Author: Tim Goodman

NBC’s second foray into live television and live theater brought Peter Pan to life, reinvented Captain Hook with Christopher Walken “Walkenizing” the role and, overall, didn’t end up being the hate-watching spectacle many thought it would be.

A great deal of that staving-off-disaster element came from star Allison Williams giving a very solid performance that, as the production sagged in the middle, stood out all the more. If there were problems in Peter Pan Live! — and there were —Williams had precious little to do with them.

Read more ‘Peter Pan’s’ Christopher Walken on Always Playing the Villain, Doing Live TV

The Girls star and daughter of NBC anchor Brian Williams proved she could sing and act and prance around with the red light of the cameras reminding her there were no second takes. The role called for her to do a fair amount of physical effort, much of it on wires — precisely the kind of thing that would tire out and doom a lot of actors who never did live theater or musical theater. But Williams held her own and in the process held the show together for the most part.

The rest of the glue was provided by the inimitable Walken, who was simultaneously playing himself and playing Captain Hook, though for some long stretches one couldn’t be sure if he was forgetting lines left and right or just letting the play breathe.

Read more What Allison Williams Learned About Flying From Her Famous ‘Peter Pan’ Alums

Seriously, you can’t underestimate the Walken Effect. If you don’t like him, well, this was not a three-hour musical for you, because during vast stretches of it Walken seemed to be doing something else entirely than his fellow singers and actors. But for those who love the Cult of Christopher, that level of odd behavior, moments of outright weirdness and his own brand of playing cool in chaos was precisely what made NBC’s gambit work.

It was a night where everything else about the play was shunted to the side as Williams and Walken grabbed your attention. Everything that could go wrong didn’t go wrong and that’s a credit the myriad people behind the scenes who pulled it off.

Read more ‘Peter Pan Live’: Hollywood Reacts to NBC’s Live Musical 

Yes, a handful of the act breaks seemed oddly timed or limp, then burst into what were inevitably commercials for Walmart that were riffing on the Peter Pan theme. But mostly, everything else worked. The wires and rigging had no errors — which is, let’s be honest, no mean feat. Williams glided to precisely where she was supposed to. The Tinkerbell effect — lighting — was flawless and the overall lighting of the scenes veered from dark to shocking color but never was there a scene where production troubles reminded the audiences that this was live (well, at least live on the East Coast).

Not that all the songs worked. The middle sagged a bit after a rousing start — a start where, no doubt, much of the live-tweeting and snarking Twitter audience (guilty) was anxiously awaiting some kind of live screw up or Williams missing notes or stumbling. It never happened and that’s exactly when Williams solidified that she was in control.

See more ‘Peter Pan Live’: Best and Worst Moments

Actually, an argument could be made that Williams was at her best in the duller middle portion of the three-hour event, when her magnetism, singing and commitment to being Peter shone above the other cast members or lackluster numbers. It was essential for Williams to be the star there and hold it together. She did just that.

Meanwhile, the Walken spectacle afforded everybody else something to live for. He was curiously off the beat, off the pace of the other actors and while he might be described elsewhere as distracted or lost, it seemed more a case of Walken Being Walken. If you understand that, then you should have watched. And if you did watch, then his performance under the spell of himself surely made anything else tolerable.

So it was a night where Williams and Walken, at disparate ends of the live performance, gave a lot respectfully to their roles and to the success of the night. It wasn’t flawless (and if you factor in the moments when Walken seemed to be particularly awash in the lights, maybe you’ll be crueler about the overall quality), but it was entertaining enough for three hours of live song and dance.

That’s a pretty good Thursday indeed and NBC will no doubt, ratings willing, does this again very soon.

Email: Tim.Goodman@THR.com
Twitter: @BastardMachine

This story first appeared in the Nov. 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

With British spy miniseries The Game set to debut Wednesday night on BBC America, The Hollywood Reporter’s chief TV critic Tim Goodman took the opportunity to pick his five favorite shows in the spy genre.

