TV Recap: Betas

Not until Transparent won the Golden Globe for Best Television Comedy did Amazon ever warrant any attention for the original series it distributed through its Prime service. After a couple iterations of that pilot experiment they do, Betas was one of the first shows put to series along with Alpha House, which — and this may sound so stupid — was weird because Alpha and Beta.

Betas follows a five-person social networking startup in San Francisco. The app, itself, sets out to bring people that are glued to their phones and screens face to face, which okay, sure. The cofounders make a splash at a party at a VC's house and get a chance to work in his incubator. It's not as groundbreaking as Transparent, but it does what shows are supposed to do (and what few actually accomplish) — establish a world and offer characters viewers can feel invested in.

I can't remember the last time a show was set in San Francisco (never got into HBO's Looking), let alone filmed there. As much as there are easy stereotypes about how liberal the Bay Area is and that there are probably organic dog cafés or whatever (see recent episodes of The Mindy Project), the city is much more than that. San Francisco is incredibly diverse with different cultures, arts scenes, levels of income and sights to see. I can't say Betas focuses on the city but these elements are definitely present. It could have been interesting to see how the show dealt with the tech encroachment on those aspects of the city.

As far as the characters go, it's an accurate portrayal of the tech world, at least based on my experience. The employees of BRB are actual people and not just weirdos typing away on laptops. Hobbes (Jon Daly) is a slightly paranoid, divorceé in his late thirties in need for this latest startup to not end unfavorably. Mikki regularly pokes at her coworker's masculinities and deals with her irresponsible mother's antics. Mitchell takes Adderall and listens to rap music. Though they probably could have established that better because I'd rather never hear "cop the new Freddie Gibbs tape" again. They experience romance and anxiety and total confusion regarding the world they're in. Tech is what they do and while they are invested in this business, there's more to them than just that. As a software engineer at a startup, I must say I enjoyed that being depicted.

Ultimately there's only so many ways the main BRB storyline could have gone, and it might have been hard to stay invested in that plotline. The show's main character is also pretty annoying. A couple other issues: It seemed strange to establish a strong character like Lisa's (Tawny from Even Stevens) to have her then sleep with the main character by the second episode. I didn't really get all the stuff with the tech blogger — between this and Top Five, Hollywood clearly doesn't understand the journalism industry at all. Overall though, the show is funny. They jokes are dry and sarcastic, but there are plenty of them.

Oh, and Tyson Ritter, the lead singer of The All-American Rejects, is in the show. The fact that I recognized him is literally the most shameful moment I've had all year. But he does a nice job.

You can't discuss this show without bringing up HBO's Silicon Valley. Betas came first by about a year. Both shows showcase the different engineer stereotypes pretty well. Both include companies with absolutely awful names — BRB and Pied Piper. Silicon Valley is very much a comedy. The ridiculousness comes first in the same way it does for a show like Veep. What I appreciated about Betas was its more diverse and ethnically accurate cast. You don't see nearly any Indian and Asian representation on television. Sometimes you get one or the other but definitely not both at the same time. To have an openly gay character in Karan Soni's Nash was a very progressive moment for South Asians in TV and film.

Amazon didn't pick it up for a second season which is sort of unfortunate. I liked seeing these actors on screen together even if the show was ultimately a few notches above one you'd watch on USA. It probably wouldn't have lasted alongside Silicon Valley anyway.

Film School: The Interview, The Hobbit, Top Five

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
I really enjoyed Desolation of Smaug when I saw it in theaters. Then when I caught it randomly on cable earlier this year, it was hard for me to sit through. I wasn't exactly rushing to see this one. I get why they did three Hobbit movies, all at three hours long, to sort of parallel the LOTR trilogy, but this was just too much. It was clearly a stretch to make this movie as long as it was. The movie starts in the middle of the action, and the actual battle starts very quickly, but I just felt so detached from all the characters and I forgot who was who that it was hard to root for anyone. And considering it was a Hobbit movie, very little of it had to do with Bilbo. But you don't get a final Peter Jackson movie with an ending, another ending and then ten more minutes of nonsense.

The Interview
You know what? This wasn't that bad. I really didn't like Neighbors. I thought it was such a stupid movie and poorly directed and a waste of great talent. You'd think that would be the case for The Interview. The premise is something literally only Rogen and James Franco could get greenlit. But the first half of this movie is so great. The way Randall Park, who's awesome on Veep, portrays Kim Jong Un is kind of unbelievable. This is important for two reasons. One being Park is a tremendous actor, and I look forward to his new show Fresh Off The Boat. The other being that this is the highest profile casting of an Asian American actor in Hollywood this year, and there are people that probably assumed the part would be played as if it were a South Park character or Mickey Rooney in Breakfast At Tiffany's. There's something so human about the character, and I hope that doesn't go under appreciated. Of course, the second half of the movie rushes to finish, and even I can't believe I'm complaining about the logic of a James Franco movie, but there are some good laughs here.

