Television: Great News

If you like Tina Fey's brand of comedy (and I do), Great News is more of that. Some of the lines are so Fey, you can imagine her saying them. As it is, Briga Heelan nails the delivery. (Note that Fey did not write any of the scripts, but she is an executive producer.)

What's the show about? Briga Heelan plays Katie, a segment producer on the afternoon news magazine show The Breakdown. Echoes of 30 Rock abound, though the personalities here are slightly less eccentric. Just as neurotic, though. And yes, there is a difference.

The entire cast does a fine job, but John Michael Higgins as news personality Chuck Pierce is the one who makes me laugh out loud. Nicole Richie holds her own against him as they form a mismatched pair of old-school anchorman versus millennial ADHD energy.

Katie's mother Carol (Andrea Martin) comes to intern on the show. (Don't ask, just watch.) Somehow she ends up being the only one who can manage Chuck and therefore becomes indispensable. While PCHH gushed over Martin, I can't say she's my favorite character. This is only after three episodes, however; maybe she gains depth over time. For now she's one joke: helicopter mom annoying her daughter in the workplace. It has its moments but isn't consistently funny. Though it comes in myriad flavors—Mom tries to hook Katie up with coworkers, Mom tries to keep Katie safe during a potentially dangerous assignment—it's all really much of the same: Mom meddling.

Still, if the show should branch away from Carol and Katie a little, I can anticipate devouring the episodes in short order. There is a lot of fun to be had if we can stop focusing on the one gag.

Television: Powerless, "Wayne or Lose"

Um . . . okay. I really like the idea behind this show. It's about people living in Charm City (part of the DC Universe) and dealing with the day-to-day realities of having superheroes constantly fighting all around them. The main characters work for Wayne Enterprises, in particular in the R&D or something like that. Their job is to create cool gadgets and gear for WE to manufacture and sell.

All well and good, but . . . The execution was a little too . . . twee? saccharine? In short, it didn't work for me.

This first episode has the kind of plot line that feels old-fashioned in this day and age: new girl (Vanessa Hudgens) starts her first day at work, and her job is to supervise this motley crew of geeks. Same day, Bruce Wayne calls and says he's shutting them all down because they're obsolete and haven't come up with anything good in a long time. But of course the new girl whips her team into shape and they invent something amazing on the spot and everyone's jobs are saved.

I liked Danny Pudi in Community, and he's kind of doing the same thing here, so . . . I guess that's okay? And I can't help but enjoy Alan Tudyk as Van Wayne, Bruce's cousin who runs the Charm City office but aspires to be relocated to Gotham. But collectively, this is such a strange amalgam. It's like they weren't sure how over-the-top, cartoony to get. The result is, it's too cartoony to take seriously but not cartoony enough to be actually funny.

I don't know. I wonder whether Powerless will find its footing as the characters develop? I remember I didn't love Community or Parks and Rec the first time I watched them but those shows grew on me. Might this one, too? As the characters become more clearly defined and the writers get into the groove? I'll give it another one or two episodes.

Television: The Great Indoors, "Pilot"

If you watched Community you'll recognize Joel McHale's character here as just more of Jeff Winger. He's jaded and being forced to face the fact that he's not as young as he used to be. Sure, instead of a high-powered (faux) lawyer, he's now a known "adventurist" who does field work for a magazine. But as the magazine ends its print run and moves to online-only content, it also calls Jeff Jack in to helm an office job. In this equation the magazine office = Community's college, and there is yet another band of misfits that Jeff Jack will at first ridicule but then slowly become fond of.

Millennials probably won't like it, at least not the first episode, in which Jack broadly lambasts them (as do the show's writers). It's low-hanging fruit and nothing we haven't heard before: trophies for everyone! If you're not on Twitter and Instagram, you might as well not exist! You're such a dinosaur if you don't keep up with every new digital trend!

Jack takes it upon himself to try and teach this motley crew that there is life beyond their smartphones. Only in the moments when he passionately describes living with bears on Kodiak island does the character become warm enough to like. Meanwhile, none of the rest of this group is particularly likable (yet), though Stephen Fry does a fine job as the magazine's founder/owner/CEO. Having him wander through a scene is always a delight.

The jokes aren't very funny and the characters are alternately flat and/or too over-the-top to connect with, but I recall feeling similarly about the first couple episodes of Community, and I ended up being glad I stuck it out. I'm hoping The Great Indoors will similarly find its footing. I'll stick it out for another week or two.

Television: The Grinder, "Pilot"

Here we have Rob Lowe playing, more or less, Chris Traeger from Parks and Rec—same enthusiasm and optimism and go-getter-ism (if that's a thing). And we have Fred Savage playing straight man while everyone else buys into Lowe's effusive personality.

The setup is that Lowe plays Dean Sanderson, a television actor whose legal drama series The Grinder has come to an end. Savage plays Dean's brother Stewart, an actual lawyer. William Devane plays their dad, also a lawyer.

