Notes from Underdog.

Spaced: At last! A review of the new US box set.

(This review was also published on GreenCine's Guru review blog.)

Spaced

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5):
Disc (Season) One: ****½
Disc (Season) Two: ****
Bonus Disc: ***½

After several years of hearing about a wonderfully quirky British show called Spaced, and then hearing still more about it when its creators went on to make the highly regarded genre-busting film comedies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and then finally seeing some bits of said show on a bootleg DVD someone had sent me, made from the fairly barebones UK region 2 release, now at long last comes a proper US release of the entire series. Fans of those films should rejoice, for herein is the germination of everything director Edgar Wright and company would subsequently produce, and yet may never quite top.

For those many of us who are already familiar with how sharply funny Simon Pegg and his frequent compadre Nick Frost can be, it is Jessica Stevenson (who now uses her married name, Hynes) who might be the real revelation to Americans here. In the UK she's quite well known as a comic performer on stage and in TV (and has been a collaborator with Pegg for some time), but it's a delight to see her here at her likable best, a semi-spastic but earnest wonder, the perfect foil for Pegg's manchildish character. The show centers around Pegg's Tim and Stevenson's Daisy, two strangers who meet when apartment hunting and decide to make a go of searching for a flat together. They discover it's easier to find a place they love if they pretend to be a married couple. And if that sounds like the set-up to a terrible American sitcom, it very well might, but in Spaced it is the perfect set up for Wright, Pegg and Stevenson's loopy humor and (cornucopia) of loopy characterizations -- which generously lends itself all the way down to a rich supporting cast.

Those players include the inimitable Julia Deakin, a tight-lipped, chain-smoking landlady and mother of a troubled teenage daughter (whom we never see in full); Mark Heap's Brian, a moody painter; Katy Carmichael's Twist, Daisy's fashion-conscious, blunt-mouthed friend; and, oh yes, Aida the Dog doing fine work as Colin the Dog, who joins the cast mid-way through the first series.

As in their films, there are the expected numerous pop culture references but also an impressive number of ingenious sight gags, filmmaking tricks (zooms and sweeps), flashbacks, cutaways, tangential but inspired bits (as in the gleeful moment in the clubbing episode in which their ecstasy-ed-out friend Tyres(!) finds a rhythm in a ringing phone and from his POV it turns into a deranged musical number in his head). All the first season episodes are standouts but I am particularly fond of several: "Beginnings," where it all, yes, begins; "Art," a delirious episode that lampoons pretentious performance art and features a bit of foreshadowing for Shaun of the Dead; and the sweet natured final episode of the first series which even offers a touching finale (which at the time the creators thought might be it). And the episode in which Daisy first acquires the dog also features a memorable paintball battle.

While Season One is arguably (if minutely) superior to Two, the latter has its share of wondrous moments. The second picks up some months later (and aired some two years after the first series), and finds Daisy having returned from a spiritually enlightening trip abroad. The first two episodes contain very arguably the finest Anti-George Lucas/Phantom Menace running jokes ever, including a moment in the comic book store in which Tim works that is almost indescribably funny. The second series also has a few more (but still very few) bits that don't quite work and doesn't quite sustain the level of energy as the first, but these are quite honestly small nitpicks. It remains inspired. Oh, and comic book geeks in particular will enjoy many of the comic-al in-jokes.  (CONTINUES...)

The difficulty of consistently churning out great teleplays, as seen on TV. (Rescue Me edition.)

There's a superb episode of the TV series "Rescue Me," toward the end of its first season -- the third from last to be precise -- in which Denis Leary's character's mom passes away, his dad comes to live with him, and several other subplots that can't be done justice in describing here. It was written by Leary and his co-conspirator in "Rescue Me," Peter Tolan, who have written the majority of the show's episodes. It is so much better than the couple of episodes that came right before it.  In fact, after watching the three DVDs that comprise Rescue Me Season 1 (2004; it's now into season 5), it's hard not to see the show's initial run as quite uneven. And often brilliant. 

Maintaining a high level is a real challenge for a TV series these days. That's why short runs are often better (See: Lost); the writers can really focus on the core of the story, the key characters and plots (and most interesting subplots). At times Rescue Me has felt a little lost itself, sometimes playing up the farcical elements too much, too broadly, at other times going too far over the edge. But when it's on, it's really been on.  And in Season 1, when it was still finding its way a bit, basically every other episode leaned into greatness.   There were some plot threads that seemed dropped, others that went on too long, but, again, when it hit its stride it was capable of giving us an uncomfortable great hour of television.

The characters are sometimes not just assholes, but nervwrackingly so -- misogynist (and there have been times when the show itself has had no idea how to portray women), selfish, homophobic, abusive. Their antics in Season 1 at least are as often tiresome as they are entertaining.  But it's also one of the few shows that willfully, sometimes even gleefully, pushes our buttons, the American taboos, left and right, until we are confronted with our own inner assholes. 

In short, at its start, Rescue Me was uneven, often trying to do too much, tackle too many issues and purposely push buttons, but when it finds its rhythm, particularly in scenes with Leary reacting to the nightmares around him (Leary's at his best when he goes off) or in some ingenious black comedy, at its best it's pretty unforgettable.

Rescue Me: Season 1:  ***
(One episode per disc gets ****)

From The Wire Season 1: Chess scene (and screenwriting 101)

You can probably teach more about writing a scene for TV (or film) from The Wire, and from this one terrific scene from the first season of The Wire, than from any class or book. Watch it, "read it," know it, live it.

New writer's blog: Earl Pomerantz

Veteran television comedy writer Earl Pomerantz (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, among many other fine credits) is now doing his own blog, and it''s a must=read.

Good timing, because on the spur of the moment I bought Season 2 of Taxi the other day at Amoeba Records, great to have around for those slow evenings, during bouts of insomnia or procrastination. And Mr. Pomerantz relates an anecdote about writing for that show and working for Ed. Weinberger. (And the revelation that Tony Banta was original an Irish boxer named Ryan.)

