Summer Upset

Okay,

so I haven't been blogging in a while. Dissertation isolation had me in its grip and it always takes a while for summer season to get on its way. But I am back.

Much of what is out there is less then exciting, who are they kidding? While Scoundrels and The Gates on ABC are not bad shows, the 'crooked and supernaturals streamlining it'? Well... I don't know if I like the basic message implied here, or if I think that it is 'that' exciting. I do, however, pay my respects to the actors involved who do a decent job as far as I can tell by now.

Pretty Little Liars, also ABC, is one big upset on my plate. The basic story is as follows: Five young girls fall asleep in a barn in the woods after having snuck some alcohol. When they wake up, one of them is gone. The missing girl, Allison, and one girl's move to Island (Aria) effectively end the tight bond between the girls until the missing Allison is found dead in her own house one year later (just after Aria had returned with her family from her father's sabbatical).

A mysterious A. is sending somewhat threatening texts to the four girls and seems to know all the dirty secrets the girls have. The one that recently moved back to town has a fling with her teacher, another has a fling with a girl, another a fling with her sister's ex-fiance and the last... well, her mom has a fling with the cop that is after her daughter.

Overall, the storyline is movig along like my car was, just before its transmission gave out, the girls are in their late 20s/early30s and do act that way. They are nowhere near high school behavior or looks. On top of that, this show is actively promoting and pushing half naked highschool outfits, promiscuity, and teacher-student relationships that are developed so unbalanced that for the first time in a long time I am actually upset at a show for its treatment of female and young characters... And I don't even have a problem with AMC's Mad Men. On top of that the blind doesn't act blind in the show, the parents are really badly developed as are their storylines even when interfering with the ones of their children, and when little Miss "I kissed a girl" goes :"Something is wrong with me..." I don't believe any of it for a second. PLEASE PLEASE pull that horrible show that is neither entertaining, nor compelling, nor suspenseful. And Parents, PLEASE DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS WATCH WITHOUT YOUR BEING THERE TO EXPLAIN THAT ABOMINATION!

Which brings me to the next show that needs a facebook 'dislike' button after the first few episodes: Fox's Good Guys... So we have a cop that is extremely 80s, and idiot 80s as they come. Cars, women and nothing to actually deserve either. His partner is a bit of a nice, polished stiffman. Wow, who'd have thought, oppositional buddy characters... Like I said, 80s. The series has a hyper stylized look, flashy colors, costumes, writing.

What exactly is it supposed to be? I thought of Sledge Hammer with the buddy-line going on? Well here again, one of the two lead actors simply doesn't fit the masochinistic writing, is unbelievable and the hyper-stylization of the cop show simply does not work. If you want to see it well done chase an hour of classic Sledge Hammer (now on Netflix, I believe) with an hour of Psych (USA). There you go, and you got something good in your tummy, rather than some sad writers-team summer hick ups. So unless there is some major change in the next episode (my cut off episode) I won't be writing about Pretty Little Liars (does anyone know if the books are any good?) or Good Guys.

A show I am still very uncertain about is Persons Unknown, NBC's new summer series. The credits do not match the actual content in style (flashy/bare and high quality/low budget), but every single episode one or two things happen that make me go: "Huh? Wonder where they are taking this?" For those of you who know the film Cube (1997), this is exactly what you get on the base level. A bunch of people is taken to a place and left without any answers as to why, where etc. Just here the place is an almost empty town removed from civilization. But then, other people are placed in town, that are payed to partake. Or are pressured? There is a night manager who switches from helpless to sinister, a bunch of East Asian chefs running the local restaurant... So far so good. The show first caught my attention when a direct link between the cameras in this town and the outside world is made. Another piece of the puzzle here, another there, and in last week's episode a player in town is revealed... with a conscience. The 'thing' is no longer called a game, kidnapping, I don't know, but we hear the words "Don't you believe in the process?" mmmhhh... I will be watching a little longer and see where this interesting, no electronics thing is going...

But the summer held one MAJOR UPSET for me. Not because of the show, but because the, excuse my french, piss poor management behind it. Now, although some storylines in ABC's Happy Town needed much better treatment, especially the young girl and her love interest Greggy had some start-up problems, this show came with much that categorizing folks would add to their stack of Quality TV need be's: Character development, interweaving storylines, extra textuality (the House of Ushers, the movie references, the blue door... honestly, I drool a bit I think), high quality production, and a mystery I could get on board with. Every year one person in Haplin has gone missing without a trace. Dead flowers are left behind, there is no connection between the victims, the taking just stops at one point. Then, a man in town believes to have found the 'magic man' who he believes killed all these taken and murders him, spilling blood which brings back... the magic man? Or his hunters I should say. A magnificent Frances Conroy (mother Fisher in Six Feet Under) is presented as a delightful villain who just at the end of the series run may be something else than expected and the trickster in all of this is no other than Sam Neill (!!!!!!!!!!!).

