Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/84421
Our Terrorist in Washington Homeland is just too silly to take seriously TV by DEAN ROBBINS Everyone — including President Obama — has jumped on the bandwagon for Homeland, Showtime's melodrama about a mentally ill CIA agent named Carrie (Claire Danes) on the trail of a brain- washed U.S. congressman (Damian Lewis) who's secretly working for al-Qaeda (Sunday, 10 p.m.). I appear to be the only holdout, and nothing in the second-season premiere has changed my mind. I mean, if the concept isn't silly enough (did I mention the internation- ally respected journalist who's really a sexy double agent for the ter- rorists?), the performances take it over the top. Danes plays "crazy" by furrowing her brow and wildly walling her eyes. Carrie is a woman you wouldn't put in charge of a neigh- borhood cleanup crew, and yet the CIA entrusts her with the safety of the nation. "We have no other options!" the CIA chief cries before sending Carrie off on a delicate mission to the Middle East. That's right — the entire U.S. government HAS NO OTHER OPTIONS than to work with this disturbed lady in an incongru- ously fabulous hairdo. Now, if you were a traitorous congressman trying to pass as a loyal American, wouldn't you play it cool whenever someone said the word "terror- ist," rather than twitching, sweating and looking guilty as hell? In Homeland, oddly enough, such suspicious behavior doesn't prevent you from being considered as a vice- presidential candidate. If President Obama finds this series realistic, I'd have to question his foreign-policy bona fides. Gov. Romney, I think I see an opening. The Neighbors Wednesday, 9:30 pm (ABC) Part of the fun of a new TV season is watching the awful series before they're axed. Thus we have The Neighbors, which will surely get a few ABC executives fired by November. Recycling alien-next-door clichés (My Favorite Martian, The Addams Family, The Munsters), it brings us a group of extraterrestri- als who have assumed human form in the American suburbs. They startle their neighbors (Jamie Gertz, Lenny Venito) by doing "funny things," like throwing dishes out the window rather than wash- ing them. And they speak in that stilted manner cribbed from the Coneheads. When it's time to bid the humans goodbye, for instance, the alien leader claps his hands and shouts, "Community, disperse!" At which point his identically clad minions run away en masse. The actors are so bad that you can't help wondering if they're de- liberately sabotaging the production in an attempt to get out of their contracts. When the script resorts to a double-entendre regarding a little boy named "Dick," you can hardly blame them. Viewers, disperse! Last Resort Thursday, 8 pm (ABC) The broadcast networks are all jostling for our attention at the start of the new season. With Last Resort, ABC has one of the showi- est entries, involving nothing less than world destruction. A U.S. submarine is given orders to nuke Pakistan, but Captain Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher) smells a rat. When he refuses the order, the government fires on its own sub, which hastily takes refuge on an exotic island. Though the plot is apocalyptic, some of the scenes have an appealingly human scale, conveying a sense of normal individuals making decisions with global consequences. With the world in the balance, I can't think of anyone I'd rather have in charge than Braugher. Captain Chaplin maintains his cool even as he threatens a rogue presidential administration with annihilation: "We will not hesitate to unleash fiery hell down upon you. I give you my word." He — and ABC — have got my attention. Thanks for your support!rt! Best Pawn Shop Best Place to Buy a Gun Best Shooting Range Professional Gunsmith on Staff Concealed Carry & Other Firearms Training Available Large Jewelry Selection 4632 Yadkin Rd. • Fayetteville, NC • (910) 864-2270 www.jimsgunwarehouse.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 70 SEPT. 26 - OCT 2, 2012 UCW 33