Graceland, Burn Notice and Franklin and Bash--a break for pop culture heads to the beachfront bungalows

Franklin and Bash

Goofaholics rejoice—Franklin and Bash are back on TNT! Starting off their 4^th season with episode one last night, Franklin and Bash brings a little nutty legalese to lighten up your week. Packed with offbeat courtroom jests and antics, this dynamic duo of nontraditional attorneys (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer) battle for justice and to win their (weekly plotline) court cases. Their entourage is no less eccentric, including  in past seasons ex-convict parolee Carmen Philips (played by (my fellow Iowan!) DanaDavis), their agoraphobic (with many other phobias to boot) lawyer Pindar Sindh (played by the hilarious Kumail Nanjiani) who serves both as legal assistant and tech analyst to the team, Carmen and Pindar's new replacement in season 4, Dan, a narcoleptic with a lot of social quirks but who appears to be a spot-on researcher (played by Anthony Ordonez) or their new-age boss always ready with a farfetched tale of some caper from his past, Stanton Infeld (played by the ever-dynamic English actor Malcolm McDowell) who, as season 4 opens, has been disbarred and is working in a garage. Opposing them is their nemesis: a lawyer who is always hoping they’ll normalize or get fired and who is always struggling to beat them out for clients and the approbation of Stanton—the mostly straight and narrow attorney Damien Karp (played by Reed Diamond) who as season 4 begins has joined a rival firm and plans on taking them down in court as often as possible. All in all, this legal drama has a nice in-house endearing familial struggle within this law firm feel—with a bit of that Cain (as Daniel) vs Franklin and Bash as an Abel duo. Everyone seeks connections, affections and approbations with or from Stanton but also with/from other vacillating members of the firm team and each attorney’s personal entourage as well. Do support and kindness or distrust and underhandedness make for better lawyers? Certainly Stanton seems to play his attorneys against each other like pawns for his own bemusement and to perhaps answer this question. But why put this show into my beachfront Triptych? Although it was originally to be shot in Atlanta, the crew was in the end taken to LA—and not just to the highrise flashy center of the city's courtrooms. In fact, much of the show takes place along the LA coastline with scenes like the one pictured above out on Franklin and Bash’s beachfront deck, or during after- (or/and before-) hours parties. Keys to winning cases often pop into Franklin or Bash’s mind while they are strumming their guitar, arguing about something or mulling their problems and sense of purpose over while seated on the sand or high above it on their deck. Of course, given Pindar’s agoraphobia, this duo finds their work is quite literally tied to their beachfront home. In the end, though, despite seemingly goofing off nonstop, Franklin and Bash get the work done with flair, pizazz and a contagious love of life that is reflected in or by that beachfront location. A fun, funny, sweet, enjoyable, crazy silly show to watch—making us wish perhaps that our life could be just a little bit more insane, like theirs is.

Graceland

Season 1 of USA TV's Graceland was a hit—filmed with sultry light including many scenes out on the boardwalk or beachfront giving viewers a taste of that salty air, leaving the grit of the sand in their teeth, and luring them back with an enticing plot line. It brilliantly developed its characters and lured viewers back as they sought to understand the mysterious covert past of Briggs (played by Daniel Sunjata) and decide whether or not Mike (played by Aaron Tveit) and the house should trust him. Overall, the plot arc of season 1 traced a single culprit (Jangles) while unveiling a layer of deception within the Graceland house itself. Season 2 has unfortunately been more caught up with issues of political power (Mikey as the one in charge with a DC connection, Paige struggling to get anyone official to sign off on bringing down the human trafficking ring and Dale flailing as he tries to win his battle against the child custody system and his ex). Although season 2 has explored a bit more some of the minor characters—really giving Johnny (and actor Manny Montana) the opportunity to shine and strut his stuff as he goes undercover with Carlito and family then takes that undercover life into his own personal life and thus his mother’s home—it has failed to develop the alluring options set up in season one. Even the filming of season 2 has been more generic cop show than the overpretty (and thus unexpected and unusual) aesthetic of the first season. My greatest criticism would be that the writers of Season 2 seem to have lost the opportunity to focus on and expand their exploration of the Briggs-Mike dynamic which nourishes the enticing question of “What are the moral and immoral choices ‘we’ would allow on the path to putting the baddest guys behind bars, thus in the name of ‘good’ or ‘right’?”. If I were to rate this on a star system, I’d give this 4.5 stars out of 5 for season 1, and 2.5 out of 5 for season 2. Note: I do hope to see USA give a green light for a season 3 but only if the writers return to the dynamics of season one and latch onto the Briggs-Mike, Briggs-Paige, Briggs-Dale trust and plot lines they’ve left on the sidelines this summer.

