FX bets big on comedy, plus what Werner Herzog's bringing to Toronto

With its 10 p.m. Thursday comedy block of "Wilfred" and then "Louie," FX has put together pretty easily the brightest spot in summer TV (and yes, that means I've never seen "Breaking Bad," not out of any particular animosity toward it, but simply because there's only so much TV one man can watch, even me.)

And now, in not terribly surprising but still welcome news, comes word that the network has just renewed them both for 13 episode runs, "Louie" its third and "Wilfred" its second, and also given a rather amazing eighth and ninth season orders to "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

"Louie," in particular, has really grown in its second season to become one of the best sitcoms around, with star (and writer, and even editor, too) Louis CK rightly nominated for an Emmy for best actor in a comedy.

Using his status as a "comedian's comedian," he's had Dane Cook and even better, Joan Rivers, on for memorable stints, with the latter producing both some of the year's funniest and most uncomfortable moments, all within the space of about 10 minutes. Best of all, however, have been Louis' particularly pathetic attempts to pitch woo to Pamela Adlon, who also played his wife on "Lucky Louie" and is clearly the closest thing he has to a comedic soul mate.

As for "Wilfred," if you've never seen the rookie sitcom starring Elijah Wood as a stoner slacker who just happens to be able to talk to his neighbor's dog, Wilfred, you're really missing out on something fun.

The show wisely started out about as dark as possible, with Wilfred being a tormenter determined to bring out the absolute worst in Ryan (Wood) at every turn, before slowly evolving into a mix of guardian angel and demented devil (though thankfully, still much more often the latter.) Showrunner and star Jason Gann, who dons the rather ridiculous dog suit to play Wilfred, said on the Television Critics Association tour that as the show was starting, they presented him with a photo of Ian McKellen's Gandalf with his arms around Wood's Frodo, but with Wilfred's face superimposed over Gandalf's. Seen through that prism, the show just gets even funnier.

And thankfully, just as those steadily improving shows wrap up their current seasons, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" will return the following week, with season seven premiering at 10 p.m. Sept. 15. Season seven? Really? How in the world did that happen, and with it getting two more seasons, did it manage to become the longest-running sitcom in basic cable history?

The answer is that it never gave an inch toward developing any kind of conscience at all, with its gang of characters not just embracing but reveling in their vileness (Mac, Dennis and Frank) or patheticness (Dee and Charlie, and yes, I know that's not actually a word), and all five in their depravity. The promos for season seven, one of which I've included below, give the show a very funny Hallmark effect, with the ending title card particularly spot-on. Enjoy, and stop by the FX site to see all of them.



OK, in one more short bit about TV before moving on to what Werner Herzog is premiering at this year's Toronto Film Festival, the Television Critics Association gave out its awards Saturday night, and got at least two things exactly right.

There's still too much and very predictable love for "Modern Family," which I still sometimes tune in for but delivers perhaps two real laughs a week, but also in comedy they righted a serious Emmy wrong by giving an "Individual Achievement in Comedy" award to Ron Swanson, aka Nick Offerman, who also hosted the awards presentation. If you've somehow missed Ron Swanson, the true hero of "Parks and Recreation" and Libertarians' patron saint, be sure to make up for that by tuning in when the show returns this fall.

And as much as I hate that great shows often don't get any critical love until they're already gone, it was certainly nice to see the critics give their "Program of the Year" award to the recently departed and already sorely missed (at least by me) "Friday Night Lights." I really don't believe any of the noise I've seen from Peter Berg about continuing with a "FNL" movie, and really, why bother? The show clearly went out on top, and it's just nice to see smart people recognize that. Here are all the winners.

Individual Achievement in Drama: Jon Hamm (Mad Men, AMC)
Individual Achievement in Comedy: Ty Burrell (Modern Family, ABC) and Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation, NBC)
Outstanding Achievement in News and Information: Restrepo (National Geographic Channel)
Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming: The Amazing Race (CBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming: Sesame Street (PBS)
Outstanding New Program: Game of Thrones (HBO)
Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials: Masterpiece: Sherlock (PBS)
Outstanding Achievement in Drama: Mad Men (AMC)
Outstanding Achievement in Comedy: Modern Family (ABC)
Career Achievement Award: Oprah Winfrey
Heritage Award: The Dick Van Dyke Show
Program of the Year: Friday Night Lights (DirecTV/NBC)

And finally today, not surprisingly, Werner Herzog will bring surely one of the most challenging and genuinely powerful movies to the Toronto International Film Festival in September with "Into the Abyss," his new documentary focusing on American inmates condemned to death row. He also interviews their families as well as those of their victims for what should be a well-rounded but awfully hard to watch portrait of the American criminal justice system. Enjoy these three short clips, and have a great end to your weekend. Peace out.

What will happen when it's Sunny again in Philadelphia?

One of the very few bright spots during this TV summer with no "Psych" and no "Mad Men" has been FX's one-two comedy punch of "Wilfred" and then "Louie" on Thursday nights.

If you've never seen either, I'd recommend giving them a chance tonight starting at 10 p.m. "Wilfred," an Australian import starring Elijah Wood, is as close as I've seen to a real trip on mainstream TV in many years. Co-star and show creator Jason Gann plays the titular "Wilfred," the dog who only Wood's character can talk to (almost always after consuming copious amounts of marijuana) and who becomes his partner in all kinds of depravity. Just trust me, it's much funnier than I make it sound here.

And "Louie" creator and star Louis CK was probably the biggest surprise in this year's Emmy nominations, garnering a much-deserved one in the category of best actor in a comedy. The show mixes CK's often caustic standup comedy with vignettes from his life raising his two young daughters as a divorced dad and getting into all kinds of uncomfortable situations. It's a dry and definitely acquired taste, but one I look forward to every week.