And what does ABC do? It doesn't even finish the first season, but leaves us hanging when we find out that someone believed dead is at least linked to the magic man or maybe is the magic wo/man or whatever. The power structures in town are hinted at and connected to the Blue Door and you can tell this is the first season mid-point. This is where the story will take off, this is where they decide it didn't make enough money??? Why would they start a series like this in their weakest month and expect it to bring in a decent return in the first place?

Sometimes, I believe that the managerial strata of the TV shows is about as good at their jobs as the current cadre of political top-dogs (Obama excluded). And yes, I don't think they know what they're doing, because they have trouble adjusting to the times. Have any of these people in charge truly payed attention to the massive flow of truly mad letters on the net. People telling them they thought this was the only summer show worth while (granted: Eureka, Warehouse 13 and a few others had not re-/started yet) tell them, because they want to be heard, not ignored.

SyFy twittered on their official twitter page that it isn't the stations' fault that they cannot generate advertisment income online as they can on TV... Well, if google can make it work... That's all I am saying. I am gen-X, too. Get over it and stop producing BS. And that includes the A-Team and other melancholic trite.

Needless to mention that summer isn't a complete failure as I am holding on to HBO and Showtime with every penny I can spare in the dry summer months. Thank you grand fantasy soap opera True Blood for bringing me TV that at least entertains me and every now and then amazes me.

And then thank you to SYTYCD, because that Twitch and Alex routine... WOW

Okay, venting the spleen feels good sometimes!!!

Now, please, all write to ABC and tell them they are making a grave mistake. Thank you.

Alas, next week White Collar (USA), Eureka, Warehouse 13 (SyFy) and Psych (USA) are back and there are a couple more new shows to look out for like Rizzoli and Isles (TNT), starting on the 12th, and Covert Affairs (USA) starting on the 13th. We'll see how those play out.

So long, and keep the boob tube on.

BG

The Pacific

The series is just taking of, and it already holds much promise to become as acclaimed as Band of Brothers. The show even drew very clear and obvious visual connections to its counter piece, such as the sequence in which the boats make their way to the landing area. Normandy was much later and yet we as audience members are reminded of the blood bath immediately. And more specifically, we are reminded of the visuals presented to us by producers and directors before. A set of memories imprinted that now may confuse our very non-existent participation in either war.
What The Pacific did excellently, however, is the clear demarcation of this violence, and the one we are accustomed to in European Theater WWII imagery. The shooting at the single Japanese soldier, the use of human bodies as warning and to demoralize the troops...
It will take some time to see, how violence and the value of the human body will progress in the series...
Read review here.

Big Love - Over For Now

This final episode left me mildly entertained, but oddly surprised at the end. Oh no, not the J.J. thing. I believe I guessed right about three weeks ago, or so... Not that surprising, really.
I was surprised that all that female power-house struggle of the young was for nothing? Still they stand by the man? The only one striking out is the one woman who held power all along. Great moment Adalene, but we are not surprised you'd go that far if really threatened/hurt. Her borders were finally crossed and revenge was hers.
But I am going back to that last image of Bill and his wives, the emptying space in front of the podium, four people looking into nothing... It is not even that it leaves me mad, or I want to respond to the writers. I simply feel as if, this is just another excuse to string us along for another year of re-worked base-narratives that go nowhere, that lead nowhere, that answer nothing about these wonderfully created characters that always appear, if just for a moment, to actually change, transform, and grow. But constant retreat renders their actions almost useless and they remain, in the end, stuck where they began.
Should the following season be the last, and should it be done right, I think they seeded something great, though via obnoxious reinforced repetition, but... after being in it for all prior seasons, I am going to give it a chance. If the next season is neither the end, nor engaging with something brand new, I will walk on. This melodrama lives solely from its characters and their development. The meta-narrative is simply their show case. If they don't work, I don't really care what else could happen to them...
Read more and get a sneak on Season 5

