{"id":8767,"date":"2013-09-15T20:00:25","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T00:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/?p=8767"},"modified":"2013-09-10T22:49:11","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T02:49:11","slug":"mid-2013-television-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/8767","title":{"rendered":"Mid-2013 Television Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dollhouse<\/em> season 1 (2009)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whedon’s project before Cabin in the Woods<\/a><\/em>.
\nI love this show.
\nEnds with a motherfucker of a leap into the future.<\/p>\n

Echo (Eliza Dushku, Arnold and Jamie Lee’s teenage daughter in True Lies<\/em>) is lead doll, alongside exotic-looking Sierra (Dichen Lachman from Nepal of a recent nuclear submarine drama series) and Victor (Enver Gjokaj, billed below Harry Dean Stanton in The Avengers<\/em> – side note: Harry Dean Stanton was in The Avengers<\/em>?!).<\/p>\n

DeWitt (Olivia Williams, Rosemary Cross in Rushmore<\/em>) runs the place with techie Topher (Fran Kranz, great in Cabin in the Woods<\/a><\/em>), security guy Dominic (sinister-looking, eyes-too-close-together Reed Diamond of Homicide: Life on the Street<\/em>) and Dr. Saunders (Amy Acker, in the Cabin in the Woods<\/em> control room), later revealed to be a doll. Harry Lennix (of Titus<\/em>) is a major part of the early episodes, later takes over Dominic’s job.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, clueless pawn but sweetly determined FBI man Ballard (square-jawed canadian Tahmoh Penikett, Stanley Kubrick in Trapped Ashes<\/a><\/em>) tries to expose the place and protect his too-perfect neighbor Miracle Laurie who is, of course, a doll. Bonus baddie: Alpha (Alan Tudyk, pilot of the Serenity and voice of King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph<\/a><\/em>)<\/p>\n

The staff writers moved on to Spartacus: War of the Damned<\/em>, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog<\/em>, Agents of Shield<\/em> and Undercovers<\/em>. Directors include Tim Minear (Firefly<\/em>), Dwight Little (Halloween 4<\/em>), Elodie Keene (The Wire<\/em> season 2), Felix Alcala (Criminal Minds<\/em>), James Contner (Buffy\/Angel<\/em>, TV movies She Woke Up Pregnant<\/em> and Hitler’s Daughter<\/em>), David Straiton (Hemlock Grove<\/em>), Allan Kroeker (three different Star Trek<\/em> series), Rod Hardy (the David Hasselhoff Nick Fury<\/em> movie), David Solomon (Buffy<\/em>) and Joss Whedon (Buffy\/Angel\/Firefly<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Veep<\/em> season 1 (2012)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Thick of It<\/em> in the USA, wonderful. Veep Julia Louis-Dreyfus is ably assisted by blonde Amy (Anna Chlumsky, star of My Girl<\/em>), red haired Mike (Matt Walsh of Upright Citizens Brigade<\/em>), Tony “Buster” Hale and dark handsome careerist Dan Egan (My Boys<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Also great: receptionist Sue (Sufe Bradshaw) and white house go-between Jonah (Timothy Simons of an upcoming Kevin Costner baseball movie).<\/p>\n

Created by the great Armando Iannucci (The Thick of It<\/em>) with cowriting by In The Loop<\/em> collaborators Simon Blackwell and Tony Roche, Time Trumpet writers Sean Gray and Will Smith, and Peep Show<\/em> creator Jesse Armstrong. Directed by Iannucci, Christopher Morris (The Day Today<\/em>) and Tristram Shapeero (Community<\/em>).<\/p>\n

United States of Tara<\/em> season 1 (2009)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Diablo Cody’s gift for snappy, hilarious dialogue and Toni Collette’s adeptness at her multiple-personality role made this a joy. Let’s see, she plays herself (harried mom mostly cleaning up after her own messes), “T” (sex-crazed teenager), Buck (alpha-male biker), Alice (perfect housewife), and mysterious unnamed poncho-wearing monster.<\/p>\n