Bloggers Under Attack! Next, on HBO.

UPDATE 5-5-08: I thought I'd put this at the top because it's important. While it doesn't fully make up for the depths to which he sunk on HBO (more below), Buzz Bissinger's interview on The Big Lead blog goes a long way to make up for it. He is contrite, apologetic, and what's more seems so much more open-minded about blogs, as well as admitting the danger of making sweeping generalizations, that it's almost a relief, especially to those many of us who were fans of his writing in the past. And he makes a good point about the overall dumbing-down of society as well as a general tone of mean-spiritedness and derision in public & media conversations these days (ironic, of course, considering his own behavior). But, still, it's a start.

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It's already fairly infamous, and frankly, as I'll point out below, many others have discussed it at length much more satisfyingly than I could at this point. But it ties in with what I've been thinking about for months anyway.

What am I talking about? The latest "attack" on the blogosphere from an Established Journalist™, in this case writer Buzz Bissinger going bananas on sports blogger Will Deitch (Deadspin) and all sports blogs and all bloggers who blog about everything, on Bob Costas Live. In fact, that ten minutes may be the low point of Bob Costas' career. The roundtable consisted of Bissinger, Deitch, and, oh yes, for no reason whatsoever, Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards, who has no connection to blogging but must have been booked to be on the show that day no matter what. It was all an utter embarrassment, but it's Bissinger, author of a fantastic book on football, "Friday Night Lights," who should be most ashamed of himself.

First, watch the video clip (partial, not the whole sequence).

Second, read:

Deadspin's reaction.

And for more>>>

SNL: "Influential political player" or toothless satire?

I rarely find myself incensed by something I read in EW, but for some reason this kind of touched a nerve. So I posted this over on my other blog, The Progress Report:

Saturday Night Live: "Influential Political Player," or toothless satire?

Feel free to chime in.

American Movie Classics, redefined.

The cable channel AMC - American Movie Classics in case you've forgotten - "evolved" some time ago, so perhaps it should be no surprise that it now defines an American Movie Classic as  Death Wish V: The Face of Death which aired on that channel tonight at 10:30 PM.

[The TV Guide summary begins thusly: "The granddaddy of vigilantism is back for another round of explicit mayhem. What's revolting, if not surprising, about this salute to Bernie Goetz, the NRA, and All-American contempt for civil liberties, is the casual inevitability of all the violence.

New York's garment district turns into Dodge City as mobster Tommy O'Shea (Michael Parks) muscles in on the fashion trade of his ex-wife Olivia Regent (Lesley-Anne Down). She's engaged to Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson), who provides a sense of security for herself and her daughter Chelsea (Erica Lancaster). Olivia..." Yarrrrgggh, I can't read the rest. >click< ]

John Adams: Inspires and reminds.

Watching the stellar, if a bit speech-heavy (but what speeches!) and slow-starting, HBO miniseries John Adams for many people could serve as a sort of Rorschach test, seeing into it as proof or reaffirmation of their own political beliefs. This is in its own way to be admired.  For me, it is hard not to be both moved and depressed by it. Here we have these near-mythical names, the "founding fathers," dimensionalized into flesh and blood, into real, flawed human beings who were at the center of what would become one of the most important turning points in human history. The course of American history that has followed their brilliant Declaration of Independence (drafted by Thomas Jefferson, who presents it to Ben Franklin and Adams, in a scene the miniseries depicts in ways both moving and amusing) is full of events and progress that would no doubt have made these founders proud. It is also easy to imagine them viewing the last eight years, and many of the recent years leading up to this period, with exasperation, if not downright disdain.

And John Adams is already clearly the finest depiction of the revolutionary period of American history seen on film (granted, the pickings are rather slim in that category). Laura Linney brings us one of the true first ladies, who influenced her husband, provided him with an intelligent sounding board, and thus in turn had some influence in what would become America's independence.

When John Adams (as played most convincingly by Paul Giamatti) speaks to the Continental Congress, when trying to at last finally convince the States who were still wavering about voting for independence, he declares:

"Objects of the most stupendous magnitude and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are now before us. We must expect a great expense of blood.  We must always remember that a free constitution of civil government cannot be purchased at too dear a rate, as there is nothing on this side of Jerusalem of greater importance to mankind. My worthy colleague from Pennsylvania [John Dickinson, delegate from NY and played here by Zeljko Ivanek] has spoken with great ingenuity and eloquence. He has given you a grim prognostication of our national future. But where he sees apocalypse I see hope. I see a new nation, ready to take its place in the world. Not an empire, but a republic. And a republic of laws, not men. Gentleman, we are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations. How few of the human race have ever had the opportunity of choosing a system of government for themselves, and their children? I am not without apprehensions, gentlemen. But the end we have in sight is more than worth all the means. I believe, sirs, that the hours has come... 

All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life I am now ready to stake upon it. While I now live, let me have a country. A free country."

While I now live, let me have my country -- again. As it was. As it was meant to be. Something to make the founding fathers proud of us, not just of who we were and are, but who we can be.

Take that to mean as you will. (What would be sad, however, is knowing anyone would take Adams' speech above as an analogy to the war on terror, or the war in Iraq specifically. I could not think of anything more wrong-headed as that.)

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As an aside, Tom Wilkinson is perfectly cast as Ben Franklin, always my favorite of the revolutionary era "characters," and what he, and Giamatti - sorry Tim Goodman, I normally agree with you but you're wrong about his being miscast - and company bring to this story is give these men the weight, the sweat, the empathy they deserve. While I'm sure there could be quibbles with pieces of the series as a whole, this embodiment of an often nearly ethereal period in our history is to be embraced.

And is there anyone who has a better cinematic smirk than Danny Huston, still one of the most underrated of actors? He doesn't get many lines as Samuel Adams here but his presence is felt in every scene.)

On The Wire's series finale. (NY Times)

I'll have my own thoughts on this one a bit later, but this says it all quite well.

