Category: Television

Game of Thrones Sticks To Its Book Roots

Now that the series Game of Thrones on HBO is at episode 7, the viewer gets a really good picture of how fantastic this new original program is. Based on the best-selling books by George R. R. Martin, HBO once again produces television that brings forth a whole new world. Even if you’re not really into sci-fi/fantasy work, the political intrigue, sexual escapades, and created languages make it totally worth tuning in.  Not to mention, the fantastic brooding ability of actor Sean Bean (Return of the King Fellowship of the Ring) and the marvelous debauchery of Mark Addy (The Full Monty, Still Standing). But it’s the performance of Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) that really stands out. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it doesn’t earn him an Emmy nomination.

Adapted for the screen by producer/writers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the show is reminiscent of the richly refined series Rome that ended in 2007 in its superb art direction and costuming. But the show stays true to its book roots – a very hard task taking into account the author’s enormously descriptive language and the very complicated world full of medieval intrigues and mythical creatures. But the expert storytelling navigates easily amongst all the characters and clearly introduces and carries all plot points. Genius.

Adaptations are difficult. This is a good one.

Mildred Pierce – One Creepy Performance

The HBO mini-series MILDRED PIERCE concluded last night. The original 1945 film, starring Joan Crawford (her Oscar winning performance) as Mildred, and Ann Blyth as the vindictive Veda, is revamped by the talented Indie director Todd Haynes (FAR FROM HEAVEN).

This version stars Kate Winslet in the title role and the director (who co-wrote the teleplay with writer Jon Raymond) stays truer to the original novel. In exploring the Depression-era class issues, Mildred faces the trouble of finding a job after throwing out her philandering husband. She now has to take care of her two young daughters, including the ultra spoiled (why? We really never know. The child is relentless in her annoying, condescending attitude) Veda (played first by 11-year-old Morgan Turner and later Evan Rachel Wood).

Finding work as a waitress, she eventually learns enough to own and run a string of restaurants, making her incredibly successful. But it is the weird, odd, and many ways sick relationship she has with her daughter Veda that is the real story and why I have issues with this story.

Mildred’s reasoning is never full explained. Her face is continually emoting heartbreak and longing, but the audience is never let into her soul. Why does she make the choices she makes? Why is she so sickly attached to her daughter? Too many questions.

Wood does a decent job of playing the teenage Veda – channeling her best Queen Sophie-Ann from TRUE BLOOD. But it’s the younger Morgan Turner, playing the character in her early teens that is…well…creepy. There I said it. Her performance is so downright creepy you can’t wait for her to get off the screen. Her choice in body language is bizarre and her so-called elevated dialogue doesn’t help at all with the creepy factor. It would be better if she were playing the role of Claudia in INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE.

Thank goodness her performance is nowhere to be found in parts four and five – probably the reason why these last installments are the best in the series.

 

Two and Half Men CAN Survive Without Charlie Sheen

With all the insane hoopla surrounding Charlie Sheen is anybody really surprised that he chooses to seek help with his addiction by doing rehab at home? Seriously? That’s even an option? That’s like me wanting to go on a diet but only eat freshly baked bread covered in delicious farm fresh butter. Yeah, that would let me lose those pesky last five pounds. Unbelievable!

It’s even more insane that the producers of Two and Half Men – mainly Executive Producer and Creator Chuck Lorre announce there is no show without the talented Charlie Sheen. Really? So the extraordinary contributions of Jon Cryer (best known as Duckie in Pretty in Pink), the phenomenal character actress Conchata Farrell (I LOVED her in the short lived sitcom ER) and the pubescent Angus T. Jones should be ignored as only moving and funny because of the consistently misogynistic and shallow performance of Charlie Sheen? Please. Let’s be honest. Charlie Sheen plays Charlie Sheen on TV and is only able to deliver a great line because of the comic timing and genius of Jon Cryer and the rest of the cast.

