HI, I’M MIKE TV

Television for the week of April 30th

The L.A. Complex

**1/2 (out of ****)

Imports can have a hard time here in America. People don’t get the references, or the humor is different, or it’s too nerdy or we just can’t get over how dang funny they talk on that there show. Canada often has a leg up over other countries since they’re like our little brother- usually annoying but every once in awhile do something awesome (see: Kids in the Hall, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, a surprising number of cartoons). Plus they can hide their accents when they need to, something Britain and Australia just can’t seem to do.

The L.A. Complex jumped the relate-ability barrier by taking place in Los Angeles, California — a location for some reason everyone in America can see themselves even though there’s almost nowhere like it in the country. Even though it takes place in sunny southern California, the majority the main characters are still from Canada, having relocated to make it big in their various respective fields. Most of them live in a longterm motel, the Lux, which apparently is a modern ghetto for Canadian immigrants looking to become professional entertainers. History really is just constantly doomed to repeat itself.

Complex is a perfect fit for the CW network, a bunch of young attractive types hooking up and being dramatic. Its influences and predecessors are obvious and too many to list, though a 90’s drama centered around an apartment complex located in LA probably has the strongest comparisons. And even though there’s no magic, it’s just as fantastical as the Vampire Diaries or the Secret Circle, because witches are as realistic as an apartment building that’s filled with poor, attempting to break in entertainers barely make ends meet but have epic parties nightly. This might all sound like trash talk, along with statements like the acting is only so-so, and the writing not nearly as witty as the OC or others. But let’s be real, the OC was the best of these kinds of shows, torn apart by people who never watched it rather than those who gave it a chance. That show proved melodrama doesn’t have to be terrible, and that well-formed characters and tight writing can come from a seemingly formulaic delivery method. The LA Complex isn’t on that level, but has stirrings beneath its surface that could have it rise to be something more than a 90210 for the 2010’s.

The large cast is a strength for the show. If at anytime you become bored with a certain plot line, it shifts to another tenant of the Lux. Sick of the nerdy comedian failing in a soul-crippling manner? Then let’s switch to the LA nube actress get shit on by life again. Or the rising Australian star be handsome and hit on ladies. Or the washed up hottie (Kaylee from Firefly!) oscillate between being a conniving bitch and actually having a soul. And those are only four of the six main characters, not to mention all of the ancillary people we’ve been briefly introduced to who can take a leading role at any moment. That’s a Degrassi style trick that more shows should learn (I could’ve been cooler and said the Simpsons or Community, but it’s Canada’s time to shine, eh?), populate your world with background players, but know that they could go from glorified extra to main story if need be. (I predict this to happen in the future to the two writers who float around in the first couple episodes). They’ve done a good job at slowly introducing us to the characters, not completely overloading the audience with information in the first episode. We get the most story about the LA nube, the washed up hottie, and the nerd comic, and everyone else gets just enough to know what they’re probably about. Fun tidbit about the pilot- Paul F. Tompkins and Mary Lynn Rajskbub show up as themselves. Super-douchey versions of themselves who tell the aspiring comedian he should do nothing but quit comedy, while giving him pretty good advice about needing to find his voice.

The show seems to have a stronger stance on what it wants to say than most of its contemporaries. Just in the first two episodes, over arcing themes are starting to appear. Variations of finding your identity, or knowing who you are get repeated in several of the storylines. And not in a “go for your dreams!” kind of way, but in a “be you, or no one will give a fucking shit” kind of way. There’s a hard edge to the drama of the show that doesn’t involve violence or drug addiction. The depressing truth of how hard it is to make it in LA hangs over every character. This is not a glamorous story being told, and the show reminds you of that consistently. Which is closely related to the second running theme, a lack of power. No matter where they stand in their various careers, no one the show focuses on has any real control of their situation. They’re just reacting to what happens to them, paddling hard to keep their head above the water constantly threatening to suck them under. It’s the grim undertones that want me to continue to watch and find out what happens to these characters. I’m sure it will go the route of regular television and they’ll triumph, but it’s the promise of their failures that’ll bring you back for more.

Check out PopFilter Podcast Episode 44 to hear the guys chat about The LA Complex (posts tomorrow)

ALSO NEW!

THE CLIENT LIST

Jennifer Love Hewitt plays a down on her luck single mom who starts working at a massage parlor to make ends meet. It’s the kind that gives happy endings, and moral struggles barely come into play. The show plays like someone went to Lifetime and the pitch went like this

Up and Comer: “AMC started a new trend, we don’t have to just play shitty movies anymore!”

Executive: “What do you have in mind? A series where everyone has cancer or has been raped?”

Up and Comer: “No! A completely original direction! Weeds, with suburban mom hand jobs instead of suburban mom weed dealing.”

Executive: “We’re geniuses.”

 That should be the tagline for the show: Weeds, but with more hand jobs! The acting is subpar, and nothing new is happening. They even stole the brother-in-law possible love interest. I can’t wait until JLH hooks up with the governor of Guatemala or something, and then her and the kids have to run across country to avoid getting killed.

RIP

BFF

I wish I had written about this show before it got cancelled, not that it would’ve helped. The two leads, Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham have an amazing chemistry together, and the close friendship between two women in their mid-thirties really isn’t something often seen on TV, unless their also solving supernatural crimes. It joins the ranks of many shows that got cut before they could make it, and for that we mourn. -MG