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Moon Magic By Katrina Rasbold |
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November 28, 2007
The
Prestige Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Cane and David Bowie. Now I ask you, what is not to love about THAT? All four actors bring solid performances to the table and the story itself is quite engaging, that of two stage magicians who are in an ongoing battle, fueled by the accidental death of the wife of one of them early on in the film, to be the best magician. Their competition is brutal and merciless and often dangerous. As in the movie "The Departed," I found that I had trouble keeping the main characters straight and remembering what had happened to whom. Of particular fascination to me was David Bowie's turn as (real life) inventor, Nikola Tesla. He's virtually unrecognizable:
The story's climax is one that you don't really see coming, but then you do...sort of. The ending kind of broke my mind a bit and I had to think about it a long time to actually figure out what happened because a lot is going on in revelations about both characters and you need a score card to keep track of it all...and that's just in the last 10 minutes or so. IT was definitely a worthy watch as period pieces go (I'm not much on them, honestly) and I'm glad I saw it. I'm also glad I didn't pay theater price for it. Next up on my list is the new Bruce Willis movie, "Live Free or Die Hard" and you people know good and well that mama luvvvs her some Bruce. I even loved "Hudson Hawk" and "The Last Boy Scout." Also, submitted for your review, "Movie-Fone" presents: The Top 25 Movie Flops of All Time: http://movies.aol.com/movie-photo/box-office-bombs Yes, "Hudson Hawk" is on there. Shut up. My own comments: 25. Sahara: Matthew McConohey, my favorite naked bongo player, has his shirt off, so it can't be all bad. 24. Alexander: What an epic snooze that even a stellar cast and Oliver Stone could not save! I KEPT trying to watch it thinking there must be something wrong with me for not liking it, but then I had to just let it go... 23. Inchon: I never heard of it, but there is a good Sun Myong Moon story with it. Evidently, he started crying one day and wasn't able to stop until he went to see some movie somewhere. He took that as a sign from God that he was supposed to make a movie and that's how this moving, starring Sir Laurence Olivier, released in 1982 came to be. 22. Poseidon: The ship should have stayed sunk. There didn't really have to be a morning after. Really. 21. Speed 2: Cruise Control: Know Keanu, know peace. No Keanu, no peace. 20. One From the Heart: Judging from the accompanying picture, I'm glad I missed it. 19. All the Kings' Men: Somehow, this flew right past me. I think I must have thought it was "All the President's Men" and figured "Meh, I've seen it." 18. Leonard: Part 6: No, there was no part 1-5 and thankfully, no part 7 on. Even though I love Bill Cosby, this was just baaaad. 17. Shanghai Surprise: Shanghai shit. 16. Basic Instinct 2: Oh man, this movie was so, so bad. The first one was carried by 3 things: Michael Douglas (I'm so tempted to make him the next two things as well), an intriguing, suspenseful story and The Shot. This movie had none of those things and while she is still very attractive, my opinion is that Sharon Stone just ain't got it any more. It was more just sad. 15. A Sound of Thunder: You know, it just went right off my radar. Never heard of it. 14. Hudson Hawk: HEY!!!!! 13. Howard the Duck: So completely did not ever need to happen. 12. Bonfire of the Vanities: How can there be a bad Tom Hanks movie? Watch and learn, friend. 11. Catwoman: Seemed fail proof, but fail it did. 10. Battlefield Earth: HAHAHAHA *gasp* hahahaha *gasp* Ha *wiping tears* ha ha. Ha. 9. Gigli: I think this is what actually broke up Bennifer. 8. Waterworld: I'm still mentally scarred from the pee refinery he had. 7. The Postman: Two bad Kevin Costner Ego Extravaganzas in a row. This time, it wasn't good for him to ring twice. 6. Cutthroat Island: So, so, so bad. No girl pirates! None! 5. Cleopatra: The movie actually cost 22 time its initial budget of 2 million dollars and totally flopped at the box office. Why? Not because it wasn't a very good film (it wasn't), but because people were still really pissed off that Liz stole Eddie from Debby. 4. Heaven's Gate: Something closer to Hell's Portal. 3. Ishtar: Yeah, pretty bad, even with Beatty and Hoffman. 2. The Adventures of Pluto Nash: Proving Eddie Murphy was going to have to work harder to stay The Golden Child. 1. Town & Country: Again with the Warren Beatty! Never heard of it. The movies I would have included are ones other people would not likely have listed: Sophie's Choice, A I, A Bridge Too Far (A Movie Too Long), Shrek 2, The Wild, Napoleon Dynamite, Rushmore, Dune (either one), Because I Said So, Lost in Translation, The Celestine Prophecy (but I loved the book), Ocean's 12, Ocean's 13, Blair Witch Project 2, Epic Movie, The Ninth Gate (Sorry Johnny), Borat, The Haunted Mansion and Road to Perdition. There are more, laws yes, too many, but my brain is tired!
