July 9, 2007

What to Watch: Coming Up on Cable

Seth Arenstein on Monday's cable premieres: ESPN's The Bronx is Burning, ABC Family's Greek and TCM's Spielberg on Spielberg.

Tube Stake: Programming Reviews by Seth Arenstein

John Turturro as Billy Martin and Oliver Platt as George Steinbrenner in ESPN's The Bronx is Burning.

• MONDAY, JULY 9

Greek, series premiere, 9pm, ABC Family.

Please, ABC Family, change your name already. This send-up of college Greek life is tame by cable standards, but includes plenty of drinking, hetero and homosexual sex and a touch of violence. What we don’t see much of is students being students, although in the pilot episode classes haven’t yet started. Still, do the students at fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University ever crack a book? With all the partying, drinking and lovemaking, would they even have time for Plato or Chaucer?

But Greek is a well-paced dramedy thanks to some good writing and strong acting by an ensemble led by a bunch of talented unknowns (well, remember, it’s basic cable). And like many television series about college, the campus is  beautiful and the student body’s student bodies are gorgeous, with the exception of the geeks. There’s not a case of acne to be found on the glowing skin of Greek’s leading players. Heck, the co-eds are such a mixture of beauty and athletic prowess, even Hayden Panettiere (of NBC's Heroes) as Claire would have a bear of a time making the cheerleading squad as a freshman, although her regenerative powers would be helpful after a night of partying. 

A potential problem with Greek occurs at the end of the tonight's episode. It surrounds the questionable judgment of Casey (Spencer Grammer, yes, Kelsey’s daughter), an arrogant sorority upper classman with an adorably geeky freshman brother, Rusty, played effectively by Jacob Zachor. Casey is dating the big man on campus, Evan (Jake McDorman). While young Rusty is pledging Evan’s Omega Chi Delta, he inadvertently catches the big man about to enjoy the pleasures of the freshman flesh, a dark beauty named Rebecca (Dilshad Vadsaria), the daughter of a famous senator. Rusty informs his sister, whose reaction is to drink, shoot pool and bed down (but for one time only) with her former squeeze, Cappie (Scott Michael Foster), who heads the zoo fraternity Kappa Tau Gamma. By the way, these actions are not what we meant when we referred to Casey’s questionable judgment. 

Spielberg on Spielberg, 8pm ET, TCM.

One of the tests of a retrospective like this is whether or not the viewer feels compelled to see or see again the films excerpted in the program. The answer here is a resounding yes. 

TCM maintains its strategy of producing few but high-quality docs with this delightful piece that is nothing more than an extended monologue by Steven Spielberg. It’s also nothing less. That’s because the acclaimed is a humble and (refreshingly) honest critic of his work. He’s also a willing conversationalist and fine raconteur. The story about how he entered the television business, literally through the bathroom door, is a gem. Ditto his “wager” with George Lucas, who bet Spielberg that Close Encounters would make more money than Lucas would on Star Wars. Spielberg took the bet. “I’m still making money from that,” he laughs.    

It takes a confident person to admit that after the success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws, “I thought I was made of Teflon, that I was invincible…that anything I put up on the screen would be successful.” The flop 1941 put an end to that way of thinking. “It was the best thing that could have happened to me," he comments. “I was humbled…I sobered up” from that immediately, he says, turning quickly to his next picture, which was rewarded by the failure of 1941. As a result, Spielberg says he prepared feverishly for that next film, a little project called Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark.

As you might expect, the documentary is interspersed with terrific clips from Spielberg films, many aided, as the director rightfully acknowledges, by the evocative orchestral soundtracks of the great John Williams. As an added treat, it's followed by two Spielberg classics: Jaws (at 9:30pm ET) and Close Encounters (at 1:30am ET, so set your DVR.)

The Bronx is Burning, 10pm, ESPN.

As you’d expect from the title, there’s a fair amount of heat in The Bronx is Burning, the 8-part series that begins tonight after ESPN's Home Run Derby (8pm ET) and whose seven subsequent episodes will be seen Tuesdays at 10pm. Unfortunately, the initial three episodes generate little of the fire we’d expect from hotheads like former Yankees manager Billy Martin (portrayed by John Turtorro) and owner George Steinbrenner (played by Oliver Platt).

Although the initial scene shows Turturro’s Martin engaging in the infamous dugout shoving match at Fenway with his superstar, Reggie Jackson (Daniel Sunjata, familiar to viewers of FX's Rescue Me), at nearly all other times the manager seems to keep his temper and language in check. During the first three episodes, Turturro, who’s been made up expertly to look like Martin, portrays the man as a mischief maker more than the loud-mouthed, drunken brawler we expect.

The always engaging Oliver Platt, who looks nothing like The Boss, seems too nice as Steinbrenner, although his reputation as a meddlesome control freak comes through clearly. The side of Steinbrenner that’s somewhat new is his diplomatic side. In episode three, Steinbrenner seems more adroit at negotiating than Henry Kissinger, brokering a peace settlement between Jackson and Martin with a speech that sounds like it came from a Ronald Reagan movie.

But there is plenty to enjoy in Bronx, which not only tells the Yankees’ story, but weaves in the 1977 NY City mayoral election and the fear generated by the serial killer Son of Sam. Back on the sports side, ESPN tells a good story by revealing the motivation behind Martin’s enmity toward Jackson. And while we disagree with the portrayals, Turturro and Platt are always worth watching. Sunjata’s Jackson is terrific. He looks and swings like Reggie and reveals the complicated personality of the superstar/diva. And props to actor Eric Jensen and the makeup department, who have recreated the late catcher Thurman Munson perfectly.   

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All times ET/PT unless otherwise noted.