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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Damages: Season 1
Damages, the show on FX starring Glenn Close, is what you would call a tour de force.
When it came out in 2008, I paid it no attention. I’m not particularly drawn to Glenn Close and haven’t seen anything of hers that I can particularly recall as interesting to me. I also don’t follow most legal dramas. Apparently, the first season of the show was some high level shit as not-so-ineloquently described by SFGate/Chronicle’s Tim Goodman. When season two came around, he pleaded for his favorite readers to give it a chance, I followed suit.
I am so glad I did.
Damages is far more than a regular drama and universally evolved beyond a legal procedural. In fact, the impact of the show lies heavily in its character development and serial narrative. There are twists, turns, and red herrings a plenty in the show. Left right at the end of episode quarters and at the end of episodes leaving you begging for more, the twists deliver and make a whole deal of sense. But, as in any quirk or convention, twists don’t matter if we don’t care about the characters. And in Damages, we really, really do.
Interestingly, I was watching the return of BSG when I tested out Damages. The “Final Episodes” of BSG employed two storytelling devices frequently: flashbacks and twists. Yes, BSG’s highly intensive and complicated story always employed both, but not as often as they did in the final episodes to fully unravel the complete story. Because of this, when I started watching the first few episodes of season two of Damages I felt a gut-instinct that the show had some elements of BSG in it.
Those elements were: the twists, the deeper complicated flashback story, the multitude of levels of ulterior motives, multi-faceted motivations of the characters, and the willingness of the creators to not keep their characters locked in a box of conventions aka anything goes.
So, with that, I decided to Netflix Season One. It took me a few months to finally settle in and watch it, but surely it did deliver. And don’t call me Shirley.
The elements that I noticed remain throughout Damages – and despite not paying attention to each second as I would BSG – the impact of the larger plot twists and exposures were fully felt. The main conflict of Season One is between Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), a highly driven, successful, and brash class action attorney and Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) a corporate billionaire who is being sued by his former employees for insider trading. The story is pushed along, though, by the freshly optimistic young attorney Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne).
But, there’s more. There are quite a few murders that have happened in present time, and the main story is told from a flashback point of view. We basically know there is some crazy shit going on, and we’re watching to see how it unravels.
I think all the characters eventually get their do – and our portrayed well. The leads, Close, Danson, and Byrne are wonderful in portraying particularly non-linear characters. They all go through a major process, as characters, as the season-long narratives slowly gain more clarity. There are numerous twists, as stated numerous times, along the way. There are also great inter-personal drama plotlines to keep each episode compacted into digestible pieces.
Now, onto Season Two.. whenever the DVDs come out.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
The Cool Crowd: Nearing Season's Finale
Dying proof? What the hell's wrong with me. I post a beginning - a middle - and just an end? Bus life. Change in DVR habits. Change in life. No excuse. Maybe TV's just bored me. No. I think I just have a bit more of a life now. Okay. Onto the Cool Crowd.
Official goodbyes:
Heroes
Oh how the strong have weakened and how the wayward have completely lost existence. Heroes was never a perfect show. I didn't love it in it's first half of the premiere (and only good) season. It picked up tremendously in the second half. The second season was hated more than I thought it deserved. Season 3 started out blasting and the shots proved to be blanks.
I'm tired of complaining and lamenting about this show. What. A. Waste.
Eli Stone
This bubble show got burst - and before it finished, it already started to fizzle. Nothing else to say. I'll buy the first season in the future when it's on sale for $10 and enjoy it. I'll just forget most of Season 2.
BSG
They had a plan. And the magnum opus of a plan has been completed. I think this baby needs it's own special treatment. I love BSG. I miss BSG for the virtue that there will be no more new stories.
Flight of the Conchords
How's this for a terrible second season... (I couldn't say that outloud until now.. it hurt too much) I have 2 or 3 episodes left on my DVR and have found no real motivation to watch them.
NOW... onto the ongoings and more general happiness.
LOST
Time travel? Oh no. Time travel? OH. no. Time travel? OH HELL NO.
With that said, the narrative qualities of LOST still persist. The play on flashbacks makes sense now - now that they Losties are back on the island and are having to deal with the years they were off the island since they left. Plus, there are flashbacks for the Losties that stayed on the island and lived on the the island before the ones that left came back. Confused? You should be! I don't think LOST is meant to make sense - hence LOST. If it doesn't make sense for the charaters - it shouldn't be clear to us, as the viewers.
What LOST always has done well is depict complex characters with complex pasts and complex paths towards resolution. How the will be resolved we can't really tell. But, I think LOST fans, like myself, scoff at the non-fans' disbelief in our belief. It's similar to wrestling. We know it's preposterous. We know it's ridiculous. But we care, and that's all that matters.
And that is.. ALL that matters. Despite an unevenness of screen time and plot time, we are hanging on to the lives of our Losties because the writers have developed great stories to tell. The quality of the stories have ebbed an flowed this season, but it's okay. LOST is still quality fare that I get excited to watch each week.
Bones
Bones is what we expect it to be. (Thanks Denny Green!) It's a quick procedural with twists and turns and an all too quickly resolved mystery. But that's not why I watch the show. Like LOST, I watch this show for the characters - more than the plot or overall narrative. But, they have interesting narratives his season:
Hodgins and Angela have had to deal with their break up.
The whole team had to heal from Zack's transgression. Hodgins more so.
Bones has been trying to learn more about humanity.
Booth is a willing teacher and best friend.
Sweets has been trying to keep everything together.
The new squint per episode crew have been trying to establish themselves in the lab and in the very strange work environment at the Jeffersonian.
