It’s kind of a quaint notion, borne of the last century: Writers about television gather in Los Angeles for a couple of weeks, as networks bring in their new fare, talent and producers in for an endless string of press conferences daily without a break — we had three in the time Chris Christie had one Thursday — then try to temper it all at the hotel bar at night.
The TV Critics Association winter press tour has an old world sense from its very setting, where its been for years: a big old carpeted resort in Pasadena not far from the mountains, “Shining”-like in its spread and isolation.
But by now the TCA press tour, once filled with old newspapermen with their roots in old radio no doubt, is jumping with young people from websites. Bloggers who were once scoffed at now pretty much rule the place; newspaper people are down to a handful or two. And coverage of the incessant panels, once transcribed on paper and held for Sunday sections far into the future are now tweeted out as they happen or never talked about at all.
Blogs are now the place to step back and think big picture. At least until things start up again this morning (with a Sarah Palin appearance at an Outdoorsman Channel breakfast!) and the treadmill speed ticks faster.
Let me highlight, then, some of the things on Thursday’s first day before I go deeper into some of them in the future.
Because cable has started the things off, you get the full array of modern TV offerings thrown at you — long-bearded family from the Alaska outback; former NFL star putting his family on the reality show hamster wheel; a weeping World War II veteran; the finest of writing and top Hollywood stars at the HBO event.
Then everybody piles into an outdoor party (eat it, frozen America) where an unidentifiable party tent has been transformed into a Wild West Saloon with wooden floors, hired dancing girls, a piano player, a well-stocked bar, moose heads on the wall and a storied playwright who sizes up the long line of greeters only to dismiss them with a series of grunts.
The last one was Sam Shepard. Not here to talk particularly about his plays from “Buried Child” or “True West,” or his role in rock and roll history as part of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, and certainly not to talk about his life in Minnesota with former Jessica Lange.
He’s got a role in a Discovery network miniseries called “Klondike” as a grizzled preacher and after figuring he answered his questions at the daytime press conference, doesn’t need to talk to the press at the party although some would argue this was the reason they spent days erecting this fancy site in the courtyard, only to be spending all Friday tearing it down in anticipation of the next network party down the schedule.
They did give out their own version of Klondike Bars at the party, though they fell short of exploiting every angle of the series by failing to quote the characters of the old cartoon Klondike Kat, “Savoir Faire is everywhere.”
Why, you may be wondering, is Discovery doing a scripted miniseries? You may also wonder why Animal Planet is doing “Alaska Bush Family” (I guess because they do some hunting of animals), or why A&E happened to land what looks to be one of (so far) just two interesting shows from the entire press tour — the dark Danish adaptation “Those Who Kill.”
It was one of two serial killer sagas presented as it happened, back to back, and both are the must-watch things of the winter. “Those Who Kill” stars Chloe Sevigny and james D’Arcy; HBO’s “True Detective,” a new anthology featuring a new story and cast each season offers Matthew McConoughey and Woody Harrelson in the Louisiana bayous riding around talking religion and sin.
HBO’s sessions are the crowning point of the cable portion and maybe the whole tour as well. They pack sessions with big stars, yes, but also what looks to be quality work. We didn’t see more than the trailer for Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of “The Normal Heart” with Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts and Jim Parsons, but they all were there talking about it.
Former “Daily Show” correspondent John Oliver ended the day talking about his impending Sunday night talk show on HBO, though he just started working on it this week and frankly didn’t know what it would look like when it got on the air.
He knew he’d have plenty of material, though, since as he declared, “American politics in particular is a circus of crazy that is unparalleled around the world.”
He could have said the same thing about TCA.