You can see where this is going.

Dean comes home to enjoy his series finale with his family and stays on to become a for real lawyer. Because Stewart knows all the stuff, but Dean has the panache. They'll make a great team, right?

Overall, I found this one cute but not amazing. Pretty standard fare, really. It's fun to watch Lowe do the slick stuff he does so well, and it's fun to watch Savage bungle a bit, but it's also difficult to imagine this won't get tired fast. If I could find better comedy somewhere, this one wouldn't be a contender, but as things stand, I'll probably give it another episode or two.

Television: Community on Yahoo! Screen

The first two episodes of Community's Season 6 are now on Yahoo! Screen. I'll admit I was nervous on a couple scores: (a) How easy was this platform going to be to use? and (b) What would losing Shirley and adding Frankie do to the show?

In regards to issue (a), it wasn't so bad. I mean, I'll admit to a fatigue with all these channels and streams of content. Netflix, Hulu, On Demand, and now I've got to add Yahoo! Screen to the list? Ugh. But then, Yahoo!'s whole goal was to put themselves on that list, and by picking up cult favorite Community, they've done the job. (Now pick up and produce my TV pilot, Yahoo! Seriously.)

There were a few hiccoughs in getting the show to work the way we wanted. For one thing, it wouldn't cast to our Chromecast. Sigh. It didn't load so easily on the laptop or mobile phone, at least not the first time. We did finally watch the first episode on the laptop, but so many ads! Compared even to Hulu Plus, which limits ads to only a couple per break. Blech. We finally went into the guest room and used the Apple TV for the second episode, and that worked much better (and eliminated the ads).

As for issue (b), well, the writers did the work for us. Basically, they played to the audience, hitting everything on the nose. Changes to Greendale?! And of course everyone hated Frankie for coming in and making those changes, at least at first. But, as needs must, the end result was a reluctant acceptance of both Frankie and those changes. Because both Frankie and those changes were necessary to Greendale, just as they were necessary to the show itself.

Community is different, yes, but based on these two episodes, it's none the worse for the move to Yahoo! and changes to the cast. And the codas to the episodes are a riot, too. Here's to Season 6, and maybe that movie . . .

Television: Selfie, "Even Hell Has Two Bars" & "Don't Block Cookies"

This show continues to get better, largely due to a great supporting cast of characters. (Except Freddy. I really don't like Freddy.)  I was just wondering when they'd get around to the singing, and what happened? The boss broke into song. Perfect.

I still do take issue with the fact that Eliza is not making any progress, and that there seems to be an effort by the writers to reform Henry instead. Maybe they're kowtowing to the demographic; younger viewers won't see anything wrong with Eliza's self-centeredness and constant texting and tweeting. But I'm also not sure how many younger people are watching this show.

At least in the second episode that aired ("Don't Block Cookies") Henry proved he doesn't need Eliza to help him get a girl. While, yes, he's a tad oblivious when people flirt with him, he at least doesn't fall for Eliza and Charmonique's plan. Instead he stands up for himself and his principles, and I liked that very much. Bonus that he lands a woman much more his type at the end of the episode.

Honestly, I've come to enjoy Selfie more than I would have expected. The first two or three episodes were a little shaky, but it seems to have hit its stride.

Television: Selfie, "Nugget of Wisdom"

We've discovered this show works much better as an ensemble than it does when focusing too much on Eliza. She is, in fact, the weakest part of the show.

In this episode, Henry makes Eliza promise to do something selfless over the weekend, and she in turn makes Henry promise to do something fun. For her end of the bargain, Eliza helps Charmonique get ready for her high school reunion . . . And is then also forced to babysit Charmonique's son Kevin when the sitter gets sick. Charmonique is hoping to reconnect with a high school sweetheart, but he turns out to have become a priest.

Meanwhile, Henry is heartbroken over the announcement the company plans to discontinue making the children's vitamin that was his first ever rebranding project. He struggles not to work on the problem over the weekend and eventually ends up over at Charmonique's, helping Eliza with Kevin. Then Henry and Eliza luck into a new marketing strategy for the vitamins. Hey, for Henry work is fun. That's how he enjoys his weekend!

The show is getting better incrementally. Episodes that spread the attention over a few additional characters are the best. Good use of the boss guy; not too much of him because a little goes a long way. We got Larry last week (and Joan), and this week it was Charmonique's turn. Maybe we'll get Charlie before long. Or more of the book club girls.

The difficulty lies in Eliza. The thesis of the show is that she needs to change, and that Henry will help her evolve. But for the series to go on for any amount of time, Eliza cannot change, or at least can only do so incredibly slowly. And she's kind of insufferable as she is. Which is why she, like the boss, is better in smaller doses or tempered by having Henry there to offset her. Charmonique also does a fair job of balancing Eliza out.

I don't love Selfie, and if I were to run out of time for television, I could probably drop it without much remorse. But for now it can stay on my schedule and we'll see how things progress.