So Many Characters, Yet So Little Resolution

 

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

Published: March 10, 2008

After all these years, all those dead bodies and so many criminal contortions of the law, the wiretap in “The Wire” didn’t bring the bad guys to justice.

Perfect.

Technology and good intentions couldn’t win out in Sunday night’s finale of “The Wire.” The best and most dyspeptic police drama on television would never conclude with a triumph of good over evil. Victories were few, and Pyrrhic.

David Simon did not end his series the way “The Sopranos” came to a close, in a frozen tableau of ambiguity. “The Wire” went out the way it came in five seasons ago, not so much tying up loose ends, though it did, as meticulously proving that there is no end. For every major character who died or moved on, a new incarnation sprang up. And the most poignant was probably Michael, the young protégé of Marlo, the drug kingpin. The boy killed as he was told, but he questioned the logic and the fairness of each hit. When he realized he was the next target, Michael turned not into the next Marlo, but the spitting image of his boss’s nemesis, Omar, a hunted man turned rogue hunter, preying on drug dealers with a shotgun under his coat.

Read the rest >>

Freaks and Geeks reunion, a short essay graded on the curve.

With no flash photography allowed in a fairly darkened Cobbs Comedy Club, I unfortunately didn't get any good pictures of the Freaks and Geeks Reunion that happened yesterday as part of SF Sketchfest. But I did take copious notes on my Pee-Chee Folder. Hopefully I won't be tested on this.

The panel, moderated by the incredibly sharp-brained, man-boobed (his own words) comic Patton Oswalt, featured a good number of the show's likable stars (notably absent due to film shooting schedules were James Franco, Jason Segel and Seth Rogen): Linda Cardellini (Lindsay Weir), Busy Philipps (Kim Kelly), geeks Martin Starr, John Daley (Sam Weir), Samm Levine (Neil), plus two members of the faculty, Dave Gruber Allen (Mr. Rosso, the hilarious guidance-counselor/folk guitarist) and Steve Bannos (Mr. Kowacheski, the bitter math teacher). (I'm surprised Paul Rudd wasn't there, even though he has nothing to do with the show directly.) And Paul Feig presided as the sort of patriarch of the group - the show was really his baby, his creation, with many of the storylines based on his own angst-ridden geeky teen years.

Random observations and notable bon mots:

While we were waiting for the show to begin, my friend told me how he'd seen some of the cast outside going into the back entrance and was distressed at how old they young geeks all look - "one of them (whom I knew was Martin Starr, now playing stoners in Apatow comedies) has a Charles Manson beard!" Ah but to our relief - if possibly not his - Samm Levine looks very similar to his teenage self. I think fans of the show came to think of these guys as like an extended family, our younger siblings, and in the same way there's this possessive feeling of not wanting any of them to age - for them to stay as is forever, just as we wanted the show to stay on forever -- or at least, in a less cruel world, for longer than its paltry single season.

In a related anecdote, both Paul Feig and Linda Cardellini agreed that the actress who played Millie (Sarah Hagan) looks basically exactly the same. Even more of a relief to me: not only does Cardellini look as dynamite as ever, but she still has the greatest laugh (see it on display in the episode where James Franco gets caught cheating and makes up a sad sack story about his childhood that Lindsay knows is b.s.)

They showed a montage of clips, some greatest hits from the show, before the gang arrived on stage, and it was a pleasure to see it with a huge live audience eating it up - even though we'd all presumably seen those same bits many, many times before.

When asked what each of their favorite episodes were, several of them picked the final episode that aired - in which Lindsay and Kim sneak off to follow the Dead. Linda C was especially fond of that one in a sentimental sense, for obvious reasons, for as they shot it before shooting a couple more episodes, that was when they first knew the show was going to end. But as the question was tossed around the group, Patton Oswalt begged someone to pick a less maudlin answer. Samm Levine picked "I'm With the Band" because everyone in that episode's storylines "lost" - Jason Segel's Nick auditioned for a band and sucked and lost, and Sam couldn't take a shower and ended up naked in front of the whole school. A couple more people picked the first, the pilot episode, as it worked like a self-contained film (especially since Paul Feig and company said they weren't sure it was going to be picked up so they had to treat it like a one-time deal).

They were asked where they saw their characters ending up if the show had been extended for a second season. Mr Rosso (Gruber) saw his character as starting his own charter academy in Michigan, or, in a darker version, as finally going crazy and starring in "Rosso First Blood II." Bannos saw his angry teacher character (which he'd revealed as having been based at least in part on a real teacher he'd known as a kid, a semi-fascist math teacher/football coach) as being caught beating up a kid, getting arrested, and or coming out of the closet. Everyone laughed. Patton Oswalt cried. John Daley saw his Sam as getting more popular and having to straddle the line between his geek friend circle and the popular kids circle. Levine would push for Neil to lose his virginity and lord it over his friends (but Bannos then quipped "If the show went on for 8 more years you would not have lost your virginity!") Busy Philipps saw Kim as maybe becoming good friends with Millie and joining the school's theater arts department. Martin Starr saw his character as becoming more of a jock, with his mom still dating the gym teacher, and losing touch with his friends. Cardellini wasn't sure where Lindsay would've ended up next but (jokingly) suggested she could've come back from following the Dead pregnant and having suffered a bad acid trip; she or someone else suggested possibly dating an older guy.

Patton asked Paul Feig if he could see going the Buffy route and doing a sequel as a comic book. Feig was adamantly against that happening, that the show couldn't exist again in any other way. (Levine jumped in: "So the studio wouldn't give you the rights?" "Nope.") I was going to raise my hand and suggest that they consider doing a Freaks and Geeks cartoon (like they turned Gilligan's Island into one) since the actors could still do the voices even if they no longer look the right age - but then thought better of it.

