That new Mel Gibson movie

So Mel Gibson has a new movie coming out called the Edge of Darkness. It's based on a British TV miniseries and normally this would mean I would be running around with my hair on fire telling you to watch the TV series first. This is not because the Gibson version is totally badass, but because the highly praised miniseries is not that great. The TV show is about six hours long, but didn't need all that time. Unlike the BBC miniseries State of Play, in which every scene felt essential, this one has long passages devoted to nothing much, both from the initial viewing and from the end of the viewing reflection. Much of the downtime is given to Bob Peck's character. Peck is a cop whose daughter is gunned down by a Irish thug who ambushed them at his house. He thinks it is revenge for his time in Ireland, but discovers it may be related to her own activities in the Green movement.

This is not to say that Peck (best known by me for his role as the guy who says "Clever girl" in Jurassic Park) isn't great when the story is moving. He does an excellent job overall, but the grief scenes go on too long. The other great character is Joe Don Baker who plays a Texan CIA officer (who is also somehow a Colonel in the Army.) The relationship and conversations between these two are the highlight of the movie.

The movie is a cri de couer against the horrors of nuclear power. Coming at the second peak of the nuclear Cold War, it is understandable, but now it feels dated. Great exaggerations (one explosion is said to threaten the whole of Eastern Scotland..um....no...that isn't possible.) about the dangers of nuclear material (read Atomic Obsession to calm your nuclear fears) and a plot that twists itself into nonsense threaten to completely bury the excellent work of Peck and Baker.

I had read reviews about the mini series for years, praising it as one of the great miniseries of all time. It isn't. Part of this is because the Golden Age of Television is right now. The best TV shows and miniseries come from the past ten years, not the years beforehand.

For quite awhile it was only available on VHS in the US. Now, no doubt thanks to the publicity of the Gibson movie, it is on DVD. You may as well watch the Gibson one and see if the story is interesting to watch for six hours.

Finishing the Prisoner

Oh man, the Prisoner has to be the most singular, peculiar TV show ever made. It is part spy drama, part science fiction, part late 60s head trip, part political statement and all around entertainment. How odd is the show? Well for one, there is great disagreement about the order in which to watch them. The main character is never named, but keeps only his number 6. 6 is played by Patrick McGoohan who had a great amount of creative input into the show. He was at least partially responsible for the heavy use of symbolism. For example, the use of the antique penny farthing bike supposedly is there to represent McGoohan's concern that technology is outpacing man's ability to use it. The tension between the individual and society is played out in many different ways, including the whacked out finale.

Speaking of the finale, fans apparently came to McGoohan's house to yell at him after it was made. It is really quite something and is not easily digested. Lock your doors if the Lost people try something this off the wall. There may be riots.

The show itself starts out in a conventional serial method but becomes increasingly odd. 6 resigned from the British secret service and a series of wardens, known as 2 try to figure out why he did it. Their methods grow increasingly bizarre and serve to comment on the oppressive sense of entitlement of the state. The last few shows are just crazy. One starts off in the old West and it is not clear where the hell it is going until the end. The Girl Called Death is a send up of spy shows and is quite funny.

AMC will shortly be presenting an updated Prisoner miniseries. Jim Caviezel is 6 and Ian McKellan, surely the god of all scifi movies now, is 2. There are only six episodes, but before you shout LAME!!, recall that McGoohan originally only wanted the Prisoner to be seven episodes, so it could very well be in keeping with the original.

AMC has all the original shows available to watch online. So what are you waiting for?

The Prisoner

My buddy Neill is just now watching Lost. Lucky him! Talking to him about seasons one and two reminded me of how much I have loved the stories built into the show. He may suffer plot whiplash with all the twists and turns in the seasons to come, but he will also not have the agony of the wait.

The Prisoner is an 60s British paranoid spy drama that is often called an influence on Lost. I started watching it recently and expected it to be the loopy island drama. While it does have a person trapped in a remote area and plagued by shadowy forces, it is quite different. For one, it is much more episodic than Lost. There is apparently some debate as to the true order of the shows. In many cases you rearrange them and watch them in the order you like.

I tend to dislike episodic shows, but I have come to quite like the Prisoner. The main character is a British spy who has resigned. He is knocked out at his house and wakes up in a strange place called the Village. The residents act, dress and talk strangely and no one has a name. The main character is known as number six. He is constantly tested by a series of people known as number two.

Among the series's themes is the idea of the individual against the collective. The great powers of the Cold War, the state, the nation and the Party are shown as destroyers and grinders of the individual. Number six is one of the few willing to stand up to them.

