Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz's new comedy has the goofiness of his previous show, but none of the heart. While Arrested Development made you laugh with an endless onslaught of ridiculous behavior, it also drilled home the importance of family, at least for Michael and George-Michael Bluth.
Here, in Running Wilde, Will Arnett plays the son of an oil tycoon who has never had to work for anything. Keri Russell plays a woman who has spent her whole life trying to feel superior to him by doing humanitarian work. It was shocking to me how Russell comes off as the truly selfish character in this episode. She doesn't listen to her daughter, looks down at Arnett, and just generally insults anyone who doesn't share her view of the importance of constant humanitarian work. Arnett is just selfish by habit, but it's clear he has a good heart, as he helps Russell's daughter be heard and tries to win over his teenage love. Frankly, he can do better than Russell.
Even with Arnett helping out, this show was short on emotion and laughs. He can't do everything. Russell carries no weight, and this is a result of poor writing. We should have felt a sense of inevitability behind Russell and Arnett's relationship. We should have felt that Russell loved her daughter and wanted what was best for her regardless of her own personal goals. We should have felt that this show was something more than just the occasional joke that required five minutes of setup.
I still have faith in Arnett and Russell's abilities, and I'm looking forward to more appearances from David Cross. I'm hopeful that this show can find better writing and a more heartfelt approach. In the meantime though, steer clear. This one is already on life support. 2 out of 4 stars.
The Defenders has that spontaneous Las Vegas spirit: A roll of the dice, a spin of the roulette wheel, and a sudden decision to do something slightly crazy and maybe a little silly. Sure, it's another law show, and maybe it's not exactly the way "real" law is done, but damn, is this entertaining. Jim Belushi and Jerry O'Connell starring as Nick Morelli and Pete Kaczmarek are a bit nuts. They play the law like it's a game. They enter pleas, then withdraw them the next day, they throw water on witnesses to prove a point, and they parlay a one night stand with a prosecuting attorney into a better plea deal for a client.
The characters are real and fun, but also heartfelt. They have a sense of humor in places and moments when they really shouldn't, which makes the jokes all the more funny. And the case in the episode is interesting, but it doesn't overwhelm the characters. While the episode is primarily about the case, the characters weren't subject to its plot points. You believe that this really is two guys acting and reacting to the circumstances as they happen.
The Defenders is one of my favorite pilots of this season. I'd like to rate it higher, but I've got concerns for the future of the show. I can enjoy an episodic show as much as the next guy, but I'm really hoping to delve more into Morelli and Kaczmarek. While they both have personal storylines that appear and will most likely progress, I don't find myself rooting for them very much outside of the courtroom. O'Connell largely just chases tail and puts his new junior associate into difficult situations, while Belushi goes to his son's baseball game and has his wife followed. It is humorous but lacks an emotional punch. I'd like to see more happen, but I'm not sure much else can be expected. This episode is a blast, and I'm sure the rest of the season will be pretty entertaining television as well. But if the show doesn't grow, the premise could get old quickly. If you like the concept of a law dramady, check The Defenders out. O'Connell is great as the goofy womanizer, and Belushi is stunningly convincing as a good-natured, grumpy defender. 3 out of 4 stars.
The Whole Truth declares itself to be a revolutionary, original look at both sides of the law. Does it deliver? By all means, no. While there is nothing truly bad about this episode, it sets up no characters, shows nothing new about law, and does nothing original in the way of storytelling. This is a law procedural exactly as you've seen it before. The lead prosecutor and lead defense attorney(Maura Tierney and Rob Morrow) are introduced in the teaser, and nothing much is revealed about either of them, except that they both seem to like coffee in the morning. Both characters are flatly written and poorly performed. Tierney looks sickly as the lead DA. Oh, and Rob Morrow's character wears red tennis shoes with his suit. So... I guess that means he's quirky? What should I do with that tidbit? Should I like him more or less? Does he have bad fashion sense? Back problems? Athlete's foot? The writing of this show mistakes quirks for character.
After this "set-up" of the characters, the show uses acts one and two to separate the prosecution's actions from the defense's actions during the same period of time. This is the writer's big gimmick, and it is stupid for two reasons: First, it doesn't allow for the program to depict anything we haven't seen before in every episode of every law drama that came before it. Second, it just feels unnatural. It allows time to pass and the story to progress, but then, when we look at the other side, we just go back in time and either fill in gaps in the story or rehash what happened in the last act.
The Whole Truth assumes that you have never seen how law works, either on a TV show or in real life, and it then expects you to forget the basic essentials of the story because of a two minute commercial break. I'm not that dumb, and I sure hope you aren't. Pass on this one. If you're looking for realistic law, check out The Good Wife. If you want a fun law show with interesting characters and cases, check out The Defenders. Give this one a wide berth. 1.5 out of 4 stars.
Lone Star is no con. It's for real. And so is Bob Allen,(James Wolk) who, though he is a con man, plays himself in two worlds. Make no mistake, he's a liar, but it's his heart you'll fall in love with in this pilot. I almost wanted to hate him, but he is no Don Draper. The writers do their part to make him sympathetic, but ultimately, it's James Wolk's brilliant portrayal that gives you warm fuzzies. Seriously, at the risk of going over the top here, I can't think of a better performance by a male lead on a tv show. I can't wait to see him at work week to week.
Bob Allen is hawking phantom oil shares in two cities. He uses his fake reputation and his relationship with Cat Thatcher(Adrianne Palicki, Friday Night Lights) to wrestle his way into a job at her father, Clint Thatcher's(Jon Voight), oil company.
Lindsay is the girl in the small town that he is also in love with. He has conned virtually her entire town into buying shares of his phantom oil stock. They are almost all older folks, who seem incredibly grateful to him. But his father(David Keith), who taught him this business when he was young and never let go of his hold on Bob's life, alerts him that someone in the town may be on to his lie, and so he tells Bob he has to flee.
The tension of the show lies in the audience's hope that Bob can break free of his conning ways, but mostly just the hold his father has over him. The beauty of the writing so far is that we can see perfectly why Bob would be in love with both women, and the writers do an excellent and subtle job of making sure we love them too. You can see his chemistry with both women, and you believe that he is in love, and that they are too. That's part of the brilliance. The writers play our love of both women into making us root for him to stay with both. It's disconcerting to find yourself at that point, but we just don't want to see either of them hurt, and he's already in too deep to get out without hurting them.
Meanwhile, there's the hope that Bob can really do the job that Clint Thatcher has given him, and that he can truly avoid being caught by anybody. The writers will likely try to play on our fear of Bob getting caught. It will be a source of tension in the show. Basically, the writers just want us to root continuously for Bob getting what he wants, no matter how morally questionable it might be. They're banking on James Wolk to be able to stay likable amidst all his lies. I wouldn't bet against him. 4 out of 4 Stars.
If you're not going to watch this show, EXPLAIN YOURSELF!
The Event moves at breakneck speed, hurtling through plot points and character introductions. It lingers only on Sean Walker's(Jason Ritter) romance. While a lot of the story in this pilot was revealed in just the three minute trailer released earlier this year, there were still plenty of surprises. The end of the pilot is definitely a WTF moment.