Besides these moments, there were little anecdotes of the "you had to be there" variety, a couple of amusing asides about James Franco included: Philipps revealed that, while they're now "great friends," it was true that they basically couldn't stand each other through much of the show's filming (he once even got so mad at her that he shoved her to the ground, which made her ballistic, and Feig chimed in that he naively thought they got along fine and were just messing around; when he realized what was really going on, they wrote a scene where she got to be extremely angry, to yell at him, which made it that much more realistic. Feig said they did that for other characters/actors, too. There were other comments and memories that were repeats from the DVD commentaries so not really worth repeating here.

Also interesting was Feig's observation that the show would've lasted longer had it come out during today's television environment. There are more daring cable networks, like FX and even AMC, and the networks are setting more realistic expectations for ratings. The show's low ratings wouldn't necessarily have killed it so quickly (look at the US The Office, for instance) and there would've been more outlets. But it happened at a time and a place - the right cast, at the right age and the right creative brains behind it - not just Feig but Judd Apatow, Mike White, Jon and Jake Kasdan and so on - and so it might have lasted longer now, but it might only have existed then. And even if it was only a year, it was a glorious run that will live on forever.

Thanks to these talented actors and Feig (read his SuperStud if you haven't already, by the way) for coming out and reminding us (not to get too maudlin, sorry Patton) what an amazing little show [one of Time Magazine's 100 Greatest TV Shows] it was.

Now if they do decide to do the cartoon, I hope they'll come calling on me because I have loads of ideas.

PS: If anyone was there and *did* grab some pictures send me the link or post it in comments here.

The Wire returns: fifth season, fourth estate.

The Wire returned for its fifth and final season this week, looking like it may once again outdo itself. I was reminded of how the show is a multi-layered onion, so many things under the surface to be pulled out. Just as the failing public school system was the topic in the previous, the new season focuses on mass media, as seen through the Baltimore Sun. Capturing the struggles of modern journalism - from generation gaps in the newsroom and the decline of grammar (both centered around the new character, the eagle-eyed, old school City Editor (good to see former Homicide co-star Clark Johnson back), to budget cuts, chain newspaper/corporate ownership, and the paper's connection to the city in crisis. And once again that part of the show is captured beautifully, as the mayor tries to keep all his balls up in the air (but the city's broke and so...he has no balls), funding education at the expense of the police force, in a better universe a choice no city would have to make - which forces cut backs on a key murder investigation - while trying to fund a city that has no funds. (Exhale.)

If the show wasn't also so dramatically compelling, with a seemingly endless string of memorable, well-drawn characters, it would be almost overwhelmingly depressing because it's so accurate in its depiction of today's American city, ignored, underfunded, with a federal government that wants States to feed their own, and States so broke they can't even feed themselves. Yes, if the show weren't so compelling and often bleakly funny as hell it would just be bleak.

And some of the humor comes out in such subtle, deadpan ways that those moments could just slip on by - such as, in the season premiere, when the east side and west side gang "co-ops" rent a ballroom meeting space at a chain hotel. Classic.

The show continues to be demanding and intricate in some ways but flows together so simply and naturally.

The choice of a newspaper to center things around was the perfect one for the show's final season, as the paper touches everything the show is about: the police force, the mayor's office and the political scene, crime, schools, the city. And odds are most everyone, it appears, will in one way or another touch the paper, too, before the show ends. In a scene near the end of the first episode, Bubbles is seen earning an honest few bucks selling the newspaper to drivers stuck in traffic (one of them is the mayor's aide, pissed off when she reads the front page). Everyone connects here, or there are very few degrees of seperation, but that never feels contrived.

I do worry a bit about the direction McNulty (Dominic West) may be heading - down that path of the scared drunk again - as much as it causes his girlfriend (Amy Ryan) to worry, and, as always, worry about Bubbles' future, too. And that of the kids now working the drug trade too (hard not to assume at least one of them will end up dead before the season end, just as the odds aren't in the favor of their counterparts in the real world).

But never mind the worry; The Wire is back and, especially with the writer's strike on, it's a show everyone should be watching at this point.

---

Meanwhile, the show's producer David Simon lashes out at Hollywood: "Let me indict Hollywood as much as I can on this one," Simon said. "We have more working black actors in key roles than pretty much all the other shows on the air. And yet you still hear people claim they can't find good African-American actors. That's why race-neutral shows and movies turn out lily-white." -- Simon in USA Today, today

Update: Interestingly, or ironically, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun itself isn't as crazy about the directions the show takes for its final season.

More from Time Magazine.

Freaks and Geeks (live) reunion

This just in from the San Francisco Sketchfest folks:

The cast and creator of the short-lived but much-loved television show "Freaks and Geeks" will reunite at Cobb's Comedy Club on January 20 for an onstage conversation moderated by Patton Oswalt. The festival is thrilled to welcome series creator Paul Feig and cast members Dave (Gruber) Allen, Steve Bannos, Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, Samm Levine, Busy Philipps, and Martin Starr for the largest onstage reunion since the show's unfortunate cancellation in 2000.

Oh my. I'm there. And this arrives just as I'm finishing a F&G trivia contest on Facebook.
There will be a Kids in the Hall reunion and tribute during the fest, too. Yowsa. 

Clean Up Radio Everywhere

One of the better episodes of a television program about censorship wasn't within the last ten years, but the 1980s sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. One of my favorite shows as a pre-teen, WKRP was loosely based on the film FM, following it up in the late 70s and early 80s and capturing that era's music and radio vibe. It clearly inspired the later show Newsradio, among other programs (even if it, too, was inspired by earlier shows - even MASH, think of it as the 4077th in a radio station.) If this episode seems a bit dated in its way, and doesn't seem as brave now as it did back then, it remains relevant (offensive lyrics, pressure from religious right, etc) and funny.  And dig the thinly veiled Jerry Falwell-type.

WKRP: Clean Up Radio Everywhere (1981), written by Max Tash and Hugh Wilson.
(Hosted by YouTube, via TVLinks - go there for the rest of the episode; try a few times if it gives you the unavailable message; or you can watch the scene where they dissect the lyrics to "Imagine" here)

Californication.

