Swanson, Kiorein, and Stairmaster continue through season 2 of Redwall as the cast of characters grows and Tim Curry continues to put the other voice actors to shame. Plus, the all-AI Roku channel and a Kingdom Hearts TV series. Want to request a future bonus episode? Donate to our Buy Me a Coffee page
In the mid-00s, Will Ferrell solidified his leading man status with a series of sports comedies. In succession, he played a NASCAR driver, a figure skater, and least successfully a basketball player. These films helped set the example of the typical Ferrell character. A dim, arrogant man-child who, through the course of the movie, learns to grow up just enough to redeem themselves. When done right, that is to say in about 90 minutes, the process works. Anything longer than that and you’re liable to end up with something like The Hawk.
Netflix’s new comedy series finds Ferrell back in the sports world as washed-up golfer Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins. Still reeling from the death of his caddy and best friend, Old Henry (Keith David), Lonnie aims to recapture his glory days by winning the U.S. Open. Oh, and reconnect with his estranged wife and adult son (Molly Shannon and Jimmy Tatro, respectively), that’s definitely on the list. If it all feels a little Happy Gilmore 2, rest assured that the show has other avenues to explore. Organized crime, alcohol-based side hustles, and a trip to Vegas are just some ways the show pads itself out.
No amount of silly diversions can distract from the knowledge that you’ve seen this type of story before. Not only that, you’ve seen it done by Ferrell! While the comedy occasionally finds a beat, the writing of Lonnie keeps viewers at a distance. Ferrell excels at playing egotists, and much of the humor comes from his ability to win you over despite the character’s obvious flaws. For Lonnie, the writing steers him too far into being just an asshole. This is a man who steals his dead friend’s watch and nearly misses his funeral to golf. At a certain point, you begin to root for Lonnie’s continued downfall.
The Hawk employs a cast of comedy heavy hitters, but even that wears thin after a while. Molly Shannon remains a delight, but clearly deserves a meatier role than the foul-mouthed wife (the divorce never got finalized). Fortune Feimster ends up being a perfect foil to Ferrell as his new caddy, Sam. She becomes the most reliably funny performer, even when the show veers into her family history. That particular subplot aims to parallel Lonnie’s own dysfunctional situation, but doesn’t quite stick the landing.
Comedy veteran David Gordan Green directs 4 episodes of The Hawk and adds a visual style full of flourish. Whether it’s the upside-down POV shot of a golf ball soaring through the air or the sudden shift to a music video style when Lonnie gets too into the Thong Song. There is always something interesting on the screen. While it doesn’t redeem the whole project, it makes the more tedious aspects tolerable.
It’s hard to look at The Hawk and not think about the other recent golf comedy show, Owen Wilson’s Stick. While their stories overlap, the general tone is completely different. For a show focused on an old-timer making a comeback, The Hawk remains in the past. A past where Ferrell was the hottest comedy star. Where you could sell mid-budget comedy movies instead of streaming series. Both shows fail to keep you invested, but I’ll take the Ted Lasso-lite approach over whatever Ferrell and his team are doing here.
The Hawk is currently streaming on Netflix.
Television Turmoil is a look at the worst and weirdest series to make their way onto the small screen.
For the past two decades, CBS has remained at or near the top of the broadcast network game thanks to a mix of catering to a slowly aging audience and sticking to a mostly rigid formula of what its programs look like. Watching an evening of CBS prime-time programming feels a bit like driving around a cul-de-sac. Sure, you can tell that each house is technically different from one another, but you’re not sure what exactly sets them apart. Comfort and routine are key to the CBS brand at this stage. Even when something outside the norm gets made, it often feels like it must play inside the confines of what CBS sees as “network television.” Which is what makes $#*! My Dad Says one of the worst outliers in this era of the network.
Based on a Twitter feed by blogger Justin Halpern, one of the most popular at the time for the nascent social media site. $#*! My Dad Says (pronounced Bleep My Dad Says) follows Henry Goodson (Jonathan Sadowski) a down on his luck writer with a surname that is the closest thing to a real joke the show provides. Desperate for money, Henry moves back in with his father, Ed (William Shatner) and has to deal with constant visits from his brother Vince and Vince’s wife, Bonnie (Will Sasso and Nicole Sullivan). As the title suggests, there is plenty of $#*! this dad ends up saying.
Neither the show’s premise nor its tried and true multi-cam production are outliers to the CBS style. What makes the show stand out is how all in it goes on being an “edgy” sitcom. CBS had found success with faux-edgy sitcoms like Two and a Half Men and Two Broke Girls so why not a third show that didn’t have “two” in the title? Those shows mistook dick jokes and overt racial humor for “edge,” and viewers rewarded them. It only makes sense that the next logical step is to add an expletive to the title and let fate work out the rest.
It is perhaps a bit too pat to say, but $h*! My Dad Says is well and truly shit. For as boiler-plate as most CBS shows are, there is a baseline of mediocrity that sort of blends all but their worst programming together. This is a rare show, so thin in both premise and character that all that stands out are the tasteless and unfunny jokes. Within seconds of his first appearance on screen, Shatner is pointing a shotgun at his son’s genitals and threatening to turn him into a woman. The awfulness of Shatner’s titular dad attempts to be the “hook” that keeps us all coming back, like a repugnant version of Archie Bunker. The problem is that no one on the writing team gives poor Ed a character outside of “racist and mean.”
