TUBE!
I have just witnessed television history. Real television history. I don't mean, the last episode of M*A*S*H, Clarabell speaks, or a wardrobe malfunction. I mean real television history.
For the first time ever, an entity other than a network or cable channel/network has produced a television series. Netflix, the DVD rental company, but so much more, has produced an original series. And when this amazing company decides to jump into the pool, they jump in with both feet, and in the deepest end possible. Bravo for that!
House of Cards features Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood, the majority Whip in the imaginary House of Representatives during the Administration of Democratic President Garrett Walker. The time seems to be the present.
Frank Underwood is married to the lovely Claire played magnificently by Robin Wright. Claire runs a non-profit which is focused on clean water for the world. She is every bit as ruthless in her world as Frank is in his. And that's saying something.
There are several stories going on here: There is the young reporter Zoe Barnes with the Washington Herald and then "Slugline", who for the sake of making a name for herself, becomes a pawn for Underwood. He gives her inside information and she gives him sex. But keep in mind he is feeding her juicy tid-bits for one reason: to further his master plan. Frank gives nothing if there isn't an upside for him. There is the ambitious Representative Peter Russo, an ex coke-head, and his girlfriend, Christina. Frank talks Russo into running for the Governorship of Pennsylvania so that the Republicans can't cut up the Congressional districts in their favor. But of course there is an upside for Frank. There is Claire and the doings of her water non-profit. And finally there is Frank and his quest for greater things.
Frank and Claire are a power-driven duo, and they do whatever it takes to further their ambitions. It is acknowledged that they may have to occasionally sleep around to promote their interests. It is accepted with a shrug. Their most intimate moments are at an open window in their home as they share cigarettes, and to them this is their one acknowledged seedy indulgence.
They are surrounded by side-kicks, henchmen, artists, and lobbyists. All played remarkably by a wonderful cast. Can I say from the outset, this was "The West Wing" on steroids. Aaron Sorkin is somewhere in a corner crying and sucking his thumb dealing with the realization that he is not necessarily the smartest guy in the room. His stuff is really good, but House of Cards is Washington at a whole new TV level.
I think this is Kevin Spacey's best work ever. He has molded this South Carolina Democrat into a wonderful work of art. He has a terrific character who has the added advantage of looking into the camera to explain to us exactly why he's doing what he's doing, or a point of reference, or explain why he's using the exact precise timing he's using. I love this.
Which leads me to the writing of this series. It is masterful story-telling that takes us by the hand and walks us through the bowels of the beast. We all know that whenever this much power is at stake, this sort of political gamesmanship certainly goes on, but rarely do we ever get a chance to see it.
Another great thing about this series is that the pilot as well as 12 episodes were all put out at the same time. In other words, should one choose to, this entire season can be viewed in a weekend. We as viewers are not treated like children left hanging week by week to wait and see how a story unfolds. This would seem to be the great advantage Netflix has over a conventional television, having the flexibility to deliver the series in an unconventional way. Once again: TV history.
The thrust of the storyline takes us to the brink of monumental scandal, and then....well, let's just call it "the promise of another season."
House of Cards is as good as television gets. It has elements of suspense, drama, and intrigue, interwoven with murder, debauchery, and scandal. This might be routine in Washington, but television this good is not routine at all.
Please Note: I have been corrected. This is not the first series produced by Netflix. The first was "Lilyhammer" starring Steven Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band. More to follow about the series. *Thanks Hope*
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
ARGO
FLIX!
Wow.
I know now why critics are no longer calling Argo a long shot for the Academy Awards. Ben Affleck, no matter how you might feel about Good Will Hunting or Dare Devil, has created a masterpiece. Well if this isn't a masterpiece, it's mighty close to it. And I don't throw the term "masterpiece" around lightly. This is Affleck's Pulp Fiction, his My Darling Clementine, his A River Runs Through It.
Affleck tells the uncanny true story - (no, he doesn't add the obligatory female love interest Hollywood bullshit) - of this CIA horrible plot idea to rescue 6 US people held captive in Iran in the late 70's when all of that went south. For all of us alive then, it seems like yesterday, and yet like another lifetime ago.