The best of FX's comedies, however, at least for me, will always be "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." It's just the ultimate release after a long day of work, because not only are the characters always constantly trying to undermine each other with petty (and uniformly ridiculous) schemes, but it thankfully has absolutely no conscience at all.

You'd think it would get old, but for me it certainly hasn't yet, and now FX has announced that the show is returning for a 13-episode seventh season beginning Sept. 15. And what will the gang get up to next? Well according to FX, Charlie, Dee, Mac, Dennis and Frank will "prepare for the apocalypse, hit the beach at the Jersey Shore, produce a child beauty pageant and take a walk down memory lane at their high school reunion."

All that has me laughing already, so definitely tune in when "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" once again.

And in a bit of movie news, it seems we may finally get to see what ever became of Joss Whedon's horror movie, "Cabin in the Woods," but I'll believe that when we finally really get to see it.

The movie, co-written by Whedon and Drew Goddard, and directed by Goddard, was originally scheduled to come out in 2009, but got swallowed up in the bankruptcy of MGM and other things that are beyond the rather silly scope of this site.

Now, however, it seems that Lionsgate has acquired the rights to the movie starring Chris Hemsworth, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford and Whedon mainstay Amy Acker, among others, and has set a release date of April 13, 2012.

The title should pretty much make it clear what this is about, but here's how Whedon, in typical modesty, described it: "the horror movie to end all horror movies." I somehow doubt that, but at least now we'll all get to find out for ourselves.

And after that brief report, I'll leave you with this audio-only clip of the new song from Jay-Z and Kanye West because, well, I don't think I'll ever get too old for good hip-hop and because this song, "Otis," just makes truly audacious use of the Otis Redding song "Try a Little Tenderness." Their collaborative album, "Watch The Throne," which will easily set the record for the most ego ever assembled on one record, is set to hit the Web Aug. 1 and then record stores on Aug. 5. Enjoy, and have a perfectly adequate Thursday. Peace out.

Bombs Away: 10 2011 box office duds

Summer is the season of box office hits, but here (with credit to The Hollywood Reporter for the numbers) is a look at 10 movies that didn't come close to qualifying for that title.

Mars Needs Moms
Wow. How could so few people turn out for a movie based on a book by Bloom County creator Berkeley Breathed? Robert Zemeckis' movie isn't just the biggest bomb of this year, but after pulling in about $39 million worldwide and costing at least $150 million to make, it's easily one of the biggest box office disasters of all time, and thankfully will hopefully keep Zemeckis from laying his remake hands on the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine."


Your Highness
I pretty thoroughly enjoy a well-made raunchy comedy ("Bad Teacher," still in theaters, is a good example), but "Your Highness" certainly wasn't one of them. The stoner comedy that cost about $50 million to produce created very little buzz at all, taking in only $21.6 million domestically and a mere $3 million overseas.

Arthur
Only you can stop the '80s remake machine, and moviegoers certainly did their part with this dud starring Russell Brand, who I usually like quite a bit. The "comedy" took in $33 domestically and another $12.7 million overseas, giving it at least a slightly larger haul than its production budget of about $40 million.

Prom
Was there really a Disney movie this year that only took in $10 million at the domestic box office? If you didn't know it was something called "Prom," you're clearly far from alone. In relative terms, I suppose it's hard to really call this one a "bomb," since it only cost $8 million to make, but I guess in this case you get what you pay for.

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer
The folks behind this potential kids movie tentpole were clearly hoping Judy Moody would follow this one up with perhaps a Not Forlorn Fall and then maybe a Not Woeful Winter (as some kids must know, the actual titles of these are probably much more clever than mine), but with the $20 million movie only taking in $13.4 million so far, Judy's movie calendar may have already run out.

Green Lantern
Have we finally reached the breaking point with super hero overload? There will be another test coming July 22 when "Captain America: The First Avenger" hits theaters, but with "Green Lantern," all signs point to yes, with the movie costing at least $200 million to produce and expected to rake in no more than $260 million or so worldwide. Not a disaster, though, and in fact, there's already plans for a sequel, so what do I know?

Priest
Finally, a vampire movie that no one wanted to see. The action movie starring Paul Bettany as a holy man who hunts down bloodsuckers cost about $60 million to produce, and took in a mere $29.1 million domestically, but caught up a bit overseas by taking in another $46 million.


Sucker Punch
Along with being a box office bomb, Zack Snyder's truly bizarre fantasy-revenge mess holds the double distinction of being both one of the movies I was most looking forward to for this year and also the single worst one I've seen so far in 2011, by a pretty wide margin. The flick, which cost about $82 million, took in just $36.3 million domestic and $53.4 million overseas, and to add insult to injury, didn't even open at No. 1, losing out to "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" (and having seen them both, I can confirm that the Wimpy Kid turned in a much better movie.)

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil
The original "Hoodwinked!" was the very definition of a sleeper, taking in more than $100 million worldwide with little fanfare, but this sequel turned out to be pretty much the complete opposite, with a production budget of about $30 million and a domestic box office take of just $10 million or so, supplemented by a scant $3.6 million overseas.

The Beaver
No, this movie about a crazy Mel Gibson wasn't a documentary, and nor was it seen by just about anyone in the world. Costing $20 million to make, it made no box office impression at all, taking in less than $1 million domestic before disappearing. I'm no economics master, but I'm pretty sure that adds up to a disaster.

And I'll leave you with simply a brief preview of tonight's sure-to-be very funny episode of "Louie." Packaged with the extremely funny "Wilfred," FX has a great pair of comedies at a time when there is very little else on, so give them a chance if you haven't yet. Peace out.