On Glee, True Blood, Pan Am and Escapist Television

For the most part, there are two types of TV shows that my DVR is set to record: critically acclaimed single camera comedies (Community, Parks & Recreation, Modern Family) or critically acclaimed super-serious dark dramas (Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, Boardwalk Empire). I don't watch reality shows (with the exception of Top Chef), I don't watch dumb sitcoms that have a laugh track (all of CBS's comedies) and I don't watch procedurals (again, all of CBS's dramas). But, like most red-blooded Americans, I am not immune to the occasional pleasures of turning off my brain to watch and enjoy a TV show. Until recently, I used to get my weekly fix of "escapist" television from two shows: Glee and True Blood.

Glee started out very strong. Its pilot episode was a mixture young, attractive people singing fun, upbeat songs and those same young, attractive people dealing with high school life in a small town in Ohio. Season one of Glee mostly built on its pilot, fleshing out these characters into people I cared about while still maintaining a fun vibe with an ever-present undercurrent of melancholy. Plus, it had Jane Lynch yelling hilarious insults at people. Who doesn't like Jane Lynch? Season two of Glee was, unfortunately, a complete mess. The character work was scatter-shot, the songs increasingly auto-tuned and Jane Lynch's character became an insufferable caricature of herself. After much hemming and hawing, I stopped recording Glee and, if this AV Club review of the Season Three premiere is any indication, I did the right thing.

I'm still sticking with True Blood, but damn, is that an infuriating show to watch. What started off as a quick hour of television that was campy, gory and full of nudity turned into a complete slog. There are too many side plots devoted to characters who are boring (Hoyt, Sam, Alcide) insufferable (Sookie, Bill) or both (Tommy, Tara). The average episode of True Blood now consists of spending interminable amounts of time with characters who are little to no fun to watch, followed by about five minutes of sex, blood or both. The characters who I enjoy spending time with (Jessica, Eric, Pam and sometimes Jason) are just compelling enough to outweigh the characters who are a complete waste of time. Plus: tits.

So, with my television schedule in need of a little bit of levity and after reading this positive review over at The AV Club, I decided to check out Pan Am and so far, so good. Mad Men is one of my favorite shows, so I was a bit apprehensive about Pan Am trying too hard to be Mad Men, but set in the world of air travel, rather than advertising. Luckily, that's not the case. For starters, Pan Am doesn't take itself as seriously as Mad Men. This is meant to be a show about the adventures of pretty ladies jet-setting about the globe in the 60s, not a weighty drama about secret identities, adultery and the implications of alcoholism.

If anything, Pan Am doesn't call attention to the time period in which it takes place as much as Mad Men did in its first season. We don't see pregnant women smoking or close ups of people's laps without seatbelts while they're riding in their cars. (Granted, Mad Men got away from some of these more gimmicky touches as the show progressed, but early on, there was a definite "Hey, the 60s sure were a crazy time, weren't they?!" vibe about the show.) Pan Am uses its period setting to show us that flying used to be a bit glamorous and that these women were able to use their stewardess jobs to see the world and empower themselves a bit. Pan Am has yet to air its second episode, so there's definitely time for flaws to present themselves (and indeed, one sub-plot involving Kelli Garner's character being an operative for the CIA is already a bit ludicrous), but I'm excited to see what the show has to offer in the coming weeks.

Also, I'm a complete sucker for Christina Ricci. I was 14 years old when I first saw her on the big screen in Casper and she immediately became my first movie-star crush. It will be fun to have her on my television on a weekly basis.

Louie is the Best Show on TV

I'll never forget the first time I saw Louis C.K. perform stand-up. I was on this terrible double date with a friend of mine and the two girls we were with wanted to go to the Laugh Factory in Hollywood to see Dane Cook, a comedian I had never heard of at the time. This was back in 2003 or 2004, before either C.K. or Cook had become household names. These two girls just kept talking about how funny Cook was. How he was just the most hilarious comedian around.

Cook was the headliner that night, so I got to see a handful of comedians perform before he came onstage. One of those comedians was C.K., a bald guy with a bit of a gut and a red goatee. I proceeded to laugh my ass off during C.K.'s set. Cook came onstage afterward and I thought, "Really, this guy's the headliner? The guy doing the bad Jim Carrey impression?" Louis C.K. was the comedian whose comedy stuck with me that night.

After I met my wife (and co-blogger), I found out she also shared an affection for C.K.'s stand-up, so imagine our surprise when we found out he had his own show on HBO. That show was Lucky Louie and it aired for one season before it was summarily canceled, with good reason: the show just wasn't very good. Lucky Louie was an attempt by C.K. to put his own stamp on a sitcom about working class people filmed in front of a live studio audience on a set (The Honeymooners for the 21st century, if you will). By all rights, the show should have worked. It was on HBO, letting C.K. mine adult themes and use all the profanity he wanted, but ultimately it just wasn't very funny. Luckily, he didn't let his experience defeat him and he was able to find success on FX with Louie, which airs its Season Two finale tomorrow night.

Louie has evolved quite a bit from Season One to Season Two. The first season was quite good and extremely funny. C.K.'s humor is very dark, and the show would mine that dark humor for as many laughs as it could muster. (C.K. writes, directs and edits every episode). C.K. is a 42 year old divorcee and the show is partially autobiographical, so Season One contained more than its fair share of awkward dates and even more awkward sexual encounters. I enjoyed Season One quite a bit and was looking forward to Season Two. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that C.K. had transformed a very good, dark, half-hour comedy series into the best show on TV.

Season Two of Louie retains C.K.'s brand of dark, awkward humor, but it also isn't afraid to venture into more serious territory. Not that being "serious" equals being better, but I just never feel like C.K. feels obliged to insert laughs into an episode just to keep the viewer hooked. He's content to let scenes play out the way he wants them to, and sometimes, there are just no laughs to be had. The Season Two premiere ended with a fart joke, the episode two weeks ago followed C.K. on a USO tour to Afghanistan where he found a duckling stowed in his backpack. Continuity does not exist in the world of Louie and C.K. is able to take advantage of that to tell whatever story he feels like.

The reason I love watching Louie is because I am always surprised and usually thrilled in the directions it takes me. I never know what to expect episode to episode, or even moment to moment. Louie is just a great show and it's got one hell of a theme song.

PS: If you watch and love Louie like I do, Nathan Rabin's recaps for the show over at The AV Club are essential reading.