Jason Ritter looks sharp in this premiere episode, showing good range as the straight man, first in love and peaceful with Leila, then panicked, angry, and confused when things start to "go bad". Sarah Roemer plays his girlfriend, Leila, and is equally effective. The actor that really surprised me with a strong performance was Scott Patterson(Luke from Gilmore Girls) as Leila's father. This family is clearly the strength and the heart of the show. There appears to be a healthy bit of conspiracy and intrigue at the core of their story as well.
Awful.
However, the same cannot be said for Blair Underwood's portrayal of the President and Laura Innes as a mysterious prisoner. This storyline will try very hard to pique your interest, but fail to do so because of the complete lack of emotional connection to the characters. Virtually no character background is given to the viewer, in the name of creating "suspense". In reality, it was just frustrating and melodramatic. That being said, it could simply be something they'll immediately address in Episode Two. I hope so. Because enjoying half a show and ignoring the other half is a pretty difficult thing to do. Underwood is flat and gives a one note performance as the President, and Laura Innes is just awful as the most ominously mysterious character on the show. I desperately wanted a plane to smash her in the face. Who knows, maybe one will.
The first five minutes struck me as extremely herky jerky, yanking the viewer all over the world to several different locations with a number of different characters and quite a few different time frames. It was a little tricky at first to figure out when everything was taking place: today, eight days ago, eleven months ago? Eventually, though, I was able to figure it out and just ride this tidal wave of a plot. It sweeps you up pretty effectively, and the stakes are high enough to keep your adrenaline pumping for most of this episode.
Parts of the show were fantastic, even flawless. Other parts were cheesily acted, poorly written, and just plain stupid. I think it can be fixed, though, and the pilot took me on a pretty good ride with Jason Ritter that I'd like to go on again. I'll give it 2.5 out of 4 stars. Two characters effectively fleshed out in the pilot episode is kind of the bare minimum, and one of those two characters seems to have disappeared. I'm hopeful the writers and actors will give us better insight into the others next week. I think it's definitely worth trying, especially if you're looking for something that will hook you like "Lost" did. However, this show is not as strong or as successful as "Lost" was from the get-go. "Lost" immediately gave viewers the stakes. Failure meant starvation and death. The mystery that they kept expanding on was how difficult it was going to be to survive, and why. "The Event" doesn't have that. The only stake we have a slight grasp on is that Leia might be in danger, and maybe the President as well. I'm not sure those stakes are high enough to keep me coming back, but I will check back in next week. Will you?
If you're looking for more than one perspective on the show, you should check out Ken Tucker's TV blog, an always excellent resource for television reviews and recommendations. I appreciate his insight and his writing, so it's worth a look. Here's a link to his thoughts on "The Event" pilot. Ken Tucker's TV Blog
Boardwalk Empire burns slow, like a savored cigar. The pilot builds methodically, painstakingly to its climax before a slow unwind to let you mull over the fallout. The show sets up the slow build by showing some of the climax in the opening sequence before flashing back to a couple days before to show what led to it. I assure you, even seeing part of the climax at the start of the film didn't give too much away. There are plenty of new facets to that moment as well as the build up to it that make it surprising and exciting. One historical figure's appearance was a particularly pleasant surprise. The only clunky moment of the show happens within the first two minutes, as a convoy falls into an overly obvious trap that even a non-gangsta such as myself could spot from a mile away.
The set and aura of the show exudes a shiny and clean front of small businesses, honest politics, and ignorant men and women. But as the show goes on, we begin to see the violence, sex, and drinking that go behind the scenes. Much of the "business" occurs at night, and there's a brutal simplicity to the violence. Greed is the primary motive for the brutality and duplicity. Jimmy Darmody declares it to be his motive, and tells Nucky it's his motive as well. Only time will tell if that's the truth.
There's reason to believe Nucky is conflicted about his crimes. Jimmy tells him he can't be just "half a thug anymore". He clearly is still mourning his wife, who, it is implied, would have been ashamed of his actions. He spends a good portion of the episode trying to help a poor pregnant woman. His solution at the end of the episode is startlingly simple, efficient, and (maybe?) a kind thing. I'll leave that up to you to decide.
Something else you should decide for yourself is when you're going to make the time to watch this show. It's got the addictive quality and the accurate depiction of period that Mad Men possesses, but it has the brutal gangs and street warfare of Reservoir Dogs. I can't help but like this show, and you won't be able to either. My personal favorite part of the episode is the climax which is queued up by a bit of 20's comedy about how stupid the comedian's girlfriend is.(Everyone with me: "How stupid is she?")
So check this one out. I'm giving it 3.5 stars out of 4, because it does have room to grow and a few plot points it can cinch a bit tighter. I can't wait to see if it does.
"January 1920. On the eve of Prohibition, Atlantic City's Treasurer, Nucky Thompson, condemns alcohol at a Women's Temperance League meeting, where he is noticed by Margaret Schroeder, a pretty, pregnant housewife who comes to him for help in getting her abusive husband Hans a job. Later that evening, the duplicitous Nucky privately tells his ward bosses about the opportunity to make huge profits selling bootleg liquor. At a countdown-to-midnight blast at Babette's Supper Club, he assures Jimmy Darmody, a recently returned WWI vet, that his appointment as "Man Friday" to the new Chief Clerk of the Fourth Ward, Paddy Ryan, will lead to bigger things. Jimmy, meanwhile, has higher aspirations and ends up making an alliance that could have dire consequences for both him and Nucky." - HBO Publicity
Well folks, this past week was a quiet week for this blog. Let's call it the quiet before the storm. We've got quite a few brand new shows premiering this week, and I'm going to try to get to most of the ones that I think have any kind of promise at all. This past week I've been working on my own pilot, and while it's nowhere near done, like the beginning of a sculpture, a nose is starting to peek out from the messy blob of stone. I'm getting a feel for the characters, for the world and its rules, and, most importantly, what I want the show to be about. I'm loving the experiment.
I've written specs before, and while they're fun in their own way,(capturing the essence of a show and it's characters while putting them into situations you've always wanted to see them in) they lack that raw experiential challenge and thrill of putting something new together.
As a slight update on some of the show's I've watched this past week, here's a rapid fire of my thoughts. Just finished watching four more episodes of Lost. Still in the first season, but I think we're down to just two episodes before Season Two. I've watched halfway through season two before, but I lost my momentum. Hopefully, watching with a friend will help. It's still blowing my mind the second time through, as I'd forgotten a lot of the crazy twists the show takes.
Also got through six episodes of Pushing Daisies this week. It's even better than I remembered. I watched the first two episodes of Sons of Anarchy, and it was really intriguing and I can't wait to watch some more. I checked out the first two discs of it so I can get a larger sample size of it. It's got a great kick of action, but it's got a lot of dramatic intrigue among the gang/family, as well as some heartfelt moments for the main character, who is a new father. FX and AMC are incredible at producing good shows and keeping them operating at a high level.
