Movie Box Review

It's been a long, long time, but finally the prayers of MAD MEN fans are being answered:  at the Television Critics Association gathering today, AMC confirmed that the series will return at 9PM on Sunday March 25, with a 2-hour episode written by Genius Emeritus Matthew Weiner.

The following Sunday, April 1, AMC brings back THE KILLING, also a 2-hour premiere, which will start at 8PM, with Mad Men moving to its regular 10PM time-slot that night.  (April 1 also happens to be the same night HBO re-launches its hit Game of Thrones at 9PM, so set your DVRs now.)

Also, AMC swears on Tim Tebow that this time, The Killing will reveal the identity of Rosie Larsen's murderer... but not until the final episode of the season.  Prepare for lots of rain, and even more red herrings.

Visually, PAN AM is a treat.  Just to be clear, this is the primetime series set in the mid-1960s that doesn't feature Don Draper or Playboy bunny tails.  While no series could possibly surpass the fetishistic accuracy of Mad Men (even though the Pan Am pilot is set in 1963, one of the songs on the soundtrack was composed for the Doctor Dolittle movie in 1967--it would give Matthew Weiner a coronary), Pan Am has a sleek, elegant look filled with terrific period detail; watching it, you feel like those plane sets could actually take off.  With Tommy Schlamme behind the camera (he's done all of Aaron Sorkin's shows, among others), Pan Am also moves rapidly and absorbingly through its mid-air paces.

In the dramatic region, the show hits more air pockets.  The script is by Jack Orman, who was showrunner of ER for years and has more recently written for Men Of A Certain Age, but who has less of a track record as a series creator.  The storylines are what one of the old Airport movies would have been like if no planes ever crashed:  mostly, a lot of tangled stewardess romances.  So we get the gorgeous Laura (Margot Robbie) who ran out on her own society wedding to make a life for herself; Laura's sister Kate (Kelli Garner), who's always been jealous of Laura and none too thrilled she has to share the spotlight with sis again; Colette (Karine Vanasse), who's French and unlucky in love; and Maggie, played by the cast's biggest name--Christina Ricci, in her TV series debut--but the sketchiest character, a political liberal who puts on stewardess garb for the sake of world travel.  (At least initially, the 2 pilot characters don't make much impression.)  Strangely mixed in with these suds is a story about one of the girls being recruited by an intelligence service to carry on mid-air espionage (John LeCarre it's not).

There's certainly potential to make something more of Pan Am's premise; a bit of dialogue toward the end suggests that behind their Barbie-doll exteriors, we should see these stewardesses as indicative of the new directions women will take as the 1960s unfold.  For now, though, it's pretty weak, uncompelling stuff.  While it's understandable that ABC wasn't interested in tackling the subtle, difficult tone of a Mad Men, at this point Pan Am doesn't even have the vitality of The Playboy Club's melodramatic pilot.  Luckily, the show's visual glamour and brisk pace should keep it aloft for a while as it tries to find itself.

ABC has given Pan Am a good spot on the runway, following Desperate Housewives on Sunday nights.  While it certainly won't touch NBC's football in overall 18-49s--assuming there's football this fall--it should appeal to the Housewives audience (the promos will look like a dream), and although Mitch Metcalf's Sunday projection shows it losing a chunk of that crowd and falling behind the aging CSI: Miami in the timeslot, it has a chance to do better--if it can figure out its own aerodynamics.

Another TV year is officially in the books, and the statuettes have been handed out to prove it.  Since the Emmys end at 8PM LA time for the convenience of East Coast eyes, by midnight the main parties are trailing off, and those winners lucky enough to still have jobs for the new season are heading home, while the after-parties continue for industry players with time on their hands.  Some thoughts on the evening:

THE SHOW:  After a lame opening number (except for the Mad Men section), which couldn't help but pale in comparison to Jimmy Fallon's brilliant opening last year, the show stabilized into being OK.  Jane Lynch had a few good lines as host, although it would have been nice to see her make jokes about something other than being gay.  The all-co-star singing group (Cobie Smulders!  Joel McHale!) that introduced each segment wasn't worth the effort, but the Office parody was borderline brilliant, especially the gag with Jesse from Breaking Bad delivering crystal meth to Creed.  Also funny, and mercifully short:  Ricky Gervais poking fun at his own hosting style.   And thinking of parody, "The Canadian Tenors"--that's a real thing?  At first I thought it was a sequel to the Lonely Island bit, but apparently not; having them sing "Hallelujah" amidst dry ice smoke, accompanying the montage of dead people, was like an idea Mel Brooks deleted from The Producers as too over the top.  

