2 & 4 Bedroom Apartments
$1400‑$2800 plus utilities.
Tenants pay electric to DTE
Showings scheduled M‑F 10‑3
w/ 24 hour notice required
1015 Packard
734‑996‑1991

5 & 6 Bedroom Apartments
1014 Vaughn
$3000 ‑ $3600 plus utilities
Showings scheduled M‑F 10‑3
w/ 24 hour notice required
734‑996‑1991

 

ARBOR PROPERTIES 
Award‑Winning Rentals in Kerry‑
town Central Campus, 
Old West Side, Burns Park. 
Now Renting for 2018. 
734‑649‑8637 | 
www.arborprops.com 

FALL 2018 HOUSES
# Beds Location Rent
 6 1016 S. Forest $4300
 4 827 Brookwood $3000
 4 852 Brookwood $3000
 4 1210 Cambridge $3000
Tenants pay all utilities.
Showings scheduled M‑F 10‑3 
w/ 24 hr notice required
734‑996‑1991

FOR RENT

ACROSS
1 Sound from
Rover
4 Quite anxious
11 Canada’s most
populous prov.
14 Corporate VIP
15 Pudding choice
16 Canada’s least
populous prov.
17 Mess up
18 *Sci-fi energy ray
that grabs ships
20 Set of guidelines,
as for grading
papers
22 Big stretch of
time
23 Pay to play
24 Tattle
25 Cheer on
27 __ Moines
28 Hailed car
30 Sign before
Virgo
31 “Then what
happened?”
33 Sang 29-Down
35 Tattle
38 “Joltin’” DiMaggio
39 Puts in new film
40 “Dawg!”
41 Columnist
Landers
42 Sees right
through
43 Salt Lake City
athlete
44 Family cat, e.g.
46 In medias __
47 “Big Brother”
channel
49 Soda can feature
52 Yacht spot
55 Word of lament
for “poor Yorick”
56 __-pitch softball
58 The “U” in
“MVEMJSUN”
59 Small, influential
group ... and a
hint to the word
hidden in each
answer to a
starred clue
62 Suffix with ranch
63 “Norma __”: Sally
Field film
64 Witty remarks
65 ID on a W-9 form
66 Concorde, e.g.,
briefly
67 Martyred bishop
of Paris
68 “Ha! Told ya!”

DOWN
1 Taiwanese
laptops
2 Syndicated
sitcom, say
3 *Sci-fi classic
featuring Robby
the Robot
4 Top stories
5 Durable wood
6 Mental health org.
7 Beans go-with
8 *Vessels pulling
water-skiers
9 Budget, in
product names
10 Patriotic women’s
org.
11 *Sign outside a
new store
12 “That’s
awesome!”
13 Sometimes 
egg-shaped
kitchen gadget
19 Diminish
21 Numbered rd.
26 Auto pioneer
28 *Unable to tell red
from green, say
29 Without company
31 “How to Get Away
With Murder”
actress __ 
Naomi King

32 “Smoking or __?”
33 French “his”
34 Tokyo, once
36 Word after op or
pop
37 Foot part
39 “Hud” director
Martin
45 Ultimatum word
47 Tender touch
48 Sports __
49 Socks from the
dryer, hopefully

50 Radii 
neighbors
51 Fancy 
neckwear
52 Vitamin prefix
53 Rehab center
staffer
54 Synchronously
57 “It’s her __”:
relationship
ultimatum
60 NFL playmakers
61 Cheat

By Evan Mahnken
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
04/03/18

04/03/18

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

Classifieds

Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

Zach Braff’s return to TV 
completely disappoints

It has been eight years since 

Zach Braff’s defining role as 
goofy doctor J.D. on “Scrubs” 
came to a triumphant end. 
Since then, the New Jersey-
born actor and filmmaker has 
turned his focus to movies, 
including 2014’s “Wish I Was 
Here,” 
which 
Braff 
wrote, 

directed and starred in. Now, 
his focus has shifted back to 
the small screen to take on his 
first sitcom since the wildly 
successful “Scrubs.”

Braff’s 
new 
show 
“Alex, 

Inc.” takes its inspiration from 
the story of Alex Blumberg, 
whose 
successful, 
real-life 

podcast “StartUp” helped him 
create 
the 
award-winning 

narrative 
podcast 
company 

Gimlet Media. Braff plays Alex 
Schuman, 
a 
journalist 
and 

father of two, who quits his job 
at an upbeat radio show to tell 
the hard-hitting, interesting 
stories he wants to tell.

The concept may sound very 

niche and millennial, perhaps 
even a little bit boring, but this is 
Zach Braff we’re talking about. 
This master of witty voiceovers 
and quick asides could make 
“Pawn Stars” into a cheery, 
laugh-out loud thriller. Braff 
brings positivity and quick 
wit to every project he tackles. 
And while in many cases that is 
his greatest strength, it is this 
show’s biggest weakness.

