The Internet’s getting into it, boys and girls! From the mind of Saturday Night Live writer (and soon to be Late Night host) Seth Meyers comes The Awesomes (watch the first two episodes on Hulu), a Hulu original production. It’s basically a sort of spoof of superhero cartoons and tropes, with a bit of “adult” humor and imagery added in because it’s entirely an online show.

Seth Meyers voices “Prock,” short for “Professor Doctor,” in a joke that rapidly becomes less funny, who is ostensibly the leader of a team of odd superheroes. Prock is the son of the powerful Mr. Awesome (Steve Higgins, another SNL writer) who has literally flown away from the planet in retirement, playing on concepts of Superman and Dr. Manhattan from the Watchmen. It’s really all setup here, because without the big guy, all heck breaks loose. The former team “The Awesomes” disbands, forcing Prock to rapidly form his own team of rejects and weirdos to maintain his precious government funding, arguing against a bureaucrat played by Rachel Dratch, another SNL alum. This conflict gets resolved in a predictable and bland manner, but the promise of more shenanigans is really the best part of that subplot. Prock must create his own superhero team and show his ability to be a leader; typical sort of arc, it would seem. Naturally, it’s all necessary to consider the ridiculous and offensive team.

There’s Muscleman (Ike Barinholtz of Mad TV), Prock’s best and only friend, who’s strong and an idiot — but he has some good lines. Other SNL performers Taran Killam and Kenan Thompson play Frantic and the Impresario. Frantic is an obvious Flash analogue, with the barest hint of redneck silliness, while the Impresario is a Green Lantern ripoff with stereotypical and slightly offensive mother issues. Rounding out the team is Hulk ripoff and quasi-racist Sumo (Bobby Lee from Mad TV), decently interesting “old lady that magically turned young” Gadget Gal (Paula Pell, another SNL writer), and electricity manipulator Hotwire (Rashida Jones). Oh, and Emily Spivey (yes, yet another SNL writer — lot of nepotism here folks) is actually pretty killer as the matter of fact Concierge, a … well, a concierge and helper to keep the team going. The voice performers do an alright job here, and the character designs are simple but clear. The clear standout is Bill Hader’s villain Malocchio, because Bill Hader is awesome. He pulls off line deliveries that would utterly fail from lesser talents. There’s a few other characters here and there, filled with Mad TV and SNL cameos, but most aren’t so interesting yet. What the show needs to figure out is how to insert some humanity and real interest to what are pretty much archetypal and stereotypical characters.

There’s a bit of overkill in the way of gruesome imagery, but it doesn’t particularly bother me, because I am a jaded person. That said, I found some of the horrific sight gags funny and enough storylines built in to warrant more for the time being. The first episode opens in an apocalyptic future but doesn’t explain quite how things got there. By the second episode, it’s pretty obvious how it’s going to go, but perhaps cleverness isn’t the point; it should be, though. Considering the sheer talent of these writers and actors, I think The Awesomes has the potential to be a great satire/comedy cartoon for the “teen and older” crowd. It’s not there yet, of course, but I’ve only seen the first two published episodes. Right now, there’s nothing original or particularly interesting here, but it’s funny often enough as a decent thing to watch, and I’m intrigued by the possibilities.

Don’t let me down, guys.

The Awesomes is now playing on Hulu and Hulu Plus: https://www.hulu.com/the-awesomes 

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Like Raising Hope, PramFace addresses teen pregnancy realistically without glamorizing the personal, familial or school backlash. It casually shows the financial responsibility and time required. However, in PramFace, the characters always surprise you. Meet Jamie, the average 16-year-old boy next door, who crashes a high school senior party and hooks up with Laura, the university-bound 18-year-old pretty girl. In most high school universes, average, working-class Jamie would never have met posh, upper-middle-class Laura, but through a quirk of fate, alcohol and a torn condom, they’re thrown together for better not worse. Before meeting Laura, Jamie would’ve served as a punching bag for his horny best friend, Mike, or his didactic, liberal proselytizing best friend, Beth. He was the nice guy who always did what they wanted, to his own detriment, rather than raise a fuss. However, his relationship with Laura forces him to step up, take responsibility and place his child before his friends’ selfishness.

