Mad Men Report: New TV with 'Roadies,' 'American Gothic,' 'BrainDead,' and 'Uncle Buck'

Previously on Mad Men Report: Brian came up with a convoluted idea for a TV review feature where he judges new shows based on their capacity to distract him from watching Mad Men.  He really committed to this idea even though somewhere in the back of his head he knew he would have to explain the concept every time.  Also, he promised to focus on good shows rather than trash bad ones but that was three months ago and he didn't expect American Gothic to be so bad.

American Gothic

Early on in CBS's new horror series a character makes a joke about his daughter's family looking like a Norman Rockwell painting.  You see, the entire Hawthorne clan seems perfect but (WARNING!!!  SPOILER ALERT!!!  DO NOT READ ANY FARTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS FOR American Gothic!!!) they're not.  This family has deep, dark secrets.  Like one of them is a serial killer.  The only question is "who done it?"  Wait, that's my bad.  There are two questions: "who done it?" and "why should anyone care?"  I have a feeling only one of those questions will be answered by the end of the series and it won't be the latter.  On the bright side, Virginia Madsen is fun to watch as the family matriarch.

It would be more exciting to watch this gif for an hour straight.

Mad Men threat level: 3/10

BrainDead

In CBS's defense, they also recently debuted the more than respectable political comedy BrainDead, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and created by the duo behind The Good Wife.  Winstead plays Laurel Healy, a struggling documentary filmmaker who enters the family business of politics to earn some cash.  Her role in her brother's Democratic Senatorial staff points her towards an infestation of alien insects who are getting inside politicians brains and taking over.  Along the way she embarks on a love/hate relationship with almost admirable Republican staffer Gareth Ritter (Broadway star Aaron Tveit, recently seen on screen in Grease: Live).  Ritter's boss, Tony Shalhoub as Senator Red Wheatus, is a slacker but he's willing to reach across the aisle until the bugs get in his brain.  That makes for a good cast and with smart writing and a quirky sense of humor BrainDead feels like it could be a cult classic, but it isn't quite exciting enough to be an instant one like Winstead's 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.  No, if this series becomes a cult classic it will have to earn the title by standing the test of time.  Is it up to the challenge?  We'll have to wait and see.  That's how the test of time works.

Although, this is promising.

Mad Men threat level: 6/10

Uncle Buck

I didn't have high expectations for the ABC series based on a John Hughes/John Candy classic but with the very funny Mike Epps as the star I though it might surprise me.  Unfortunately, it did in all the wrong ways.  Epps is charming enough but the writing is clunky and dull.

You're better off watching the original Uncle Buck but
that's pretty much always true.

Mad Men threat level: 3/10

Roadies

I absolutely love things that are about music.  I love movies about music, TV shows about music and songs about music.  That's why my all time favorite movie is Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe's loving tribute to the world of rock in the 1970's.  That's also why I was so disappointed by Vinyl, the recent HBO series with more or less the same setting created by Martin Frigging Scorsese and Mick Goddam Jagger.  Vinyl and Almost Famous both treat listening to music as a religious experience but in different ways.  For Crowe music is radiating bliss consciousness but for Scorsese it's fire and brimstone.  Enter Roadies on Showtime, Crowe's spiritual sequel to his magnum opus.

The first episode,written and directed by Crowe, opens with a quote from Tom Petty; "I think the general public has no idea what roadies do. Bless em' all. I just play the songs. They make the show happen."  This show isn't about the hi-jinks of the drug addled rock stars who make the music you love, it's about the people behind the scenes with broken backs who make the music possible and love the band more than you'll ever know.  And their hi-jinks.

Tom Petty's words fade into Luke Wilson's tour manager Bill giving an orgasm to a 22 year old before production manager Shelly, played by Carla Gugino, barges in.  Bill and Shelly act like a married couple but as of now they're just a will-they-won't-they-they-will.  It would feel forced if Gugino and Wilson didn't have such great chemistry.  Actually, the entire cast is great apart or together, largely thanks to Crowe being a master of feel-good film making.  Imogen Poots plays the show's young protagonist Kelly Ann in the midst of a quarter-life crisis considering a move from the road life to film school in New York.  Poots exudes intelligent coolness even in her dorkiest moments.  Even her skateboarding stunt double seems cool as hell.  Everyone down to the number-crunching suit-wearing villain played by Rafe Spall is entirely endearing but the real scene stealer is Ron White's lovable loose-cannon Southern-rock cowboy Phil.

