TV News: Well, that was fast. Just a few days after airing Episode 2, in a brand new time slot, CBS has picked up Matlock for Season 2, further signifying how successful this buzzy reimagining has been.Hopefully the strength of Matlock will help keep Elzabeth afloat as well.
TV Shows Watched: Solar Opposites: S5E12 (Hulu) with audio description, What We Do In The Shadows: S6E1 (Hulu) with audio description, Papa’s House: S1E1 (Paramount plus) with audio description, 911 Lone Star: S5E5 (Hulu) no audio description, Hysteria: S1E4 (Peacock) with audio description, krapapolis: S2E3 (Hulu) no audio description, Only Murders in the Building: S4E9 (Hulu) with audio description
Podcasts: The NPR Politics Podcast (Politics), and the John Campia Show (Movie News)
YouTube: The Oscar Expert (October Predictions: Supporting Acting Categories)
Movies Watched: The terminal (Netflix) with audio description
I guess today, I’ll mention Papa’s House, the new CBS sitcom starring Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr. While I can break down some of the problems I had with the pilot, of the three new sitcoms (4 if you count FOX’s new Universal Basic Guys), this is my favorite so far, and has the greatest shot at me actually watching it long term. The leads are doing exactly what you’d expect, and have natural chemistry.I feel like even when the script doesn’t work, they find a way to at least make it not so clunky, and unlike the George and Mandy spinoff, these two know they are in a multi-cam and it isn’t disorienting.
The weaknesses are that even though children are mentioned, none appear in the pilot. It’s like they shot a pilot, and figured if they got picked up to series, they would add the kids. It would be such a missed opportunity to not have three generations of men in a show where two of them are related in real life. We need kids in this show, which is something I rarely ever say. Papa’s producer seems not right for a hip-hop oriented radio show, and seems like a forced token LGBT character who is going to be more of a punchline than an actual character, sop I’m not feeling great about that. Also, while I’m not opposed to the general concept of forcing Papa to have a female voice in the room as the hook, does it have to be this female voice? she’s clearly wrong in every way, and for a show likely very much about culture, she’s not giving any sense she has any knowledge of that. She basically just criticizes him for being misogynistic, but you can do that, and also have a solid female character who surprises him with her understanding of what his show is about instead of feeling so out of place. Fish out of water doesn’t always work, sometimes you do actually have to make it make sense. I’m not going to suddenly show up as the new co-host of The Breakfast Club, so why is she here?
As far as the audio description, I’ve mentioned before (due to the myriad of shows with white leads), that often there’s a defaulting where only the non-white characters are mentioned. A lot of shows with diverse casts, or black ensembles are really providing a much more in depth description of the characters, not just racially defining, but also still offering the usual remarks about clothes, hairstyles, etc. It just feels more like a well rounded experience. Papa’s House dodges all of that, almost like they don’t want this to be about race in any way. Is his new co-host white? Who knows. Should it matter? Again, I just don’t think there are things where people are going to ask me for my opinion on, so while we only get like 24 minutes to learn about a handful of people, I’m getting the impression this girl is not right for this show. And very likely, neither is his producer. And, the audio description also decided since these’d characters were brand new, we should wait a lifetime to learn their name. So they kept referring to Wayans Jr as the tall man,n and Wayans St was older man I believe. This is where throwing that book out the window makes sense, because I’m not sure I have ever spoken to either of my parents using their first name, so theoretically this show could go on for seasons if no one ever used Wayan’s Sr’s name, and just kept calling him Papa or Dad. Like it was some clandestine secret. It’s not, it just happens to be how people talk to each other. Using names for the leads of a sitcom helps us in place of facial recognition. Imagine the insanity of listening to a long-running series that never uses anyone’s name, and you’re trying to go just based on these descriptions. It would be utter insanity. At some point, we have to acknowledge, that even in a show like that, if these characters have credited names, and it isn’t a spoiler, why are we actively making it harder? There’s no twist reveal in either of their names, like they are playing themselves or something. Make it make sense. Not my favorite approach, but honestly, none of the new sitcoms made any effort to define any of the ethnic backgrounds of any of the characters, its just that the others did use names and didn’t keep it a mystery for longer than necessary.