Top Five
I wanted to really like this movie. If it wasn't for how the movie ended, I'm not sure I would admit to liking it at all. Chris Rock is a wonderful comic. He just isn't the greatest actor. While there are other things wrong with this movie, that stuck out the most to me. I like how the movie was directed. It was clearly influenced by Woody Allen with some Richard Linklater sprinkled in. The gag with Anders Holm was a little strange, and the middle third of the movie got a little too predictable. You've got to love all the cameos though. Seinfeld in the strip club was great.

Rounders
This has been sitting in my Netflix queue for some time now, solely for its cast. I had no idea what it was about, but when the idea of a sequel came up in some podcast I was listening to, I finally got around to watching it. I had some friends get really into poker my senior year of college. I thought they just liked the possibility of winning money, but they were scheduling weekly games, reading up on strategies, studying old world series of poker games — they were really into it. After watching this movie, I realize how stupid it was for me to ever play with people that take the game this seriously. This is a fantastic movie. I think being close to serious poker players (albeit total amateurs) made it that much more interesting. Great performances by not only Damon and Norton but John Malkovich and John Turturro. Not sure that Damon does a sequel at this point in his career, but I'm all for it.

Blue Ruin
Here's a movie I saw on a bunch of year end lists last year. It is a well done movie. I feel like I've seen different variations of the guy gets revenge story or at least the guy who shoots up a storm, but this had a pretty interesting take on the trope with a lead character that didn't know anything about guns or killing people. I'm honestly most proud of myself realizing that the old high school friend with the guns is played by the dude that played Buzz McCallister in the Home Alone movies.

A Trip To Italy
I watched The Trip completely on a whim. I had recently been put on to Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge projects and I didn't know anything about Rob Brydon. It was really great, like the Before Sunrise movies with two close friends that like to do Michael Caine impressions. A Trip To Italy is even better. They play fictional versions of themselves in a way that I wish could be done with American actors we love. More impressions, too.

In A World
I will always appreciate movies that depict odd little occupations and social scenes like this one did. There's a whole crowd of people that I'm sure totally relate to it, but for others it's fun just to discover what it's like. First time director Lake Bell does a fine job. I now officially don't connect her with that awful show How To Make It In America a.k.a Entourage for people that read rap blogs in 2009.

Jagged Edge - JE Heartbreak II

My earliest experiences listening to R&B have to with projects Jermaine Dupri was involved with. The first Jagged Edge song I heard was the "Where The Party At" remix on the Hardball soundtrack. Needless to say, I've been riding for JE for a while. Even as their career seemed to be winding down, Jagged Edge would come through with songs like "Good Luck Charm" and "Put A Little Umph In It." Those albums didn't make much noise, but that's how the game goes.

With all this said, I find it a huge cop out for older artists to complain about the state of R&B when they're really just mad they're not poppin' anymore. R&B is in a weird place. Every single needs a rap verse, and the genre as a whole doesn't seem to mean as much as it did even six or seven years ago when piracy was already a huge problem. But if you look at Billboard and radio, you'll see names like Jeremih, Miguel, Trey Songz, August Alsina, Drake, The Weeknd, Jhene Aiko. These are artists that — with rap features and without — have established themselves as new and relevant ambassadors of the genre, like them or not.

Jermaine Dupri is heavily involved with both the production on the album and its promotion. He, too, is on the we-must-save-R&B bandwagon. While there's no doubt Dupri is an amazing songwriting talent across multiple eras, he's had a quiet few recent years. Especially with Mariah's album flopping, he needs a win.

JE Heartbreak II is a logical step for both parties involved. Let's bring back R&B. Let's remind people what R&B really is. Let's make it a sequel and invoke as much nostalgia as we can. The songwriting is the main focus. It is focused on global topics – I see my "Future" in you; All I want to do is put her "Hope" back into a man. There's a crowd that probably appreciates this that'll cry, "This is it!" But great R&B isn't limited to slow love songs. In fact, the only criteria for truly great R&B are an inescapable melody and a groove. "Future" and "Hope" are fine, but "Things I Do For You" is it. You can try to prove to the world that "real R&B" is here to stay by making "Getting Over You" a single and including inspiring songs with no drums, or you can give the world songs like "Wanna Be" and "Ready."

The album is not only serviceable, it's pretty good. And there isn't much out like it. That in itself should be enough.

TV Recap: Marry Me, Black-ish, Mulaney

Black-ish
From the announcement of the show at the top of the year, nothing good seem to be coming from Black-ish. In retrospect, it's funny how a terrible name can make you second guess everything about a television show. Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross? On ABC? That's gonna crash and burn! My goodness, this is a terrific show. It's funny. It's topical. It puts people of color on primetime television. There's cute kids and funny parents. What more could you ask for? The best part of the show, I'll repeat, is that it is just plain funny. That's all you really want from a sitcom. Forget whether it's cable or network or single cam or multi-cam. The makers of this show pulled off something many of their contemporaries struggle to get even close to.

