Nicky Deuce Your Best Bet For Weekend Viewing, Monday, May 27

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Anne Louise Bannon
Steve Schirripa, Noah Munck, courtesy Nickelodeon

Steve Schirripa, Noah Munck, courtesy Nickelodeon

NICKY DEUCE

Friendly Rating: Genuinely for all ages

Safety Rating: Lots of slapstick humor and borderline on the stereotypes

Quality Rating: Lots and lots of fun

Special movie airs tonight (5/27) on Nickelodeon at 8 p.m.

Watched Disney XD’s Marvel Avengers Assemble (preview airing 5/26 at 11 a.m., actual premiere 7/7), their latest super-hero incarnation. Was bored to tears, never mind all the booming and blasting.

Watched Nickelodeon’s Sanjay and Craig (premiering 5/25 at 10:30 a.m.) about a boy and his talking snake, with its male-dominated cast and gross-out humor and realized that SpongeBob SquarePants was more intellectual. Seriously, there are some good bits at the beginning with his mom, a nurse, who delights in telling her son all the gross things that happened at work because it delights him. But otherwise, the show simply does not make sense and isn’t funny enough to get away with it.

So you can imagine my reluctance when I put on Nicky Deuce, Nickelodeon’s movie about a sheltered teen who discovers the family he never knew he had. It was so freaking fun and cute and just delightful. It is how you do slapstick humor.

Starring Sopranos alumnus Steve Schirripa, and based on the book he co-wrote with Charles Fleming, Nicholas Borelli II (Noah Munck) is growing up in the Mid-West, sheltered by the most boring parents ever. His mother cooks super-healthy, but tasteless food. His father overdoes the hand sanitizer. When Nicky’s parents are called away overseas and Nicky’s plans to attend math camp go awry (with some actual toilet humor done well), Nicky gets sent to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, to stay with Tutti (Rita Moreno), his father’s grandmother and his Uncle Frankie (Schirripa), who has got more than a little funny business going on.

At first, a fish out of water, Nicky not only learns how to fit into his new environment, he toughens up as he discovers his roots.

Now, there are some who might find some of the mobster stereotypes uncomfortable, and the Black kid does get to be the buffoon – although another White kid does the same. Not to mention the Italian grandma stereotype – Tutti is fast with that wooden spoon. It really is walking that very fine line between making fun of and celebrating a culture.

Nonetheless, it is so fun and cute. Munck is adorable. The writing moves well and if you’re a Sopranos fan, Schirippa obviously called in a few favors because several members of that cast show up, including James Gandofini, who plays a guy who gets his backside inadvertently kicked when Nicky comes by to collect for the bad guy. And there are the in-jokes, including Nicky’s astonishment that someone actually says fuh-geddaboudit.

With bits like that, there’s a little something here for everyone. As I often note, making something that is truly for the entire family is amazingly tough, which is why my hat is off to the crew that put this one together. They succeeded on all levels.

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Save Me Could Use Some Saving, Thursday, May 23

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Anne Louise Bannon
Anne Heche, courtesy NBC

Anne Heche, courtesy NBC

SAVE ME

Friendly Rating: Older elementary age and up

Safety Rating: Foul language and lots of sex talk

Quality Rating: Great concept, good script, but something ain’t working

New series premieres tonight (5/23) on NBC at 8 p.m. with back to back episodes.

There’s a lot about Save Me that I liked, especially after I thought about it. But something in the execution just did not gell and I remain on the fence about it.

Starring Anne Heche as alcoholic mom Beth, the story starts with her dying – sort of. Actually, she chokes on a sandwich after a night out binging. When she wakes up, she says she can hear God speaking to her and is completely transformed.

Her husband Tom (Michael Landes) is having an affair with an employee. Her teen daughter Emily (Madison Davenport) is providing benefits to the next door neighbor boy. But all of a sudden, Beth jumps in, hearing things she shouldn’t and other weird stuff, and is now cheerful, optimistic and out to reconcile herself where possible.

Safety-wise, there’s plenty of foul language and sex talk. That being said, when Emily gets a texted booty call from the neighbor in front of her mom, Beth not only handles it well, she provides some great advice. Then, when Tom confronts her about how lousy a mom and wife she has been, Beth doesn’t deny it and instead accepts responsibility for her behavior. And there’s always my favorite theme of redemption going on.

The problem is that there’s a frenetic quality to the pilot that just left me cold. Or maybe it was Heche, whose little girl voice kind of grated on me (and that could have been my mood as much as anything else).

I’m seriously considering keeping up with this show to see if it settles down, but you may decide it’s a little too adult for your family. At the very least, it should spark some conversation about God.

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Mel Brooks Makes Some Grown Up Noise, Monday, May 20

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Anne Louise Bannon
Mel Brooks, courtesy PBS

Mel Brooks, courtesy PBS

AMERICAN MASTERS – MEL BROOKS: MAKE A NOISE

Friendly Rating: Older elementary age and up

Safety Rating: It’s Mel Brooks, so innuendo, foul language

Quality Rating: Fun and fascinating, and, well, it’s Mel Brooks

Film premieres on PBS tonight (May 20), check your local listings for times.