The premiere episode of new Showtime show Californication, follows Weeds literally and (to a lesser extent) spiritually, is cynical and sharply written (by former Dawson's Creek writer Tom Kapinos) - with a dynamite performance by David Duchovny at its center. I'm not fully convinced as of yet what kind of staying power this show will have, but it definitely holds promise. Duchovny plays Hank Moody, a, yes, moody writer from NY but now based in LA who hates that place almost as much as he hates himself, whose book "God Hates Us All" was adapted into an apparently terrible Hollywoodized film called "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (which is absolutely what it would be called if this were real). He's alternatively vulgar and witty, and sometimes cruel, but Duchovny gives him heart and soul. The show - so far - is at its strongest when it's focused on his struggles with his writing, or lack thereof, and his interactions with the women - mostly unavailable - he ends up shagging or trying to shag. It's less strong when shifting to his relationship to his ex-g/f (ex-almost-wife) and their 12 year old daughter. Those scenes are purposely uncomfortable but they're also a little less believable. They do serve a purpose, however, as  it gives the seemingly rootless Hank something more to care about.

Californication also seems to me yet another show made by people who have spent way too long in LA - or have, like the main character, just recently moved their from NY - but either way the world is so insular, insider-ish and cloistered that even someone like me  - a writer who once lived in LA and has worked in Hollywood, with plenty to relate to - could find myself wanting to see a different world for once. Create something new, or show us something different, rather than yet another treatise on the existential dilemmas to be found in the abyss of the LA film industry. How will this play in Peoria? is only part of it; I just wonder how it would be for these obviously talented writers to go outside the LA angst to create something expansive. On the other hand, the dialogue, the writing, is so sharp here and Duchovny so good that I'm still tuning in next week to see where it goes. The show's makers obviously are unafraid to go to uncomfortable places from scene to scene and that I admire, even if it makes for some squirminess.

Oh, and the spicy sex scenes don't hurt either.  (Yet, the show reminded me a bit of the old HBO series Dream On, starring Brian Benben - except without the old film clip segues.)

Bill Haverchuck Gets Funky.

Anytime I'm feeling at all blue, I just think of this scene that played at the opening of an episode of Freaks and Geeks.  Seriously, one of the funniest clips ever.

Bill Haverchuck Gets Down and Funky

10 reasons to love flight of the Conchords

1. People look like real people. The lead guys, Bret and Jemaine, look like you and I, as do the majority of the supporting characters, including the coworker Bret falls for. She's certainly cute, but in a real sort of way, not likely to be gossiped about in Us magazine anytime soon, but Bret sings about how flippin' hot she is in the "Boom" song.
2. The songs are both catchy, and hilarious - but the video interludes in which they perform them put them over the top, summing up perfectly the show's mix of deadpan, ridiculous and clever.
3. The use of the word "flippin'" - the worst curse they can muster.
4. The often ludicrous plot elements come off completely natural. Why wouldn't it be perfectly normal that the two guys who mug our heroes share the same falling out with each other that Bret and Jemaine experience? Both one of the muggers and Jemaine suffer from abandonment issues. It all comes together in the end.
5. Mel (played by comedienne Kristen Schaal), the band's self-professed number one fan and only stalker, who has a vlog online. A character so well-defined she gives me the creeps.
6. New Zealand needs some real life characterizations to get people beyond thinking of it as "that place where they filmed Lord of the Rings" (and "where Vikings come from," as Bret's girlfriend mistakenly wonders).
7. The dialogue exchanges are often riotously funny, but Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are so comfortable with their routine(s) that it often bears repeat viewings just to catch the humor.
8. Rhys Darby as their incompetent manager - who somehow manages to give off the impression that he's incredibly organized even if he's rather useless. A Kiwi stand-up comic and actor, Darby is a real find. The three of them have a natural rappoir.
9. In jokes (and out jokes) about the music business, playing gigs, in-fighting, politics, all at the smallest scale imaginable, which makes it that much funnier.
10. Because the lyrics are flippin' brilliant. Lyrics like these:

"Counting coins on the counter of the 7-11,
From a quarter past six ‘til a quarter to seven,
The manager Bevan starts to abuse me
Hey man, I just want some Muesli,
Neon signs, hidden messages,
Questions, answers, fetishes,
You know you’re not in high finance,
Considering getting second hand underpants,
Check your mind, how’d it get so bad?
What happened to those other underpants you had,
Look in your pockets, haven’t found a cent yet,
Landlords on your balls, have you paid your rent yet?"

Flight of the Conchords, on HBO.

The Wire: 5th Season

Hurrah! There will be a 5th season of The Wire, and in fact they're filming it now. Got this tidbit from the Washington City Paper blog:

David Simon, creator of critical darling and CP staff fave The Wire, has gone on record saying the HBO series’ fifth season would be dealing with the mass media. So the fact that Simon & Co. are filming over the weekend in the Washington Post newsroom is not really a surprise, but does this mean the Sun (Simon’s former employer) refused to cooperate?

Jan '08 Update: Go here for my take on the season 5 premiere.

Podcast Interview with MST3K Producer Jim Mallon

On the Rhino site:
Interview with Mystery Science Theater 3000 producer Jim Mallon

La Petit Prime Suspect

Not enough people saw the latter here in the States to care, but I've been thinking how much there's an eerie similarity between the new Prime Suspect series starring Helen Mirren and the new French film La Petit Lieutenant starring Nathalie Baye, not the least of which is the subplot in which both protagonists' struggle to come to terms with their alcoholism. I saw the "Gallic Prime Suspect" at the SFIFF this year and thought it quite well done, even if I found myself missing Helen Mirren, and now after watching the new PS, it's hard not to think back to the French film.  Both takes on a familar genre story have their place, make it seem fresh, and both lull you before they shock you, utterly.

Ed Bradley, RIP.

Another big, sad loss this week: Ed Bradley.

He was not only the first African-American White House correspondent on TV, and the winner of a remarkable 19 Emmys, but, simply, one of the best newsmen ever. He will definitely be missed.

Simpsons streamed!

