Overrated/Underrated: In praise of John Goodman, and just what is ‘Westworld’ doing?
UNDERRATED
John Goodman: With the first season of the new “Roseanne” behind us, maybe we now have the distance to look past the many reads on the politics of the show and the Twitter antics of its star to appreciate the show’s steady center in Dan Conner. In addition to being the other half of the relationship that keeps the series’ heart in the right place, Goodman has been a treasure in roles with Pixar (“Monsters, Inc.”) and the Coen Brothers (“The Big Lebowski” may be remembered first, but Roland Turner in “Inside Llewyn Davis” shouldn’t be forgotten). Whereever “Roseanne” goes from here, Goodman will keep it grounded.
E.S.T.’s ‘Live in London’: Released in tribute to the anniversary of the loss of inventive Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson, who died in a diving accident at 44 in 2008, this album serves as a tidy, two-disc encapsulation of what made his jazz trio so special. Mixing elements of European classical music with a rock-leaning drive, improvisation and the occasional electronic flourish (bandmate Dan Berglund uses effects pedals to coax unholy sounds from his upright bass), E.S.T. at times recalls the genre-skipping ventures of Bad Plus and Brad Mehldau but forged a fresh, distinctively European path that still yields rewards today.
OVERRATED
‘Borg vs. McEnroe’ (2018): You’re either a tennis person or you’re not, but for a choice-ravaged time in early ‘80s television, tennis and its volatile personalities were as compelling as any sport, particularly the 1980 Wimbeldon final at the center of this story. While the match between the mercurial “brat” John McEnroe (a shockingly understated Shia LaBeouf) and the even-keeled Swede Bjorn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason) makes for compelling cinema — especially if you’ve avoided sports championship spoilers — the predictable, glacially paced framework leading up to this movie’s key confrontation is for die-hards only.
The new season of ‘Westworld’: There’s always time for reveals and redemption in this sci-fi drama, but something about the meandering second go-around for this show is feeling less like building narrative tension and more like evasiveness. While the nested timelines of the first season built toward catharsis at the show’s theme park, since then, the series has been spinning its wheels with exotic new parks, graphic left-field violence and drawn out looks at the past and present of Ed Harris’ “man in black” that aren’t half as interesting as the robotic revolution the show is supposedly about. Just who is stuck in a loop here?
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ALSO:
‘Roseanne’ producer teases new season: ‘There will probably be controversy’
Overrated/Underrated: A welcome comeback for ‘Harvey Birdman,’ and the global sound of Sons of Kemet
ABC’s new fall schedule looks to build on the success of ‘Roseanne’ with a focus on the family
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