Burn Notice

The recenty concluded, action-packed Burn Notice was 7 seasons of great fun—chock full of screeching car chase scenes, plots and capers galore and of course explosions on par with the first RoboCop or Terminator films (after all, Fiona loves to make things go BOOM). Burn Notice also had the added aesthetic bonus of being set in the scenic beauty of Miami along its beach seascapes. Colorful faux Cuban bars were the perfect location. Meetings and planning the myriad of capers to be undertaken by this bedraggled handful of good baddies with their little quirks and their propensity for helping out the underdogs were often had round an exotic cocktail, a good ol’ fashioned gin and tonic or a cold beer. And what's not to like about a spy show with a mom who comes to save the day once in a while? Michael’s mom (character Madeline Weston played by Sharon Gless) added a lot of needed lightness and humor as she kept everyone on an even keel. The main character, Michael Weston (played by Jeffrey Donovan almost always sporting his Oliver People's sunglasses plus some sort of stylish, well-cut Armani suit despite the Miami heat), along with his band of misfit ex-spies, ex-terrorists and ex-SF military—Sam, Fiona and Jesse (played by Bruce Campbell in bright colored Tommy Bahama Hawaiian shirts, Gabrielle Anwar in sultry summer dresses accesorized with weapons stashed in the trunk of her car and Coby Bell with his ever-at-the ready T-shit casual military look)—is a fabulous invention that made 7 seasons fly past and left viewers wishing this series had gone on forever. If you have not watched it, you are in for a treat. If you have? Well, summer is a great time for a little re-viewing before the rentrée begins!

Perception, The Listener and Unforgettable: A triptych of reviews in this break for pop culture

Detectives with quirky abilities: The Listener, Perception, and Unforgettable

(TV series in review: Triptych 1—a telepath a brilliant schizophrenic neuropsychiatrist and a woman who remembers literally everything that ever happened or happens to her walk into a bar…)

The Listener

4 stars/ 5

Toby Logan (played by Nova Scotian Craig Olejnik) is the true telepath who listens in on culprit’s thoughts in the Canadian TV series The Listener. As season one opened in 2009, Toby was a paramedic trying not to use his abilities, but his run-ins with criminals and his increasing meddling drew him closer and closer to the cops. As Toby began to split his time between EMTing and consulting as a CI, his special powers helped but also endangered the police, his friends and of course Toby himself. Now in its 5^th and recently announced final season, Toby’s secrets are shared by a key team at the IIB who are top notch crime stoppers. They use Toby as their secret weapon while backing up all of his perceived “facial reading” hunches—as they tell anyone who asks—with solid police investigation. Though basically your average one crime solved per episode investigative whodunit, the writers also build into each season a longer plotline centered around Toby and his abilities. This plotline—usually related to his mysterious past and lost family—slowly emerges endangering his friends and himself, culminating in dynamic transformations at the end of the season which draw viewers back to find out what’s next for the Toby gang. But this show also lures folks back because it explores not just his cop entourage and crime, but the more familiar issues everyone has—being a good friend to your best buddy (in this case Oz—Toby’s sidekick role—played by the charming and funny Ennis Esmer), or how to lead the life you want (EMT? Consultant? Detective? Or?). Viewers get hooked watching these characters interact (often round the bar in a Cheers-like manner) and grow and handle their individual paths pursuing normality in the form of true love, friendship and a sense of home.

