Bye bye Zombies, Hello Dragons

So The Walking Dead finished its third season last night and Game of Thrones started theirs. Has there ever been a better television time for geeks than now?


A few random thoughts on both (spoilers ahead):

So the Governor survived and Andrea died. The Walking Dead has now entered Dexter territory, deviating widely from the source material and creating a new story. I like that even as a fan of the comic series, I can no longer predict who will come and go and what stories they will tell.

In fact, it feels a bit like they are going to try and change the core idea of the book and series. The series has always been about this group of survivors that travels to a place, joins a society, and things tend to go to hell. But here, with the remnants of Woodbury joining them at the prison, the show looks like it will spend some time actually building a society. I’m fascinated to see where this is going to go.

How odd that if they took the opposite tack with Game of Thrones I would be horrified! I’m not even that obsessive a fan of the books, as I only started reading them because I knew the show was coming. But I was immediately engrossed by George R.R. Martin’s worldbuilding. To see it come to life each week in such a rich, layered way is just….WOW.

Of course I have always wondered what’s going to happen down the road when the series catches up to the books. At the rate Martin’s is putting them out, it would be incredibly lucky if book six was out in time for it to be adapted. But what will happen for the last book? Will they have to create their own ending or will Martin want the book’s ending spoiled?

Andrea’s death seemed like the only way out of the corner they had written her into. Her weird siding with the Governor and Woodbury over Michonne and her old comrades just became alienating. There wasn’t any way for them to come back from it that would have felt real.

Did anyone else notice how the two major deaths this season was about half the female cast? Those boys are going to get very lonely at the prison…..

Meanwhile, Peter Dinklage shows in every episode just how you steal an ensemble TV show. Tyron has always been my favorite character in the series and the way Dinklage brings him to life has made him my favorite character on the TV series as well.

I want a pet dragon.

The Doctor is in!

Last night I, like many other geeks, tuned into the return of Doctor Who. It was a big episode, with a new companion, a new Big Bad, and a new Tardis. Rather than review the episode (I enjoyed it immensely), here are just some random thoughts on the episode:

• ROCKET CYCLE!!!

• Jenna Louise Coleman has really made an impression on me as the new companion. First off I think she’s got a certain energy to her performance that can match Matt Smith’s manic doctor. Plus their chemistry is palpable. I’ve never been one to want the Doctor and his companions to hook up, but in this case, I would be willing to make an exception. 

• Something about the opening and the London setting reminded me a bit of Steven Moffat’s other great series Sherlock. England has always been in the Doctor’s DNA and last night’s episode really had that on display (it reminded me as well of Skyfall, where London was practically a character of the story). 

• The reveal at the end of the Big Bad (I won’t spoil it) was a nice surprise. Is this the set up for the 50th anniversary? I have to admit his previous appearance hadn’t really struck me as memorable, but I will be interested in seeing where they go with it. 

• ROCKET CYCLE!!!!!

• Is it just me or does anyone else look forward to what I anticipate to be a catty first meeting between Clara and River Song?

TV Series Catch-Up

Over the summer, I took it upon myself to try to clear a bunch of stuff of my Netflix queue and for some reason thought that the best way would be to clear off some of the TV programs I had on there. That was a mistake. I didn't get much cleared off and became addicted to some programs that I had missed out over the years.

Spaced - Created by Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Jessica Stevenson, this is a hilarious British comedy unlike most other British comedies. Or American ones for that matter. Most people would find it similar to Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, not surprising since two of the creators are responsible for those as well. Spaced centers around two early 30's slackers who decide to pretend to be a couple in order to rent a room in a house, and the show follows their adventures together. But really the show is about skewering pop culture with jabs taken at Star Wars, comic books, pop art, pop music, and basically the whole idea of slackers in general. Their anarchic rapid fire style reminded me of my other fave British comedy The Young Ones, although this has way more heart to it.

The Mighty Boosh - Recommended by my friend Caz, this huge cult hit in Britain has finally made its way to the US. Julian Barrett and Noel Fielding play Howard Moon and Vince Noir, two strangely opposite best friends working in a zoo, or a curio shop, or not really working at all (depending which season you watch), and the extremely bizarre adventures they get up to. At first I wasn't sure what to make of it, trying to make some sort of logical sense of the show. But logic has no place in The Mighty Boosh, each episode plays like a dream someone has after eating too much Mexican. In my opinion, it's Fielding's multiple characters, from a bizarre she-male lake monster named Old Gregg, or the disembodied head of a wizard named Tony Harrison, or even the moon, that what gives the show its best material.

Prime Suspect - More a series of mini series, Prime Suspect follows the tangled career of Jane Tennison, played by Helen Mirren, a London police woman who challenges the male dominated Metropolitan Police Force. Each mini series follows a specific high profile cases involving serial killers, pedophilia, illegal immigrants, etc. But what makes the show more than just a standard procedural is the conflicted depths that Mirren brings to Tennison, showing that no matter how good she is at her job, she has many faults as well. Forget the police part of the show; Prime Suspect is a fantastic drama, showcasing a woman at odds with her bosses, her subordinates, her lovers, her family, and most of all with herself. The final series showed her finally coming to grips with her alcoholism in some incredibly powerful scenes. This is the role Mirren was born to play.