Speaking of another FX show, Terriers' second episode was even better than the first. The pacing was much more consistent, the humor more persistent, and the case and characters more interesting. Didn't have the same "wow" moments of writing for me as the pilot, but good writing shouldn't always smack you in the face.
Nikita was still good, clean fun. I'm definitely excited about what the show can do with the two sides of the story it is balancing. Right now, we're still getting the background story for Nikita's "inside man", but I'm looking forward to when the flashbacks are less frequent and we can just explore the ever-so-intriguing present.
Warehouse 13 had another strong showing. I keep telling myself the writers are going to have a down episode here soon, but it's just been something new thrown into the mix every week. It is easily the best written Science Fiction or Fantasy show on the air. Check it out.
On the other end of the spectrum, Eureka has finally, officially lost my loyalty as a viewer. I watched that show make some of the worst television I've ever seen, just so I could enjoy it on the rare occasions when it got good. Or maybe under some misguided hope that someone with a brain would finally become a writer on the show. While the first part of this season was uncharacteristically good and relatively consistent, the season took a definite death spiral here at the mid-season break. The concluding episode was terrible. It made so many rookie writing mistakes that I was in disbelief. Confusing and contradictory time loop storylines, deaths of characters that just get corrected by the end of the episode, and delivering on romance way too easily way too soon and in a way too hoaky and sickeningly stupid way. They forgot that Henry existed. Again. They forgot that Alison has a son. Again. And they forgot how to write. AGAIN.
Terriers is a comedic drama about a couple of private detectives. Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James star as Hank and Britt. Hank used to be a cop, but an extensive bout of drinking got him kicked off the force, and his wife to leave him. She is still a friend of his, however, and is selling their old house. Not much was revealed about Britt in episode one, but we did meet his girlfriend, played by Laura Allen.
The pilot begins with Hank and Britt on a "case" that Hank is skeptical about. I think it's fair to guess that Britt is going to be the "shenanigans" partner. Hank meets up with an old drinking buddy of his, who is concerned for his daughter, who he thinks might be in danger. The guys go looking for her and begin to realize that they may be out of their depth. Frankly, a lot of these private detective plot points may sound familiar, but I don't know that I've ever actually seen a good private eye show, and this one shows the definite sparks of something special. It's not there yet, but I smell copper in the room.
Some small moments show brilliance in the writing. Call me a geek, but the method which Hank used to enter a gated home's yard made me both laugh out loud and yell, "Damn, that's good!" at the tv screen. That may be an oversell of a rather small moment, but it showed some ingenuity that this genre could desperately use. Another moment after a particularly devastating conversation for Hank included an almost instant cut to him leaning on a liquor store counter, staring at the bottles. I cringed and squirmed, desperate for this character I'd just met to leave without buying anything.
The show's pace is slow, taking its time with the characters and the events unfolding around them. They don't really seek out cases, the business seems to fall in their laps rather naturally, and in such a way that won't leave you saying, "wait a minute, how does a town that size have that much crime/business for a couple of nobody detectives?". Their "office" is a beat up old pickup truck. The show is just funny enough to not leave you desperate and hanging in their gritty little world, but not funny enough to be a buddy cop show. They're buddies, and they're detectives, but any humor that comes out of this show is completely character and situation-driven. And that's refreshing.
If you're not a fan of a show that can take its time, you probably won't like this one. The best comparison of this show is to Men of a Certain Age, only with detectives and mysteries. It's a strange comparison, but the pace, mood, and humor of the shows are similar. Take a look, see what you think.
I swear folks, I'm gonna get a graphic that shows a rating. For now, I'm just giving this a loud 3 out of 4 stars, and hoping it grows into its promise.
Whoa, surprise! I was dreading watching this one. But I think I may have found a replacement show for the only-mildly-entertaining Covert Affairs. Maggie Q stars in the title role as a former death row inmate who is taken from prison covertly to be trained as a spy and assassin for the U.S. Government. Or at least a Division of it. Xander Berkley and Shane West play the most visible Division handlers, and they are trying to stop her from taking down Division. Okay, so the ridiculously ridiculous premise threw me off of this one too, but once it gets going, it's just good fun. From sweet action sequences to plot turns to witty one liners, this pilot pretty much nailed it.
Nikita is on a mission to bring down Division, and it's personal. And while that's sweet, I found myself most interested and excited in the new recruit, Alex's (Lyndsy Fonseca's) story line. We get to see her taken from prison and woken up in this training facility. Not only is it interesting to see her progress, but I'm excited to see the interpersonal relationships of all the recruits. I remember that being the most disappointing part of the movie for me; I wanted more than a montage of this struggle to reach "active" status, and the relationships of the recruits with one another and their handlers. Hopefully we'll get to see more of that.
Nikita's storyline is going to require a bit more gentle handling. I hope the writers are up to it. They don't want us to resent her because every time the story switches to her, we'd rather be with Alex. Still, her presence outside the walls of division will give us relief from the sheltered world of the recruits, and I'm hopeful her story will keep us in touch with the world around her.
Regardless, you should definitely check out this pilot. And if you reach the end and haven't enjoyed yourself, write on here and explain to me why you don't like old-fashioned spy intrigue and action.
I swear folks, I'm gonna get a graphic that shows a rating. For now, I'm giving this 2.5 out of 4 stars because I'm not quite sure where exactly it has to go. I'm just hoping to get one good season of spy fun out of it, but I don't expect anything more than that.
It's easy to be drawn to a book because of its cover. We've all done it, and more times than not, it actually works out well for us. This is because of the fact that most of the time we know what we want: We want sleek and colorful. We want swords and magic. We want glamor and gossip. We want explosions and fight sequences. We want hot chicks. But no matter how long we've been reading, we can't see past the premise of the book, the cover. We cannot see past what it wants to be to get a glimpse of what it actually is.
It takes time to see what a television show is. It is so much more than its premise. It takes character arcs, story turns, and, most importantly, failure, to see what a show is. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a show with vampires and other supernatural creatures. But what it worked at week to week was giving a view of this particular world's high school social and personal life. Breaking Bad is a show with a chemistry teacher who cooks crystal meth. But what it's about is how far down the path to hell a man can go with, or maybe even because of, the best of intentions. The show is a litmus test of humanity's capacity for evil.
A pilot can give a good idea of the feel of a show, can give hints about how a basic episode will unfold, what subjects the show is concerned with, and a foundation for basic character wants and needs. But even the best shows need momentum. This doesn't mean that shows can't be good from the outset. But they don't know if they will continue to be good until they do something lousy, something that flops. The absolute best writers, the best show runners can immediately spot what works and what won't. But that's only the very best writers and show runners, because it's damn hard to tell what you've got when you're in the thick of it. The shows of Modern Family's ilk, which hit the ground running full speed in its pilot and kept going the whole season, are incredibly rare. The best shows I've ever seen have had some incredibly slow, lousy beginnings. The Wire took some incredibly laborious set-up to start to have an impact. One of my favorite shows(though less than a masterpiece) is Eureka. The pilot is one of the worst pieces of television I have ever sat through. It took some serious motivation to keep trying, but I trusted the promise, trusted the actors involved, trusted that the writers would see what they had.
