NETFLIX, is anyone steering the
streaming service? They pay out a lot of money to worthless people like
Susan Rice. Susan Rice is an expert on entertainment how? Because she
repeated false talking points about Benghazi on four different
networks all on the same morning? Seriously, you’re just throwing
money away when you hire someone like that.
Throwing money away appears to be the
NETFLIX method of non-operation. We say that because NETFLIX offered so
damn little over the summer (as we noted in “TV:
Those summer offerings”). And then, boom, we get the second
season of OZARK and the second season of ATYPICAL and the second
season of IRON FIST in a 14 day period. Any of these shows would have
been welcome in the long summer drought NETFLIX
went through.
Let’s start with IRON FIST. If you missed it, the critical consensus is that this season is worth watching.
Thank you, Water Cooler Set.
But, thing is, the show was worth watching in season one.
And it was watched. The first season of IRON FIST is NETFLIX’s most streamed MARVEL program.
So maybe the Water Cooler Set is correcting course due to the intense popularity of the show?
We’d like to think so but reading
about how much Finn Jones has “matured” and how he is “darker” and all
the other junk we’re back to our original hunch: Homophobia. Fear of
softness. Equating softness with gay. There’s a lot of ‘macho’
in The Water Cooler Set – including among the women.
Season one saw Finn with longer (and
blonder) hair. And he was barefoot. And he was naïve. And it seems
that was off putting. Did we mention young Iron Fist? Because as a
child, his hair was very long. Not too long for real life but
much longer than TV and movies give us – even when boys are growing up
on an island or with Peter Pan.
The softness is gone and that appears
to be the main reason that suddenly the critics who trashed season one
are embracing season two. The Water Cooler Set runs as a pack and their
‘critiques’ has been so harmful. We think FAMILY GUY
nailed it in last season’s debut episode “Emmy Winning Episode” – and
we’d say that even if we hadn’t made many of the same critiques over the
last years. The main point is that entertaining is not a needed
ingredient for The Water Cooler Set. They applaud
garbage. They attack reflexively. They confuse having their egos
stroked and their minds soothed with entertainment. THE GOOD FIGHT is a
poor attempt at a Socratic dialogue – it’s even worse as entertainment.
ATYPICAL. A lot of critics failed it. Guess what? That includes us.
As Jim noted in his "A note to our readers" of August 13, 2017:
Ava and C.I. thought they were writing a review of Jennifer Jason
Leigh's new NETFLIX series. But they had a sidebar in it. They ditched
everything else but kept the sidebar and developed it into a completely
different media commentary.
And we never got back to it.
Now the show has its second season on NETFLIX so let’s make time for it.
Why would Jennifer Jason Leigh, one of the greatest actresses of her generation, want to play a mom in a TV drama?
Maybe because it’s a complex role that
needs an actress with real depth to make it work? Jennifer can be
anything but, as BACKDRAFT demonstrated, bland. If there’s nothing to
play, there’s nothing to play. She needs meaty roles that
she can dig into and explore. Elsa Gardner is the perfect role for her
and she plays it to perfection. It’s a highly skilled and evolving
performance and it’s the equivalent of an ivy plant constantly sprouting
and growing. In a fair world, she’d be Emmy
nominated. But in a fair world, so many – including us – would not
have let her down when season one aired. In season two, she’s even
greater.
And the whole cast is doing a strong
job. Michael Rapaport can be funny, no argument. But who would have
thought he could pull off wounded (Leigh’s cheated on him with a
bartender). A strong addition this season is Casey Wilson as the
high school guidance counselor. It could be a rote role but she brings
so much to the role – our favorite moment is when she meets with Leigh
and Rapaport to discuss their autistic son (Keir Gilchrist) and gets the
information dumped on her that Leigh has
had an affair and she attempts to refocus before finally saying
“There’s the bell.” And the awkwardness as they wait a second or two
before the bell actually goes off.
ATYPICAL is a real drama, a quality
program. Had NETFLIX released it in June or July, it probably would be
getting a lot more attention. Instead, it has to compete with IRON FIST
and OZARK and may, yet again, get lost in the shuffle.
You can make sure that doesn’t happen if you stream the program because
one episode will pull you in and one episode will have you telling
everyone you know to catch it, AYTYPICAL is just that good.