January , once a prime-time television wasteland, is now when some of the worthiest new shows premiere.
January no longer heralds lame replacement series
Itused to be that the state of the tube in January was something of a winter wasteland. No longer. January appears to have surpassed September in terms of launching both series premieres and new seasons of established shows.
In bygone days, this month would generally herald largely lame mid-season replacements for largely lame network series that went stiff — ratings-wise — shortly after their September releases. But the game has changed significantly thanks to the pay-cable surge. Now the mainstream networks are even getting a little wiser and a lot more daring with their mid-season offerings as competition heats up
he big U.S. networks will be cranking it up with series like the White House comedy 1600 Penn and thrillers like Deception and The Following. On this side of the border, viewers will be treated to the new murder-mysteries series Cracked and the second season of the drama Arctic Air on CBC.
Yet the big networks must be both salivating and astonished with the success of shows on the cable front. Season 3 of the marvellous English period piece and drama — comedy? — of manners, Downton Abbey, made its debut Sunday on PBS and was caught by nearly eight million viewers — staggering numbers for PBS, let alone any other outlet.
The pay-TV action gets more intense in the days to come. Showtime — carried here by the Movie Network — will let loose with the third season of Shameless (Monday at 9 p.m.), featuring those fun-loving freeloaders, the Gallaghers, led by their everfeckless patriarch Frank (the fabulous William H. Macy). The second season of House of Lies returns Monday at 10 p.m. on the Movie Network, and Don Cheadle is again at the helm as the management consultant hailed as “the new corporate Jesus Christ” who is far more preoccupied with satisfying his seemingly insatiable libido than even screwing his business clients.
And on the subject of an insatiable libido: Making its sixth-season debut at 10:30 p.m. on the Movie Network is Californication, with the ever-debauched Hank Moody (David Duchovny) back in the saddle again.
The highly touted Girls, focusing on the comedic exploits of a gaggle of twentysomething New Yorkers, comes back for a second sea- son, Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO Canada. The première of the action series Transporter took place Jan. 4 at 9 p.m. and continues at that time-slot on HBO Canada. And for fans of no-holds-barred political punditry, Real Time with Bill Maher returns for its 11th season, Friday at 10 p.m. on HB0 Canada.
And then there is Enlightened, which kicks off its second season on HBO Canada, Sunday at 9:30 p.m. Laura Dern is the glue that holds this series together.
Winner of last year’s Golden Globe for an actress in a TV comedy for her work on the show, Dern probably would have been in the running for the same award on Sunday had Enlightened been released a little earlier. Dern, also the co-creator and co-producer of Enlightened, is back as the overwrought Amy Jellicoe, a once-ambitious and volcanic exec at a multinational conglomerate who has undergone a total meltdown and ends up in the company basement.
Although she believes she has become enlightened after an extended visit to a holistic treatment centre in Hawaii, she largely emerges as a New Age Californian nutbar, and so the fun begins.
Her mind is now set not so much on touchy, feely interactions with fellow humans, but rather on revenge. After hacking into the unsavoury emails of company execs, she wants to expose their trespasses to the world. “People are living under the illusion that the American dream is working for them, but the system is rigged,” Jellicoe laments. “I want to kick ’em (company execs) in the balls on the way out.”
To that end, she recruits an investigative reporter (Dermot Mulroney) to bring the company down.
Back for the ride again this year are Luke Wilson as Jellicoe’s druggie ex-hubby and Dern’s real-life mom Diane Ladd as her ever-flummoxed fictional mom who has no doubt that her daughter has gone way off the deep end and is much in need of new meds.
It may be selfish on the part of viewers, but here’s hoping Dern’s character keeps up with her self-destructive, delusional ways. It offers the rest of us hysterical escape.
Also offering escape, but of a high-octane thriller variety is Banshee, which premières Friday at 11 p.m. on HBO Canada. The series may not be up there with Boardwalk Empire or The Sopranos, but if it’s TV with a body count and depraved players and kinky sex and unique thriller plot twists that you seek, Banshee should prove satisfying and get you through many a dreary winter night. The morally scrupulous Blue Bloods, Banshee certainly ain’t.
And magnetic Banshee star Anthony Starr will never be mistaken for Blue Bloods lead Tom Selleck, although both head police departments. Selleck’s character came by it more honestly in New York. Starr’s Lucas Hood, on the other hand, is a hood, a diabolical ex-con and master thief. He only assumes the role of sheriff of small-time Banshee, Pa., when the real sheriff inadvertently dies on his way to the gig.
A little background is in order. Before undertaking the role of lawman, Hood has to get untangled and goes through much mayhem. The series begins with a bang. Literally. Hood gets out of the jug and within seconds is frolicking with a bartending babe. But no time for a post-coital smoke as Hood’s enemies are in hot pursuit. He survives a shakedown, a car chase, a bus crash and much gunplay before heisting a motorcycle and making his way to the not-so-bucolic rural burg of Banshee, Pa., where the favourite sport of town low-lifes appears to be Amish-bashing.
But it’s no accident Hood has chosen Banshee. His onetime mate and partner in crime Carrie Hopewell (Ivana Milicevic) resides there with a new identity and a new family. Her hubby, Gordon (Rus Blackwell), is a Gulf War hero and, oh yeah, Banshee’s reputable district attorney.
Needless to say, all manner of chaos and duplicity ensues. There are even more nefarious bad guys than Hood in Banshee. Like slaughterhouse entrepreneur Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen), a former Amish devotee not beyond feeding the fingers of disloyal employees to his trusty Doberman — who later feasts on the rest of the unfortunate soul’s body unit.
Implausible, most definitely; yet gripping — save for the fingerless — all the same. And go figure: the morally bereft Hood makes for a mighty fine stand-up sheriff, even if he is given to bending a few rules.