Man joins mysterious ‘Lodge 49’
Grieving young man joins mysterious ‘Lodge 49’ in AMC series
REVIEW “LODGE 49” Series premiere tomorrow at 10 p.m. on AMC. Grade: C+
Most TV series can be dribbled down to a sentence or less.
Women in prison: “Orange Is the New Black.”
A vigilante archer fights crime: “Arrow.”
Zombies make life hell for everyone: “Will & Grace” — oops, “The Walking Dead.” You get the idea. AMC's new series “Lodge 49,” from executive producer and actor Paul Giamatti, can't be distilled in such a way — you can't even classify it as a drama or a comedy. That kind of ambiguity should work in its favor. It does not.
Sean Dudley (Wyatt Russell) — who goes by the just-too-on-the-money nickname Dud — is using a metal detector to find something to pawn for living money on Long Beach, Calif.
Dud worked for his dad's pool cleaning business and was a surfer as well. A snake bite in Nicaragua ended his surfing; his dad's drowning death (the body was never found) has effectively frozen Dud in a state of poverty, emotional and material.
“I guess you could say this year has been kind of a bum ride,” he says.
Dud spends his days chilling at a doughnut shop, ruining chess games for the customers and harassing the new owners of his family home.
But on the beach that day he uncovers a ring bearing the sigil of the Order of the Lynx — a token given out to members of the nearby Lodge 49. And when his car runs out of gas in front of said establishment, Dud thinks it's a sign. He must join.
As the lodge's second-incommand, Ernie Fontaine (Brent Jennings) doesn't think much of the aspiring “postulant” (yes, that is the term the lodge assigns to new members).
Ernie is a plumbing supplies salesman closer to retirement age than he'd like to consider and has less than he should to show for it. He's been seeing a fellow lodge member, Connie (Linda Emond, “Madam Secretary”), who should definitely be off limits.
Because of his gambling debt, Ernie impulsively decides to ask the new guy for a $2,000 membership fee, sure he'll never see Dud again.
He doesn't know Dud. Dud's twin sister, Liz (Sonya Cassidy, “Humans”), offers a helping hand to Dud as much as she can, but just because she seems to be functioning like an adult only proves how well she is able to mask her own despair. She grieves for her father as much and is furious he left her on the hook for an $80,000 debt. She waitresses at Shamroxx, which might be charitably described as an Irish bar by way of Hooters.
Dud's fascination with the lodge — it rapidly seems like his reason for existing — seems inexplicable. The lodge looks like some sad, decrepit hovel from the '70s, with the kind of dank interiors — and members to match — to inspire drinking binges that linger for days.
Russell, the son of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, brings the kind of magic you might expect to every interaction. You may wonder what the enthusiasm is about.
“Lodge 49” is different. That alone isn't enough reason to book a visit.