After a reluctant, but necessary review of the sprawl, I decided that they were more asymptotically than tangentially relevant and I dumped them here:
[...]
(In reference to uncooperative witness)
Crews: We have to use his strength against him.
Reese: Whats his strength?
Crews: His weakness.
Reese: His strength is his weakness?
Crews: Yeah, its like the one hand clap.
Reese: Are you really Zen?
Crews: Zen-"ish"
1Farthingale and Hit Me Baby are probably my favorite stand-alone pieces; the primary arc has some really great moments, but I'm ambivalent as to how reasonable the course of events are that led to his initial incarceration.i
2It has many things going for it:
- Damien Lewis plays damaged goods like no body's business
- The gorgeous Sarah Shahi and her flawed detective Reese
- A recurring guest spot by the voluptuous Christina Hendricks
- ... Who generally shared scenes with the excellent second-fiddle Adam Arkin.ii
- ... and these scenes [sterling examples of the direction, cinematography and pacing of the series] had a very dreamy/floaty-light feel to them ripe with subtext and humour.
- An evil Garret Dillahunt,iii,iv with an unfortunately ropey Russian accent :/
- The much under-appreciated Donal Logue (season 2) from Grounded for Life and Terriers.v
iI could defend that clunky sentence as an analogue of the overarcing plot in Life, being all "meta", but I won't.
iiFYI, Mr Arkin cut his directing teeth on this show, and now features prominently as a director in Sons of Anarchyα
iiFYI, Mr Arkin cut his directing teeth on this show, and now features prominently as a director in Sons of Anarchyα
iiiHe's currently in a combo-breaking role as a dim-witted, but well-intentioned recent-grandfather in Raising Hope. Up until now, I had only seen him as some flavour of psycho, but to his credit and ability, they are different characters; he's not doing-a-John-Cusack on us.β
ivSpeaking of Deadwood, Life also has Calamity Jane as the Chief in season 1, and a guess spot by the guy that played E.B. Farnum- maybe one or two others in it that I can't recall at the moment. And while I am talking about Deadwood, there are a couple of actors from it that appear in Sons of Anarchy.γ
vThat show is another good one to watch, Logue is the lead in it. A combination of critics liking it, poor viewing numbers and not being on AMC meant it got axed after one season [colon dash open-bracket].
αSons of Anarchy is one one of the best shows on television at the moment,δ a well-written, intricate series. Kurt Sutter is the creator, it is his follow up to the Shield. It has a strong tragic element [with a phenomenal Katey Sagal as Lady Macbeth stand-in] and Ron Pearlman. The lead actor (Charlie Hunnan) improves steadily over the three seasons- and what starts off as histrionics and heavy handed deliveries and expressions become some great, great moments on his part.
If I was to put a tag-line to it:
If I was to put a tag-line to it:
There are always consequences [boom]
βCome on people! Look at him... Could you tell the difference between him in Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity?
γOne of the persistent themes in Life is that everything is connected, how meta is this sh*t!?
This is the last one, I swear.... [at least partly because I am tapped out of sequential symbols after two numeric layers and the Greek alphabet.]
δMad Men and Breaking Bad being my other picks for top quality production values. Boardwalk Empire had its moments, it wasn't what I was expecting, which left me disappointed. I'd have to have another look of it to decide what I think of it. Dexter is another one that aims high - beautiful cinematography and Michael C Hall is a good actor- but the storyline/premise and generally 1-D supporting cast gives it a whiff of cheese as far as I am concerned.
There are other shows I adore for their campiness, and entertainment value, but listing them here is like bringing a gun to a fight where the other guy brings a Pontiac Aztec [Breaking Bad Spoiler Alert for that link].
This is just what I could think of off the top of my head; if I made a real run of it, I would really bore you to tears.
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