Want to talk about your thoughts on
the worst November 14, 2007
American Gangster Well, likely in theaters for about another 45 minutes. The movie is made by Alien director, Ridley Scott who is known for his close up shots and "never flinching from the grisly" style. Starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe and the always very, very welcome Josh Brolin, this aimless story does what aficionados of the genre such as myself could not imagine could be accomplished...it makes the Mafia boring. Mind you, it was not a waste of nearly 3 hours of movie time. The trailers were GREAT (gotta see Wanted, Vantage Point and I'm thinking Rambo might be a wait for DVD kind of thing) for one thing. The American Gangster story is based on a true account of the drug lord, Frank Lucas, played by Washington, who was the driver/henchman for Bumpy Johnson, played by the absolutely still delicious Clarence Williams III (Linc from The Mod Squad, baby). When Bumpy dies, Lucas gets the idea to go to Saigon and buy heroin straight from the makers and cut out the middle man, selling a purer product at half the price of the lesser quality street product. I am going to figure that the screenplay writers had an interest in preserving the integrity of the story by not adding in superfluous information beyond what really happened, but in this case, a little embellishing might have been in order. It's not a bad movie by any means, but at $10 a pop for tickets, I would have liked to have had a bit more meat with my potatoes...or salad, as it were. There's no logical reason given as to why this chauffer is able to afford to go to Vietnam and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the drug and its subsequent transfer to the US. At Bumpy's funeral, he mentions something to a colleague about how all of the people in the room owed Bumpy money when he died and he plans to collect. After that, you pretty much see him watching a news report about the problem with US servicemen becoming drug addicted due to the low cost of and easy access to opiate drugs in Vietnam and before you know it, Frank's on the phone to his cousin who is stationed there and Bob's your uncle, he's on a plane, taking a meeting with the Vietnamese guy who has a gigantic heroin making process in place and many hundreds of thousands of dollars later, the US military police are being paid handsomely to ship it to Harlem. Russell Crowe plays a typical Bruce Willis-type cop who is appointed to head up the Essex County War Against Drugs Task Force and begins to sift down to finding Lucas as his target. There is a really lame subplot about Russell Crowe having a son who he's never there for and the mother suing him to take the kid to Vegas. None of it is particularly interesting and it's difficult to attach any kind of empathy or feeling to what's going on. The most exciting part is that Josh "I'm so hot you could fry an egg on my firm ass" Brolin plays a Bad Cop, but even he doesn't have a clear role or developed character. He's just really fine to look at. The story can be summed up as follows; (I'm so tempted to type, "Watch Blow instead" for how it's summed up) Denzel gets an idea. Denzel sells a lot of heroin. Denzel gets rich. Denzel goes to jail. The end. In between, there is a whole bunch of filler really going nowhere. It's OK to see if you aren't doing anything else, but definitely on DVD. One last thought is that the real Frank Lucas wishes he looked like Denzel. November 7, 2007 Weeds I'm not even sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way, I got completely hooked. Now, Eric's time has been limited and we are in that weird situation where I can either sneak and watch the show on the sly (Netflix DVDs) and pretend to be reacting to "new" stuff when he is FINALLY able to watch it with me or I can wait it out as I have been, hoping he's going to finally get some quiet time to watch the show with me OR I can just grow some balls and tell him I'm going to watch it and that's that. For now, I'm just staring at him really hard and waiting it out. I don't know that the story got more interesting or that the characters begin to grow on me or that I got hit by some love ray or what, but now I'm dying to find out what happens next. The next set of DVDs is not yet scheduled for release, so I might have to resort to some drastic, torrential measures to get my fix after this next disk is over. One more to go and then I'm freefalling! I can't watch the episodes (new) currently airing because I will be missing a chunk from them from the middle. I can't DVR them because I know good and well I'd get upstairs some night with nothing on my 50000 channels and start watching them out of sequence. To thine ownself be true and all. The second season of Weeds took a slightly different turn than the first, which was more of laying down the personality groundwork of the characters than actual storytelling. Now that season 2 is halfway over, I can begin to better feel the nature of the show and find some familiarity with the characters. There is a good bit of "didn't see THAT coming" and just enough of "OK, I expected that" to have the feeling that you know the people involved in the story. It's off of probation and is not a favorite.