The Americans
The FX series is one of TV’s best dramas: Cold War tensions, great writing and incredible turns from Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys.

See more The Faces of Fall TV

Smiley’s People
The 1982 BBC miniseries version of John le Carre‘s novel (starring Alec Guinness) is a pre-TV-renaissance example of the medium’s greatness.

Archer
Can the FX animated spy show that dabbles in the ridiculous be great TV? Yes — here, spoofing a serious genre pays off in comedy gold.

Read more ‘The Game’: TV Review

Thunderbirds
This wildly influential British series aired in 1965 but is now a cult DVD binge-watching favorite, thanks in part to its gripping story arcs.

Mission: Impossible
In an era of great TV, it may not hold up, but this classic nevertheless has lasting appeal (hence the movie franchise) and is still worth a look.

As The Walking Dead enters its fifth season, the element that makes it so much more than a zombie series is driven home pretty quickly – this is a show about the living, and what a horrible mess that can be now that the social fabric isn’t just torn but obliterated.

See more ‘Walking Dead’ Season 5 Premiere: From the Woods to the Red Carpet

Sunday’s season premiere accomplishes a lot – no spoilers – with enough resolution and forward momentum to springboard into a new phase. What hasn’t changed is the basic notion of staying alive, which, as seasons three and four in particular showed repeatedly, isn’t always about avoiding “walkers.”

It looks like – and creator Robert Kirkman and showrunner Scott Gimple have hinted at this – the show might be heading into a phase where the cumulative effect of constant survival has finally chipped, perhaps irrevocably, deep into everyone’s sense of morality.

It will be particularly interesting if season five moves into a realm where worrying about what’s right and wrong – the battle that ate away at Rick – gives way to less introspection and, in turn, the consequences of that.

Watch more ‘Walking Dead’: Watch the First 4 Minutes of the Season 5 Premiere

The Walking Dead, like most television series that strive for greatness, has been able to operate on different levels for different viewers. Part of that is the construct, of course – people love mobsters (The Sopranos) in the same way they love zombies or any other inherently action-based creation. As long as there’s enough of that surface distraction for a certain audience, then deviations into morality and existentialism are more or less tolerated.

Those issues are, however, what makes great shows work. There have been a lot of creative zombie movies with variations on the theme of what it means to be human in a dark new world, but let’s not kid ourselves — essentially they are two hours of running like hell in an effort to not be eaten. Episodes like the Gimple-penned “The Grove” from last season underline what a serialized television series can achieve at its best, as it explores the same subject but gets at so many other more interesting issues.

Survival is (relatively) easy. It’s the living that’s hard.

Read more ‘Walking Dead’ Bosses: We’re Not the “Character Death Show” But It’s Part of Our World

Having not read any of the source material – it’s important to remember that the vast number of viewers haven’t – season five seems about the right time to accentuate what happens when relentless acts of moral impunity take their toll. The (expansive) cast of The Walking Dead has gone through all kinds of dashed-hopes and horrors, and the last two seasons in particular have proven that “home” and “safety” are essentially pipe dreams.

If that keeps them moving in season five – the show seems more electric when the characters aren’t seeking shelter but instead moving forward because that’s the only real option – it will be a welcome shift. Yes, people who have read the graphic novels know about the direction ahead (that is if Kirkman and Gimple don’t shake it up, which on some level seems to be their intent for the series vs. the book), but the thrill of the series is in not really knowing what’s around the corner, much less behind a tree. Sunday night’s premiere reassembles a lot of loose ends and hints that it will break certain patterns from past seasons.

See more Inside ‘The Walking Dead’ Producer’s Nerdy Offices

To that, let’s toast. Being uncomfortable suits these characters best. What bears watching now is what they’ll do when they’re comfortable staying alive without moral qualms.

Email: Tim.Goodman@THR.com
Twitter: @BastardMachine