This week we've got Leverage, The Mighty Boosh, Entourage, True Blood and The Sandbaggers. We've also got an addition to the team: the 4th Letter's own David Fucking Brothers.
Leverage has never shied away from wish fulfillment. The first season featured corrupt businessmen, slimy policemen, slave traders, and (not)Blackwater. Season two gets right into ripping villains from the headlines, as the big bad guy this time around is... a stand-in for the banks that were giving out poorly-planned loans and taking advantage of people.
It's practically gleeful in its condemnation of what led to the crap economy. The bank director isn't just a bad guy-- he's a bad guy who bosses around the mob, who are no longer evil enough to be the Villain du Jour. He crows about subprime loans and jerking people around like a Bond villain. And the bailouts? He's almost in paroxysms of orgasmic glee. Suck it, Madoff.
Of course, the strength of Leverage isn't in its villains. It's in the main cast, the thieves who make the show go. Nate is an angry recovering alcoholic who is already sick of corporate life, and the other four are pretty bored. They did their biggest jobs with Nate, and now life feels empty. They need that rush again. Bam, the gang's back together, after the usual amount of back and forth.
Hardison and Parker still have my favorite relationship, with two introverted people dancing around romance while trying to pretend that they aren't. There's some tension between Sophie and Elliot, dating back to a bit of betrayal on Sophie's behalf, which does a good job of altering the dynamic of the crew.
Basically, though, "The Beantown Bailout Job" is about getting the gang back together after they "left forever" at the end of the last season. It's a little below average for an episode of Leverage, and the CG car flipping was almost definitely a mistake. But, it does its job. It's likeable, but not great, not yet. After this one, new viewers know the gist and old viewers know how the gang got back together. Now, John Rogers and the rest of the gang can get down to giving us funny interactions, fantastic heists, and Parker's lust for fancy infiltrations. You know-- the good stuff.
The Mighty Boosh - "Nannageddon" by Sean Witzke
This week's plot is simple: Vince and Howard try to impress some goth girls named Anthrax and Ebola. They are in fact the same girls who played the electro girls in "Electro" (It seems that Howard and Vince are doomed to run into the same shrill and hateful girls over and over until they meet Diva Zappa in season 3). In order to do this, they steal Naboo's ancient book of black magic while Naboo and Bollo are out dj-ing. By accident they let loose a class-5 demon onto the earth, who then steals the book. Because of this, Naboo is summoned by the Shaman Council (in their first appearance on the show). They imprison Bollo, take Naboo's powers, and give him 24 hours to get the book back. The Shaman Council were never used to their full extent, and would probably work as a spinoff. Noel Fielding and Richard Ayoade play off each other amazingly well, it's a shame we only get them bouncing off each other for four episodes total. The whole council is pretty great - Kirk doesn't get used enough, but the rest of them are. Saboo's a total dick, obsessing over "the cruch" and this appears to be Tony Harrison's first day on the job. Depowered, Naboo gets hammered. Howard and Vince go out looking for Nanatoo, the demon in the form of an old lady. We get cutaway scenes of an old lady killing a bunch of teenagers, which is alway a plus. (Including the guy in the Bollo costume getting stabbed in the throat.) Saboo and Tony Harrison go looking for the book, as do Howard and Vince. Howard and Vince do it dressed as old ladies, and Howard punches an old lady in the face. The moon is actually in this episode for a reason, because the other characters refer to him specifically ("I didn't know he was an alabaster retard!"). Bob Fossil is not in this episode, but we do get Rich Fulcher as a saucy old man who's saying awful things as he calls out bingo numbers. Howard and Saboo get into a fight over the book while both dressed as old ladies. Vince gets caught up in the bingo game, and wins a pair of boots. Nanatoo knits Saboo into a mummy, then kills him with gigantic knitting needles. She and her army of pensioner old ladies chasing them through the flaming streets (which of course is the episodes musical number). They end up back at their house, Naboo saves them (also Vince's hairspray). The girls end up dating Naboo and Bollo, who end the episode all dressed in leather. Bollo looks like a Mignola monkey.
Cut - Howard giving Bollo dj-ing tips ("Throw in some weather report, blow their minds."). Some ranty bits of Vince insulting Howard's hair. Howard's continual attempts to be goth by talking about getting naked and shitting on things. A fantastic "Hitler couldn't draw to save his life" joke. Vince running back to grab his boots. Half of the self-titled song "Nannageddon" is cut, particularly some of Rich Fulcher's old man humping things. The song "Nannageddon" is fun, it's the Boosh tackling psychobilly, and it's shot a lot like a 90's rock promo (i.e.: digital city on fire in the background like the Atari Teenage Riot "Speed" video). A long period of Howard and Vince trying to revive a hung over Naboo. Not much but the pacing is really shot in this one, a lot of comedy beats are sacrificed for coherence. And who the hell wants that? If there was ever a show that would benefit from a complete collapse of plot, it's the Boosh. It'd be great to see these guy just let loose on a sketch show with these same character - like a UCB format or something. I was listening to the Mr. Show season 4 commentaries and they were talking about how much better the shows got when they abandoned any concept of theme or any throughline whatsoever. To see the Boosh cast let loose on something more freeform, it'd be interesting.
