REVIEW: Lights Out -FX TV

I'm full-on crazy about boxing lately, as I've mentioned here previously.

The sport of it, the drama, the violence. So when I saw the previews for FX's new show, Lights Out, I went a little crazy. Just for a minute.

Sadly, if there is a camera unknown to me in my apartment, recording the random minutes like that, I'm going to be committed soon. I'm quite sure if there is one, it doesn't have audio, or I would already be in a padded room.

Back to the show. First my complaints; which aren't about the show at all. But more about the FX Network itself. 1. FX is bad about putting their shows up for OnDemand. I don't know if this is some strategy or whatever, but it is lame. I work nights most days, so I don't get to watch the show when it is actually on, so I follow the good shows at my leisure through the magic of OnDemand.

But FX doesn't seem to put an episode up until the next episode has aired, so if I can watch one, but missed the week before, I have no idea what is going on. And in the current glory that is narrative driven television (thank you, whatever benevolent force has made this a reality and channels like FX and AMC for listening) I WANT to know what happened. But I watched the new episode without any knowledge of the previous week. I almost wrote "previous weak," which kind of fits. WEAK! I should have been able to watch it. It's 2011. Get on the ball FX!

#2 Complaint. The audio on FX doesn't always sync up with the video. And that shit bugs the hell out of me. It makes it impossible to watch. I keep staring at people's lips, trying to work out how far ahead or behind the audio is and/or testing out my lip reading abilities, instead of watching the damned show.

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of the way.

Lights Out is great in the way most boxing movies are great. There is the dramatic and complicated life story surrounding a boxer. It's like a regular movie about someone's life, except you expect there will be a fist fight at one point.

In this case it's the life of a former heavy weight champion, who lost his title in a much debated split decision.

Holt McCallany plays Patrick "Lights" Leary, in what I believe is his first starring role. He has been in quite a few things, but always just kind of there for a second, then shuffled into the background again.

He's the guy that first starts the chant "His name is Robert Paulson" in Fight Club. He has a very commanding presence, which works well for a boxing character, but also has something deeper.

The first episode highlights it, where he very politely asks a guy to pay some money back to a shady mobster-type and then later there are flashes to him breaking the dude's arm because he comes at him with a baseball bat.

One second, nice; the next, he'll seriously mess you up. That's the mystery quality he has.

He's also supported by a couple actors I like.

Stacy Keach also has a commanding presence, despite his hair-lip :D (or should I use :B ...cause of the hair-lip...get it?), and plays Patrick's father, a former boxer and coach. Keach has previously starred in a boxing movie. I've never seen it and don't remember the title...but still, he has boxing history, which fits his character.

Rounding out the male Leary family is the brother Johnny, played by Pablo Schreiber. Another boxer that turned corner man/accountant/manager when Lights went pro. Johnny is central in the drama of the family, as he pisses away all the money his brother earned. Schreiber is a good actor, I've really only seen him in one real role before this. He played Nicholas Sobotka in second season of The Wire on HBO. One of my favorite shows ever and I didn't even start watching it until it was already over.

It's only four episodes in, but I already love the hell out of this show.

Leary, in money trouble since episode one, is facing the reality that he can't do much else to make real money since his celebrity status as a former champ is fading and his big investment plans are falling apart. So he walks the fine line of being retired and broke or starting to box again at 40 with signs of having Pugilistic Dementia, which he finds out in the first episode.

One of the best moments in the season so far was in episode 3, which I watched the day AFTER episode 4, when Leary takes a young, cocky boxer who is training for a title shot into a dark closet at the gym. He tells him that there is nothing he can take with him into the ring, just what he has in that dark room.

Very cool.