It isn't like Lost or 24 where you feel compelled to watch as many shows as you can stand in a sitting. Each show is independent and the mood created is more one of reflection than excitement. Well worth it, if you know what you are getting into.

The Brits love the Wire

The Guardian loves it so much they have a whole page devoted to all things Wire. The show is big enough to cause a row in UK politics. Apparently a Tory shadow minister called Manchester the British Baltimore. Silly of course, but I am happy the show is watched enough to become a reference point in Parliament.

Here is the Guardian's nine reasons to watch, which should convince you if you haven't already started watching. They pick Bubbles over Omar as the character you can't help but love, which I think is right. Here is Irvine Welsh saying that the Wire makes writing on British TV look suck ass. Ok, he says "absolutely shit." It's nice to see that the British wail and bemoan the state of their culture as much as we do.

Spaced

So I finally got my hands on a copy of Spaced, the two season British comedy show featuring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson/Hynes. If you have seen Shaun of the Dead, you will note the development of much of the style and humor in this earlier series. The set-up is simple, a pair of slacker 20 somethings pose as a couple to get a flat and then deal with dognappers, clubbing, lame parties and the like. The series is known for frequent, blatant pop culture references (see for example this clip,) but it is also snappily written. I thought the first episode was the weakest, serving to introduce all the characters. It improves greatly, so stick with it.

Here by the way is a fun extra from Shaun of the Dead, with Pegg playing Michael Caine and Nick Frost playing Sean Connery from The Man Who Would Be King.

Five Days

Huzzah for HBO and BBC TV. Their recent miniseries Five Days is excellent entertainment, not quite State of Play level, but certainly a better use of your precious viewing time than most things on TV. The story begins with a pair of disappearances, one of a young mother and the other of her two children, and then follows the police, the family and other citizens across five separate non-contiguous days.

The show feels very much like a good crime novel. There are the frustrations of the investigation, surprising plot developments and the trauma of the family left behind. Much of the story revolves around the reactions of the father, the mother's parents and the older sister (from a prior marriage) left behind. The characters alternate between attacking and supporting one another as they try to deal with their loss. The acting is quite strong, especially by David Oyelowo, as the father.

While the series has been widely praised, the ending is a problem for some people. The major criticism is that it is an afterthought and feels disconnected from the story. I think it is in fitting with modern crime novels, where the whodunit element is of less important than the effects of the crime itself. I do think the ending is reasonable and that clues to it are provided throughout the show.

The length of the show is a bit of a problem. The fourth show in particular doesn't add as much to the overall story as do the rest. The developments could have been folded into other elements. In the bonus features, the writer tells us that she was approached to do a five part program. As such I think the story was stretched a bit to fit the format.

This one should appeal to fans of both true crime and crime novels. Note, despite being a crime show, there is little to no violence and not much on the detection. So don't go looking for it.

Close your eyes, can't happen here

Earlier I gushed about the British TV spy drama the Sandbaggers. I am about to wrap up the second season/collection and I was just blown away by the episode titled "It Can't Happen Here." This episode takes the 70s paranoid style to a new level. Spoilers ahead, so stop reading if you haven't seen it.

The episode starts with the assassination of an American Senator. The London based CIA chief of station thinks it is the FBI, since they did the Kennedy and King jobs after all. Burnside thinks King, Kennedy sure, but Hoover is out, so no more dirty tricks, yes? Not so much says CIA guy. Burnside is aghast and is happy it can't happen in the UK. Famous last words of course. Turns out a highly placed British Cabinet Minister is in bed with the boys from the Lubyanka. Try as they might, the SIS cannot dislodge the Minister who merrily goes on his way. Burnside tells his allies that it is better not to go around assasinating politicians in your own country, but then tells one of his staff something a bit different. The last line is an absolute classic.

What is astounding about this episode is that it agrees with the paranoid style films of the 70s that rogue government agencies are taking the law into their own hands, but also that this is in fact a good thing overall. Amazing!

It's 2AM the fear is gone

Although spy novelists, like John LeCarre and Charles McCarry, tend to show the drudgery and internal politics of espionage, film and TV typically do not. The Bond films make the stories even more action oriented than the novels and while 24 has some backroom elements, it is primarily action oriented. The British 1970s television spy drama the Sandbaggers is a wonderful exception.

