Some may remember the point in his career when Jack Nicholson stopped being a character actor and became a character named Jack Nicholson. Something similar can be said of Fred Armisen. As a featured performer on “SNL,” Armisen was very good at creating characters — some funny, some straight. Even on the highly regarded “Portlandia,” he often had funny characters, but far too often they all seemed like offshoots of Fred Armisen. Even his ex-wife, Elisabeth Moss, saw Armisen’s desire to always be “on” annoying to the point she couldn’t be his spouse anymore. As Moss said back in 2012, “One of the greatest things I heard someone say about him  is, ‘He’s so great at doing impersonations. But the greatest impersonation he does is that of a normal person’….To me, that sums it up.” But Armisen’s “normal guy” isn’t really all that normal. There’s always this kind of obsessive-compulsive aspect to his character that’s just an inch below his normal person schtick — and it gets tiring. That’s certainly on display in “Forever” starring Armisen and Maya Rudolph on Amazon Prime, but it’s Rudolph who saves the series from getting mired in Armisen’s normal guy neurosis.

The two actors play Oscar and June, a couple who have been together so long that just from the opening credit sequence we can see how one half of that couple (June) grows more tired of the same old, same old year after year. Oscar and June are relatively happy, comfortably middle-class, childless, and are in a rut. Their relationship is predictable and boring. They do the same thing every year — and the monotony is really starting to grate on June. So, to change things up, they decide to take their annual vacation elsewhere. Usually, they go to a lake house where they fish — but June convinces Oscar to take a ski trip instead. Neither of them has any experience skiing so they take lessons, they have a miserable time learning how to pizza slice down a hill, they fight, and then…there’s a surprise ending. I won’t give it away because it propels the series in a direction that, well, I didn’t see coming. I thought it was going to be about a stale marriage (and it is), but where the drama plays out is as unexpected as it is interesting.

Rudolf is flat out amazing in her performance. I’ve seen her in some films, on “SNL,” and generally hamming it up on award shows, but I’ve never seen her really act. She really displays her range in “Forever” in both comedic and dramatic ways. There are moments when her character is required to be in the depths of sadness, and it is as convincing as it is heartbreaking. Of course, Rudolf can play a scene for comedic effect, but she makes June a more fully realized character than Armisen brings to Oscar. That’s not to say Armisen tanks the series because of his performance (he doesn’t), but often times when playing a scene with Rudolf it just underscores how limited he is as an actor. Far too often he resorts to “Fred Armisen: Normal Guy” mode, but fortunately, director and series co-creator Alan Yang has the good sense to know when to cut away from him and focus on more interesting characters and scenarios. Much like he did on the Aziz Ansari series “Master of None,” Yang also devoted a whole episode to two characters who aren’t part of the narrative arc — well not part of it yet. Episode 6, “Andre and Sarah” focused on a long-term love affair between two realtors. Sounds kind of uninteresting, but it was one of the more heartfelt and heartbreaking episodes of the series. Credit both Alan Yang and Colleen McGuinness’ script and Hong Chau and Jason Mitchell’s acting in this stand-alone story.

I was skeptical about this series when I first started watching it. Indeed, I turned off the first episode about halfway through because of the Fred Armisen’s “Normal Guy” routine. But I came back to it the next day and was hooked. “Forever” is a solid series with surprises, great performances from Rudolph, and interesting supporting players like Noah Robbins and Catherine Keener. It’s certainly not a perfect series, but “Forever” has enough compelling material to keep viewers hooked right to a satisfying conclusion.

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Radio City With Jon Grayson & Rob Ross:  Episode Eighty One

Rob and Jon are playing catch-up this week, as Jon recuperates from illness.  So as the boys deliver instalment 81 of this immensely popular podcast, listen in as they cover the spectrum:  from the death of Burt Reynolds, to the retirement of New York Mets captain David Wright, to Rob welcoming another cat into his family (!), onto the primary elections in New York and reviews of albums from both Bird Streets and The Artisanals – as well as “In Our Heads”…  there is NO shortage of material or a slowdown in the conversation as the duo pick up the conversation as if a week hadn’t skipped by.

So, as always, listen in and enjoy.  And please – let us know what you think.  It matters.

Radio City With Jon Grayson & Rob Ross:  Episode Eighty One

The podcast will be on the site as well as for subscription via iTunes and other podcast aggregators. Subscribe and let people know about Radio City, as well as Popdose’s other great podcasts David Medsker’s Dizzy Heights and In:Sound with Michael Parr and Zack Stiegler.

