Category: Television

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Point & Click

This month, on Point & Click:

  • Local producer Matthew Horrocks has some cogent articles on the state of New Zild film at his Reservoir Films. Go – go read them now.

  • The Incomparable Christopher Rywalt reviews Sex Decoy: Love Stings, a reality show about… about…. I can’t. But here’s an extract:

    … when a ridiculously gorgeous woman — or even a skanky stripper — comes on to you out of nowhere, your choices explaining what’s going on are a) you’ve inexplicably, suddenly, and surprisingly become vastly more attractive to the opposite sex or b) she’s an alien/vampire/killer robot who’s going to eat you before you come.

  • Screenwriter Josh Olson (A History of Violence) explains why he will not read your fucking script. ‘S nothing personal. And totally understandable.
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O Brother Where Art Thou

The latest Herald Time Out had a write up about an upcoming homemade drama, The Cult. Besides my usual grizzling about the complete lack of any mention of writers, something struck me about the large cast: where are the brothers or sisters?

Here’s a screen-grab:

Okay, there’s maybe a sister at the far right, peering around a tree but this is New Zild drama, right? And if they’re gonna namedrop Lost, I believe that show has:

  • two black guys,
  • a Korean couple,
  • an Indian guy,
  • a couple of Hispanics,
  • and an Australian.

Here’s a quick run-down of the Mamea Household’s Box Watch-list:

  • Law & Order now has three black detectives;
  • Dexter and The Closer each have a black cop, a Hispanic cop, and an Asian technician (Dexter) or cop (Closer);
  • Battlestar Galactica has a Hispanic leader, an Asian pilot and a black bad cylon;
  • The Wire‘s ethnicity is slanted towards blacks;
  • Better Off Ted has a black scientist;
  • Dead Like Me has a Hispanic reaper;
  • Fringe has a black supervisor;
  • Law & Order UK has a black lawyer;
  • Desperate Housewives has a Hispanic couple.

Meanwhile, if The Cult‘s publicity shot is anything to go by, its cast has:

  • no brothers, and
  • maybe a sister

– but since she’s hugging a tree maybe she’s the comic relief – or the first one to die.

If this is ‘New Zealand on air’, I don’t recognise it.

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Box Watch: Fringe, Season 1

Three reasons why I should hate Fringe:

  • a pretty blonde FBI agent,
  • said FBI agent has a tendency to go into buildings and rooms without backup,
  • said FBI agent usually leads an assault team, sometimes taking point.

And yet, godsdammit, I enjoyed the first season.

  • Yes, Anna Torv is pretty and blonde but she rarely smiles, and the first couple of eps very nicely set up her tortured dourness.
  • Sure, her habit of going into places on her lonesome gets a little annoying but the set up at least makes some effort at giving her good reason to do so.
  • And the assault team-leading and point-taking – in any other show this would be unforgiveable but in Fringe… seriously, who cares?

Fringe is not Law & Order, nor The Wire, nor Flashpoint, and it doesn’t try to be.

 

What it is, is an exciting and intelligent series, riffing off The X-Files and Republic serials, and everything/anything in between, with characters whose motives may be questionable but at least understandable (John Noble‘s Dr Walter Bishop is a particular pleasure of The Goddess), solving the weekly mysteries and/or crimes with wit and panache, meanwhile there’s some overarching season storyline that is tantalisingly touched on each week as well AND WHO THE HELL AM I TO WHINE ABOUT THE PROCEDURAL ASPECTS?

 

Pacing, I think, is a large part of my forgiveness/enjoyment. The mystery must be solved! Quickly, into that abandoned building! The assault team’s on location? You’re the only one who knows which room to take down! Quick! Hurry! Save the world!

 

And the gods strike me where I slouch but I’m lapping it up.

Bring on Season Two.

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Point & Click

Kinda flat out.

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Box Watch: The Philanthropist

Two things struck me when I saw the title of this show last year:

1. the title, from a country who changed the title of the first Harry Potter instalment on the off-chance audience members didn’t know what ‘dictionary’ meant; and

2. the creator/writer/producer, Tom Fontana.

If neither of the above points compel you to consider The Philanthropist, the show, in a nutshell, is about a billionaire tycoon who saves the world one person at a time.

… That’s a bit trite. It’s both accurate and a disservice but….

I’d read the pilot courtesy of my far-flung connections. Yes, it’s about a rich white dude trying to make a difference – but the shaded characterisations and intelligent writing made it much more interesting.

