Bosch: It’s handsome and smooth and atmospheric, but it’s another cop show. The cop (Titus Welliver, top and above left) is sullen and misunderstood – in other words, he’s just like 99 percent of the cops on other cop shows.
**
Mozart in the Jungle: It has a unique setup – backstage with New York City classical musicians. Score one point. It seems to be intelligent. Score another point. For a show billed as a “comedy,” it has very few laughs. Subtract one point.
**
Transparent: Great title. Intriguing premise (dad is closet transgender; adult kids don’t know). But the kids are painfully self-centered; do you really want to spend much time with them? Side note: For a show featuring attractive young actors who are often naked, it sure has some unflattering butt shots – or maybe it’s just me. You be the judge:
**
The Rebels: Have you seen Wildcats or Major League or any other comedy in which the team is owned or coached by a woman? Then you’ve already seen this.
**
The After: I don’t care if creator Chris Carter (The X Files) is revered in sci-fi circles; dumb characters doing dumb things make for a dumb show.
*****
It hasn’t been a great month for paunchy, balding celebrities. Louis C.K., who in recent years could do no wrong in the eyes of the media, got torn a new one by Dylan Farrow for, apparently, guilt by association because he appeared in a film directed by Farrow nemesis Woody Allen. Next, a film Louis made back in 1998 and which he is now hawking on his Web site was branded “amateurish [and] unfunny” by Entertainment Weekly. According to EW, dropping five bucks to stream Louis’s old movie up to three times is “less a value incentive than a threat.”
Meanwhile, character actor Paul Giamatti is slated to make a much-anticipated guest appearance on Downton Abbey. “Much anticipated” by you, perhaps, but not by me. Frankly, I am so sick and tired of listening to Giamatti lecture me about “humans” on his omnipresent Liberty Mutual commercials that the only thing I’m anticipating is his early retirement.
*****
I’ve been unable to muster much enthusiasm for the Winter Olympics, but lately I’ve taken an interest in alpine skiing (above).
*****
Ralph Waite died this week, which brought to mind one thought and one image. Waite played a beloved father on The Waltons, as did Robert Young on Father Knows Best. Both were Hollywood drunks. Lesson: Best not play a beloved father on TV. The image: If you have a fear of heights, the opening scene of Cliffhanger is terrifying. Almost as terrifying as this crazed expression on Ralph Waite’s mug:
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