Big Pipe's easy. Dry land's hard.
Aug. 15th, 2007 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
proggrrlIt's been a while since I've said anything about all the summer TV.
Is anyone out there watching the summer cable dramas? I'm good and hooked on a bunch of them, a few I'm hanging on to see how they go. And WEEDS has just begun! Happy!
It goes without saying that everything below is spoiler-ridden, you have been warned.
Now I’ll leave you with a bit of dialogue between MAD MEN Don Draper and his boss Roger Sterling, played out near the end of last week’s ep (S1x04). Bottom’s up.
Is anyone out there watching the summer cable dramas? I'm good and hooked on a bunch of them, a few I'm hanging on to see how they go. And WEEDS has just begun! Happy!
It goes without saying that everything below is spoiler-ridden, you have been warned.
I actually enjoyed JOHN FROM CINCINNATI. So sue me. Guess I'm in the minority. Apparently the show is canceled, though there is no doubt in my mind that Milch will stay in the HBO fold, with more new things to come.
I've had a mellow, trippy, quirky ride on this one...but every once in a while over the past few episodes, a little voice in my head has rumbled and said: "We gave up DEADWOOD...for this?" I cannot recall any other TV show that has made me feel this way - other than TWIN PEAKS. In JfC, narrative and linear construction often take a back-seat to metaphor and dreamstate. Sometimes raw emotion, ambiance, or poetry are at the fore. The suggestion of events will sometimes supplant the events themselves.
As a big fan of TWIN PEAKS, back in the day, I found this show's odd metaphors and mystifying non-narrative a refreshing change from TV-as-usual. Then again, I enjoyed unwinding Lynch's film epilogue of TWIN PEAKS (and his other films such as the byzantine MULHOLLAND DRIVE)...A lot of TV viewers seem to have the opposite desire: spoon fed linear narratives only, please. *shrug*
There's been an incredible blogosphere backlash against this show - yet I applaud the attempt to expand the very idea of what a one hour drama TV show is. JfC questions the very nature of a drama program. We are so, so used to getting certain things from this mode of storytelling. In fact, JfC reminds me of many feature films I have seen in the past - films that are questioning our expectations of plot, linearity, and character revelation. This technique is foreign to TV viewers: you suggest possible narrative, without actually presenting it clearly on screen. Much is left to question – is what I’m seeing reality or is it a dream? Does it matter? Milch’s advance comments and statements in interviews should have prepared all viewers for the show. Perhaps it’s just an aquired taste some of us have, like a strong cheese, and most viewers will never find pleasure in it. Personally, I’m enjoying the ride - though everything seems a bit of a letdown after the "lines and circles" speech. Kudos for HBO having the balls to air this – you would expect a show this experimental would have shown up first on PBS, IFC or Sundance. But those networks have yet to try it.
For anyone who cares, I also left a comment at TV Squad with more to say about my interpretation of many major JfC plot details, over here.
Tavis Smiley recently interviewed David Milch about this show – there is more in this one inty than Lynch has ever given his fans in a lifetime of talking about his work. God bless Mr. Milch. As long as HBO keeps him busy I’ll be happy.
I've had a mellow, trippy, quirky ride on this one...but every once in a while over the past few episodes, a little voice in my head has rumbled and said: "We gave up DEADWOOD...for this?" I cannot recall any other TV show that has made me feel this way - other than TWIN PEAKS. In JfC, narrative and linear construction often take a back-seat to metaphor and dreamstate. Sometimes raw emotion, ambiance, or poetry are at the fore. The suggestion of events will sometimes supplant the events themselves.
As a big fan of TWIN PEAKS, back in the day, I found this show's odd metaphors and mystifying non-narrative a refreshing change from TV-as-usual. Then again, I enjoyed unwinding Lynch's film epilogue of TWIN PEAKS (and his other films such as the byzantine MULHOLLAND DRIVE)...A lot of TV viewers seem to have the opposite desire: spoon fed linear narratives only, please. *shrug*
There's been an incredible blogosphere backlash against this show - yet I applaud the attempt to expand the very idea of what a one hour drama TV show is. JfC questions the very nature of a drama program. We are so, so used to getting certain things from this mode of storytelling. In fact, JfC reminds me of many feature films I have seen in the past - films that are questioning our expectations of plot, linearity, and character revelation. This technique is foreign to TV viewers: you suggest possible narrative, without actually presenting it clearly on screen. Much is left to question – is what I’m seeing reality or is it a dream? Does it matter? Milch’s advance comments and statements in interviews should have prepared all viewers for the show. Perhaps it’s just an aquired taste some of us have, like a strong cheese, and most viewers will never find pleasure in it. Personally, I’m enjoying the ride - though everything seems a bit of a letdown after the "lines and circles" speech. Kudos for HBO having the balls to air this – you would expect a show this experimental would have shown up first on PBS, IFC or Sundance. But those networks have yet to try it.