Warehouse 13 is an excellent example of a show that started out existing solely on its premise. But then smart writers took ahold of the idea and made it smart and funny and fresh. The show centers on a group of Secret Service agents working in a warehouse that stores magical, historical devices and keeps them out of the reach of dangerous people. The two field agents were initially just your typical, run of the mill character molds. Pete was goofy, fast-talking, and had intuition(gut feelings) about things. Myka was your play-by-the-rules, straight-shooter. Their "handler", Artie was grumpy and frumpy, and they lived in a hotel with a somewhat psychic woman. This was the status of the first five episodes of the show. But, in the fifth episode, the writers introduced Claudia, a character that seemed like a passing guest star. She was a young, spunky, technological geek who was searching for her brother. But the star characters basically adopted her into their group. What was a work environment became family.
Once it was family, the characters started to reveal themselves, and suddenly the show is so much more than its premise. It's about a group of misfits who have to rely on each other, and whether or not they can survive as a family in such a stressful, crazy, and dangerous work environment. It's about how they will grow from week to week while going through this together. The writers are smart. They have a formula, but they stretch it to its limits, and they don't always obey it. They mix and match characters and always have a new dynamic popping up to keep things interesting. In a recent episode, the writers found a way to keep Pete at the warehouse with Artie, and Claudia went on a case with Myka. This resulted in some great moments for Claudia, trying to be an agent of Myka's ilk, as well as for Artie and Pete, who ended up giving each other advice about girls. The very next episode, it was mixed up again. Guest stars are brought in to let the viewers geek out, but they serve a purpose in our characters' arcs. The writers, actors, and show runners are all in sync, and the brilliance through most every episode is evidence of that.
However, a show can be propped up by premise, only to fail once the originality of that premise starts to fade. Heroes had everyone hooked through its first season. But it went too far, it gave the viewers and characters exactly what they wanted, so they had nothing to do in the next season except hope that the premise was still interesting enough to keep people watching. The quality plummeted. The idea was old now, and we weren't amazed simply by the idea that these normal-seeming people had powers. The same villains were now boring, the same heroes likewise. The writers made a mistake and they kept repeating it over and over. They simply didn't learn or never saw what the problem was in the first place.
A show needs skilled people in order to be consistently sharp. They need writers who want to see more facets of characters, need actors to become those characters, need producers and show runners to recognize who these characters are becoming and do everything in their power to help bring them out. It simply is not possible to do that until you've failed and gone beyond the limits of your characters or ideas, if only to see that you can only take your show to this point before it falls off the edge and into the abyss. Whether that failed attempt actually makes it to the air or not, failure is an incredibly important recipe for success.
So next time you're watching a pilot episode and you're thinking "UGH!", try to examine the possibilities of the characters and story before giving up. Chances are, the show runners haven't discovered where the characters need to go yet. Maybe they don't quite know what the show is yet. That doesn't mean they won't ever figure it out. But if you stop watching, you sure won't.
Many new concepts and pilots are being pitched and picked up. Here's my look at a few recent developments.
If you came for Harry Potter, it's at the bottom of the page. But feel free to skim these other news items first.
Neil Gaiman's graphic novel, The Sandman has been slated for development as a movie for quite some time. However, it has repeatedly gotten nowhere due to the lack of even halfway decent scripts. Also, the story is so expansive and inclusive, a movie probably could never do it justice. The Sandman is a story mostly about Morpheus, who is basically the god of dreaming. I still need to consult my local nerds on more info about the plot of the graphic novel, but it is considered one of the greatest ever created. More recently, HBO looked interested in creating a series with The Sandman as source material. However, the most recent development has Warner Brothers making a strong push for Eric Kripke, creator of Supernatural, to be show runner and executive producer on a series using The Sandman. While nothing has been confirmed, Kripke has expressed cautious interest in the material, but has treaded carefully due to the fact that the source material is so beloved and would be so scrutinized. As a fan of early Supernatural, and as someone incredibly curious about anything comics, magic, sci-fi, or fantasy related, this definitely gets me interested.
Marc Guggenheim, creator of Eli Stone, has a project in development at ABC. He has gotten a script commitment. The series would follow the White House Office of Crisis Management. This would be an event-type series, following one large global disaster per season.The first season would be concerned with a problem on the International Space Station.
Steven Spielberg. Joe Hill. Alex Kurtzman. Roberto Orci. They're lining up for this one, an adaptation of Joe Hill's(son of Stephen King) comic book, Locke and Key. Spielberg and Kurtzman are overseeing the development. According to Deadline.com, the project will be written and run by Josh Friedman, creator of Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. Locke and Key follows the Locke children after their father is brutally murdered by a high school student. They move to an island mansion, where they discover magic keys and doorways, which are simultaneously being sought out by an evil creature from their past. Sounds like a promising project to me!
Oren Peli(of Paranormal Activity fame) and Michael Perry(of Law and Order: SVU fame) have teamed up to co-write a pilot currently entitled The River. The pilot will apparently be done in similar format to the "found footage" style of films like Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project, and Cloverfield. The story is set on the Amazon River, where a famous reporter goes missing and is presumed dead. The heart of the story will pick up when a group of friends and researchers set out to look for him. Needless to say, the Amazon River isn't exactly a pleasant place, so I think it sounds pretty unnerving. Especially with Peli at the helm. Currently, ABC is leading the pack to pick up this pilot. According to Deadline.com, they are apparently pretty close to a deal.
Elizabeth Sarnoff and J.J. Abrams are pitching a pilot episode they co-penned about the famous island prison, Alcatraz. Not much is known about the pilot, other than that it's a drama. You may have seen Sarnoff's work if you liked Lost, as she rose to the position of Executive Producer for the final season. She wrote 19 episodes for the show. Abrams has recently written the pilots for shows such as Alias, Lost, Fringe, Felicity, What About Brian, Six Degrees, and the upcoming Undercovers. What's most interesting to me is the fact that Abrams isn't teaming up with one of his usual writer buddies. Perhaps he's found a new writer in Sarnoff that he's willing to work with. We could be in for something new here. I'm curious whether we'll see any of the supernatural tendencies from Fringe or Lost, or if they're attempting a straight drama. Either way, as you can tell by that list of shows, keep your eye on this one: Abrams tends to do well for himself.
Also according to Deadline.com, Anthony Zuiker, creator of all three CSI programs, is in the process of developing a spin-off of Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne Series for CBS. The current title of the pilot is Treadstone, which in both the novels and the films is used as the program name for United States' Black Ops. What is intriguing to me is the difference between the novels and the books on the characteristics of Treadstone. In the movies, the organization is villainized and is largely seen as wrong or evil. However, in the books, they are mostly depicted as heroic. I'm curious as to which interpretation Mr. Zuiker will take. In addition to interpretation, I'm curious as to the characters we will be following, and if, in fact, Mr. Zuiker can create anything original after such a long period milking his success from CSI. As a huge fan of the Bourne franchise, I'm certainly hoping he can do it justice. John Glenn, writer of The Lazarus Project and Eagle Eye, is writing the pilot.