Perception

4 stars/ 5

What prof doesn’t like a good lesson? At the start and end of each episode of ABC studio’s produced TV series airing on TNT, Perception, professor Daniel Pierce (played by Canadian Erik McCormack from Toronto) is in the process of teaching about or reflecting on some aspect of our/his own brain, its neurochemistry and how that dictates or relates to who and what we are, and how we act, react to things or just simply function in the world. These often clever, usually funnily recounted reflections are directly linked to the crime or criminal act of the week—often in fact causing Pierce to be whisked out of the classroom leaving his TA and personal homecare assistant Max Lewicki (played by the charming Californian actor Arjay Smith) to complete the lecture. These weekly “lesson” topics end up featuring as key components to unlocking the whodunit of the week. More interestingly (and thus one of the draws of the show) they unlock some aspect of how the character of this eccentric schizophrenic and brilliant neuroscientist, Daniel Pierce, is learning about his own neuro-psychology in his personal search for balance, motivation, a raison d’être and perhaps a semblance of belonging or even normality. Now in its 3^rd season, Daniel Pierce, in the role of consultant to FBI agent Kate Moretti (played by the bright eyed Minnesotan actor Rachel Leigh Cook), helps solve crimes while trying to stay balanced. But it is the moments of psychosis or lapses in mental normality that allow this series to explore in fun ways –and in scenes with Pierce’s hallucinations –the interior and exterior of this crime solver’s mind.  These scenes—with imaginary therapists and others—add flare to the episodes, making viewers, like Pierce, uncertain of who is or is not really in front of them (are the characters seen on screen real or only in Pierce’s mind?). So it is not the shenanigans these crime stoppers get up to, or the adventures of these fiendishly bright sleuths solving crimes, but the relationships to self and others (real and imaginary friendships, love, a kind of family, even social relationships between dean and prof) that ground this show and humanize the characters. This is what makes viewers keep coming back—a sense that they are also participating in a process of learning, learning not just about Pierce’s world or about who committed a crime and why, but perhaps also about the little ticks, quirks and aspects of their own mind and how and why we react and function in the world because of our brains.

Unforgettable

2.5 stars/ 5

I do enjoy a good ol' cop show with all the predictable fixings plus a nice character quirk (ie character Carrie Well’s hyperthymesia, ie an amazing photographic memory of all that has ever transpired around her). Seasons 1-2 of CBS’s TV series Unforgettable which originally aired in 2011 fit the bill and were a lot of fun to watch. Season 3 however seems weighted down with poor writing, asking the actors to flirt at what feel like inappropriate moments or ways (commenting on the 6 pack of a cadaver, for example) or including poorly scripted filler scenes (ie Carrie showing off her memory skills to people in various neighborhoods). In fact, the threaded development of the lead actors has felt increasingly forced—and if there really was any spark between Al (played by Californian native Dylan Walsh) and Carrie (played by Australian actor Poppy Montgomery) it feels like that train left the station ages ago, so why keep forcing the issue? Certainly viewers don’t buy it or really care anymore whether Al and Carrie might or might not hook up again. Luckily, episode 6 of season three revived a bit of excitement and moved the characters forward when Al became a suspect. Episode 7 continued that trend as it explored Eliot Delson their FBI boss’ connections to power and money, (Eliot Delson is played by Texan turned NYorker DallasRoberts)? Yet again, however, scenes seemed stilted, slow and forced (for example the opening scene at the fundraiser where we “meet the candidate”—Robert Bright (played by Josh Stamberg)—for the first time but where even the actors look like they are concentrating too hard on speaking slowly and looking around because nothing is really happening but the camera is still on so what else can they do). I would like to see the show pick up its pace, tighten, and demand that any line or image have a necessary function. This of course must start with some smarter writing. It would also be nice for the director to stop asking Carrie to act flirty like a tiny girl—she is not Brenda from The Closer. If they want some sex appeal to be part of the show, they should get her into a scene where we can see her as truly sensual in a mature woman way—perhaps exploring that gambling habit that can get her to high stakes tables with the who’s who folks, but where that hidden Carrie who can’t stay away bites her in the ass and where, who knows, perhaps she has to try and use her saucier side to try to get out of it? If not, then just focus on more intriguing crimes—and during the scenes that are not directly whodunit-driven, instead of adding silly faux flirting and flat character exposure, consider the word “explore”—delve into this character in deeper ways, uncover some new block or snag or aspect to Carrie’s abilities and how that might really make her who she is on and off the beat.

A Break For Pop Cultue--ORPHAN BLACK and DA VINCI'S DEMONS reviewed

It's spring break here in Mulhouse, time to catch up on reading but also a moment to get up to snuff on new TV series. Two in particular have caught my eye--Orphan Black (BBC America, airing on Saturday nights) and Da Vinci's Demons (Starz / FX UK airing on Friday nights).