The Biggest Loser I swear...to...God. Each season of this show, there must be some kind of formula used to make certain that the people who are not eliminated in the first half of the season are absolutely the most whiney bitches ever. I was finally able to watch another episode, or rather, half episode (I came in late) of Loser and was blown away by all of the bitching and griping and back stabbing going on. I couldn't find one person on the whole show I liked who wasn't Bob Harper. I sniggered like Dick Dastardly over the fact that Implant Kim only has 1 person left from her Red team, all the rest having been voted off the island along the way. She has twisted this whole misfortune into the notion that they are gone because they are a threat (because she's such a great trainer) rather than embracing the possibility that they might be gone because she just sucks. I'm thinking Kim is not long for this show and will likely be gone next season. The writing was on the wall when she saw Team Jillian come barreling in on that second show (or was it the third?). She was done, lame ducked as it were. The people have lost ridiculous weight, one guy over 100 pounds in something like 2 months. It's insane. I have often thought how cool it would be to do something like this if it weren't for all the exercising and dieting involved. The best part of The Biggest Loser are the truly excellent recaps (weecaps) by Potes on Television Without Pity. I read them even if I watch the show. Dirty Jobs Admittedly, I watch this show almost every night. I can name a few of the dirty jobs that host Mike Rowe has done in the past year or so that I have been watching, but overall, they have faded into memory in favor or watching Mike Rowe himself, who has eclipsed the Kratt Brothers (Zaboomafoo and Kratt's Kreatures) in the HILFs (hosts...) department. What's not to love:
The good news is that this is really a "guy" show, so husbands think you're doing them this big favor by watching it. Since he's this hot and this nice and has such a cute personality, you can probably figure he's gay. He claims in an FAQ: "I've never married, but continue to pursue a life of serial monogamy with a very understanding woman in San Francisco." Even if he's lying ala Rock Hudson, I'll take it. Even if the understanding woman in San Francisco is his mother, I'll take it.
House On the other hand, there is no reason really why I should like House, formerly House, MD, but I absolutely love it and so does Eric. The "protagonist" (I guess), expertly played by Hugh Laurie (The Black Adder), is a wholly unlikable and damaged person. The shows are extremely formula-based: 1) We see something unfortunate happen to the character who will be our patient this week and usually ends with them falling to the ground, catching or fire, falling off a mountain or whatever 2) House introduces the case to his team 3) House and the team come up with about 47 wrong diagnoses and treat the patient for each one 4) Some unrelated comment or stimuli gives House an epiphany about what's really wrong with the patient at the last possible second (or perhaps, after the patient has died, but most of the time, they live. That's it. Cameron, played by Jennifer Morison, is whiney and soft-hearted to the extreme. Chase, played by Jesse Spencer, arrogant and upper crust snotty, but almost invariably wrong. Foreman (The character's name actually is Eric Foreman - like on That 70's Show), played by ER's Omar Epps, is a know-it-all, ethics at all costs, stick up the butt, paranoid pain. Dr Cuddy, played by Lisa Edelstein, is the consummate example of a woman constantly needing to prove herself in a man's world but forever being manipulated. Plus, she wears outfits that are very inappropriately low cut for her position as Chief Administrator of the hospital. The only redeeming character is Wilson, played by Robert Sean Leonard, who is the show's collective conscience and House's best friend. (I want to marry Wilson, except for all that cheating he supposedly does) None of that stacks up to a promising premise. There are almost no characters with whom the audience can connect. The show is basically the same show every single week...but it works and oh lord, I can't miss an episode. It takes about a disk of the first season to really get hooked, but then, you can't stop watching. It's the dynamic that plays out behind the structure of the case of the week that is so intoxicating. The writers do an amazing job of showing us just enough of the characters' true selves to keep us intrigued. Little by little, we learn how each one got to be the way that they are and the interaction between all of them is fascinating and riveting. One of the many strengths of the show is its array of guest stars. Throughout a couple of the seasons, Sela Ward appeared as Stacy Warner, his former girlfriend, and that connection revealed to the viewers a different side of House. David Morse (16 Blocks) played a detective determined to bust House for obtaining illegal prescription medications to feed his rampant Vicodin addiction. This season (season 4), finds House with his "team" (a team of fellowship doctors who participate with him in medical care using the Socratic Method of Differential Diagnosis) disassembled via termination and resignation, forcing him to hire a new team. As of last night, he has narrowed down the selection process to ten candidates after four episodes. Kal Penn, of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle fame, is one of the potential selectees. The brilliant Carmen "You name it, he's been in it" Argenziano plays a candidate who, as it turns out, isn't even a doctor, yet House lets him play along anyway. Each season, I expect to hear that the show has been canceled. The kiss of death is me appointing any show to be one I really enjoy (Firefly, Dead Like Me, Chicago Hope, Deadwood... shall I continue?), but just when this show should be jumping (or humping) the shark, it pulls up a new angle and just keeps on working. I highly recommend it.