The Sandbaggers of the title are a small group (three at the start) of special operatives that report directly to the Director of Operations, Neil Burnside. While they do go abroad, to the likes of Cyprus, Gibraltar and the Kola Peninsula, they spend an equal amount of time in the office puzzling out what to do and how to avoid trouble from their rivals at MI-5, their friends at the CIA and from the elected government.

The internal politics of government is the central drama of the show. Burnside can be read (as of season 1 or maybe just "Collection 1", which I have watched) as a committed careerist who plays every more to advance into intelligence leadership or as someone with total devotion to the team. There is evidence for both and Roy Marsden plays him in a reserved style that makes it hard to sell. Probably a mix of the two of course.

There are a few reasons not to watch this. If the description above sounds a bit boring, it probably will be. Also the quality of the film stock is poor, if you are one who must have HD quality in everything, you will be disappointed. Spy novel fans who are looking for something similar on TV will find a treat. I just found the second collection at the library and will be starting it soon.

State of Play

One of next year's big political movies is State of Play, which starts off with a pair on seemingly unrelated deaths that begin to undermine a rising politician's career. Rather than wait for the two hour version, I suggest you invest six hours in the original BBC miniseries.

One of my major worries about the film is that it will by necessity remove a number of characters, plot turns, and developments that make the miniseries so much. With the series you get backroom political deals, fascinating shows of the media at work uncovering stories and people sleeping together that shouldn't. Watch it on DVD before the movie reviews spoil it for you.

The oddest show on television

While there are plenty of shows that can lay claim to be stranger than the norm. Few come close to the sheer oddity of Fishing With John. Although it is played 100% straight as a fishing with the stars sort of thing, it is actually an odd piece of performance art complete with narration laded with false facts ("How deep is the ocean? Nobody really knows for sure.") Aside from the strangeness of the narration, we have the generally reluctant celebrities going on fishing trips. Have a gander at the first part of episode one, which involves Jim Jarmusch fishing for sharks. I like this bit from one with Willem Dafoe going ice fishing. The last line is classic.

Some people should die, that's just unconscious knowledge

As a fan of the Dexter novels, I was a bit nervous about the Dexter television show on Showtime. I needn't have worried. Michael C Hall nicely captures Dexter's mix of fake emotion, goofiness and cold murderous need. If you are not familiar with the books, Dexter is a oddball. He has a girlfriend, He works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami PD. For fun he hunts and brutally kills the criminals that the justice system can't catch. In episodes 1 & 2, a child murderer, a rape snuff film maker and a serial drunk driving killer come to unpleasant ends.

He chooses these bad people because his foster father realized early on that something was not quite right with son. He trained him to follow the code, which sets rules for who Dexter can kill and who he cannot. He calls his need his Dark Passenger and he is unable to resist.

While his need to feed his Dark Passenger is a core component of the show, most of the show is spent with Dexter either amazing his colleagues with his insights into the criminal mind and dealing with people trying to get close to him. On the positive side, he has a girlfriend who is inching closer to sex, an intimacy Dexter neither wants nor understands. On the other, there is Doakes a policeman who understands that Dexter is something out of the ordinary. And not in a good way.

The Dexter stories neatly elude some of the core problems of the vigilante story. Most feature either vigilantes collapsing under the moral weight of their acts (Munich,) an avoidance of killing (Batman) or simply devolving into parody (Death Wish.) Dexter can go on killing until they catch him. Because he researches so long, he makes absolutely certain of the guilt. Collateral damage is hinted at, but rarely touched upon. It's clean and just. And funny.

The emphasis on black humor lets the reader or viewer hide from the bleakness of the underlying message. It also lets them vicariously enjoy the deaths of people who really deserve it.

New Lost

Good episode and plenty of mystery for the start of the season, but my favorite thing is that Lance Reddick (Lt. Cedric Daniels of the Wire) is now a character. He also had the best line of the show. I hope he becomes a significant character.

Lost

Screw Cloverfield, I want to see Season 4 of Lost. Check out the trailer. I had forgotten how much I love this show.

The Wire prequels

If you enjoy the Wire, then check out these short prequel films on Amazon. If you haven't seen the show, the prequels will give you a sense of the feel.

And your jokes are always bad, but they're not as bad as this

Instead of crappy reality shows, I wish our decade had crappy 70s-style variety shows, like the Brady Bunch Hour and the Carol Burnett Show. The jokes are terrible and the acting is wretched, but the crazy celebrity interactions are far more interesting than the egomaniacal scheming so common today. Yes reality shows were terrible, really awful, but in a bizarre rather than boring way. Despite the fact that the hideous Star Wars Holiday Special further grinds my love of Star Wars into the ground, there is something fun about the fact that something so silly was made at all.

