January 20, 2008

Strike Fever!

So how’s that new, “writer-less” model working out? What’s that, all the reality shows are underperforming? Including American Idol being down 11% from last year’s premiere? Wait, did you just say you’re going to start airing Dexter and USA Network shows in place of new programming? I didn’t realize cable shows didn’t have writers! How interesting. Hey, good luck editing Dexter so it’s appropriate for network TV. Are you going to put it into a 30-minute time slot, with commercials? Good thing you aren’t desperate or anything.

Medium (NBC) — We know Allison has these visions and often doesn’t know what they mean, and even oftener her subconscious substitutes friends or loved ones in place of the actual people. In this case, we see a dream of a near-dead Ariel in a flipped car, reaching for a cell phone and moaning for her mother. Meanwhile, we have Ariel dreaming of her “cool mom” in 1987 (unfortunately, the younger Allison was not played by two-time flashback-Allison and underrated actress Jessy Schram), who has an ingenious scheme to get concert tickets. Present-day Arielle also wants to go to a concert.

These visions are connected; we’re not sure how, and as the plot comes together we are somewhat dazzled by how it all goes down, tying a flashback crime to a present-day crime, and tying the subplot of teen-angst Ariel to the main plot. It’s one of the most tightly constructed episodes of this show, and yet…

We don’t know how these visions happen. Psychic energy, increased activity in areas of the brain closed off to most people, God? This episode featured more divine intervention than usual, as these visions both brought Allison and Ariel closer together while informing Arielle of the dangers of sneaking off to a concert. Yet…I have a beef with this, because that’s not usually how these visions roll. On top of which, the idea of having Allison dream certain chunks of these visions and having Ariel dream another, expecting on the two of them to put their heads together and figure it out, seems like the most inefficient possible way for these visions to work.

Maybe it falls under the category of “stranger than fiction”—perhaps the real Allison DuBois has daughters who have psychic dreams, and they have had similar experiences. I tend to think it falls under the category of “as strange as fiction.” Looking past the tight structure, every scene in this episode was dramatically compelling, from Ariel and Young Allison’s teenage foolishness to Present Allison’s humiliation in the wake of Anjelica Huston’s mildly terrifying frustration…but the inefficiency of the visions was little more than a dramatic device, as effective as it is irritating. Some speculation as to why the dreams were divvied up in this manner would have been nice; I’m not seeking clear, goofy answers—just somebody like Joe wondering.

Monk (USA) — See, this is why I’m not happy about them always dipping into the Trudy well. Yes, I enjoyed this episode; yes, I found it as amusing as any given Monk episode. At the end of the day, though, setting up Trudy as a motivating factor for Monk working as a security guard, then giving us a teensy bit of drama and suspense as he’s forced to give up her diamond bracelet in order to save their lives, just didn’t work. Solely because it’s the show’s crutch, and it’s been used so many times (up to and including last week).

Still, it had some intriguing moments—more flirtation and rock-like support from Natalie, which was interesting. Sometimes I wonder if they’re going in that direction, and then they don’t, but in this episode it seemed so overt that they must be headed in that direction. Feel free to laugh when I’m thoroughly wrong.

Beyond my annoyance with the Trudy thing, this episode also featured the most compelling and complex mystery the show has had in some time. It’s a rare episode where I’ve predicted twists, but then they zag when I think they’ll zig. I come up with some stupid-ass twists, but usually when I finish an episode I think, “Eh, my lame way’s better.” This week, however, I thought of some decent ways the story could have gone—and the writers skunked me by going in better directions every time. Well played.

Numb3rs (CBS) — This show is, officially, dead to me. I was willing to cut it some slack a few weeks ago because, even though it turned out to be both an FBI agent and a congressional candidate—violating my “if they make one more dirty cop the villain, I walk” promise—it was played so well by the regulars and guest stars Enrico Colantoni and Chris Bruno, I had no problem with it. This week, I didn’t even watch it. The TV Guide write-up said they’re on the hunt for a crooked-cop rapist, and that’s it. It’s clear the writers and producers of Numb3rs want to tackle the issue of police and political corruption (and/or be the poor-man’s The Wire), which is fine and noble, but give us a little variety. And by “variety,” I don’t mean “give us two cops and make us think one is dirty to mask the fact that the other is dirty.” Sorry, Numb3rs. I liked you better when it was about the math.

