Author Archives: Jason Lynch

‘You’re the Worst’: TV’s Best Couple is Awful and Perfect for Each Other

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youre the worst

Some shows are so terrific that I feel as if I have no choice but to sing their praises to as many people as possible. That’s the main reason that I pushed so hard to review You’re the Worst for The Daily Beast. It’s the best, and most surprising, new series of the summer. As I wrote,

Here’s the unexpected thing about You’re the Worst: While Jimmy (played by Chris Geere) and Gretchen (Aya Cash) are both, yes, the worst—I wouldn’t want to spend five minutes with either of them in real life—they also happen to be the most perfectly matched couple on television. There’s none of the usual forced chemistry, where a show pairs up its main characters regardless of whether it makes sense or not. These two click in every sense of the word—sexually, emotionally, comically—and it’s obvious that they need to be together, in part because no one else on the planet deserves to be subjected to either of them.

How great is this show? So great that it’s worthy of a second excerpt from my review:

We all know, and spend our lives trying to avoid, people like Jimmy and Gretchen. Thanks to You’re the Worst, now I can’t get enough of them. And while you might not have had time for the show earlier in the summer, there’s no excuse now as we limp toward September. Go to FX now and start catching up (the first five episodes are available there; the sixth airs on FX tonight). Because every once in a great while, two wrongs actually do make a right.

Start watching now — especially if you’re a Nielsen family!

‘You’re the Worst’: TV’s Best Couple is Awful and Perfect for Each Other

WBAL: Amazon’s New Original Series Could Give Netflix a Run for Its Money

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I was back on WBAL Radio’s Maryland’s News Now, on Aug. 13, talking about my recent Quartz interview with Amazon Studios director Roy Price and how Amazon is gunning for Netflix. Here’s a clip from my appearance:

Amazon’s New Original Series Could Give Netflix a Run for Its Money

How Amazon Built a Studio That’s Finally Challenging Netflix

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transparent

As Amazon prepares to launch its third pilot season, I had a lengthy chat with Amazon Studios director Roy Price about his company’s strategy, measuring success, his terrific new series Transparent and competing with Netflix. He answered so many of my questions about Amazon, including what defines a successful series for them:

The main thing we’re focusing on is making Prime fantastic. And one of the things people really respond to is original new series, so we’re paying attention to, are people engaged with the show? Does it add value to the service as a whole? So it’s about views, and talking about the shows, and if you watch the whole season, how did you rate the show…Basically, do people really seem to value the show as part of the service?

Last year, we premiered Alpha House and Betas, and they premiered at, and hung around at, the number one and two series for awhile, so that’s very encouraging, because it shows that people are really getting into it and heavily sampling the shows. That’s the kind of thing we want to see, that it becomes a meaningful part of the value that the service provides. Ultimately, you’d like to see more people joining the service, and you’d like to see that people who watch the shows and enjoy the shows renew their subscription.

Price, who was a terrific interview, also talked about Amazon’s rationale for not disclosing ratings, how the public pilot process really works and whether Amazon considered picking up beloved-but-canceled shows like Community and Enlisted.

How Amazon built a studio that’s finally challenging Netflix

How Robin Williams Shared the Spotlight to Forge a Beloved Hollywood Career

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robin williams

I was in the middle of vacation yesterday when I heard the shocking news about Robin Williams, who died of an apparent suicide. So I paused my family fun to I write this Quartz appreciation of Williams, who had seemed to crack the code for career longevity in Hollywood.

But Williams wasn’t content to just coast on comedy. He honed his dramatic skills in not-just-comedic films like Good Morning, Vietnam. That led to full-fledged dramatic roles in movies like Dead Poets Society, Awakenings and 1997’s Good Will Hunting, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Note the word “supporting”—even then, Williams was happy to accept smaller roles and cede the spotlight to others. That certainly wasn’t something his fellow comedy superstars like Eddie Murphy, Tom Hanks, Billy Crystal and Jim Carrey were doing then—or now—with any regularity.

Even as he brought his career circle last year, returning to TV in The Crazy Ones, Williams went in another unexpected direction, generously ceding many of the show’s funniest lines to his costars. CBS had canceled the show in May, and now, sadly, we’ll never get the opportunity to see how the actor would have reinvented himself next.

How Robin Williams shared the spotlight to forge a beloved Hollywood career

Life After Deaths: Sean Bean on ‘Game of Thrones’ Paternity and ‘Legends’

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sean bean

Spoiler alert about Sean Bean’s acting career: He dies. All the time. And he does so spectacularly well.

That lede for my Daily Beast profile on Sean Bean pretty much says it all. But for a man who has been killed 20-plus times on screen — so many that even Bean himself has trouble remembering them — the actor was remarkably chipper as we sat down to discuss his new TNT drama, Legends. As I wrote,

Spending time with Bean is somewhat disconcerting after seeing him play so many somber, doomed roles. His infectious smile is permanently plastered on his face, and he punctuates most sentences with laughter, emotions that are foreign to almost all of his characters over the years. The actor talked, and laughed, about life after onscreen death, his toughest death scene to film, the time he almost died for real—and why we may not have seen the last of him on Game of Thrones.

