Yo, Adrian! Adrian Monk, that is….


Though I’m not normally a devotee of the mystery genre, once in a while I’ll fall for something, and fall hard. That’s why I’m thrilled to see USA Network’s terrific series Monk back for its second season beginning tonight at 10pm. Although when it first premiered last year some people considered it merely a Columbo with tics, the show -- and its title character Adrian Monk, as played by Tony Shalhoub -- is much more than that.

This is one show, in contrast to the slew of plodding procedural dramas that are so methodically gobbling up all the primetime drama ratings these days, where the emphasis is on personality, and the results are delightful. You sure don’t hear CSI described that way – nor would you want to – but there’s a lot to be said for the sense of fun that Shalhoub brings to Monk. The premise behind the character – the death of police detective Monk’s wife sent him into a behavioral spiral, and even after getting better he’s still a collection of phobias and obsessive-compulsive neuroses – would be ripe for over-playing, yet Shalhoub manages to make Monk endearing rather than annoying. This “defective detective,” as Monk’s supervisor (played by Ted Levine) dubbed him in the pilot, is a walking encyclopedia, has a photographic memory and always gets his man, yet hangs onto the comfortable routine of his Tuesday Chicken Pot Pie Night with a genuine need.

Monk’s partner in crime-solving is Sharona, a practical nurse who is more-or-less Monk’s keeper. Played by the spunky and talented Bitty Schram (the crying girl ballplayer in A League of Their Own), Sharona’s a hard-working single mother who isn’t hesitant to stand up for her own needs while still being dedicated to helping Monk with his. Although you can find fan websites that are rooting for Monk and Sharona to get in on, thankfully their relationship is intelligent, complex, and blissfully platonic. Schram and Shalhoub are a terrific team, and it’s their prickly charisma together that helps push Monk into something much better than most light series TV.

As mentioned before, the distinctly-voiced veteran actor Ted Levine (the creepy CB voice in Joy Ride) brings his trademark saturnine persona to the part of Monk’s boss, and his eager-to-please aide-de-camp is done to buttoned-up perfection by Jason Gray-Stanford.

Viewers looking for a kindler, gentler TV will find just what they’ve been searching for in Monk, but that’s not to say that Monk is cutesy or puerile; what it is, is adorable. It is – at the risk of making myself wretch even to use this term – a genuine feel-good show. Shoot me…I’m in love with Monk.

The only negative thing I can say about Monk is that USA has made what I think is a huge blunder, and that's changing the charming opening theme song. Forget the jaunty, buoyant and chipper guitar ditty that perfectly captured the unique magic of Monk; they’ve replaced it with a Randy Newman vocal, which sounds pretty much like all Randy Newman vocals. This new song, entitled “It’s a Jungle Out There,” presumes to lyrically elucidate Monk’s mental state. While it’s supposed to be funny, it comes off as far more downbeat, paranoid and negative than the show itself has ever been. I don’t like it, and I predict that most other Monk fans won’t either. Some producers seem not to understand what power an opening theme has on an audience’s expectations. Like the masculine and aggressive impulses that get triggered with The Soprano’s “Woke Up This Morning,” to the eccentric Thomas Newman theme to Six Feet Under that perfectly introduces you into the world of a dysfunctional mortuary family, Jeff Beal’s theme to Monk was a key element in establishing the fundamentally likeable tone of the comedy-drama series. At least the old theme can still be heard over the end credits, but I’ll predict that the old opening gets restored sometime soon. If not, USA might be left wondering where the magic has gone if this new theme is as much of a turn-off as I think it is.

But don’t let 60 seconds of bad new title music keep you away from the treat that is Monk. Tony Shalhoub rightfully picked up a Golden Globe as Best Actor – Musical or Comedy earlier this year, and you know why if you already watch Monk.

Monk starts its second season tonight, Friday, at 10pm on USA. Encores are at 11pm, and several other times during the week. Check out the USA Monk website for all details and a lot of nice background information.

 
Great Guest on Glick

Tonight’s 8pm episode of Primetime Glick on Comedy Central should be tremendous – Jiminy’s guest is Chris Elliott, and if you know him, you probably love him. For a lot of us he’ll always be paperboy Chris Peterson from the hilarious Get a Life series which aired in the early years of the Fox network, or maybe you like him in Cabin Boy, the unfairly-maligned feature film that’s funny as hell.

In any case, he’s on Glick tonight, so be sure to watch!

 
Walking with Baldwin

Tonight is your second chance to catch up with Discovery Channel’s excellent 2-hour documentary Walking with Cavemen, which premiered last Sunday night. WwC was produced by the BBC; over in Britain the audience is evidently less demanding of showbiz packaging and so they didn’t have a host, but we shallow Americans get actor Alec Baldwin to lead the way for us.