Anyone want to take any bets as to how long this site will stick around?

All Simpsons

I give it two weeks before the suits at Fox scare them off the 'net, but it sure is fun for now.

UPDATE: Yep, as expected, it's gone, daddy, gone. Quelle surprise. Lasted less than my predicted two weeks.

MST3K on YouTube

Besides leading to the most enjoyable discovery that Mystery Science Theater has been dubbed into German, YouTube has also been the place to find a few of my favorite MST3K clips (and entire episodes), including this one from the wonderfully terrible Space Mutants - check out the absolutely bizarro 80s dance sequence at the beginning (and the gang's spot-on commentary throughout). While I am more of a Joel years guy (but Mike Nelson was/is wonderful, too), and prefer the Comedy Central years to the Sci-Fi channel eps, this was one of the best from the late period. (One of these years I'll post my favorite episodes here.)

Of course, you're better off renting/buying the ones that are available on DVD, but YouTube - while it's still around that is - offers some more good stuff.

(Clicking the link works better than me embedding the player here.)

Space Mutants 2.

ABC's Path to 9/11 PSA, I mean, mockudrama

The ABC television network  (owned by the Mouse) is airing a new "docudrama" called The Path to 9/11. ABC has thrown all its might behind the two-parter, billed as a "public service:" a TV event, to quote the ABC tagline, "based on the 9/11 Commission Report".

Which is utter crap. You'd think people claiming to base a script on a book would have bothered to have actually read the source material.

The show is essentially right-wing propaganda - and frankly I'm not a fan of either right or left propaganda on network TV, but especially not when it's so laden with misinformation - and then compounds this by creating an educational/resource campaign for schoolchildren, so they, too, can learn themselves real good. And not just about 9/11 but about the war in Iraq as well.

According to MediaMatters: "A Media Matters for America review of The Path to 9/11 "resource sheets" and "discussion guide[s]" provided to teachers has found that the material omits critical information regarding the Bush administration's pre-Iraq war weapons of mass destruction claims; falsely suggests a tie between Iraq and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; gives upbeat accounts of reportedly dire conditions on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan; suggests that military responses to Osama bin Laden by the Clinton administration could have "hinder[ed] the U.S. stance on the war on terror"; and asks students to debate whether the media "hinder our national security."

Besides not watching (boycotting) the program - but you're certainly welcome to watch it and judge for yourself - you can also contact ABC directly to voice your opinion, and you can also e-mail Scholastic (who are behind the lesson plans sent out to schools connected to the program).

Good news, everyone: Futurama comeback?

This would make my day, if it comes true. For a long time after the show's cancellation, my attitude was generally that Fox could bite my shiny metal ass. This would make up somewhat.

From Variety by way of Video Business magazine:
Futurama might live to see the year 3000 after all. Talks have begun at Fox TV to revive the animated skein in much the same way Family Guy found new life after cancellation. A rep for Fox TV declined comment. The final original episode of Futurama aired on Fox in August 2003. But since then, the skein has found new life -- and fans -- via DVD relaeases and repeatedly high-rated airings on the Cartoon Network. A similar resurgence in interest for Family Guy persuaded Fox TV to revive that show, which has produced two seasons of new episodes and a DVD since coming back from the dead. -- Michael Schneider

This comes on the heels, a few months back, of news that there will likely be a Futurama (made for DVD) movie. Kif, I'm feeling the Captain's Itch!

Update! Billy West (voice of Fry) himself reported on his web site's forums that this is gonna happen for sure. Hurrah! (Thanks Twitch)

Update 2: You already know this is in progress now. But here's more from Matt Groening, at TVSquad.

Lazy Sunday short film

Wow, Saturday Night Live actually aired something funny this year:

Lazy Sunday
A short film by Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg.
A coupla cupcake-eatin', Narnia-watchin' mo-fos.

Funny stuff.

(Thanks Nick!)

Catching Firefly

Meanwhile, I'm catching up on all the Firefly episodes I missed during the show's initial run - which means, all of them - like much of the country after enjoying the hell out of the Serenity movie.

Some episodes are better than others, but they're all solid pieces of writing, the witty dialogue exchanges you'd expect from a Joss Whedon series, and strong characterization. And just when I started to seriously tire of Summer Glau's River character (a thankless role), the genius, mindreading teen with a hankering for trouble, as the show wore on they alternated between making her more interesting and just pushing her to the background.

Interesting, too, how the film parallel's the show's plot threads, even repeating them in a way, but from a differerent angle, with a fresh take.

Does anyone else think Nathan Fillion and Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) were separated at birth?

Meanwhile, DVD Talk's TalkRadio section has a 28 min. interview with Whedon about the show and film

Lost in Lost

I have a love/frustration relationship with the television show Lost, the kind you can only have with something you respect enormously, are addicted to, even, and likely have unrealistic expectations for. It is, after all, network television. And damned addictive.

But lately I've been obsessing over the structure, or design, really, of the show's scripts. The more I watch Lost, the more it strikes me how it's laid out a bit like a video game - not the fast paced video games that most people are accustomed to, but the more cerebral mystery-type computer games I used to play in the 90s. Myst. Movie-based games like Lucas Arts' Indiana Jones series. Secret of the Lost Cavern. Return to Mysterious Island. Games where you had to solve puzzles, interpret clues and separate them from the many red herrings scattered about on the island, jungle, cave, haunted mansion, or time periods your character found themselves in.

Lost's characters find themselves stranded on an increasingly surreal desert island, full of mystery - from The Others, "Them," seemingly possessed and evil people who otherwise appear normal physically, to the well-stocked bunker, and the revealing informational film left there as a crucial (or is it?) clue, to the monsters, horses, and other random creatures that may or may not be real - the show is designed, and information is revealed to the characters, as they would be in a problem-solving adventure game. Obviously, these games, and this show by (my)association share ancestry with the whodunit mystery novels and movies, as well as fantasy and science fiction mysteries, so it's without any credible evidence that I lay out this thesis.