And finally, in a move sure to give geeks worldwide wet dreams, Battlestar Gallactica's Ronald D. Moore has signed a deal with NBC to develop a drama that Moore described as an "adult Harry Potter police procedural"... Well folks, I'm sorry if that was anti-climactic. While I probably share in the blame, I think perhaps that it is a mistake on Mr. Moore's part to announce his project by immediately comparing it with the most popular and beloved novel series ever. Also, "police procedural" doesn't sound very Potter-esque to me. In fact, the world kind of sounds like The Dresden Files, a show that you probably missed on the Sci-Fi network. On the show, a man used magic to solve cases. It was less than thrilling. In fact, it felt like cheating. Still, anything involving Mr. Moore is something worth paying attention to. While I personally am loathe to acknowledge Battlestar Gallactica as an even halfway decent show, I will give him the nod for being personally responsible for some great shows long before Gallactica came along. With Star Trek: TNG and DS9, Roswell, and the always underrated Carnivale under his belt, he is someone who clearly knows what he's doing. Something we can count on in this show is certainly an overly powerful force in control of the universe he creates, and a smaller, plucky force fighting for relevance. We can also count on quite a few religious overtones, as Ronald loves few things more than a good metaphor for religions or cults. Still, I doubt that, however interesting or compelling this project becomes, it will ever have much in common with Harry Potter. Just sayin.
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NBC is desperate to fill air time after Jay Leno's debacle, ABC is looking to restock its repertoire across the board, CBS is cop and sitcom happy with mixed results, and FOX is on fire this year with innovative and heartfelt programs. Check out the upcoming shows for this fall. More in depth reviews are in store once the shows premiere.
OutlawNBC- Looks like a feel-good courtroom drama. Jimmy Smits stars as a Supreme Court Justice who steps down from his post to right some of the wrongs that he feels he has created. Doesn't look like anything groundbreaking, and the best part of the trailer is Civil Twilight's "Letters From the Sky" playing. Worth keeping in the peripheral, but given the amount of airtime NBC is desperately trying to fill, I'm not too sure this would be a show that would've made it in any other year. No offense to any newcomers, but I don't think there's a whole lot of room left in the courtroom with The Good Wife absolutely blowing the competition out of the water. There's almost nothing feel-good about that show most weeks. Just weasel-like lawyers trying to find a way to make it sound like they mean well. All the good guys on that show lose. Call me a pessimist, but I don't think I can quite buy it any other way.
School Pride NBC- This one might actually make me feel good. Think of it as Extreme Makeover, School Edition. I have a hard time liking reality TV, but I can support something like this. While the pilot makes you feel good, I can't help but get a little depressed by the state of the school at the beginning of the episode. It's tragic when these institutions have a better shot of getting real help from a television show than from their own government.
Outsourced NBC- This one is about a call center manager for a novelty item company who gets transferred/outsourced to India. Looks promising. It'll probably be pretty painful to watch from the outset, but I'm curious as to how the characters will grow. Still, I find it obnoxious that on a show based in India, not only is the main character a white American, but the girl they clearly want him to be interested in is white also. This is India, people! He should probably meet some Indians who aren't insulting racial stereotypes of call center employees. Just saying. One will do.
Law and Order: Los Angeles NBC- Ugh. Most shows have run out of things to do, subjects to explore, characters to flesh out, and new ideas in general by the end of five seasons. This incredibly rehashed show has collectively been on the air for 41 seasons, each new season more predictable and less innovative than the last. A change in geography ain't gonna cut it, folks.
Undercovers NBC- Hmmm... A married couple that's been out of the spy game for five years gets recruited back into the CIA. A less than original premise, but the acting looks sharp, as does the production. NBC's been promoting this one like crazy, so they're obviously hopeful. It looks like it has a sense of humor, but I'm just not sure where the tension will come from. It doesn't look as though they have kids or a real stake in much of anything other than one another. That could get old fast. Still, I, for one, will definitely try this one out.
Chase NBC- A special team that tracks down criminals. Looks like it'll have a chance to be good, I just hope they choose to focus on their characters as much as the cases. It's not a real new concept, but I guess I should be thankful that it's not Law and Order: Topeka.
The Event NBC- An ensemble conspiracy thriller in the vein of Flashforward. I personally enjoyed Flashforward, but it was canceled, and largely because of its misunderstanding of the importance of the stakes. The main character in that show acted out of fear that his wife would find out he was drinking again. Meanwhile, the world was imploding. Here, it looks as if the main character has reason to act. I'm pleased by the promise of this one. After all, we can all use a new "Lost" in our lives, right? It's got a talented cast for sure. Let's see if they deliver.
Blue Bloods CBS- Family of cops. Doesn't sound fancy, but there's a lot of potential story in there. And who better to bring out those stories than the writer of The Sopranos? With an all star cast of Bridget Moynahan, Donnie Wahberg, and TOM SELLECK, this is a must watch. Definitely looking forward to this one.
The Defenders CBS- Jerry O'Connell and Jim Belushi star as attorneys in Las Vegas. These two look like they make for an entertaining duo, and I don't say that lightly. Man, I really don't want to like this one in premise, but it looks like it's shaping up to be pretty sharp. And, can I say in all seriousness that Jim is the talented brother? I'M NOT KIDDING! John had one facial expression, and it was only funny in Blues Brothers. That's it, folks.
Mike & Molly CBS- Well, the creator of The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men brings you this doozy about a fat schoolteacher and a fat cop who fall in love. Complete with laugh track, this one will keep you rolling all the way down the hill to the hot dog stand. Not my cup of tea, but it looks like a decent sitcom.
Hawaii Five-O CBS- The second attempt at a reboot of this classic show. Special task force, beach, girls, bullets, you get the picture. It actually looks like fun. Mindless, sure, but sometimes we all just need some buttkicking goodness.
Shit My Dad Says CBS- When I first heard about this concept, I'll admit, I was...skeptical. A show based on a Twitter account? Didn't we already try something like this, only with a commercial and cavemen? But the moment Billy Shatner signed on, Shit just got real. Who can resist Captain Kirk? The show's about a dad(Shatner) and his son, who he convinces to live with him because he's lost his license and needs someone to drive him around. There seems to be a lot of wonderful verbal abuse flying around here. Just picture Frank Barone being played by Shatner on a spinoff of Everybody Loves Raymond.
Body of Proof ABC- Basically the female "House", except she's a coroner. She seems to have room to grow, though, unlike House. If you like medical dramas, here's a new one for you.
The Whole Truth ABC- A courthouse drama that claims to have a revolutionary look "behind the scenes" of criminal law and trials. Honestly, it doesn't look like something we haven't seen quite often before, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The show looks like it's put together well, they have some talented writers on staff, and the cast is talented. Who knows?