It's great to watch a Boosh episode without rape, isn't it? (No, not really but it was a long stretch there where it kept coming up. Still funny). Actually rape doesn't pop up again all season if i remember correctly, though there's still some really screwed up sex stuff going on. Not here though, it's just Howard and Vince failing ,miserably at picking up goth chicks. Which is sweet if you think about it.
Hard, I mean. Think about it hard.
While last week’s non-starter of a season opener may have been somewhat dissatisfying in its upending of just about everything Entourage stands for—as our faithfully youthful protagonists all showed signs of, gasp, maturing—it did serve to set a ton of plotlines in motion, both for the long-term and short-term. Of the five main characters, only Johnny Drama doesn’t have a potential story arc brewing. After starring as Nick Carraway in Martin Scorsese’s version of The Great Gatsby, Vince is dealing with a second meteoric rise in fame, and coping with the fact that his best friends’ lives seem to be revolving less and less around him. Turtle is making a go of a relationship with Jamie Lynn Sigler, and trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. Eric is juggling some lingering feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Sloan, with a new actively single lifestyle, as well as continuing to work to get his career as a manager off the ground. And Ari is trying to hold his Agency together as his assistant is angling for a promotion and his newest agent and good friend Andrew Lang is threatening to blow up his spot by messing around with a 26 year old in the office.
In the short term, last week’s “Drive” was necessary to build up to this week’s “Among Friends,” which revolves around The Great Gatsby’s premiere. Event episodes like this one tend to be one of Entourage’s strengths, as the writers manage to work a ton of little snags into one of our boys’ thousand Best Night Evers. “Among Friends” is a sterling example of just how much conflict Entourage can pack into an episode, and how quickly they can turn things back and forth for the characters, and still end the episode with just about everyone on top. For example, as E moves into his new home, to which Sloan introduced him, he asks Sloan to the premiere. She turns him down, but later agrees as long as they go “as buddies.” Later that afternoon, another girl E’s been seeing shows up with a housewarming present, and awkwardly tries to get E to invite her to the premiere. He doesn’t, but she shows up anyway, causing tension between E and Sloan. Eric brushes her off, and, on advice from Vince, admits to Sloan he still has feelings for her. She doesn’t reciprocate. He goes home alone, gets a call from the other girl, and decides to head over to her house, deleting an apology text message from Sloan along the way. Typical shows would stretch this out over a season, but Entourage, with all the various other subplots which contain just as many ups and downs, packs it all into about ten minutes’ worth of screen time, working at such an accelerated pace BECAUSE IT’S A SHOW FOR MEN (besides, you know, all that soap opera type stuff.)
True Blood - "Never Let Me Go" by Nina Stone
Everyone's meeting their match. Shape Shifter meets Shape Shifter. Telepath meets Telepath.
Jason kicks ass as a Soldier of God and gets a bath tub hand job from the preacher's wife as a "reward". Vampire guy asks Sookie questions and gets a recliner hand job from Sookie as an "answer."
Nice.
Oh, and then Maryanne begins to blow her own cover and her creepiness is oozing out all over the place so much that even Tara can't ignore it, and Tara can ignore a lot. (Because she's stupid.) Still, they've seemed to decelerate in the forward momentum of who Maryanne is and what Maryanne wants. Now she's just around a little too much. And there's still no mention of the crazy animal thing that tore up Sookie and clearly has had it's way with Daphne! And why won't Sam mention the scars on her back? Seriously? They can't be ignored! It's almost impolite to NOT mention them. A simple, "what happened to you?" would suffice. Oh, but maybe that got left on the cutting room floor so we could have a pair of hand jobs.
Sookie and Bill are in Dallas,but it feels like Vegas by the looks of their hotel room. Some serious shit is about to go down, but Sookie is horny as a bullfrog in July (what? that's a phrase?), and the whole episode was her constantly trying to get him into bed.
Yeah, I guess I'm just recapping this week. If I try and look too deeply into this I fear I'll ruin it for myself. So, I'm keeping it nice and light. Nice, light, Vampire Drama. Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhh.
