TV watching is a question generating occupation. Like
why doesn't comedian Matteo Lane already have his own NETFLIX special?
And, on NETFLIX's new INSTANT DREAM HOUSE is the audience supposed to be
attracted to Danielle Brooks, Adair Curtis, Erik Curtis, Paige Mobley
or Nick Cutsumpas? Or when being undercover, how difficult is it to
keep your stories straight?
That last one is generated by both EPIX and NETFLIX. What follows, FYI, will be spoilers.
CONDOR
is an attempt to tell James Grady's SIX DAYS OF THE CONDOR without
using either a CIA asset behind the camera or in front of. As a result,
it contains a lot less CIA propaganda. And doesn't try to fool you
about some 'good apple' in the bunch. The lead character Joe Turner
(played by Max Irons) is better off -- in terms of ethics and sanity --
when he is out of the CIA. As in the film, the lead character is an
analyst for the CIA. He didn't want to join the CIA but he's 'recruited'
in college. Not like sometimes happens. He's not set up on a lunch by
a fairly famous 'leftwing' professor. Instead, his uncle Bob (William
Hurt) tries to recruit him. Joe says no. So Bob blackmails him by
having Joe, his roommate and his girlfriend arrested. It can all go
away if Joe will only do what Bob wants.
He creates ill will by not explaining to his roommate and his girlfriend why he's joining the CIA.
His
best friend Sam (Kristoffer Polaha) is in the CIA and can't tell his
wife (Mae played by Kristen Hager) much more than that. It's all secret
in the secret spy biz and super secret about the corruption going on --
led by Brendan Fraser's Nathan, among others. They torture, they lie,
they blackmail. It's pretty accurate portrayal of the CIA. At one
point, a group using the CIA for their own profit (a recurring them
throughout the first two seasons) has a member who feels badly that they
may have gone too far. May? When Sam and Nathan find out, it's time
to kill the man.
Sam can kill his friend but when it's his best friend, he struggles. In the end, he gives his life to save Joe.
Joe
is framed for Sam's murder and for the murders that take place at the
cut-off office the CIA is using. All of this is in the first season,
early in the first season. Early on, our only quibble was Joubert. In
the 1973 film, Max von Sydow played the assassin. In the series,
Gabrielle Jourbert is played by Leem Lubarry. The first episode, it
seemed like miscasting. But as the storyline settled in, Lubarry more
than made the role her own.
It's two strong seasons of twist and turns -- with a third on the way -- and highly entertaining.
Also
realistic. Season one ends with Joe out of the CIA. Like Al Pacino
says in THE GODFATHER PART III, "Just when I thought I was out, they
pull me back in." And as he sinks deeper into the CIA, he becomes
someone that he likes less and less. He goes from someone with a clear
line of what is right and what is wrong to someone willing to do
whatever it takes to get the result he wants. It's a story of
corruption.
In season two,
there's a mole within the CIA. And the mole is very good about hiding
and concealing. As season two moves along, the mole finally is revealed
by a slip up. The mole is speaking to a boss about the boss' inside
source (known only as "Phoenix") and the mole refers to the source as
"she." Accurate, but also a secret. With that pronoun, the mole has
slipped up and been revealed. (You know the mole long before the slip
up, by the way.)
Which prompts the question of how difficult is it to be a double agent?
That slip up exposes a great deal. Prior to that, the mole was just trucking along with no one the wiser.
The only slip up and it exposes everything.
We
bring that up because ECHOES on NETFLIX is all about secret
identities. Leni and Gina (both played by Michelle Monaghan) are twin
sisters. Early on, they begin switching. Only their mother could tell
them apart, she did by noticing that Gina was the more emotionally
responsive while Leni tended to present a stony affect. As adults, they
continue this action at Leni's insistence.
To
be Leni, either twin pulls her hair to one side and speaks with a
southern drawl. To be Gina, the hair's parted in the middle and there's
no drawl. Leni's married to Jack (Matt Bomer) and they live on a farm
with a lot of acres and horses. Gina's married to her former counselor
Charlie (Daniel Sunjata) and they live in LA where Gina is a best
selling writer. Every year, at Leni's insistence, they switch places on
their birthday.
Jack has no idea. Remember, we warned you about spoilers, Charlie keeps it hidden but he has caught on.
And we're surprised by this. Not Charlie catching on but Jack not catching on.
Leni,
pretending to be Gina, never wakes up by accident speaking in her own
southern drawl? Sure, you could pass that off as a joke once or twice,
but they do this for decades. And Gena never forgets to be Leni which
she first wakes up in bed with Jack?
Maybe
Jack's supposed to be slow because he's from the south. We're not
saying people from the south are slower than non-southerners, we're just
trying to figure out how they keep the act hidden. Especially when Gina
is prone to nightmares. It's hard not to picture Jack having to spend a
great deal of time repeatedly comforting Gina (who he thinks is Leni)
during any year she's posing as his wife.
