Mad Men Report: New TV with 'The Real O'Neals' and 'Hap and Leonard'

Last time I did one of these "rate new TV shows based on their potential to distract me from watching Mad Men" things I used CSI: Cyber as a punching bag to make a point about the ridiculously high quality of the rest of television.  This week I watched the first episode of Fuller House with the intention of doing the same but I felt too much pity and regret to go through with it.  Instead I want to focus on a couple of actually good new series.  Before I rededicate myself to a life of positivity let me just say that Last Man Standing is a really awful show.  It wants so badly to be All In the Family but the writers don't seem to realize that you're not supposed to agree with Archie Bunker just because he's funny.  They're also generally pretty terrible at their jobs.  Now, about these good shows.

The Real O'Neals

ABC has really cornered the market on family sitcoms in recent years and, with some previously mentioned exception, they've done a really good job with that corner.  So good that The Real O'Neals seemed doomed to pale by comparison to the likes of Black-ish and Modern Family.  It doesn't pale, though.  The O'Neal family has quickly earned its place among the Hecks and the Huangs thanks to solid writing and a charming device in the form of Scrubs-like fantasy sequences.  The characters, portrayed in early advertising as one-note cartoons, prove themselves to be slightly more comprehensive and backed by some strong but largely unfamiliar actors.  Martha Plimpton as the family's matriarch, fresh from an incredible run as lovable white trash on the criminally underappreciated Raising Hope, now seems a little out of place as a devout Catholic but the rest of the cast is more or less unknown.  The biggest standout is of course the protagonist and narrator Kenny, as played by Noah Galvin.  The pilot sees the family's sparkly veneer soiled by a group dirty laundry session and from his mother's point of view Kenny's homosexuality is the dirtiest laundry of them all.  Galvin proves capable of handling the sensitive emotional moments as well as the broad comedy and clever witticisms.  Overall The Real O'Neals is a thoroughly pleasant surprise.

Mad Men threat level: 7/10

Hap and Leonard

Maybe it's a problem that Michael K. Williams has almost been typecast as tough gay men but there's no denying that he does it well, and it's not like anyone wants to see him play a weak gay man.  His titular Leonard Pine from Sundance's Hap and Leonard doesn't share much else with the iconic Omar Little.  They're both independent thinkers, sure, and they each have their own rigid code of honor but the similarities end there.  Leonard is a Vietnam veteran from Texas.  He wears a straw hat and sleeveless flannel.  His best friend is Hap Collins, a former hippie played by James Purefoy who dodged the draft and wound up in prison.  Together they work in the rose fields of fictional LaBorde, Texas in the 1980's.  At least, they did until they lost their jobs to cheap immigrant labor.  That's when Christina Hendricks, Hap's ex-wife Trudy, shows up with a job offer.  That's how the cowboy buddies wind up in a caper with a crew of unrelenting flower children.  While Leonard and the hippies argue about politics they all sit in ignorance of the horrendous oncoming threat known as "new wave."  The series shows enormous promise of lighthearted fun and action as well as social awareness and terrific acting.

Mad Men threat level: 8/10