FALL TV EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

ENLIGHTENED

*** (out of ****)

 

Instead of introducing Amy Jellico, played by Laura Dern, to us and letting us try to decide how we feel about her, Enlightened gives us an opening scene where she has a mental breakdown at work, and then moves directly to a montage of her at a New Age, feel good, rehab center, calming down. I’m not one to prejudge a character, especially in the first five minutes of the pilot of a series, but now we know that, because of the breakdown, she is psychopathic, and, because of the rehab center, she is a psychopathic idiot. I’m already missing Entourage (not really). The rest of the episode deals with Amy trying to piece her life back together, from her relationship with the mother to getting her same job back, all with her newfound, zippy-hippy attitude. If you’re already judging Amy (woah), I understand, but don’t be so quick to judge the show. I know it’s weird to have a series not take the perspective/world view of its main character, but this one is a little trickier than most. Amy’s quick fix was everything but, and it might be fun to watch her learn how absolutely batshit insane it is to think that meditation, yoga, and smiles can cure your batshit insanity. It turns out she probably wasn’t that insane in the first place, it was her supposed cure that drove her there. I can see it being tough to watch someone this self-unaware get this much screen time (other TV characters with a lack of self-awareness are played almost strictly for laughs), but I’m mostly trusting Dern and creator Mike White (School of Rock, Chuck and Buck) to know how far to go.

 

 

LAST MAN STANDING

* (out of ****)

 

I hate giving things one star. I HATE IT. I rarely give things four stars. I think (not that anyone could possibly care) that it should be reserved for the tippy-tippy top. I give out just as many one star ratings. I just find it difficult that a group of professional artists and craftsman can come together and produce something that doesn’t have a single redeeming quality. It almost seems unfair. I’ve watched some shitty shit during this FALL TV EXTRAVAGANZA!!!, but nothing even remotely as disgusting as Last Man Standing.

Let’s be honest: if you still have a soft spot in your heart for Home Improvement, it’s because you watched it when you were young, and you were an idiot. To watch it now with non-nostalgic eyes makes you wish you actually followed through with all of those suicide threats you made to your parents in sixth grade. It is laugh-free, and if you think it skates by on the wit and charm of Tim “Thank God I did Toy Story so as to not leave an entire legacy of disastrous garbage” Allen, it has to be just barely, because the rest of that show is painful. Last Man Standing, however, makes Home Improvement look like an episode of Arrested Development that had guest appearances by Monty Python and the Simpsons. Misfires are fine. They happen. No one can predict exactly how an audience will react to art. This doesn’t even try. It’s a room full of people barely going through the motions in a show that feels less like a sitcom and more like a parody of a sitcom from a movie about terrible people who make terrible sitcoms.

-Ryan Haley