For anyone who cares, I also left a comment at TV Squad with more to say about my interpretation of many major JfC plot details, over here.
Tavis Smiley recently interviewed David Milch about this show – there is more in this one inty than Lynch has ever given his fans in a lifetime of talking about his work. God bless Mr. Milch. As long as HBO keeps him busy I’ll be happy.
BIG LOVE is just blowing my mind. I went from moderate enjoyment of this show, to full-on thrills and chills in the second half of S2. I am loving the rollout of a never-ending shitstorm Bill has stirred up between the (equally psycho) warring factions of his dysfunctional clan. Adaleen Grant, bound and gagged in the office? Wow. The shooting of Roman was a breathless shocker. Less intense but just as great is Margene's realization that her youth and sexual candor give her a bit of a leg-up despite her 3rd-wife status. The hot voyeur scene...the sad but not surprising revelation of Nicolette’s backwards feelings about sex...and Margene's classic line about everyone needing "a little oral" now and then. Bonnie Bedelia’s turn as Margene’s mom was great, and sad. Touching a bit too close to home for me actually, but wonderfully played.
All in all I’m riveted to this show now. I haven’t watched this week’s ep yet – but I will be missing this show when it goes off the air. It has been renewed, so that is great news.
All in all I’m riveted to this show now. I haven’t watched this week’s ep yet – but I will be missing this show when it goes off the air. It has been renewed, so that is great news.
A few comments about the new cable shows starring fantabulous actresses Glenn Close, Holly Hunter and Lili Taylor. There was a recent inty with Glenn Close about her part in DAMAGES, discussing the difference between film/theater acting and TV series acting, that I found enlightening. With a film or a play, you know the character’s beginning, middle and end, in the scope of the script, and you fine tune that and play it out. With a TV series, you have to be ready for anything as the new scripts come in over the season. It makes light of many other actors’ comments about not wanting to know what’s coming later in the season – that desire to move along, as in RL, without any sense of what is up next.
DAMAGES has been excellent so far. Close is riveting, natch. The rest of the cast has also been good. Jamie Bamber’s sis Anastasia Griffith has been just great, excellent accent and all – though I get the feeling her Katie Connor could be offed at any moment. They’ve got two very clever devices running that make it all the more fun: jumping back-and-forth between two time periods as they lead up to their end of season reveals; and the creation of two main power centers (Close’s Hewes and Ted Danson’s Frobisher) who are not clearly Good Guy or Bad Guy. At least yet. Not having watched last night’s ep yet, I will say that Hewest is currently the baddie – although Frobisher did cave in morally and agree to set up a contract hit on Connor…so it’s all greys on greys in this show and apparently the naïve young Ellen Parsons is the moral center. Except for one thing: she appears to have beaten her fiancé to death with a bookend. We’ll see.
I am sticking with STATE OF MIND and SAVING GRACE. The former is a tad formulaic and I may not last much longer – though I’m interested in the therapy/psychology aspects. If PRIVATE PRACTICE has this much actual medical content, it will be curious to see which show ends up more likeable. Lili Taylor has been terrific, and having her hallucinate for our benefit is the icing on the cake. We all know this is exactly what therapists probably think of their patients.
Holly Hunter pretty much can do no wrong in my eyes…and if she produces a TV show, I am. So. There. I’m not really a religious person, but I am loving her character, and the fantasy element of this show. After SIX FEET UNDER and BATTLESTAR showed how seamless integration of hallucinations and in-their-mind dialogues can punch up character development, we now have it being done so well on so many other shows.
SAVING GRACE has been renewed, so I’m sticking with it. Has anyone heard yet the fate of STATE OF MIND? I hate getting connected and having the rug pulled out from under me.
DAMAGES has been excellent so far. Close is riveting, natch. The rest of the cast has also been good. Jamie Bamber’s sis Anastasia Griffith has been just great, excellent accent and all – though I get the feeling her Katie Connor could be offed at any moment. They’ve got two very clever devices running that make it all the more fun: jumping back-and-forth between two time periods as they lead up to their end of season reveals; and the creation of two main power centers (Close’s Hewes and Ted Danson’s Frobisher) who are not clearly Good Guy or Bad Guy. At least yet. Not having watched last night’s ep yet, I will say that Hewest is currently the baddie – although Frobisher did cave in morally and agree to set up a contract hit on Connor…so it’s all greys on greys in this show and apparently the naïve young Ellen Parsons is the moral center. Except for one thing: she appears to have beaten her fiancé to death with a bookend. We’ll see.