ORPHAN BLACK:

Orphan Black appeared  March 30th and surprised me right out of the gate. I had read the synopsis and thought, hmmm, sounds ok but not that hot, yet it quickly revealed it had mystery, humor, action and actively growing intrigue. As Neil Genzlinger announces in his review "One Woman, Multiplying Identities" for the NYTimes: "...by the end of the second episode, this tasty show starts to reveal that it is not just another identity-swapping story. Something creepily sci-fi is definitely going on." Even the identy-swapping side allures, as Courtney Vaudreuil so smartly writes in her "TV one" review of the first Orphan Black episode: "In modern society, looking like someone else offers the comfort of conformity while simultaneously offending one’s sense of individuality. In BBC America’s Orphan Black, the struggle between separate and same is taken to new heights..." This is because the writing is smart, the lead actors are fabulous and fun to watch, and because these actors and the authors of the storyline are able to really work with their multiple characters and personalities. There is never a lull in suspense. Each week, in fact, the story seems to gain in intrigue, add another piece to the puzzle. And this, despite its unintriguing synopsis.

Orphan Black did sound, in its original synopses, like it would be another twin life-swapping tale where the protagonist Sarah steps out of her down and out life replete with drug scandals and criminal activity as well as foster care in her past and into that of an upscale homicide detective. Sound familiar? Yes, that is the undeniable echo of RINGER which left me wondering as episode one began whether the BBC had done an American Hollywood copycat. For those of you unfamiliar with it, the 2011 CW show Ringer gave Buffy fans hope to see Sarah Michelle Gellar back on top but in a role she just wasn't convincing enough in (I didn't buy the addict half of her) and with less intrigue than needed to keep viewers hooked, leading to the series being cut after only one season, Orphan Black also parallels ABC Family's 2011 series The Lying Game, a teenie bopper version of twin life-swapping where the kids supposedly search for their birth mother amid a kind of soap opera of love twists and occasional murders that keeps the show running (now towards its 3rd season). In Orphan Black there is the similar question of "Where do we come from? Who made us?" and "Is there an original the clone is based on? If so, who is she?" But the story of Orphan Black is happily more complex, the dialogue more nuanced and the mystery more entangling and engrossing than that of The Lying Game. A more recent parallel to Orphan Black's storyline can also be made with the 2013 Cinemax series BANSHEE, where an ex-con and master thief takes over the life of a cop he's killed in order to hide out as little PA town sheriff while he reconnects with his thieving ex and meets and protects his own child from various mishaps. In Orphan Black, Sarah, the protagonist, also ends up impersonating Beth--a cop version of herself who commits suicide--and Sarah is attempting to re-connect with her child who she'd left in foster care.

While The Lying Game or Ringer might be fun, and Banshee is action-packed with its unendingly violent fight scenes (a bit of a Witness-like (for Harrison Ford fans) Amish community battles with its sinner organized crime side), Orphan Black ups the ante and emerges as a SciFy show suddenly revealing this is NOT a twin tale, but a clone conspiracy. How many of them are there? Well, in the 4 episodes aired thus far there are almost as many who have come out of the woodwork as get killed off, and I cannot do the fabulous show justice without giving things away.  The lead actrice, Canadian Tatiana Maslany, is certainly doing her best with the demands on her to produce not only an array of British accents, but also German and at this time some other non-native anglophone sound. Although her German (for the short-haired red-head clone pictured here) was lambasted by certain critics, I think she is doing an overall commendable job as are the make up and hair people who help us easily see which of the clones she is in each scene (as the "killer clone" blonde pictured at the top above, the red-haired German clone below left or the soccer mom Alison  and the scientist Cosima clones pictured together in black and white). 

As for her sidekicks, Neil Genzlinger nicely summarizes Ophan Black's "Jordan Gavaris, playing her gay hustler foster brother, [who] is a droll presence, even if his character feels like a stereotype."Although a bit of a cliche, his character lends a little lightness to the at times heavy or dark intrigue, and provides comic relief and a pleasant endearing sense of a struggle for human contact between the characters (Sarah's daughter, Kyra, and foster mother, or even with Sarah's lovelorn drug selling ex-boyfriend VIC (played by Michael Mando) who pines for her in an exaggerated and practically ridiculous manner, also verging on a few cliches but again in ways that provide fun, comic relief and humourous complications to the storyline). One of the characters who risks uncovering the entire string of mystery is, appropriate to his job title, Sarah's Detective partner, Art, played by Kevin Hanchard. In episode 4 he stands in front of the murder board and says, "But women, they look different, fight different, smell different" which doubles as a commentary on the murderer they are pursuing and some inkling he has about the recent modifications in his partner, Beth's, behaviour. Kyra, Sarah's daughter (played by the adorably cute Skyler Wexler), knows right away that soccer-mom clone Alison only "looks like mommy". So, will the secret leak out? And to whom, first? The consequences and ramifications of this double intrigue--keeping the secret and finding out who is killing off the clones--is what makes Orphan Black an entertaining way to spend your Saturday evening.

