A DOUBLE DOSE OF KALING
Mindy’s projects span movie theatres and TV screens, Chris Lackner writes.
TV
Big events: Champions (March 8, NBC); Deception (March 11, ABC, CTV ); American Idol (March 11, ABC, CTV Two).
Big picture: Champions is a promising new sitcom from The Mindy Project’s Mindy Kaling (apparently taking a time away from deity duties to write and produce).
It centres on two alpha, eternally single brothers — Matthew and Vince. The latter owns “the fifth largest gym in Brooklyn.” They are obsessed with women and working out. But their lives are changed forever when an exgirlfriend (Kaling in a recurring role) drops off the gay teenage son of Vince.
Suddenly, they have a new roommate and new responsibilities. It’s like Full House meets Two and a Half Men meets My Two Dads meets … better writing. This kid is full of deadpan oneliners and barbs. Sample zinger on his new-found dad: “Your life is sad; you look like the abusive boyfriend in a Lifetime movie.”
Meanwhile, Deception is about a magician (illusionist and escape artist) who inexplicably becomes a consultant for the FBI and is paired with a beautiful, skeptical agent. Did I mention he is smarmy, cocky and sarcastic? It’s like Castle meets … err … Castle.
Finally, in case you care, American Idol is back on a new network; Ryan Seacrest is back as host; Lionel Richie takes over as the standard “Crazy, what will they say next?” judge, alongside Katy Perry and Luke Bryan. Forecast: Champions is a worthy contender for your attention.
MOVIES
Big releases on March 9: A Wrinkle in Time; The Strangers: Prey at Night.
Big picture: A Wrinkle in Time is about kids who journey into space in search of their lost scientist father. Oprah plays an all-powerful guide named Mrs. Which — imagine a cross between Yoda, a Fairy Godmother and Aslan. This one is based on the bestselling 1962 novel by Madeleine L’Engle. It’s essentially The NeverEnding Story meets Interstellar meets … Did I mention Oprah is essentially a light goddess? Along with costars Kaling and Reese Witherspoon (somebody really needs to start a new religion based on this premise).
The long and short of it, it’s possible to travel to other planets via the fifth dimension, which naturally exists “outside the rules of what we know about time and space.”
The lost father is trapped by an evil energy, and the youngsters must become warriors to defeat it — mainly because Oprah, Mindy and Reese are too busy talking about cosmic mumbo jumbo to do any dirty work.
Meanwhile, The Strangers sequel features a new family being terrorized by psychopathic strangers, this time in a seemingly abandoned trailer park. “You can run, you can hide or you can fight … like hell” is the tagline.
Bottom line: Any movie with a trailer that features a horrorscene montage to the backdrop of Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now is beyond my ability to criticize.
Forecast: First a media empire and a magazine, now a goddess? It’s Oprah’s universe, apparently. We only live in it.
MUSIC
Big releases on March 9: Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (Tearing at the Seams); Of Montreal (White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood).
Big picture: Of Montreal delivers more soon-to-be critically acclaimed, but highly experimental pop.
You know you’re not gunning for chart-topping success when your first single is titled Paranoiac Intervals/Body Dysmorphia.
Meanwhile, the Night Sweats will be with you until the morning comes with another addictive, stuck-in-your-head album of soul rock.
The Denver group’s sophomore effort picks up where their acclaimed debut left off: You uncontrollably moving your body to a modern take on old-school rhythm and blues.
Forecast: The sonic seams of The Night Sweats show no signs of tearing.