He’s an astute choice, as his own family line is practically a visual treatise on evolution in itself, a microcosm of physiological advancement…or is it actually the reverse? Starting from the polished and downright handsome human being that is Alec Baldwin – clearly a first rate example of mankind -- the devolution begins swiftly with his younger brother Daniel. Take a look -- something’s coarser, cruder in his visage, in Daniel. Even his body is hulkier, as if maybe chucking a spear at a prehistoric wild boar would be a piece of cake for him. He’s back a notch in time, not scarily so, but he has yet to grab that highest rung on the evolutionary ladder that would put him on par with his brother Alec.

Third brother William would seem to be more of a throw-ahead to Alec, showing the physiological promise of full progress – more chiseled features, a pleasant smile -- a tantalizing glimpse of the fully-evolved Baldwin brother line. So close, yet still lacking that certain something to push him forward and up to the top of the heap.

And then we get to brother Stephen. Give him a hand for pluck and grit, but don’t necessarily look for an opposable thumb there. Granted, the man walks upright, and there’s a flicker of budding advancement in his heavy-lidded eyes, but were you to place the Baldwin brothers on one of those evolutionary charts where the figures go from stooped to stalwart, we know which end Stephen would be holding up.

Walking with Cavemen will take you back a few millions years before the Baldwins, to a time when early man by design and by blunder managed to strike out for the future. Using a combination of elaborate CGI and actors specially trained to emulate the postulated movements of our ancient ancestors, WwC tries to emphasis the emotional and motivational similarities between life then and now, and succeeds admirably.

Walking with Cavemen encores tonight at 9pm on The Discovery Channel, with additional plays tonight at 12midnight, this Saturday at 4pm and on Sunday 6/29 at 6pm.

Check out the Discovery Channel website for more information.

 
Keen on Eddie

Hey, it’s not going to help the long-term prospects of the show, but yourself a favor and watch Fox’s impudent and more than a little looney Keen Eddie tonight at 9pm. In tonight’s episode “Achtung Baby,” Eddie’s playing bodyguard to Liese Kohl, a German opera singer who’s being stalked. British comedienne/actress Josie Lawrence plays Liese, and you probably will recognize her from her frequent appearances on the original UK version of Who’s Line Is It Anyway? which runs on Comedy Central. Eddie’s bull terrier also gets a taste of the spotlight tonight when he’s approached to star in a dog food commercial.

Keen Eddie, in addition to romping along at a bracing pace and being stuffed with as much crazy dialogue as the law allows, features a wonderful assortment of guest stars and bit actors in every episode. It’s been a particular treat to see the larger-than-life actor/comedian Alexei Sayle in his recurring role as Rudy, a struggling actor with criminal connections who seems destined to interact with Eddie for the duration. Sayle, who was a huge comic sensation in Britain beginning with his lunatic appearances on The Young Ones (now available in a great DVD set) back in the ‘80s and continuing with several of his own series, has traded in a bit of his crazy edge but replaced it with a genial energy that makes him irresistible. He was also featured in the UK miniseries Tipping The Velvet which BBC America ran last month, but you’d never know it, what with BBCA’s butchering of the episodes. How nice to see a lot of him in Keen Eddie!

Ratings have been predictably dismal for the show, but unless you’re a person with strictly mainstream tastes – and more power to you if you are, it must make TV watching so much more satisfying – you know that’s what often happens with shows that are somewhat out of the ordinary. Keen Eddie is delightful and unexpected, and that’s surely enough to put it on the endangered species list. Currently it’s set to run through July, at which point it will be replaced by the early-starting fall series The O.C.,which will eventually move to Thursday nights when 24 comes back. If ratings don’t improve soon, it would almost be a miracle if Fox didn’t pull the plug sooner, but let’s hope that they let Keen Eddie find its way for a few more weeks at least.


I’m With Busey Premieres Tonight

After you’re spent a breathless hour with Keen Eddie, here’s the perfect chaser – Comedy Central’s new half-hour comedy/reality show I’m With Busey, where actor/pop culture icon Gary Busey shares his unique life philosophy with comedian/writer/Busey fan Adam de la Pena. Busey -- long-time bad boy, king of the B-movies, genuine character – has enjoyed a checkered career but certainly deserves points just for making it this through, and de la Pena, writer for The Man Show and Crank Yankers, has loved him for it since childhood.

What is this show going to be like? Will it reach the sublime heights of the much-loved and incredibly odd Fishing With John that used to run on IFC, (and is available on DVD)? Or will be more like E's The Anna Nicole Show, which seems to get less amusing and more pathetic as time goes on? I guess it depends on whether you think Gary Busey is a loser or not; I think he’s a survivor, and let’s hope naturally funny enough to carry this off. Let’s also trust that de la Pena has enough genuine affection for Gary to turn I’m With Busey into a welcome treat instead of an pathetic annoyance. I say give it a try.


