Downside of October: Tis the Season of the Spider

It's October, which means everyone feels the need to decorate for Halloween. This normally would not be an issue except for one minor little problem - spiders. People like decorate for Halloween with Spiders. Plastic spiders. Stuffed Spiders. Paper Spiders. Why, I've no idea. Can't they use ghosts, globlins, and cats? There's some perfectly fine alternatives.
But no, my neighborhood is into spiders.

So...I am heading towards work bright and early on Tuesday morning. It's 6:45 am. The sun has barely woken up. Got all my stuff together, am a bit bleary eyed from lack of sleep. I walk down the two flights of steps to the front door. I live on the third floor of a brownstone. There's only one entrance. ( Read more... )

Nashville Review

Been insanely busy this week, and a bit exhausted. So less posting.

Did see Nashville, which is admittedly the best pilot I've seen to date. But considering what it has been up against, that really isn't saying all that much. Your mileage may vary, but it has been a lack-luster pilot season so far. (Haven't seen Chicago Fire, Arrow or Beauty and the Beast yet - they are on the DVR. All three have gotten lack-luster reviews from the professional critics. Actually I think the professional critics only liked Nashville, Last Resort, and Arrow.)

Nashville Review

First off, if you aren't a fan of television series like Friday Night Lights with a slightly soap operish feel to them, Nashville will not be your cup of tea or coco. It's better written than "SMASH" was, but the music isn't as good or as well displayed. Nashville deals with music in the much the same way that Friday Night Light's handled football. It's less about the songs or songwriting, and more about the industry or the internal politics of the industry that is producing the songs and the people within that industry. In short it is a story about the music industry in Nashville, as well as Nashville itself - which in some respects is closer to what the HBO series TREME is about (the music industry in New Orleans and New Orleans itself). I can't tell you how well the two compare, because I've never really watched Treme. Just know what it is about and how others have described it.

While "SMASH" is about putting on a specific Broadway show, NASHVILLE is about the country music recording industry and most specifically the changes and tensions in that industry.
The writers/producers behind it know their stuff. The head-writer and creator, Cahouri spent time in Nashville as a music journalist, and her husband and music producer, T. Bone Burnett, has written country songs and is a record producer, amongst other things. The country music industry has changed, it's no longer Loretta Lyn, pop music is making its way in. There are blends. And cross-overs. Garth Brooks jumped to pop and back again. And Reba McIntyre - who Rayna reminds me a great deal of, has done the same. Although Rayna also reminds me a little of Bonnie Raitt. Country music is a lot broader than you may think - it includes various styles from pop country (Taylor Swift) to folk (Jewel, Janis Ian, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash and The Civil Wars and Mumford and Sons) to blue grass, and finally good old Country (a la Dolly, Loretta Lyn and Patsy Cline...including that "twangy Whine"). And the series Nashville is showing how the industry works. How it really isn't necessarily about talent, but "star" appeal or "marketing savvy" and showmanship, and how difficult it can be to get ahead. Also the pitfalls of the attempt.

That said, there are problems, and I have mixed feelings about the pilot. And the series.
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TV Round-UP: Chicago Fire and Vamp Diaries..

Finished cleaning out the fridge this morning. Tried watching Chicago Fire during it. But its the sort of tv show that requires a little attention and focus. So stopped it and watched it this afternoon.

1. Chicago Fire Review - this is Dick Wolf's new series. Dick Wolf was the creator of the Law & Order series. He tried to do a firefighter/rescue show in the past as spin-off to Homicide Life on the Streets, starring Reed Diamond, but it was short lived. Chicago Fire is unfortunately not as good as those series were, if anything it bears more in common with the old Billy Baldwin/Kurt Russell Firefighter flick BackDraft, although that film had a lot more going on in it. It also reminds me a little of the old 1970s series Emergency starring Randolf Mantooth, which I began to miss while watching it. Emergency was, oddly enough, more entertaining. It took itself a tad less seriously. The best of the firefighter genre is Rescue Me, which this isn't. Both a good thing and a bad thing. If you want to watch a gritty, reality based, firefighter drama that reminds you of Homicide Life on the Streets or The Wire - go rent Rescue Me. Although, I admittedly didn't make it through that one either. Too dark and misanthropic for me taste. Also a wee bit on the melodramatic side. Because let's face it - it's hard to do a drama about firefighter's well without delving into either personal melodrama or soap opera. There's no mystery to solve. It's basically sitting around until you get called out to fight a fire in a burning building. Not exactly conducive to film-making, fires. Plus expensive.

That said? Chicago Fire is along with Nashville the best shot of the season's pilots to date. Also amongst the best written. Which admittedly isn't saying all that much. It reminds me a lot of Nashville actually. While it is less soapy, it is more sappy. And trite. Nashville and Chicago Fire suffer from the same problem - recycled tv/movie plots. Making me wonder if these writers are given a bunch of plot staples for every possible show out there?

Here's the plot: ( spoilers )

2. Vamp Diaries or what everyone calls TVD (but TVD confuses me, I keep thinking it's an STD or shorthand for some Tivo device.)

Still amongst the best paced tv series on. If a bit on the convoluted side. This is a fun supernatural soap opera with rapid fire pacing. It ain't your Momma's soap or Dark Shadows for that matter (which was painfully slow at times).

Do wish it would stop teasing me over the potential killing of its leads. Every time it does, which tends to be once a week, I think, oh come on, we all know you aren't going to kill them. Stop teasing me. Besides if you do, they'll just come back as something else.
As two world-weary characters in another soap opera that I'm watching famously stated this week: "Oh don't worry, he'll show up again, we all know that no one in this town ever stays dead."

Does make it hard for the audience to grieve a character's death or take it seriously - when you know there's a 50/50 chance they'll pop up again.

( Spoilers....and yes, I miss Rose and Alaric. )

Call The Midwife...Review (Spoiler-free)

Finally got around to viewing the first two episodes of Call the Midwife one of the many tv shows airing on Sunday nights. Is it just me or are Sunday nights too crowded?
I had to play a bit with my DVR to grab everything. Upstairs Downstairs S2 did not make the cut, something had to go. And I despised the first season of that series, so no loss.

Call the Midwife currently airing on PBS in the NYC area on Sunday nights at 8pm (your areas may vary), is Britain's runaway hit about a group of midwives and is set in East London the 1950s. The series is based on the real memoirs of Jennifer Worth. It was developed by Heidi Thomas and produced by Sam Mendes production company. Vanessa Redgrave provides the voice-over of the mature Jenny looking back over her life. The cast includes Jenny Agutter as one of the nuns.
Like all British series, the cast is easily distinguishable from one another and resembles people we see in reality and not on the covers of glossy magazines. Sort of wishing US casting agents would take a page from the Brits in this regard, Game of Thrones certainly did, why can't everyone else? The Good Wife and Once Upon a Time are fine in this regard, but so many tv shows aren't. I wouldn't mention it - but this is a problem I've been having with US TV series lately, the inability to tell characters apart. The actors look too much alike. It's not realistic. Well, not unless we are watching a show about clones. And its not limited to women, the men look alike too. As if they all came out of the same modeling agency.

The BBC series has women and men of various ages, sizes, and shapes. (Not so much color, it's British and it takes place in the 1950s...) It is also tightly written. Not melodramatic - US series that focus on this subject matter have a tendency to get sentimental or cliche - they go for the heightened emotion. Midwife is more subdued and realistic. There's a quiet overall tone to it. Let's face it no one does historical costume dramas better than the British.
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