On Lasso and De Niro

Some Critical Commentary to begin the week....

TED LASSO (no spoilers)

 

The Apple TV series "Ted Lasso" ended last week after three delightful seasons.  I thought that i was a terrific ending to what has been a great series.  Jason Sudeikis' Ted went home to Kansas, AFC Richmond's season concluded on a high note, and all storylines were wrapped up in a wonderful montage played to the music of Cat Stevens' "Father and Son."  Yes, everyone I know who watched the series thought that Season 3 was, if perhaps not as great as the first two seasons, a delight nonetheless, and were quite charmed by the conclusion of the show.  However, as I alluded to in a post last week, the professional critics who praised the series at the outset, felt it was their obligation to tear it to shreds.  For example, the headline in a piece in Variety  stated "'Ted Lasso' Season 3 Was Unbearable".  Really? This is how the author of that piece, a pseudo-intellectual need Stephen Rodrick, opened his critique:

Now quarantine is long gone, and we are out in the world crammed into middle seats, intent on spending our last disposable dollar on Maui rentals and a down payment on a jet ski we definitely don’t need. “Lasso’s” recently completed third season joined the bacchanal. The show’s 12 episodes ran 650 MINUTES. That is 78 minutes longer than Krzystof Kieslowski’s “Dekalog,” which dealt with all 10 of the commandments.

Now that is a piece of high brow bullshit that really speaks to all of the mass audience to whom "Ted Lasso" appealed, isn't it?  I mean, who didn't think of Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Dekalog" when watching "Ted Lasso", am I right?  And if you search the interwebs, you can find all sorts of similar critical rantings.

However, allow me to refer you to the write up of Jason Fraley.  He is an entertainment editor for WTOP in Washington DC, and I have come to know him through various podcasts and am happy to say that we have come to regularly exchange our views as Facebook Friends.  THIS PIECE by Jason hits the nail squarely on the head when it comes to "Ted Lasso", both in its entirety and in it's finale episode last week.  I think that you will enjoy it.

Here is another good (and favorable) recap that appeared in the New York Times.  Be advised, though that this piece contains spoilers, so if you haven't yet seen the final episode, you might want to delay reading this one.

So farewell, "Ted Lasso".  You will be missed, but  if that spin-off hinted at in the final scenes of the show ever comes about, I will be there, proudly wearing my AFC Richmond scarf.

Four Stars from The Grandstander for both the series and the Final Episode.

ABOUT MY FATHER

When I first saw the trailers for this, I figured that it was going to be one of those movies where the best of it would be what you see in the trailer.  That might be unfair, but it wasn't far off.

Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco plays a guy named, can you believe it, Sebastian Maniscalco.  He's the son of Salvo (Robert De Niro), an immigrant from Sicily who came to America after World War II, became a successful hair dresser in Chicago, is now a widower, and who is a guy who has spent his entire life wanting nothing more than to make a better life for his son than he had for himself.  That's the American Dream, right?

Well, Sebastian has fallen in love with a beautiful girl who is the daughter of an ultra wealthy the-ancestors-came-on-the-Mayflower family.  Daddy owns one the largest chains of ritzy hotels in the world, Mom is a US Senator (played by Kim Catrall; first time I've seen her since Sex and The City), and they have invited Sebastian to come to their luxury country club estate in Virginia for the 4th of July weekend.  Through a series of events, Sebastian ends up bringing his Dad with him.

It's the old fish-out-of-water trope, and it unfolds and ends up exactly as you imagine it will.  I'm a big fan of Robert De Niro (who isn't?), and I thought it would be a hoot to see him in a comedy role (think "Midnight Run"), and he delivers just as you thought he would, although I say that he did seem to be playing a guy who was playing "Robert De Niro" in this one.   As I said to someone yesterday, actors like De Niro can make great art in their work, but every once in a while, they're entitled to do something just for a paycheck.

This movie will make no Top Ten lists and will win no awards, but it was a fun bit of summer comedy fluff, and De Niro was De Niro, and that is always worth seeing.

