Ask Matt: What’s Your Emergency? Too Much ‘9-1-1’ Family Drama
Welcome to the Q&A with TV critic — also known to some TV fans as their “TV therapist” — Matt Roush, who’ll try to address whatever you love, loathe, are confused or frustrated or thrilled by in today’s vast TV landscape. (We know background music is too loud, but there’s always closed-captioning.)
One caution: This is a spoiler-free zone, so we won’t be addressing upcoming storylines here unless it’s already common knowledge. Please send your questions and comments to [email protected] (or use the form at the end of the column) and follow me on Twitter (@TVGMMattRoush). Look for Ask Matt columns on many Tuesdays and Fridays.
Leave the Soap Opera to the Experts
Question: Will 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star ever go back to being 911 shows and leave the family drama at home? If I wanted family drama, I’d watch This Is Us. — Peaches
Matt Roush: I love this question/complaint because it gets to the root of this genre, which is basically soap opera disguised as rescue melodrama. Fox’s 9-1-1 franchise is not really that different from NBC’s Chicago procedurals (especially the Fire mothership that started it all) or ABC’s Station 19, just to name a few. They all weave personal relationships and domestic drama in and around the action sequences, figuring most viewers want to know who these heroes are and why we should care. Some do it better than others, but I will agree that the 9-1-1 shows in particular are more entertaining when they’re responding to some outrageously harrowing incident than when they’re navel-gazing about their personal traumas. And there’s nothing wrong with This Is Us as a respite from all of this mayhem. This week’s Thanksgiving episode is one of the best. And no fires to put out, except for the emotional ones.
ET, Phone Your Script Doctor!
Question: Is it just me, or has Syfy’s Resident Alien lost its comedic edge this season? The storylines are disjointed, sporadic or just not funny! It seems like a whole new batch of writers have taken over without watching the first season. Please help me out here! — Connie N
Matt Roush: What’s missing this season, I think, is novelty. The fun of watching alien Harry try to understand humanity and fit awkwardly into society in the first season has been overtaken by plot in some instances. But when the focus is on Alan Tudyk’s Harry and his various relationships‑with Asta, with the precocious kids who know his secret, even the ill-fated octopus — Resident Alien is still a hoot, and I’m digging the current “Harry in New York City” storyline. The show isn’t perfect, and some of the human subplots have been lacking (the mayor’s feud with a neighboring city, who cares) and inconsistent, when we can go weeks without any follow-through on the General and her agents’ hunt for the missing alien. Still, this is a show I look forward to, in large part because of Tudyk, and also because it’s something different, which I can appreciate being difficult to sustain over the long haul.
TV’s Waiting Game
Question: I haven’t heard anything about HBO‘s Perry Mason and True Detective in a while. Do you know if or when there will be any new seasons of both series? — Marques
Matt Roush: Perry Mason will definitely be back for a second season, and while it hasn’t been scheduled yet, I’d think we’ll see Matthew Rhys return as the reimagined Perry sometime this year. It will be a longer wait for True Detective. Earlier this year, HBO executives teased that they were working with new writers on possible ideas for a fourth season, but until something is confirmed, that anthology is still in limbo.
Question: Have you heard anything about a possible revival of USA Network’s White Collar? I know there were rumors pre-pandemic, but since then nothing. — Katherine S
Matt Roush: There is no new news on that front that I’m aware of (and RIP to Willie Garson, the beloved Mozzie) — but if a revival does ever move past the rumor stage, and these days I can’t see why it wouldn’t, it probably won’t be on USA. That channel is moving away from scripted originals as it absorbs much of the sports programming from the defunct NBCSN. Given recent trends (see: Psych), any TV-movie or limited series revival would be much more likely to land on Peacock.
Question: Years ago, there was a press release from NBC stating that they would be doing a live version of A Few Good Men (which I was overjoyed to hear), but I haven’t heard much about it since that announcement and the initial casting of Alec Baldwin in the role of Col. Jessup. Granted, Baldwin’s recent problems may have shelved the project for good at this point, but is there officially anything going on with this? Like I said, the story kind of disappeared anyway not too long after the announcement. Now I am already anticipating your first words in reply to include something along the line that I CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH (with a few !!’s, of course), and maybe you are right on that. Honestly, I am not holding out much hope at this point, but just wondering if we could get an official TOD (time of death) just so I can move on. — Christopher M
Matt Roush: My advice: Move on. You can handle it. Unless some new development is announced, which seems unlikely, this and a few other stage-to-live TV projects (Bye Bye Birdie) appear to be indefinitely stalled. Beyond the Alec Baldwin situation, the executive who green-lighted this has moved on from the network, and one of the executive producers instrumental in these live theatricals passed away in 2018. I’m still hopeful we’ll see more events of this nature on TV — NBC did try again with a live Annie last year — but these are ambitious and expensive to pull off, and A Few Good Men seems especially snakebit.
We Like Ana, Though Maybe Not Her Characters
Comment: Regarding the recent discussion of American Auto and Ana Gasteyer‘s unlikable character, I am reminded of Suburgatory. Gasteyer’s character, Sheila, started out as a horrible person: a neglectful mother to her daughter, bombastic wife to her husband, intrusive neighbor to Tessa, and the list goes on. She remained unlikable throughout the series but gained other layers (singing with the garage band, accepting her daughter’s boyfriend — later, husband) that made her more than a cringeworthy cut-out. I hope that this talented actor gets the chance to bring more facets to her character. — Jodie
Matt Roush: Say what you will about American Auto and her character of self-sabotaging CEO Katherine Hastings, but Ana Gasteyer always gives it her all. This week’s season finale (March 8) is an excellent example where, for all of Katherine’s flaws and the predictability of her being her own worst enemy, there are moments of inspired comedy and actual character development as she finally begins to discover what people like about cars. But is it too late? I expect if Auto gets a second season — and that might be a big if — we’ll get to see more sides of Katherine, especially now that she is coming to grips with how unsuited she truly is for this job.
That’s all for now. We can’t do this without your participation, so please keep sending questions and comments about TV to [email protected] or shoot me a line on Twitter (@TVGMMattRoush), and you can also submit questions via the handy form below. (Please include a first name with your question.)