DRAMA:  Some genuinely surprising results, and not in a bad way.  Even though it was too late to do the show any good, some recognition for the writing and acting of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS was long overdue (if only Connie Britton had been allowed to join the party--or if at least the orchestra had let Kyle Chandler thank her when he realized he'd left her out, just a milisecond after he stepped away from the microphone).  The only downside to Chandler's win was that with Bryan Cranston back next year, Jon Hamm may have seen his best chance for an Emmy pass by tonight.  Julianna Margullies was an expected but deserving winner for Actress, and two of the happiest moments of the telecast were seeing Peter Dinklage and Margo Martindale pick up statuettes for their spectacular performances in GAME OF THRONES and JUSTIFIED.  Truthfully, Martin Scorsese's direction of the BOARDWALK EMPIRE pilot wasn't even the best-directed episode of that series, let alone in the category, but his star value made him hard to beat.  After all the wins scattered among various shows, there was actually suspense to the announcement of Best Drama Series--and Matt Weiner looked downright relieved to tie the all-time Emmy record with his 4th consecutive award for MAD MEN.  Which really is, when you get down to it, the best damn show on TV.

COMEDY:  Mostly a parade of MODERN FAMILY victors, all of whom were deserving, gracious and charming (best was Steve Levitan's wife, stealing the show from her seat in the audience with her reaction shots to his speech).  Jim Parsons in BIG BANG THEORY was a surprise only because everyone assumed the Academy would feel Steve Carell was owed recognition for his last OFFICE season--but apparently not.  The shocker, of course, was Melissa McCarthy winning Best Actress for MIKE & MOLLY.  Reflected glory off her star turn in the hit movie Bridesmaids?  Support for an actress who doesn't spend more time in spinning classes than acting class?  The best thing about that category was the idea of all the nominees heading for the stage to stand in beauty pageant solidarity for the opening of the envelope (apparently hatched by Amy Poehler and Martha Plimpton), and their seemingly genuine and united delight when McCarthy won. 

MOVIE/MINISERIES:  The single biggest surprise of the evening was Barry Pepper winning Best Actor for his RFK in THE KENNEDYS--he was admittedly the best thing in the show, but given how odious that particular show was, it's not saying much.  (Too bad he wasn't at the ceremony to enjoy the moment in person.)  Apart from that, it continued to be a surprisingly tough night for HBO, which watched Boardwalk Empire get mostly snubbed in Drama, then saw its MILDRED PIERCE get trounced by PBS' wondrous DOWNTON ABBEY, with Mildred winning statues only for Guy Pearce and of course Kate Winslet.  Who, after all these years of winning every possible award, still seems honestly surprised and delighted to get them (she's the Taylor Swift of spectacularly gifted actresses).    

In all, the Academy managed to avoid any embarrassing wins, while providing a few pleasant surprises.  Not at all bad, as these things go.  And tomorrow:  the new season begins!

Mad Men - 1:2

Boardwalk Empire - 11:4

The Good Wife - 5:1

Game of Thrones - 14:1

Friday Night Lights - 16:1

Dexter - 33:1

Mad Men - 1:1

Boardwalk Empire - 7:5

Game of Thrones - 5:1

The Good Wife - 8:1

Friday Night Lights - 11:1

Dexter - 20:1

Mad Men has won 3 years in a row:  can it match The West Wing and Hill Street Blues with 4?  Maybe so, but it's going to be an awfully close race against HBO's Boardwalk Empire  Mad Men's not-so-secret weapon may be its episode The Suitcase, the 2-hander for Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss that was one of the best hours the show has ever aired; but this being an industry award, it could be hurt by the extended and very public AMC/Matthew Weiner travails that didn't leave a good taste in anyone's mouth.  Boardwalk could also be hurt by the support for HBO's other nominee Game of Thrones (although that's probably too much of a genre show to win outright).  The Good Wife, a marvelous show in its own right and the only pure network nominee (Friday Night Lights being an NBC/DirecTV share), is a possible dark horse here.  Friday Night, which richly deserves a statuette, is probably getting an "attaboy" pat on the back on its way out the door.  Dexter's season was markedly inferior to its previous one with John Lithgow as the monstrous Big Bad, and is probably out of the running.

