Anyways, onwards!
THE GOOD GUYS
"Common Enemies" Created by Matt Nix
Story by Matt Nix - Directed by Peter Lauer
Airdate: 10/01/10 - viewdate: 10/05/10
First of all, it's good to see Ethan Phillips getting work. I was at the Vancouver 'Trek convention in June where I met several legendary 'Trek actors (and 'ate a sandwich' with Vaughn Armstrong, but that's a story for another day) and while there, having met Jeffery Coombs, Armin Shimmerman and others, I wished on each of them that they would continue to find work. While Phillips was not there, I'm still glad to see the 'Trek curse isn't keeping everyone down.
And Phillips 'LaViolette' (which they could not seem to pronounce right for the life of them through this episode) was definitely an excellent antagonist through which one can unite Stark & Bailey. (Doesn't sound quite as sharp as 'Starsky & Hutch' does it? Or at least, not yet...) Two leads so often at each others throats brought together, it's an excellent left turn on the usual 'Dan gets them in trouble, Jack needs to think them out of it' routine that this show has developed.
And the creative and innovative story telling continues! Dan tasting evidence, and having that be a perfectly suitable and believable (within his character of course) way to lead our two gumshoes to their next clue? Ie, recognizing the barbecue sauce and identifying it to the exact restaurant! Wish I could think up this stuff.
Much like his other masterpiece, 'Burn Notice', Matt Nix continues to make fantastic use of titles, flashbacks and tiny one liners like 'Time Bandit', "Cuz' he's stealing our time!"
You can just see this shows budget increasing week over week. Great job this time around with the Tech Bandit scaling down the walls of a Dallas sky scraper, and the shows ubiquitous car chases become more original and thrilling with each new iteration. Matt Nix and his team have really created a gem of a show for themselves - and it floors me that Fox actually bought these guys for another season. Sure, they're on Fridays, but it doesn't feel like a Fox friday show if you watch it on Tuesday. It may inhabit the time slot that (unfortunately) killed 'Dollhouse' and (fortunately) Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. (How you can take a TV show about a time traveling homicidal robot and make it boring, I'll never know.)
And whereas HIMYM will rely on plots from old shows to create new ones, 'The Good Guys' does what you SHOULD do - take a tiny element from a past show, in this case Dan loaning Jack the 'Foghat' album - and bring it back to develop the characters. (Did any of you expect Jack Bailey to be a vinyl fan? I sure didn't.)
And finally, what an unexpected act break with Ray Wise (a wicked shot, apparently) as the down and out senator taking our female leads hostage. I can usually call what's coming, but that I did not see. And one last final inversion of the cliche', yes, our heroes do crawl through dust and dirt up a high rise to rescue the girls, but we have them scaling the stories and stories of piping instead of a ventilation shaft. If you're gonna use the cliche', make sure to freshen it up, like they did here.
Way to go guys on another great show. If you haven't watched 'The Good Guys' do so before it gets canned. It's this years 'The Unusual's' and just might last a while longer.
NEXT WEEK: Danny Trejo shoots Wayne Knight in the face. IN THE FACE!
RUNNING WILDE
"Oil & Water" Created by Mitchell Hurwitz & Jim Vallely & Will Arnett
Written by Franklin Hardy & Shane Kosakowski - Directed by Troy Miller
Airdate: 10/05/10
David Cross is really getting his time in the sun with this screwball comedy. He resembles the late, great (or not so great, depending on your side of the divide) Yassir Arafat in that red & white scarf dealy. And how could one not drop an 'Arrested Development' reference with him around, say one like:
Andy:
"I'm freezing off my blue man group!"
And yet, for all the great lines - (another brilliant piece was one stolen out of the mouth of Jack Donaghy - "It's an acquired taste, like Condor.") this show can feel too clever by half, if you will. It captures that perfect screwball essence, reversal after reversal after reversal and back again. Sometimes the writers seem to be turning the plot back over on itself so many times the jokes and zingers get lost in the exposition. 'Arrested development' did this as well, but grew into it's own writing over time, making the rapid fire dialogue work for itself, rather than against our enjoyment. This show might need a season to settle down, but if they keep nurturing it this way, 'Running Wilde' could be the next '30 Rock'. It even has the utterly shameless product placement. KFC, really? Whatever keeps you on the air I guess.
"The Reagan years, a great time to be seven." Having been there myself, I can agree. Couldn't say I'd feel the same way if I was twenty seven, but then my hair would've been far worse.
What's with Mitchell Hurwitz's creepy obsession with young, wise beyond their years freckle faced girls? First Alia Shawcat as Maybe, now Stefania Owen as Puddle? I suppose it could turn into a unique signature, like Joss Whedon's dialogue, but only time will tell on that one. Unless the time bandits steal it all.
I do like how this show pokes just as much fun at whack job liberal activists as it does at right wing morons. In fact, this show could even be labeled 'subversive' based on how the stories tend to side with the inherited oil billionaire (especially in his enjoyment of his 'job', something that was surprisingly more touching than I expected) rather than the cut throat environmentalist - at least 'cut throat' in this episode. Watching Keri Russell's Emmy morph so easily into a take no prisoners petroleum exec is almost frightening. And there we have the commentary, how the crazy left and the crazy right are only about a half a degree different from each other. Message, people!
Tomorrow we're down to business. I've cleared out space on the box, no family dinners to interrupt. Some good, solid TV time is on its way.
Hey! Simon Pegg is on an episode of 'Dr. Who'! Run for your lives kiddies!
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