Thursday, March 28, 2024

Join our email blast

On The Tube

Lena Dunham strikes again

1/9/2013

The comedy phenom is on a roll with the second season of ‘Girls’

OnTheTubePart of me would love to be 26-year-old Lena Dunham: widely hailed as a comic genius when her series “Girls” premiered on HBO last year. Another part of me wouldn’t want to be Dunham at all: forced to show that season one wasn’t a fluke by delivering an equally brilliant season two. But the premiere episode (Sunday, 8 p.m.) proves that Dunham has plenty more up her sleeve. The tattooed writer-director-star continues to find fresh laughs, fresh poignancy and fresh idiocy in the lives of her four young characters, who struggle with post-college life in New York City.            

In this week’s episode they revert to form, acting selfishly or stupidly in their relationships with men. Hannah (Dunham) manages both selfishness and stupidity by dropping Adam (Adam Driver) for someone else. Adam is not only disabled (after a car accident that was Hannah’s fault). Now she’s uttering extravagant promises to the new guy: “I’m going to make logical, responsible decisions when it comes to you!”              

Anybody want to lay odds?

 

CNA - Stop HIV Iowa

‘1600 Penn’

Thursday, 8:30 p.m. (NBC)

Whatever good President Obama has done for the country, he’s been terrible for comedy. Presidential humor reached a peak during George W. Bush’s administration but has all but flat-lined during Obama’s, with even “Saturday Night Live” stars unsure of how to satirize him. The new sitcom “1600 Penn” overcompensates for the lack of farce coming out of the current White House by dreaming up a hapless fictional president (Bill Pullman) with an out-of-control family. In place of wit and subtlety, the series goes for broad gags involving the president’s trophy wife (Jenna Elfman) and goony son (Josh Gad).                

Then there’s the leaden dialogue. A visiting dignitary tells the president, “Your trade deal will crumble like your nation’s aging infrastructure!”        

Sorry, NBC, but so will your sitcom.

 

‘Enlightened’

Sunday, 8:30 p.m. (HBO)

Amy is a dim bulb who thirsts for enlightenment. In season one of HBO’s excellent series — created, produced by and starring Laura Dern — Amy set off on a New Age quest for higher consciousness after a mental breakdown. In the season-two premiere, she commits herself to a new quest: bringing down the corporation that has reduced her to a data-processing drone.                

Dern does a skillful job of establishing Amy as one hot mess. For all her interest in serenity, this woman could explode at any minute, taking out innocent bystanders like her mother (Diane Ladd) and ex-partner (Luke Wilson). The genius of “Enlightened” is that it creates sympathy for Amy’s crazy stabs at transcendence. In this week’s episode, she justifies stealing confidential documents to expose her company’s corruption:                

“For two minutes there I felt worth something. Like I was doing something — something real. And I was alive. It felt good to feel alive for once, and not just dead and plastic and numb.”                

Enemies of the dead and plastic and numb would be well advised to tune in to “Enlightened.”

 

‘Continuum’

Monday, 7 p.m. (Syfy)

A beautiful cop arrives from the future with a skintight, gold jumpsuit and an arsenal of cool hologram weapons. Keira Cameron (Rachel Nichols) is accidentally swept back to 2012 while pursuing terrorists, a few of whom are swept back with her. In this new fantasy series (imported from Canada), Keira must tangle with them while negotiating an unfamiliar world.          

The pilot is fascinating in the early scenes set in the future. Unfortunately, it soon turns routine as Keira hooks up with a detective (Victor Webster) and a teenage computer genius (Erik Knudsen) from the present. Cue familiar chase scenes and banter.                

To be honest, though, I plan to keep watching. “Continuum” had me hooked at “a beautiful cop arrives from the future with a skintight, gold jumpsuit and an arsenal of cool hologram weapons.” CV

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*