The Biggest Loser As you can see, I have a li'l prollem with my viewing schedule. A choice between House and, well, anything, is likely going to result in anything losing, so I have had to cover Biggest Loser on their website and on the glorious Television Without Pity recaps. I was even going to bother watching Dancing With the Stars until they decided to go up against House as well on ABC. Sorry, guys. No dancing for me if House is in the hizzouse. The premise of The Biggest Loser is good which is to take a bunch of fat people (this season, there were some really, really large people) and put them in a location where all they do in exercise and eat good food and then make it into a competition for $250,000 to see who is actually The Biggest Loser. Literally thousands of pounds have been lost by people in conjunction with this show over the four seasons the show has run. There are two Biggest Loser workout DVDs on the market and I want to tell you, they are both excellent and well worth the investment. The trainers are terrible except for Bob Harper, who is just a little baby doll. I completely want to cuddle him and bring him home to live with us. The girls, Jillian and Kim, are just bitches and I refuse to do Kim's part of the workout DVDs because of how much she gets on my nerves. Bob makes up for it. Of course, it makes perfect sense that if you are in a place where your own focus is weight loss and exercise and eating right, it's going to happen. Profiles show that a good many of the contestants carry their success over into "the real world" as well, which is wonderful. They surely do look different when they are done! Personally, I find the show to be extremely inspiring, even though their weight loss journey has very little to do with mine since I actually do have to deal with the outside world and all of its challenges rather than living at a fat farm. I'm not really a fan of reality TV, but I do recommend giving this show a try. It's definitely interesting! I just wish Alison Sweeny would do something with her damned hair. October 5, 2007 As the first season of Earl was winding up, both Sherry and my son, David, were tugging on my skirt, telling me that I'd better get to watching it if I knew what was good for me. It's hard to believe that I'm the same person who, a few years ago, never, ever watched prime time TV. These people are either a very good or a very bad influence on me, I haven't decided which. The Media Ho was the one poking me about Rescue Me. Georgia was pushing for Firefly. Joe was urging me to watch Deadwood. Everyone and their dead uncles were telling me I had to watch Lost. Thank God for friends or I would be a complete cultural illiterate. Thanks to the cunningly mad downloading skills of my bit-torrent son, I soon had a few disks of Earl episodes (which Dave cleverly named "My Name Is URL" - Get it? It's link) and was on my way. I was captivated from the first show on. It's rare that a pilot captures my interest right away and holds it, but this one did and I quickly made my way through the disks and caught up with real time. I hadn't had so much fun watching TV in forever. The ensemble cast is amazing. The writing is sharp and very witty. The show is unabashedly unafraid to go into some very unexpected places in the name of humor without coming off as completely low brow and Ren and Stimpy-ish. Even the guest stars, ranging from the veterans (Roseanne, Craig T. Nelson, Marlee Matlin) to the unknown, are scene stealers who bring just enough pizzazz to even the smallest role to light up the screen without chewing up the scenery. Eddie Steeples and Jaime Pressly are perfectly honed to the parts of Darnell and Joy Turner and Ethan Suplee plays Earl's everything-challenged brother, Randy, with such a subtle brilliance that he makes the inadvertently perfect straight man. Interestingly enough, Jason Lee's portrayal of the lead character of Earl also comes off as a straight man, which makes for an interesting twist, leaving the audience with the enviable challenge of finding all of the ways in which the scenes they share are funny. Blending several different types of comedy into one show takes a deft hand and a talented cast and all of those components come together with amazing synchronicity in Earl. Greg Binkley, Dale Dickey, Tracy Ashton, Giovanni Ribisi, Nancy Lenehan and the incomparable Beau Bridges are engaging and Silas Weir Mitchell all play recurring characters who are so much a part of the fabric of the show, even though they are only on a couple of times a season, that you feel a little twinge of excitement when you see them appear in an episode. The writing is particularly razor sharp and fast paced. Take a bathroom break and you miss a lot. Season two, admittedly, was a little more lumbering than season one, but we have now seen a total of three episodes of season three (the season premier aired two newepisodes back to back) and I am very proud to say that they standard Earl set for itself in the first season has been met and at times, surpassed. Earl is back in more ways that one. I look forward to this season unfolding and the good news is that the show has already set up a number of situations that are potent with comedic potential, so we can expect that the season is going to continue its smooth pace and deliver the goods. So where is Carmelita? (That's OK. I like the show better without her) September 27, 2007 Back again! There is a lot of territory to cover, so I'll get right to it! So I finished up the 3rd season and I'm all set to begin watching live again in February. I really miss seeing it a lot. I can't imagine on some of those episodes how awful it would be to wait a full week to see what happens next. The writers and editors have definitely mastered the art of the cliffhanger. Of course, like everyone else, I have a thousand questions. There was a good bit that I've missed that Joe filled me in on after the fact. My allegiances remain the same. I still don't like Jack and, in fact, dislike him even more aggressively after the whole Juliet thing. He was so smug and shitty about knowing that Juliet was there to work for Ben undercover. I also dislike Kate even more than I did before seeing how she ran jabbering to Jack about Naomi as soon as Sayid and the others clearly told her that they did not trust Jack (as it turned out, for good reason). I have been thinking a lot about the flash forwards and what they could mean. At first, I thought it was a "what might have been" thing, implying