Nurse Jackie

The series has returned as if it had never left. There is no tangible time rift, action is fluid, addiction unchanged, relationships had, are still in troublesome stages. Maybe that is why the brief moment of hallucination is something I almost forgot when I thought about what to write. I gotta sit on this one a bit longer. Please check back soon though. I will post a review by next week's episode.

U.S. States of Tara

EXCITED!!!

Colette is back and the series opened very strong. Now, if you have not been following the lives of the Gregson's in Kansas City's Overland Park before, this 2nd season opener might have left you... uncertain.

Dark and gloomy, beautifully eerie-shot yes had fast-paced, colorful inserts. Life affirming montages intercut with a woman's shadowy, nebulous figure walking through the lifeless house of a dead man. All hopes and dreams of normalcy not destroyed by actual scenes with Tara's other personalities (yet), but by the tangible looming return of insanity that stands behind all of this often painfully funny series. This show did not open season 2 with big action, big money, big shock, but very dark and subtle.

The final scene in the first season's final episode had the family at a bowling center. All together and at ease, but Gimme, the evil and rambunctious infant was hiding under the bench seat and the other alter-egos draped themselves around the family. No matter how much you embrace the weirdos in your life and yourself, something will always be hiding under the bench seat.

We never did get to the actual cause of Tara's MPD, and I doubt we will be given an answer this season, but, it stands to reason that, with the neighbors suicide being an alarming trigger, sexual assault may not be the (sole) reason for Tara to lock herself away sometimes and let others drive.

I am eager to see where the ride will take us viewers this season. Stay tuned for new reviews on a weekly basis.

Justified

I am starting to see where this show might be heading, but first I wish to say that the episode in and of itself was a bit on the weak and ordinary side. The similarities between In Plain Sight and Justified were even more obvious, but hey, nothing new under the sun, right.

Early into this show, two topics of interest have emerged for me thus far. Religion and Nostalgia.

Let me talk about religion first, because this is where I actually find merit in the series. It is shown ambiguously, shown as dangerously easy to manipulate. One could take the hospital speech as both the turn to good and the character's salvation in God, or, which is how I read it and see it played out, a possible future excuse for this maniac to do bad in the lord's name. Because we have seen this character wittingly abuse, not believe in, the bible in the previous episode, the ease with which the word can be tweaked, changed, altered is all to obvious. Religion then is rather a social point of view, and a tool of power, than a believe system in the world of Justified. But even smart religious people will tell you that religion has often been abused and used. So, while nothing new, I like that this series nonchalantly shows this.

Now I am waiting to see 'church goin' folks' and the other end of the spectrum.

The nostalgia is clearly manifested in the vestige of a rather classic Western Masculinity. Honor, love, and a sense of control, invincibility, and constrain are powerful ideas generated here. The calm demeanor of the elderly perp when facing the marshall, the simple interaction between Raylan and his superior, and the smirking ex-husband making fun of his ex-wife's new husband's non-masculinity all make us aware of a simpler time, one in which rules were laid out more clearly and perps could be handled, gender was defined by norms... While I'd like to have more order, I certainly do not want this skewed intolerant world image to return.

Unpredictable drug addicts and gun wielding racists are too often treated as fumbling idiots in the first two episodes. They do not really pose a threat. Is this because the show simply magnifies the superiority of the Stetson wearing marshall, or is it lulling the viewers into believing this simpler and very white washed world actually exists. I will stay tuned to see what will be next.