Sigh, sigh. Doom, doom. I am in the process of voluntarily withdrawing from the world. I shall close my shutters; seal up my doors and windows; no dust from the street shall enter my home; no sunlight shall penetrate the darkness of my inner sanctum. My eight years of mourning will rival Bernada Alba's, or indeed any poetic misery that Lorca could have dreamt up. For five years and six seasons, I have faithfully followed my Housewives through good times and bad; great episodes and good episodes; some, even bad episodes. I held on tight as the good ship steered through stormy seas, always knowing that it would eventually reach calmer waters and deliver us back to the land of top quality. Alas, I fear this show has navigated into the wrong ocean altogether, never to return.
It's no secret that season five was particularly uneven and, by the finale, uninvolving. I would say the two standout episodes were 5.5, Mirror, Mirror, in which the housewives each had a flashback to what had been going on in the 5 years since season four, to great effect. The episode culminated in a party at Susan's where Mrs McCluskey tried to attack Dave Williams with a baseball bat. This was the first time we had seen the truly evil side of Dave and we were set up for an exciting villain for the season. The other episode was 5.8, City On Fire, where Dave killed his therapist and set fire to the nightclub. Gripping stuff in time for sweeps week, of course. However, the season soon fell apart after that. The Eli Scruggs episode, ironically entitled The Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, was a bizarre flashback episode revolving around someone we had never met, and Edie's death five episodes later resembled some sort of DVD extra 'souvenir' featurette, where each housewife remembered pivotal moments in their lives with Edie.
Now, upon second viewing, these episodes as standalones were excellent. But in the course of a season where we had an excellent villain and a plotline hurtling towards something catastrophic, it made no sense to suddenly interrupt the action twice in the second half of the season to bring us a pair of, contextually at least, truly strange episodes. By the time we got to the finale, we were all so bored by the season being dragged out, and so painfully aware of the predictable way it would conclude, that once it was over and done with we looked forward to a robust season six.
Well we're seven episodes in and I couldn't be more unimpressed. The Bolen mystery will, of course, probably become much more involving and dramatic as the season progresses, but I'm not sure anyone will really care. The plotlines themselves are being recycled, too! Does anyone else remember in season four, when Bree and Katherine had a rivalry over their cooking and clashing personality types, only for them to realise that they actually had a lot in common and would both benefit greatly if they combined their culinary knowledge and came to understand each other better? And then last night Bree and Angie had a rivalry over their cooking and clashing personality types, only for them to realise that they actually had a lot in common and would both benefit greatly if they combined their culinary knowledge and came to understand each other better. Even some of the dialogue was identical! Which makes me wonder if the writers are really trying anymore.
Case in point: Eva Longoria. Granted, it took a couple of seasons for her to really blossom into a great comic actress. But that is what she is. So why do they keep handing her storylines about children's parties, monkeys attacking clowns and housework? The comedy this season is rarely laugh-out-loud hilarious, and feels extremely contrived in the 'what sort of harebrained scheme will the housewives come up with this week?' vein. On the other end of the scale, the moving drama that the show is famous for seems to have boiled down to a musical cue. At the end of each episode someone will make a 'moving' speech like 'I worry about how to get that spot out of the upholstery...' accompanied by some violins. And I think we're meant to cry there. What ever happened to genuinely moving moments, like Lynette getting cured of cancer in season four? Bree breaking down over Rex's death in the season one finale? Susan crying through the door to Jackson in season five? I'm sorry, it just isn't the same.
I was told by a friend that in the past couple of seasons, Desperate Housewives seems to be following a one week on-one week off pattern. So a robust episode is followed by a meandering one, and so on. But why should it be so? What happened to each episode being a finely crafted piece of art, instead of a dull stepping stone to the next interesting plot? Don't get me wrong, it must be extremely difficult to keep working to the same standard after 130 episodes. So why then sign on to make a further 58?!
I mentioned in previous blogs my belief that season length should be cut down to around 13 episodes. This would allow for twice as many programmes with twice the quality. Make sense? I don't want to watch a show for six months of the year if it is going to bore me. I want it for three or four months and leave me wanting more. It's called longevity. Well, Desperate Housewives has proved it certainly has that. Fingers crossed for better quality.