I am sticking with STATE OF MIND and SAVING GRACE. The former is a tad formulaic and I may not last much longer – though I’m interested in the therapy/psychology aspects. If PRIVATE PRACTICE has this much actual medical content, it will be curious to see which show ends up more likeable. Lili Taylor has been terrific, and having her hallucinate for our benefit is the icing on the cake. We all know this is exactly what therapists probably think of their patients.
Holly Hunter pretty much can do no wrong in my eyes…and if she produces a TV show, I am. So. There. I’m not really a religious person, but I am loving her character, and the fantasy element of this show. After SIX FEET UNDER and BATTLESTAR showed how seamless integration of hallucinations and in-their-mind dialogues can punch up character development, we now have it being done so well on so many other shows.
SAVING GRACE has been renewed, so I’m sticking with it. Has anyone heard yet the fate of STATE OF MIND? I hate getting connected and having the rug pulled out from under me.
What can I say that hasn’t already been said about FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS? If you aren’t watching this hilarious, deadpan slacker musical comedy, it better be due to your lack of HBO. Otherwise…Why! There are tons of their vids on YouTube, go have a look. Meanwhile, TV Squad recently posted more about the FoTC guys than some of us probably want to know. The overall tone of the show is very much like IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA - but a bit less cruel, and with music. I <3 <3 <3 THEM!
Saving the best for last: there is MAD MEN. What a great show. For so many reasons.
Want to know why feminism came about? All you need to do is watch ep.2, and it will be pretty clear. Heck just the office women’s restroom scenes ought to spell it out for you. That and the final shot of the episode. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, really.
This past week’s ep touched on something that we New Yorkers know all about: the ways that Legacy Power moves and shakes this town, and all the business in it. It can be easy to forget how young this city - this country - really is. Until you ponder the way New Amsterdam became New York - and how the farmers became the bankers and the builders. This concept has been embedded in MAD MEN and I hope they continue to poke at it.
All in all it’s the best written show I’ve seen in a long while, right up there with SOPRANOS and BSG. MAD MEN also has devised an extremely satisfying ratio of serialized vs. stand-alone content, that allows viewers to jump in at any time. At least for now…we’ll see how that works out in the long run.
Make sure you check it out. It’s on iTunes and AMC On Demand. AMC has shot some clever shorts of real-life admen/women talking about the good old days, posted here. In one of them, adwoman Dr. Lois Geraci Ernst (who thought up the campaign “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan” for Enjoli perfume), mentions that the Ad Biz is “the first time in human history that writers and artists have been paid a living wage.” *impressed* Another former exec called the Ad biz “a paradise for brilliant misfits.” I’ve seen some of that first hand in my own work.
And props to the wonderful motion graphics company Imaginary Forces for the most beautiful credits roll I’ve seen in a long time.
Want to know why feminism came about? All you need to do is watch ep.2, and it will be pretty clear. Heck just the office women’s restroom scenes ought to spell it out for you. That and the final shot of the episode. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, really.
This past week’s ep touched on something that we New Yorkers know all about: the ways that Legacy Power moves and shakes this town, and all the business in it. It can be easy to forget how young this city - this country - really is. Until you ponder the way New Amsterdam became New York - and how the farmers became the bankers and the builders. This concept has been embedded in MAD MEN and I hope they continue to poke at it.
All in all it’s the best written show I’ve seen in a long while, right up there with SOPRANOS and BSG. MAD MEN also has devised an extremely satisfying ratio of serialized vs. stand-alone content, that allows viewers to jump in at any time. At least for now…we’ll see how that works out in the long run.
Make sure you check it out. It’s on iTunes and AMC On Demand. AMC has shot some clever shorts of real-life admen/women talking about the good old days, posted here. In one of them, adwoman Dr. Lois Geraci Ernst (who thought up the campaign “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan” for Enjoli perfume), mentions that the Ad Biz is “the first time in human history that writers and artists have been paid a living wage.” *impressed* Another former exec called the Ad biz “a paradise for brilliant misfits.” I’ve seen some of that first hand in my own work.
And props to the wonderful motion graphics company Imaginary Forces for the most beautiful credits roll I’ve seen in a long time.
Now I’ll leave you with a bit of dialogue between MAD MEN Don Draper and his boss Roger Sterling, played out near the end of last week’s ep (S1x04). Bottom’s up.
Both men are sitting with their end-of-day whiskeys in hand.
Sterling: You don’t know how to drink, your whole generation. You drink for the wrong reasons. My generation, we drink because it’s good. Because it feels better than unbuttoning your collar. Because we deserve it. We drink because it’s what men do.
Draper: What about shaky hands? I see a lot of that too with you boys…
S: No joke! Your kind, with your gloomy thoughts and your worries – you’re all busy licking some imaginary wound.
D: Not all imaginary…
S: Yeah, boo hoo.
D: Maybe I’m not as comfortable being powerless as you are.
