NCIS: New Orleans

I want to like this show. I've been a Scott Bakula fan since his "Quantum Leap" days. I like love both the original NCIS and NCIS:Los Angeles. Both have excellent casts and storylines. NCIS: New Orleans may develop into a show worthy of the NCIS brand. Or it turn out that third time is not the charm. Some of the basic character types from the first two are present: a strong "parent" figure who leads the team, a dignified yet slightly eccentric pathologist, the "kid" from out of town, the nerd, the town in which the show is set. The writing, at least for the first episode, could be stronger. It was a bit cliche' for my taste. I often knew what was going to be said or how a plot thread would be resolved ahead of time. So far, sadly, my verdict is "meh." I will watch next week and hope for some improvement in the writing and some jelling of the characters and their relationships. That team motif is crucial for an NCIS show. Next week's episode draws in the whole original NCIS team to help the New Orleans bunch battle a plague threat. Hopefully the ensemble comraderie and Abbie's adorable nerdiness will rub off on the New Orleans bunch. Maybe they're a gumbo that just needs to set awhile.

Tyrant season (hopefully not series) ends

"Tyrant" has been one of my favorite new shows of the past few months. This "family" drama set in a fictitious Middle Eastern nation focuses on two brothers in the aftermath of their dictator father's death. The younger brother Jamal Al-Fayeed, played by Israeli actor Ashraf Barhom, is a cruel and unbalanced newly minted president for life. Bassam "Barry" Al-Fayeed, played by Adam Rayner, is a pediatrician who fled his family home decades ago for a new start in America. He is a now a family man whose wife is also a physician. They have two teen-age children. Against his better judgement Barry breaks his 20-year self-exile to attend his nephew's wedding and introduce his American family to their royal counterparts. Barry intends for this to be a quick trip but it does not turn out that way and he soon finds himself embroiled in his home country's politics. The American branch of the Al-Fayeed family settles into palace life, which is not without its perks. The show's creator/writer/director Gideon Raff of "Homeland" fame does not give us a simple "American Barry good; Middle-Eastern dictator Jamal bad" dichotomy. Several episodes in we see that "boy scout Barry" killed a man when he was 9. Granted, he did it to spare his younger brother from having to commit the act. The boys' father had been trying to toughen up Jamal by forcing him to carry out an execution. This event and other parenting tactics traumatized both brothers. It's just more obvious in Jamal's case. Barry thinks Jamal is too "broken" to lead their homeland. It is strongly hinted, though, that Barry is every bit as damaged and dangerous as Jamal. Barry is just better able to hide it, perhaps even from himself. Season One of FX's "Tyrant" just ended on quite a cliffhanger, a showdown between the brothers. I can't wait for Season 2 of this excellent show. But there might not be a Season 2. Apparently the Powers That Be at FX have not decided its fate yet. Please, FX PTB, give us another season of "Tyrant."

Stephen Fry binge

Ah, Netflix. I can always count on you to entertain me. Last night Netflix brought me an impromptu Stephen Fry binge. Fry is a celebrated British actor, comic, author, tech evangelist, and grand dame of Twitter (in his hilariously naughty persona as Mrs. Stephen Fry.) I had already seen via Netflix numerous episodes of Stephen Fry's America, in which he visits all 50 U.S. states. Note: should you ever be fortunate enough to have Stephen Fry as a houseguest, do not arrange a horseback riding expedition for him. Such an afternoon in Kentucky was plainly and painfully *not* one of Stephen's favorite American adventures. Netflix apparently recently added (if it was there before, I somehow missed it) some vintage Fry, with his old comic partner and fellow Brit wit Hugh Laurie in the appropriately titled "A Bit of Fry and Laurie." Yes, Hugh Laurie is definitely and defiantly English. We on this side of the pond are used to hearing him speaking with an American accent as the cane-welding and sharp-tongued diagnostician Gregory House, M.D. The answer to the trivia question perhaps forming in your mind is no, Stephen Fry never appeared on "House." Not due to any falling out, just other obligations, time issues, and the small matter of an ocean sitting in the way. So far, I have just watched the first episode of "A Bit" and each comedy sketch is brilliant. Fortunately the show lasted from 1989 to 1995 so there are lots of bits left to watch. Fry and Laurie were more than a bit busy in the early 1990s, starring for several years on the British television version of P.D. Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster." This was my first introduction to Fry, as the butler, Jeeves, and Laurie as his somewhat dim-witted employer Bertie Wooster. I think it was on Masterpiece Theater. Sadly, "Jeeves and Wooster" is not currently available on Netflix. Netflix *does* have "Kingdom," Stephen Fry's series from 2007 to 2009. He plays a solicitor in a small English village serving quirky clients and mentoring a young law clerk. This is more of a drama with some gentle humor rather than the sharp laughfest that is "A Bit." Both "A Bit" and "Kingdom" are well worth watching. Twenty years separate them so it is interesting to see Fry as a young comic cracking one liners and then as a more mature actor delivering wry lines. Disclaimer - This is not intended to a complete filmography of Fry or Laurie. They have appeared in numerous other shows together or individually, such as Fry as a psychiatrist turned chef on "Bones."

Survival of the Nerd

So another season of Survivor is over. And the nerd won. John Cochran, soon-to-be Harvard law grad, who wrote a paper on how Survivor's jury system works took home the $1 million. Gotta love it when a smart person wins, and without too much cut-throatery. His competition in the final three was pretty much nil - the sobbing, back-stabbing mom Karen and the coasting Sherri, who turned out to have been a millionaire already. Survivor somehow squeezes two season into every year, making Cochran the 26th Sole Survivor in the show's 13-year history. Survivor 27 reportedly will take place in the Philippines. The name will be "Survivor: Blood vs. Water." The blogosphere seems convinced this will involve relatives playing with and/or against each other. Maybe a certain infamous uncle/nephew?

Four Houses equals a train wreck

So I watched the "Mediterranean Face-off" Miami episode of TLC's Four Houses last night. I had not seen the show before. Aesthetically and ethically I was not impressed. (These people have *that* much money and they do *that* with it?!) But the train-wreck-you-can't-look-away-from factor? Quite high. Moral superiority? Ditto. *I* have way more taste and class than all these folks put together? Oh, yeah. The basic premise of Four Houses is four houseproud people with similarly themed homes give each other tours of their abodes. And then snipe behind the owner's back about how tacky the place is. They score each other on general impression, creativity, livability, and style. The winner gets $10,000 and may have his or her home featured in a magazine. Not that any of the contestants I saw last night need $10K. They had all spent well over $1 million on their dream homes and each thought they had impeccable taste. They were wrong. Each home screamed "I have more money than I know what to do with." The scripture passage about taking the beam out of your own eye so you can see to take the speck out of your brother's eye comes to mind. Each contestant had no trouble seeing how grotesquely ostentatious the other players' houses were while steadfastly maintaining that their own home was the very definition of style. Only one of the four houses seemed to contain even a single book. Yes, I looked. A house without books is simply of no interest to me, regardless of whether there are red chandeliers (one house had several), see-through glass walls between the two potties in the master bath (same house) or a wine "cellar" conveniently located just off the dining room. That house, by the way, was the most costly of the lot at $7.5 million and it deservedly came in dead last in the competition. Will I watch the show again? Possibly. A "Keeping Austin Weird" episode is coming up, so that should be good. Would I hire any of last night contestants to design my home if I won the lottery and had an unlimited home-building budget? Hell no. Four Houses airs Saturdays at 9 p.m., 8 p.m. Central on TLC.