It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. This year, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.
Horace and Pete: Season 1, Episode 3 (B-)
Nominated for Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series (Laurie Metcalf)
I’ll be honest – I think we have our Emmy winner right here. I cited Metcalf’s record in my post reviewing her comedy guest actress nomination – three trophies for “Roseanne” and a total of ten nominations, including three separate bids this year. I think her chances here are best, and with this submission, she should garner plenty of votes. She just starts talking at the beginning and I checked how long she went without any interruption – a full nine minutes. After we saw Horace and he interjected for a moment, she just kept going. That’s the most prominent showcase I think I’ve ever seen for a guest performer, given the platform of an entire episode to tell one long story to the series star. As with the first two episodes of this show, much of what Metcalf’s Sarah talks about has to do with sex, and it’s quite explicit. I’m glad that I didn’t just watch this episode since I might have thought that every hour is like this, with no context as to who Alan Alda’s character was in the final frame and some confusion about the existence of a very absent second-generation Pete. As usual, the content is pretty disturbing, with Horace suggesting that he secretly hoped that he would die on September 11th rather than have his infidelity revealed. His sage advice of “That doesn’t make you a bad person, just don’t be married” was relatively decent, and that was about the most normal and absorbing part of the whole conversation. Metcalf can certainly talk, and there’s a refreshing rawness to her performance, but the content of this episode had me less engaged than either of the first two episodes and more than content not to revisit this show again. As an Emmy showcase, it’s a knockout, but that’s enough for me.
Showing posts with label Horace and Pete. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Horace and Pete. Show all posts
Monday, August 29, 2016
Emmy Episodes: Horace and Pete
It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. This year, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.
Horace and Pete: Season 1, Episode 2 (C+)
Episode 3 is Emmy-nominated – I’m watching up until then
This show is quite the trip. It’s not like anything else I’ve seen but it’s also not the resounding dramatic tragedy that I think it’s supposed to be. Instead, it’s indefensibly depressing, with moments of humor throughout that don’t always feel like they fit. There was plenty of existential wisdom at the start of the episode, with Pete talking about how he’s planning to sleep less in the second half of his life and then suggesting napping at every chance that he got. Horace being described by his sister as a reliable pair of ears was hardly a compliment, and her casual revelation of her breast cancer seemed hurled like a weapon more than anything. Horace blaming his break-up with his girlfriend on wanting to give his daughter freer access to his life was forced at best ,and she wasn’t buying it at all. Horace’s sex fantasy involving Jessica Lange’s Marsha was odd at best, and it certainly does seem that C.K. just writes whatever he thinks and then shoots it as a scene on this show. The conversation about the Holocaust and Bambi was pretty sick and twisted, and I wasn’t at all impressed with the date between the overeager, talkative woman and the unenthusiastic, unfriendly guy. Alan Alda’s Uncle Pete is so hateful and detestable, and of course he would only like someone interested in Pete because her Tourette’s syndrome caused her to say terrible things. I recognized Tricia from Maria Dizzia’s role as Polly on “Orange is the New Black,” and she definitely added a dimension of weird decency to the show. Let’s hope Laurie Metcalf’s guest spot in episode three is worth it – this show is not what I was hoping it would be.
Horace and Pete: Season 1, Episode 2 (C+)
Episode 3 is Emmy-nominated – I’m watching up until then
This show is quite the trip. It’s not like anything else I’ve seen but it’s also not the resounding dramatic tragedy that I think it’s supposed to be. Instead, it’s indefensibly depressing, with moments of humor throughout that don’t always feel like they fit. There was plenty of existential wisdom at the start of the episode, with Pete talking about how he’s planning to sleep less in the second half of his life and then suggesting napping at every chance that he got. Horace being described by his sister as a reliable pair of ears was hardly a compliment, and her casual revelation of her breast cancer seemed hurled like a weapon more than anything. Horace blaming his break-up with his girlfriend on wanting to give his daughter freer access to his life was forced at best ,and she wasn’t buying it at all. Horace’s sex fantasy involving Jessica Lange’s Marsha was odd at best, and it certainly does seem that C.K. just writes whatever he thinks and then shoots it as a scene on this show. The conversation about the Holocaust and Bambi was pretty sick and twisted, and I wasn’t at all impressed with the date between the overeager, talkative woman and the unenthusiastic, unfriendly guy. Alan Alda’s Uncle Pete is so hateful and detestable, and of course he would only like someone interested in Pete because her Tourette’s syndrome caused her to say terrible things. I recognized Tricia from Maria Dizzia’s role as Polly on “Orange is the New Black,” and she definitely added a dimension of weird decency to the show. Let’s hope Laurie Metcalf’s guest spot in episode three is worth it – this show is not what I was hoping it would be.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Emmy-Adjacent Episodes: Horace and Pete
It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. This year, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.
Horace and Pete: Season 1, Episode 1 (B)
Episode 3 is Emmy-nominated – I’m watching up until then
I’ll admit that I was very intrigued by this show when I heard about it, though obviously not enough to have watched it until now. I’ve been intrigued by “Louie” whenever I watch it each year when it gets nominated for Emmys, and I’ve always found its dramatic content to be even more intriguing than its comedy moments. That’s what made the notion of Louis C.K. creating a “dramatic tragedy” extremely appealing. That doesn’t even begin to address the assemblage of talent here, all carefully chosen for the roles that they’re supposed to play. Pairing Buscemi with C.K. makes total sense, and he’s pretty great as a man not quite in touch with reality who, when he’s lucid, presents himself as a genuine, caring person handicapped by his circumstances. Alan Alda contributed an impressively negative, grumpy performance as Uncle Pete, and he managed to drag things down even when they were looking up. And Edie Falco was dependably strong as their disapproving sister who realizes that the bar can’t continue to exist and function as it currently is. I was thinking as the episode was going on that it wasn’t really headed anywhere, but some of its most interesting moments are when its characters are just talking to each other. I had thought that this show was set decades ago but it turns out it takes place in the present, and therefore cell phones and Donald Trump are fodder for conversation and debate. I’m not hooked by any measure, but I will give it another two shots as I continue through the third episode, which features Laurie Metcalf’s Emmy-nominated guest spot.
Horace and Pete: Season 1, Episode 1 (B)
Episode 3 is Emmy-nominated – I’m watching up until then
I’ll admit that I was very intrigued by this show when I heard about it, though obviously not enough to have watched it until now. I’ve been intrigued by “Louie” whenever I watch it each year when it gets nominated for Emmys, and I’ve always found its dramatic content to be even more intriguing than its comedy moments. That’s what made the notion of Louis C.K. creating a “dramatic tragedy” extremely appealing. That doesn’t even begin to address the assemblage of talent here, all carefully chosen for the roles that they’re supposed to play. Pairing Buscemi with C.K. makes total sense, and he’s pretty great as a man not quite in touch with reality who, when he’s lucid, presents himself as a genuine, caring person handicapped by his circumstances. Alan Alda contributed an impressively negative, grumpy performance as Uncle Pete, and he managed to drag things down even when they were looking up. And Edie Falco was dependably strong as their disapproving sister who realizes that the bar can’t continue to exist and function as it currently is. I was thinking as the episode was going on that it wasn’t really headed anywhere, but some of its most interesting moments are when its characters are just talking to each other. I had thought that this show was set decades ago but it turns out it takes place in the present, and therefore cell phones and Donald Trump are fodder for conversation and debate. I’m not hooked by any measure, but I will give it another two shots as I continue through the third episode, which features Laurie Metcalf’s Emmy-nominated guest spot.
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