IN MY VIEW
THIS will teach me to open my big fat cake socket, won’t it? I spent the last few weeks bitching about how long it’s likely to be to get new series on M-Net and suddenly there’s a whole mess of them all at once. I gave Twin
Peaks its own feature last week because it was the most salient, but there’s still a bunch more to go, so without any (further) smartass-ery let’s dive right in. First up on Monday, M-Net, channel 101
at 19:30 we have a family comedy drama series from 2016 with a mildly interesting premise called This Is Us. It’s a slice-of-life show about a bunch of different people from all walks of life who share the same birthday. The ensemble cast is way too big to mention here, so instead, how about we all find out about people who share our birthdays? I have a friend whose birthday is the same as mine, and other people of note who share my birthday are Patrick Stewart, Harrison Ford, Julius Caesar and, uh, Cheech Marin. How about you?
Following that, same day, same channel, at 22:00 is a double episode of American
Gods, an adaptation of the Neil Gaiman weird fiction/fantasy novel of the same name. A man named Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) is released from a three-year prison sentence four days early because of the death of his wife Laura (Emily Browning).
After her funeral he meets a man calling himself Wednesday (Ian McShane) who offers him a position as a bodyguard. Turns out he’s actually the Norse god Odin who had been living quietly in the US, but now needs to round up all the other retired old gods to deal with a great threat. No, sadly, not Trump. Turns out there are some new gods in town with names like Media and Technical Boy, and they’re bad for some reason.
Next up is Man with a Plan (Wednesday, M-Net, channel 101, 19:30) ,a family sitcom starring a very grey-looking Matt LeBlanc (right) as Adam Burns, an old-school masculine type of dude who becomes a stay-athome dad after his wife Andi (played by Liza Snyder) decides to go back to her job. That leaves Adam in charge of their three kids, Kate, Emme and Teddy (Grace Kaufman, Hala Finley and Matthew McCann respectively) — and, oh boy . . . it looks like he’s in over his head! Hohoho!
OK, the premise is clichéd as all hell: dad thinks he’s ready for what his kids can dish out, but finds he isn’t. Still, the show got renewed for a second season and I’m sure LeBlanc (who plays the same character regardless of the show or role he’s in) might deliver a chuckle or two. I liked the bit where he eases his youngest daughter’s fears about kindergarten by telling her that kids are mean — but they’re nicer if you swing first. His response to another parent complaining about the quality of the elementary school’s education was pretty good too, when he remarks, “You do know this school is free, right?” Immediately after that, same day, same channel at 20:00, is Kevin Can Wait. It’s a family sitcom starring Kevin James as the eponymous Kevin Gable, a retired cop become stay-at-home dad with three kids who finds that he’s in over his h. . . wait, this is sounding a little familiar. Let’s see. Two stay-athome dads. Both with three kids. Both shows renewed for a second season. The premises of both shows are surprisingly similar. In this one however, Kevin seems to think his retirement gives him licence to goof off with his retired buddies, but his wife Donna (Erinn Hayes) seems to think it gives him more time for some long overdue DIY and helping with the kids. See, this is why I’m not getting married or having kids.
And moving on from Wednesday’s doofus-daddy double-feature I think I can squeeze in one last item as a matter of spectacle — the Dirty Dancing made-for-TV-movie remake (Today, M-Net, Channel
101, 10:30). Oh yes! They went there. This egregious and unnecessary remake stars Abigail Breslin as Baby, a young woman on vacation at a fancy resort with her family, who meets and falls in love with dance instructor Johnny Castle (played here by Colt Prattes).
At the time of writing, critics who have already seen it have been throwing rotten vegetables at it. The general consensus is that they turned a decent romantic drama that happened to include dancing into a schmaltzy musical with no depth. Well, if you must satisfy your morbid curiosity, here you go.