Overrated/Underrated: Too much T.J. Miller on ‘Silicon Valley,’ enough with Drake’s mopey mood. Give us ‘Angie Tribeca’
UNDERRATED
‘Angie Tribeca’ on TBS: With every network searching for its own ratings-gobbling antihero, you sometimes have to appreciate a show so gloriously and unabashedly in pursuit of pleasure. Hatched in the mold of such Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker comedy totems of decades past as “Police Squad!†and “Airplane!,†“Angie Tribeca,†which just entered its second season, doesn’t feature new-school talking-to-the-camera conceits or a throwback laugh track. But it’s very serious about jamming as many silly jokes as possible into its 20-odd minutes. Led by a very game Rashida Jones as the spiritual descendant of Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin, the series is smarter about being stupid than anything this side of “Adult Swim.â€
‘Continuum’ by Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile: An outlier among the more contemplative takes on jazz and classical music found on the European label ECM, this Swiss keyboardist creates hypnotic, subtly shape-shifting compositions that he introduced as “Ritual Groove Music†on his self-released 2001 debut. Adding cellos and violins to his intricate mix for his newest release, Bärtsch offers eight distinctive tracks (each differentiated as a numbered “Modulâ€) that harness his propulsive piano structures and tangle them with layers of percussion and rumbling clarinet to create something that at quieter moments can recall an inside-out form of chamber music, while at others a kind of futuristic dance music fusion.
OVERRATED
Drake: While the whole of the Internet seemed to pore over Beyoncé’s every word and image upon the release of “Lemonade,†this hip-hop star continues to claim the biggest blockbuster of the year in his top-selling new album, “Views.†But apart from his unintentionally hilarious, deeply committed courtside cameos at the NBA playoffs, what else has Drake shown us other than a continued inability to lighten up? Again working a mopey sonic seam inspired by Kanye West’s “808s and Heartbreak,†Drake still speaks and sings about his relationship troubles, the perils of fame and the many times he’s been wronged. But shouldn’t he have something new to say by now? If only the Toronto Raptors had won.
T.J. Miller on ‘Silicon Valley’: As the prophetic future-skewering “Idiocracy†showed, Mike Judge and his collaborators have a beautifully tuned ear for biting social satire. And as “Silicon Valley†gets increasingly capable of throwing inspired barbs at the region/state of mind of its title, the show sometimes has a hard time getting out of its own way with the misadventures of this comic’s character, who blows up much of the show’s designs on subtlety with Apatow-esque bong-fueled wisdom better suited to the show’s animated opening credits. From its inflated sense of self to its unreal financial reality, the tech industry has too many targets available to waste time with Miller’s bro-leaning loudmouth.
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