Getting into The Wire is like joining a cult, anyone whose been there knows that once you tap into season one, hours, nay weeks even months of your life will be devoted entirely to the world of Baltimore's rough streets. It's riveting drama and the perfect argument against those people who refuse to watch TV, claiming it's nothing but crap. It's a show entirely worthy of it's hype and word of mouth.
In fact, word of mouth and the release of all the seasons on DVD is what's made this series, which began it's run way back in 2002 so popular lately. More and more people are discovering what at least someone at HBO knew all along. Sure they failed to gain a huge audience for the hailed program, but they did allow it to go on for five years - all of which I am excited to watch. (Like I said this show can take months of your life from you.)
Former homicide detective, Ed Burns and his co creator, and former journalist David Simon were clearly inspired by their real life experiences and have written three dimensional characters who feel nothing like the expected television versions of themselves. No cop is on a vengeance tour after loosing his wife to a bad guy, even the bad guys aren't bad guys in the typical sense. Some have more honor than the police officers, others are just kids stuck in a losing cycle.
The women are given equally complex and dignified roles. No where is there a boring twenty year old blond girl in charge of a crack team of detectives, a TV trend I've already railed against. Sadly, despite critics constantly calling this one of the greatest television shows ever created, if anyone in the networks saw it, they took no notes from it except that it wasn't an instant success, because nothing since has come close to the complexity, sophistication and greatness of The Wire.
Each season focuses on a different aspect of the city of Baltimore: the projects, the docks, politics, schools, and media, which maintaining some central characters like Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell - the top men in a drug ring, Detective McNulty and Detective Greggs who try to catch them, and characters like the drug addicted Bubbles and the Robin Hood like Omar who are just trying to make it in a crazy world.
To get into the plots would be unfair to you that have yet to watch it and simply too much to get into here (I recently finished an explosive season three), but I can say that this is a thought provoking and worth while journey with some of the best characters put to the small screen.
Oh how far stars fall when we find out they're huge assholes. Remember when Kevin Spacey, so not the smug uptight guy who would later star in K Pax in an attempt to grab another award, was just a scrappy actor out of nowhere who thanked his mom with earnest glee? Or Paul Giamatti when he was a likable schlep, not a pompous John Adams or everyman Cleveland Meeks (though to be honest, he still seems like an okay guy who's just picking roles in an attempt to make me hate him.)
The worst fallen idol has got to be Jeremy Piven. Once the refreshing, smirking grown kid in Grosse Point Blank and The Larry Sanders Show, he gained great reknown as Ari Gold on the (pretty unbearable) Entourage. Everyone thought he was doing such an amazing job playing a jerk until we all realized it was maybe a bit more real life and a little less acting when he and a rowdy, terrible group of 12 friends ate dinner out at Nobu and only tipped with a DVD of Entourage, getting himself banned from the restaurant.
This guy really out did himself with such a self indulgent joke of a show. I mean, I also caught episodes of Outsiders Inn; the sad, sad reboot of At the Movies (now for idiots! Thanks Josh and Josh); and the decline of HBO – True Blood anyone or how about Tell Me You Love Me?! But Piven's shitty TV show takes the cake.
I have to admit, I did you all a disservice by not watching all of this program – but just take a look at this two minute intro and I think you'll forgive me. At this point, though, I wish I had stuck with it a little longer so I could detail the antics for you, and as of right now the program is not airing on its original network, Discovery HD, anytime soon. But seriously, if it does air again, I'm up for that drinking game – if we can in fact actually keep it on for more than half an hour.
No journey has been this dislikable since his co-star Adrian Grenier made a documentary himself (in which he still managed to be on camera the whole time) about the journey to find his father – I wonder how many twenty year old girls fell into his bed for that sob story.
Seasons one and two of the Mighty Boosh
are such entirely different animals that I think they should be dealt
with separately. After hearing about this show from friends for years,
we finally managed to see one late at night on BBC America (apparently
they feel that 1am on a Saturday is the prime time to showcase one of
their most inventive and hilarious shows).
The first season introduces us to Howard Moon (played by Julian Barratt),
a jazz aficionado and generally amiable loser who weaves together what
are typically considered some of the worst personality quirks (envy,
jealousy, laziness, self importance) into an inexplicably charming
character.
Moon’s best friend, (played with equal charm by
former Brix Pick hunk, Noel Fielding) Vince Noir is a vain mod/glam
rocker who floats happily through routine daily life and always enjoys
the spoils of their adventures. He can also speak to animals (though he
squanders his gift chatting to them mainly about Gary Numan, imagine that?) .
They work in a less than a stellar zoo (called the Zooniverse) that's run by a nearly retarded manager, Bob Fossil,
who can't remember the "scientific" names of the animals and instead
refers to them by semi descriptive phrases like “the gray legged face
man” (an elephant) and "the long mover; windy man" (a snake).
