Summer TV is now in full swing, with plenty of new offerings and some returning favorites. As the resident “you watch too much TV” guy, I’ve decided to entertain the idea of weekly reviews (after my failed attempt at a podcast) of everything television has to be offering over the Summer. This week, I’ll be covering ‘Ballers’, ‘True Detective’, ‘Halt and Catch Fire’, and ‘Mr. Robot’. I’ll be switching it up as new shows premiere, or as new ones gets my attention.
Ballers: S1E1 a “Pilot”
At face value, Ballers might seem like the love child between Entourage and Arli$$, but has more potential to takes us a little deeper than the aforementioned series, and bring something far more to the table. The pilot served mainly as a introduction to the characters, their faults, and the struggles within the life of being a NFL star, current or former. Spencer Strasmore (Dwayne Johnson) is a former NFL player who had to retire early due to injury, who has been hired by Jim (Rob Corddry) as a financial manager at a top Miami financial firm. Jim openly admits that the only reason he hired Spencer was due to his access to his NFL friends, whom he sees as potential clientele. Overall, I enjoyed the pilot and I’m hoping for an even stronger second episode, maybe brining a sense of overall plot of the series so it can (hopefully) break away from any of the Entourage comparisons and be its own show.
Grade: C+
True Detective: S2E1 – “The Western Book of the Dead”
The second installment of this anthology is here and boy does it have big steps to follow. This season, the story follows three officers portrayed by Rachel McAdams, Colin Farrell, Taylor Kitsch, and a crime boss played by Vince Vaughn. I admit I had to re-watch the first half of the episode because I was so lost and confused at what was happening. The first episode plays out in mini story lines of each character and at the end there is a murder that will bind them all together. Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve learned about each character so far.
Ani Bezzerides (McAdams) is into presumably weird sex play, weird enough to throw off her friends with benefits. Her father comes off as a hippie cult leader, her sister is moonlighting as a cam-girl. Let’s just say that she’s got some serious family issues.
Ray Velcoro (Farrell) is a broken man trying to get custody of his son (who may not be his since the mother was raped 9 months before the kid was born), hates bullies and has a SERIOUS drinking problem.
Paul Woodrugh (Kitsch) has been accused of soliciting a BJ in exchange for not arresting a movie star, has a dark past that has left him literally scarred, and is probably suicidal exhibited by driving down the highway with the lights off going over 100mph.
Frank Semyon (Vaughn) is the crime boss with a “heart of gold”, lets see how long that lasts. Frank and Ray have a history together, and Ray is somewhat of a muscle man for him now.
I really think that we are going to get something different this season and its going to be great. I know last season i found myself caught up with the hidden meanings of the show and playing the “whodunnit” game. I will try not to get caught up with that this season.
Grade: B
Halt and Catch Fire: S2E4 – “Play With Friends”
Mutiny is still in disarray after the latest of Gordon’s blunders. They have to cut games and offer stocks instead of a paychecks resulting in fan favorite, YO-YO, leaving the company. The the riff between Cameron and Donna gets wider after Cameron decides to scrap the online chat feature. Donna pleads with her to at least try it before she makes her final decision and after some reluctance, shoe does. Big mistake. Cameron decides to chat with one of the programmers about Donna and her marriage and kids, inadvertently sends the message to everyone, including Donna.
John is kicking ass and taking names! This guy is rising up from the ashes of his former life that has been burned along with the truck full of the Giant computers. Deciding he wants to feel useful and not fade away he decides to take on a role at Mutiny, going over their business plans and buy trying to regain the lost “White Whale” users with his southern charm.
Joe makes a power move at his new job, trying to configure servers for 24 hour access against the wishes of his employers (and without their consent). He manages to blackmail Gordon into doing it and in the same note Gordon decides to blackmail him back by setting up Mutiny with a sweetheart deal to host their games on the said servers. In reality Gordon is feeling useless and bored, he needs this to occupy his time and to feel need and important again. One thing for sure is that Gordon has put Mutiny in a collision course with Joe McMillian and his harebrained scheme, will it work out for them this time? Probably not.
After a long day of ups and downs and the ladies reconciling, Cameron decides to finally blow off some steam and join in the Mutiny dart gun fights, which sets in motion a revolutionary new idea. Cameron and her new beau come up with the blueprints for a whole new online gaming platform, first person shooters. Along with the beginnings of a massive online chatting platform, Mutiny seems to be headed down the right track. Side note, during the inspirational dart gun fight, one of Mutiny’s guys lets out a Wilhelm scream when he gets shot. I almost lost it.
Unfortunately it seems the number of viewers for this show is really low. Lee Pace might be a part of a new “brilliant but cancelled” tv show if the numbers keep up this way. Here’s hoping for some better DVR and App viewing numbers.
Grade: B+
Mr. Robot: S1E1 – “eps1.0_hellofriend.mov”
For whatever reason, I’m not much of a fan of USA Network shows, with the exception being Monday Night Raw (which is not a show they produce). That being said, the ads for Mr. Robot kept intriguing me and I decided to watch the pilot. I’m sure glad I did, as I thoroughly enjoyed the show and the nuance of the main character Elliot (Rami Malek).
Elliot works as a cyber security technician for a tech, who also moonlights as a vigilante hacker. In the beginning we See Elliot track down the owner of an unassuming coffee shop with unusually high and top of the line internet bandwidth. After some digging around, he exposes him for the runner of an internet child pornography site and has taken control of his servers and locked him out of his own system. It leads you to believe that hes trying to extort money from the owner but in reality he was trying to stall time for the police to show and not give him time to try and shut it down. A taste of Elliot’s prowess over computers and his psyche on taking down those that do wrong. This leaves him conflicted when he has to do work for the E (-vil) Corp stopping a massive attack on their systems, where he uncovers a message left for him to do the “right thing”. After trying to track the group, he’s approached by a homeless Christian Slater who ends up being the leader of the hacker group. Mr. Robot lays out the plan to him, set up the CEO as the person being the attack and topple all their systems.
Grade: B
What have you enjoyed watching thus far this Summer? What are you still looking forward to? Sound out below!