Friday, December 31, 2010

Boardwalk Empire 1x03

Boardwalk Empire, Broadway Limited, on HBO
One of the victims of Jimmy’s shooting turns up in the hospital instead of the morgue. Before brown-shirt Eli can silence him forever with a pillow, Van Alden walks in to interrogate him. Eli can hold him off for the time being, but the witness remains alive. Not much later, with a warrant in hand, Van Alden whisks the guy away to New York. When his assistant urges him to take the guy to a doctor before he dies on the backseat, they are forced to take him to a dentist. After the dentist administers two doses of cocaine, he comes to just enough to tell Van Alden in Yiddish to go and fuck his grandmother with his little faggot penis. Before he dies from Van Alden squeezing his intestines through the open wound in his stomach, he tells him one of the guys at the shooting was called Jimmy. Van Alden wants to arrest Jimmy right away, but his superior, Supervisor Elliott, orders him to see his wife and get a rest, while he will consult with a U.S. attorney about their next course of action.

When Rothstein gets wind of it in New York, he sends Lucky Luciano to kill Jimmy. For his part, Nucky tells Jimmy to leave town and think about finishing college. Jimmy’s having marital troubles anyway, suspecting his wife Angela of having an affair while he was in the trenches. So he leaves her and his kid, and takes the train to Chicago, no doubt to look up his buddy Al Capone. Meanwhile, Nucky has gotten Margaret a job in a haute-couture shop Belle Femme at the Ritz with Madame Jeunet. Naturally, that means she’ll have to help Nucky’s lady friend Lucy in and out of lingerie while she rubs in Nucky has a soft spot for the charity cases. There is not much else to say about the episode. It was mostly focused on the development of the characters and their relationships. There were some scenes with Chalky White, the African-American gangster who has taken over Mickey Doyle’s bootlegging trade. I’m not too prone about the gratuitous nudity, even if Paz de la Huerta has beautiful breasts. Nor do I know why it is significant that Lucky Luciano has gonorrhea. The Cricket remains slightly skeptical and hopes our patience will be rewarded eventually.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Modern Family 1x13

Modern Family, Fifteen Percent, on ABC
Okay, so finally another funny episode. 13 must be my lucky number or something. “Can people change?” That’s the theme question this time. Claire is furious about all the high tech equipment Phil is bringing home. She cannot even work the remote. She challenges him to teach Haley how to use it. “I know this seems impossible,” he tells his airhead daughter, “but this is for all those times mom told you she was right and you knew she was wrong.” And Haley is game! For his part, Manny is stoked he found a date at his online book club. To everyone’s consternation she turns out to be a lot older. She’s a bit of a grey mouse. So Gloria decides to give her a makeover. When Cameron drops in, he compliments the woman on her dress, hairdo, and the book she’s reading. She thinks she’s met the man of her life. She better think again.

Meanwhile, Mitchell cannot believe his father still has issues with his homosexuality. He confronts Jay and teases him that one of his friends (Chazz Palminteri) is gay, too. “My gaydar is never wrong and it’s pining like we’re at a bathhouse.” When Jay encourages his friend to share his secret, Shorty admits he is twenty grants in debt, and could Jay please help him out. Payback! The best part is, though Shorty denies he’s gay, he dresses well, loves to dance, enjoys men’s company, and got Jay tickets to see Michael Bublé and have a little picnic. Then a guy passes by who looks like a slimmer version of Ben Stiller, “Hey, handsome, who does your hair?” No, Shorty is damn straight! Ahahahah!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

