Small-screen spin-offs

In case you haven’t read the book or watched the movie, About A Boy focuses on the unlikely friendship between a single, self-indulgent cad and a kid who moves in next door and subsequently forces him to grow up. British author Nick Hornby’s 1998 novel was already adapted into a successful film starring Hugh Grant, Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette in 2002, so fans would be right in questioning the existence of this American small-screen spin-off.

As Will Freeman, an immature slacker who lives a life of leisure because he wrote a hit song years ago and is living off the royalties, David Walton tends to verge on incredibly annoying. While it may be a sign that the actor — who most recently appeared on New Girl as Jess Day’s boyfriend, Dr. Sam — is merely following the brief, his unlikeable nature could pose a problem since he is at the heart of the story. Benjamin Stockham, who plays the oddball Marcus, a boy who sometimes has a better grasp on reality than the adults in his life, also tends to come off as too precocious.

Both seem to have been more tolerable in the film version since Grant and Hoult, aside from originating the roles, gave nuanced performances. Such subtlety, unfortunately, has no room on a weekly TV series. Perhaps the pressure to establish memorable personalities in as little time as possible forced the show’s writers and producers to resort to a template. In the first three episodes, for instance, we see this pattern: Will does something mean to either Marcus or Marcus’ mother; Will realizes he’s been a jerk; Will almost becomes a better person. In order to survive, About A Boy needs to move past this.

Comedies — especially those about the complications of marriage, divorce, kids and parenting — are better when they come with a bit of heart. In place of About A Boy, I have been glued to Growing Up Fisher. Written and directed with energy, it revolves around a 12-year-old boy coming of age with a blind father. Though set in the present, the show is narrated in past tense by Jason Bateman, giving it a Wonder Years feel. About A Boy and Growing Up Fisher should appeal to viewers who have grown weary of sarcastic television programs, but as The Hollywood Reporter warns, “Watching these two shows together is like going into a sugar coma.”

‘FARGO’

Fargo, the Coen Brothers’ 1996 cult classic, is not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when talk comes to TV series. That twist makes Fargo, the cable television retelling, even more intriguing.

Sherlock star Martin Freeman heads the cast of the twisted new crime drama and takes over William H. Macy’s character. Pulling off a convincing Midwestern brogue, his Lester Nygaard is a down-on-his-luck insurance salesman troubled, on one hand, by a bully from his high school years and, on the other, by his nagging wife’s desire for a new washer-dryer. He finds himself in a spiral of mayhem after an encounter with hitman Lorne Malvo, played by an unrecognizable Billy Bob Thornton.

The contrasts in Fargo are unsettling. There’s the collision of ordinary folks and violent criminals, the sing-song accents of the former acting as a foil to the horror brought about by the latter. The mix of humor and murder in the pilot results in an impressive body count, one that could rival Game of Thrones for the most people wiped out in the space of a single episode.

I was surprised at how entertaining Fargo was, not having seen its big screen forerunner. The only downside to it is its 10-episode run. “If the series is renewed, it will probably be reinvented with a new cast, characters and setting,” says Today Entertainment. Freeman seems prepared for the inevitability, telling Entertainment Weekly, “As soon as a job finishes, I am done with it. When I’m really, really enjoying the job, I love the job, I want it to end because it’s supposed to.”

‘FROM DUSK TILL DAWN’

I have never seen From Dusk Till Dawn, the 1996 action horror film directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino, so to me From Dusk Till Dawn, the series, is a bit of a novelty. Developed and helmed once again by Rodriguez, the scripted show is supposedly an extended version of the film’s first eight minutes.

Following a string of bloody robberies, Seth and Richie Gecko — played by newcomers D.J. Cotrona and Zane Holtz — head to Mexico. Pursued by both the FBI and a plucky Texas Ranger, the duo kidnap a widowed preacher and his two children en route to their destination. South of the border, the group arrives at a seedy trucker bar, where the brothers are scheduled to meet a local thug. 

After binge-watching the first five episodes, however, I was neither encouraged to view the pulpy B-movie original nor continue bothering with its 2014 TV reincarnation. There is so much talking that it feels tedious. I get the fractured relationship between the sociopathic Seth and the shorter-fused Richie, but their conversations seem too contrived, so I end up rolling my eyes and hitting the fast forward button. Supernatural’s Winchester brothers are so much better at being glib.

While I appreciate Rodriguez’s twisted humor and cinematic flourishes, the use of flashbacks prevents the show from gaining any real momentum. As the Guardian points out, “If it’s really going to be a much longer remake of the movie, we’re about five hours away from seeing anything interesting.” Violent, supernatural TV series are essentially the norm in today’s entertainment landscape, and From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, despite how fun it could be, might just be the dullest and most gratuitous film-to-TV adaptation.

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