Marry Me
Having high hopes for a show based on its cast and creators can be dangerous. Happy Endings was amazing! Casey Wilson is awesome. Ken Marino has been great in so many things. Marry Me didn't take off quite like I had hoped. But it isn't bad. The pilot is a little too cute for its own good, but these later episodes seem like they're building towards something. The cast definitely isn't as strong as the one Happy Endings had, and I like how they fulfilled their gay and black characters quota with the same actress.

Mulaney
This show is just terrible. It's not even close to good. I consider myself a fan of John Mulaney's stand up. I only really started watching SNL a few years ago, so I can't say that's a part of his career I paid any attention to. But by the time the show had been picked up, I had enough confidence in him and Fox's then president Kevin Reilly to be okay with the multi-cam setup. Fox had New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. By good sitcom standards, they were on fire. This show is bad. The writing is not good. The premise is sort of stupid. You hope it gets better as sitcoms tend to do after a trial period.

Book Club: Nick Offerman's "Paddle Your Own Canoe"

Like many, I am an avid Parks & Recreation fan. So of course I love Ron Swanson. I've been reading a lot of biographies lately, especially in the comedy realm, so "Paddle Your Own Canoe" wasn't necessarily something I wanted to jump to. There were works of fiction that probably had higher priority on my list. But then I saw Nick Offerman promote the book on a re-run of Fallon and I saw him perform on Comedy Central's Meltdown show and just thought, "Why not?"

This book is Offerman's biography. It's not a Ron Swanson instructional manual. And while it's hard to believe, Offerman and Swanson are two different people. I love hearing about how people in the entertainment industry grew up and what pushed them into it. As someone who grew up in the suburbs of California, reading about Offerman's country Illinois upbringing was pretty interesting. He was an actor first and a serious one at that. He started off in the theatre. This isn't a world I'm all that familiar with and one that I wish I supported more. It's nice hearing about how he met his wife Megan Mullally.

He of course talks about interest in woodwork and physical activity and shit that I have no knowledge about. He suggests every human be able to, you know, build a chair or whatever, and I was almost inspired to do so for like a full 15 minutes or so. There's also plenty of parts of the book in which he speaks against intolerance, separation of church and state, a good diet and other such topics. It comes off a little preachy at first until you realize many people probably misconstrue the Ron Swanson character as very "America, fuck yeah!" and that both the character and the man behind the character must dispel that illusion.

Jessie Ware - Tough Love

Jessie Ware has a magnificent voice. Some of the music on her debut were a little too "big" for my taste, but it was refreshing to hear a white female (sorta?) media darling that wasn't some faux-modern R&B that people would compare to The Weeknd or an overrated mess like Lana Del Rey. While "Sweet Talk" is easily one my favorite songs of the last decade, that album as a whole didn't quite sell me on her as an artist.

"Tough Love" isn't perfect, but it is a vast improvement. Songs are tighter and more melody driven. The album is mostly produced by Benny Blanco (Katy Perry, Taio Cruz, Wiz Khalifa) but also employs Miguel and Dev Hynes. Her sound — a modern spin on alternative, with drum machines and reverbed vocals — is very much present. There's no pop standout like "Sweet Talk" — "All On You" is close — but that wasn't the song that garnered her attention anyway. This is an album literally full of love songs, like songs and lust songs, and that should really be celebrated.

Elijah Blake - Drift

Elijah Blake has a very capable voice. It's not super powerful, but it definitely has a range. You'll recognize his tendency to stay in the upper portion of that range in Usher's "Climax" which he wrote. Blake doesn't have an extensive writing history. Aside from "Climax," there's a couple credits for Keyshia Cole and a feature for Rick Ross. Even before then he was already signed to Def Jam (eventually through No I.D.'s imprint) as an artist and managed by RocNation. In 2012, he released his first real anything Bijoux 22, a free 8-song EP. It was incredible. Not in years had a male voice made R&B music that was so emotionally significant. The songs on Bijoux were miles ahead of any romance equation that makes up Chris Brown and Ne-Yo songs and whatever hip-hop trends Trey Songz was adopting. The one song that fell into those categories was of course the one Def Jam chose to go with as a single. Close to two years later, this EP has over 40 plays in my iTunes. I really, really like it.

Drift, the first official release from Blake, one that follows Def Jam's EP first until you prove you're hot and then an album unreasonably soon after, is not quite as good as Bijoux 22.  It's a similar structure — 8 songs, including an awful one with J. Cole that was the followup to the awful one with Common. It isn't too sonically impressive. There's a clear distinction between the songs No I.D. did and the ones he didn't. If the writing on Bijoux was an A, the writing here is a borderline B/B+. "Strange Fruit" turns a blown opportunity of a song title into a mediocre club record. The centerpiece is "6," a tale of being physically punished by his father and the effects it had on his life.

The bad news is that this EP isn't making him a star the way it worked for Jhene and August Alsina. The good news is that Def Jam may not care about the numbers. It probably wasn't ever meant for radio, but it's really cool that "6" was the first single. In a perfect world, we see more of the last three songs of Bijoux in the full-length.