Stop Trying to Make ... Happen!

[Faulkner]

James Wolk is another good one, but he’s so easy to forget lol. Gorgeous guy but just nothing memorable.

[Khan]

 

Yep, it was on FOX.  "Lone Star."

 

Wait, what?  What issues do you have with Fuller?

 

RE: "Lone Star" -- I, too, remember how upset people were when the series died the quickest of deaths.  One of those "it was too good for (network) TV" moments.  And I don't know, maybe it was.  Maybe, if it had been on cable or on streaming, it might've had a better chance.  But I feel like it was asking a lot from people -- especially, people watching network TV -- to empathize with a bigamist and con artist.  Especially when that grifter is played by the blandly handsome and ultimately forgettable Mr. Wolk.

[DRW50]

 

I had forgotten he was on that Political Animals show that mostly just got some notice after Sebastian Stan hit it big as Bucky. 

 

Egomaniac. Style over substance. Wildly overhyped. Too much woobie-dom from fans over how hard done by he is over the big mean corporate machine (Joss Whedon also got this woobie-dom for many years). Too much of the focus on his shows is about him and nothing else. His interaction with fans during Hannibal also bothered me - he let himself get way too involved in fan culture, which meant when it turned sour (as it always does with overinvested fans) on topics like misogyny and queerbaiting, he handled their reactions poorly. 

 

And whoever it was, him or whoever with the show, so much of the publicity for American Gods revolving around how awesome it was to see all kinds of huge prosthetic pensises annoyed the hell out of me. I don't want to see fake penises - oversized or normal sized, whatever. I'm not going to pay money for a cable network I've never had any interest in just to see them. I don't know why this has become some kind of talking point with cable - we were also supposed to be in awe when Girls had a fake penis on Matthew Rhys. To me when you have to talk about a fake dick, it means you truly have nothing of interest to say. Lena Dunham never has.

 

After reading about all the budget issues with American Gods they should have just gone to a local porn studio and saved a few bucks. 

[Khan]

 

ROFL!!

 

Didn't Wolk also co-star in "The Crazy Ones"?  IIRC, Ken Levine wrote in his blog that a major problem with the show was that it was a comedy being written and produced by someone (David E. Kelley) who was not a comedy writer.  Subsequently, the parts that weren't Robin Williams improv'ing like mad fell flat.

 

I expect Wolk to land in a Hallmark Channel "Countdown to Christmas" movie sooner or later.  With Lacey Chabert or (God help us) Candace Cameron Bure for his love interest.

Edited February 28, 2018 by Khan

[DRW50]

 

He was, yes. I figured that would flop as soon as I saw SMG. She's too hard to do comedy and has been since about season 4 of Buffy - it's one of the reasons why in the last years of Buffy her attempts at comedy came across like a wacky parody of Requiem for a Dream. 

 

(SMG is another I'm tempted to put in this category...)

 

I kind of wonder if Wolk is also hurt by looking a lot like various other actors who came in or came back in recent years, like Brandon Routh, who has found a decent foothold on CW shows after mostly being known for blasting OLTL and being in that Superman reboot. 

Edited February 28, 2018 by DRW50

[Vee]

 

She's already been on The Knick which was very critically acclaimed, and has a bunch of stuff lined up including another Fox pilot. To my surprise she seems to have broken out reasonably well.

 

Jason Isaacs is already off Discovery, sadly. But I believe he's so in demand he only committed to one season to begin with. It's a reasonably solid show (and the best first season of any Star Trek show since the original) but is messy, and a lot of that frankly has to do with CBS and executive meddling of Fuller's original vision - it feels like a janky hybrid of CBS-style programming for more mainstream genre TV on network, and some weirder ideas. That being said, I made my thoughts about Fuller's unfortunate spat of recent exits from show after show clear not long ago - he's brilliant and I'm not going to rehash my Hannibal argument I've already had, it's searchable, but I think he is becoming his own worst enemy. But yes, on Discovery, while I enjoy it, you can clearly see just how network-managed it is. It's a vague shadow of his work.

("Egomaniac," though? Really? He may be beloved by critics but that doesn't make him an egomaniac.)

Edited February 28, 2018 by Vee

[Soaplovers]

 

SMG would be more along the lines of lightening not striking twice with the Robin Williams comedy.. and my favorite primetime soap cancelled too soon Ringer ( a 3 season outlined show about twins.. that only played out for one season on CW.. when it was set up to be a CBS show originally but because CBS was all procedural they passed).

[Vee]

ETA: Scratch that - Ferrin's apparently been recast from that Fox pilot. Just as well, really: Her recent resume is way more prestigious than a Fox network show.

 

I agree with all the critique of SMG but while I personally don't care if she returns to TV I do feel like she could yet hit again, though only on a sort of cloistered network like CBS - like Tea Leoni. If Leoni can come back anyone can. But no, she can't do comedy very well anymore. Or maybe she could but it'd have to be very carefully modulated with restraint. Not something David E. Kelley was known for of late until maybe Big Little Lies. I am shocked that he got that comeback, but apparently it's a good show.

 

 

I loved Political Animals! It was a sleeper darling and Sigourney Weaver was great. But USA dumped it.

 

One more thing I'd forgotten about: SMG's failed HBO pilot in 2010, The Wonderful Maladys, with Molly Parker, Adam Driver and Adam Scott. Didn't get picked up. That might have saved her career from CBS.

Edited February 28, 2018 by Vee

[CassieFan]

Ooooh, I actually root for James Wolk to get a good show. All his shows were either cancelled way too soon or he starred in complete garbage like that CBS's show with the raging animals.

 

Are you sure Moonlight was replaced with Close to Home? I thought that aired and was cancelled before Moonlight even premiered?

 

We should make the opposite thread - TV stars that deserve to happen.

[~bl~]

I thought Moonlight was screwed due to being on CBS where it wasn't a typical show for them, and the writers' strike...

[soapfan770]

Can I bump this topic to throw in Ben Platt lol?