To state there is no show without Charlie Sheen totally discounts the brilliant performances of the hard working and dedicated cast members that make Mr. Sheen look good week after week. It also discounts the talent of the writers of the show that somehow miraculously weave the chauvinistic tendencies of their lead character into new and entertaining stories. So why not create new and exciting stories surrounding Jon Cryer? Maybe because it’s too hard? Maybe because he’s not as vapid and insincere as Charlie Sheen? Maybe because he’s just too talented? Come on guys, there’s got to be reason that you feel the show can’t possible survive without the tepid talent of Charlie Sheen. Be brave and move forward with the tremendous acting talents of your other cast members. No one actor, particularly one that phones in his performance in between late night bouts of violent intentions while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, should be revered as irreplaceable.

The show can survive without him. You just have to acknowledge all the players on the team and stop underestimating the talent of your writers and the expectations of your audience.

Celebrity Rehab – An Education

I’ve been on the fence about Celebrity Rehab on VH1. Is it really worth it for addicted celebrities or pseudo-celebrities to air their dirty laundry on a reality show for the sake of becoming sober? Does it really work? I have no answer.

What I can comment on, is that the man in charge, Dr. Drew Pinsky, cares for and talks to his patients with great deal of compassion and genuine concern. The humanity that he extends  makes everyone wish they have  such an advocate in their life – a powerful believer that pushes you to listen and believe that anything you set your mind to, you can and will accomplish.

Even with the most challenging participants, often detoxing from the most horrid of drugs for the first time in years, Dr. Pinsky and the dedicated staff at Pasadena Recovery Center, really seem to want the best from the rehabbers. The crap that Shelley, the resident tech, has to deal with (and clean up. Ick!) only convinces you that she’s in it for the long haul. That she believes her own recovery is dependent upon the success of others she cares for – that goes for all of them. She and her colleagues are truly invested.

But it’s the latest episode that makes me bring up this unusual show. In a private session, Dr. Drew counsels the alcohol and drug abuser Frankie Lons (mostly known for being the mom of singer Keshia Cole). In a most immature tantrum-like way, Frankie complains that everybody wants her to act her age – 50.  In a gentle, yet firm, manner, Drew conveys to Frankie that because of her years of abuse, her brain is stuck at the age of 20, when she began her bad habits. It is a fast, yet incredibly poignant moment, when the audience fully captures Frankie’s story. She is a female Peter Pan. She can’t grow up. She hasn’t learned how. Her actions are like an adolescent, because that’s all she knows. It is a piece of storytelling that cracks open the world of an addict and exposes a small glimpse to us non-abusers.  At the end, Drew (ever the advocate) encourages Frankie that her brain will learn to catch up.  The more she enters her sobriety, the more her brain will learn to be its true age. There is hope. There is progress. If she wants it.

Like I said, I don’t know if it’s a good idea for addicts to try to become sober in front of cameras. But I am moved by Frankie’s story. I am educated. And that should count for something.

Can I get an amen?

Castle Is The New Law & Order

I’m so happy to see Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Serendipity) really come into his own. Starring on the hit show Castle, Fillion manages to make his writer character endearing, but annoying, cute, yet manly and at the same time keep the tension up with policewoman sidekick, Beckett (Stana Katic – who I first remember seeing in the poorly received The Spirit).

First introduced to Fillion in the too short lived Joss Whedon series Firefly (also starring another crush of mine, Adam Baldwin. Love, love , love him in My Bodyguard, Netflix it today!), it’s great to see him in something that lasts more than four shows.  But the storylines on Castle really shows off, Fillion’s comic ability combined with entertaining plots.

It’s not your normal cop show – Law & Order, NCIS, CSI – this one does have a beginning, middle, and an end, but it’s expertly combined with humor, and that is really what is making all the difference. Audiences get a full story about a crime (base on a real crime or not, it doesn’t matter), they get the tension between two incredibly good looking people of the opposite sex, and they get some well written dialogue that does its job to propel the story forward. The show is a great treat on Monday night and there is hardly any blood.

It can even make fun of itself and with Fillion’s added touch of bringing silliness with seriousness, Castle is the new Law & Order.