… How about: Billionaire Teddy Rist, unable to dull the grief over his son’s death, tries to fill the void inside him by making the world a better place – not by using his considerable connections or his bottomless cheque book – but with only his guile, charm and heart.

Like I said: I really liked the script. I wanted to see the pilot.

And when I saw the pilot the other week… I thought I’d give it just one more ep.

And when I saw the second ep, whatever concerns I had with the show found a voice: Love the concept. Hate the execution.

The acting’s fab. The writing’s sharp (at least in the pilot). The production values are high.

But the whole “This week we’re in exotic, colourful, beautiful [INSERT FOREIGN LAND]” vibe really grates. It’s a slur to – my perceived – social heart of the series.

In the second ep, as Rist was horrified by the deplorable conditions of a Burmese mining camp in the second ep, I couldn’t help thinking, Gee, I wonder if the show will turn its attention to post-Katrina New Orleans or Baltimore’s projects.

Nah-ah.

I know it’s a fantasy. I know it’s on free-to-air NBC rather than cable. I guess if I want a show to fix the world in 45 minutes each week, I want it to fix a fictionalised, country-names-changed-to-protect-the-innocent kind of world. Anything else feels cheap and shallow and faintly insulting.

It’s probably just me.

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Murh

Final page count: 56 pages including cover page.

Wrote through the night and flicked it through at 8:32 this morning. Yay.

The Goddess is heading out this evening so I could collapse into bed at oh, 7pm or something ridiculous, or, in anticipation of the premiere of Tom Fontana‘s The Philanthropist, I could sneak an ep or three of Oz.

… Nope. Started this post at 6-ish and… fell asleep at the keyboard.  It’s almost seven already.

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Point & Click

Okay this isn’t post-dated.

I’ve got fifteen minutes spare.

How quickly can I cut and paste and make sense?

  • How about ten best film endings? (Fedora-tip: Infinite Monkeys by way of The Incomparable.)

  • I’ve been a fan of Dylan Horrocks since Hicksville (a phase of forcing myself to try some homegrown comics fare). He’s got a blog. With serials and stories, too! Recommended for civilians and comic aficionados alike.

  • PhD student Gareth James is very generously sharing some of the fruits of his research into the history of HBO original programming, 1997-2007 at Gareth On…. (Fedora-tip: Lynden Barber.)

Time’s up already. Must be a slow linker.

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A Tale of Two Pitches

Found myself pitching a couple of shows not long ago. I thought it was a meet and greet. Nah-ah.

One pitch was just one that had been bouncing around my head for the past while – let’s call it the I’m Cool About This Pitch. The other is one I’m quite sweet on – the I’m Hot About This Pitch.

The Cool Pitch: A depressed and suicidal multihyphenate is given five million dollars with which to make her debut feature.

The Hot Pitch: A year in the life of genetically engineered soldiers.

Guess which one they liked more? Guess which one I promised to write up within eighteen hours? Sigh*.

I should learn to be more aware of my audience: given the choice between a period of time with super-soldiers/planarian-worms/domesticated-chickens, and a personal, identifiable journey from darkness into light, they went for the unwritten and undeveloped pitch.

* Mental note for the next Hot Pitch: Private First Class Ray Gunn awakens one morning to discover he is the ultimate soldier. Nothing can stop, hurt or kill him. His imagination is the limit. One day, he stops taking orders….

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Box Watch – Wallander

We here at Fortress Mamea caught a couple of episodes Wallander this month. The cinematography is gorgeous. The acting, particularly from lead Kenneth Branagh, is unsurprisingly excellent. The first 45 to 60 minutes of each ep have set mood and tone beautifully, and I’m wanting to get to the bottom of the case du jour, but the remaining minutes have left me… very cool.

  • Your protagonist is the only person who can see all witnesses and possible suspects, necessitating a whole lot of to- and fro-ing. Check.

  • Surrounding your offender on all sides with cops pointing guns. Check.

  • Entering a suspicious location on one’s own without calling for backup. Check.

  • Leaving a vital witness in a rural safe house while you go outside to investigate the arrival of a suspicious vehicle in thick fog. Check.

  • Racing to a certain destination without calling it in at all and then, upon arriving, waiting in plain and obvious sight for your prime suspect to maybe/possibly/probably arrive. Check.

I was too angry after the second ep to contemplate watching the final of the season.

But I’m a compleatist at heart.

How much worse more insulting can it get?

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