In Treatment 3x09

In Treatment on HBO
Sunil begins his session preparing tea, and ridiculing the reality show Survivors, before he tells Paul he has been trying to make an attempt at expressing his frustrations. He says it’s like learning how to throw a curveball in cricket with your other hand. Then he speaks with the same excited repulsion about his daughter-in-law’s exercise regimen. Paul is trying to get Sunil to admit that he is drawn to her. He deflects the question a few times by talking about his son’s attraction to Julia instead. Sunil continues talking about honor and shame, about family and dignity. His Brahmin upbringing couldn’t be more different than Western instant-gratification consumerism. When Paul again explains he gets the feeling Sunil is fascinated and intrigued by Julia, Sunil laughs hysterically, hands him the check and leaves. What a treat these two together in one room! They are both aware of their cultural differences, but can’t break through each other’s barriers. Intellectually Paul can sympathize with Sunil’s devotion to dignity, but won’t be able to convince him of Western analytical notions about conflicting emotions, being repelled yet attracted by the same thing or person. Sunil for his part understands that Western culture is driven by desires for fulfillment, but finds this pursuit of happiness a sign of weakness, as immoral has having an affair. I wonder if they will ever find common ground, entrenched as they are in each their own worldview.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Happy New Year!

In Paris!
The Cricket is in Paris!

Oh, no, the French capital,
not that Hilton floozy.

Wishing you a Happy 2011
from the City of Lights!

xoxo

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Dexter 5x08

Dexter, Take It, on Showtime
This episode defied all my expectations – and after four and a half amazing seasons of unexpected twists and turns, that says a lot. At Miami Homicide the fallout from the stakeout at the club is seriously putting everyone on edge. Debra blames LaGuerta and Batista doesn’t know if he should back up his wife or include in his report that Deb was overruled. LaGuerta calls Deb into her office and suggests putting Officer Monzon on suspension, but Deb won’t let her make Cira be the fall guy. She argues and curses, all for the sake of the team. She’s not prone to keeping her mouth, but this is spellbinding. What a woman! Debra’s my girl. She’s an ace. Then, what does scheming careerist LaGuerta do? She throws Deb on paid leave – and to add insult to injury, Deb has to learn about it on TV! (Seems to the Cricket LaGuerta is becoming less likeable. What is this story arc leading up to? Will she be promoted Captain or will she be held responsible for the mess and fired? Will Batista divorce her?) In the end Batista sides with Debra and will write up his report in her support. Always the good guy, this Angel. Dex and Deb have a moment reflecting on life and death, how she doesn’t feel any regret or guilt for killing Carlos Fuentes, and how their father once told Dexter some people deserve to die. They’ve both recently lost loved ones, Rita and Lundy, who deserved to live. Maybe the world is better off without Carlos Fuentes, Deb reasons. Dex just nods in approval, with a look of stunned recognition and validation on his face.

Meanwhile, Dexter decides to attend Jordan Chase’s motivational seminar at some Miami hotel. Excellent point when Dex’ voice-over admits he feels “normal” among Chase’s acolytes. Chase’s head of security, Cole, invites Dex to speak to Chase in private. Chase knows an awful lot about Dexter, about the Trinity Killer case, about Rita and Harrison. What a creepy sleazebag that Jordan Chase! (And what a marvelous performance by Johnny Lee Miller.) Dexter plans on taking out Cole at the hotel and asks Lumen to help him prepare the kill room. On her way to the hotel, this piece of shitty Liddy slams his car into Lumen’s on purpose, and pulls an act to get her info. He’s been keeping tabs on Deb and Lumen for Quinn – even though Quinn is getting increasingly wary about Liddy’s abrasiveness, not to mention his greediness or this threat to tell on Quinn to Deb. Lumen’s fiancé arrives on the scene, too, but she’s none too pleased seeing him.

Back at the hotel, Dex is pleasantly surprised seeing how much easier it all is with Lumen there, ready and willing to kill the torturing rapist Suit Guy Cole. She starts to understand that Dexter is a serial killer, he confides in her, and she accepts him for it. He never had a partner in crime like this before. She’s not like power-hungry Miguel Prado or psychopathic Lila Tournay West. They hear screaming coming from Cole’s room, but it turns out to be merely the sounds of aggressive sex. Still, the noise throws Lumen back to her traumatic experience. Dex comforts her quietly and allows her to sleep, putting off the planned kill. They have one more day to catch Cole before Chase leaves Miami. During the day’s seminar session, Dex gets called on stage to recount the loss of Rita, while Chase encourages him to act on his primal instinct. For his part Cole spots Lumen in the hotel, chases her to the room and attacks her. Dexter comes to the rescue and together they perform his ritual. While Lumen (unseen) pulls up the SUV in front of the hotel and Dex walks out with Cole’s dismembered body in his luggage, Chase approaches him – apologizing for the confrontational session on stage. “Tick, tick, tick,” the sleazebag tells Dexter, “that’s the sound of your life running out,” just like he said to Lumen when he was abusing her. Act on your primal instinct is his motivational motto. “Take It!” “Oh, I will,” Dex replies.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Burn Notice 4x18