“Alex, 
Inc.” 
is 
far 
too 

polished for the difficult topic 
it tackles. This is a man in his 
mid-thirties who just quit his 
job spontaneously, without so 
much as telling his wife Runi 
(Tiya Sircar, “The Good Place”). 
When he does inform her after 

the fact, she is shocked for 
about a minute before throwing 
all of her support behind him. 
Is it really so bad to see a spouse 
supporting 
their 
significant 

other? No, but “Alex, Inc.” fails 
to do anything to address the 
true weight of the decision that 
Schuman is making, a move 
that could potentially add some 
depth to an otherwise two-
dimensional show.

Braff is still excellent in the 

role, there’s no question of 
that. But the dynamics of the 
characters make it clear that 
this is his show, and nobody 
else’s. One of the reasons that 
“Scrubs” was so beloved is 
that while Braff was the star, 
each supporting character had 
their own distinct personalities 
and storylines, which played 
off 
of 
and 
alongside 
the 

exaggerated 
and 
beautiful 

buffoonery of Braff. In “Alex, 
Inc.,” 
the 
supporting 
cast 

members are nothing more 
than underdeveloped tropes. 
Schuman’s producer Deirdre 
(Hillary 
Anne 
Matthews, 

“Dirtbags”) is essentially his 
groupie, 
while 
his 
second 

cousin and business partner 
Eddie 
(Michael 
Imperioli, 

“Hawaii Five-0”) is nothing 
more than an Italian Mafia 
caricature who delivers the 
occasional somewhat comical 
line. 
The 
most 
punishable 

crime of “Alex, Inc.” is its 
severe misuse of Sircar, who is 
an incredible actress and plays 
a likeable character reduced 
to nothing more than her 
husband’s cheerleader.

“Alex, Inc.” is too bubblegum 

for adults, but too mature to 
be a family show. It is clearly 
focused 
more 
on 
being 
a 

platform for an actor with as 
big of a personality as Braff 
than it is on telling its story 
right or integrating its talented 
cast well. While in “Scrubs,” 
Braff was a key complementary 
component to multiple well-
told stories, in “Alex, Inc.,” 
he is the only story. The 
show chronicles the birth of 
a podcast, a medium that has 
become revolutionary in today’s 
entertainment industry. Yet the 
beauty of podcasts come from 
their ability to convey depth of 
story and emotion, just through 
words. “Alex, Inc.” fails to do 
this even with pictures on their 
side, leaving viewers to assume 
that maybe some stories are 
better left on the radio.

SAMANTAH DELLA FERA

Daily Arts Writer

ABC

“Alex, Inc.”

Series Premiere

Wed. 8:30 p.m.

ABC

DOOM’s latest is dynamic

Music changes; if it didn’t, 

Gregorian 
chants 
would 

dominate 
Billboard’s 
Hot 

100 chart. Generation after 
generation, old sounds are 
phased out and new sounds 
come to dominate as blends of 
past-respecting influence and 
future-forward 
innovation. 

With this trend, there is and 
always will be a rift between 
older listeners and younger 
listeners — hence why your 
Baby Boomer mom “doesn’t 
get” Frank Ocean.

This contrast, as it pertains 

to hip hop, is especially evident 
on Czarface Meets Metal Face, 
a 
collaborative 
project 
by 

Czarface (a trio pioneered by 
Wu Tang Clan’s Inspectah 
Deck including rapper Esoteric 
and producer 7L) and MF 
DOOM. Soaked in stripped 
down, boom-bap beats and 
clever lyricism, the album is 
nearly indistinguishable from 
dated projects like DOOM’s 
Mm.. 
Food 
or 
Wu 
Tang’s 

Enter The Wu-Tang. It sounds 
undeniably classic, despite its 
2018 release, and makes evident 
the extent to which rap has 
changed over the past 15 years. 

No autotune, no mumbling, no 
booming bass. The production 
is low-volume and crisp, and 
the lyrical delivery is decisive 
and comprehensible.

The premise of the album 

is superhero-based: Czarface, 
a self-described hero, recruits 
Metal Face (a.k.a. MF Doom) 

to be his “villain,” a clever play 
on Doom’s famed Madvillain. 
This loose plot provides some 
structure and flow to the 
album, but more so allows for 
clever and entertaining skits 
and sampling, augmentations 
for which both the Czarface 
trio and Doom are well known.

What 
makes 
the 
album 

especially interesting is the 
dichotomy between sound and 
lyrics. While the tracks act as 
portals to the rap that used 
to be, their lyrical content is 

extremely current: The rappers 
trade 
musings 
on 
popular 

culture with lines like, “It’s on 
the tip of my tongue like Stan 
Smith’s face,” and “Only time 
you set-trip is when you binge 
on Netflix.” When combined 
with the album’s classic sound, 
these modern lyrics make the 
aforementioned evolution of 
hip hop even more obvious. 
The 
nearly 
40-year-old 

Esoteric raps about modern 
shoe trends and streaming 
services, something one would 
expect from the likes of Drake 
or Travis Scott, but the music 
sounds nothing like today’s 
rap.

