Letters to the Editor
tomreedtoon
Published Letters: 805 Editor's Choice: 81
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Wash (you survived your death in "Serenity"?) I'm surprised.
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I admit that I have the patience to see which piece of Actor Spaghetti sticks to the refrigerator, but I don't think the general public does. I know I'm a geek, who has patience with genre material, but the general public doesn't.
If this is so, it may mean that "Smallville" will finally be wrapping up this season. That's a show for which I've been extraordinarily patient, and whose story development has been disappointing. The fact that it's speeding up - introducing more Superman and DC Comics content -might indicate that the producers know the show is in trouble.
Of course, "Smallville" suffers the traditional problem of superhero shows done by people who don't understand or openly hate superheroes; they assume that the heroes are the first heroes that ever existed, and nobody can ever believe such beings exist. (They also make the first episodes of the show an origin story, as if the audience was as stupid as the show creators.) They have deliberately kept Clark Kent from realizing that his powers MEAN something, not just to little crime-stopping events, but to humanity in general. The show does have the virtue of showing that anyone (even Clark) who takes dishonest shortcuts ends up paying for it; it is an extremely moral show without bringing in anyone's specific religion.
But I maintain that "Heroes" had better come up to speed, or all the non-geeks will drop out. That doesn't simply mean the flashy visual use of powers, but the recognition by the characters of what those powers mean. In other words, delving into the real meaning of superpowers, what they mean to life.
F'rinstance, this Monday, I expect the autopsied cheerleader to play a "Tales from the Crypt" revenge on the rapist football player, driving them both into a wall where he'll be killed but she, of course, won't. But it's what she learns after that expectable bit of plot that will indicate whether her character will mean anything. (Problem is, she's a cheerleader, and like Havrilesky they are incapable of learning anything.)
P.S. They really shouldn't have censored the cheerleader's remark at the end of last Monday's episode. As she looked down on her cut-open skeletal body, she actually said, "Holy s***...I'm getting FAT!"
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"Death of a President" is weak and unimaginitive.
[Read the article: Beyond the Multiplex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I saw the film the only way most Americans will ever see this film - swiped by a friend off the Internet. It was immensely disappointing.
I lived through the Kennedy assassination, and I know how it devastated America and changed many things. It was the event that first made the public question gun ownership, and which made the gun owners and gun lobby more militant and defensive. It caused entertainment to be censored heavily for violence for the first time, with compensating increase in sex to keep the customers coming in - a trend which reversed to extreme violence and little sex or affection in the last few decades.
The filmmakers had no imagination or understanding of how this event would have affected America. Since Vice President Cheney has mostly been closeted and out of the public eye, how would the nation react to this nearly unknown man suddenly becoming President? Would Congress accept him, or would worries about his unstable (and probably non-existent) heart call for him to step down? And that would raise the Speaker of the House to the Presidency...and who the hell is he, the nation would ask?
None of this was considered by the filmmakers. All we had was a tired police procedural with the wrong man being arrested. Compared to the effect of a Presidential assassination like that of Kennedy, this was like an atomic bomb dropping, with the effects of a Texas chili fart.
It's tempting to say that it's the British filmmakers' unfamiliarity with America, but didn't they live through the agony of Princess Diana's death? Where were they when that happened, watching old "Red Dwarf" episodes?
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So does everybody get killed at the end, or what?
[Read the article: An unfortunate demise]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The entire atmosphere of snotty contempt surrounding this book series has kept me at arm's length from reading it. Seeing the trailers and PR for the movie kept me from watching it (let alone the fact that Jim Carrey was in it). I got the distinct impression - not changed from this interview - that this Handler guy is an insufferable jerk.
There are authors who deserve a grisly death. Anne Rice, for instance, for making vampires, the most gory metaphor for rape and sadism, "fun" for an entire generation. She isn't the only reason that Americans have changed into a cruel, torture-loving people, but she sure helped.
"Lemony Snicket" isn't in that weight class of villainy. His works are just annoying, like that worn-out windshield wiper that keeps squeaking. But his books are very much like that wiper; simply the fact that they're stopping feels so good.
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To those people praising "British" satire...
[Read the article: "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It seems this actor raised the spectre of racism and intolerance and was surprised to see it wasn't a spectre, it was a living, violent monster.
The heart of satire is egotism; the satirist proves how much smarter he is than anyone else. Even if it is true, which it often isn't, it's pretentious and only breeds anger, not reflection or change.
For instance, that snotrag cartoonist Tom Tomorrow essentially tells people that they are idiots for following Bush or his Democratic rivals...instead of following an enlightened, brilliant, witty soul like Tom Tommorow. The "Man of Tomorrow" is blowing his own horn and blowing his nose on everyone else for not being as wonderful and witty as him.
I'm sure this Borat character, if given the chance, will help other unsuspecting journalists lose their jobs, and probably get other people who appeared in his movie fired. He'll believe it proves his intrinsic intellectual superiority. It really proves what a jerk he is.