And so to Medium, which has also entered it's sixth season and keeps getting better. We haven't had an episode so violent for a very long time. The body count was high and pretty grisly -- there were no shootings or stabbings -- instead each victim was beaten to death. Literally punched and kicked in the face until they were lifeless piles of bloody pulp. Nice! Rape was also pretty prevelant, too. What fun!
Scanlon's brother turned up and we find out he is a convicted rapist. In terms of narrative, Medium has reminded me of early ER in the way that it's character's backgrounds are slowly revealed instead of being heaped upon us all at once. I don't think that when David Cubitt first signed on as a one episode homicide detective he could have anticipated the layers that would be added to his character. From that beginning we have found out about his murdered sister, abusive Father, drug addiction, and finally we saw his marriage to Lynn and birth of their daughter. The appearence of his brother added another dimension to an already extremely complicated character. Great to see a return to the real dark, chilling, brutal themes that elevate the show above the lighter Ghost Whisperer style plot lines. One of the strongest episodes of the season.
Peace
xx
Showing posts with label medium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medium. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Monday, 16 November 2009
Monday
Some quick updates on a couple of shows for you this fair Monday.
Firstly to The Thick Of It, where we welcome the return of the opposition party who, I think, we haven't seen since the release of the specials. Nicola Murray gets to do some breaking down over the fact that her family life is hanging by a thread, and this serves to demonstrate how government policy actually affects real people. This is something we haven't really explored in any real depth on the show before -- and what made it particularly powerful was seeing how a government minister can be bought down by their own over-zealous policy making. Brilliant.
True Blood. I didn't want to believe what happened at the end of Sparks Fly Out. Grandma was everyone's favourite character! The warmth and sympathy of the woman provided a good emotional touchstone for an audience who could perhaps become somewhat bewildered by the show's overarching, and largely theoretical, themes. What baffled me at first was Sookie's lack of emotion. However, the rest of the episode played out beautifully and the funeral was a great cathartic centre piece. Tara and Lafayette, once again, stole the show both as characters and as performers, taking the situation in hand and making sure Sookie was protected.
And, not for the fusty among us, Lemon Mej, Sookie and Bill finally got down to business. Good for them. So, is she now a vampire? Series continues...
On to Medium. Now, after Bite Me turned out to be a little bit too uninvolving compared to the rest of the season, I had high hopes for its successor, New Terrain. Unfortunately, this episode too was rather dull and I began to believe that perhaps season 6 may not quite deliver what it had initially promised.
Firstly to The Thick Of It, where we welcome the return of the opposition party who, I think, we haven't seen since the release of the specials. Nicola Murray gets to do some breaking down over the fact that her family life is hanging by a thread, and this serves to demonstrate how government policy actually affects real people. This is something we haven't really explored in any real depth on the show before -- and what made it particularly powerful was seeing how a government minister can be bought down by their own over-zealous policy making. Brilliant.
True Blood. I didn't want to believe what happened at the end of Sparks Fly Out. Grandma was everyone's favourite character! The warmth and sympathy of the woman provided a good emotional touchstone for an audience who could perhaps become somewhat bewildered by the show's overarching, and largely theoretical, themes. What baffled me at first was Sookie's lack of emotion. However, the rest of the episode played out beautifully and the funeral was a great cathartic centre piece. Tara and Lafayette, once again, stole the show both as characters and as performers, taking the situation in hand and making sure Sookie was protected.
And, not for the fusty among us, Lemon Mej, Sookie and Bill finally got down to business. Good for them. So, is she now a vampire? Series continues...
On to Medium. Now, after Bite Me turned out to be a little bit too uninvolving compared to the rest of the season, I had high hopes for its successor, New Terrain. Unfortunately, this episode too was rather dull and I began to believe that perhaps season 6 may not quite deliver what it had initially promised.
Luckily, Once In A Lifetime restored my faith once again. Directed by David Arquette, who has helmed several episodes before, this was a real family affair -- behind the scenes and in the narrative. The writers have played to the show's strengths and centered the episode's crime story around Allison and her family, while intertwining the subplots taking place within the home. It worked marvellously as we saw how Allison's work, her gift, and her family life occassionally collide for reasons beyond anyone's control. Patricia Arquette has said she likes it when Allison's visions don't quite work out as intended, therefore making her more human, more vulnerable. Having to juggle Joe, Scanlon and Ariel was a great central conflict for the episode.