Dexter - Before this list gets too Brit heavy, here comes that lovable serial killer from Miami, Dexter Morgan. I have wanted to watch Dexter for a while, but as I don't get Showtime, I was always missing out. This summer I tried the first season and all I can say is wow. I immediately got the second season and thought WOW. Then I saw the third series and...well it was more wow then WOW. I really do like the show and find it compelling and juicy. Great drama? No. There have been some severe acting flaws, most surprisingly Jimmy Smits in Season 3 (sorry I just didn't buy him turning killer). Addictive entertainment? Absolutely. Michael C Hall's Dexter is a true wonder, a serial killer trying to follow a code of justice, a man who knows that he will always be an outsider who still tries to find a home.

Battlestar Galactica - This is the show I am kicking myself for missing when it was on the air. It was always one that I knew was supposed to be good, but I missed the first few episodes and never got around to catching up. Now that I have witnessed the show in its entirety, I must add myself to the chorus of those praising this show to the frakking heavens. A science fiction epic, an allegory for our own troubled times, a drama with true grit and edge. The story of the last human survivors as they fight their way across the galaxy in an effort to find the lost planet Earth was at times heartbreaking, at times horrific, and sometimes hopeful. But it was never short of mesmerizing, especially the twin performances of Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, the heart and soul of the show. I know I have the prequel series Caprica to look forward to, but nothing will be the same s this epic series that I wish could just have continued on forever.

Wishing they would just shut up and sing already...

This is how my brain works:
I was in the shower, sort of groggy from the few drinks I had last night and not quite awake from the morning coffee. I began thinking about my weekend and what I needed to do like laundry, groceries, read for work. I also started thinking about the first season of Dr Who which had just arrived and I was really looking forward to watching it. Then my head jumped to season three, which I had been given for my birthday this year and how much I had enjoyed it. Especially the bits with the Master who was played by that actor, oh what’s his name, John Simm, he was in that show Life on Mars…
Yeah, my mind is a jumbled, strange place.
It was at this point I remembered that Simm had apparently started his career as a musician, even playing with Ian McCullough of Echo and The Bunnymen. Then I took a left turn at musicians who act and actors who try to be musicians. How people always think actors are terrible musicians but musicians are such terrific actors and how that is rather unfair.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree that actors are terrible musicians. I equate listening to Russell Crow or Kevin Bacon or Kevin Costner as the equivalent of aural rape. And please do not bring up 30 Seconds of Mars to me. Yes yes, I know YOU like them.
But musicians seem to get a big pass on their acting abilities because most people seem astounded that they not only can sing, but apparently they can also speak. And sometimes emote. Let’s face it, most of them can convincingly pass for humans, but don’t ask for much else.
It reminded me of Law & Order SVU this week, which was Ice-T’s big solo episode for the season, a job that required his character to go through a long patch of self-anger and doubt, and to showcase his skills as an interrogator and detective. Yet pretty much all he could muster was some version of angry-grumpy-constipated.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Ice-T and I generally like him on the show. I am not expecting the guy who sang “Girls, Let’s Get Butt Naked and Fuck” to all of a sudden become a student of the Stanislavski Method of acting. But still you would think that someone, anyone involved with the show would have pointed out that he was out of his league.
When acting, musicians are usually some version of their stage personas and that is how we like them. Ice –T is always Ice-T, Ice Cube always Ice Cube, Elvis, Madonna, the list goes on. In some way, we expect no more from them than just extensions of their musical personas, only now speaking rather than singing, acting happy or sad or in Madonna’s case, horny rather than just sounding like it. Even the brilliant comedian Ricky Gervais, who started out in a British synth pop band, is still rather a one note actor, never branching out much from his safe zone. When they fulfill our expectations, no matter how limited, we are quite happy to praise them for their talent.
Maybe that’s why I love Flight of the Conchords so much. With their flat New Zealand accents and their dead pan style and delivery, they seem to get this idea that they are not actors, just playing them on TV. They let us in on the joke. They really only come alive when they perform the musical numbers, when the “acting” disappears and they can do what they do best.
If only L&O had allowed Ice-T to rap.

Going To The Dark Side

When I was a bookseller, and a customer would come in asking me just for a great thriller, I would always hit them with A Simple Plan, by Scott Smith.

For those who haven’t read it or seen the movie, the book follows three ordinary men out in the woods who stumble upon a place crash with no survivors and a bag full of money. Two of the men are broke and need the money desperately, and manage to convince the third to keep the cash. Thus begins a very Treasure of the Sierra Madre type thriller as the trio turn against each other just as the law seems to be inching closer to them.

