Friday Night Law: Bloodline and the Best News Week Ever
I’m soul-suckingly sick right now. It’s the type of virus that literally engulfs your whole body and doesn’t allow you to leave your bed for more than three minutes at time without hating the world as a whole. Seriously, the back of my eyeballs hurt right now. How the fuck does that happen?
Right around the time I started getting my ass kicked with this death-plague I noticed Netflix had pretty silently debuted a new original series called Bloodline. More importantly, this new series starred Kyle Chandler, he of Coach Taylor legend, easily one of my favorite TV characters of the past twenty years (Friday Night Lights). I propped my head up and watched thirteen straight episodes.
It’s amazing to see Chandler unconfined by network rules. Imagine if Coach Taylor was allowed to drop a couple inspirational f-bombs during those pre-game speeches in FNL. Here we get a very similar character, trying to keep his shit together while dealing with family issues, with the ability to tell us how he really feels. He’s great, as is his supporting cast (Linda Cardellini, Sam Shepard, and Sissy Spacek, to name a few), but none of them are the best thing about this show. None of them are even close. Ben Mendelsohn is incredible. His portrayal of Danny, the estranged brother with a troubled past, present, and future is fascinating to say the least. There are subtleties to this character that seem impossible to keep constant, yet Mendelsohn does it in every single scene he has. Every single line of dialogue he has. Every facial tick. Everything. This is a dominant performance for the ages. There is no way this dude doesn’t win an Emmy for what he’s done here. I’m already mad about this for some reason. The show itself would have been a hell of a lot better had it been shortened. Thirteen episodes is a little much when things start really heating up around number nine. Still, the best acting ensemble I’ve seen in a while, a decent story, some cool twists, and a solid ending will keep me tuned in next season.
On to other life-altering pop culture news that did it’s best to drag me from the pit of despair otherwise known as my sweaty garbage bed. Bruce Campbell joining Fargo is brilliant. One of my favorite people in the universe being added to my favorite new show of last year is almost a little weird to comprehend. Things like this almost never happen this perfectly. Getting Campbell in full BUBBA HO-TEP mode, reuniting with the Coen Brothers, on top of the already announced EVIL DEAD weekly show is shit that only my wildest fantasies can come up with. I’ll check back after I’m done being sick and all the medically induced hallucinations have passed to see if this all real. I’m feeling crazy right now so I’d also like to predict an Emmy nomination for Bruce. He’s going to knock this thing out of the park and Fargo is going to get a lot more recognition this year.
As if Bruce returning to TV wasn’t enough, the retro Gods decided to bring back Scully and Mulder too. The X-Files is waaaaaaay more important to the development of modern television than people realize. I bet there’s people reading this that haven’t even watched a single episode. That’s gross. I like this for a few reasons. 1. Gillian Anderson is still killing it on things like The Fall and Hannibal and I can’t wait to see her reestablish one of the greatest female roles of all time. 2. Apparently it’s only six episodes. Perfect. I remember liking the first movie but couldn’t tell you why for the life of me. The second movie is a complete blur, except for when the two leads banged. They belong on television.
And then, of course, we get the mother of all “You CAN always Get What You Want” news. Steven Spielberg being attached to direct READY PLAYER ONE is huge around here. We were proudly obsessed with this book for months after reading it and pulled no punches when we got the opportunity to interview it’s author, Ernie Cline back in the JoBlo days (listen to that epic shit right here, it’s one of the greatest things we’ve ever done). This, again, seems like it’s my mind playing tricks on me. It’s obvious they’re not going to be able to recreate everything from the book, considering how many different licences are involved. BUT, I’m pretty sure Spielberg owns a few licences of his own, coupled with all the shit that Warner Bros. owns. Is it possible this gets even better? We can only pray that this stays the course and we get to see the icon of all icons direct one of the most glorious love letters to being a kid in the 80s. It might not. It might suck. Just let me have my moment for now.