During the Iran crisis in 1979, as the American Embassy was being stormed in the front, 6 members of the American Consulate team, just casually strolled out through a back door and made it to the Canadian Embassy where they were hidden. The CIA desperately tried to come up with rescue plots as the Carter Administration attempted diplomatic negotiations for the others. The Iranians had no idea how many people had been in the embassy, because officials were able to shred the personnel info before leaving. The Iranians, using child labor, began the arduous process of trying to piece together the shreds of paper to discern identities. It was only a matter of weeks or months before they realized that there were six people missing.
CIA operative Tony Mendez systematically shoots down all of the State Departments lame ideas to rescue these six, and instead hatches what is called the "best of the bad ideas" to get the six home. He decides to engage a charade as a movie producer to get into Iran, and then get the six in question to pose as his film crew. But in order to do this, he has to lay the ground work, which means hiring a producer (who goes through the pile of scripts on his desk and find one with desert scenes called "Argo"), hire a director, have costumes and make-up designed, and actually have a publicity read of the script with the cast in full costume. All of this was noted in Variety and other show biz publications. Mendez then must travel to Morocco, Egypt, and other desert countries before heading to Iran - all in the name of "checking out locations." He then hopes that the Iranians will believe the 6 embassy officials are just part of his film crew, so that they can all just casually fly out.
Ben Affleck plays CIA Operative Tony Mendez with total believability. Keep in mind he was also the director here, so there must have been thousands of other things on his mind. As soon as he yelled "Cut!", he was probably besieged with costumers, lighting people, cinematographers, actors and producers with a plethora of questions, questions, questions. But his performance never cracks and is spot on. Allen Arkin as the pseudo Argo producer is top notch. As is Bryan Cranston as the State Department liaison, and John Goodman as the Hollywood make-up man.
This film was suspense of the highest order. This was tension not seen in film since "Silence of the Lambs." It was a story that was incredible to say the least, but in the wrong hands could have easily been screwed up. Affleck told this story masterfully, cut with a great sense of rhythm. I saw it with my friend Jerry, and afterward we went to dinner. My heart was still beating fast. He said it was the second time he'd seen it, and it still had the same effect on him. And the cool thing was that it really happened. All of it. It wasn't made up, or embellished just make it more appealing for movie audiences. The truth was great enough.
President Clinton finally declassified this story so it could be told, and it is just another in the revelations that President Carter wasn't quite the doofus we were all led to believe he was. But because after this amazing rescue succeeded, it was deemed "classified" and Canada was able to get all the credit. Not until Clinton's decision to de-classify the story was Mendez able to receive his CIA Star, the award he earned (the highest the CIA can give), and the story made public.
This is one of those movies that once seeing I have vowed to own.
Wow.
I know now why critics are no longer calling Argo a long shot for the Academy Awards. Ben Affleck, no matter how you might feel about Good Will Hunting or Dare Devil, has created a masterpiece. Well if this isn't a masterpiece, it's mighty close to it. And I don't throw the term "masterpiece" around lightly. This is Affleck's Pulp Fiction, his My Darling Clementine, his A River Runs Through It.
Affleck tells the uncanny true story - (no, he doesn't add the obligatory female love interest Hollywood bullshit) - of this CIA horrible plot idea to rescue 6 US people held captive in Iran in the late 70's when all of that went south. For all of us alive then, it seems like yesterday, and yet like another lifetime ago.
During the Iran crisis in 1979, as the American Embassy was being stormed in the front, 6 members of the American Consulate team, just casually strolled out through a back door and made it to the Canadian Embassy where they were hidden. The CIA desperately tried to come up with rescue plots as the Carter Administration attempted diplomatic negotiations for the others. The Iranians had no idea how many people had been in the embassy, because officials were able to shred the personnel info before leaving. The Iranians, using child labor, began the arduous process of trying to piece together the shreds of paper to discern identities. It was only a matter of weeks or months before they realized that there were six people missing.
