‘Community’ – watching and hoping

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Community

“Community” has always been an offbeat sitcom. It’s kind of hard to imagine that the Dan Harmon creation ever got on the air.

Ostensibly the antics of a wacky and diverse bunch of adults attending classes at a community college, the show – which had its fourth-season premiere Thursday – quickly took off on its own path.

With its self-absorbed and sometimes even hard-to-take characters, its odd stories and its completely off-kilter style – an entire Christmas episode in Claymation-style animation? Another mostly depicted in old video-game style graphics? One that takes its cues from a “Law and Order” episode? – “Community” is one of those shows that inspires either absolute fanhood or absolute irritation.

You don’t have to be a fan of the show, in other words – but it helps.

Over the course of the first three seasons, Harmon and cast created some truly classic episodes, including the first-season-ending paintball war that exploded action movie cliches; the most high-stakes and heartfelt game of Dungeons & Dragons ever; an epic blanket fort; the machinations of the evil heating and air conditioning wing of the school; the characters exploring various timelines, including the darkest, complete with “Evil Spock” goatees; the highlights go on and on.

There’s no question that “Community” is unique in TV history.

Harmon was, by some accounts, a “difficult” personality and clashed with Chevy Chase, who by almost every account was as big an ass on the set as was his character.

So Harmon got fired from his own show before this fourth season began.

I watched the season opener and liked it pretty well. The story’s conceit – that mentally fragile Abed (Danny Pudi), confronted by the likelihood that their community college careers were coming to an end, retreated into a world that played out in a standard sitcom format where the characters were simpler, the laugh track made everything seem easier and Fred Willard played Chase’s role – seemed like vintage “Community.”

But something about the show seemed … off.

I’ll still be watching “Community.” I’ll have my fingers crossed that the low-rated show gets a full season – although I can’t imagine it will achieve the Twitter hashtag #sixseasonsandamovie goal – and that the show won’t wither without Harmon.

I’m hoping for a good timeline, in other words.

Movie crush: Michelle Carey

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michelle carey 2

Upon having seen Michelle Carey in her movie debut, “El Dorado,” the 1966 John Wayne western, who could forget her?

As Joey, younger sister to the MacDonald brothers, Carey proved she could ride and shoot with the big boys. Heck, she even shoots the Duke himself when she mistakenly believes he’s out to harm her family.

michelle carey

Decked out in buckskin, her golden hair tousled under a misshapen cowgirl hat, Carey was a sight to see.

Before making “El Dorado,” Carey appeared in a couple of TV series, including “The Man from UNCLE” and “Burke’s Law.” Afterward, she appeared in “The Wild, Wild West” and “The Name of the Game.”

She might have found her biggest audience as Bernice in “Live a Little, Love a Little,” the 1968 Elvis movie in which the King played a race car driver named Rick. Wait, that was every other Elvis movie. In this one, Elvis played a photographer named Greg.

Carey worked into the 1970s and 1980s, guest-starring in TV shows like “The Fall Guy.”

Reminder of our mortality: Carey is now 69 years old.

Here’s to that wild, wild siren, Michelle Carey.

‘The Americans’ heats up the Cold War

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fx the americans

Watching “The Americans,” the new spy thriller on FX, really impressed upon me just how much time has passed since the time of the show’s early 1980s setting.

The Cold War grew stone cold not many years later. Ronald Reagan, remembered as Kindly Old Grandpa President by many now, is referred to – albeit by a KGB agent – as a “mad man.”

As a matter of fact, the early 1980s setting of “The Americans” seems more remote to us today than the early 1960s setting of some flashback scenes.

Nevertheless, creators Joe Weisberg and Graham Yost (“Justified”) have made “The Americans” feel fresh. Its “Spy vs. Spy” plot set within the United States has some kitsch value, sure. But the “who do you trust?” theme of the story is immediate.

Keri Russell – still “Felicity” for most of us, but maybe that will change after this show – and Matthew Rhys play Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings, a typical American couple with two school-age kids.

But Elizabeth and Phillip aren’t typical Americans at all. They’re Russian sleeper agents, sent to the U.S. in the early 1960s to … well, I guess they do what sleeper agents do. They establish identities, settle in and raise kids and … wait for a chance to foment rebellion from within? Maybe.