Other characters on the scene are Naboo,
a shaman who loves Fleetwood Mac; Mrs. Gideon an older foreign lady
Howard Moon is in love with; and, this week’s style icon, Matt Berry as
Dixon Bainbridge, a "real live action man" and all around shady character who owns the zoo.
This
is a show that's really hard to accurately describe. Many of my
favorite parts consist of nothing more than the easy banter between
Noir and Moon that proceeds their bizarre adventures in which they
encounter a wide variety of interesting friends foes: mutant animals,
Black Frost, and Charlie–a huge wad of bubble gum with a mustache. It's truly unique and it's one of the best comedies we've seen in some time.
Then
there's season two which, sadly, disposes of both the Zooniverse and
Bob Fossil; a development that angered fans and made the show suffer.
One can easily see why Barrat and Fielding wanted to change the format,
try new things and expand their characters but, too often, it feels
like they enjoy playing the roles more than we enjoy watching them.
This
new format, which starts the adventure right away (gone are the funny
conversations I loved), makes the show feel a bit more like a hit or
miss sketch comedy half hour. Don’t get me wrong, it's still way
funnier than nearly everything on our domestic networks right now, and
some additions, like the slow witted full moon and Bollo the gorilla
playing a larger role as Naboo's familiar, are ingenious.
Still,
the first season works better for me by leaps and bounds. Let's hope
the highly anticipated third season is totally excellent! I can hardly
wait to see.
If you’re a fan of the merciless, spoof comedy of Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat and Ali G) and you have yet to discover High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman, you are in for a treat. Like Baron Cohen, Shirley, an odd Liberace-like, insensitive man-woman, played by edgy (sometimes too edgy) comic Marc Wootton interacts with real people who are not in on the joke. Prepare to squirm in your seat in both laughter and total discomfort.
Other top segments are Spirit Academy, a reality show (with real contestants, again unaware of the joke) battling in an insane asylum for the title of Britain’s Top Psychic. At one point, to prove their abilities, Ghostman asks them to all run away from the person who they think is going to be kicked out. The reality spoof is stunning. It’s shocking what people will do to be in TV, especially crazy people who believe they’re psychic. But again, I think the same thing watching nearly any reality TV.
Another favorite sketch involves Alf, a former exterminator turned pervy ghost buster, “Busting makes me feel good”. With a homemade contraption strapped to his back, mostly made up of an old vacuum cleaner he gets rid of ghosts in nutter’s home. One lady, who Alf finds very attractive, is a goofy weirdo with an apartment that’ half painted and willingness to trap the spirit with her sexuality.
Available on DVD only in the UK, this aired briefly on BBC America, for which I suppose I should be grateful, but the channel has yet to show any of his other highly praised work or re air these. So grab an all region player and open your world to yet unavailable BBC comedy, starting with this to get you in the Halloween spirit.
I have to admit that after being such a fan of the British Office, and a complete lover of the Ricky Gervais Show (with Karl Pilkington), the first season of Extras was a bit of a disappointment to me. I don’t want to spend this whole time unfairly comparing the two TV shows, but I’d say the big difference is that everyone could relate to The Office and while David Brent is a mostly unlikable cringe inducing man, the show was full of pathos and sympathy.
Extras is a harder nut to crack. Taking cues perhaps from Curb Your Enthusiasm (that probably took cues from the British office in the first place) this is one of those obnoxious men getting caught in spiraling misunderstandings things; And, like only the truly British can truly do, it is really, heart breakingly depressing as much or even more so than as it is funny.
Of course, season one though, before I go slagging it off (any one else start to think in British slang terms after watching lots of BBC?) did have the best guest appearance of all time when Patrick Stewart showed of his comedic chops playing himself as an excitable teenage like perv who’s dream project is a movie about a guy who can tear of women’s clothing with his mind. As he explains animatedly “They try to cover up, but it’s too late, I’ve already seen everything”. The show gradually grew on me and I entered the second series with a much more open mind.
There are lots of laughs this time around, where we find Gervais as actor Andy Millman no longer an extra but a bona fide TV star on a dismally crappy sitcom. The scenes of the show, called “When the Whistle Blows” are pitch perfect examples of mediocre, broad, lowest common denominator humor. The guest appearances, which aren’t always the best part are well done with Daniel Radcliff and his unwrapped condom and Sir Ian McKellan and his hilarious theories on acting standing out. De Niro also gets the best line in the whole thing when he off screen asks “The woman from the pen?” (Watch it, you’ll understand).
The best part though, aside from a bit of physical comedy involving an exploding bottle of sparkling water that completely caught me off guard and had me laughing until I couldn’t breathe (and in fact, just thinking about it now gives me giggles in my tummy) is the almost freakishly tall Stephen Merchant as the ugly raincoat and maroon turtleneck wearing useless manager. The sweet and dim friend, Maggie Jacobs, played by Ashley Jensen is also extremely likable, a much needed contrast to Millman’s sometimes indefensible personality.