DA VINCI'S DEMONS

I am a sucker for visuals, and this FX UK/Starz action/historical fantasy drama show which aired for the first time on the 12th of April is fabulous eye candy. Not only are the actors elaborately dressed--in particular Laura Haddock (pictured at right) who as Lucrezia Donati amuses herself by playing at high class mistress, a common prostitute during Florence's Carnivale, or even doubling as a potential Roman spy for the pretty with an intense gaze but evidently mega-evil Count Girolamo Riario, Pope Sixtus IV's nephew, (played by Blake Ritson). 

The camera does love these gorgous actors and the elaborately staged scenes they have been placed in. But even more fun is the way the show uses the film techniques once seen on Numb3rs and which also appear on Touch--sketching lines and figures to depict processes of calculation, design or architecture taking place within the mind of young Da Vinci (played by Tom Riley). Computer sketch lines overlay images to demonstrate the thinking process of the hero-genius, recalling very much the images on display in Da Vinci museums, such as that in the French Loire valley town where Da Vinci would eventually pass away from this world in 1519--Ambroise, in the Château de Clos Lucé, Parc Leonardo Da Vinci which I visited with my parents in 2005 about a month before seeing the Antwerp "Artist, Engineer, Poet, Physicist, Inventor and Visionary"  Panamarenko (b 1940) show at the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Brussels (Click HERE for a downloadable PDF of the show in Flemmish) with poet and my frequent "artseen" partner George Vance. In one of the first scenes from episode one with Da Vinci in this new show, an attempt at human flight is seen, recalling both the genius of the real Da Vinci and the comedic parody of him by contemporary visual artist Panamarenko. Panamarenko, in equal brilliance to that of Da Vinci--stated "Si on comprend le fonctionnement de l'univers, on parvient à s'élever de terre."

Da Vinci's Demons is produced and written by David S Goyer, who is the Batman The Dark Knight author and the producer-author of FlashForward and the series and films Blade among others. This should be our first sign that documentary is NOT the genre being explored here. Instead, Goyer  overlays the mythic force of a real genius from history and that of a fantasy version of Da Vinci, partly borrowed from the Dan Brown genre novels which are all about uncovering secret symbols and societies caught in the highly debated realm where religion and science overlap. This new Da Vinci is a bit more than man, superheroesque but dotted with tons of fabulous bad habits--drinking, girls, opium smoking, and a seeming inability to stick to one project and see it through because his mind is easily distracted by parallel projects, drawings, or design. This genius dilettante combo makes for a lot of entertainment. But this fantasy historical adventure tale is tethered to a darker, perhaps more gratifying sense of there being a mystical awakening underway in young Da Vinci. An awakening where intellect will be challenged by a sort of dreamtime and where the religious right arm of the Pope will have secrets and truths to hide and to unveil at will. The Christian notions of the day are certainly being challenged by the superstitions the character The Turk (played by Alexander Siddig) have planted in young Da Vinci's psyche--reincarnation, heroic destiny or fate, and the sense of the life of one being bound more to that of another than to any one god--and of course that a mysterious long-lost  Book of Leaves (a fiction created for the series) exists which Da Vinci will now go in search of as it may contain the truth of the universe. All in all, this is a fantastically entertaining show, beautifully filmed, which positions the viewer someplace between the genre of imagined historical genius and that of heroic quests for intellectual symbolic treasure. I, for one, cannot wait for episode 3!

For those of you in search for a truer-to-life tale of Da Vinci's history, check out the books Leonardo Da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind by Charles Nicholl (2005), Leonardo: The Artist and the Man by Serve Bramly (tr Sian Reynolds) and The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance by Fritjof Capra (2008)

Breaking Bad: a break for pop culture!