As the premiere opens, Elizabeth is seducing a federal agent to learn some secrets and Phillip is on a mission with a fellow spy. Things go bad and the comrade is wounded, but Phillip captures Russian defector Timachev.

Elizabeth – who is a stone-cold bad ass – finds herself in a tough situation. The Jennings are supposed to keep Timachev safe until he can be turned over to the mother country. But only Elizabeth knows that Timachev brutally raped her when she was just a cadet back in Russia.

Meanwhile, Phillip is – after nearly 20 years – having second thoughts about their mission. He’s seriously considering defecting and setting up a new life for him, Elizabeth and their kids.

There’s a realistic amount of tension between Elizabeth and Phillip, some good action and some good drama involving FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) who lives across the street.

Will Beeman discover their secret? I imagine some future episodes will revolve around this question.

If you’re okay with the premise – we’re rooting for people who were working against the United States at the time – you will probably enjoy “The Americans.”

Random observations:

If one scene in particular jumped out at all of you other aging TV fans, it was no doubt one late in the first episode. Elizabeth and Phillip are driving around after putting the finishing touches on a mission and Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” is the mood music on the soundtrack. Of course, the song was used in the premiere of “Miami Vice” back in 1984.

There’s a couple of nice musical touches in the show, including the use of Quarterflash’s “Harden My Heart” in the opening moments, when Elizabeth seduces – pretty overtly – a federal agent to get his secrets.

So far, “The Americans” hasn’t gone overboard on the period touches. Russell rocks some high-waisted jeans and has Breck girl hair by the yard, but there’s not a lot of gratuitous pop culture references to set the story in its time. In other words, there’s no moments like in the 1980s-set “The Wedding Singer,” which featured a scene of Adam Sandler yelling from another room, “Come in and check this out. I think somebody just shot J.R.!”

RIP Robin Sachs of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’

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ethan buffy the vampire slayer

Here’s sad news.

Robin Sachs, the wonderfully clever Brit who played the recurring role of chaos worshipper Ethan Rayne on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” has died at age 61.

Sachs was also unrecognizable under heavy makeup as the alien baddie in “Galaxy Quest.”

Sachs was memorable in a half-dozen episodes of “Buffy” as Ethan, old friend and antagonist of Giles.

Sachs debuted as Ethan in the early episode “Halloween” as the costume shop owner, then returned in the great “Band Candy” episode and others.

He had a scene that some of us still quote. After Giles checks a crypt for suspicious characters, then leaves, Ethan pops out of the darkness with a typical movie/TV cliche, “Oh yes, old friend. Search all you want …” or something like that.

But in typical Joss Whedon fashion, Giles hears Ethan’s voice and bursts back in, prompting Ethan to yell, “Oh bugger!”

Sachs brought a sinister yet comic aura to every appearance. We’ll miss him.

 

Geektastic: The Force is with us

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return-of-the-jedi-vader-and-luke

I’ve lost track of the rumors and likely developments coming, fast and furious, at geeks and genre fans this week.

Rumors that Marvel is planning to base a lot of its Phase Three movies – following the “Avengers” sequel, a group of films to include “Ant-Man” and possibly “Dr. Strange” – on a multi-movie adaptation of the “Planet Hulk” and “World War Hulk” comics.

Reports that Chris Pratt, the goofy guy from TV’s “Parks and Recreation” and one of the Seals from “Zero Dark Thirty,” would play Peter, the human lead of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” one of Marvel’s Phase Two tentpoles.

The announcement by Disney’s Robert Iger that, in addition to making the three “Star Wars” sequels, the studio would make stand-alone stories in the “Star Wars” universe. A Yoda movies? A Boba Fett movie? Does it sound like Disney is following the game plan established by its Marvel subsidiary?

And heck, all that’s in addition to the line-up of movies already coming out this year, from “Iron Man 3” to “Star Trek Into Darkness” to “Thor: The Dark World.”

My son doesn’t remember a time when each year wasn’t a non-stop parade of science fiction, fantasy and comic book characters on the big screen. When you couldn’t pick up a magazine and see Iron Man looking back at you from the cover.

But I remember.

So it’s a pretty damn cool time to be us, huh?