Tara’s married to patient John Corbett (Northern Exposure<\/em>), has sister Charmaine (Rosemarie DeWitt, title character in Rachel Getting Married<\/a><\/em>) and kids Marshall (Keir Gilchrist, star of It’s Kind of a Funny Story<\/a><\/em>) and Kate (Brie Larson, Scott Pilgrim<\/a>‘s rocker ex-girlfriend). Also great: Nate “Rob’s brother” Corddry of Studio 60<\/em> as Kate’s boss and Patton Oswalt as Corbett’s coworker.<\/p>\n

Directors include Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl<\/a><\/em>), Mark Mylod (Ali G Indahouse<\/em>, The Fast Show<\/em>), Brian Dannelly (Saved!<\/em>), Tricia Brock (Killer Diller<\/em>), Tommy O’Haver (Ella Enchanted<\/em>) and John Dahl (Rounders<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Look Around You<\/em> season 1 (2002)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Suppose I first looked this up because Edgar Wright plays one of the scientists. Faux-vintage science program. I kept watching since the episodes are only ten minutes each, and got more into it as the concepts and experiments grew more absurd (“Ghosts” was a highlight). Cowriter\/star Peter Serafinowicz played Shaun of the Dead<\/a>‘s<\/em> uptight roommate, and director Tim Kirkby is working on Veep. It’s probably worth looking up The Peter Serafinowicz Show<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jon Benjamin Has a Van<\/em> season 1 (2011)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I guess this isn’t coming back… Benjamin getting his own absurd live-action comedy show was too good to last. A well-assembled self-aware sketch show that worked at least half the time.<\/p>\n

Jon’s cowriters: Leo Allen (of Slovin & Allen), Nathan Fielder (who got his own show Nathan for You<\/em> this year) and Dan Mintz (voice of Tina on Bob’s Burgers<\/em>), all of whom wrote for Important Things<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Kristen Schaal: Live at the Fillmore<\/em> (2013)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Weirder and more conceptual than I’d expected. Lots of sex jokes, an extended parody of The Vagina Monologues<\/em>, a couple of skits. Mostly a miss, but I loved her Sally Jesse Rafael impression and her fake meltdown, repeatedly stumbling over the word “airplane” and requesting a glass of water.<\/p>\n

Holy Flying Circus<\/em> (2011, Owen Harris)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opens with a fart joke then a sweary joke, and never gets funny, throwing out faux outrages and pained Python references in place of jokes – but it features Mark Heap wearing a beret, so that’s something. Lots of speech-impediment humor: stuttering and tourettes are hilarious. I suppose Life of Brian<\/em>, which this movie is defending, scores laughs from Pontius Pilate’s lisp, though. Builds to a reenactment of an infamous talk show appearance pitting pythons against clueless religious types – since the dialogue quotes from the actual talk show, it would’ve been nice to just watch that instead.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From a writer on The Thick of It<\/em>\/In the Loop<\/a><\/em>\/Veep<\/em> and a Black Mirror<\/em> director. Fake Cleese was in Smack the Pony<\/em> and Hippies<\/em>, Fake Chapman played something called “Top Hat” in Van Helsing<\/em>, and Fake Palin is Edie’s newspaper editor in Downton Abbey<\/em>. I did enjoy the sword\/lightsaber puppet duel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dollhouse season 1 (2009) Whedon’s project before Cabin in the Woods. I love this show. Ends with a motherfucker of a leap into the future. Echo (Eliza Dushku, Arnold and Jamie Lee’s teenage daughter in True Lies) is lead doll, alongside exotic-looking Sierra (Dichen Lachman from Nepal of a recent nuclear submarine drama series) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[369,1049,920,1572,1725,52,1693],"class_list":["post-8767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie","tag-2000s","tag-2010s","tag-armando-iannucci","tag-joss-whedon","tag-monty-python","tag-television","tag-toni-collette"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8767"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8811,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8767\/revisions\/8811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}