Reset Button and Auto Destruct

tinydancer79
Last week we had a wild ride to Mexico and back. Bordering insane, I quite enjoyed the border showdown between the Greens and the Hendrickson’s and felt that this display of parental love all around was fantastic. This week leaves me startled, oddly reset, and at odds with the producers that have decided to leave us with but one episode to clear this mess up. They are insane.
The political endeavors, a very smart and self-protecting Sissy Spacek out for blood, two men in a polygynous marriage, Adeline drugged, Wanda in a state of mental distress beyond understanding, Albee not realizing who is to blame for his lover’s death, seeking someone else to blame and going absolutely insane … In all of this Sarah’s leaving is the only foreseeable, controlled, logic plot point. Ben’s newly reset obligation to his family also expected. And while this monstrous amount of narratives drives me absolutely insane, none finding the devotion I believe necessary: I LOVE IT. Maybe I just want more then what they give…
Is it because I enjoy being tortured?
But everything we see here is not new, not unexpected, not really. Albee is a modern day homosexual Ophelia, stuck and insane, because he is left with the knowledge of happiness and love in a place where these do not exist. Wanda always has a premonition; she is haunted by knowing, and silenced by the (I think) unspeakable evil of what she is keeping hidden from sight, just like Cassandra was. The characters we have here in Big Love are by far the most classic figures of tragedy. And the trick is, that Utah offers all the necessary trappings for the story to unfold. Religious issues ranging from contemporary to century old conflicts, believes that have modernized and such that have not. We have hierarchies in place all around that allow for the most sophisticated plots without having to deal with courtroom dramas, hospitals, work places (which is where you can usually find these hierarchies). Big Love is an absolute exception in a world where family plots equal family comedy. Will it be a British or Greek tragedy? We will have to wait and see.

And if I were to write the end, I just might have Agamemnon killed in the end. His never-ending hysteria is what truly hurts my senses.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/02/big_love_recap_bird_gang.html
Here is another look at last night's episode of Big Love.

Fallen and Risen Again

First of, just two questions because we all love to speculate, right? So what about JJ? Whose babies is he planting, or if that is not it, what is the evil plan behind it all? The creepy son did seem to show emotion right there when he looked at Nicky, but there is no doubt he will do whatever the plan is asking for. Right? There is just that quick flutter of his eyelids, the close up holding on that moment. Nicky is not screaming, but begging, pleading, for her to be allowed to claim her life as a woman. This show knows how to pull our strings and play them beautifully, although Nicky will possibly remain a psychological miracle to me forever. Her actions so unexpected at times, make this series so good, so realistic, too. For the broken is erratic, is full of logic that destructs itself, bit by bit by bit.
And then there are the Greens. I retract my earlier statement. Their evil has for the first time reunited what was broken, or so it seems. They came back at the right time, and for a long enough while, with potential for the future? Mom, Dad, Bill, Joey, and Ben all at their lowest, ready to rise to the occasion and try again to make things right. But then Mommy steps up to save her son and that, well, that was just pure genius. She demonstrated her motherhood, gave quick-thinking Bill an edge, and single handedly saved them all. The genius in the scene lied with the simple tones, the music that did not push the action, the quiet that allowed us to hear single calls for action, not screams, not tumult, just shock and surprise.
But all this is taken back to zero in the shows final moments today. Margene is ignored by Ben, and Barb stands alone, in thought. Pondering why she was not trusted again? Protection? But there is no argument. We are past family meetings and talking things out. This is where we are: the brink of the end. Ultimate loss of communication. Each one to deeply concerned with saving their own life, in whatever form necessary.

tinydancer79
It does not matter if we talk about business security, fertility, fighting for acknowledgment, love, or the right to be in the open. They all strive to make their life sustainable in a world that is hurting them. It hurts them by conventions, social norm, laws, regulations that protect no one, and religious pressure. It keeps them trapped in a past within their present. No real life, just an image of it, a faint promise ringing in your ears of that which is not and may never come.
What strikes me here is that the future they work towards, no matter how often they call upon ‘heavenly father’ no longer is in the afterlife. That was the struggle they faced last season, last year, last opening credits Then, marriage, and babies, priesthood, family and Roman still most often preoccupied their minds. Nothing is light now, no heaven to aspire to. All of their wishes now lie right here, on earth. And didn’t we see it coming, when Bill turned his back, on his knees, to the Holy rising behind him. His eyes firmly fixed on the ground. Who he now makes peace with is the man he blames for all the bad in his life. That, is acknowledgment. This season is the awakening.
Only few episodes left this season. Much is unresolved. Where does Alby go from here? Does he get that his wife did this or will he blame Bill? AGAIN: What is up with JJ and that creepy Walker family from Kansas?
9 Episodes is all they gave us this time around. But it works. The story is streamlined, straight forward, no deterrence, no new churches, just a few lose ends I believe they will resolve or bring to the next season. Just a good old fashioned burning all bridges. The less they carry over, the better, I think.
I sure hope this, in my eyes best season, will not be diminished in the aftermath by becoming redundant. For it would be to easy, to send the family through another trauma induced reunion once again. So momentum has to keep up. Only one question then remains. Where do we go from here?
-I can hardly wait.