Jon Hamm, Mad Men - 4:11

Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire - 23:10

Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights - 14:1

Michael C. Hall, Dexter - 14:1

Timothy Olyphant, Justified - 16:1

Hugh Laurie, House - 20:1

ShowbuzzDaily Odds:

Jon Hamm, Mad Men - 8:5

Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire - 3:1

Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights - 6:1

Timothy Olyphant, Justified - 12:1

Hugh Laurie, House - 14:1

The most important name here is the one that's absent: because of AMC's scheduling, Bryan Cranston wasn't eligible for Breaking Bad after 3 wins in a row, opening the way for what will probably be a tight race between Hamm (who's never won) and Buscemi.  The knock against Hamm has been that his Don Draper is too self-contained to appeal to Academy voters, who like their Oscar counterparts prefer their performances big; here again, Mad Man's Suitcase episode may make the difference.  If Friday Night Lights has a chance for any surprise win, it's would be Chandler here.  Olyphant was even better on Justified this season than he was the year before, but it's not an award type role.  Laurie will have a better shot next year if this turns out to be the show's last.  Hall will be hurt by Dexter's sub-par year--and by the fact that he plays, you know, a serial killer. 

Bookie Odds:

Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife - 15:20

Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men - 3:2

Kathy Bates, Harry's Law - 6:1

Mireille Enos, The Killing - 12:1

Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights - 16:1

Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order:  Special Victims Unit - 25:1

ShowbuzzDaily Odds:

Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife -1:1

Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men -2:1

Kathy Bates, Harry's Law - 8:1 

Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights - 12:1

Mireille Enos, The Killing - 25:1

The biggest shock of last year's Emmys was Kyra Sedgwick's win over Julianna Margulies; The Good Wife continues to be a superb show, Margulies is a well-respected former winner, and it's likely the Academy will make amends for its oversight.  Moss has the best chance of unseating her, once again because she's got that episode of Mad Men that could almost have been designed as an Emmy showcase.  One can never underestimate the Academy's attraction to performers of a certain age, which puts Bates in the running as a dark horse.  Britton has deserved this award every year Friday Night Lights was on the air, but no one ever said awards were fair.  Enos has little chance of winning for a show whose finale left many viewers angrier than they'd been since the end of Lost, and Hargitay has won already, with no one seeming to think she needs another.

After last night's admirably tense episode of BREAKING BAD, we can now say with certainty that the show has 25 left to go:  9 for this season, and then 16 more.  AMC and Sony have closed a deal for what is expected to be the series' final 16 episode order, ending the (always unlikely) possibility that the show would move to another network.  The new deal seems fairly rational:  the 16 episodes will all be shot together (so talent deals need only be for 1 additional season, not 2), but will probably play out over the next 2 years (so AMC can limit its yearly cost).  Sony has agreed to take some continuing deficit on the series, which presumably makes sense in light of the show's success on homevideo and other platforms.

Now that AMC has locked up final runs for both MAD MEN and Breaking Bad over the next 2 years, the all-important issue for it is:  what next?  THE KILLING has no more than a 50/50 chance of still being around at that point, unless it drastically repairs the rift it's created with viewers, and HELL ON WHEELS, at first glance, doesn't have the look of a breakout hit.  That leaves THE WALKING DEAD, which will have to proceed without its creator/showrunner, and with a budget significantly lower than the one it had for its first season.  Also, in TV terms, 2 years isn't nearly as long as it sounds:  AMC will doubtless want to be able to premiere its new shows on the backs of its signature hits, and in order to get on the air in 2013, those shows will have to be in development and piloted in 2012.  In other words:  you wouldn't want to be an AMC creative executive right now.