Better With You ABC- Yes! Looks like a good sitcom in the vein of How I Met Your Mother. It's about a family, most specifically two sisters, who have a different outlook on marriage, and are at very different stages of their relationships. Their parents look particularly funny, played by Kurt Fuller and Debra Jo Rupp.
Detroit 1-8-7 ABC- Like Cops, only scripted, this show has the feel of Southland or The Wire. Gritty show attempting realism in a faux-documentary style, I'm excited to see how they take advantage of a new kind of format for police procedural dramas. Looks sharp, smart, and heartfelt. Can't ask much more than that.
Running Wilde FOX- Will Arnett is scrumtrelescent. Also, Keri Russell is super cute. Also, Mitch Hurwitz, creator of Arrested Development, is behind this piece of comedy and romantic genius. Arnett plays a rich, spoiled man who fell in love with the housekeeper's daughter(Russell) when they were both young. The housekeeper got fired, and they never saw each other again, until now. Now Russell has a daughter and she shows up at Arnett's door to ask for his help with an African tribe she's been trying to save.
Raising Hope FOX- A 25 year-old still living with his family gets custody of an infant from a one night stand when the baby's mother goes to prison. This comedy looks heartfelt and hilarious. The banter amongst the family is spot on, and the clerk at the grocery store giving "advice" is wonderful as an outlet for our lead.
Lone Star FOX- Oh man! Fox is on fire this year. I haven't met a cad I liked more since Don Draper. This is about a con artist living two or maybe three lives at a time, who wants to change his ways, but is in love with two women. Morally convoluted, character driven show. Can't wait.
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These are the top eight shows that were canceled way too soon for most people to be able to catch on to them. Numbered from one to eight for my increasing stages of anger that they were canceled.
1. Sit Down, Shut Up, FOX- Oh man. FOX has a distinct place of shame on this list. It is, in my opinion, the network most likely to screw over any good shows that it accidentally places on the air. Examples of good shows that were canceled too soon but don't quite make this list include The Tick, Arrested Development, and Family Guy(you know, the first time). Anytime I get excited about a show appearing on FOX, I distance myself from it, because I'm afraid to make a commitment to something that I'll just have to leave in six months.
Anything with Will Arnett in it has me sold. Okay, maybe anything but Let's Go to Prison. And hey, it doesn't hurt to have his former Arrested Development co-star Jason Bateman on board. And yes, that's the adorable Kristin Chenoweth's voice being used for the character Miracle. There's nothing much that can be said about this show except that it's damn funny. It's better than Futurama ever was, and it's better than the garbage that Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, and The Simpsons are spewing out these days. Sadly, FOX didn't even let it finish its initial run, forcing the show's final episodes to air on Comedy Central.
One Season, 13 Episodes. 2009
2. The Unusuals, ABC- This one is probably a surprise to everyone, including myself. But I'll be damned if I didn't enjoy the hell out of this show and don't miss it like crazy now that it's gone. Picture Law and Order: Total Crazies Unit. This felt more like a real cop show than Law and Order, but the crimes were just nuts. The only show with weirder stuff going on for the crimes was Pushing Daisies. Castle is actually pretty comparable sometimes, but the writing on that show is much more episodic, predictable, and straightforward. Here, characters have more than one trait that defines them. They shift and grow. The cast is great here, too. Amber Tamblyn(best known as Joan of Arcadia) takes the lead, but is supported by Adam Goldberg(best known as Chandler's crazy roommate on Friend's when Joey moves out), Harold Parrineau(best known as Walt, from the first season of Lost), and Jeremy Renner(best known as the lead of the Best Picture of 2010, The Hurt Locker).
Don't pigeon-hole this one, either. It's not just kooky crimes. There are plenty of grey areas explored in this cop world, and you're likely to end up on a different side of the law than what you expected coming in to the show. Worth a look.
One season, 10 Episodes. 2009.
3. Life, NBC- This show has the unlikely honor of being the longest running show to make this list. It went two full seasons before the writer's strike blew it to hell. It makes the list because it was just so damn good, smart, and intriguing, and it had so much juice left. Detective Charlie Crews is played by Damian Lewis(best known for portraying Winters in Band of Brothers) to perfection. He is a former cop who was wrongfully convicted of murder, and, upon his release, gets an enormous settlement, and returns to the force as a detective. Oh, and he's really into zen. This show was surprisingly funny and endlessly quotable.
Two Seasons, 32 episodes. 2007-2009
4. John From Cincinnati, HBO- How do I describe this show? Weird. Very, very weird. Maybe it's about God? Maybe it's just insanity. It is, for sure, about the Yosts, a surfing family that is pretty dysfunctional. The tension of the first and only season is whether or not the family can come together. The mysterious John arrives to help them, but the endgame of his appearance is never revealed. He is the center of the strange and somewhat supernatural events surrounding the family, including Mitch Yost levitating, John being able to pull almost anything from his pockets, visions for several characters, and resuscitating Shaun Yost from a vegetative state. For me, Ed O'Neill was the highlight of the show as the slightly insane neighbor with a large collection of pet birds that he talks to. If you're looking for something thought-provoking and funny, check this one out. But if you're looking for something that wraps itself up neatly, stay away. HBO canceled this show before it got to answer any real questions.
One Season, 10 Episodes. 2007.
5. Wonderfalls, FOX- This show was brought to us by the great Bryan Fuller, one of the men responsible for bringing Pushing Daisies, Star Trek: Voyager, Dead Like Me, and Heroes to the world. Another one of the more inventive and unique visions that television has seen in a while, this show has a similar premise to Joan of Arcadia: mysterious force talks to main character and helps her to help others. But, this one is a comedy, and it probably isn't God doing the talking. Here, the talking is done through objects shaped like animals. That includes things such as a brass monkey, a plastic lion, and a milk saucer shaped like a cow. The main character has a rather narcissistic sense of humor, and the show follows suit. Oh, gooey, goofy, insane goodness.
One Season, 13 Episodes. 2004.
6. Firefly, FOX- This show was the best sci-fi has ever been on television. That's right folks. Star Trek, Buffy, and Battlestar Gallactica all fall incredibly short of this show. Star Trek had the concept, but its characters fall well short of the brilliance shown here by both the writers and the actors. Buffy certainly had originality, but it used and reused monsters that the world had seen before. The characters were good, but the acting could get campy. And Battlestar Gallactica... well, they had a lot of money to spend to make stuff blow up good... Firefly got it done without the money. The humor was character and situation-driven, the premise was original and engaging, and the writing was a perfect balance of over-arching theme and character-driven self-contained episodes. The acting was brilliant. The effects were as good as it gets for tv.
