It’s funny who you see when you visit a small town in Southern Ohio. Jules and I went down to Yellow Springs Ohio on Friday for a yoga workshop that she wanted to attend.  Jules has been there four or five times before and never seen one of the most famous residents of this small town.  It was my first visit.  Jules went to a morning class on her own while I sat in a coffee shop writing.  After about  45 minutes I looked up and noticed this gentleman standing there.  I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pics but decided not to bother him further.  You may recall seeing him previously on his former show on Comedy Central.  Dave’s father was a professor at Antioch College in Yellow Springs.

After storming into TV viewers collective consciousness eight and a half years ago, The Sopranos stumbled out punch drunk and not knowing when to quit last night. The first two seasons were absolutely brilliant with top notch acting and writing. Ever since then David Chase and his team have taken longer and longer between successive seasons as all manner of famous and not so famous actors have gotten in on the action.

In engineering there is an old saying that in every project there comes a time when you have to shoot the engineers and get on with the job. It appears that someone needed to whack Mr. Chase at some point and finish the damn story about four years ago. As the wait time for each season stretched out the result seemed to be that Chase was just trying to jam in too many meandering, pointless story lines. The Sopranos needed some serious editing, but most definitely not the kind the final episode got last night.

By the time we finished watching that final hour last night, it seemed like they had shot three or four hours of footage from three or four separate scripts produced by different writers and then just through threw together randoms sequences from each into a one hour episode. At the end Chase looked at what they had wrought and just said “Aw Fuck It!” and turned off the lights. That was without a doubt the most unsatisfying ending I have ever seen. For a series that brought us so many brilliant performances over the years along with exposing some great but obscure music to go out in this way was a disgrace.

The other day Jules and I saw about ten minutes of the Half Hour Comedy Hour (I’m not going to bother with a link, because it’s not worth linking to), and boy did it suck!  if you haven’t heard about the show, it’s supposed to be Fox News’ answer to the Daily Show.   There is a very important difference, the Fox show is the opposite of funny.  Where the Daily Show and Colbert Report take real people and real events and hold them up to the mirror, to show how absurd or ridiculous they are, the new show had to resort to a really lame SNL style sketch parodying political correctness.  I’m not going to dwell on the details, except to say that it was typical of the worst of SNL, it went on too long and offered nothing to even smile at.  I’m no fan of politcal correctness, but this sketch, was just plain mean spirited and dumb.   Stewart/Colbert in ‘08!

Jules and I watched the original British version of the office when it was on BBC America, and although it was funny at first, it’s a good thing that it only ran for two six episode seasons.  By the second episode I was finding it painful to watch.  The majority of the characters, particularly Gervais’ David Brent were fairly one dimensional and didn’t seem to grow, and you can only take so much of the situations he got himself into.

After The Office ended he went on to do his podcast.  The first couple of episodes were funny, but the next ten were almost identical.  Again, by the end,  I’d had enough and when he decided to charge for the second and third seasons, I had no problem at all unsubscribing.  Apparently enough other people felt the same way that almost no one else has tried to charge for a podcast since.

Now he has a show called Extras on HBO that is in its second season.  The first season was pretty funny, but midway through it was becoming clear that there was no second joke.  Now midway through the second season Jules and I have both called enough.  The last two episodes were totally unfunny, and without even a single character to like, we’re done.  I doubt we will bother with any of his future projects either.

When I was a kid, the year after the release of the first Star Wars movie, a television series appeared called Battlestar Galactica. The show was not much of a success at the time. The effects were not particularly impressive, the dialog made George Lucas’ writing look good and beyond the basic premise of the pilot there wasn’t much of a plot. The basic premise revolved around a civilization of humans who lived on a group of 12 planets. They had created machines known as Cylons, The Cylons had rebelled and broken away from the humans. The Cylons attacked the humans and attempted to exterminate the humans. The rest of of the original series consisted of the surviving humans, escaping in a rag-tag collection of space ships led by one battlestar, the Galactica going in search of the mythical 13th colony known as Earth. All the remaining episodes consisted of the chase with the humans always making a narrow escape. Nothing particularly compelling.