I am fairly certain I saw the Star Wars show back in the day, but I am sad to say I missed Paul Lynde's Halloween Special from the same era. Newly released on DVD, it contains the same goofy jokes you would find on the Muppet Show, only with lots more gay innuendo. See for example Lynde's interactions with Kiss (!) along with some Solid Gold style lip synching by said band. More bad jokes here. Wow, if they were that lame, maybe I would prefer reality TV.

The Wire

I am watching the second season of the Wire, which is even better than the first. I am constantly surprised at how few people I know watch this show. Part of the issue arises from two problems; the show is grim and it requires patience. The shows are structured like novels and the first season is a slow starter. You could easily give up around episode six, as the long story of a police investigation of a Baltimore drug lord and the day to day violence of the drug trade goes on and on.

This would be a mistake. This show surpasses the Sopranos in many ways and rewards watching. Not only is the season one story compelling in and of itself, but it is important to understand the second. This means you should ignore the advice to skip the slower Season one and move on to the more immediately rewarding Season two. Quite a few of the subplots and motivations will make little sense without the context of season one. On the lighter side, many of the little joys and jokes are based on what we learned about the characters in the first one.

The show surpasses the Sopranos by having equally compelling characters, this time on both sides of the law, that interact in a tightly constructed narrative. Narrative weakness, and the resort to throwaway non-central plot episodes, has been a problem for the Sopranos. Because each season of the Wire is about a single criminal investigation, even the sub-plots tie nicely back into the main one.

Much is made of the similarities of how internal politics drives outcomes, for both the criminal gangs and the police. Some extend this argument to say the show sees them as morally equivalent. I don't think this is the case. It presents the gang members as human, with understandable if flawed (that is to say, criminal) approaches to situations. There is the underlying idea that the drug war is a bad idea, but it is not presented so obviously as in Traffic.

Goofy theme songs

After singing the theme song to Sid & Marty Kroftt kids show the Bugaloos, I decided to find it on You Tube so the kids could hear it. Man, those Bugaloos are some serious hippies. From the same people, there is HR Pufnstuf. I had forgotten the magic flute and the tempting, talking boat. This one appears to be even more influenced by heavy use of the chronic than the Bugaloos. As a program, I prefer Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. Or maybe, Wonderbug or Dr Shrinker. The latter show comes from the mid-70s and abandons the psychedelia of the early themes for cheesy white funk of the Osmonds.

The Kroffts are all well and good, but I must note my preference for Rankin and Bass.

While we are on the subject of dubious pop culture artifacts, take note that Danzig is now emptying the archives.

Sunday night

Joanna sums up the trouble with Hershey jumping on the dark chocolate bandwagon: It reminds me of the popular kid in high school who jacks off all semester and then shamelessly assumes half the credit for the “group” project done by his studious and diligent lab partner. Not cool, Hershey’s. Totally not cool.

One of the best things about Lost is talking about Lost. To add to your fodder, I recommend you check out the following sites. James Poniewozick at the Time TV blog (Tuned In), has excellent commentary the day after a new episode. The TMZ site has amusing minute by minute reviews of each episode as well as lots of hate for Charlie and love for Locke and Ben. The best I have seen can be found on the Houston Chronicle TV blog called Tubular. The analysis is incredible. I recommend you read all three post-show to amaze your friends.

This short bit hints at a potential decline of the super-reviewers at Amazon. Don't trust them. Trust me instead.

Check out this walking tour of independent bookstores in NYC, with the (unironically?) named Unoppressive, Non-Imperialist Bookstore.

Love your television

Newsweek has a good piece on how TV is now better than movies. CG will counter that this is just because I have kids so I never go out. FALSE. When was the last time you saw a cop movie as good as the Wire or the Shield? Ok, there is the Departed, but what else? How about science fiction that can top BSG, Lost or Firefly (Serenity, but that doesn't count?) Comedy as strong as the Office or Arrested Development? Historical epics better than Rome or Deadwood? Action movies as good as 24? One of the differences is that it is the movies that are dumbed down compared to good TV:

The roster of channels has ballooned into the hundreds, creating a niche universe where shows don't need to be dumbed down in order to survive (because the dummies have their own channels). DVDs, meanwhile, have upended how we watch television, transforming shows from disposable weekly units into 8-, 12-, sometimes 22-hour movies.

This is not to say there are not great movies out there, but if I had to pick one or the other, I would pick TV.