that the island had rescued all of the Flight 815 "survivors" from a fate worse than crashing onto an island... John returning home defeated after being denied his adventure, Claire going through with giving up her baby and regretting it, Kate going to prison, Hurley's downward spiral of bad luck continuing with even more grave results, Sawyer dealing with the aftermath of having murdered an innocent man... Then I thought the crash had only happened in Jack's head and he'd had a breakdown, especially when he talked about his father being upstairs and the other doctor just *looked away*. Other Doctor never reacted to Jack's mention of his father and Jack did go a little nuts when Pharmacy Chick wanted to call his father's office (not just his father) to confirm the prescription. Who the hell died? Obviously, someone both Kate and Jack knew or knew of. Whoever it was, Kate had little interest in the fact that they had died and seemed surprised that Jack suggested she might have gone to the funeral. The producers and writers for the show have completely rejected the Purgatory theory, the abducted by aliens theory and the time travel theory. In the forefront of all of these shot-down theories is the most well received idea of the science experiment of man versus nature. Certainly, there is an ongoing theme of genetic experimentation and alteration, as well as the blatant psychological experiments between the Swan and the Pearl hatches. Another interesting theory is the time travel idea kind of bent in a different way wherein Jacob is actually John in the future, that being why John was unable to see Jacob and Ben could (the whole "can't encounter yourself in a paradoxical time travel situation or all kinds of 'Back to the Future' hell will break loose" thing). Since John seems to be the one most closely connected to the esoteric "island as a personified entity" energy and also the ongoing representation of faith (as opposed to fact represented by Jack and manipulation as represented by Sayid and brawn as represented by Sawyer) as strength, it makes sense that he could be tapping into the John of the future, that being Jacob. If anyone would be tapped as the person least apt to represent faith before the crash, it would be John. His life was little but betrayal and misery up until the plane crashed, but finding himself able to walk upon waking on the ocean placed him in the unique position of believing in the island, primarily in absence of anything else worthy of faith in his life. Comments he frequently makes such as "Boone was a sacrifice that the island demanded" also show us that he is tapped into the heartbeat of the island, even in times when he is unclear as to the motives or machinations of the island. In the last season, Locke's faith was severely shaken when the Pearl station revealed The Swan to apparently be nothing more than a mind game psychological experiment. Although his subsequent anger and bitterness resulted in the imploding of the Swan station, it was almost a sense of blessed glee that he reflected when it was revealed (through all of the exploding and such) that pushing the button all those times actually had been critical to the survival of the station, discharging the repeated build up of electromagnetic energy created by the station. When he said, "I was wrong" to Mr Eko, you almost got the feeling that despite any apocalypse that was to come as the result of him being wrong, he was glad to be wrong as the island again proved to be a force with which he could identify and instill he faith. Ultimately with season 3 coming to an end, John showed his final allegiance to the island, taking it on as his only ally and rejecting or making secondary any human relationship. As I am sure was the intent of the creators, the Season 3 finale generated more questions than answers. Why was the Dharma computer in the Looking Glass tuned into Penelope's frequency or did Penelope just happen to be broadcasting and when Charlie turned on the computer, it just happened to pick it up? Why is it that when Desmond tried to leave the island, he sailed and he sailed and he sailed and could only come back to the island? What does that bode for Michael and Walt? Mikhail was evidently killed 3 times: by the perimeter electric fence, by the harpoon that Desmond put through him and by the grenade he held that flooded the station and killed Charlie. Are we to presume he is really dead now? Did Desmond survive the grenade blast? I was fully convinced that Sayid, Bernard and Jin were dead. Why would Tom and The Others in the raiding party fire into the sand? Was it really a direct defiance of Ben or was it the plan all along for some reason, conspired upon with Ben? Did Ben intend for several members of his raiding party to be killed and is Juliet still working with him to make that happen? In the flash forwards, if Jack could easily contact Kate, why has she not been arrested? Was the now dead Unnamed Federal Agent the only legal entity who had a hard on over busting Kate? Does no one else in the FBI care? Who does Naomi work for and why are they trying to find the island? One theory says that it's Sun's father, who obviously has international contacts that would be fully capable of moving heaven and earth to find his missing daughter. Penelope and her seemingly endless financial means would be the most logical assumption, especially considering that Naomi said "Desmond" when she was out of it. Unfortunately, when Charlie was talking to Penelope for that brief moment, she had no idea who Naomi was, prompting Charlie's quick Sharpie message on the hand to Desmond moments before his death. One ground-breaking impact of the Season 2 finale that was fleshed out more in Season 3 was to introduce the outside world as a factor for the first time. Prior to this, the island appeared to be a bubble with no contact; however, seeing Henrik and Mathias excitedly tell Penelope "I think we found it" brought into play the idea that the island is not impossible to reach and perhaps the signal jamming done by The Others actually is the only impediment to a rescue. This continues with the arrival of Naomi and whether or not her story is true (and they only have her word that it is), she does represent someone from the outside (as does Penelope on the Looking Glass computer to Charlie) who has been able to penetrate the island's apparent isolation from the rest of the world. There is definitely a wealth of material to explore in the coming 4th season and I definitely look