Then came 2003 and the Sci-fi channel which had been showing re-runs of the old Galactica. They decided to create a new mini-series based on the original plot but with some distinct differences. The new mini series did well enough that they decided to extend it into a regular series. Unlike the original, the plot went way beyond the basic chase, battle and escape. In the new series the Cylons had evolved and some of them had taken human form. They were actually hybrids that were virtually indistinguishable from full humans. As such they were able to infiltrate and attack the humans from within. Unlike most such stories, the new Galactica actually included a lot of self examination. The characters are complex and flawed. The humans aware of the fact that they had created the Cylons, who were now trying to exterminate them, began to look at what they had done. They were at least partly responsible for their fate. The writers actually asked a question which few other shows dared to ask. Should the human race survive.

Galactica has become an allegory for the world around us today. The survival of the species is under direct threat from something created by the actions of the the threatened. In addition as the series enters it’s third season this week we find that the the Cylons are now not just machines but god-fearing religious extremists. They had been trying to eradicate the heathen humans, but now as they occupy the planet that the humans thought would be their new sanctuary they are telling the humans they no longer want to destroy them but rather they want to co-exist in peace. However, as in the world we live in today, the religious extremists regardless of their creed, while professing a wish for peace actually want assimilation. They will live in peace with us as long as we accept what they say as the one true word. We can live together in harmony as long as we accept their variation of god as the true one. Those who resist simply disappear. Arrested, detained, never charged, never given independent legal counsel, never tried. Much like they did in Argentina, in the 80s or in Chile under Pinochet, or as they do today in Iraq, or the United States.

The new Battlestar Galactica, is an exceptionally well executed television series. But it also asks some very important questions. Can humans survive? Should humans survive? Can they overcome a threat of their own making? Should they?

Jules was just flipping through channels and stumbled across some show on the Home and Garden channel where the hosts were going around some kitchen gadget trade show. I was sitting here in the dining room and overheard one of the hosts say, “You can never have too many grille gadgets, can you?” Well clearly based on this report the answer is YES YOU CAN HAVE TOO MANY GRILLE GADGETS!! Among the items shown was this device were you put some hot dogs on it and move it back and forth and it rolls the hot dogs. Excuse me, just use a pair of tongs and turn them. I have a fish basket which is very handy, because fish always sticks to the grille. With the basket I just put the fish in, do one side and flip it over to do the other side. I never have little pieces of fish falling into the grille anymore. On this show, the host said “your corn will never stick to the grill again” as they showed a corn basket.
I don’t know about you, but I have never, ever, ever had an ear of corn stick to a grille. Another problem with this thing is you actually have to do more work. You have to cut the ears of corn to fit in the basket. I just pull off some of the outer layers of husk and slap the corn on the grille. I flip the ears over a couple of times and I’m done. A lot of people in this country definitely have too much time on their hands. They are going to have a rude awakening when everything goes to shit.

We just watched the first 10 minutes of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. Why does Maher get paid for doing this show. In the first part of the show, he interviews first Spike Lee and then Elvis Costello. During the course of these interviews he very clearly demonstrates how ignorant he is. He asked a question of Spike Lee regarding a recent Bob Herbert column about Juan Williams’ new book. The question was short and incomplete. Spike asked him to elaborate on what the question meant. Maher stumbled and repeated the question with explanation. He obviously didn’t write the question or even read the column. He had no idea what the question was about. Then he embarrassed himself further in the Costello interview, by asking more stupid questions. He followed these brilliant demonstrations, by having the arrogant prick Christopher Hitchens on his panel. I’ve had enough of this crap, so I’m getting ready for bed.