Last night's episode of Breaking Bad (Season 3, episode 12) was the one I feel I have been waiting for for a little while now: an episode which makes me wish I could see what is going to happen next week right now--the waiting is over and the consequences are at hand!

For this season has been simmering for a few episodes. With its usual brilliant dialogue and bizarre psychological explorations, it has kept us hooked even though we have been in a kind of holding pattern : Jesse Pinkman (played by Aaron Paul) has been on observation. Hank (actor Dean Norris) has been in the hospital. There have been various spins around the house so that we think perhaps Walt (played by Bryon Cranston) will be returning home at some point, or to the hospital with more cancer. So the plot's been cooking at a nice, mesmerizing boil, threatening to slip over the rim then pulling back, again and again. But under the surface, the pieces have been set in place for us viewers to see this explosive confrontation coming. However, unlike what we may have suspected a few episodes back, it is not Walt's instability that throws everything off-kilter, but Jesse's, as he comes to a few realizations and seeks justice.

So this was it--the moment of no turning back, of Jesse finally setting off on his course of no return, of not getting away, of no more u-turns, of taking his no-holds-barred revenge regardless of the cost. Especially following the "pep talk" of our favorite hit /cover up/solution-for-any-bad-situation man, Mike (played by Jonathan Banks), it seemed inevitable, in the nature of Jesse, to act out. So we were getting the brilliant signals oozing out of every frame that this was it, that Jesse was going to either get himself killed or kicked off the ranch. Walt sees it coming, does everything in his power to curb the active anger--from flat out telling Jesse murder is a bad idea (duh), to trying to get Jesse arrested and held in jail, to forcing Jesse into negotiations with his opponents.

And it seems like it might hold, for just a second, and then it is over.

The moment where Jesse slips up, goes back to zero on the 12-step count, was bound to lose it all, is here. But we can already see something is racing towards him, has dashed out of the tranquil, safe suburban family dinner option and is whizzing through space like the heroic antihero that he is--all rationality in a way, all past rationality, to save the day.

Walt remains the superman figure that Pinkman depends on without realizing it, and it is Walt we are worried about and concerned for when he leaves the viewer panting, ready to high tail it for the hills at this episode's ending exclamation: "Run!". But like any comic book hero left under a massive slab of Kryptonite, we now ask the requisite questions (as comically sure of the response yet thrilled to play out our curious role): Will our hero escape? Will this be his untimely devise--an unselfish act of self-sacrifice? Or will our villains get what they desire?

The wonder of Breaking Bad is that with its fabulous moments of subtle humor (ie: Skyler (actice Ann Gunn) reading the Wikepedia entry on Money Laundering, or Marie's proud, sly smile as she wheels Hank towards the hospital exit, knowing on what grounds she has succeeded in forcing him to leave (played by actice Betsy Brandt), it manages to grip us and jerk us around and surprise us even in actions that are somewhat predictable. We knew Walt would come, but did not guess at the graphic moment of his action.

Gritty, funny, dramatic, horrifying--this mixture is the very thing that keeps me coming back for more of Breaking Bad. An A+ episode by writers who always have an unexpected ace up their sleeve. (Photos courtesy of AMC, buddyTV.com and MSN)

A break for pop culture "A blast into the past...FRINGE!"

(Season 2 Episode 16 Reviewed):
Rarely does a backstory grip like this one--where Water tells the tale of going to the other universe to steal Walternate's Peter. Not out of a perhaps expected selfishness--missing his own lost child--but initially to save the child and return it. This episode is moving and explores various emotional levels of the psyche and backstory of the characters we know so well, but it also presents in subtle ways lines of intrigue waiting to be unraveled--where was William Bell really during all of this in 1985? How does the loss of a hand effect the personality of a future superdiva? And what will be the reactions--legal, moral, personal and professional of our agent supreme to this story?

Now that this window into the other universe has been presented, I expect to be seeing its use in forthcoming episodes. For who could, if they had such an opportunity, not want to look into the alternate lives of ourselves? It is doubtful we could suppress that urge and not look, but what might be the ramifications of glancing into that fascinating alterself universe?