Keen Eddie airs on Fox tonight and every Tuesday at 9pm. Check out the official website.

Here’s another Fox affiliate’s website which has a nice Keen Eddie episode review so you can catch up with what you’ve missed.


I’m With Busey premieres tonight at 10pm on Comedy Central, with encores Saturdays at 8:30pm and 12:30am and Sundays at noon.

Here’s the Comedy Central I’m With Busey official website.

And in case you didn’t realize it, Busey-worship is alive and well on this clever and amusing site called Busey World

 
Think Big

My best bet tonight is The History Channel’s two-hour special Giants, at 9pm. Promising a look at both legendary and historical big folk, this special is certainly right up my alley and should be fascinating to anybody who likes a bit of the unusual. I’m hoping they talk a little bit about my favorite real-life giant, Robert Wadlow, the 8’11” gentle soul from Alton, Illinois, who cut quite a path during his brief twenty-two year life. Still holding the record as the tallest human, Robert was by all accounts kind, modest, sweet and devoted to his family, and that’s after living his life in a virtual fishbowl. He traveled all over the United States on promotional tours for a shoe company and made friends wherever he went, and I think one look at his smiling face tells you everything about this extraordinary human being.

I’m also fond of Anna Swan, the 19th century giantess from Nova Scotia, and even more so now that my boyfriend and I own property up there not too far from her hometown. She was a big hit with P.T. Barnum and had a harrowing escape from his New York Museum when it burned to the ground back in 1865; Anna eventually settled down in Ohio and died at the young age of 42. Let’s hope the documentary also mentions Sandy Allen, plucky and intelligent contemporary giantess.

Immediately following Giants at 11pm is a terrific History’s Mysteries episode “Circus Freaks and Sideshows,” so make this a three-hour event if you can. In fact, you really should tune in at 8pm for R. Lee Ermey’s wonderful Mail Call and then join Peter Woodward in Conquest. Make it a History Channel night; you won’t be disappointed.

Goodbye, Gregory Peck

If you are one of the many who were saddened to hear of the death of Gregory Peck last week, tune into Turner Classic Movies tonight at 8pm for A Conversation with Gregory Peck, their 1999 documentary look at this enduring American cinema icon. At 10pm stick around to watch the immensely entertaining and thoughtful 1958 William Wyler-directed western The Big Country. In a rip-roaring yet sensitive portrayal, Peck plays a sea captain who falls in love with spoiled rancher’s daughter Carroll Baker, travels to the West to marry her, and finds a new life in the process. The Big Country is an incredibly enjoyable movie, and in addition to Peck and Baker stars Charlton Heston in one of his trademark taciturn bastard roles (he’s great!), the serene Jean Simmons as a self-sufficient lady rancher, Charles Bickford as Baker’s rich land baron daddy, and Burl Ives (in an Oscar-winning role) as a complex and violent rival landowner. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s got one of the most memorable musical scores (by Jerome Moross) ever, making this movie a true must-see. Amazing scenes: Peck going it alone with a high-spirited bucking bronco, Heston and Peck duking it out on the plains, and Peck and Simmons trying to out-gross-out each other as they trade gruesome stories. There isn’t a dull moment in the entire movie, but beware, it is nearly three hours long. Shown in Letterbox.

Week-long alert: BBC America is making it easy to catch up with the savage and savvy comedy The Office, with three episodes of the show every night this week beginning at 10pm. They’re running it in sort of a repeating and rotating order so check out their website for the complete schedule. On Wednesday at 9pm we get an added bonus, an episode of the talk show Parkinson with Ricky Gervais, The Office’s star and creator. I think The Office gets even better with repeated viewing, making this week an excellent chance to increase your exposure to this fierce and funny show.


A nice website all about Robert Wadlow from the Historical Society of his hometown Alton, Illinois.

The Robert Wadlow entry from the Roadside America website.

And a very sweet site about when Robert visited Hazard, Kentucky back in the 1930s.

All about Anna Swan, Nova Scotia giantess.

Anna's life was the subject of a novel by acclaimed Canadian novelist Susan Swan.

Sandy Allen has written a book about her extraordinary life; buy it here!

This is a kinda crazy but interesting site about Giants and their connection with things like the Bible and UFOs....

This fascinating fellow has also written a book about Giants and human civilization; great pics on his site!

Recommended Reading on Freak Shows and Human Oddities:
Leslie Fiedler’s amazing and still the best on the subject Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self -- link to Amazon.com

Robert Bogdan's Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit, a scholarly and totally fascinating book.