Boss and Veep- Lessons in how good lead actors can save shows

Boss- season one

We know many of you have been waiting for us to finish the first season of this show. We finally did. While we didn't love it, we were impressed with Kelsey's performance, and it is absolutely the best original show we've ever seen on Starz. We didn't think that channel was capable of making anything of this caliber, especially after Camelot (ugh, we've hardly ever hated a show as much as that one). It's a smart show about corruption and a powerful man losing control. So why didn't we love it? We just ended up not caring about the characters. We were impressed with the script and acting, but the show never pulled us in to the point where we had to know what happened next. Also, we didn't care about some of the subplots. It's a cold, cynical show, and whether you like that is a personal taste thing. 

We always mention Breaking Bad when we talk about joy in gritty shows. Breaking Bad handles very dark material, but you always feel good after watching it. There's a dark, maniacal humor running underneath it. Boss is the opposite of that. Dark material, flatly dark tone. We recognize that this show is quality, but it's not something we would recommend to anyone we actually know. If you like it, we certainly won't make fun of you (because it's a good show), but we're going to know that it's 90% personal taste. It gets boring in places, and it's often work to watch it. We thought the pilot was one of the slowest pilots we'd ever seen. We don't like the way the show handles sex at all, ever. Everything to do with sex on this show is dumb. If you love this show though, we get it. 

Season grade: B
Update: Boss was cancelled by Starz this week. Regrettable, but we understand how it might have been too gloomy for most people

Veep- season one

Was this supposed to be funny? We can't believe it was so recognized at the Emmys. Like Boss, this show has a dark outlook on politics, but rather than taking notes from Boss and using that outlook to be intriguing and smart, this comedy just ends up feeling mean, petty, and elitist. We love Julia and think she's gorgeous and talented, but she's better than this show. She completely saves it in every way. Everything that's good about it comes from the performances, not the writing. The show is not mean in a risk-taking way like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia either. Its material is very safe. The jokes are unoriginal and sometimes pointlessly raunchy. The plots are dull. You don't root for anyone. Wow, we hated this show. 

Season grade: D+

We're not ready to commit, but this isn't goodbye

Boss - “Pilot”

First thing first: Kelsey Grammer is great in this role. He leaves Frasier Crane completely behind and looks to be having a lot of fun playing a bad guy. Some readers might snark that this is because he IS a bad guy (a philanderer with multiple marriages and a substance abuse problem who is also Republican), but we have a hard time judging him. He first began drinking at age nine. That’s the parents’ fault. We’ve never had to find solace or meaning in drugs, drinking, and women. We really can’t hate the guy. We certainly wouldn't marry him or anything, but we would watch a show with him.

Kelsey’s parents divorced when he was two, and he only saw his father twice after that before his father was shot and killed. Anyone who knows anyone without a father is aware that this alone does enough damage. Kelsey had a younger sister, but she was raped and murdered when he was in college, causing him to refuse to leave his dorm room and fail the semester. Then his two half brothers died in a scuba accident five years later. Fortunately, this means Kelsey has a lot of dark spots to draw from when he plays Chicago Mayor Tom Kane. Also, he seems happier now, so that's good.

Tom Kane is a Don Corleone type without the manners most of the time. He runs Chicago, but he recently found out that he has a degenerative brain disease. He only allows his doctor to know this, because he wants to keep doing what he’s doing. The character is fairly Shakespearean. We also love that Connie Nielsen is around. She’s the woman from Gladiator and the temptress from The Devil’s Advocate, two very decent movies. The show is a good character study, but we don’t think we want to watch it live this fall. Starz has already renewed this show for a second season, so we will get the first season on DVD after it all airs to see if we want to tune in regularly next year. We don’t really trust Starz, and our TV calendars are full.

Complaints- There is too much gratuitous sex. As we’ve said before, we don’t mind sexual content or nudity as long as it adds to the story or character development or tone in a way that is necessary. Here, it was just sex for the sake of spicing things up. Starz is the absolute worst culprit when it comes to this. HBO is usually more graphic, but it also uses sex better/more artistically. It's not just spice. Things need to be spiced up here, but with other elements. The show is too gloomy and slow. We don’t really care about what happens next. The show can also be preachy, which is a problem for some people, but we didn’t mind it here. We would have liked to see this be a two-hour movie. Sticking with this guy every week might depress us.

Episode grade: B-

New Show: Boss

Boss
Starz, October 21 at 10 pm

Starring: Kelsey Grammer (Frasier, the best show ever, duh) and Connie Nielson (The Devil’s Advocate, Gladiator)

Plot: This is a political drama about a Chicago mayor (Grammer) who is diagnosed with a degenerative neurological disorder. He is both powerful and corrupt. He attempts to hide his condition from everyone except his doctor.

Why We Are Excited: The trailer looks interesting and there is plenty of potential in the premise and cast.

Why We Are Not Excited: Who on this show are we supposed to root for? And are we supposed to find Frasier to be evil and intimidating? Let's hope this role doesn't take him back to a dark place. Check out his bio/early family life and you'll know he has one. Also, the last couple of Starz shows have been things we hated.

Preview:


Anticipation Score: 5/10

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