CIA operative Tony Mendez systematically shoots down all of the State Departments lame ideas to rescue these six, and instead hatches what is called the "best of the bad ideas" to get the six home. He decides to engage a charade as a movie producer to get into Iran, and then get the six in question to pose as his film crew. But in order to do this, he has to lay the ground work, which means hiring a producer (who goes through the pile of scripts on his desk and find one with desert scenes called "Argo"), hire a director, have costumes and make-up designed, and actually have a publicity read of the script with the cast in full costume. All of this was noted in Variety and other show biz publications. Mendez then must travel to Morocco, Egypt, and other desert countries before heading to Iran - all in the name of "checking out locations." He then hopes that the Iranians will believe the 6 embassy officials are just part of his film crew, so that they can all just casually fly out.
Ben Affleck plays CIA Operative Tony Mendez with total believability. Keep in mind he was also the director here, so there must have been thousands of other things on his mind. As soon as he yelled "Cut!", he was probably besieged with costumers, lighting people, cinematographers, actors and producers with a plethora of questions, questions, questions. But his performance never cracks and is spot on. Allen Arkin as the pseudo Argo producer is top notch. As is Bryan Cranston as the State Department liaison, and John Goodman as the Hollywood make-up man.
This film was suspense of the highest order. This was tension not seen in film since "Silence of the Lambs." It was a story that was incredible to say the least, but in the wrong hands could have easily been screwed up. Affleck told this story masterfully, cut with a great sense of rhythm. I saw it with my friend Jerry, and afterward we went to dinner. My heart was still beating fast. He said it was the second time he'd seen it, and it still had the same effect on him. And the cool thing was that it really happened. All of it. It wasn't made up, or embellished just make it more appealing for movie audiences. The truth was great enough.
President Clinton finally declassified this story so it could be told, and it is just another in the revelations that President Carter wasn't quite the doofus we were all led to believe he was. But because after this amazing rescue succeeded, it was deemed "classified" and Canada was able to get all the credit. Not until Clinton's decision to de-classify the story was Mendez able to receive his CIA Star, the award he earned (the highest the CIA can give), and the story made public.
This is one of those movies that once seeing I have vowed to own.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Life On Mars
TUBE!
This TV series centers around Sam Tyler, a New York City police detective out of the 125th precinct. In the beginning of the show set in 2008, Sam and his partner Maya Daniels (Lisa Bonet) are not only partners on the squad, but cohabitants in their apartment.
Maya, to everyone's horror, is kidnapped by a psycho serial killer they have been trying to capture. While responding to a tip he received, Sam is hit by another police car. He regains consciousness and slowly begins to realize something is very strange. He is in clothing from another era, and looks up to see the twin towers. He also has an age appropriate badge and ID and he is equipped with a vintage car - a 1971 Chevy Chevelle. And the icing on the cake is there's an 8-track player holding the David Bowie album "Hunky Dory" (which happens to feature a track called "Life On Mars" and is referenced many times in the show). He asks and is told that he is in 1973.
Tyler returns to the Precinct house to find an unfamiliar early 70's environment with old fashioned equipment and a culture he likens to being on another planet. However the other detectives have been expecting him believing he is a transfer in from a place called "Hyde." Sam's disorientation and his vague references to the future earn him the nick-name "Spaceman" (again vaguely Bowiesque).
Sam lives in a apartment 2-B in his building and his neighbor is a hippie free spirit girl named Windy. Many of the episodes are named song titles or lines from songs and there is an episode called "Everyone knows it's Windy." Also in an episode as a witness watches a couple burly long haired detectives take off after a guy, she states "Look at those cave men go" - which is a line straight out of the aforementioned Bowie song "Life on Mars."
Sam Tyler is a man out of place but as he tries to find a way back home, he also has a job to do there in the precinct. He gets involved in cases that lead him to the serial killer that snatched his girlfriend in 2008, only he is just a young boy in 1973. He also meets his mother, and his father only to be able to see them in his now adult life. He learns that his father is a cruel and heartless murderer and mobster. Sam also has reoccurring nightmares that involve small space landing rovers crawling in and out of his ears and mouth. In one episode he is tracking the head of the Aries Toy Company, who nearly talks Sam into committing suicide. But eventually everything will make sense.
