‘Looming Tower’ burnishes Hulu reputation
With Netflix intent on becoming an even larger behemoth — see last week’s successful wooing of writer/producer Ryan Murphy (”American Horror Story”) following last year’s hiring of Shonda Rhimes (”Grey’s Anatomy”) — and Amazon broadening its appeal beyond critics and awards voters (see: Amazon’s intent to make a “Lord of the Rings” streaming series), the future of streamer Hulu has grown murkier despite the success of last year’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which cleaned up at the Emmys and the Golden Globes.
Hulu would actually be sitting pretty if not for the pending deal that proposes Disney’s acquisition of Fox. That will give Disney a majority stake in Hulu unless coowner Comcast either acquires more of Hulu or sells off its interest to Disney — which plans its own stand-alone streaming service for 2019.
So it’s unclear what Hulu wants to be and how it will fit in among other major streamers going forward. But next Wednesday’s premiere of the 10-episode “The Looming Tower,” while unlikely to cause the cultural conversation of “Handmaid’s Tale” in the run-up to the #MeToo movement, certainly suggests Hulu remains committed to smart, serious storytelling.
Essentially a process piece about the U.S. intelligence community pre-9/11, “The Looming Tower” is based on the 2005 Lawrence Wright book with a pilot directed by Alex Gibney, best known for documentaries such as “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.” (Three episodes will be posted next week with weekly installments thereafter.)
Jeff Daniels puts the blustery style he honed on “The Newsroom” to good use as FBI bigwig John O’Neill, a dedicated civil servant and equally dedicated philanderer (he’s shown with two girlfriends in addition to his wife in the premiere).
O’Neill is often at odds with Martin “the Professor” Schmidt (Peter Sarsgaard), a secretive CIA boss who doesn’t trust that O’Neill and the FBI will make the best use of CIA intel. Sometimes O’Neill also fights with Clinton administration
counterterrorism boss Richard Clarke (Michael Stuhlbarg, an oasis of calm). Many f-bombs get deployed.
O’Neill taps Ali Soufan (Tahar Rahim), one of only eight FBI agents who spoke Arabic at the time, to help hunt down Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in 1998, but by the end of the first hour, a U.S. embassy in Kenya has been bombed just after a visit by FBI agent Robert Chesney (excellent character actor Bill Camp).
Showrunner Dan Futterman (writer of “Gracepoint” and “Foxcatcher,” once a costar on “Judging Amy”) keeps the tension high and the pace generally relentless. “The Looming Tower” only falters in an embarrassingly trite early scene of O’Neill with one of his many women. But when the focus is on the work, “Looming Tower” looms large as a well-made story of human and systemic failings.
‘Living Biblically’
Another high concept comedy that seems like it was filmed a decade ago, hidden in a cave and only recently escaped, CBS’s “Living Biblically” (9:30 p.m. Monday, KDKA-TV) is relentlessly sitcomy.
Jay R. Ferguson (“The Real O’Neals”) stars as Chip, a guy who decides to live his life strictly by biblical code. It’s loosely inspired by the A.J. Jacobs book “The Year of Living Biblically,” but the show feels so old-school — not only in its three-camera style, but also in its relatively ancient pop culture references, which through two episodes reviewed include The Wiggles (1990s heyday), the JonasBrothers (circa 2007-08) and“Twilight” (circa 2008).
Chip relies on his God Squad — Father Gene (Ian Gomez) and Rabbi Gil (David Krumholtz) — to help him adhere to the Bible but only some of the controversial parts, according to producers, who say the show will confront misogyny in the Bible, but they’re saving homosexuality for a prospective season two, which seems unlikely to happen.
Chip’s experiment takes its toll on his long-suffering pregnant wife (Lindsey Kraft) and best friend, Vince (Tony Rock), a co-worker at the newspaper where Chip is a movie critic.
A few lines generate a mild chuckle, but “Living Biblically” feels stale and unfunny — the kind of show that gives broadcast network comedies a bad name.
Kept/canceled
Disney Channel renewed the live-action series “Andi Mack,” created by Mt. Lebanon native Terri Minsky, for a third season.
Fox will bring back “So You Think You Can Dance” for a 15th season this summer.
Harry Connick Jr.’s daytime talk show, “Harry,” has been canceled after two seasons, but episodes will air until September.
NBC renewed “Superstore” for season four and “America’s Got Talent” for season 13.
Channel surfing
WPGH/WPNT owner Sinclair Broadcast Group will test run a new celebrity/human interest-focused daytime talk show, “The Raw Word” (2 p.m. WPNT beginning March 5), hosted by Georgetown University sociology professor/ordained pastor Michael Eric Dyson. … Through Feb. 17, Pittsburgh, market No. 24, was tied with Las Vegas as the Winter Olympics’ 20th most popular TV market (Salt Lake City, market No. 30, was No. 1). … NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” welcomes guest host Charles Barkley March 3 with musical guest Migos; Sterling K. Brown hosts March 10 with James Bay; Bill Hader hosts March 17 with Arcade Fire. ... The Feb. 23 edition of “Rachael Ray” (11 a.m., WPXI) includes a visit with Cheryl Priano’s Cookbook Club at the Whitehall Library and members’ favorite recipes from Ms. Ray’s “Everyone Is Italian on Sunday” cookbook. ... CBS News named Margaret Brennan as the new moderator of “Face the Nation,” replacing John Dickerson, who moved over to co-anchor “CBS This Morning.”