What really stood out to me was the confrontation scene between Allison and the boy's Mother. Now, episodes of Medium tend to fall down at this point. We have an interesting build up often followed by a clunky and unsatisfactory denouement. But we got to see Allison act like a real detective here. She teased information out of the suspect while simultaneously wrapping up how the crime was commited for the audience. Patricia Arquette gives good sassy detective. More of this please! And what a final scene. Allison vaguely wondering about how the boy could have known all about his dead father followed by a rather tender scene where the Father's ghost visits his baby son. This season definitely has a lot more heart than previous years. Great fun.
However, where the feck is Devalos? He has barely been in this season and most of the detective work has been left to Scanlon. He wasn't even in this episode! Hmm...
Peace xx
What really stood out to me was the confrontation scene between Allison and the boy's Mother. Now, episodes of Medium tend to fall down at this point. We have an interesting build up often followed by a clunky and unsatisfactory denouement. But we got to see Allison act like a real detective here. She teased information out of the suspect while simultaneously wrapping up how the crime was commited for the audience. Patricia Arquette gives good sassy detective. More of this please! And what a final scene. Allison vaguely wondering about how the boy could have known all about his dead father followed by a rather tender scene where the Father's ghost visits his baby son. This season definitely has a lot more heart than previous years. Great fun.
However, where the feck is Devalos? He has barely been in this season and most of the detective work has been left to Scanlon. He wasn't even in this episode! Hmm...
Peace xx
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Thursday
Dawn was dead to begin with. Escape From The Dragon House (beautifully titled), was last night's fourth installment of True Blood. Just when we thought we have the stylistic idiosyncracies of the show worked out, we are surprised yet again. Here's why:
For the first few episodes of the show, I felt that the vampires 'coming out of the coffin' was a parallel to the struggles of homosexuals in modern society (bare with me, guys). Slogans such as 'God Hates Fangs', talk of vampire rights, visits to illicit vampire bars all clearly supported this theory. However, last night it also emerged that race was on the True Blood agenda. Tara had two great scenes in this episode: the speech to the policemen about their surprise at a black woman knowing about the law, and her other conversation with Sam about the 'separate but equal' debate. Both provided an interesting parallel to the show's vampire rights angle. On the gay culture front, Sookie and Bill's visit to Fangtasia, the vampire bar, seemed eerily familiar to anyone who has ever spent any amount of time immersed in gay culture. (NOT gay community - I hate the use of this word to describe gays, blacks, jews, Abba fans etc. It seems to suggest that everyone in the world is white, straight and middle class, and that anyone who is perceived as 'other' lives on one single street somewhere they don't need to interact with real people. It must be comforting to some, but not entirely representative, unfortunately.)
Also, the sexual content of the show, and, in particular, Jason Stackhouse, moved up a gear. Now, Jason has spent most of the previous 3 episodes half naked, fully naked, about to have sex, having sex or having just had sex. So, last night, we have Jason engaging in a ridiculous amount of furious masturbation, and resultant penile welts, after drinking an entire vial of vampire blood. This, of course, was provided by Lafayette, who is rapidly becoming on of the show's biggest scene stealing characters. However, such is the genius of this show that this seemingly inconsequential, comic plot thread, actually provided us with an insight into the motivation behind Tara's attachment to Jason - a quick flashback scene revealing to us that, as children, Jason used to protect Tara from her abusive, alcoholic Mother.
And, what en ending - Sam breaking into the room where Dawn was murdered was creepy enough - but to sniff the sheets and roll about in them ecstatically? Great, twisted cliffhanger. 8 more episodes of this season. Fantastic.
I like the fact that both seasons of True Blood are only 12 episodes long. There are very few shows that sustain their quality and originality across a 24 episode season. Even Desperate Housewives gives a 'churning it out' feeling by mid-season. Hence why we get needless and frankly bizarre storylines to fill the time - such as the paedophile in season 3, and practically the whole last 13 episodes of season 5. Which is why the show's greatest season was undoubtedly it's 4th. Cut short by the writer's strike down to a leaner 17 episodes, we still managed to fit in Lynette's cancer, a tornado, the excellent Dana Delany season-long mystery, and even enough screen time to win Kathryn Joosten a second emmy. Quality over quantity.