And so, it is with great pleasure the next and the next episode of Fringe are awaited. No, Fringe does not have the same police-style gripping plot as many shows are making use of to keep viewers hooked these days, nor does it use the Lost-layering techniques of stacking on each week more unweildable (but often exciting) mysterious lines to lure spectators back, instead Fringe draws viewers back and back again to see an unexpectedly human exploration of the sci-fi world, the entanglements and disentanglements of Peter and his father, Peter and Agent Dunham, Bell and who we now realize was his old partner. Where will this highly imaginative peculiar new fantasy-sci fi ultratech now and alternow lead these characters? Inquiring minds certainly do want to know!

This FOX TV show has in fact outdone its initial self--moved past the flashy action-packed filmic pilot with fairly generic characters (woman agent betrayed by man agent, crazy Dr Frankenstein-like Walter Bishop and his politically shady unstable son) to a show which grips watchers on both a character and character-development level. These characters are humans fighting a sort of classic comic-book style fantasy with the mad skills of advanced/fantasy-level science. Like a classic comic hero, they are supposedly in search of protecting people, striving to make the world a better place to live in. However, they find themselves doing this often through slightly morally compromised means. Here, Walter does not return Peternate to Walternate--and now we shall see what are / were the outcomes of this. In a most peculiar way, it is as if Walter hurts himself, his alterself--and that, too, is intriguing. More to come, and more reasons to hook into Fringe.

(FYI: Season 1 available on dvd, season 2 ongoing.)

A break for pop culture..."Vampire Diaries" reviewed

"NEXT!!!!!" --That is what I would have yelled out till my lungs turned blue, and with a roll of my eyes, had The Vampire Diaries, the new CWtv show vampire fans have been awaiting with baited breath, been someone auditioning for a key part in a new play. In Vampire Diaries episode one, a Gossip-girls vacuity and prettiness are paired with even worse acting. Sure, they're eyecandy when sitting still, but their bodies have a stiffness and their faces an expressionlessness that's without mystery or any sensuality.

This is perhaps not entirely their fault, as I get the sense that those behind the camera are leading this frenzied bag of badness with a tight grip. The bizarre forced camera cuts are almost a comic echo of the jerky movement between storyscenes. Unlike Trueblood's masterfull baiting of the viewer, this program establishes all the bases for what is to come, leaving us little to chase after or think about on our own. And the journal fluff, especially that oh so reading in tandem? I might suppose this show is striving to look like some after school special for vampires who will behave! Finally, as if to cover up the bad acting, characters, and narrative choices, a dominating soundtrack deafened this pilot episode. Was there a behind-the-scenes debate going on about whether the idea was to make a series of linked rock videos or a TV show?

And I write this review when I am the ideal candidate for loving this program: A vampire junkie since reading Bram Stoker way back when in high school. A Buffy adorator--and though I should not admit this, I even own the entire, cheesier, Angel series: fun to rewatch on lonely winter nights. I read all the Stephanie Meyer books (despite the terrible editing job on such a bestseller) before seeing Twilight on opening day here in Paris (with every teen out of school that afternoon!). But when it comes to TV vampire drama, even the quickly cut from production Moonlight had more excitement.

In short, this first episode of Vampire Diaries left me sadly disappointed. What's more, many other reviews strike me as peculiarly undemanding of the show, and have startled me with their flattery. Don't be fooled, even if "everyone" feels like they should say they like this 9021-OH-Vamp show, the hype is goning to fade fast. After all, make-up runs in ugly streaks under heat like the one that will be needed to keep up a facade of greatness when there is no substance behind the curtain.

On a positive point, this new show's vamp teeth choice. Nice special effect work there! Solid, animal, natural looking fangs one could expect to bite deeply into our awaiting necks. Alas, my neck is exposed but their the fangs just aren't able to get close enough for me to get my heart flip-flopping as I await next week. If I am out and miss episide two, well, tant pis.

Concerts & Readings...

Paris Vacation: as I have yet to actually get out of the city, I am rather getting into it, enjoying its sites and scenes. Visits from friends, visiting friends, concerts and readings, as well as afternoons and evenings writing poems and articles at home.

In that order. But here, in reverse chronology--to start with the excitement of seeing a CONCERT for the first time in AGES! Loved discovering the space(s) of La Bellevilloise and, with Marielle Anselmo, went to see Kaluun + 4 other groups competing in a city-wide multi-concert affair (calld Clack! ). Discovered a group, writing their songs in English, but splendidly, who was the official JURY choice (and mine as well) for the night--You & You (Félix, the lead singer, is pictured at top, left). Perhaps not the most brilliant band name ever, but click on their name here to be transported to their MySpace site to hear some samples (they have 6 tracks up), perhaps watch some videos as well. These guys who formed their group in Feb 2008 were riveting, and a pleasant departure from the majority of French bands singing in English. As it is, you should check them out: YOU and YOU at Café de la Danse May 26th 2009 when they open for a group called Gush!!!