Nathan Fillion is Captain Malcolm Reynolds. No, seriously, he should change his name. Alan Tudyk is perfect as the loveably goofy, somewhat insecure, but totally awesome pilot, Wash. Adam Baldwin as Jayne is my favorite ever conflicted good guy who is still kinda bad(Yeah, that means you, Snape. Severus is nowhere near as cool a name as Jayne). The western vibe of this show was a perfect fit for the crew and its ship. Truly, even if you don't normally like sci-fi's, you should still give this masterpiece a shot. It's a different experience. No magic-whatever-devices will solve all our character's problems. Their medical supplies are similar to ours, their ships were scraped together and could break just as easily as one of our cars, and the characters themselves are more similar to us than any other sci-fi. They don't have the glorified perfection of Star Trek, the high-school melodramatics of Buffy, or the manic, emotional frenzy of Battlestar Gallactica. They are men and women just searching for a piece of the universe to call their home.
I always had the feeling that the cast of the ship and the cast of the show were equally attached to one another. The chemistry on screen was almost too real to be faked. This show's cancellation is solely responsible for my deepseated loathing of the Fox network. Okay, I lied. This show's cancellation, and the cancellation of Wonderfalls and Arrested Development. Okay, I lied again. The cancellation of Firefly, Wonderfalls, Arrested Development, and the fact that The Cleveland Show is still on the air. Really, FOX? You canceled Firefly, but decided to re-up the spin-off of Family Guy that uses the least popular character from a show that lost its originality the first time you canceled it?! The only way to take out my anger is to have a HITLER RANT. Tag, you're in, Adolf.
One Season, 14 episodes. 2002-2003
7. Pushing Daisies, ABC- As expressed in the blog entry previous to this one, I love love love this show. Just makes me feel happy. Every episode feels like a complete movie unto itself, and you find yourself wondering what else they can do the next episode. But they always find a way. Cute, hilarious, original, colorful, and heartwarming, this show is epic.
Two Seasons, 22 Episodes. 2007-2009.
8. Kings, NBC- Easily the most original and exciting concept on this list. In fact, it is one of the most unique and best ideas for a television show I've ever seen. A drama based in an alternate present about a young boy's rise to power, Kings is an allegory for the Old Testament story of David. Ian McShane is brilliant as King Silas(effectively King Saul), and Christopher Egan shows great promise as the young Captain David Shepherd. It's impossible to try to describe this world, except to say that one should imagine our country as a monarchy, complete with capitalism and corporations and politics. The lines of war are redrawn in this world, but the enemies look familiar. Greed, warfare, lies, and love all play a huge part in this show's repertoire. I think this show is easily the coolest and most intriguing show I've ever watched, making it all the more tragic that NBC canceled it so quickly, before all the episodes had even aired. This cancellation is easily the most baffling and tragic to me. It is all the more painful because I know of not even one other person who watched it. You should. You won't regret it, I promise. It's a complex entanglement of political and social intrigue mixed with some good old fashioned romance.
One Season, 12 Episodes. 2009.
Try a few of these shows out, and you won't regret it. Promise.
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I tend to watch a lot of television shows. I've at least heard of almost every show that's been on the air in the last five years. If I haven't at least tried to watch it, it's because I already know it's garbage or that I wouldn't like it. Still, I'll try almost anything. Heck, I tried to watch True Blood(and, in case you didn't know already, it's garbage).
Here's a list of shows I've watched a lot of.
Firefly
Rome
Journeyman
Mad Men
Breaking Bad
Eureka
Warehouse 13
Stargate Universe
Star Trek DS9 and TNG
Big Bang Theory
Two and a Half Men
Friends
Covert Affairs
Psych
White Collar
Burn Notice
CSI
Law and Order SVU and CI
Californication
Hung
The Wire
Band of Brothers
The Pacific
Rubicon
Treme
The Legend of the Seeker
Flash Gordon
Tin Man
The Lost Room
The Good Wife
How I Met Your Mother
John From Cincinnatti
Carnivale
Being Human
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
X Files
South Park
Family Guy
Simpsons
American Dad
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Futurama
3rd Rock From the Sun
The 4400
7th Heaven
Andromeda
Andy Richter Controls the Universe
Arrested Development
Dark Angel
24
Babylon 5
Battlestar Gallactica
Better Off Ted
The Big C
Bones
Birds of Prey
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Bonanza
I Love Lucy
Little House on the Prairie
Matlock
One Tree Hill
The O.C.
10 Things I Hate About You
Everwood
Caprica
Castle
Charmed
Cold Case
Criminal Minds
Without a Trace
Damages
Dead Like Me
The Dead Zone
Desperate Housewives
Dharma and Greg
Will and Grace
The Nanny
Doctor Who
The Dollhouse
The Drew Carey Show
Whose Line is it Anyway?
Wonderfalls
Pushing Daisies
Kings
Early Edition
Entourage
ER
Everybody Loves Raymond
Extras
Farscape
Felicity
Roswell
Flashforward
Frasier
Friday Night Lights
Fringe
Home Improvement
George Lopez
Get Smart
Gilmore Girls
Glee
Grey's Anatomy
Harper's Island
Haven
Sanctuary
Heroes
House
The West Wing
Human Target
In Plain Sight
V
Flight of the Concords
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Jake 2.0
Joey
John Doe
Just Shoot Me
Justified
King of Queens
King of the Hill
Kyle XY
Leverage
Life on Mars
Life
Life Unexpected
Lois and Clark
Lost
Mash
Malcolm in the Middle
Medium
Men of a Certain Age
Merlin
Modern Family
Mutant X
My Name is Earl
No Ordinary Family
Northern Exposure
Numbers
The Office
Parks and Recreation
Quantum Leap
Painkiller Jane
Pillars of Earth
The Practice
The Pretender
Robin Hood
Roseanne
Royal Pains
Samantha Who?
Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Seinfeld
Sit Down, Shut Up
Dexter
Smallville
Southland
Spin City
Supernatural
That 70's Show
The Tick
Touching Evil
The Tudours
Twin Peaks
The Unusuals
V
Veronica Mars
What I Like About You
Yes Dear
Day Break
The Dresden Files
Scrubs
Those are all the ones I can think of. I'm not proud of a lot of those, and most of them I didn't/haven't watched all the way through. However, I've at least seen a season of all of them, or five episodes and LOTS of pieces of other episodes. I left all the other ones that I barely tried off this list. I also included shows that are new that I intend to keep watching for a bit(No Ordinary Family, The Big C, etc.)
Why is this interesting at all to any of you who might be reading this? Well, because this blog is going to be dealing pretty intrinsically with whatever shows I'm watching, and what I think of what's happening, or what I think of the shows in general. In short, this will be a sort of tv "reviewing" blog, although not all that rigid. I'll probably also talk about things I'm writing, whether it be nonfiction, poetry, or a spec script. I'll most definitely make recommendations, as well as warn people off of shows and books. I can't wait to give you guys a review of some of the newer stuff, such as The Big C, No Ordinary Family, and Covert Affairs. I'm also looking forward to getting a look at Boardwalk Empire, Running Wilde, and Game of Thrones when they make their debut. Gonna be awesome. Maybe I'll let you know what I thought about the pilots of other new shows like The Hard Times of RJ Berger or Sons of Tucson.(This is a video of my reaction to those shows.)
