Trailer Thursday: “The Slap”

I know Trailer Thursday’s are usually reserved for movies, but, this upcoming miniseries “event” on NBC looks just too crazy and bad/good not to share. I don’t know much about The Slap except that it is an American adaptation of a UK miniseries that actually won some acting awards and shit. And since this version features a cast of heavy-hitters (Peter Sarsgaard, Uma Thurman and Brian Cox in a miniseries? On NBC?! insanity!) and is directed by Oscar-nominated writer/director Lisa Cholodenko, I figure it’s either gonna be really good or really crazy bad.

Either way, our DVR has been set for weeks. Enjoy!

 

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Allison Williams as Peter Pan!

OK, I love me some Allison Williams (she is probably my favorite character on Girls) but, even I was a little taken aback by the news that she had been cast in NBC's upcoming Peter Pan Live! I mean, I'm sure she can sing and everything, but, if NBC's latest live “musical event” is as lame and over-produced as last year's The Sound of Music Live!, well, let's just say there's a pretty high probability that it's gonna totally suck.

And then I saw this super cheesy pic (above) of Williams in costume as Peter Pan and I knew that this movie wasn't just gonna suck, it also has serious train wreck potential. Which I always love, especially at Christmas! So, slap my wings and call me Tinkerbell, because this train wreck — which is produced by the reliably ham-fisted duo of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and also features Christopher Walken (!) as a singing Captain Hook! — is only gonna get better/worse from here on out. Simply put, I cannot wait!

Peter Pan Live! airs December 4th on NBC.

 

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“The Sound of Music” LIVE

As usual, we’ve been watching loads of schmaltzy Christmas TV movies this season — thanks to the holiday-loving programming elves at Lifetime and ABC Family! — so, we were all very excited to watch tonight’s insanely-overhyped LIVE presentation of The Sound of Music on NBC. But, man, were we disappointed!

Actually I lost both of the girls ten minutes in and ended up watching the rest of the show alone, so, I guess I should say “I” was disappointed. And actually, disappointed is putting it nicely…

Overhyped, glacially-paced and curiously underlit (seriously, I’ve seen better lighting transitions in high school plays!) perhaps the worst thing about this so-called “major television event” was the woefully miscast Carrie Underwood. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Carrie Underwood and she did the best she could with the songs here, but, whenever she had to actually, you know, “act” Underwood was positively bloodless. It was like watching a really bad first time audition or something. It’s not that she didn’t try, but, wow, watching her try to inject some actual life and character into Maria was almost painful in spots. And the lack of any discernible acting skills on Underwood’s part was even more glaring anytime she shared the stage with a “real” actor.

But, honestly, this Music was so dead on arrival and totally tone deaf that even the real Broadway actors with serious chops like Audra McDonald and Christian Borle had a hard time bringing it to life. If there was one thing that kept this rickety old train running, it was the songs, which, let’s face it, are pretty hard to screw up.

And even though I found myself singing along in spots, I gotta tell ya, the only thing this ill-advised and totally unnecessary “remake” did for me was make me wanna dig out my Blu-Ray and rewatch the original. Sorry, NBC…but you get a big old lump of coal for this clunker.

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