Psych (USA) — This episode worked better than usual because it took the time to integrate Corbin Bernsen (who has been underused since the series started) more fully into the story. They usually shoehorn him awkwardly into a scene or two (plus the opening flashback), but this time he had a real purpose in the story and showed he can keep up with the fevered insanity of James Roday and Dulé Hill. I do hope the wasted cameo from Brian Doyle-Murray pays off in a future episode, though.

This episode also did a pretty good job of keeping us as unconcerned as possible with the reasonably simplistic whodunit. One thing this show has over Monk, its companion, is that unless they have a pretty tight mystery, they try as hard as possible to keep us focused on the antics of Shawn and Gus (and to a lesser extent Lassiter and Jules). The mystery takes a backseat, whereas in Monk—crazy “Monk is a fish out of water” setpieces aside—focuses on the mystery a little more than it needs to.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox) — This new series had a special, 24-esque two-night premiere, except unlike 24, it was apparently just a two-hour pilot that they sloppily chopped into one hour. Maybe I have that wrong, but if you combine the two episodes, the first hour had a brisk pace, a lot of rapid-fire exposition, and the “series setup” (1999 Connors traveling to 2007), and then, once they had us hooked, the second hour slowed quite a bit to develop some new mythology and give us a better sense of our characters. Without the first-hour hook, I have my fears that audiences stuck around past the first commercial break.

This is a good show that has the potential to be great. It’s made by folks who clearly loved the first two Terminator movies, and they are able to capitalize on my love of these two movies with the occasional reference and shout-out, and by paying close attention to the movies’ continuity (though I did catch one glitch—the new, advanced, “Summer Glau” model Terminator was sent back two years earlier than the inferior Schwarzenegger model from Terminator 2, when that movie strongly implies that it took quite a bit of effort to nab and reprogram a Terminator. It’s also sort of bizarre that Future John Connor would send this Terminator to find 15-year-old John, then transport them 2007 so they can be “safe,” then two years later Future John Connor sends another one to protect 11-year-old John from the T-1000. Could this mean Summer Glau’s mission will ultimately fail?

Okay, enough nerding out. I have no clues on the direction of this show, though I do suspect the reason they are using Some Random Dude’s picture in place of Joe Morton’s in the Miles Dyson photos is because—he’s not really dead! This is my one prediction; he’s alive and in some sort of Cyberdyne Witness Protection Program so he can keep working on Skynet. It’s unfortunate, because Dyson seemed to really believe Sarah Connor’s history of the future, which is why he helped them destroy Cyberdyne, and actually sacrificed himself for the cause… or did he?!

Wait, didn’t I say I’d stop nerding out? Objectively, as a non-Terminator nerd, I will say that these two pilots had some fantastic stunt coordination and action sequences—much better than any other supposed “action” show currently on TV. I hope this trend continues despite the budget constraints of TV.

As I said, I also enjoyed the deepening of the Terminator mythology. We have some hints that John Connor and the Resistance have established an entire underground infrastructure, dating back at least as early as 1963, in order to “fight the future” in the past. I hope we get more involved in that concept now that we know the Enrique of 2007 has turned into la rata (gotta say, that was a disappointing character assassination—almost as Dyson’s will be, when he shows up alive and well), which pretty much severs ties with the only other “good” character we know and love from Terminator 2.

Regarding the new characters, I’m unsure of Charley’s motivation. I guess it’s hard to trust anyone when you know the Resistance has sent humans back in time for various reasons. What if the Resistance is splintered? What if there are some folks in the future who don’t believe John “I Can’t Find the Turkey” Connor is humanity’s only hope? It could be interesting to see a little non-cyborg sabotage happening. I think the FBI agent was a tad underdeveloped, though. He seemed like little more than a backstory machine this week. I’d like to see more of him, maybe enough so that I learn his name.