A trained spy, in CONDOR, during the one year on the show. But Leni and Gina are able to pose as one another their whole lives.
Gina
doesn't want to do it. And, she really turns on this practice once she
learns that Leni's done several things that hurt her sister -- like
running off an old boyfriend.
ECHOES
is a melodrama -- the type that might star Bette Davis in an old WARNER
BROTHERS film (which, if made today, would be immediately shelved by
WARNER BROS DISCOVERY in an insurance scheme). It's a solid melodrama.
They bill it as "a limited series." As much as we enjoyed it, we hope
that's what it is. The Emmy a few years back for limited series went to
BIG LITTLE LIES -- and a Big Little Lie was told on the voters because
the show was renewed for a second season after the award was handed
out. A second season might have sounded like a good idea but it was
not. First off, the show needed Alexander Skarsgard's energy. He dies
in season one. They needed an actor similar to him in energy. Nicole
Kidman, Laura Dern and the rest still gave strong performances but there
was a needed energy missing. Worse, they made a move too many shows
make: Create a new character and give the new character as much time as
the returning cast.
If
there's a season two, the point should have been giving Bonnie (Zoe
Kravitz) more to do. (We like Zoe and know her, we also like and Know
Nicole, Laura, Alex and Renee. And we know and like creator David E.
Kelley.)
Instead, every one
was in a holding position with more or less the same amount of time in
the story. Bill's role was filled by Meryl Streep.
Meryl's
been applauded for and accused of many things but "high energy" has
never been one of those things. She was a sink hole that destroyed
season two. She was a new character (playing Alex Skarsgard's mother)
and it was like the final season of THAT 70'S SHOW bringing on Josh
Meyers to play Randy -- no one wanted to see it. The show didn't need
Meryl and viewers didn't want her and she killed any thought of a third
season.
ECHOES works as a
self-contained series. Yes, the ending is such that we could have a
part two but, honestly, it's not needed and would probably tear apart
all the grace notes the series rang.
Which
brings us back to INSTANT DREAM HOUSE. This is NETFLIX's best entry in
the home remodel genre so far. The twist here is that the remodel is
done in 12 hours or less. And the home owners don't know that it's
happening. They entered -- or were entered by someone they know -- a
contest for a home remodel. And they are then informed that they didn't
qualify. Actually, they did and team (led by host Danielle Brooks) has
an insider (another show with an undercover mole!) who is a friend or a
family member. That friend or family member is tasked with keeping
them away from the home for 12 hours.
Danielle
then leads the team: Nick Cutsumpas (landscaping), Erik Curtis
(construction), Adair Curtis (interior design) and Paige Mobley (special
project; something to make the house pop) as they rush through a
remodel of the yard, the outside of the house and the interior while the
family is briefly away. In one case, they assemble a kitchen in the
warehouse -- with a floor and walls -- take down a wall from the house,
and slide the remodel kitchen (new floor and walls and all) into the
home.
Troubles can emerge.
The kitchen, for example, before it's slid in, they're not sure the
house can withstand the weight. Another time, they've opened up the
attic by planning windows on the roof that open up but when trying to
move the roof towards the home, they have not traction and have to
instead use a helicopter to bring the windows in. These are troubles
specific to the project. There are also routine troubles -- primarily,
difficulty keeping the home owners (and dwellers) away long enough to do
the remodel.
We've been
rooting for the home owner who yells, "Blue! I hate blue! I never would
have selected blue as a color!" But so far, no one has been offended by
the choices made in the surprise remodel. We see no more than a few
seconds of the people applying for the contest. This may all be covered
in the intake interview thereby avoiding the Rhoda (Valeria Harper)
scene with Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) where Rhoda tells her, "Yes, Mary,
you now have the car you love in the color you hate." In THE MARY TYLER
MOORE SHOW's "Mary and the Incredible Plant Lady" episode (written by
Martin Cohan), Rhoda borrows money from Mary and, instead of paying her
back, decides to buy her a new car -- a new yellow car, not knowing that
Mary doesn't like the color yellow.
We
liked the show. So do a lot of people we spoke to. Danielle Brooks
has quite the following from this show -- the terms most often applied
to her were "sexy" and "fun." And she is. And we understand why Nick
Cutsumpas has a following -- no one should be that good looking. Adair
Curtis and Paige Mobley also have their followings. For us, we'd go
with Erik Curtis as our pick. Not as pretty as Nick, no, but few on
this planet are. But he's got a nice lived in quality that makes you
root for him -- and he does have more disasters on this who than anyone
except Hillary on LOVE IT OR LEASE IT -- that may be part of his appeal,
watching him shift gears and overcome? Again, TV watching prompts many
questions.