Of course, the relationship between Bones and Booth drive this show - fitting since many of their most poignant conversations happen in Booth's SUV as they drive around to different locations to track down the mystery in the bones.
Some shows have been bogged down with some subplots (the main plots of the mysteries), but the humor and heart of the show remain the strengths and the most consistent elements of the show.
I love it. The season finale next week will be OFF the HOOK.
*** More later...
Friday, May 08, 2009
REVIEW: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Ever since the bad taste of X-Men 3: The Last Stand left in my mouth, I’ve become relatively indifferent to most movie renditions of my beloved comic book characters. In fact, I didn’t even blink an eye when Wolverine began to gain more steam in its completion. I didn’t even know it was close to being finished until the pirated version sans SFX hit the interwebs.
Why the ambivalence? Well, as stated, X-Men 3: The Last Stand left me very very dissatisfied. Similarly, Spider-man 3 left me wanting much much more. Even on the small screen, the badly written foibles of Heroes and Smallville have left me more gravely displeased than even apathetically disinterested. Heroes has been taken off the DVR list – PERMANENTLY. Smallville has its priority on said list by Bones. Basically, the world of comic books in live action hasn’t left me fully satisfied in a long time.
The Dark Knight was obviously an irresistible success creatively and performance wise. The Watchmen was alright for the most part, but it’s not even right to compare. I think The Dark Knight, Watchmen, and other comic book-based films transcend the genre; not only due to their darkness, but also to the weight of their aspirations. Actually, come to think of it, I would place Hellboy 2 in that category. There was more put into Hellboy 2 than there was in other action-movie-based-on-comic-book-characters.
So, what of Wolverine?
Although my interest in the movie developed just a week or two before it premiered, I began to gain some interest as it approached. Nothing about it that I saw through trailers told me that I should expect any more than the typical fare, but the core X-men nerd in me couldn’t really compete with logic. I was excited. I wanted to be entertained – and I wanted it done well.
That is the rub.
Wolverine as a character in funny books has evolved drastically from my knowledge. I feel like he came in as a ass-kicker that asked no questions. And we loved him for it. It wasn’t until the 1980s that his backstory became more apparent. It wasn’t until the late 1980s when Wolverine really began to expand to a fully-fleshed out character. Nowadays, comic book characters are incomplete without their origins – hence the big run of origin stories in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Now back to the movie.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine combined various aspects of Logan’s origin story (from the comic books and the X-Men movies) – but focused mainly on the Weapon X storyline – the one in which he gained his adamantium skeleton and lost his memory. The movie also focused on Logan’s inner turmoil of dealing with the animal inside of him. Overall, the unveiling of his origin wasn’t all that bad.
The was entertaining for the most part. I think it picked up tremendously after Logan agreed to the Weapon X process. After that point, the revenge story became clearer and the delivery of the movie became more digestible.
I did have to talk to myself at some point in the beginning of the movie to remind myself of what it truly was. Because of some shooting angles and devices that I can only think of describing as “cheesy” that were accompanied by some similarly cheesy scoring, I thought I was watching another highly marketed Marvel-based B-flick. At first it bothered me. Then, I let it settle in that this movie wasn’t made for anything else but to be a bit of B-movie: bad guy, large anti-hero, a chick for romance, and a plaid shirt and physically laborious work for said anti-hero.
This makes sense when we reflect back at what Wolverine really means to the X-verse. He’s not meant to be the tormented hero that Batman is even though he is tormented. He’s not meant to be a social icon in his world like Superman. He’s not meant to be conflicted between his superhero and alter-ego personas like Spider-man. Wolverine is meant to kick ass. He is a human canon-ball just like Colossus turned him into. Yes, he has a backstory and is a full character, but that is not why Wolverine is loved. He is loved for the “SNIKT” of his blade. He is loved for the eternal beatdown that the next “Bub” was going to take.
And, so, the writers and director provided the world a Wolverine movie. We saw his powers used extensively in the movie, as they should have been. Healing factor? Check. Numerous Checks. Keen scent? Check. Numerous Checks. Super strength? Check. Numerous Checks. Adamantium blade-led destruction? Check. A million-times Check!
So, did Wolverine deliver? Let me review. I thought Deadpool.. I mean Wade Wilson could’ve been expanded more. I thought the Sabretooth fights.. I mean the Victor Creed fights became mundane. The SFX left me wanting more – or maybe less. The scoring was weird. I’m not sure if there was an intentional nod to the 80s style action movies since a bulk of the movie was set in the 80s. If there was, I can see why I thought it was very B-movie-ish. If not, the scoring left me dissatisfied. As well, a problem that torments most of our contemporary Hollywood offering (OVER-scoring) was present in this movie. There was also some pretty obvious symbolism after the first Sabre.. err.. Victor Creed and Logan fight at the bar. When Logan ended up on the train tracks and Victor was villainesque in his soliloquy about how Logan’s inner-animal had to be freed – and he had to choose what side he was on. I guess we love Wolverine because he straddles both sides of the tracks. Get it?
Final thoughts? Not sure. If it’s on HBO in HD, I’d obviously watch it again. Would I buy it? No. If it wasn’t Wolverine – and say Ghost Rider, Daredevil, or Elektra (ahem, Mark Steven Johnson, ahem) for example – would it have kept my attention? Not sure. Daredevil done well is a compelling film character. Elektra and Ghost Rider – probably not so much. But they all fail in comparison to the general bad-ass-ness of Wolverine.
And, I guess, at the end of the day, this is what should settle the score: Did Wolverine do what he’s best at doing? Pretty much.