One last thing I enjoyed, and hope they play around with, are the brief glimmers of anachronism with the Connors. John Connor, computer expert, getting flustered because he doesn’t know what a browser history is—funny, yet believable. Even in 1999, when it was dawning on people the World Wide Web was here to stay and it could be used to sell products and services that don’t do anything, the idea of clearing the history hadn’t really caught on as a method for covering tracks. It was a nice detail, as was Sarah’s baffled (but slightly more obvious) “What’s a 9/11?”

The Wire (HBO) — “There’s a serial killer in Baltimore.” — McNulty

Jesus Christ, McNulty, when did you go insane? Oh, right: season one, episode one. Yeah, that’s right. Anyone who is thinking and/or complaining that this is out of character or that McNulty is a good guy—think of all the other unethical and illegal shit McNulty has done. Just take a few minutes to think about the fact that a functioning brain is the only thing that separates McNulty from Herc, and the way McNulty’s pounding back the Jameson, he’s trying to reduce the curve as much as possible.

Think, also, about the narrative tightness of this episode. At first, I thought the whole thing felt rushed. As we go through the episode, we witness McNulty having the mother of all bad days, all of it caused by the budgetary clusterfuck of this year’s BPD. We hear some important tidbits about how to make any old death look like a murder, and in the end, we watch McNulty put that knowledge to devious use. It’s all a little too neat. The Wire is the type of show that lays the tracks well in advance of the train, and while I know they only have 10 episodes this year, the quickened pace felt a little jarring…

And yet, as I thought about it, I slowly came to the realization that this wasn’t a one-episode builld-up. This has been coming, slowly but surely, since day one. Starting this episode, we have the addict and former prostitute spilling her guts at the NA meeting: “That bitch wants to kill me.” Sound familiar? McNulty expressed almost that exact sentiment in last season’s finale? What about him complaining that “the game’s rigged”? Words out of Bodie’s mouth, again in the finale (so quit griping that the poor guy’s death had no effect on McNulty). What about his long history of addiction, not just to alcohol and (some might argue) sex, but to the job. The ugly Jimmy has reared its head again, and with his actions in the final moments of the episode, it looks like this time maybe it will kill him—either literally or figuratively.

Ahem…moving on. Can I complain about all the hubbub regarding the suspiciously nuance-free characterizations in the Sun newsroom? I gotta say, I know Gus is supposed to be a David Simon surrogate, but the man is a dick—and I firmly believe David Simon and everyone else writing this show knows and agrees with that. He is not the knight crusading for good journalism in the face of all the evil, mustache-twirling higher-ups and incompetent, sycophantic underlings. He certainly has his heart in the right place, and he’s probably a good journalist, but good enough to justify the colossal ego, the occasional belittling of coworkers (I was actually surprised when he complimented Gutierrez last week), and the quiet seething over the increasingly corporate structure at the paper? Maybe he is, but the fact remains that Simon must recognize these qualities in himself; it can’t just be Clark Johnson seeing this in the subtext, because most of his snottiness is in the text.

Compounding this, I don’t see nearly the level of vilification in the other Sun characters that certain folks in his former newsroom do. Maybe it cuts deep because he’s taking real stories and turning them into thinly veiled fiction (something The Wire has always done, and done well) and they’re having a hard time taking criticism in such a public forum, just as I imagine the police department, drug dealers, mayor’s office, state capitol, docks, unions, and city schools (did I leave any institutions out?) had a hard time with it. The representatives of these institutions are just not quite as shrill, perhaps because they’re actually willing to acknowledge the flaws in a broken system (something the news media across the board obviously has a difficult time accepting).

We don’t have quite as many shades of gray as we usually do, but that also doesn’t make it a black and white portrayal. We haven’t gotten much screen time with these Sun reporters, and remember we barely got into Carcetti’s head until the end of the third season (and never saw his true colors until the end of the fourth). On a related note—what the hell happened to Cutty? I miss that dude.

D. B. Bates is a film critic and television viewer who has often shouted at fictional characters who probably wouldn’t listen to him even if they could hear him and existed in reality. Interested in explaining to D. B. the many ways he got it wrong? E-mail him.

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