Sam Tyler is played wonderfully by Jason O'Mara, who can lately be seen in the new TV show "Vegas." I liked how his portrayal never seemed at ease, and how he was constantly suffering an inner turmoil without being over the top. Micheal Imperioli (of The Soprano's fame) on the other hand.... well to be fair to him, he played it like it was written. Another great character was policewoman Annie "No Nuts" Norris played by Gretchen Mol (who can now be seen as Jimmy's mother in HBO's "Boardwalk Empire"). She took all of the 1970's trash from the male detectives, but in the end began to come into her own - like many women did in that era. And finally there is the great Harvey Keitel as Gene, the Chief of Detectives. 1973 all the way - complete with a bottle in the drawer and white shoes.
"Life On Mars" was based on a British TV show of the same name. I found this to be a real treat and I loved the way they were always slipping in little clues or snippets for the discerning viewer to catch. Like when Sam finally gets to visit the town of Hyde he was supposedly from, the Hyde reference (as in duel lives Jekyll and Hyde) was not lost on me. In fact at one point an old neighborhood guy is with a young girl from the same neighborhood. The old guy explains "She missed her Hyde" (Mr. Hyde). Also the head the the Aries Toy company was named Frank Morgan. How many remember that the actor who played the Wizard of Oz in the 1939 MGM classic, was Frank Morgan?
I really enjoyed this show. In was on ABC from 10/9/08 until 4/1/09. It only made it one season, and perhaps knowing that it was not going to have another season, the writers wrapped things up neatly in the last episode.
So here is the SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!! If you don't want to have it ruined for you stop reading now and go rent this one and only season. I don't think you'll regret it.
***********************************************************
Under the normal dialogue of the final episode there were strange sounds going on...unexplained at first. Finally Sam opens his eyes. He is under glass, in a pod as a matter of fact. The voice of Windy announces he's awake now. Windy is the ship's computer. Pod #2-B (his apartment number remember?) opens and he gets out. He is part of the Aries project (not a toy company after all) and the mission is number 125 (the precinct). It is the year 2035. Interestingly, the looked down upon "No Nuts" Norris is now the Commander. Harvey Keitel gets up and he is Tom Tyler, a Major. (get it? Major Tom? of Bowie song fame?). It is explained that on their two year expedition to Mars each could pick a program of a situation to be in while they were in suspended animation. Sam chose to be a NYC policeman in 2008, and it started out alright but then through computer glitch he had been tossed back to 1973. Also Major Tom is Tyler's father after all. The head of the mission control back on Earth is the guy who was the head of the "Aries Toy Company". He does get to slip in one great line - "I want you to know crew that President Obama wanted to be here in the control room when you woke up....but her father has taken ill and she had to leave." The final scene is Keitel stepping out onto the surface of Mars, but it is not a space boot, but his white shoes.
Good stuff. Very clever and entertaining. Rent it and don't miss this little gem that we all somehow missed in 2008.
This TV series centers around Sam Tyler, a New York City police detective out of the 125th precinct. In the beginning of the show set in 2008, Sam and his partner Maya Daniels (Lisa Bonet) are not only partners on the squad, but cohabitants in their apartment.
Maya, to everyone's horror, is kidnapped by a psycho serial killer they have been trying to capture. While responding to a tip he received, Sam is hit by another police car. He regains consciousness and slowly begins to realize something is very strange. He is in clothing from another era, and looks up to see the twin towers. He also has an age appropriate badge and ID and he is equipped with a vintage car - a 1971 Chevy Chevelle. And the icing on the cake is there's an 8-track player holding the David Bowie album "Hunky Dory" (which happens to feature a track called "Life On Mars" and is referenced many times in the show). He asks and is told that he is in 1973.