My under-graduate advisor (whose name I am blanking on right now) used to say that the reason Mel Brooks was so successful was that he offended everyone. After seeing tonight’s American Masters biography, I’ve got to say it’s more that Brooks ridiculed that which we find most offensive. It’s why Blazing Saddles works – the film ridicules racism and racist attitudes.

While the film is mostly Brooks and a host of other talking heads talking about Brooks, it does include some wonderful clips, many of which might be problematic for younger viewers, such as the spewing blood scene from Dead and Loving It, or the old lady calling Sheriff Bart that word in Blazing Saddles, or, or.

As one of the producers notes, Brooks did open the door to that kind of humor and Brooks’ friend and colleague Carl Reiner also points out that while Brooks might be appalled that it has gone as far as it has in this modern era, when Brooks did it, he was usually satirizing something.

As Brooks tells us in the film, when he’s making fun of Hitler, it’s about making that which is scary and frightening about the dictator and making it silly and laughable. It puts that which is evil in its place. Some people may not be comfortable with that, others might see that as funny.

That Brooks’ work could be uneven as all get out, well, that’s not entirely surprising. Personally, while I loved many of Brooks’ films, including Men in Tights (which apparently no one else did), I think Spaceballs is one of those films that can only be viewed with lots of friends and several pitchers of margaritas. But apparently, it has become a cult fave. Go figure.

In any case, you’ll probably want to preview this one because of the language and the clips, depending on the ages and relative maturity of your kids. If the language and the occasional suggestive visual are not a problem, squirminess might be. Or your kids might want to actually see some of the films. Now that I think about it, that could be a problem, too. Hmmmmm.

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The Goodwin Games Not Worth Playing, Monday, May 20

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Anne Louise Bannon
Becki Newton, Scott Foley, T.J. Miller, courtesy Fox Broadcasting

Becki Newton, Scott Foley, T.J. Miller, courtesy Fox Broadcasting

THE GOODWIN GAMES

Friendly Rating: Elementary age and older

Safety Rating: Oddly safe, and yet…

Quality Rating: Has potential, but mostly meh

New series premieres tonight on Fox at 8:30 p.m.

Given all the time I fuss about the lack of family-friendly/safe programming on television, you’d think I’d be thrilled about The Goodwin Games. The problem is, it’s rather flat and the characters are really not that likeable. But it does have some heart, especially toward the end, when it seems like the characters can at least improve.

When Benjamin Goodwin (Beau Bridges) dies after completing his oddly-prescient video will, his adult children return for the nonce, not expecting much. Turns out Benjamin had boodles of money, but instead of just leaving it to his kids, he’s going to make them jump through a wide variety of hoops to get it so that they’ll become the people he always wanted them to be.

I can’t promise this state of affairs will continue, but there were no sex jokes (that I remember), minimal slapstick humor (that I remember) and actually not much else that was that memorable. For example, the first task was to get the three sibs (played by Scott Foley, Becki Newton and T.J. Miller) to play a game of Trivial Pursuit together – and the questions are all about their lives together as a family.

On the plus side, daughter Chloe (Newton) is one of the smarter of the three siblings, but not in a geeky way. Also, Jimmy (Miller) does make a couple stabs at correcting his path, which has mostly involved jail time. But he is the stereotypical dumb male, while his older brother Henry (Foley) is the stereotypical tightly-wound male.

But even with the heart, getting there was just, well, flat and blah, which is annoying when you think about it. Finally, a show that doesn’t depend on the usual innuendos and it’s not funny. Alas, now “they” will think that sex jokes are necessary for funny, which they aren’t. Feh.

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Gorgeous But Rough North America, Sunday, May 19

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Anne Louise Bannon
Courtesy Discovery Networks

Courtesy Discovery Networks

NORTH AMERICA

Friendly Rating: All ages

Safety Rating: While the predation scenes aren’t that bloody, the fact that the “food” is generally a baby animal might be upsetting to sensitive little ones

Quality Rating: Beautifully photographed, the rest is pretty much old-school nature doc

Seven-part mini-series premieres tonigh (May 19) on Discovery Channel 9 p.m.

North America is one of those sweeping, beautifully-photographed nature documentaries that doesn’t tell you much about nature, except that it’s a pretty scary place. And in this first hour, that it’s a really scary place if you happen to be young.

I think more baby animals end up dead in this first hour than I’ve seen in a long time. We almost lose the baby mountain goat, but (spoiler alert) the baby whale, baby turtles and baby caribou all end up chow for a bunch of other critters.

Which, as the narration (performed by Tom Selleck) reminds us, is pretty much the point. Animals kill and eat each other for food. If they fight, it’s usually about staying alive in one way or another, such as when the wild stallion has to fight off another stallion to keep his harem intact. And the attacking stallion is just trying to get a harem of his own to stay alive.

That being said, if you have a sensitive young ‘un in the household, all this kill and be killed action might be a little hard to take. Your mileage will vary, based on your particular kid.

The film is beautiful and will definitely sell a few High Definition TV sets, but really doesn’t have that much else to offer us.

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