Preceding concert night, the IVY Reading for this month with a small, vacationtime audience, but all listeners totally tuned into the fabulous duo we had read: ADEENA KARASICK & GWENAELLE STUBBE (pictured at right). Both performers in their own ways, with word and sound play, or image and positioning of the voice on the other side. A few fun pics of the poets in action can be found at IVY's site, under the post for the event. Also, check out Adeena's video online (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_m6CkdkbUY ) at Youtube: "I got a crush on Osama"

After the reading, ran into Jennifer Huxta (pictured at left with Frederic Benhaim looking so bank-serious!) and the crowd from her Live Poets reading (which was the same night as Ivy!). We sat on a terrasse on rue Montorgueil while the last of the sunny spring days this week began to spit and turn into the rainy cool muck we have had ever since. But it was pleasant to just have those first sunny days, to drink with everyone, to listen to the post-PhD stresslessness of it all! Pictured here: Elizabeth Spackman who was visiting from NYC; wine glass & pack of matches with spoon; Bart(?) with Carolyn Heinze in glasses behind him.

To end with: Three Pictures from my neighborhood: Bassin de la Villette at night. Walking with Elizabeth Spackman, catching up on her life in NYC and mine here, we enjoyed the array of lights on the bassin, some from Stalingrad, others closer to La Villette.

HEROES: A break for Pop Culture

Breaking from the PhD, Heroes supplies a nice twist to life, therefore, for those who are watchers, here is my review of episode 9 and reaction to some of the "complaints" viewers have launched against the writers of this quite extra-ordinary NBC TV show.

Cautionary Tales...

.....Smart titling "Cautionary Tale”: or rather, tales, as there are so many potential fable-lines in this simple, 42 minute popular sci-fi American TV episode. The "best twist" of this season so far: the passing via blood of an extraordinary capacity to someone who has not had that "skill" in their DNA before. The potentials this introduces into the season and the series as a whole are extraordinary--bravo!
.....In fact, the writers of this series should be commended for their hard work and constant attention to ways in which one can complicate a story such as this, maintaining and adapting what we know of characters, being patient enough to "slowly" (for an action show at least) show us who those characters are and where they are coming from and (always potentially) going to go to next. Furthermore, this show is wonderfully multilingual--sections in Japanese, Spanish, English, etc.--demanding more of the general writer than an all-English, all-American series.

.....Those who want Heroes 2 to grip them faster and have been hard on this series should perhaps re-examine how season one also developped--quite slowly, really--but the intricate layerings of plotline, character interweavings and potential outcomes got most of the world hooked on the show by December/January. Again this fall, the writing is smarter than many critics have given it credit for. Certainly, there was perhaps a drop in interest merely because the viewers knew the general capacities of these characters and had already seen a year of a "saving-the-world" scenario, but the writers are starting to move past that, to get viewers engaged differently in the show's characters and turns.
.....Taking it to the next level, which it appears Heroes is and will be doing, is a difficult, arduous task. But the writers are already managing it--for who we trust is always shifting, what we thought we knew last year also begins to develop differently, and therefore how we become engaged in the stories the authors are telling us about the series is starting at this stage--which is, if one re-examines last year's series, pretty parallel in time frame--to engross and "hook us".

.....Additionally, as in this particular episode, moral reflections the show might supply viewers with which may make them reflect on their "real" outside-the-realm-of-the-show world, are adding a nice depth to Heroes. For example, this episode may evoke questions we have about our own accepting or not of death as portrayed in Hiro's tale today, how one perceives ideas of "fate"/what one takes of "superstition" or "predictions" as seen in the tale of Claire's father, professional and personal interaction loyalties as shown in Suresh's tale, potential abuses of power by a "good person" as are being developped in the mind-reading to mind-control character's tale (how/where does a "good person" go bad?), and finally how one interacts and sees the importance of family--certainly an American obsession since the 50s as a topic to look at via TV, cinema and books. Fabelesque, multi-lingual, action sci fi in a second season: it's a lot to manage! Give the authors credit where it is do--great work!!!