Tyler returns to the Precinct house to find an unfamiliar early 70's environment with old fashioned equipment and a culture he likens to being on another planet. However the other detectives have been expecting him believing he is a transfer in from a place called "Hyde." Sam's disorientation and his vague references to the future earn him the nick-name "Spaceman" (again vaguely Bowiesque).
Sam lives in a apartment 2-B in his building and his neighbor is a hippie free spirit girl named Windy. Many of the episodes are named song titles or lines from songs and there is an episode called "Everyone knows it's Windy." Also in an episode as a witness watches a couple burly long haired detectives take off after a guy, she states "Look at those cave men go" - which is a line straight out of the aforementioned Bowie song "Life on Mars."
Sam Tyler is a man out of place but as he tries to find a way back home, he also has a job to do there in the precinct. He gets involved in cases that lead him to the serial killer that snatched his girlfriend in 2008, only he is just a young boy in 1973. He also meets his mother, and his father only to be able to see them in his now adult life. He learns that his father is a cruel and heartless murderer and mobster. Sam also has reoccurring nightmares that involve small space landing rovers crawling in and out of his ears and mouth. In one episode he is tracking the head of the Aries Toy Company, who nearly talks Sam into committing suicide. But eventually everything will make sense.
Sam Tyler is played wonderfully by Jason O'Mara, who can lately be seen in the new TV show "Vegas." I liked how his portrayal never seemed at ease, and how he was constantly suffering an inner turmoil without being over the top. Micheal Imperioli (of The Soprano's fame) on the other hand.... well to be fair to him, he played it like it was written. Another great character was policewoman Annie "No Nuts" Norris played by Gretchen Mol (who can now be seen as Jimmy's mother in HBO's "Boardwalk Empire"). She took all of the 1970's trash from the male detectives, but in the end began to come into her own - like many women did in that era. And finally there is the great Harvey Keitel as Gene, the Chief of Detectives. 1973 all the way - complete with a bottle in the drawer and white shoes.
"Life On Mars" was based on a British TV show of the same name. I found this to be a real treat and I loved the way they were always slipping in little clues or snippets for the discerning viewer to catch. Like when Sam finally gets to visit the town of Hyde he was supposedly from, the Hyde reference (as in duel lives Jekyll and Hyde) was not lost on me. In fact at one point an old neighborhood guy is with a young girl from the same neighborhood. The old guy explains "She missed her Hyde" (Mr. Hyde). Also the head the the Aries Toy company was named Frank Morgan. How many remember that the actor who played the Wizard of Oz in the 1939 MGM classic, was Frank Morgan?
I really enjoyed this show. In was on ABC from 10/9/08 until 4/1/09. It only made it one season, and perhaps knowing that it was not going to have another season, the writers wrapped things up neatly in the last episode.
So here is the SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!! If you don't want to have it ruined for you stop reading now and go rent this one and only season. I don't think you'll regret it.
***********************************************************
Under the normal dialogue of the final episode there were strange sounds going on...unexplained at first. Finally Sam opens his eyes. He is under glass, in a pod as a matter of fact. The voice of Windy announces he's awake now. Windy is the ship's computer. Pod #2-B (his apartment number remember?) opens and he gets out. He is part of the Aries project (not a toy company after all) and the mission is number 125 (the precinct). It is the year 2035. Interestingly, the looked down upon "No Nuts" Norris is now the Commander. Harvey Keitel gets up and he is Tom Tyler, a Major. (get it? Major Tom? of Bowie song fame?). It is explained that on their two year expedition to Mars each could pick a program of a situation to be in while they were in suspended animation. Sam chose to be a NYC policeman in 2008, and it started out alright but then through computer glitch he had been tossed back to 1973. Also Major Tom is Tyler's father after all. The head of the mission control back on Earth is the guy who was the head of the "Aries Toy Company". He does get to slip in one great line - "I want you to know crew that President Obama wanted to be here in the control room when you woke up....but her father has taken ill and she had to leave." The final scene is Keitel stepping out onto the surface of Mars, but it is not a space boot, but his white shoes.
Good stuff. Very clever and entertaining. Rent it and don't miss this little gem that we all somehow missed in 2008.
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