The pregnancy similarly matures 18-year-old Laura. Like the average pretty girl whose doting parents give her everything, she acts out by drinking and sleeping with whoever, whenever someone confronts her. However, with a baby on the way, she no longer acts out in the usual means and faces her responsibilities. Surprisingly, Jamie’s family relaxes her. Because her uber-ambitious, successful attorney parents push her, Laura receives above average grades and appropriates their career plans as her own. But, with a baby possibly derailing her plans and a failing parental marriage, she camps out on Jamie’s couch, plays video games with his “loser” friends and finally discovers comfort with herself.

PramFace consistently surprises me with its intelligent self-awareness. I love each character’s individual arc that challenges age-based maturity, class hierarchy and traditional gender roles. Although Laura’s two years older, it’s Jamie who continuously stands up to their families for their child. Although Laura’s family’s wealthier and seemingly more stable, it’s Jamie’s family that houses Laura during the second half of her pregnancy and pushes for a baptism while Jamie’s part-time job handles her initial finances.

Although both families start with traditional male-as-wage-earner structures, in the second season that changes. Jamie’s working-class father, Keith, quits his job to find fulfillment while Laura’s posh mother tires of her stay-at-home status. The show even subverts standard high school categories. Season one surrounds Laura as the pretty, popular girl pushing away loser Jamie. But, in season two, Laura enters unfamiliar adult territory while Jamie reaches 18 and starts considering his future.

If you thought you might like Raising Hope, but didn’t, you’ll enjoy PramFace. And, if you enjoyed Raising Hope, you’ll definitely enjoy PramFace. Although Raising Hope is smart-ish, the high-paced energy frequently undercuts the text. PramFace embraces the wacky without reducing the characters’ three-dimensional sides. Like the rest of America, I’m tired of American reality TV stars that glamorize teen sex without displaying the negative tenets. I fear for a world with TV teen moms like Jenelle Evans and Farrah Abrahams. Ironically, fictional TV shows us a more true-to-life picture. Featuring Anna Chancellor (Miss Bingley in the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle Pride and Prejudice) as Laura’s mother and Game of Thrones’ Ben Crompton as Jamie’s dad, PramFace is a show to watch.

Check out all of season one on Hulu. Season two currently airs on Hulu with new episodes airing every Monday through June 10. https://www.hulu.com/pramface Teen pregnancy is no joke … unless you watch PramFace.

httpv://www.hulu.com/watch/385089

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I’m torn about The Straits, hitting Hulu Plus this Saturday, December 15, from Australia’s ABC. The Straits surrounds an indigenous crime family located along the Australian side of the Torres Strait. Harry (Brian Cox) and Kitty lead the Montebello crime family. While Harry heads the family’s criminal enterprises, Kitty oversees her adopted children’s lives including Noel, the hot head; Marou, the straits bad boy gone straight; Sissi, the good girl turned bad; and Gary, the drug user.

Outside of Layer Cake and Snatch, I’m not a big fan of  mob hit shows like The Sopranos or Sons of Anarchy. When MI-5 went from a show about minimally paid British civil servants struggling to survive to a show featuring agents handling terrorist threats and undergoing torture, I stopped watching. When I felt overwhelmed by Criminal Minds‘ torture porn, I moved on. But, when Hulu noticed my obsession with international series like Spy, Party Animals and Kingdom, they let me know about The Straits.

I previewed the season finale and season premiere of the initial season’s ten episodes over the weekend, which originally ran in the Spring of 2012. I’m conflicted over The Straits because I loved the season finale but absolutely hated the season premiere. The characters displayed in the season finale are wonderfully mature. The overarching script features a contemplative tone. And the sublime natural scenery serves as a secondary background character. However, in the season premiere, three of the main characters — Sissi, Kitty and Marou — are underdeveloped, while Noel and Gary come across as entitled twats. The season premiere represents everything I hate about mob shows: useless violence over small pots of money. However, the season finale took the  genre to a different level. It focused less on petty struggles and more on family and survival. In the finale, the characters felt more connected. I actually believed all three were brothers; by contrast, in the premiere, only Brian Cox generated that family feeling.

