The Philanthropist, "Myanmar": Yankee swap

Some quick thoughts on episode two of "The Philanthropist" coming up just as soon as someone tells me if they were properly pronouncing "Myanmar" (I always thought it was "mee-ANN-mahr")...

I'm not sure if "Myanmar" is confirming certain aspects of "The Philnathropist" formula, or if it's just following the old network TV adage that a new series is supposed to more or less duplicate its pilot episode 3 or 4 times in a row for the benefit of hypothetical viewers who might be tuning in a few weeks late. But it's very much of a piece with the pilot, continuing both the good and bad parts of it.

The good: James Purefoy, charming as hell, and also capable of bringing the right amount of sincerity to moments like Teddy under the table with the little boy, or Teddy at the ruby mine. The relationship between Teddy and Dax (which got more play here than it did in "Nigeria"). The international flavor.

The bad: The awkwardness of Teddy as the great white hope for these poor minority people. The framing device, which might have been necessary in the pilot but added nothing here, and seemed to completely change the Jesse Martin character's attitude from the pilot. (If the show were being told out of sequence, ala "Boomtown" or "How I Met Your Mother" or "The Black Donnellys," then I could see the framing sequences having some value, but here it just filled time.)

It's summer, not much else is on, and I like Purefoy, so I guess I'm watching for a bit. But if the show doesn't start changing things up and/or getting better, I doubt I'll feel compelled to write about it much.

What did everybody else think?

The Philanthropist, "Nigeria": This guy walks into a bar...

I offered up my own thoughts on "The Philanthropist" pilot -- specifically, that James Purefoy is so damned charming that I liked it more than I expected to -- in Tuesday's column, but what did you guys think? And was I the only person distracted by the stunt double's shoes?

'The Philanthropist' review - andreikirilenkotattoo on TV

In today's column, I review NBC's "The Philanthropist," which I enjoyed a lot more than I expected, thanks largely to James Purefoy:

Teddy Rist, the hero of NBC's summer drama series "The Philanthropist," is described in the publicity materials as a billionaire vigilante. This job description is less unusual than it sounds at first. After all, you could pin the same tag on Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Scrooge McDuck and possibly Ross Perot.

Rist doesn't have a utility belt, a suit of armor, a vault full of gold he can swim in, or presidential campaign experience, so he has to get by on charm. And, fortunately, Rist happens to be played by British actor James Purefoy, who showed in his performance as Marc Antony on HBO's "Rome" that he has more than enough charm to spare for friends, Romans, countrymen and even NBC viewers.

Please forgive the Shakespeare joke; tight deadlines sometimes lead to obvious gags.

Not sure if this one's going to work its way into the regular blog rotation -- between the summer rewinds, ongoing stuff like "Nurse Jackie" and "Burn Notice," plus the debut of HBO's "Hung" (which I really liked, and will have a column about in a day or three), I'm kinda swamped -- but I imagine I'll put up some kind of "what'd ya think?" post tomorrow night, and after that, it'll depend on how good the post-pilot episodes are.