forward to its return! Producers confirmed on May 7th 2007 that Season 4 of Lost will return February 8th for a 16 episode run, followed by 2 additional 16 episode seasons in both 2009 and 2010. That means we have a whole lotta lost to look forward to and definitely tells us that this story isn't even nearly told. I'm definitely good with that! Although it took me a few episodes to really get sucked into this show, I have to say, it definitely got under my skin and quickly got to be one of my favorite and most highly recommended series. IMDB says that 12 episodes have been ordered up for 2008, but no projected debut is given. With both Deadwood and Carnivale being canceled without any kind of wind up to the series, viewers are not particularly trusting of HBO to be gentle or viewer-friendly in their handling of future seasons of popular shows. With the last season leaving us hanging with Barbara being "outed" as a polygamist at the "Mother of the Year" awards ceremony, the second season resolved this issue fairly quickly with a minimum of causalities. Whereas in the first season, the antagonists to the safety and security of the Hendrickson family/ies, this season, the threat came from within on several levels. Barbara questioned her ability to follow through with the polygamist lifestyle, Sarah felt the pangs of shame that having polygamist parents put upon her as a teen, Ben was tempted by the sexuality of his non-Mormon girlfriend, Rhonda (Roman's newest intended bride) defected from Juniper Creek and pulled the Hendersons into a major conflict over the taking of "child brides" and further complicated the already tempestuous situation with a series of slanderous lies, Margene's foray into "outside" friendships brought the judgmental and intrusive attentions of "neighbor across the street" Pam, Bill's tricky dealings with the purchase of a video poker manufacturing company "Weber Games" result in a renegade/rival family of polygamists, The Greens, who deal with their enemies with violence and Alby Grant took full advantage of his father's shooting (by the Greens) to take over the compound as the next "prophet." By the end of the second season, the story had exploded in a hail of arrests and threats, as well as several instances of the Hendricksons having publicly announced that they are polygamists. As I watched the final episode of the second season, I honestly had no idea it WAS the season finale and was very disappointed that there would not be another episode airing for the foreseeable future. This particular season showed a lot of emotional depth to the characters. We watched each wife and the older kids all struggle to come to terms with who and what they are as individuals and as a family. In Ben's case, he chose to take the priesthood and fully embrace the polygamist lifestyle after succumbing to and struggling with his vulnerability to his sexuality. Ultimately, Barb was the one who showed Brynn the door, or rather in this case, did nothing more than to illustrate the realities of being married to a man who "lives the principle." That was enough to cause the girl to choose not to see Ben again, which sent him into a relationship with a pair of twins from Juniper Creek. Ben's enthusiasm of living the polygamist lifestyle took Barb into an emotional turmoil of questioning her own choices and whether or not she was truly prepared to share Bill. Margene had to balance out her bubbly desire to be a part of the world and all it has to offer with the need for secrecy and discretion around her chosen lifestyle. As her pregnancy became evident, she was forced to go from unwed mother to surrogate mother to Barb actually being the one to reveal to Pam that Margene is her sister wife, presumably representing Barb's ultimate acceptance of her extended, if unconventional, family, this coming after a particularly painful reconnection with and ultimate rejection of her birth family (her mother brilliantly played by the wonderful actress, Ellen Burstyn). Nikki had to reconcile the dirty dealings of both her birth family on the Juniper Creek compound and her husband as the stakes were consistently raised, born of the flaming competition between the two families. More than ever, the second season illustrated the combativeness between the people on the compound and the Hendricksons. Caught in the middle were Bill's family members who remained on the compound: Joey, Wanda and one of my favorite characters, Lois. Nikki's family, primarily her mother Adaleen, went through their own soul-wrecking emotional upheaval as the conflict between the two families escalated with Nikki ultimately being excommunicated from the family. If this season were to have its own name, it would be "Fallout," because it was all about the realities of their situation. Season one seemed to work hard to depict the polygamists as normal, ordinary people who live in the world in a uniquely personal way. I found myself questioning my own opinions on the polygamist lifestyle and found that like so many other social variances, I really just don't care what people do in the privacy of their own home as long as it doesn't harm anyone. I also found myself wanting my own sister wives to help out with some of the housework. While season one worked to establish the normalcy of the Hendricksons, season two focused strongly on the challenges of not just the lifestyle, but of these particular people living the lifestyle. An additional factor added to the mix was Bill's attraction to the waitress, Ana, with whom Margene (secretly) formed a fast friendship. Ultimately deciding that his connection to her was lust and not a divine calling, Bill did end up in the pantry (or somewhere like that, I can't recall) sharing a passionate kiss with his ex-girlfriend. One has to wonder what her connection to the family will be now that Margene has spilled the full truth to her and let her know how much she wants her for a sister wife. That coming on the tail end of Barb questioning whether or not she even wanted the sister wives she already had should be a hot topic. That being the case with the writing and storytelling, I can't say enough about the completely brilliant acting that is produced by the talented cast of this show. They bring such a sense of believability and genuineness to each and every character, taking the viewer quickly and firmly into the necessary empathic place to "get" the impact of what the character is feeling and thinking. Casting on this show is flawless and the unfolding of