And of course, the music is great.  Where Vinyl grabs you by the throat and shouts "remember this song?!  Do ya, punk?!" Roadies uses music to create an ethereal journey.  A journey full of Pearl Jam.  All this leaves me with the question "do I love Roadies because it's good or because I love Almost Famous?"  I know this: it's certainly not a bad show.  I can't imagine anyone watching it without a smile on their face (unless I imagine watching that Luke Wilson scene with my parents, but let's just not do that).  I can't be totally objective about it but the more I think about it the more I think Roadies is genuinely a very good show.  Dare I say, it's all happening.

So cool.

Mad Men threat level: the first ever 10/10

Just Straight Up Talking About My Favorite Movies

A couple of weeks ago I joked that I'm very uncomfortable talking about my emotions.  It was only a joke in the sense that I exaggerated a little but it was still more or less true.  However, it's good for my brand to let people know a little more about me and I'm nothing if not a slave to my brand.  That's why I had "nerd but like a cool nerd but not too cool or obnoxious like Chris Hardwick (I kid Chris because we're friends and I'm definitely going to be on @Midnight real soon)" tattooed on my forehead in the biggest letters possible so that it all fits.  Anyway, here are my favorite movies.  Hopefully they'll give you some insight into my mind and that insight will be relatable to you and make you like me.  (But for real these are my favorite movies.  Thus ends the snarkiness.)

Almost Famous

I like a lot of things.  I like a lot of movies, songs, TV shows, etc.  Almost Famous is the best and most positive depiction of fandom that I've ever seen.  It's about a teenager who loves music so much that all he wants in life is to be a rock writer.  He gets his wish and goes on tour with a band he likes on assignment from Rolling Stone.  Along the way everyone he meets is in love with music but they show it in different ways, from the musicians themselves to the non-groupie "band aids" playing the part of muse to inspire the music they love to the Led Zeppelin obsessed Jay Baruchel.  In Almost Famous music is a religion and the heroes are those with the most faith, whether it's in the golden god on stage or the humble prophet scribbling on his notepad.

Spider-Man 2

When I was younger I liked the Spider-Man movies because they were about Spider-Man.  When I got older I found that not only do they stand up to the test of time but they are also among the most intelligent and well made action movies that I've ever seen.  I find the second one especially interesting for its themes of duality, dichotomy, and reflection.  Much of the focus is on the conflict between Peter Parker the man and Spider-Man the hero.  It's not a totally unique idea in superhero fiction, not even in 2004, but I don't know any story that explored it better.  While Parker is struggling with his identity he is trying to rebuild his relationship with actress Mary Jane Watson, a relationship mirrored by Peter's mentor/foe Otto Octavius and his wife, a former English major.  Otto goes off the rails when his wife dies, while Peter finds balance when he accepts that he can carry the burden of both his lives, but not alone.  There's also a ton of reflection related imagery.

The Breakfast Club

I imagine the definitive high school movie might stop being one of my favorites at some point but it hasn't happened by age 23.  Perhaps The Breakfast Club never gets old because there's a part of us all that never stops being a teenager, or maybe it's because the entire concept is that teenagers are just as complex and fully human as any other age group.  Either way, it's impressive that a movie from 1985 can still be the most beloved depiction of high school for someone who graduated in 2010.  I've had more discussions about The Breakfast Club than any other movie and so far the only person I know of who didn't love it was in high school with me and hadn't seen any more than a few minutes of it.  Most summaries of the movies will say that it's about five archetypes who discover their similarities, but the real surprise is that the audience finds similarities to most, if not all, of the characters.  The Buzzfeed quiz we both know exists without looking for it is moot.  Nobody is only one Breakfast Club character.  That's the point.  "Each one of us is a brain and an athlete and a basket case, a princess and a criminal."  But it's still pretty cool that I got John Bender.