So, it’s not The Office, but it’s a tragicomedy worth watching, particularly in the sea of HBO’s poor programming choices (have you actually seen True Blood??!!, My stars, it sucks).
If you heeded my strong recommendation of the sea faring adventure series, Horatio Hornblower, good guy Robert Lindsay will be familiar to you. Here he plays a man completely devoted to his life as a detective. Great news for victims of crime in London, 1958, not so good news for criminals or for his personal life.
Jericho was meant to be a new big BBC hit for fans of Foyle's War and Inspector Morse, but despite good actors, nice art direction, and decent murder plots that aren't easy to figure out on your own, it failed to garner a second season after loosing lots of it's viewership to other more modern mystery shows and unlike America's (totally unrelated) Jericho, cult fans were not around to save it from it's demise.
It was aired a couple years ago on PBS and is available on DVD, so netflix it if you're a fan of British mysteries. It's not life changing, but good for afternoon easy viewing and Lindsay really is a treat to watch.
In what was likely the most lively of the debates, if the first presidential snooze fest was any indication, Palin was folksy and winky and Biden, in my opinion, mostly ruled. Expectations were so low for the hockey mom that honestly the only way she could have failed as by farting and fainting at the podium. It’s clear whom I favor in the race, but based on the debates’ viewership, they and this election are important to everyone and that is assuring. I prefer an impassioned, but well informed person I disagree with to an apathetic moron any day.
But back to my bias, I can not stand Palin and as much as I would have loved to see her completely fail, which she didn’t, I got enough satisfying cringes out of her lame phrases, the clear fact that she sometimes had no idea what the questions meant and her hairdo. It was classic Hairstyles Magazine, business in the front, prom in the back.
I hope the upcoming presidential debates prove to be more heated and illuminating. The next is Tuesday, Oct. 7th and the last will be on the 15th.
In last week's review of Gym Teacher: The Movie I mentioned the exceptional Disney kids show Even Stevens, a gem of a show I dearly miss and one of the best kid shows ever made. We used to watch episodes during our lunch breaks in Austin at the urging of a friend. The weird claymation intro is burned into my brain and the little ditty that opened the show will always remind me of afternoons spent revisiting a gentler, more innocent time of being in junior high.
The entire cast was thoroughly charming (you might recognize mom, Donna Pescow from Out of This World) but of course it was the now mega star Shia LaBeouf's turn as a some what nerdy, creative and mischievous pre teen that won our hearts. Though it's only fair to appreciate minor characters like Beans and Tom Gribalski.
The series is sadly not available on dvd but I am happy to say that this month it begins airing on WGN America, so if anyone out there can satellite TV, enjoy.
The star of the show however, is Chris Meloni a man who has made a career as the serious Law and Order: SVU detective Elliot Stabler and as a bisexual serial killer on Oz before that. From his sideline career choices like Wet Hot American Summer, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, Scrubs and this, one would guess that like fellow award winning actor, John C Reilly, there's a passion for the goofy and to make people laugh. He fascinates me for this reason, like a cool guy that hangs out with the weird theater kids to their shock and delight and that's why it's so hard to write that he is unfortunately the weakest link in this movie.
The role of the gym teacher seems like it was custom fit for Stephen Colbert's tricky lovable jerk style. Maybe we was just too busy to give his old friends the time of day or maybe I am just imagining it, but Meloni, feels less like a lovable jerk and more like a genuinely strange person. It's also a bit long. I'm not really sure if it was necessary to make it a full two hours and if it were, maybe Denillo should have featured himself (barely even in this as a shop teacher) and Sedaris in it more.
Still, I can sometimes love myself a goofy tween sports comedy and especially towards the beginning, there are some genuine laughs here. Plus it's been awhile since I watch something on Nick or Disney (but I still remember you fondly, Even Stevens) ad it's great, after some heavy reading, long nights at work, or any of the other things going on this week in my life, to watch some thing dumb but entertaining that's sponsored by something called "Puppy in my Pocket".
By the side of the road a mother and her two kids stop to get flowers from a truck. In a blink of the eye, the mother disappears and the children wander off on their own. This is the chilling premise of Five Days, an HBO/BBC collaboration mini series. The following days follow not only the investigation into what happened but the personal lives of each and every person affected by the tragedy.
While Jim and I could have forgone the weepy Enya type music by Magnus Fiennes and Heidrun Bjornsdottir which is almost always played during scenes of someone sobbing (such obvious heart string pulling scenes just aren't necessary with writing and acting this good) there's little else to complain about in this somber story.
At five hours, it's a commitment to watch, but if you are interested in elevating from the cursory and repetitive crime procedurals of Law and Order, Criminal Intent, etc, etc but still find the genre interesting, it's worth your time.
