Best of cable TCA: 'Skins,' 'Beast,' 'Eastbound,' 'Jockeys,' 'Prisoner,' trailers...
TCA -- Here's a rundown of some of the new and returning programs presented during the cable portion of the TCA's winter press tour. This isn’t trying to predict the success or failure of these upcoming shows and TV movies, but to provide you with a sense of their early buzz (plus a bunch of trailers).
Standouts:
-- A&E’s “The Beast”: “He doesn’t look like he’s dying of cancer” is the first and unavoidable thought that enters your mind when watching gruff-tough Patrick Swayze in this new crime drama. Some critics say it's the actor's best performance -- that you can tell he's swinging for the fences in a potential career-concluding role -- even if the drama itself is pretty standard stuff. Extended trailer below.
-- BBC America’s “Skins” season three: I'm trying to get a copy of the terrific trailer that was shown at TCA; it's not available online yet. The energy and wit of this U.K. series makes “Gossip Girl” seem the more mannered and, weirdly, the more British of the two. There's a new setting and cast (replacing former castmates such as Dev Patel, who went on to star in “Slumdog Millionaire”).
-- Comedy Central’s “Important Things With Demetri Martin”: The best panel so far, as previously discussed. According to the transcript, critics interrupted his 10 a.m. TCA session with laughter about 26 times. This is not easy to do. Will Ferrell was on two panels via satellite and drew but a handful of laughs. Hopefully Martin's actual show will be funny too. No trailer, but there's a clip of his standup below.
-- Animal Planet's “Jockeys”: This docuseries might infuriate some Animal Planet viewers; it ain’t “Groomer Has It.” During potentially fatal horse racing wipeouts, one suspects the network’s demo will sympathize far more with the thoroughbreds than their ambitious riders. But this is an evolutionary step for the channel beyond the network's usual content that depicts animals as heroic, cute or in their natural environment. A brief clip below.
-- HBO Films' “Grey Gardens” and “Taking Chance”: The first stars Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange as two quirky relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy who lived in squalor in East Hampton, the latter stars Kevin Bacon as a military escort officer accompanying the body of a corporal killed in Iraq. No, they don't sound entertaining to me either -- nostalgic Camelot fawning and the morose babysitting of a coffin. But for those who find their loglines appealing, both seem well made. Trailer for "Taking Chance" below.
Honorable mentions among new and returning shows: AMC's "Breaking Bad" season two (who would have thought "X-Files" writer Vince Gilligan had this gripping show in him? Next season starts as good as as the first ended), Starz' "Head Case" season two (could gain an audience this round with the addition of bigger name guest stars this season like Jerry Seinfeld whom, we're told, will talk dirty), Discovery’s reality trek “Out of the Wild” (makes “Survivor” look like a stay at the Kauai Hyatt; the participants really suffer; not a show for everyone), AMC's "The Prisoner" remake (it's out there, like, waaay out there; could go either way), BET's "Harlem Heights" (might work), HBO's "Big Love" season three (seems like the drama's high quality continues), Comedy Central's sword-and-sorcery parody "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire" (painfully silly, yes-yes-yes, but still seems funnier than the big screen "Epic Movie" and I like the title ... trailer below, try not to hold it against me).
Looking suspect: HBO's Danny McBride comedy "Eastbound and Down" (a buzzheavy project that's firmly in the Hollywood comedy zeitgeist ... yet the preview didn't get laughs), Travel Channel's "Bridget's Sexiest Beaches" (surely will have its fans, but after hearing ex-Girl Next Door Bridget Marquardt chatter endlessly on the panel, she seems like the last person you'd want to go on vacation with), TLC's "NASCAR Wives" (a docusoap about racers' wives co-produced by NASCAR Media Group? If you're watching a show about Burger King and it's produced by Burger King, you know it's going to make the Whopper look good ... so, "Wives" is likely carefully managed, if not downright promotional), HBO's "In Treatment" season two (is clinical depression a prerequisite for watching?).
??: MTV's "How's Your News?" People with disabilities doing man-on-the-street interviews ... you're not sure whether you're meant to laugh with the interviewers, or at them, and that feeling starts with the grammatically shifty title. There's some uncomfortable Howard Stern-ambush qualities here, wrapped in a well-intentioned (one hopes) premise. Producers Trey Parker and Matt Stone walk this line often with disabled characters on "South Park," but this isn't fiction. Stone said he shared this concern -- how will this show be viewed? -- and it's one reason he thought the project was better suited for MTV than Comedy Central. "We weren't concerned about being associated with them," said Stone referring to the show's interviewers, "we were concerned about them being associated with us." A clip from a previous stint from the "How's Your News" team (not from the upcoming series) below.
CABLE TCA TRAILERS:
The Beast:
Taking Chance
Demetri Martin standup:
Jockeys
How's Your News:
Krod Mandoon:
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