Now, I don’t want to indicate 

a bias against or dislike toward 
modern hip hop; I love and 
appreciate trap rap and all of 
its booms and mumbles. It’s 
simply interesting that, when 
placed in a modern context, 
outdated 
art 
exposes 
the 

changing of the times. The 
same could be said about Andy 
Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych if it 
were repurposed with the face 
of Kim Kardashian or Johann 
Sebastian Bach’s “Little Fugue 
in G Minor” if Young Thug spit 
a verse on top. With Czarface 
Meets Metal Face, listeners are 
reminded of where hip hop was 
and where it is today.

MIKE WATKINS

Daily Arts Writer

Czarface 

Meets Metal 

Face

CZARFACE/
MFDOOM

Get On Down

‘Splitting Up Together’ 
is not worth your effort

I had high hopes that ABC’s 

“Splitting Up Together” would 
make me laugh, especially with 
Ellen Degeneres as one of the 
show’s 
executive 
producers. 

And I mean really laugh — in 
a way that’s greater than the 
fake chuckle family comedies 
normally elicit. But with an 
overwhelming sense of “been 
there, done that,” a couple lacking 
on-screen chemistry and an all 
too predictable plot trajectory, 
“Splitting Up Together” mostly 
falls flat.

Like 
a 
lighter 
version 
of 

HBO’s “Divorce,” “Splitting Up 
Together” follows Lena (Jenna 
Fischer, “The Office”) and Martin 
(Oliver Hudson, “Nashville”), a 
recently divorced couple who 
have decided, on behalf of their 
children and extensive mortgage, 
to remain living under the same 
roof. Well, kind of. The plan 
goes a little something like this: 
Alternating weeks on and off 
duty, one parent lives in the house 
and takes on all the household 
responsibilities, while the other 
gets some much needed rest and 
relaxation in the detached garage.

It sounds simple — and boy is 

it. It’s just a disappointment that 
almost every aspect of the pilot 
is as one-dimensional and basic 
as the premise. Each member of 
the family is forced into a trope 
so constraining and overused that 
there seems to be little room for 
character development down the 
road. Lena is instantantly labeled 
as the uptight, high-strung mom, 
whose neurotic tendencies and 
hypersensitivity are to blame 
for the divorce. And Martin, on 

the other hand, fully embodies 
the 
man-child 
trope, 
acting 

as the cool dad who just can’t 
seem to comprehend emotion or 
communication.

As for the kids — well, the kids 

are just bizarre. They somehow 
seem unusually unphased by their 
parents’ separation. Additionally, 
they are bound by such rigid 
stereotypes that they come off 
more as caricatures of pop culture 
trends than real, living people. The 
oldest son, Mason (Van Crosby, 

“Criminal Minds”), is nothing 
more than a boy embarking on 
the journey that is puberty. In the 
first episode alone, his complaint 
of 
painful 
balls 
completely 

consumes 
his 
already 
short 

moments of dialogue. The pair’s 
fiercely feminist young daughter, 
Mae (newcomer Olivia Keville), is 
almost scarily expressionless, as 
she sips tea from her “Male Tears” 
mug and bashes her brother for 
having a crush on Kate Upton. 
And as for the youngest child, 
Milo (newcomer Sander Thomas), 
the only air time he has been given 
is five seconds of looking cute.

Perhaps the most pressing 

problem 
of 
“Splitting 
Up 

Together” is that it’s trying all 
too hard to be funny. The pilot 
felt strained, as though the actors 
were pausing to let audiences 
know that they had just said a 
joke, and that you should laugh 
now. While there were a couple 

genuine sprinkles of pure comedy, 
like when Lena accidentally texts 
Mason with flirty messages, most 
of the punchlines fail to deliver.

Among the cast, Jenna Fischer 

was truly the only actor who 
delivered a winning performance. 
As Lena, she was convincing 
and defined, and stood strongly 
as the leader of the household. 
But even then, I couldn’t help 
but imagine her in her world-
renowned role as Pam from “The 
Office” due to the characters’ 
shared use of witty humor and 
quick insults. Alternatively, Oliver 
Hudson was nice to look at, but 
extremely bland and unappealing 
as Martin. For a couple that had 
been married for 10 years, there 
was almost no chemistry between 
the two of them — either romantic 
as ex-lovers or argumentative as 
newly divorced.

“Splitting 
Up 
Together” 

has a seemingly low shelf life, 
considering it is very likely that 
Lena and Martin will eventually 
try to rekindle their relationship. 
Or, at the very least, the series 
is sure to fall into the inevitable 
loop of a “will they, won’t they” 
storyline, which the show will 
frustratingly milk for all it’s 
worth.

“Splitting Up Together” is 

meant to be a comedy, but divorce 
is just not given justice for the 
traumatic event that it is. It’s 
possible the series is meant for 
an older demographic that can 
really identify with the trials 
and tribulations of separation, 
or 
maybe 
divorce 
just 
isn’t 

conventionally 
funny. 
Either 

way, “Splitting Up Together” 
will easily get lost in the flood 
of other network comedies, and 
isn’t worth the hype that Ellen’s 
signature provides.

MORGAN RUBINO

Daily Arts Writer

“Splitting Up 

T
ogether”

Series Premiere

Tues. 9:30 p.m.

ABC

ABC

TV REVIEW
ALBUM REVIEW

TV REVIEW

6 — Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