As a result, I’m going to split my review amongst what I liked about the finale and what I disliked about the premiere.

The Good

To avoid giving anything away, I’ll skirt discussing the episode’s beauty and instead address the verdant mise-en-scene and the family’s cultural diversity which grounded the show.

The cinematographers (Pickering and Wareham), the episode’s writer (Blake Ayshford), the director (Rowan Woods), and the actors have my eternal affection for producing “Fatherhood.” I loved the wide expansive shots, the script’s melancholic darkness, and an individual character’s dangerous depression. The continuously blowing wind reflected in the trees and the hair and clothing of the characters added an eerily sublime element. The natural outdoor setting, the half shadows, the abandoned white buildings, the crumbled autumn leaves on stone steps contrasted with the verdant island trees, and the wild Torres Strait background were overwhelmingly beautiful. The mournful music, almost mimicking a whale song, complemented the oceanic background. Despite their previous struggles, the characters displayed a relaxed cadence which attracted me.

I particularly loved the community’s diversity. I have a friend who is Maori. As an American, I typically only see the stereotype of the Caucasoidal Australian cowboy in American novels and TV shows. But, I enjoyed the tangible cultural diversity displayed throughout the show. All I can say is this family is badass. If you’re going to adopt four kids, you might as well adopt three hot sons who can handle a gun.

The Bad

Unlike the finale’s originality, which pulled in native scenery as its own character and featured a controlled, sedate pacing, the premiere felt like a Sopranos or Goodfellas knock-off that borrowed from Shakesperean and biblical themes. Because the premiere was more geared towards introducing us to the children and Harry’s world, the premiere featured quick erratic, high paced shots (establishing the children’s individual personalities through visuals) followed by over-dialogued scenes (where the parents verbally detailed their children’s foibles) to fully explain each character. But, instead of entertaining, the pacing felt off. The shorter shots felt irregular and the longer, boring.

Although not fleshed out, the Shakespearean and biblical overtones actually made the show more interesting. While Harry played King Lear, telling his three wayward children to prove who can best lead his kingdom; Marou, the good boy, enacted scenes from MacBeth with his wife. On the biblical side, Kitty recreated the Esau and Jacob parable. By casting herself as the scheming mother, Rebekah, she helped Noel to cheat his father to regain his birthright.

Out of the entire hour, only Brian Cox’s portrayal felt 100% dead on. While the finale’s bloodshed didn’t bother me, it also didn’t feel senseless like the shots fired in the premiere. Overall, the premiere shows you things that the finale embodies naturally. If you love mob shows/flicks like The Sopranos, GoodFellas, or Vampire Mob, you’ll probably enjoy the premiere. But, for a non-fan of mob shows, I loved the finale because it both embraced the genre yet felt comfortable enough not to restrict itself to previous templates.

Final Thoughts

The reason I’m mixed about The Straits is because of my unabashed love for the season finale (which originally aired in March 2012 in Australia). Maybe if I hadn’t watched that first, I would not have had such high expectations for the premiere. Then again, I might not have watched past the first 15 minutes if not for the finale’s awesomeness. Overall, I can’t say enough positive things about the finale (which I accidentally watched first). Although I didn’t like the premiere, items that I enjoyed in the finale which existed in the premiere included high production values interspersed with local shots; kickass opening credits (seriously, watch them — I loved the music and the overlaid video) and minor bits of humor including building dog stairs and a son believing he can survive abroad with a Spanish CD. There are a couple moments when I flipped out of reviewer mode and felt sorry for any innocents that might mix with this family. Like any mobster family, the main characters will always survive, but will you? The Straits premieres on Hulu Plus on December 15.

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