Episode four wasn't all that great either, aside from Jim's one scene even if it was just preaching to the choir. The whole Steve Bannon "parallel" was predictable from beginning to end (for just one moment, I thought they weren't going to do the viral video thing...but then they did) and it was a terrible waste of David Costabile. I still hope they'll right the ship, but the whole thing is falling flat.
It's pretend to think that Bannon would act like that or be taken down like that... He was as investment banker for 20 years.
In your opinion. Not everyone thinks that it is. I'm fine with it as it is and not with what it isn't.
No shit Sherlock. You like the show, everyone else else doesn't seem to, we get that. Do you get you are in the minority?
Show just feels like it's trying too hard, it's too much on the nose to be overly funny. Want to like it, and mostly agree with the politics, but just feels flat.
There is something very unbalanced about this show. It's not making any qualms about telling the audience what the right way to think is, and as a viewer, that's way too boring. Synopsis: "Murphy doesn't want morally dubious speaker on her show. So she doesn't. The end." Agreed on these points, Terok Nor. The term echo chamber comes to mind. The actors are still fine, it's just the writing that's weak. Maybe they are warming up to edgier stories... they have a great chance to do this with her son working on the competition news show. It was nice to see Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough) again, I thought I'd read he wasn't participating in the revival series. Had no idea the actor who played the screwball house painter Elden (Robert Pastorelli) passed away - so long ago. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/10/arts/robert-pastorelli-49-actor-on-murphy-brown-tv-series.html
I remembered to tune in last night. The episode was well-structured. The Mornings team has a big scoop that they're trying to keep secret, meanwhile Frank's found a soulmate, and when the Wolf Network steals their scoop suspicion turns to Frank's new paramour, and there's a final reveal of the team's leaker. It was mechanical in its precision, and it worked, even the misdirection with Avery and "the Pee Tape" (which produced some genuine humor). Taking the focus off of Murphy for an episode brought into focus something that I felt with the first two episodes, that Bergen is the weak link the central ensemble. I felt like I was watching Frank Fontana, Corky Sherwood, and Miles Whatever, but only occasionally like I was watching Murphy Brown the character instead of Candace Bergen the actress, especially in scenes with Avery at home and with the Techkid at the office. The problem may be that Frank, Cork, and Miles are basically the same characters we left twenty years ago, but Murphy, outside of the office, is a very different character than we remember and her characterization in those situations isn't as well defined yet. And the scene with the bartender at Phil's -- he's talking on the phone in Spanish, he's berated by a customer for not speaking English, and then he launches into a discussion of Hamilton -- was painfully unfunny. Not because a similar incident not far outside DC has been in the news recently recently, but because it wasn't well written, it wasn't well acted, and the punchline ("This place is too brown," says the patron as Murphy walks in the door) was awful. I guess it was meant to be a moment of social commentary, but its tone was all wrong. Overall, Murphy Brown remains a somewhat mediocre and not especially funny sitcom, imho.
I had a similar thought about the MeToo episode. It would have been way more interesting if Murphy had actually mis-remembered how that evening went down, and she really had been the aggressor. But that kind of twist is completely untenable in today's political environment.
Well-structured, yes, but also predictable. It was pretty obvious to me that VAL would leak the story before it even happened. That's a great insight and that puts a finger on what has been nagging me about this season. The contrast between the old gang and Murphy is stark in the way you described and now that you've pointed it out, it's glaring. It would be one thing if all of them were the same as 20 years ago or if they all changed together (preferably the latter), but the fact that Murphy has changed and the others are essentially the same is jarring as hell. I'm not sure if I blame it entirely on Bergen but I agree she's not hitting the right notes (for me anyways). Yeah, that scene was cringe-worthy and it highlights the revival's biggest flaw: Trying way too hard to be progressive, timely and seething, and instead comes off as repetitive, obvious and entirely unfunny. It's a shame. I had really high hopes for this show and thought of all of the recent revivals, this one made the most sense, but it's just not working. I'm going to keep watching but my expectations drop with each passing episode.
Last night's episode was the first one I would cautiously call good. A nice tribute to Jim's career and the episode had a fair number of genuinely laugh-out-loud moments, particularly during the morning after run-in at the front door at the end as well as the little rivalry between Corky and Katie Couric. I think the lack of trying-too-hard progressivism and instead the episode relying on the genuine relationships between the characters helped a lot. That said, the Miles storyline was painful to watch. Hopefully this will be a turning point for the show and the season will improve from here.
Anyone still watching? The last several episodes (at least since the Thanksgiving episode) have been quite enjoyable and is finally beginning to feel like a return to form. It's still not quite hard cutting as I hoped for at the beginning, but it's not cringe worthy as it often was early on.
Yes, I watched all thirteen episodes of this new season. I do agree with your thoughts here. Some of these episodes felt like the original episodes and some were still trying to find their way to being funny.