Can’t stress enough how happy this guy is, and how delighted he was to talk about Game of Thrones (he really wants to figure out a way for Ned Stark to return!).

Life After Deaths: Sean Bean on ‘Game of Thrones’ Paternity and ‘Legends’

Have We Reached the Saturation Point for Quality American TV Shows?

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saturation point for quality

Given the already overwhelming amount of quality TV, does anyone really want to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for even more of it? We’ll start to find out this weekend, as Cinemax premieres The Knick and Starz unveils Outlander. As I wrote at Quartz,

While the series are generating enthusiastic reviews (The Knick in particular), they will likely have a much tougher time drawing audiences than they would have just a couple years ago. Because both Starz and Cinemax are premium channels, sampling those shows means shelling out even more money each month to do so. And for those already on the hook for cable fees—for basic cable, HBO and Showtime—as well as payments for Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime, it will be hard to justify the additional expense, particularly given that these networks have little to offer those new audiences beyond that single show.

Even those of us who write about TV for a living can no longer keep up, so it’s hard to believe that too many others can make the time — and find the money — for even more original content. Time is money, and when it comes to quality TV, do we have enough left of either? Starz and Cinemax certainly hope so.

Have we reached the saturation point for quality American TV shows? 

Charts: How We Watch TV on the Internet

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how we watch tv on the internet

TCA summer press tour ended more than a week ago, but there was still one story left for me to finish up (along with several others that I’ve banked for the fall): this companion piece to my earlier look at how we watch TV now. For this story, I delved into the ratings data from a separate press tour briefing given by Alan Wurtzel, NBC’s head of research and media development, about how audiences are using their smartphones, tablets and personal computers to watch and download TV content.

This isn’t just about “a bunch of 25-year-olds who wear black and live in Williamsburg. It affects everybody across the country,” said Wurtzel, who shared NBCUniversal’s data with Quartz. “One size no longer fits all.”

As with my previous data-heavy story, I urge you to read the whole thing; there’s just too much great info for me to attempt to summarize it here. But I’ll wrap up with another observation from Wurtzel.

And as viewers stream in greater numbers, especially on their mobile devices, these seismic shifts will only continue. “These changes are very real,” said Wurtzel. “They’re growing unbelievably fast, and they affect the core of our business.”

Charts: How we watch TV on the internet

Everything Will Be Awesome if Will Arnett is in ‘Lego Movie’ Sequel

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today-lego-movie-arnett

Sorry, Christian Bale and Michael Keaton, but Will Arnett’s version of Batman (he voiced the Caped Crusader in The Lego Movie) is my favorite cinematic take on it yet.

At TCA summer press tour, I spoke again with Arnett, this time for Today.com, about The Lego Movie — and how his kids are just as obsessed with it as everyone else’s are.

“My kids are super into it too, nonstop,” said Arnett, who voices Batman in the hit film. “In fact, a couple of mornings ago, my son got into my bed at 6 a.m., turned on my iPad, and started watching ‘The Lego Movie.’ So I woke up to ‘Everything is awesome!’ and was like, ‘Oh my God!’”

We also spoke about the upcoming Lego Movie sequel, which he’s not yet signed for, and the second season of his sitcom The Millers.

Everything Will Be Awesome if Will Arnett is in ‘Lego Movie’ Sequel

‘Sharknado 2’ in Winter: Has the Franchise Jumped the Shark?

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sharknado 2

I can’t remember too many nights of TV that I enjoyed more last year than watching Sharknado last July 11, along with seemingly all of Twitter. Even Syfy was shocked by the social media tsumani that ensued, so it’s no surprise that they’re hoping to replicate it again this summer with Sharknado 2: The Second One. At The Daily Beast, I spoke with stars Ian Ziering and Tara Reid, director Anthony C. Ferrante and writer Thunder Levin (in interviews I conducted at TCA summer press tour) about the first film’s unlikely success, and the attempt to over-the-top themselves with the sequel. As I wrote,

The cast and crew also bristle whenever someone describes Sharknado as “campy,” insisting that one of the secrets to its success is that everyone involved is playing it straight. “That’s the brilliance of Anthony, because he made sure that there was never a moment where anybody would break the fourth wall. No one’s feeling better than this material. No one’s winking, like, ‘Hey, we both know…’ We took it all seriously,” says Ziering, who has now embraced the franchise to the point where he refers to the films as “S1” and “S2.” “If you put yourself in that situation, it’s lethal, and there’s really nothing funny about this. So even the most ridiculous lines have to be said earnestly. But if you step outside and you’re watching, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, did he just say there are flaming sharks flying out of the air? It sounds ridiculous!’”

Adds Ferrante, “The magic to the movie is that you have everybody play it straight, unless they’re intentional comic relief like Judd Hirsch or Judah. If everybody’s taking it seriously, that’s where it’s funny. And the fact that Matt Lauer gives a war cry before he kills the shark, and he does it with conviction, that’s just gold.”

The first Sharknado was set in L.A. and its sequel is in New York City, so where should the third film be set? I asked the cast and crew, who have some pretty intriguing ideas.

‘Sharknado 2’ in Winter: Has the Franchise Jumped the Shark?