Similarly, NBC's unwillingless to pay CBS for more than 16 episodes per season of Medium could be viewed as a blessing in disguise - though I will stress that a police procedural has fewer of the season-long mystery and character arcs of a show in more of a soap opera tradition like Housewives. Therefore, the pendulum at times may swing too far in the opposite direction and become repetitive, as I have said before about Medium. But to episode 5, Baby Fever. I think this season may shape up to be one of their strongest - though I may have changed my mind by episode 22. Firstly to Allison and the main plot thread of the episode. The baby kidnap was handled in an unusual and interesting way. I thought we were going to spend a whole episode looking for a baby. But Brice appeared safe and sound pretty swiftly and we were suddenly pulled into a rabbit hole whereby the actual mystery was not what we had originally thought. And it was great to catch up with Lee and Lynn and their trials and tribulations with their brand new baby.
The opening dream sequence deviated from the usual murder plots, which was fun to see, and I loved the way that some of the more interesting crime solving devices from earlier seasons were recycled. One of my favourite dreams, and favourite overall episodes, is the season 2 The Song Remains The Same, wherein Allison wakes up with a song in her head that directs her to a clue which leads to finding a missing girl. In Baby Fever, Allison followed the sounds of baby cries emanating from a photograph to locate the missing child. This was a classic device that, thankfully, hasn't become overused in the show.
However, as is so often the case with Medium, the process was more interesting than the result. Allison's dreams, her almost obsessive attachment to the baby and the way it affected everyone around her was far more engaging than the clunky exposition scene near the end of the episode.
As I mentioned in my last post, the increasing use of the Dubois children in the show is always a delight, and in this episode we got to see some great acting from Maria Lark, and more scenes than usual from Madison and Miranda Carabello. Their's was a strong subplot with a mature, nuanced performance from Maria Lark. Lark has always been a great comic presence on the show and I looked forward to seeing her emerging talent. In Baby Fever, she proved she could nail drama as well. She was absolutely heartbreaking in the scene where she confessed to Joe about what she felt were her inadequacies. This kid could act most adults in television right off the screen. She was genuinely moving.
I look forward to the rest of the season.
More tomorrow.
Peace x
For the first few episodes of the show, I felt that the vampires 'coming out of the coffin' was a parallel to the struggles of homosexuals in modern society (bare with me, guys). Slogans such as 'God Hates Fangs', talk of vampire rights, visits to illicit vampire bars all clearly supported this theory. However, last night it also emerged that race was on the True Blood agenda. Tara had two great scenes in this episode: the speech to the policemen about their surprise at a black woman knowing about the law, and her other conversation with Sam about the 'separate but equal' debate. Both provided an interesting parallel to the show's vampire rights angle. On the gay culture front, Sookie and Bill's visit to Fangtasia, the vampire bar, seemed eerily familiar to anyone who has ever spent any amount of time immersed in gay culture. (NOT gay community - I hate the use of this word to describe gays, blacks, jews, Abba fans etc. It seems to suggest that everyone in the world is white, straight and middle class, and that anyone who is perceived as 'other' lives on one single street somewhere they don't need to interact with real people. It must be comforting to some, but not entirely representative, unfortunately.)
Also, the sexual content of the show, and, in particular, Jason Stackhouse, moved up a gear. Now, Jason has spent most of the previous 3 episodes half naked, fully naked, about to have sex, having sex or having just had sex. So, last night, we have Jason engaging in a ridiculous amount of furious masturbation, and resultant penile welts, after drinking an entire vial of vampire blood. This, of course, was provided by Lafayette, who is rapidly becoming on of the show's biggest scene stealing characters. However, such is the genius of this show that this seemingly inconsequential, comic plot thread, actually provided us with an insight into the motivation behind Tara's attachment to Jason - a quick flashback scene revealing to us that, as children, Jason used to protect Tara from her abusive, alcoholic Mother.
And, what en ending - Sam breaking into the room where Dawn was murdered was creepy enough - but to sniff the sheets and roll about in them ecstatically? Great, twisted cliffhanger. 8 more episodes of this season. Fantastic.
