[USA] Breaking In

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Op vrijdag 8 april 2011 06:12 schreef byah het volgende:
Oh die chick speelt ook in Cloverfield. Ze had al zo'n bekend hoofd

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Op vrijdag 8 april 2011 18:44 schreef JD_SLR het volgende:
Het grootste probleem van deze serie is zoals gezegd de tijdsduur. Op basis van de pilot lijkt 20 minuten me gewoon veel te kort, want het voelde wel erg gehaast aan. Maar goed, ik heb me vermaakt met de pilot en ga het een kans geven. Hopelijk kunnen de schrijvers er iets van maken en komt de korte tijdsduur de karakterontwikkeling niet in de weg te staan.

Dit was trouwens wel een geniaal moment:
[ afbeelding ]

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"Breaking In": The secret behind TV's obnoxious male leads
Wednesday, Apr 6, 2011 10:30 ET

Christian Slater's new show is the latest to double as a fawning tribute to the Hollywood boss who approved it

By Matt Zoller Seitz

If you've ever asked yourself why so many TV shows and movies glorify people who strut around growling orders and insulting underlings and barking, "Think, people! Think!" and otherwise acting like insufferable jerks, you've never spent any time in Los Angeles. Hollywood is a dream factory run mostly by and for raging narcissists with power and money. Its mass-produced dreams are overseen by people who want to be constantly reassured that they're talented, sexy, charismatic warrior-poet visionaries, and that you can absorb such invaluable knowledge by being around them that the abuse they heap on you is totally worth it. That's why the preferred dramatic configuration of ensemble TV shows is the ragtag band of eccentric professionals (read as: creative types), led by a well-dressed, middle-aged boss who reflexively needles and insults people and throws temper tantrums and sometimes puts on an expensive jacket and sunglasses, hops in his expensive car or on his expensive motorcycle, and takes off for parts unknown without warning, forcing underlings to wonder where the hell he is and talk about him nonstop until he reappears unannounced and provides them with the final piece of whatever puzzle they were trying to solve in his absence. These shows exist to kiss the asses of people who approve shows.

"I'm glad you're back, boss," the underling will say. "There's no time for that!" the boss will say, cutting him off, firing up one of those gigantic wall-mounted display screens that are all the rage on crime shows these days, and pointing to a crucial detail the rest of the team overlooked because they're not as awesome as he is. "Hah! I knew it! 'Tribal nil' is an anagram for 'brilliant'!"

The autocratic mentor-leader with no time for pleasantries is a masturbation fantasy of super-rich producers, directors, studio executives and network suits. The archetype keeps showing up on-screen because it's an easy way to stroke the ego of a boss who's not very smart or self-aware. ("See, the FBI team is headed by this handsome, mysterious, brilliant guy in his 40s with this young, hot girlfriend ..." "I like it!") Roughly a third of CBS' prime-time lineup and a lot of Fox's has a Hollywood boss surrogate as its hero, and pretty much every other network and cable channel has its own versions scattered throughout the schedule. Laurence Fishburne on "CSI," Gary Sinise on "CSI: New York," David Caruso on "CSI: Miami," Forest Whitaker on "Criminal Intent: Suspect Behavior," Tim Roth on "Lie to Me," Hugh Laurie on "House" -- the list of examples is endless. Some of these guys have three dimensions (House is an especially well-drawn character), while others have maybe one-and-a-half.

Why am I griping about Hollywood power-trippers and their poisonous effect on pop culture? Because it's more fun than writing about "Breaking In" (9:30 p.m. Wednesdays/8:30 Central), the mediocre, plastic, utterly false new comedy premiering on Fox tonight -- a series that just happens to be built around an all-powerful alpha male jerkwad character.

Publicity materials describe "Breaking In" as "an offbeat half-hour workplace comedy about a high-tech security firm that takes extreme -- and often questionable -- measures to sell their protection services. Created by Adam F. Goldberg and Seth Gordon, the series centers on a team of uniquely skilled oddball geniuses hand-picked to work for a manipulative mastermind." The mastermind in question is known as Oz (get it?), and he's played by Christian Slater in that tiresome, vaguely lizard-y, fast talking mode that has been his stock-in-trade for a quarter century.