surfacing

tinydancer79
Alhtough a necessary move to bring Barb to finally take charge meeting Anna once again, no less with a baby did not much but diffuse today’s episode. The Hendrickson’s just never have a minute of private rest. After all, how could you even in prime time soap drama, losen on the conflict. But this episode was finally the awaking of what bubbled under the surface for three, long, often painfully Bill driven seasons.

How cheap does the struggle of Viagra now look, how farcical in hindsight? How unbelievingly light this serial started, the foreshadowing never reaching a point of solution. Now is when true struggle finally finds its way to the surface, the pain of those following a screaming, illogical, more-then-struggling patriarch, who appeals to emotional weakness in his family, time after time. Today, after all is pointing towards the women understanding their own suffering in the face of promised after-lives for the first time, he tells them that all he wants and all they need is to no longer hide. But look at the problems arisen.

Many of them do not stem from having to hide. Not Bill’s struggle with a female power figure (yes, I will remind you that he mistook her for a secretary and that is how all started). And neither does his problem with Barb, where the hypocrite himself betrayed the promises he made before, unable to hold himself to the same standard as his wives, no matter how often he promises. Margene wants to be herself within the family, not the lowest one in the food chain. That, we are reminded of by Anna’s reappearance. Not the horrible events at the motel, where no one really hides anything. Not Nicky’s past, not Bill’s. Nicky has it just right: they are broken. The homosexual love ended so brutally (and in harsh contrast to religion), electroshocks and re-orientation manipulation, Nicky realizing, finally, what she really has lost (well, okay, I am not so sure why she had to lose the eighties), and most terrifying: the singing J.J. and the frightened eyes of a woman you thought had seen it all before, her horrors beginning again, looking no older then the child that almost was turned into nothing but number seven. A number on the ladder to god.

And in all of this, the Mormon church is REALLY beginning to look like a cult. One wonders how controlled, smart, and forgiving the authors, raised in Utah, struggling probably themselves to grow up, must be to have so slowly built up to this. What is this? A simple truth, when religion and religious believes become excuses, illusions, and fetish, they should be called for what they really have become.

On a side note, the side note: Mexico, more gayness, smuggling and old fiends returned… Could have lived without. Hope it doesn’t muddy the waters.

But here we are: Barb is in power, Nicky is a savior, and Margene is the advocating the right to individuality.

Sorry guys, all Bill had was: “You, of all people?”

Big Love is Big Drama

Incest (kind of), Racism, Sexism, Homosexuality, Bigotry, Religion, and ...Dr. Jekyll?

This was the season's defining episode, if I have ever seen on. Filled with promises that may be hard to keep on the tight schedule of a show with so few episodes per season. Conflicts wherever one looks, dealing with most any conflict there is to deal with, both new and old within the parameters of the series. Margie and Ben, re-igniting the incestuous side of their relationship, blackface on TV, and within the freeing speech at the Casino (who wouldn't want to yell the FU at Barb?), a story of one of their own, whom the tribe does not welcome. Ahhh, there goes the worst form of racism, the idea of having noble repressed natives, thankful to the white man. They have their own ups and downs, now even on TV, who would have thought.

The reappearance of Mr. Stockwell, however, I found was a poor choice. Too many dead dad's are haunting their children and our screens and have been, especially in connection to HBO, pointing outside the frame, ripping me right out of the story, in an unpleasant way. Alby is a character so transparent, I feel I personally did not need help in understanding his paranoid broken mind.
And while I love a good villain, I would like Joey to get a break from playing a man that is so trapped in his childhood, that he acts before thinking still. He killed, came back, and lost it again. J.J. playing him like you play a little child.

Tonight's episode of Big Love, while shock full of ... well, shock-ing moments -Nicky's holding the gun once again regaining her power and losing it immediately was wonderful- may have slipped one by some of us. or my mind is again in imagination overdrive, which is quite possible.
What is up with J. J. performing a biopsy on his cancer (?) ridden wife? When they market him as the 'baddest villain', are they talking about someone who enjoys keeping his wife sick, cutting into her? Actually, cutting into himself also maybe? Or how the heck does he lose all his fingernails?