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Singer-songwriter Emma Charles has released, “Far From Here,” which pairs her strikingly clear vocals along with producer Doug Schadt’s sophisticated wide screen sound on this contemplative, melancholy-inflected song. Popdose is happy to bring this to you as we always strive to present new(er) artists.

Charles began her career with a slew of well-received singles as Emma Charleston early on as she studied at the Berklee College of Music; she is now on the cusp of graduating and honing her image and style for a full time music career.

Charles explains the moody tone of the song commenting that “Far From Here” was “written in a moment of desperation, at a time when all I wanted to do was run away from the reality I was in—to feel less alone, and to hopefully touch others so that they feel less alone.”

Emma Charles grew up in a music-filled house that fostered creativity. At age eight, she made guest appearances at Lincoln Center, singing background vocals with her mother, famed vocalist Rondi Charleston, and her jazz quartet. Charles has since created, performed, and interpreted different styles of music as a classically trained singer, with forays into R&B, jazz, and in particular, musical theater, having produced a number of revivals on campus and regionally in the lead roles including “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”, “Hair”, “Sweeney Todd”, “Avenue Q” and Urinetown. Charles recently starred as Veronica in “Heathers: The Musical” at Berklee.

Let us know what you think of “Far From Here”.

https://www.emmacharlesmusic.com/

 

 

 

No one has ever accused Tom Clancy’s novels of being subtle. They are action-filled tales where good guys fight bad guys and the good guys usually win. These comfort food stories are effective because they rarely require us to think beyond a white hats versus black hats paradigm. Now that Amazon is a player in creating movies and TV shows, they can take chances on certain projects, but they also know there needs to be bread and butter shows for those who like their heroes to be uncomplicated. That’s why “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” falls mostly into the comfort food zone. John Krasinski plays the role of Jack Ryan, and on the surface, it seems like an odd choice. After all, the Ryan character has been played by a number of heavy-hitter actors like Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck. Krasinski, who is trying come out from under the shadow of the Jim Halpert character he played on “The Office,” has made bold career changes to remake his image. Writing, directing, and co-starring in the film “A Quiet Place,” and now taking the lead role in “Jack Ryan,” it’s clear that these moves are designed to showcase his talents beyond the work he did on “The Office.”

Alas, it doesn’t always work in “Jack Ryan.”  Krasinski has been working out a lot, and he gets to show off his body in the series, but even when his character is in a high-level security meeting, there’s more than a hint of expectation that he’s going to look at the camera with that Jim Halpert deadpan.  Acting aside, the story arc of “Jack Ryan” is pretty simple: there are some ISIS-like terrorists who are plotting something big in the U.S. and Europe. Ryan, who has been tracking money transfers as a member of the Terror, Finance, and Arms Division of the Counterterrorism Center Washington D.C., makes the connection between the money transfers and the leader of this new terrorist group — who is known as Suleiman. Just what is Suleiman up to? Well, that’s where the story jumps into high gear to discover. The cast includes Wendell Pierce as Ryan’s boss, James Greer. Abbie Cornish as Cathy Mueller, a doctor and Ryan love interest who works with infectious diseases. While 90 percent of “Jack Ryan” stays within a standard action-adventure mold, there are a few wildcards that attempt to freshen up the genre.  

While the temptation to portray a terrorist like Suleiman as a one-dimensional character is there, the creators of “Jack Ryan,” Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland, make the decision introduce some gray areas into an otherwise black and white universe. Showing Suleiman’s backstory from a child who liked “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats, to surviving an airstrike the killed his mother and injured his mother, to struggling financial analyst in France whose ethnic background is a barrier to economic and social advancement humanizes the monster he becomes. Also, Suleiman’s wife, Hanin, is a much more complicated figure who flees from her husband after she finds out that he’s up to no good. Credit the performances by Ali Suliman (as Suleiman) and Dina Shihabi (as Hanin) for bringing a needed corrective to otherwise stock characters.

“Jack Ryan” tries to defy expectations (having Jack’s counterterrorism boss being a Muslim is another example), but too often a plays right into them. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but considering Amazon is bankrolling this series, one would expect to find more surprises. The action sequences are often nail-biting and tense, the overall story arc does have moments of intrigue, but far too often “Jack Ryan” feels like it’s playing it safe by being predictable. The show is headed for a second season with a whole new “Big Bad” for Ryan and Greer to combat. One can hope that Cuse and Roland will see opportunities to breathe new life into the second season — since the first season felt a little too much like “24” at times.

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