instead, it uses almost the entirety of its extended length to establish its characters before the shit really hits the fan. On the surface, this is a smart move; unlike The Walking Dead, Fear didn’t need to impress its fans right off the bat. It’s already an extension of the most popular show on television, which shows no signs of slowing down. Fear the Walking Dead was almost guaranteed to set cable records simply by existing, so forming an attachment to the characters before putting their lives in danger could really help the show in the long run.

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(The following review contains spoilers. It is written under the assumption that you have seen season three of Rectify)

Six episodes is not a lot of time to move a story forward. While the overall runtime is comparable to three films, the storytelling demands of television require a much different pace. Full stories must be conveyed on a weekly basis, several characters need to be serviced, and story reveals need to be parsed out to keep the audience coming back. For most shows, this means that such a short number of episodes is simply not enough to tell the full story.

However, for Sundance TV’s Rectify, I would argue that six episodes is just about right. While the cast of the show is quite large, the scenario itself is relatively uncomplicated. The writers are far more interested in how the events depicted effect the various characters than moving the plot forward at a “normal” television pace. Given the ratio of character-driven scenes to plot-driven scenes, extending Rectify out begins to feel like something of a burden on the viewer. But in small doses, Rectify’s quiet charms have just the right amount of space to breathe.

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