episodes is truly a captivating story that I look forward to exploring more fully in season 3. As with the season finale of Big Love, I also did not realize that I was watching the last show of the season as I watched Rescue Me's wind up. The season quickly went into turmoil as tempers flared off the air regarding the firing of Jack McGee as Chief Jerry Reilly. Many astute viewers saw the Chief's suicide coming as he married off his son and put his job at the fire station behind him. I wasn't one of them and was completely stunned by the development. So was Jack McGee evidently and he was very vocal with his anger about how his dismissal was handled. This fourth season of the controversial series took the show into a much darker place (if that can be imagined) as we dealt with the Chief's suicide, which was actually more of a minor occurrence on the show, Michael's descent into depression following the death of his mother, Sean and Maggie's divorce, the alcoholism of the Gavin family and the return of Alicia with Keisha to Franco's life. Overall, the season was lackluster and often characters seemed to be behaving in a way that was alien to the nature the audience perceives them to have. Odd things sprang up, peppered throughout the season, such as the cavalier way in which Sean burning down Michael's house was handled. Seeing the fire crew laughing and joking about the incident while Mikey's house family home burned was an uneasy thing and it was not aided by the fact that Mikey himself shrugged off the situation, saying the house only had bad memories for him anyway. Endless family AA meetings allowed for plenty of bathroom breaks for the viewers, as did the ongoing battle between Janet and Tommy, which got beyond old. Colleen's relationship with the Fake Baby Head singer was dreary and only served to illustrate what truly horrible parents both of the Gavins make (although that was already abundantly clear). The negligence Janet showed No Name Baby, later to become Elvis and then Wyatt, was painful to watch. No one enjoys seeing a baby who is universally hated by everyone in his family. Moreso that that, no one ever needs to see the baby's uncle/father/whatever holding him over the drink, ready to drop him into the river. It was a tense week for Rescue Me viewers that week and although the (I am sure) desired effect of having us all, collective, heave a sigh of relief when the baby was revealed to be with Sheila, it definitely did not win any good drama points with any of us. That bizarre side story about the crazy woman who Tommy was servicing (I don't even want to remember her name) and the weird nonstory of Tommy having to date the new chief's (Jerry Adler - Hesh from "The Sopranos") daughter stood out only in the sense that it made no sense. I realize that these were intended to be factors to cause Tommy to re-evaluate his sexuality and what he actually wants in his life, but overall, it fell flat and was boring. If anything, my thought is that the most recent season of Rescue Me only served to illustrated that the vast majority of the characters, main and supporting, are truly despicable people. I can honestly say that the only episode I really enjoyed of the season was the finale and then, only the last 3-4 minutes as the closing montage brought the season to its end. I loved that after assuring (bitch, I hate her) Natalie that she should take as much time as she needs to get her head on straight, Franco drove Ritchie and his girlfriend right to the minister to get married. I loved the scene where Sheila found Jimmy's coat that Tommy had been wearing to the fires and collapsed, sobbing into it. Seeing Janet's startled reaction to little Elvis/Wyatt's earring hole was priceless. Overall, I have to say that my favorite character of the season is Ritchie, who I continue to loe to pieces. Basically, I miss the ghosts, particularly Jesus. I hope for a better 5th season (none is projected yet), but if it's not any better, I'm good with a cancellation. Looking to the past, I did watch both seasons of Deadwood this year and although, like most things, it took me a solid 4-5 episodes before I was hooked, this series really reeled me in. With the use of iambic pentameter (which is why their speech sound so Shakespearian even though it's still raw, frontier language), Executive Producer, David Milch, who micromanages every aspect of the show's production, weaves an amazing web of realistic storytelling around the real life mining town of Deadwood, South Dakota. Trust me, the more you explore the real town's history, the more fascinating the show actually is as most of the characters are drawn from true, historical people. Although liberal poetic license is taken with the timing of certain events, one truly gets the impression that great care was given to the exploration of the real Deadwood to breathe life into the show itself. As with "Big Love," the dynamic and breath-taking acting on the part of the cast is a big part of what draws the viewer into their world and the scripting and dialogue make up the rest of the fascination for "Dead Heads." Viewers were devastated that the show was canceled, not for lack of audience because viewers were riveted, but because of a conflict between HBO and the distributor of the DVD collections of previous seasons. At the time the third season ended, HBO had assured Milch and the cast that they would be picking up a fourth season, however, negotiations faltered, leaving the show to end on a real cliffhanger. An arrangement was made between HBO and Milch to create two telefilms (two hours each) to finalize the story and as recent as January of this year, Milch stated he still intended to do so. In July, however, HBO executives balked at the complications involved with shooting the concluding movies (for one thing, all of the sets were torn down) and gave the chances of them ever seeing film at 50/50. If you are looking for a good watch, I fully recommend picking up the DVD collection and working through the first three seasons of this wonderful show. You have to get past the whole "cocksucker" thing as it a word that is used in just about every paragraph. By the time you're through the middle of the second season, you yourself will have found "cocksucker" to be a perfectly functional word. Although, as I said, the third season does leave issues unresolved, there is enough of a finalization so that you aren't completely dying to know what happened, you just really, really miss the show a lot. Go on. Rent it.