I like the fact that both seasons of True Blood are only 12 episodes long. There are very few shows that sustain their quality and originality across a 24 episode season. Even Desperate Housewives gives a 'churning it out' feeling by mid-season. Hence why we get needless and frankly bizarre storylines to fill the time - such as the paedophile in season 3, and practically the whole last 13 episodes of season 5. Which is why the show's greatest season was undoubtedly it's 4th. Cut short by the writer's strike down to a leaner 17 episodes, we still managed to fit in Lynette's cancer, a tornado, the excellent Dana Delany season-long mystery, and even enough screen time to win Kathryn Joosten a second emmy. Quality over quantity.
Similarly, NBC's unwillingless to pay CBS for more than 16 episodes per season of Medium could be viewed as a blessing in disguise - though I will stress that a police procedural has fewer of the season-long mystery and character arcs of a show in more of a soap opera tradition like Housewives. Therefore, the pendulum at times may swing too far in the opposite direction and become repetitive, as I have said before about Medium. But to episode 5, Baby Fever. I think this season may shape up to be one of their strongest - though I may have changed my mind by episode 22. Firstly to Allison and the main plot thread of the episode. The baby kidnap was handled in an unusual and interesting way. I thought we were going to spend a whole episode looking for a baby. But Brice appeared safe and sound pretty swiftly and we were suddenly pulled into a rabbit hole whereby the actual mystery was not what we had originally thought. And it was great to catch up with Lee and Lynn and their trials and tribulations with their brand new baby.
The opening dream sequence deviated from the usual murder plots, which was fun to see, and I loved the way that some of the more interesting crime solving devices from earlier seasons were recycled. One of my favourite dreams, and favourite overall episodes, is the season 2 The Song Remains The Same, wherein Allison wakes up with a song in her head that directs her to a clue which leads to finding a missing girl. In Baby Fever, Allison followed the sounds of baby cries emanating from a photograph to locate the missing child. This was a classic device that, thankfully, hasn't become overused in the show.
However, as is so often the case with Medium, the process was more interesting than the result. Allison's dreams, her almost obsessive attachment to the baby and the way it affected everyone around her was far more engaging than the clunky exposition scene near the end of the episode.
As I mentioned in my last post, the increasing use of the Dubois children in the show is always a delight, and in this episode we got to see some great acting from Maria Lark, and more scenes than usual from Madison and Miranda Carabello. Their's was a strong subplot with a mature, nuanced performance from Maria Lark. Lark has always been a great comic presence on the show and I looked forward to seeing her emerging talent. In Baby Fever, she proved she could nail drama as well. She was absolutely heartbreaking in the scene where she confessed to Joe about what she felt were her inadequacies. This kid could act most adults in television right off the screen. She was genuinely moving.
I look forward to the rest of the season.
More tomorrow.
Peace x
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Wednesday
First, to reviews.
Now, I had some really high hopes for Fantastic Mr. Fox. Visually, it looked glorious. And any film that invites me to nod off to the smooth tones of George Clooney and the lilting whisper of Meryl Streep is absolutely welcome to. There's no need to completely rehash Wes Anderson's back catalogue here; suffice to say The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic were both interesting, quirky, and at once dramatic and humorous.
Unfortunately, even from the outset, I found the film quite alienating. Fox-ified, hippy Meryl announcing her pregnancy to a strangely unanimated George. Odd. A bizarre lack of any real through line of action for the plot. Which was really strange seeing as there really is a lot going on. A number of bizarre writing choices: why on Earth did Mr. Fox make a toast again and again? What the bejesus was with Mr. Fox addressing a wolf near the end? The animation of the wolf seemed as if it was from a completely different film. Why did Mrs. Fox and the kid keep waving their arms and talking about strangeness? I half expected there to be a gay subplot with the kid. Instead, it came to nothing.
And that was the trouble. The whole film really came to nothing. It wasn't particularly gripping or funny. It wasn't a cuddly kid's film or a tongue in cheek child-adult hybrid. Which is a shame, as I really wanted to like this film.
Oh, and this was the first film I've ever seen where it feels like Meryl Streep phones in her performance. I mean, I know they recorded her dialogue from France, where she was filming Julie and Julia, so she literally did phone it in, but still - the greatest actor of her generation sounded bored with this role. Not a good sign.