Five coolest superhero movie moments

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nick fury iron man tag

Maybe it was Superman besting Lex Luthor’s nuclear missiles by turning the world backward on its axis. Maybe it was Spider-Man swinging over the NYC skyline for the first time. Heck, maybe it was a Robert Downey Jr. quip.

We all know them when we see them: Those moments in big-screen adaptations of superhero comics that made you get goosebumps, that made you pump your fist and shout “Yes!” right there in the theater.

Here’s a personal, subjective list of my five favorite superhero movie moments. And yes, this short list is heavy on “Iron Man” and Marvel movies. Maybe a follow-up installment will spread the love around a bit.

Superman’s first flight. The 1978 “Superman” reaches a several-minute-long high point during the sequence when Superman takes on bad guys and even rescues a kitten from a tree on his first night in Metropolis. But the single coolest moment? When, at the end of years of training, Christopher Reeve, in the classic Superman suit for the first time, flies from a distant point in the Fortress of Solitude toward the camera.

iron man suitcase armor

The suitcase suit. “Iron Man 2” was lacking in a lot of ways, but the appearance of the suitcase suit – a staple of the classic “Iron Man” comics – was a highlight.

Iron Man vs. thugs. When Tony Stark finds out his weapons are being used by marauding terrorists in “Iron Man,” he suits up and engages in some wish fulfillment fantasy. Who hasn’t wanted to fly over to a foreign country and take out some oppressors?

The tracking shot in “The Avengers.” There’s no denying the power of the moment in “The Avengers” when the team assembles, backs to each other, in a circle, ready to face the menace of Loki’s army. That’s the single most powerful visual shot in the movie. But for my fanboy money, the coolest sequence in the movie is Joss Whedon’s long tracking shot as his camera follows Iron Man through the concrete canyons, capturing one Avenger after another battling the Chitauri.

Nick Fury. Nick Fury! The modern age of comic book movies began at the end of 2008’s “Iron Man” when Tony Stark comes home to find Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, director of SHIELD, in his house. Fury says he’s there to talk to him about … the Avengers Initiative!

Woo-hoo!

Jack Kirby and the ‘Argo’ connection

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kirby lord of light art

I didn’t want to get too far away from the subject of “Argo” without mentioning the connection between the movie and comic book legend Jack Kirby, the artist who, along with Stan Lee, created some of the greatest Marvel Comics characters of all time, including The Fantastic Four and many members of The Avengers.

In the movie, the group of Hollywood operatives and government agents trying to free a half-dozen Americans in hiding in Iran in 1979 pretend they’re mounting a Hollywood film production. Storyboards of their make-believe science fiction spectacular, “Argo,” are shown several times and help “sell” the story to the Iranian military at the movie’s airport climax.

lord of light street

I believe a “Wired” story was the first to note that when the real-life figures working to free the Americans needed artwork to help make the film production more convincing, they used concept drawings Kirby had created for a movie and theme park based on Roger Zelazny’s “Lord of Light” book.

In the story told in the movie, the conspirators knew there was no “Argo” movie. In real life, Kirby and makeup artist John Chambers and other producers hoped to get “Lord of Light” in production and even hoped to turn it into a Denver-area theme park.

It was not to be.

kirby-at-the-drawing-board

I’m guessing that Kirby, who died in 1994, would have been pleased that the role  his drawings played in espionage history figured into the movie.

I’m also guessing that he would be irritated, though, that not only were his drawings not used but little acknowledgement of him was made.

Although: IMDB lists the cast and notes that Michael Parks – seen in the movie submitting the drawings used in the plot – plays Jack Kirby. I honestly didn’t notice Kirby’s name in the end credits. Anyone else know if Kirby is named on screen in the credits?

At any rate, Kirby and the “Argo” connection is  a nice little bit of Hollywood lore.

Oscar catch-up: ‘Argo’

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argo

“Argo” is like the best episode of “Mission: Impossible” ever filmed.

I swear I’m not disrespecting the Best Picture Oscar-nominated film, it’s based-on-a-true-story subject matter or its director and star, Ben Affleck.

But I had a real sense of deja vu while watching this smart and tense thriller of old episodes of the TV series, in which a covert operative would organize a team to pull off a mission in a foreign country. There would be assumed identities, disguises, bluffs, a trial run that went badly and a final gambit that looked to be falling apart before everything came out okay.