August 22, 2007 How fun! I absolutely love it when we bring out a new facet or aspect of Eye on Soaps. Even the goofiest web designs (like this one, which aptly reflects my corny love for all things entertaining) make me come back and look at them again and again, preening and smiling over what's to come. Seeing a new web design waiting for words is like seeing a blank canvas waiting for the brush strokes to begin. It just doesn't get any better than that. The world is our oyster and we can talk about just any ol' thing. So let's get started! There is so much for me to say here that I don't even know where to start. Full websites are dedicated to the exploration of this fascinating show and whatever I can say here has already been said, probably better, to exhaustion, but since when has THAT ever stopped me? I have not yet watched a newly minted episode. The show is on hiatus until February and season 3 comes out on DVD (just like the word "album," "video" is what comes natural for me to type and I have to go back and redo it) in December, just in time for Christmas. At the frantic urging of one of my friends (*cough*Sherry Mercurio*cough*) and a few other people, I started watching the DVDs of the first two seasons. Eric and I absolutely luvvvv to find a good series to watch together and have been through several (all of which will undoubtedly be reviewed here in coming weeks). We were in a lull, having caught up with "House" and having "The Sopranos" ended and "Deadwood" dead, so coming upon something that we might potentially not only like, but also that has 2 solid seasons under its belt and another one on the cusp of ending was a real boon. It would keep us busy for a long time and have us all geared up for the new season to begin, when we would have to watch our episodes week to week like the rest of the unwashed masses. We just watched episode #6 of season 3, so we're a good bit into it. It took three days to download the entire season and we have to huddle around Eric's laptop to watch it, but watch it we do. Only 16 more episodes to go and we're left waiting. The series, as you have likely heard unless you were buried under a damned big rock for the past couple of years, is mesmerizing. Special care is taken with story-telling, revealing critical tidbits a little at a time (sort of like Sawyer's "fish biscuit" machine). Each person has a story to be told which unfolds as the current story is played out on the island. That's the premise: Seemingly unrelated people crash on a desert island, their back stories are revealed incrementally, the island story itself advances smoothly, we learn that these people are not as different and unrelated as they appear to be and before long, the show has grabbed you. There are a few premises that tend to remain constant: 1) The Island itself is one of the key characters in the show with as many mysteries and personality aspects as any of the actual people involved. 2) There is a constant and deliberate shifting of perspective as to who are the good guys are who are the bad guys, presumably to show us the black/white/gray dichotomy of life itself. Ben affirms a few times that "we are the good guys," yet "The Others" do horrible things to each other and to "The Losties." The other side is that while we are led to believe that The Losties are the good guys, yet as their back stories are revealed, we learn that they are all really deplorable people who have done awful, awful things. The exceptions here (and it's very possible that I just haven't gotten that far yet) are Bernard, Rose, Claire and Hurley. The rest of the cast of Losties (and there are a lot of them) are definitely on the Hell Express for their past bad deeds. 3) The show brings out such strong emotions in the viewers that without exception, everyone has a character on the show who they absolutely detest. For my son, Joe, it's Ana Lucia. For Sherry, it's Charley (Cholley). For me, it's Kate (especially after what she did to My Sweet Kevin). I tried my theory on Eric and said, "Is there a character you hate most?" Without hesitation, he said, "Oh that bitch, Claire." That cinched it for me. 4) Although there is no viable reason other than the rabid sex appeal of Josh Holloway, the vast majority of female viewers all turn into hormonal little lemmings and just love, love, love us some Sawyer! He is portrayed as likely the most unlovable character on the show, but just damn. 5) After weeks on a diet of fish and fruit, Hurley got bigger...go figure. 6) Speaking of Hurley, the episode titled "Dave," Season 2, Episode 18, steps out of the typical frame and jacks up your head the same way the episode "Normal Again" of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (Season 6, Episode 17, yes, I'm a TV geek, get over it) did for its viewers. 7) As soon as someone redeems themselves, they are killed off. They meet and best their inner demons and then they die. 8) Do I have theories? Of course, I do. I have a couple of them. The first one is that like the Dharma workers in The Swan, this whole plane crash and the experiences of the Losties are a big, psychological experiment. It's "pushing the button" taken to a much grander scale. My next theory is that all of these people are in comas, working through their own inner conflicts and when they do so, they wake up or die (not sure yet). I have several other, unimpressive and unoriginal theories, but those are the forerunners. Back next week with more on Lost and puh-lenty of other movies, TV shows and other forms of entertainment. You all know me. I have opinions on EVERYTHING!
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