To be fair, no one is much of a character in this show. The cast exists for the express purpose of delivering jokes, and there is little time for something as trivial as stakes and character development. It probably isn’t much of a surprise that normally game comedic actors like Sasso and Sullivan are essentially sleepwalking through this program. There is nothing much to do here but walk into one of the three sets that are used in an episode, belt out some jokes that went stale in the 90s, and pause long enough for the laugh track to be added in later.
Ultimately, the problems this show faces stem from that wafer-thin premise. Perhaps there is a reason that no one else has really attempted to adapt a popular social media account into a sitcom since. Even if the people involved carved something manageable from nothing, they would still have to contend with that all-time stinker of a title. It remains a mystery why anyone allowed the show’s actual title to include a word that couldn’t be said in advertising or on the network itself. Best I can tell, it was a ploy to attract attention to a show that needed all the help it could get. They got that attention, just not in the way they expected.
It is sad to think about, but even in the recent history of 2010, the prospect of including one of the “big swears” in the title of your show courted a significant amount of controversy. The vast majority of this came from that bastion of censorship, the Parents Television Council. Their primary argument was the classic “I don’t want my kids to see this” ploy. Advertisers were also skeptical about the name despite repeated assurances from the network that the dreaded swear was never said aloud. Even Shatner got in on the fun with a statement only he could make, saying, “The word ‘shit’ is around us. It isn’t a terrible term. It’s a natural function. Why are we pussyfooting?”
Overall, the controversy gave $#*! My Dad Says a big debut number of over 12 million viewers. The number dropped steadily once the audience realized how shallow the show’s premise and characters actually were. They aired 18 episodes of the show before retiring Dad. An expected ending when you have so little to offer.
Quality is rarely a determining factor in what attracts audiences to a show. Often, all you need to do to achieve success is provide something for your viewers to engage with. $#*! My Dad Says instead doles out cheap laughs on even cheaper sets with actors who would rather be anywhere else.
Next Time: We head to the world of syndication and enjoy some Burt Reynolds voice-acting with the alien sitcom Out of This World.
Late in the first episode of Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie remake, Charles and Caroline Ingalls are arguing about their decision to move the family to Kansas. It soon becomes clear that the bulk of the decision rests on Charles’ shoulders, something Caroline regrets. Their conversation eventually turns to family, both the ones left behind and the ones who have passed away. It’s a clunky scene narratively that proves emotionally resonant in the long run. The scene also serves as a guide to what this new version of the show is all about.
Loosely based on the book series of the same name, Little House on the Prairie first debuted in 1974. A 9 season run and a long history of syndication helped make the show a staple of American pop culture. Remade for the streaming era, the new series still follows the Ingalls, but the town of Walnut Grove is nowhere to be found. Charles and Caroline (Luke Bracey and Crosby Fitzgerald) take their daughters Laura (Alice Halsey) and Mary (Skywalker Hughes) to Independence, Kansas, in search of opportunity. The series follows their attempts to stake a claim in the Kansas wilds. All the while they contend with fevers, rowdy townsfolk, and the Osage people who are not pleased with settlers claiming their land.
The trickiest aspect of the show turns out to be the last part. The writing attempts to give the Osage characters the interiority they deserve. Ultimately, they still end up serving as supporting players in the Ingalls’ story. This isn’t strictly a problem with the Native American roles either. Every side character is only as important as their ability to be a friend or foe to the family and their American dream. While that works to create tension, it leaves the world feeling smaller than intended. This becomes more noticeable later on when the traumas of the Ingalls are more pronounced.
Yes, the new Little House is partially about the harsh realities of life in the pioneer days. That involves sifting through the various traumas the family endures both before and after we meet them. The results of this approach remain mixed. At their best, these serve as avenues for character development. In the most egregious situations, they strain your interest. This is the case in the show’s 4th episode, which involves the entire family hallucinating their worst fears during a bout with fever. The series wisely shies away from being as bleak as many other “realistic” portrayals of life in the settler days. That streak of optimism remains the link that connects both versions.
Like its predecessor, Netflix’s Little House is designed to appeal to as wide a swath of people as possible. While I remain unmoved by its slow pacing and halfhearted attempts to address the era’s racial dynamics. I can see the appeal. There’s enough of the original show’s DNA here to appease viewer nostalgia while updating the story for modern audiences. As remakes go, it falls squarely in the middle. Not a terrible place to be, but hardly memorable.
Little House on the Prairie is currently streaming on Netflix.
Swanson, Kiorein, and Stairmaster reach the end of Redwall season 1 as Matthias and Cluny have their, not quite epic, final confrontation. Then, the gang move on to season 2 with a new villain and a time jump. Plus, we talk about the show’s ongoing animation woes and the perils of having your shadows touch. Want to request a future bonus episode? Donate to our Buy Me a Coffee page https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tvtuners