Television: Selfie, "With a Little Yelp from My Friends"

Better.

Though I can't entirely forgive the cliché of having someone walk up behind a person who is saying mean things about them.

And I do wonder how many apps and Web sites they plan to go through before the social media thing gets really tired.

But the show is doing a good job of promoting some of the secondary characters. Larry, Charlie, Charmonique, and the boss . . . Even Joan to a point, though there's something of the caricature about her. Yet they did hint at greater depth for her, too. (I guess anyone can look deep next to Eliza.)

I felt like this episode was the tipping point for me. It was going to determine whether I kept watching, and so "Yelp" means Selfie has earned another week on my DVR.

Television: Selfie, "Un-Tag My Heart"

Yeah, I don't know about this show. I wanted to watch another episode to see if it would at least make me laugh, and I did—once. It was the Sugar Ray thing that did it.

Really, though, I think this is made for younger viewers than me. I, like Henry, am Generation X. And yet I do know how to use Facebook and have a good time. So maybe I take a bit of offense in the portrayal of Henry. And maybe that makes me a fuddy-duddy. But it just seems to me that whoever is writing this show is promoting Eliza and making more fun of Henry, while honestly Eliza's behavior is the epitome of a lot of what is wrong with the self-absorbed younger generations. Yet despite the premise that Henry is going to reform her, they seem to be going with Eliza needing less help than Henry. She'll reform him.

That's fine, to a point. But there needs to be more balance between the two.

Also, Eliza's voice over is awful.

Anyway, I might give it one more episode, but thus far I'm underwhelmed. Selfie has potential, but they're pushing it in all the wrong directions.

Television: Selfie, "Pilot"

My Fair Lady is one of my all-time favorite musicals. Maybe it's because it was the first professional production I ever saw (with Richard Chamberlain as Henry Higgins), or maybe it's because I love the 1964 film so much, but for whatever reason . . . Anyway, my strong feelings made me nervous about watching Selfie, which is a re-telling of MFL for the modern . . .

Not adult, exactly, I don't think. I feel like Selfie is for younger viewers than me, even if the characters are ostensibly adults. John Cho as Henry is actually a solid bit of casting, and he does seem like a grown-up. And yet he's represented as something of a fuddy-duddy. As if to be smart and articulate, and to have [high] standards in this day and age, is a bad thing.

The flip side of this is Karen Gillan (yes, from Doctor Who) as Eliza. If "kids these days" are self-centered and narcissistic, Eliza here takes that to the extreme. But again, instead of this being an entirely bad thing, the writers see fit to try and make Eliza sympathetic by having her narrate her origins as an outcast back in grade school.

When Eliza becomes the butt of the joke again, this time in a viral video posted by coworkers and airplane passengers, she hits up marketing guru Henry to help her "re-brand" herself.

If the show was supposed to be funny, well, it wasn't. I didn't laugh once. And yet, it wasn't 100% awful either. The oil-and-water element of Henry and Eliza not mixing is definitely there; my question is whether they'll ever have any chemistry together, since they absolutely don't now. If there's supposed to be an element of Henry helping Eliza improve, and yet she also somehow makes him more "human" (and note Henry doesn't get some backstory to help us understand his behavior and world view, so the writers have failed to humanize him at all so far) . . . I can't see these two actors combining in a way that suits. But maybe the show will surprise me. I do love to be surprised.

So I'm not sold on Selfie, but I'm not completely discounting it either. Yet.

Television: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, "Pilot"

I almost didn't watch this. But I was bored and the stuff I'm waiting to premiere isn't airing until next week. Plus, my viewing schedule has become very drama heavy, so I was thinking maybe I should try to find something funny . . .

The first, oh, minute of Brooklyn Nine-Nine did not impress me. But when Samberg picked up the stuffed bear and started making it talk . . . I'll admit it. I laughed. And that made me stick out the remainder of the episode.

The show itself is a half-hour, single-camera sitcom centered on Samberg's police detective character Jake Peralta and his partner Amy Santiago. Added to this mix is Andre Braugher as newly minted Captain Ray Holt, and Terry Crews as Sergeant Terry Jeffords. And then sprinkled around these are a larger ensemble cast that viewers will surely get to know better as episodes unspool. (Check FOX's official site for deets.)

Samberg, though central and the chief marketing ploy in attempts to advertise the program, is not the best thing about the show. I enjoyed Braugher and Jeffords more, and also feel Stephanie Beatriz as Rosa Diaz has real potential.

The pilot did a fine if rote job of setting up characters, their personalities and tensions, plastering these over a relatively toothless murder investigation. But I laughed more than once, and since that's the ultimate goal of a sitcom, I count it as a win. By which I mean I'll probably watch more. I don't necessarily feel compelled to watch weekly—this isn't appointment television—but it's the kind of thing I'd easily use to plug holes in my viewing, or something I'd queue up if I were bored and didn't feel like watching anything weighty. I'm at least glad I gave it a try.