Reviewed: Angela Scanlon: Full Frontal (Thursdays, RTÉ Two); Boardwalk Empire (Saturdays, Sky Atlantic); Futurama (Sundays, Sky 1); The Simpsons (Sunday, Sky 1); Stand-Up To Sitcom: Pioneers Of Television (Fridays, PBS America)
John Byrne bids goodbye to Boardwalk Empire – but wonders if the returning Simpsons and Futurama have simply run out steam.
I have to admit that when I first read about Angela Scanlon: Full Frontal (Thursdays, RTÉ Two) I thought: here's another preening self-publicist who's going to bore me to tears with a 360-degree look at her navel while passing it off as social commentary-cum-documentary.
With her coming from the fashion end of things, her world and mine are almost mutually exclusive, and I missed her Oi Ginger! documentary last year, despite the fact that I consider redheads to be aesthetically superior to all other human beings. (Oh, and I'm a former blond who went brown, then grey, and now bald, so my bias is, well, unbiased.)
So anyway, I finally caught up with the Scan-dalous one last Thursday, and while I found the subject matter hilariously irrelevant to my life – a 12k torture run and bikini bodybuilding, and me a dedicated couch potato without a single competitive impulse - witnessing Angela Scanlon in action was quite an epiphany.
Not only does she look and sound great and is a natural in front of a camera, she's got a fantastic energy about her and eyes that dance as she talks. I can't wait to see her doing something with a bit more depth but, then again, it probably doesn't matter that Full Frontal's pretty much takeaway TV. After all, consumption is all that matters these days, and I lapped it up like I would a Friday night curry. Looking forward to more AS and ASAP.
Nucky Thompson, on the other hand, is someone we will never see again on TV. The last-ever episode of Boardwalk Empire (Saturdays, Sky Atlantic) has come and gone, and it could be some time before a show of such striking, cinematic craft surfaces again on the small screen.
After some truly great episodes, storylines and characters (a quick nod to Bobby Cannavale's hilariously volcanic Gyp Rosetti from season three) I fully anticipated a worthy finish to this tale about greed, more greed and the American Way. I wasn't disappointed as the episode effortlessly spun a complex web that connected the actions of Steve Buscemi's character throughout his adult lifetime.
While Buscemi has never been less than riveting in his role as the often ruthlessly ambitious Nucky, Gretchen Mol got my Man of the Match award in this episode for what was little more than a cameo appearance as the doomed Gillian Darmody.
She's a character who is central to the Nucky Thompson story and the compelling Boardwalk Empire arc, and in the finale Nucky visits her in a sanatorium, to basically say he was leaving her there to rot. It wasn't a pretty sight as he sat there uncomfortably while she fell apart like a paper mache doll in a rainstorm.
Although not as spectacular as Stephen Graham's Al Capone, whom he played with an admirable variety of personalities, from the sociopathic thug to the devoted father, Mol's understated performance as a broken woman was quite stunning. She's a redhead too, so that's 2-0 to the Carrot Tops.
One of the marks of greatness in TV is knowing when to pull the plug, and Boardwalk Empire did that with skill, dexterity and dare I say integrity. Futurama (Sundays, Sky 1) came and returned, and is now back again for what is promised to be the very definite last time. Honest.
The story centred around Leela and the Professor arguing over ship safety and continued with the latter joining a bunch of speeding young folk, and then veered off with the Professor, Leela, Fry and Bender transported to a two-dimensional Flatland. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Futura-meh.
Far worse was The Simpsons (Sunday, Sky 1), a show that was once unmissable but now is a laugh-free parody of itself. It's been reported that this show is going to keep churning out the episodes for the foreseeable future, and it's all a bit like a Rolling Stones album. You're surprised they're still going and even more surprised if what they're doing is any good.
This 26th season opened with the much-hyped death of a semi-regular character, in the shape of Krusty the Clown's father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofski, who kicks the bucket shortly after Krusty got a TV 'roasting' from comedians Sarah Silverman and Jeff Ross. It was all quite underwhelming and it's a shame this show is being allowed to rot in public.
Much more fun was Stand-Up to Sitcom: Pioneers of Television (Fridays, PBS America). It's part of the PBS series exploring TV's development over the decades and it's essential viewing for anyone interested in goggle box history.
This particular episode features interviews with many of the great names in US comedy, ranging from Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne Barr and Tim Allen, to Ray Romano, Bill Cosby and Bob Newhart. Each in turn explained their moves from the small stage to the smaller screen, and it was fun, fascinating and informative. Who could ask for anything more?
John Byrne