What I truly loved about the book is the almost instantaneous change within the main character, Hank Mitchell. At the start he is a shop owner expecting his first child with his wife. But almost immediately after finding the money, which he is reluctant to keep at the beginning, he kills to protect himself and the money. As the novel goes on, Hank slowly gives in to darker and more cold blooded impulses, but whether it is to stay out of prison or if it is to keep the money is open for interpretation.

Ultimately the book becomes about a man embracing the darkness that lies within, but once he does, it begins to take over and ultimately he is left with less than he started with. It’s a story that has stuck with me over the years.

Now, the reason I bring this up isn’t to just recommend a great book, but because I was struck by the similarities when I watched the first season of Breaking Bad a few weeks ago.

At first glance, Breaking Bad seems to be the latest in the trend of cable shows about darker lead characters like The Shield, Dexter, and The Sopranos. But Breaking Bad flips the script in many ways, because rather than discovering these antiheroes (and I use that term loosely) fully formed, here we watch just how a normal person can quickly be seduced by the dark side of the soul.

Walter White (yeah it’s not a subtle name) is a high school chemistry teacher working two jobs to support his pregnant wife and handicapped son. When he is diagnosed with lung cancer and given two years to live, he becomes obsessed about providing for his family after he is gone. To this end, he decides to make and sell crystal meth.

As the series progresses (and as of this writing, I have only seen the first season, not the second), Walter’s decision leads him down the moral slippery slope. By the end of the first episode, he has already killed one person in a blind survival instinct panic. But soon he commits a more calculated murder. By the end of the season, he is threatening drug dealers and building a criminal empire.

Of course some of these crimes are committed under the pretense of providing for his family, but as it progresses, we see that Walter is beginning to enjoy the criminal life. In one episode, he begins to feel up his wife during a parent teacher meeting, leading to them rushing out to have sex in the back of their car. When his wife asked why it was so amazing, he simply replies “Because it was illegal.”

That’s the beauty of this show; we can so easily identify with Walter. Who hasn’t felt that thrill of breaking a rule and getting away with it, that tingle when we do something we know we shouldn’t? It’s played out on a much more dramatic scale here, but as opposed to shows like The Sopranos or The Shield, where we are more consciously aware of the differences between us and them, here we feel a little closer to this teacher turned dealer, because he is an everyman. He is just like us, struggling to do what he feels he has to for his family. It’s uncomfortable and yet familiar.

Ultimately all of us have that dark side within us. Most of us choose to keep it in check, to try and be good people. But even good people will get that devil on our shoulder from time to time. No one is perfect. Who hasn’t thought from time to time about just how far you would go?

20 Years With the Yellow Family. Oh That Doesn't Sound Good.

Today I have spent a lot of time talking or thinking about The Simpsons.
Surprisingly, that is not as out of character for me as you might think.
I remember watching that first Christmas special so many years ago now. I was probably 14 or 15 at the time and I just remember laughing so hard, wanting to show my sister and my friends this bizarre, hilarious, “adult” cartoon. It was just so different, this family that seemed so dysfunctional and yet so like my own. With the exception of the frequent strangulations.
But when the series started, I wasn’t hooked right away. I was only an infrequent viewer. It wasn’t until college that I really became hooked and it became a regular Sunday night ritual watching. I watched Bart fall for the evil daughter of Rev. Lovejoy. I watched Lisa deal with the death of her beloved mentor Bleeding Gums Murphy. I watched Homer get fat (well fatter) just so he wouldn’t have to go to work. I watched Marge go on the lam with her new best friend because sticking together is what good friends (and waffles) do.
There was even a year where we had no TV in our house so we would trudge up the hill to visit with friends and watch the show every Sunday. We would all laugh and repeat lines. Good times.
Over the years, the Sunday routine hasn’t changed. I still plop down on the couch every Sunday and tune in. Strange how over 20 years, watching The Simpsons has been one of the few constants in an ever changing life.
Of course, people say the show just isn’t as funny as it was way back then. Maybe they are right, but I prefer to think they just have selective nostalgia. I remember even way back around season 8 that it wasn’t as funny as it was just a year or so earlier. But now I can watch those shows on reruns over and over and never stop laughing. The beauty of The Simpsons has always been in the jokes you miss the first time around, but on the second or third you find yourself repeating them over and over. So who knows how the last few years will look down the road?
There were years of my life when I could just recite lines and quotes from the show at the drop of the hat. It was never intentional, they just stuck there. For the life of me, I can’t remember state capitols, but for a long time I could whip out an “Excuse me, did something crawl down your throat and die? It didn’t die!” or “It’s just a little kick in the bum.” At one point I am pretty sure I could do the whole See My Vest song.
But those quotes have faded from my brain and my love for The Simpsons has turned into more of a long relationship. The passion has faded but the caring, the connection still remains. So I will keep watching as long as they keep making them. And every once in a while, I will still whip out the one line that has always stuck with me.
“I am evil Homer. I am evil Homer. I am evil Homer. I am evil Homer.”