But I know the makers of this show are my age or younger and have very likely been weaned on some of these games, just as I have, and it may in some way have affected their storytelling methods. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing in this case, because it keeps us coming back just as we keep coming back to a game we cannot quite solve. Yet. And there's no hint booklet, but the show's web site and fan boards does give off the feel of those I used to refer to when obsessed with certain video games.

There is certainly good character development on the show, too, which also keeps us coming back. Though I'm beginning to suspect the flashback structure has just about overstayed its welcome. In the first season, the structure made sense, and in fact added to the show's suspense - the wonderment about each character's relation to the fated flight, and to each other - but at times this second season the flashbacks more often serve to slow down momentum. (Except Kate's flashback in this week's episode did shed a great deal of light, finally, on why her character was on the run from the law - picked up from way back last season.) I'd rather the show give us a breather with the occasional dose of humor - which it did more often earlier in season one, but at this point, save for the occasional brief moment with Locke or Hurley, it's almost completely devoid of any levity. (And poor Michelle Rodriguez is saddled with one of the more hard-bit, snake-bit, scowly characters in recent memory). I'm not talking about slapstick, I just mean the occasional line, someone who can give us a bit of comic relief. Circumstances are dire on that island, sure, and people are dying, and possibly going insane, but aren't those the times when someone finds a knack for gallows humor?

Still, on I keep watching, and compared to most of the morass that is network television (so bad that people still try to convince me that Desperate Housewives is a great show. Are things that bad? I'd rather read a good book.) I keep watching Lost because I want to solve the puzzle, the mystery, I want the characters to get off the damned island in one piece. I want to get a high score and then play it all over again.

Something to pass the time: Manos, the Hands of Fate MST3k soundbites

Will announce publication news tomorrow, and am working on a review of the nearly fantastic PARADISE NOW, and am also working on GreenCine stuff, and am also starting to revise the screenplay, so, meanwhile, while you're waiting and while I'm procrastinating, here's a page full of mp3 sound bites from the classic Mystery Science Theater takedown of Manos, the Hands of Fate (i.e., "Hands, the Hands of Fate").

Tom Servo: "So what're we, about a half hour into this movie?"
Joel: "No, I'm afraid not, it's more like a minute."

Lost in mistranslation (anime style).

I always enjoy the way song lyrics from anime series are translated into English. I think this one, for the opening song from Witch Hunter Robin ( I just watched the first disc), is a delightful, if appetite-supressing, example:

original Japanese lyrics:
"Sukuwaretaikara tameiki wo tsukuno janaku
Kakidashite shimatta kodoku no kehai no kazu wo Tada kazoeteita."

English translation:
"I want to be rescued, but instead of sighing
I vomited up my loneliness, and just lay there, measuring it all up."

Cable observations.

In the midst of the (this time it's not a drill) threatened PBS budget cuts, in which the only home media options left to educate our chilluns could be the vast and often forbidding world of cable television, here are some random thoughts about cable (also spawned by the fact that I've had full-on digital cable access for the past month+):

- Thank you to the Hallmark Channel for re-running M*A*S*H*; now if you'd only refrain from completely butchering it as aired on your channel. Scenes end abruptly, often well before the punchline or connecting line or action, rendering the proceeding scene's beginning a little off. All so they can cram in a few more commercials for garbage bags and the Latter Day Saints.

- Thanks to ESPNnews for giving us up to the minute sports reports; but I have to wonder aloud how many people really crave those endless post-game press conferences? (Though I did find Mike Tyson's umpeenth "I'm really retiring this time" post-bout/collapse press conference a few days ago kind of fascinating.)

- Excited to have: TCM, IFC, Sundance (though I've hardly found something of interest so far, on the latter), Cartoon Net, the random Asian networks in the middle, soccer channels, and HBO

- Less excited to have: Lifetime, Fox News (if I need to even mention that), frankly, all cable news, and bottom of the barrel, E!, which is utter nonsense 24/7.

- Used to be good, now mostly crap: A&E, Bravo (I appreciate the West Wing reruns, but Inside the Actor's Studio has gone downhill, and they're too caught up in reality TV overload), TLC (ditto), Discovery Channel (though I do still love the locally filmed Mythbusters - but the rest of that channel has gone rapidly down the tubes), and most of the other stations.

- The American version of Who's Line is it Anyway? (on ABCFamily), originally a British improv show, would be every bit as good as the original, were it not for two words: Drew Carey. Unlike in the British version, where the droll Clive Anderson knew his place was behind the host desk and not on stage, Carey still is under the mistaken impression that he's funny and that we watch the show to see him, so, while for most of the program he stays put, at the end he insists on inserting himself into a closing skit, usually to awkward results. You can tell the other, seasoned improvisers are less than thrilled. I wish they'd rerun the Brit version here again - which often featured some of the same North Americans, but was slightly more... intelligent.

- Good, not bad, sometimes ugly: Henry Rollins' engaging show on IFC, Henry's Film Corner. I was initially skeptical but find him quite entertaining and a good "voice" in the indie film corner, and I admire his passion for things. Even when I find him a bit... much, I appreciate that he's on.

- Some of the best shows on TV are on cable: Deadwood, The Wire, Entourage (even though I can't watch that show except in small pieces because I lived in LA for awhile and knew those people and don't really want to spend 30 minutes a week with them), Dave Chappelle (if he comes back), Reno911 (sorry, but it's freaking funny), off and on Six Feet Under, and, well, god bless South Park, which I have a love/hate relationship with.

- The History Channel sort of scares me, even though I've gotten much value out of it, too - especially when I was researching WWII. But if it isn't quite fair to call it "The Hitler Channel," as some do, it sure seems to lean towards all war, all the time. That plus what seems to me a slight but detectable bias towards the right (maybe it's just the commercials - quite a few for the Reagan coin and for GW during the last presidential campaign - which is their right, but makes me wonder...) And then their Shroud of Turin doc made them appear to have a bias towards fringe elements of Christianity. And then there's the "Outdoor Life" channel which seems to be mostly about killing animals, I mean, hunting.

