Posts Tagged ‘American Horror Story’

Boobs really ARE the answer; a look back at TV trends in 2012

- December 23rd, 2012

lena dunham emmys

In his opening monologue at the Emmy Awards in September, host Jimmy Kimmel noted that cable networks accounted for all the shows in the outstanding drama category in 2012.

“The Academy is sending a clear message,” Kimmel said. “And that message is, ‘Show us your boobs.’ ”

That’s Lena Dunham of Girls in the above picture, by the way, taking Kimmel’s advice to heart – or is it having her cake and eating it, too? – in the opening bit that kicked off the Emmys.

True enough, boobs are the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems, to paraphrase Homer Simpson (he was talking about alcohol). But it actually is more complicated when it comes to TV.

The calendar year 2012 continued the trend of viewers peeling off to specialty programming and specialty channels, as the big broadcast networks try to figure out where they fit in the future of television.

The past year also saw a significant increase in the amount of internet-first “TV” programming, through services such as Netflix and the like.

Genre-wise, there has been a notable push in the past year toward fantasy, at least when it comes to drama. Shows such as Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Once Upon a Time and American Horror Story remind us that when real life gets boring, we always can make something up.

Isn’t it strange that in some ways we now expect our comedies to be more grounded than our dramas? When an alien-based sitcom like The Neighbors comes along, many people turn up their noses because it’s too “ridiculous.” But some of those same people happily will watch Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead and think, “Wow, great art.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just amusing when you think of it that way.

So looking back at TV in 2012, we’ll remember zombies and dwarves, good wives and mad men, drug dealers and high-class schemers, butlers and bootleggers.

And boobs. Lots and lots of boobs.

bill.harris@sunmedia.ca

@billharris_tv

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The Voice: My embarrassing personal awakening

- December 16th, 2012

Christina Aguilera 4

Judge not lest you be judged? Hardly.

Perhaps the best way to gauge what reality-competition television shows do for the careers of their hosts is to analyze it on a really personal level.

The hottest reality-competition series right now is The Voice (NBC, CTV), and I’ll be 100%, embarrassingly honest about it.

The background: I’m a big music person historically, but because my job focus these days is TV rather than music, my musical world is limited to the music I prefer – like any average fan – rather than keeping up on the entire industry. So …

1) I had never heard of Blake Shelton before he was a judge on The Voice. Recently during the Grammy Nominations Concert Live broadcast (CBS, Global), Shelton got nominated for something, and I was like, “Hey, the guy from The Voice.”

2) While I had heard of the band Maroon 5, I did not know Adam Levine’s name, and I could not have picked him out of a police lineup before he was a judge on The Voice. Now, when I see him performing, as I did on the Grammy noms show, or in a recurring role on American Horror Story: Asylum (FX Canada), I think, “Hey, it’s that Moves Like Jagger guy from The Voice.”

3) I vaguely was aware of Ce Lo Green before The Voice, but I initially thought his performing name was Gnarls Barkley. Turns out that was a musical duo, of which Green was one-half (the shorter half, I presume). But I knew the 2006 song Crazy, which was everywhere.

4) Of course, I was well aware of Christina Aguilera (pictured above) long before The Voice. But admittedly, that had more to do with her, um, “assets” than her music. To this day, I don’t think I could name one of her songs. Nothing against her, it’s just not my genre.

The wider point being, with the music business essentially in the toilet, there is definite value for Shelton, Levine, Green and Aguilera – and their cohorts on other reality shows – to appear on these projects, at least for a year or two.

It keeps their names “out there.”

There isn’t a direct impact on CDs any more, with sales of actual physical CDs dwindling every day. But when you’re talking about touring, or appearances on other TV shows or in movies, either as themselves or as actors, any added “face time” with the public provides a leg up on the competition for a piece of an ever-shrinking pie.

Being on a high-profile reality show sends the message that you’re “relevant” – not necessarily to people who keenly follow modern music, but more to the vast majority of the population that follows music only casually or peripherally.

You know, people like me.

I know who Blake Shelton and Adam Levine and Ce Lo Green are now. And Christina Aguilera, you just keep doin’ whatever it is you do.

bill.harris@sunmedia.ca

@billharris_tv

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Jessica Lange doesn’t think her American Horror Story characters are creepy. Huh?

- December 7th, 2012

FX-AHS-Jessica-Gallery1170_F10

In a conference call with American Horror Story’s Jessica Lange today, I asked her if she could recall the “a-ha moment” when she realized she could play creepy really, really well.

“I don’t think of any of my characters as creepy,” Lange said.

Say what?

“They might be misguided. They might be crazy. But definitely not creepy.”

Lange, of course, currently is playing Sister Jude in the second season of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, the full title of which is American Horror Story: Asylum (FX, FX Canada).

In season one, which told an entirely different self-contained story, Lange played – I’m sorry, Jessica, it’s true – a creepy neighbour named Constance. Lange also will be back for season three, whatever that might entail.

“There’s nothing that appeals to me more than playing madness,” Lange continued. “And that I do know how to dip into. But that’s quite different than creepy.

“I’m sorry,” Lange added with a chuckle. “I don’t find anything creepy about these characters.”

Uh, you really need to go back and watch them, Jessica Lange.

bill.harris@sunmedia.ca

@billharris_tv

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Sarah Paulson seeks “Asylum” from cop procedurals in American Horror Story

- November 16th, 2012

Sarah Paulson - cover

As one of the main characters in American Horror Story, Sarah Paulson is about as far away from a police procedural as an actress can get.

