I thought last week was depressing enough... and that was before I saw Nancy's last goodbye at the Reagan Library!, But I should have known that the season premiere of Six Feet Under would not be the "cheer me up" anecdote that I was looking for. Much of the press that I read going into this season's SFU has not been terribly positive - about the show in general, that is -- needless to say, the tone of the show always seems to have a dark cloud hanging over it.
I thought the first episode was excellent. Picking up the right where last season left off, we are once again a voyeur into the very complex relationships of the Fisher clan. As the network's tagline goes... it's not TV. There are never any tidy bows in place or any clear future paths for each of the characters. Like a novel, you could easily have a group discussion about the episode. Nate's decision regarding Lisa, Claire's discussion with Russell, Brenda's motives and feelings, and David and Keith... by far the most three-dimensional gay relationship ever put on the small screen. I am definitely looking forward to seeing how this all plays out over the summer.
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Thankfully there is some lighter TV material out there... caught the 2nd episode of The Discovery Channel's American Casino. Being a Sin City aficionado, I have to say this show is totally taking away all the mystique of working for a hotel casino. While fun to watch, it is impossible to not get a little stressed out. The principals are pretty much are on duty 24 hours a day. I have not been terribly impressed by the folks in charge at the Green Valley Ranch (an off-strip casino located in Henderson, NV) . They definitely have not taken any management classes - unless relentlessly berating your employees is the new "in" management philosophy these days. Particularly hard to watch in this past episode were the exchanges between Michael (Hotel Operations VP) and Ninya (Hotel Manager). There were some missteps regarding treatment of some VIPs and Michael sarcastically ripped Ninya a new one time and time again. Granted Ninya does not strike me as the most ideal employee on the planet, but I would probably end up having that permanent "eat sh*t and die" smile on my face too if I had to deal with this guy.
I just hope by the time this was filmed (it appears earlier this year since episodes have centered around the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day) and now that it is airing that these "team members" have had a chance to work past their differences. I can't imagine that these people can work with each other if they are just "learning" some of this stuff as these episodes air.
Mark Burnett's The Casino starts tonite on Fox. It sounds an awful lot like AC - with a slightly different angle as two dot.com millionaires buy out and hope to restore downtown LV's Golden Nugget Casino back to its Rat Pack/glory days image. But like AC, it appears to be a straight "behind-the-scenes" show (none of the weekly eliminations ala Burnett's other reality successes, Survivor and The Apprentice). I am sure Burnett will be more flashy and "dramatically" edited. But I still am liking the trials and tribulations of the folks on the other end of town.
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