But today, my absolute first, no-qualms-about-it recommendation is for Pushing Daisies. This show is not an acquired taste. It isn't something that only some people will love. If you have a heart, you will love this show. It's quirky, colorful, heartfelt, and hilarious. It is probably the best show in the world to make you feel better if you're ever feeling depressed. The premise is that a man has a strange power to raise people from the dead by touching them, but it comes with consequences. If that person stays alive for longer than a minute, someone else in proximity must die. Also, if the man touches that person EVER again, that person will die again. Forever. So, obviously, he starts a pie shop, and in his free time solves cases with his friend Emerson. The show's humor can be pretty black, seeing as it's dealing with death every episode, but somehow, it just doesn't matter. While the main character, Ned, isn't very well fleshed out, that's probably for the best, as he's the least interesting character in the cast. Olive is sweet, flirty, and left out. Her best friend is the dog, who is possibly my favorite character. Charlotte is talky, thoughtful, and romantic. Her aunts always make for a wonderful B story. Emerson Cod is also brilliant as the incredibly grumpy but lovable partner/knitter/pop-up book connoisseur. Tragically, the writer's strike screwed over the show, leaving us with only 18 episodes of wonderfulness.
Watch it. NOW.
Good Lord, I already feel warm and fuzzy inside just looking at this picture
I've always admired conviction.It's an impressive trait that I don't seem to have. That's why I wrote this story. I've been scared to submit it or show it to anyone, worried about how my dad would feel about the way I portrayed him. I love writing nonfiction, but it's damn scary, because it is so likely to hurt people you love, even if you're not quite sure how. I once mentioned a friend of mine in a story, but I was worried about how he'd feel about being in it, so I just kept his role minor. I just used him to connect one subject to another in the piece, and he got really angry. I couldn't understand why. Finally, he told me why. He was hurt that he'd been barely mentioned.
Nonfiction is a genre that can scar by omission. Some things that seemed like everything to me have been met with shrugs by friends and family. They don't even recall. Some story that's laughable and silly to me is hurtful, embarrassing, insulting to others. Even knowing and loving these people as I do, I can never predict what will stay with them, what will sting, what they will argue about until they're blue in the face. I guess that's what makes nonfiction so worth writing. Real-life characters are just so much more interesting and unpredictable than fictional ones.
So here's a story that sets out to be an homage to my father and his convictions. My frustrations and doubts with writing and faith and church and the people who populate churches all creep into this piece, but make no mistake: this one's about my dad, and my awe at his faith that keeps going even when I know he's as lost as I am, as scared as I am, as confused as I am. I wrote this about six months ago. Love you, Dad!
On the Seventh Day(Losing Faith)
This Sunday, my father woke up before light, let the dog outside, and laid down on the carpeted floor to stretch out his aching, aging back. He read the newspaper as he stretched, twisting and holding a position, grunting in discomfort inches from the words. He took a walk under the dawning light and rehearsed the sermon he’d prepared for that morning. Because he recites so much while walking, when he gives the actual sermon, he paces the stage, unloads the words that he has chosen, appearing unable to stop, powerless to contain this energy that has been building in him.
On Monday, I woke up to discuss Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale in class. I listened quietly as my classmates debated whether Hermione is brought back to life through magic. She waits in the wings the whole play, presumed dead and frozen in granite, until a masterful sculptor carves out her warm, blinking shape, and she steps forward to hold her long-lost daughter. But most of the class can’t help but think that she has been alive all along, simply hiding under the deceitful sculptor’s white sheet, still as stone. I only suspect that, as Shakespeare rapidly approached the end of his play, he decided suddenly to make this story into a comedy. So he put away all the props he had planned, the blood-stained cloaks, the rusting daggers, the wines laced with poison, and he invented the Oracle to be the god of his play, able to magically resurrect those long thought dead. It didn’t matter to me whether or not Hermione had been alive all along. I only cared that, in the story that Shakespeare had intended to write, Hermione would have been dead, would have stayed dead.
My friend Megan broke her toe on Tuesday, and we talked of past bruises and cuts we’d absorbed. I recalled the time I badly cut my inner thigh on the school playground. My father had walked me and my sister up there after school to play, while my mom presumably relaxed at home. I fell off a balancing bar and got a thick, bloody gash. I don’t remember seeing the wound, only looking at the scar later and recalling my father pulling me, sobbing, home in my rusting red wagon. When I wrote about it years later, I omitted my sister’s presence at the scene, not because she was a detriment to the piece I was writing, but because it would require more work to fit her in there properly. The shame of that decision has spilled over to the memory itself. Remorse still pricks me in the thought of that little red wagon when it is not trailed by my sister picking me dandelions to try to stop me from crying.
Last Wednesday, five weeks from graduation, I spoke with my father, trying to figure out how to fit writing into my career plans. He talked to me about writing sermons, his methods, and how they have changed over time. He told me how he had always loved to write for the written form on the page, to write work that stands up to the most intense scrutiny, to the most doubtful and skeptical reader. But he said he couldn’t do that anymore. “I have to write for performance,” he said with something close to shame edging into his voice. “So now, if you read it on the page, it’s childish.”
On Thursday, my film class talked about the use of soundtrack in determining the mood of a film. My professor showed a scene of Jaws, told us how the music enhanced the fear of that unseen threat, that danger lurking just beneath the surface. She told us that the same scene with that menacing fin gliding through the water became comical when combined with the Backstreet Boys playing instead of John Williams’ unnerving score. She then began showing the same scene over and over while different songs played, and it reminded me of when I used to run the sound board for the worship services at church. I would listen closely through the headphones, push and pull the dials, and turn up the reverb on the less skilled singers. I would take what I could from their raw voices and meld them together so everyone listening would believe that they were in harmony with one another.
On Friday, I woke up to find that my only class of the day was canceled, and I could stay home to work on a project for school. Sitting down to my computer, I thought of my dad, who doesn’t go in to work on Fridays. He types his sermon on the dining room table, a fan whirring up into his overheated, decade-old laptop. I remember one Friday a few years ago that, when he was done working on his sermon, he charged out to the backyard and began mowing like a mad man, speed walking from one side to the other, going over the same spots time and again. He got out a chain saw and cut down a dying tree, and then he planted five young saplings in a row along the property line. He ripped out bushes by the root because they were in the wrong spot. I remember him sitting down after with a glass of ice water, and looking out back through the kitchen window, surveying his work. It was just a mowed lawn, but he made it his metaphor.
On Saturday I wrote. I pulled out all the notebook scribbles from the week and I trimmed them or tossed them. I tore down my memory and dissected it, examining its rings, searching for scars. I read the same lines, once loud, once soft, once staring hard at the words, once with my eyes closed. I listened more closely, trying to find a way to make it all sound like harmony when it was really nothing more than a childish outline, a regret, a carefully scripted deception.
Even with Arnett helping out, this show was short on emotion and laughs. He can't do everything. Russell carries no weight, and this is a result of poor writing. We should have felt a sense of inevitability behind Russell and Arnett's relationship. We should have felt that Russell loved her daughter and wanted what was best for her regardless of her own personal goals. We should have felt that this show was something more than just the occasional joke that required five minutes of setup.