The Sandbaggers - Season Two by Tucker Stone
Here's the trivia: the second season of Season Two had an episode vetoed by censors due to "sensitive" content. It adds to the mystique of the show, a show whose creator and head writer had a bit of a mysterious background and ended up disappearing during the creation of the third season. But when you see the second season, and you see what's been left in--the mystique is almost overpowering. What could that episode have included that the censors found so objectionable? It wasn't lines like "It's not as good as a triple rape, but it'll do." It isn't an entire episode centered around the British security services being concerned that they don't end up end like the American FBI, who they squarely blame for the murders of JFK and Martin Luther King. It isn't a high-stakes shoot out on a hijacked plane that results in the death of multiple civilians--including an innocent child.
Did it involve cannibalism? The Brits always have a problem with cannibalism.
At the same time that the second season vaults itself through controversy, it also stumbles a bit. The first season had ended with the gut-wrenching death of Laura Dickens and her death, at the hands of a CIA agent, haunts the entirety of these six episodes--not always in a good way. Neil Burnside--Laura's boss, prissy boyfriend, and anguished architect of her necessary death--can brood with the best of them, but watching him struggle through scenes where a grossly aggressive CIA agent attempts to bed him is a chore. As with the first season, little of the show's exterior "action" sequences are able to hide what must have been an incredibly low budget, and the confusing decision to start many of the show's classic "men talking in one room" scenes with a cheap zoom effect is unwelcome.
Still, the second season has a lot to offer--besides the savagery of Sandbagger Two's suicide in the terrifying season opener, watching Burnside desperate back-room attempts to rescue Willie Caine in the aforementioned hijack episode serve as some of the most compelling moments of the show thus far. Over and over, the second season hammers the same point home: without Burnside, Britain is lost. It's a selfish fantasy, but it's far more attractive a dream than the reality probably is--a world where we are protected by the likes of the CIA's Jeff Ross (a goof of a character who spends the entirety of some of his scenes with food stuck to his mouth) or Matthew Peele, Burnside's clueless prig of a boss.
-Sean Witzke, David Brothers, Martin Brown, Nina & Tucker Stone, 2009
Yeah, D-Bro's here! Sorry, I'm lame.
Japanese game show update: I was going to write something up this week, mostly to share a joke that my wife made, but I didn't manage to muster up the energy. So here's a short recap, as if anybody cares. Game 1: teams have to kick soccer balls into a goal, but they're wearing goggles that screw up their vision so much that they can't even see straight, which leads to lots of funny kicks at the air and such. Also, they're all wearing male pattern baldness wigs. Game 2: One team uses giant golf clubs to hit rubber balls onto a sticky surface, and the other team has to try to throw as many balls as they can off the sticky stuff. But it's really sticky, so they seem to barely even be able to move. Gross-out hilarity! That's nothing compared to the elimination game, but first you have to know about one of the rare compelling bits of interpersonal drama. Evan and Jamie, two members of the losing team, are totally doozin' it (as my wife likes to say), and their teammates don't like it. They've got good pretext to make the two of them compete in the the elimination game, since Jamie sucks at all the challenges and Evan pretended to be sick so he wouldn't have to work on the punishment task (seaweed farming). Big arguments ensue, and the team can't decide who gets to compete for elimination. That means the other team gets to decide, so of course they choose Evan and Jamie, mostly because Evan is very athletic and competitive, and this is a good chance to get him eliminated. Anyway, the challenge is probably the grossest thing I've ever seen on the show; the amorous pair has to wear pantyhose over their head with a hole cut out for the mouth, then pull the heads off of squids which have been hung up in a row by grabbing the tentacles in their mouth and yanking them downward, with the one who decapitates the most squids winning. It's horrifyingly nasty, but Jamie rocks Evan's ass, leading to my wife's hilarious comment. Due to Jamie's apparent ability to suck tentacles into her mouth and suppress her gag reflex, she says "I bet she gives really good blow jobs." YES! That's my woman, ladies and gentlemen. Good night, and don't forget to tip your waitresses.
Posted by: Matthew J. Brady | 2009.07.22 at 09:58
"Boy, that Matthew Brady, just a constant source of negativity!"
MY ASS!
Posted by: Sean Witzke | 2009.07.22 at 12:41
"Think about it HARD."
*snicker*
Hard.
*snick*
Posted by: Chris Jones | 2009.07.22 at 17:39
The two girls Howard and Vince try to pick up are Dee Plume and Sue Denim from the band Robots in Disguise. Dee Plume is Noel Fielding's girlfriend which makes it that much funnier when she's particularly nasty to him.
Also, a hot, piping, cup of love for Saboo and his obsession with the Crunch!
Posted by: Bunches Mcgynitee | 2009.07.24 at 02:11
Hello everyone. It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.
I am from Botswana and too bad know English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Provides sales, repair, and restoration services."
Thanks :(. Ozzie.
Posted by: Ozzie | 2009.08.11 at 04:24