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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Leaving The Wire out of the Emmys (again) shows exactly how worthless these awards are. This has been the best show in the history of television from Episode 1. Maybe the Arrested Development thing got to them, but they were right to keep giving that show awards in spite of the ratings and they need to recognize this show.
Two and a Half Men is funny. It's not sophisticated, it's not politically correct, and it's not subtle. But it is hysterical. Sheen is a really good comic actor, maybe because he doesn't look like one.
Just checked out Mad Men (thanks for the tip). Good show, even though the appearance of Rosemarie DeWitt probably means that Standoff is really dead, and I liked that show a lot. I grew up during the 60's, albiet in an extremely liberal environment, but I was too young to understand the social dynamics that were in play. If this is really what things were like, the pressure to conform was beyond anything I could have imagined. It's amazing that anyone managed to get anything done, what with everyone pretending to be something they weren't. Simpler times, indeed. :)
The last couple of episodes of JFC have gotten more and more disorienting. Some of the criticisms I'm seeing are kind of unfair, but some of the people who have obviously drunk the Kool Aid are rationalizing.
The random dead guy wasn't random, he's the guy who deflowered Barry at the hotel. Mitch talked about surfing when he thought Shaun was dead because that's the lens he views everything through, and because he isn't quite as in touch with his spiritual side as he likes to think. Tina talked like that because Link offered her $1000 to tell him how good he was, so she talked like a character in a porn movie. Trying to illustrate the duality of the character, a little obviously I thought but apparently not.
Ed O'Neil is brilliant, even when his dialog is nonsensical. Gaviota is showing that he has been being wasted for years, and the scenes with him and Dickstein are some of the best parts of the show. Beaver is doing a great job, although sometimes he's working with some pretty thin material.
But -
Greyson Fletcher... why? He surfed one time, he's skateboarded twice, and he can't act at all. I mean not even a little bit. This is why God gave us stunt doubles. Kennely is actually getting better every episode, and she is one of the most likeable characters on the show. But Fletcher make Keanu Reeves look like he has range.
Rebecca DeMornay is bad and getting worse. Completely one dimensional and flat, something that often happens to actors after they are featured on Law and Order - Dick Wolf seems to have a way of beating all the talent out of everyone he meets. Look at Mariska Hargitay.
That scene in the parking lot made me feel a lot like Spiderman 3 - what the hell is this? I'm going to ride this out, but the situation with John and Cass is becoming tedious and the parking lot thing has me wondering if this is going anywhere. Here's hoping that Milch has some magic under his hat that will pull everything together and make us all go "Ah".
Perhaps those who feel a bit lost and uneasy with John from Cincinnati should rent some Sopranos "complete seasons" for grounding and literalness (Is that a word?).
I understood the scene in the parking lot to be a kind of dream. (The dead guy, by the way, is the guy who molested the lottery winner/motel owner when he was a kid.) I'm assuming it was John's dream, since he was asleep in the van while it was happening, but it's not really clear to me if the other people were dreaming or having some kind of waking vision as well. At any rate, none of them seemed able to see John (or the dead guy) with the possible exception of Cass. It was indeed confusing, especially John's dialogue, and Twin-Peaks-ish, but not totally baffling once I realized it wasn't meant to be happening in the material world. I actually like Fletcher. Sure he might seem "wooden," but this is exactly what my own brother was like at that age (and surfing).
Mad Men is a horror story for everyone who isn't a white man (and some who are, like the obviously gay colleague who draws the cigarette ad with the hunky guy). Besides the horrible OB/GYN and relegation to the secretarial pool/executive harem for the women, notice that all the blacks are servants and that the agency handles the Jewish client with (metaphorical) tongs. I love it!
A big problem with this show, ostensibly about surfing, is that there is no surfing. Even the endless and aimless scenes, the constant introduction of new characters with nothing to do, the fuming of Rebecca DeMornay, would be tolerable with one of those fantastic surfing scenes that appeared in the first 2 episodes.
Heather, glad you are back.
K.
Really? Are there people out there who felt that 2 and 1/2 men (actually about 3/4 these days given Angus' size) really deserved 1 Emmy nod, much less 3? The show has devolved into one long sex joke and not a very funny one at that. Go back to junior high if that's the best of TV comedy for you and let some more subtle and more funny actors and shows have a chance.
I think the "Day 5" installment, with John's seemingly off-the-wall soliloquy, will turn out to be Milch's throwing down the gauntlet episode of this series: "Either you're with me in this or you're not." It's certainly separating the fanatics from the less committed viewers, that's for sure. I'm in the fanatics crowd but I can also understand how Heather would be turned off - who really wants to have to work that hard to figure out what is going on in a television series? To make sense of what has taken place in JFC so far (especially the Day 5 episode), I was compelled to read Steve Hawk's "Behind The Episode" column on the HBO web site, along with JFC forum posts on both the HBO and Television Without Pity sites. While this took some time from my day, the effort paid off for me; I have a much better appreciation of what Milch is after with this series, and I can't wait to see what happens next. I also have an appreciation of how, with JFC, Milch is really flying without a net: a lot of the details and side trips in this series are the result of chance and improvisation on the set. JFC may aggravate Heather but it fascinates the hell out of this viewer.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