Oz appears mysteriously (of course) in the dorm room of a college hacker and hustler named Cameron Price (Bret Harrison). "Have a seat, there, champ," he says, startling Cameron, who had no idea he was even in the room.

"Who the hell are you?" Cameron sputters.

"I'm the guy telling you to sit your ass down, that's who I am," Oz replies. He's wearing sunglasses indoors. And he's got a cigar.

The plot, such as it is, has Oz and his team testing security for a luxury car dealership by trying to steal a car from its showroom. The team includes a hot chick who can pick locks (say that five times fast) and a pop culture addict who makes his entrance dressed as Han Solo. There's a mildly funny twist at the 20-minute mark, preceded by lots of jokes that would only make a Hollywood jerk laugh (luxury cars described as "panty droppers," the hero being casually threatened with prison rape and so forth). Yawn.

The supposedly great and powerful Oz has no discernible inner (or outer) life. He's just a fantasy of mastery, boring and empty even by the standards of half-hour escapist comedy. The only touch that seems halfway human is his fascination with ordering merchandise from Sky Mall; how much you wanna bet that detail was lifted from whoever the show's creators needed to ego-stroke in order to get a green light for "Breaking In"?

This is the sort of show networks put on the air when they've got nothing else. I hope whoever said yes to it is happy.

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Op vrijdag 8 april 2011 20:20 schreef PieterBas het volgende:
Boom goes the dynamite

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Op vrijdag 8 april 2011 23:02 schreef pberends het volgende:

[..]

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Op vrijdag 8 april 2011 23:05 schreef Tim86 het volgende:

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Smaken verschillen..mag het?

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Op vrijdag 8 april 2011 23:07 schreef pberends het volgende:

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Komop zeg, een uberirritante puberale "popi-cultuur"-neger (mag ik dat zeggen? ja, dat mag ik zeggen) die als stopzin "boom goes the dynamite" heeft. Het is maar wat je humor vindt. Gatverdamme zeg. De humor van het 35ste seizoen South Park is nog van een hoger niveau.

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Op vrijdag 8 april 2011 23:07 schreef pberends het volgende:

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Komop zeg, een uberirritante puberale "popi-cultuur"-neger (mag ik dat zeggen? ja, dat mag ik zeggen) die als stopzin "boom goes the dynamite" heeft. Het is maar wat je humor vindt. Gatverdamme zeg. De humor van het 35ste seizoen South Park is nog van een hoger niveau.

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Op vrijdag 8 april 2011 23:43 schreef Seam het volgende:
30 rock had dezelfde insteek met een shitload aan stereotypes en flat characters. Uiteindelijk belachelijk veel awards gewonnen, maar goed zij hebben ook wel fantastische schrijvers.

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Op vrijdag 8 april 2011 23:41 schreef Tim86 het volgende:

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Genoeg foute stereotypes ja, maar die kan ik in iedere serie wel vinden. Ik heb je in debielere topicreeksen zien posten dan dit. Dat het niet je ding is dat is prima, maar kom het hier dan niet in tig posts verkondigen want daar heeft niemand iets aan.

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Op zaterdag 9 april 2011 00:10 schreef pberends het volgende:

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Wil je vechten?

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Op zaterdag 9 april 2011 00:15 schreef Tim86 het volgende:

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Make my day

Maar je snapt mijn punt wel toch

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Op zaterdag 9 april 2011 00:17 schreef pberends het volgende:

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Over welke debielere topicreeksen had je het trouwens?

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Op zaterdag 9 april 2011 00:23 schreef Tim86 het volgende:

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Debiel is wel een compleet verkeerd woord eigenlijk, maar ik bedoelde meer series die ook vol zitten met stereotypes en waarbij ze zelfs nog sterker aanwezig zijn dan hier. Denk oa aan Chuck, RJ Berger, Oh Oh Cherso..

Ik kijk die 3 ook overigens, dus het is geen diss naar die series