“I’ve very grateful I’m not walking around a police department saying, ‘Hey, the perp escaped,’ ” Paulson said.

“Not that those shows aren’t great in their own way. But for me as an actress, they’re not stimulating in the same way. I love watching them, but doing them, I don’t know if that would be fulfilling.

“With this – because it’s Ryan (Murphy, creator) – I’m not just playing your typical television woman.”

There’s nothing typical about American Horror Story, which airs Wednesday nights on FX Canada. In season two – the full title of which is American Horror Story: Asylum – Paulson plays Lana Winters, a newspaper reporter in 1964 for whom things have gone horribly wrong. (SPOILER ALERT: Plot points are about to be discussed.)

If you’ve been watching, you know that Lana has been held against her will at a mental-health facility for the criminally insane, run by Sister Jude (Jessica Lange). Lana’s “official” crime was being a lesbian – it’s 1964, remember – but it actually was her desire to snoop around the institution that put her in harm’s way.

And now Lana is being held against her will again, a victim of the duplicitous Dr. Thredson (Zachary Quinto).

“There’s nothing more terrifying than a person being held somewhere against their will, having done absolutely nothing wrong,” said Paulson, who earlier this year was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role in the HBO made-for-TV movie Game Change.

“To me, that’s the terror of this season (of American Horror Story). There’s nothing they can do, because one person has all the power.

“There was a time in this country when that was the reality of these institutions. But I’m not saying all of them were run by sadistic nuns.”

Of course, American Horror Story has tossed just about anything it can get its hands on into the mix this season, from exorcisms to aliens and everything in between. It’s that combination of realism and the possibility of other worlds and other existences that keeps viewers simultaneously intrigued and, to be blunt, uncomfortable.

Season one of American Horror Story – in which Paulson played a psychic – largely was about ghosts. But as Paulson astutely pointed out, the basic setup allowed viewers an “out” if they were looking for one, because they could say, “Sure, this is scary, but I don’t believe in ghosts.”

In season two, however, even if you don’t believe in spaceships or possessed souls, you still can accept and lament Lana’s life-threatening predicament. (My initial review when season two debuted can be found here.)

You know the old cliche that “anything can happen?” Well, this is one of the few shows for which it literally is true.

And even better, Sarah Paulson doesn’t have to respond to, “Detective, get in here!” For her, that might be the scariest plot of all.

“Exactly, although that may be in my future someday,” Paulson said. “But I’m grateful it’s not what I’m doing right now.

“You know, I got to start (this season) in those great ’60s outfits, and by the time it’s over, it’s going to be a whole other situation.

“The great thing I can say with confidence is, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Gulp.

bill.harris@sunmedia.ca

@billharris_tv

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Ellen Barkin burrows into the (Archie) Bunker on The New Normal

- September 5th, 2012

Cast of The New Normal

Archie Bunker was not a stereotype, according to Ellen Barkin. And she is insistent that her character on The New Normal won’t be one, either.

“At the end of the day, Archie Bunker was a humane person,” said Barkin (pictured above, far right, with her cast-mates on The New Normal). “He was afraid of the other, and as you watched (All in The Family) progress, you saw why he was afraid and he became a very complicated character.

“I think all of our characters (on The New Normal) are complicated and deep. None of these characters are dummies, so that’s where a stereotype comes in for me.”

The New Normal, which premieres Tuesday, Sept. 11 on NBC and CTV (preview on Monday, Sept. 10) , is a big-buzz sitcom that comes from the creative mind of Ryan Murphy, whose previous series include Nip/Tuck, Glee and American Horror Story. So no real pattern there.

The setup is that Bryan (played by Andrew Rannells) and David (Justin Bartha) are a gay couple in Los Angeles and they want to have a baby. Goldie (Georgia King) is a Midwestern waitress and single mother looking to escape her dead-end life and her big-personality grandmother known as Nana (Barkin). You can see where this is going.

Broke but fertile, Goldie bolts to California and becomes a surrogate mother for Bryan and David. But eventually Goldie is tracked down by Nana, who has some strong opinions on what’s occurring.

“It’s not going to be a stereotypical representation of some un-P.C., uninformed lunatic,” said Barkin, a former Emmy and Tony award winner. “This woman (Nana) is passionate about her beliefs. That passion comes from her own life experience. It comes from fear.

“She is informed. Now, whether or not she’s misinformed by the media that she’s surrounded by, you’ll see. But the point is, she’s not someone who doesn’t read and she’s in no way an ignorant bigot. I take great offence at that.

“She’s very articulate. Whether she’s right or wrong, my job as an actor is not to judge her. My job is to put myself in her shoes and find the truth in this woman, and I’m finding it easy to do that.”

Easy in what way? Barkin’s personal politics couldn’t be further removed from her character’s, after all.

“The way I’m doing it, if that’s interesting at all, since I think my own personal politics are pretty clear, is by just flipping my own passion, and that’s not hard,” Barkin said.

“But this isn’t a stereotypical liberal’s version of someone who doesn’t agree with their positions. Like Ryan Murphy did, I would beg people not to judge this character until they get to know her, because they are going to be very surprised.”

Hey, Archie Bunker sure lasted a long time on TV, so if Ellen Barkin’s Nana can tap into any of that, well done.

“The appeal was great,” Barkin said. “I think any actor who wouldn’t be interested in bringing Archie Bunker types back into the conversation at this point in our history would need to have their head examined.”

bill.harris@sunmedia.ca

@billharris_tv

 

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