In “Argo,” Affleck plays a CIA agent who comes up with a daring plan: When the American embassy in Iran falls to militants in 1979, most of the staff is captured and held for more than 400 days.

But a half-dozen staff members get out and are hidden in the house of the Canadian ambassador (Victor Garber). Affleck goes in, posing as a Hollywood moviemaker scouting locations in Iran for a big-budget science fiction movie called “Argo.”

Before Affleck gets there, the CIA recruits two old Hollywood hands – the Oscar-winning makeup artist behind “Planet of the Apes,” John Chambers (John Goodman), and wry producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) – to make the movie look real. They put together a script, storyboards, cast performers and even stage publicity for “Argo.”

It all pays off in the end, as Affleck sneaks the embassy workers out of the country after convincing the Iranian military they’re only been in Iran for a couple of days to scout locations.

As enjoyable as the set-up, poking fun at Hollywood, is, the scenes set in Iran are tense and nervous-making. We know the outcome but we’re still absorbed.

Affleck and the actors playing the embassy workers do a good job, as does Garber as the brave Canadian politician.

Standout roles go to Goodman and Arkin, however. I just wish we got to see more of them.

A few random observations:

As a longtime movie fan, I would have loved to have seen more from the world of Goodman and Arkin’s characters. A prequel or sequel maybe? I’m serious. I would go to a movie watching these guys move through the fringes of Hollywood circles.

The movie does a great job of recreating 1979. Seriously, I forgot how damn big eyeglasses were back then. And the smoking – people smoke everywhere, including airplanes.

A lot of people talk about how many current movies are too long. At right around two hours. “Argo” feels too short, almost hurried. We were at the airport and the climactic moments almost before I knew it.

There’s been some talk that Affleck was “robbed” of an Oscar nomination and is seeing some cinema justice with other awards. He probably deserved a director’s nod.

There’s no comparison between this movie and another based-on-true-events spy thriller, “Zero Dark Thirty.” “Argo” is much more accessible, more crowd-pleasing and less morally ambiguous. I think I liked “Zero Dark Thirty” better, though.

Classic TV: ‘Dark Skies’

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dark skies cast w walsh

As much as I liked “Last Resort” and “Threshold” and “Firefly” and other TV series, I knew better than to give my heart fully to them.

“Dark Skies” taught me that lesson.

“Dark Skies” was an episodic sci-fi TV series that ran on NBC for only about a dozen and a half episodes in 1996 and 1997. Created by Brent Friedman and Bryce Zabel, the series was an ambitious one: Inspired by the hit conspiracy show “The X-Files,” Friedman and Zabel created a decades-spanning series about an alien invasion of Earth, the conspiracy to cover it up and the few people who sought to blow the lid off the whole mess.

And, oh yeah, along the way, the good guys and bad guys run across the most pivotal figures of the time, from John F. Kennedy to The Beatles to Jim Morrison to J. Edgar Hoover.

Heroes Eric Close and Megan Ward not only sought to expose the invasion but stay away from murderous conspirators with shadowy connections.

And bonus: Late, great character actor J.T. Walsh played a military man mixed up in the conspiracy.

darkskies

The show’s creators had an ambitious plan that would have taken their story from the early 1960s to 2001, with each of five seasons covering a different decade.

It was a bold plan considering the follies of network TV, where shows are mercilessly canceled when they fail to garner sufficient ratings. “Dark Skies” was canceled when not enough people tuned in.

The show’s first and only season had some highlights, however:

With JFK in their  corner, it was only a matter of time until the charismatic president was assassinated. The third episode did a nice job with the tragic development.

The fifth episode, “Dark Days Night,” was set against the backdrop of The Beatles appearing on Ed Sullivan’s show. The aliens planned to send a sinister signal out over the airwaves during the broadcast.

“We Shall Overcome” reunited Close’s character with a former colleague from the government set during civil rights unrest in Mississippi.

What other series featured Robert Kennedy as a recurring character and spotlighted a diverse bunch of figures including and Jack Ruby, Carl Sagan and Hubert Humphrey?

Cool new ‘Iron Man 3’ poster

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new iron man 3 poster

Not much needs to be said here, except this new “Iron Man 3” poster is pretty cool.

And it looks more like an image from the comics than from a Hollywood movie.

The movie opens May 3.