Again, I worry about where we, where our children will get their news, their history, and their facts - their education - when left with cable TV.

And if I wasn't getting a free ride with this package (from my landlord), I wouldn't be seeing any of these channels and probably getting more work done.

Still... I get to see Animal Cops San Francisco, which is mostly about pit bulls, and isn't that what it's all about?

Turn the TV off, 'rents, and crack open the books.

Simpsons movie update

You've heard the rumors for awhile, but sounds like a Simpsons movie is finally officially in the works. (And is that as good a thing as it once sounded?) James L Brooks talked about it in December, and now, Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart, says they are actually in production now. (It will take at least two years.) I'm glad to hear they didn't seriously consider doing a live-action Simpsons, keeping in mind The Flintstones movies (although, were those really any worse than the original cartoon?) But here there's a legacy to live up to, and no one can do Homer like Homer himself, all 'toon.

New Deadwood Drinking Game

(API NEWSWIRE) May 15, Palo Alto, CA.  A new drinking game based on the TV series Deadwood caused several Stanford University students to be hospitalized overnight with alcohol poisoning, authorities say. The game, "Deadwood," inspired by David Milch's hit HBO Western series, consists of a simple rule: Every time a character says "Fuck" on the show, a player has to take a drink.  "After five minutes," said an anonymous student who declined to be named, "three of my buddies were unconscious and brain damaged." The friends are not expected to regain full use of their faculties. The game is now banned from the campus, even after several of the students offered a watered down version in which one must drink only when a character on the show says "Co**sucker," which should result in only a mild stupor. "At first it was a fun game," said one student not associated with those hospitalized, "and not too dangerous, but then Milch kept adding more and more 'f**ks' until it was every third word. We should've known, we should've stopped, but no one wanted to be the one who wimped out." "F**k," another student added solemnly.

(Note: The above is satire, entirely fictitious, and as such should not be taken as reality, nor should you attempt this at home. The author voids all responsibility for any accidental drinking-related injuries that should occur.)

Spongebob Lavenderpants?

I realize this is now fairly old news, as bloggin' tidbits go, but sometimes the ridiculousness of things hit you in delayed fashion. You just can't make stuff up like this. First we had Fallwell and the Teletubbies, then the ludicrous Buster Bunny controversy, and then the paranoiacs at "Focus on the Family" started calling SpongeBob gay, or at least worried that a video he was in promoting diversity and tolerance (Horrors! what a terrible thing to teach children - tolerance!) was in fact promoting a "homosexual agenda." Anyway, today (okay, it was a rerun from January) Al Franken quipped on AirAmerica, "yes, as all you right wing Christians listening should know, 'tolerance' is actual a code word for 'anal sex.'"

Tom Kenny, who voices SpongeBob wonderfully, had this to say about all the nonsense:

"I could maybe see it their way if this was a video with Barbra Streisand and Madonna and Judy Garland," Kenny said, a tongue-in-cheek reference to performers who supposedly have large gay followings. "We're talking about cartoon characters here, and these people are just trying to make a video that (says) it's a positive, good thing to be respectful of people different than you.

"Let me ask you, who would you rather go bowling with, SpongeBob and his friends or the Rev. James Dobson? Who would you rather go out with and have a few beers? Probably the only common ground I have with the Rev. James Dobson is that I haven't seen the video, and I'll bet he hasn't either. All he knows (Kenny dropped into an angry backwoods voice) is that it's a little yellow guy full of holes who's saying it's OK for men to be with men.

"It's very entertaining. The entertainment industry could use more people with that kind of wild imagination."

I mean, really.

---

Meanwhile, tomorrow I'll post my meaningless Oscar predictions and pre-Oscar comments, just for the helluvit.

Inaugural Catfight, I mean, Debate, on FoxNews

In case you haven't yet checked this out, iFilm's got the clip from FoxNews Inauguration Day conversation between a "fair and balanced" anchor and a Vanity Fair writer, who, as Thomas Rich in the NY Times will point out in this Sunday's edition, was about the only person brave enough to take the White House to task for their lavi$h inauguration celebration in the shadow of war.

Rich: "In this same vein, television's ceremonial coverage of the Inauguration, much of which resembled the martial pageantry broadcast by state-owned networks in banana republics, made a dutiful show out of the White House's claim that the four-day bacchanal was a salute to the troops. The only commentator to rudely call attention to the disconnect between that fictional pretense and the reality was Judy Bachrach, a writer for Vanity Fair, who dared say on Fox News that the inaugural's military ball and prayer service would not keep troops 'safe and warm' in their 'flimsy' Humvees in Iraq. She was promptly given the hook."

Tales from the Springfield Hospital.

Did anyone catch the Guy Maddin reference on The Simpsons last night?

If you missed it, the episode, which was fairly hilarious if you ask me (except lately they can't seem to end their episodes in any kind of nonridiculous way), had Mr. Burns cancelling the employee prescription drug plan, which had a domino affect and caused great panic among the citizens (particularly Smithers, who needs thyroid meds and blows up like a balloon the likes of which haven't been since Ken Griffey Jr's Giganticism problem in "Homer at the Bat"). So Homer, Grandpa Abe, Apu and Flanders all go to Canada to get cheap prescription meds, and wacky mayhem ensues. Anyway, at one point, they're seen driving north on a Canadian highway, and a sign overhead says:

"Winnipeg ↑" and "Gimli  →"

...Referencing Canadian filmmaker Maddin's Tales from the Gimli Hospital, of course.

(Oddly enough, I'd just watched Maddin's Saddest Music in the World DVD this weekend, which has three neat short films and a fairly interesting behind the scenes doc, although no Maddin commentary.)

Oh, those Simpsons writers and their references. I'm sure they're eagerly waiting for the Season 16 DVDs (in ten years) for the commentary over that in-joke. I got a kick out of it anyway. (If anyone, perchance, has a screen capture of this, let me know.)