NEW SHOW SPOTLIGHT
Bored on a Saturday night? Check out Ash v. Evil Dead, the fun, campy, horrorific weekly adaptation of the Sam Raimi Evil Dead movie franchise, with Bruce Campbell reprising the titular role as everyone’s favorite chainsaw hand wearing corpse killer.
The action is over the top and non stop, and the kick ass ‘80s-ish rock soundtrack is the perfect overture. Campbell delivers action-hero catch phrases with the knowing sarcasm of a guy who knows they’re catch phrases, and the show smartly winds up each episode in less than 30 minutes because it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
If you like ZombieLand and Scary Movie, you’ll like Ash v. Evil Dead.
YOU SHOULD BE WATCHING. . .
Fresh Off The Boat, ABC’s very fun throwback ‘90s asian family sitcom. It would be a real misnomer to call this show “that asian sitcom,” as Fresh Off The Boat is as much a tween comedy, ‘90s homage period piece, family sitcom and character study as it is asian humor fest.
Driven by the remarkably funny Constance Wu as a not-so-stereotypical tiger mom, Fresh Off The Boat defies description, other than to say it is damn funny.
If you liked Black-ish and Everybody Hates Chris, you’ll like Fresh Off The Boat.
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF. . .
NBC’s latest live musical theater foray, The Wiz. I thought it succeeded where the miscast Sound of Music and hopelessly silly Peter Pan both failed. The music numbers were truly outstanding, and delivered by a wildly talented cast. At the very least, The Wiz was clearly better than the film adaptation of the show, and likely introduced audiences to a number of songs that will hopefully become favorites. If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to watch The Wiz on syndication or online.
REALITY CHECK
Wondering which cooking show is right for you for the holiday season? Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship is more suited to foodies, and featured more baking tips and ideas. It has a decent enough panel, with the personable Nancy Fuller, enthusiastic Duff Goldman and appropriately critical Lorraine Pascale judging the action. Wooden host Bobby Deen provides little, but isn’t asked to.
By contrast, ABC’s Great Holiday Baking Show is a poor adaptation of the British original, offering mainly the genuinely sweet and funny Mary Berry, a granny-ish baking expert, to guide you through. There’s not enough cooking footage to learn anything, and husband and wife hosts Nia Vardalos and Ian Gomez read their lines very much like they’re, well, reading lines. Skip that one.
EDUCATIONAL TV
Things we learned from TV this week: Bananas will mate in captivity (Conan).
LOOKING AHEAD
The series premiere of Telenovela airs on NBC on December 7.
The season finale of Scream Queens airs on Fox on December 8.
The midseason finale of Nashville airs on ABC on December 9.
TV’s a big place and I haven’t been to all of it yet. Got a favorite show you’d like me to comment on? Post a comment below, contact me on twitter @RobLazlo. or shoot me an email: RobNJ564@yahoo.com. I welcome your input!