So, on to Medium. Episode 4 of the 6th season, and another strong episode - though probably my least favourite of the season so far. I liked the fact that, once again, the procedural drama was linked into the development of her recovery from her stroke last season. Same with Pain Killer, where Allison began to dream about her friend in the hospital who she suspected was murdered by the same Doc that saved her life.
My favourite episode of the four so far was Who's That Girl? Medium has always addressed the children's burgeoning psychic powers, and one of the highlights of last season was an increasing number of interesting sub-plots for Ariel. They beefed up the drama of the show and kept it from feeling as repetitive as it started to feel by season three. Hence, this episode felt like something of a coming out party for Sophia Vassilieva. She had a wide range of emotions to communicate with not one, but two characters to play with. I think the result was spectacular. Hurrah. Episode five tonight...
True Blood tonight also. This show is so much fun. I'm not a big vampire/zombie/horror/sci-fi person. But this has some cracking characters and brilliant dialogue. Oh, and the sex. There's some hotties on this show. Brilliant.
I thought it was too bloody good to be true when the Daily Fail showed such solidarity in its outrage of Nick Griffin's dick-headery on Question Time. Alas, this was not to last. Apparently they are now spear-heading the hate campaign against the BBC for alleged tampering with the show. It's strangely comforting that some things never change. At least not with the mail anyway. We must keep fighting the fight. We must.
Continue to have doubts my friends. Such doubts.
Peace x
Now, I had some really high hopes for Fantastic Mr. Fox. Visually, it looked glorious. And any film that invites me to nod off to the smooth tones of George Clooney and the lilting whisper of Meryl Streep is absolutely welcome to. There's no need to completely rehash Wes Anderson's back catalogue here; suffice to say The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic were both interesting, quirky, and at once dramatic and humorous.
Unfortunately, even from the outset, I found the film quite alienating. Fox-ified, hippy Meryl announcing her pregnancy to a strangely unanimated George. Odd. A bizarre lack of any real through line of action for the plot. Which was really strange seeing as there really is a lot going on. A number of bizarre writing choices: why on Earth did Mr. Fox make a toast again and again? What the bejesus was with Mr. Fox addressing a wolf near the end? The animation of the wolf seemed as if it was from a completely different film. Why did Mrs. Fox and the kid keep waving their arms and talking about strangeness? I half expected there to be a gay subplot with the kid. Instead, it came to nothing.
And that was the trouble. The whole film really came to nothing. It wasn't particularly gripping or funny. It wasn't a cuddly kid's film or a tongue in cheek child-adult hybrid. Which is a shame, as I really wanted to like this film.
Oh, and this was the first film I've ever seen where it feels like Meryl Streep phones in her performance. I mean, I know they recorded her dialogue from France, where she was filming Julie and Julia, so she literally did phone it in, but still - the greatest actor of her generation sounded bored with this role. Not a good sign.
So, on to Medium. Episode 4 of the 6th season, and another strong episode - though probably my least favourite of the season so far. I liked the fact that, once again, the procedural drama was linked into the development of her recovery from her stroke last season. Same with Pain Killer, where Allison began to dream about her friend in the hospital who she suspected was murdered by the same Doc that saved her life.
My favourite episode of the four so far was Who's That Girl? Medium has always addressed the children's burgeoning psychic powers, and one of the highlights of last season was an increasing number of interesting sub-plots for Ariel. They beefed up the drama of the show and kept it from feeling as repetitive as it started to feel by season three. Hence, this episode felt like something of a coming out party for Sophia Vassilieva. She had a wide range of emotions to communicate with not one, but two characters to play with. I think the result was spectacular. Hurrah. Episode five tonight...
True Blood tonight also. This show is so much fun. I'm not a big vampire/zombie/horror/sci-fi person. But this has some cracking characters and brilliant dialogue. Oh, and the sex. There's some hotties on this show. Brilliant.
I thought it was too bloody good to be true when the Daily Fail showed such solidarity in its outrage of Nick Griffin's dick-headery on Question Time. Alas, this was not to last. Apparently they are now spear-heading the hate campaign against the BBC for alleged tampering with the show. It's strangely comforting that some things never change. At least not with the mail anyway. We must keep fighting the fight. We must.
Continue to have doubts my friends. Such doubts.
Peace x
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