Two and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

In The Area of Critical Commentary.....

 BABYLON

We were slated to see "Babylon" as our New Year's Eve movie, but for reasons that I have since forgotten, we never made it to the theater that day.  Well, we finally got around to seeing it last night, and it was, in may opinion, well worth the wait.  The movie is from Oscar winning director Damien Chazelle ("La La Land") and over its three hour length it weaves together four separate stories of Hollywood in the late 1920's and early 1930's when talking pictures were introduced and silent pictures were headed to extinction. Yeah, it is a story that has been told many times (Singin' in the Rain, Sunset Boulevard, The Artist), and the story as told by Chazelle, who also wrote the screenplay, is BIG and BOLD and BRASH.

It follows the stories of four people: Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) a big, big star of the silent era, who is failing to make the transition to talkies, Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), a girl from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who comes to California to make it in the movies, makes it and then loses it,  Manny Torres (Diego Calva), a Mexican American working as a gopher on movies sets who longs for bigger and better things in the movie industry, and Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo), a Black jazz musician playing on the sets of silent films who suddenly makes it in the movies, but then wonders if it's worth the price he has to pay.  Chronicling  it all is Elinor St. John (Jean Smart), a Hedda Hopper-like gossip columnist.

Did I say that it was BIG and BRASH?  The first thirty minutes of the movie, before the title card of the movie itself appeared on screen, took place at the home of a major studio mogul, and it showed a Hollywood Babylon Era party in full swing.  Unlimited booze, drugs, and sex.  People dancing in various states of dress and undress.  An elephant - an elephant! - as a featured part of the party.  Thirty minutes of full sensory overload.  Amazing stuff.

There were no happy endings in this one, and I'll give no spoilers here.  A scene late in the movie between Brad Pitt and Jean Smart summed up wonderfully just what Pitt, and those like him, have accomplished with their careers was a great one. The entire movie was pure Oscar-bait stuff, but it didn't receive a lot of love from either critics or the Motion Picture Academy.  In our house, it was a split decision.  I liked it a lot; Linda, not so much.

It was one heck of a lot better than Best Picture of the Year "Everything Everywhere All At Once", I can tell you.

Two and Three-Quarters Stars from The Grandstander.

TED LASSO

One episode remains in Season Three of this Emmy Award winning series, and while neither the producers of the show nor Apple TV have said so, all signs are pointing to the fact that this will be the final season for this one.   To me, the series has continued to be a terrific one, funny and moving, and great performances from all the actors involved.  However, it appears that there is not much of a story left to be told.  AFC Richmond has come back into the Premier League after a year of relegation, they have played in fits and starts, but they have rallied in the final weeks of the season, and with one game remaining in the season, a victory will give them the EPL Championship.  Whether they win or lose that game match is almost immaterial.  Coach Lasso has done his job, and appears that he needs to move on.  We'll find out this coming Wednesday evening.

What has surprised me, however, is the critical backlash that seems to have come upon this show.  If you read any number of critics online, they are almost unanimous in their derision of Season Three of the show. These same critics who praised "Ted Lasso" to the high heavens are now ruthless in savagely attacking it.   Maybe it hasn't cleared to bar it set in its first two seasons, but to read some of these critics, you'd think that it has turned into a 21st century version of "Gilligan's Island."  I mean.....

PERRY MASON

We are only three episodes into Season Two of the HBO Max series, "Perry Mason", but we are really enjoying it.

This is not the Raymond Burr's Perry Mason. It is, instead, a grittier, more noir-ish origin story for Mason, one that is more in line with author Erle Stanley Gardner's original vision of him.

Set in the 1930's, this is a beautifully done period production.  I have heard critics who have lived in Los Angeles all of their lives praise how the show evokes their city of another era.  And both Matthew Rhys and Juliet Rylance are quite good in the roles of Mason and his partner (no longer secretary) Della Street.

If you haven't seen this one, you should take a crack at it.  You don't have to have seen Season One to enjoy Season Two, but it might help fill in some background for you.