So has anyone seen Who Wants to be a Super-Hero? This has got to be one of the lamest attempts at television programming ever. This piece of crud is on the SciFi Channel. The basic format is similar to other competitive reality shows like Top Chef or Project Runway. The difference is those shows take people trying to make it in a real profession, like cooking or fashion design. They are presented with challenges in their field, and each episode one is booted from the group. In this new show, the competitors are given challenges and one is booted each week. However each competitor on this show has created a Super-Hero character for themselves. They are given “superhero” challenges and the guy in charge is the legendary Stan Lee.

Stan Lee was the guiding light of Marvel Comics for decades and co-created characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Now he is seen giving the challenges to these wanna-be super heroes. These people look completely ridiculous in their costumes. I can’t even begin to imagine what would make someone so desperate to be on TV that they would take part in this travesty. I watched part of it with Max last week and not only did it look low budget and cheesy but it was boring and stupid. Will they please stop!

I don’t watch much TV and almost none on the traditional broadcast networks. I find the vast majority of what is put on to be tiresome, repetitive, predictable and worst of all manipulative. I find most so-called reality programming to be especially loathsome. There is nothing particularly real about reality programming. The producers pick pick a selection of stereotypical characters and put them into situations specifically designed to produce something vaguely corresponding to drama. They may not provide a full script, abut they do produce an outline and then cut together the resulting footage into some kind of narrative, that appeals to viewers voyeuristic tendencies. The television networks have largely given up on producing original scripted dramas and most of what passes for those now are the 16 Law and Order and 14 CSI variations.

The exception to this has been HBO. While HBO has produced some stinkers like Entourage and Mind of the Married Man, and head scratchers like Carnivale they have also produced some of the most amazing original series ever, including the old Larry Sanders Show, the first few seasons of The Sopranos, The Wire and Six Feet Under. This spring has unfortunately produced a couple of duds , with the latest installment of the Sopranos and Big Love. While the Sopranos has shown flashes of the old brilliance this year, it has largely been a confused mess as though the writers weren’t really sure how to wrap the thing up. Maybe the last eight episodes next winter will tie it all together. Big Love on the other hand had some interesting possibilities, the subject being a polygamist family in Utah, it seemed to be largely a pretty conventional soap type show.

By far the most brilliant show on HBO in the last few years has been Deadwood. Deadwood was a gold mining camp in the Dakota Territory in the 1870’s. The series was created by David Milch who wrote for the amazing Hill Street Blues, and later co-created NYPD Blue. Deadwood is a western unlike any before. The scripts are all written in iambic pentameter which is a rhythm in poetry. All of Shakespeare’s work was in iambic pentameter. It makes for a very distinctive sound. The characters are unbelievably rich complex. All people are multi-dimensional, almost no-one is all good or all bad. People have internal conflicts over what to do and so do these characters. These characters clearly have some kind of back story that makes them who they are just like you and I. From the tormented Dr. Cochran (who must have seen a lot a soldiers that he couldn’t save die during the civil war) to sheriff Seth Bullock torn between the woman he loves, Alma Garrett and the woman to whom he is married, to owner of the Gem Saloon Al Swearengen played by the great Ian McShane. There is also no shortage of great full fledged female characters including Trixie the whore, Calamity Jane and the aforementioned Alma Garrett. The show is definitely not for the faint of heart and those opposed to profanity. The language is real and raw, but the patterns of speech are nonetheless eloquent and complex. The dialog and monologues (of which there are quite a few) extremely well written. The photography on the show is amazing, from the lighting to the angles and framing. The whole show has a very Shakespearean flavor to it even though it is set in the wild west, a place where even the heroes are villains, where no one is perfect and no one is all bad.

Season three of Deadwood starts this Sunday at 9 on HBO. Unfortunately it appears that this may be the last season of the show, as the ratings have apparently not been great and production costs are high. If you have HBO please be sure to check it out and if you missed the first two seasons, they are replaying them regularly on all the HBO channels. If you don’t have HBO you can find Deadwood on the torrent sites. It is well worth the download.