Burn Notice, Last Stand, on USA Network
Everything is on the line for Michael Westen, his friends and family. Even his more distant associates are kept under tabs. Vaughn is coming to town and means business. He’s tried being friends with Michael, now Michael will find out what it means to be his enemy. Before Michael can even get the flash-drive with the list to a safe place, Vaughn’s men are on to them. An exciting car chase, some explosions, and a few car crashes later and Jesse is seriously wounded while they need to keep running. They hide out in an abandoned hotel and soon they find themselves under siege. Meanwhile, Madeline and Sam are trying to convince some shady congressman to deliver the list to higher government authorities. He is understandably hesitant, due to their earlier run in, but eventually is convinced by Sam’s pleading. Michael’s plans to escape from under the siege and get the list to the congressman keep failing. He faces death and hopes Fiona will chose life and get out safe. For his part, Vaughn has been able to kidnap Madeline. Michael and Fiona take their last stand, ready to blow themselves up so that Jesse can escape with the list. But suddenly armed forces drop in, at the congressman’s instigation. Vaughn is arrested and Michael is escorted by two men who refuse to tell him who they are. They drive him a long distance without letting him know where they are taking him. When he finally steps outside the car, he’s not in Kansas anymore, nor in Miami. It’s snowing. A suit walks up to him, who welcomes him back. He’s in Washington, D.C.

It’s been another fun and exciting season, with lots of explosions and car chases, blood and guts. This Cricket can’t always follow the plot contrivances, but that doesn’t really matter. It’s a great show with a cheesy sense of humor and an entertaining vibe. There’s a nice chemistry between the characters. Especially Madeline (Sharon Gless) unfailingly offers the emotional bedrock of the series, manipulative and scheming, chain-smoking and complaining, demanding and exacting, but always loving and upright. The writers are well aware that Michael’s obsessive insistence to get his former job back is bordering on insanity – and also point out frequently that he has no real clue what is going to happen should he ever revert his burn notice. There are at least two more seasons left. So it will take awhile before we know (if ever) what is going to happen. I’m glad that, at least for the last two episodes, they focused on the main narrative without the distraction of another job on the side. I can only hope that they will be able to avoid some of the formulaic set-ups that are starting to become just a tad predictable. At any rate, don’t miss out on the fun!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry X-Mas!


Merry X-Mas, my Cricketeers!

May your stockings be filled with your heart’s desires.

It does not surprise the Cricket that most of the chirps here have an audience in the U.S. and The Netherlands, nor the U.K. or Canada. I was surprised, though, that my blog statistics indicate a significant audience in Italy, Germany and Spain, and even in Russia, South Korea and Brazil. Awesome! All I can say to y’all is, feel free to leave comments, like/dislike, follow and add my blog. I’d love to know who’s reading my blurbs or why those nature documentaries keep drawing your attention!

xoxo

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Modern Family 1x10

Modern Family, Undeck the Halls, on ABC
It’s Modern Family Christmas Eve! Just when Phil is skyping with his father, Claire notices a cigarette burn on the couch. Phil threatens to cancel Christmas if no one confesses. Since none of the kids caused the burn, he has to follow through and takes the tree out. The kids scheme to get Christmas back. Luke’s attempt falls through, but Alex’ confession has her parents all eager to get the festivities back on track. With the whole family opening presents under the tree, the couch starts burning again. It’s the sunlight filtered through a crystal ornament in the tree. The girls call on Phil for calling them liars. He tries to dig his way out, deflecting the confrontation, and offers to make it up to them ... with a trip ... to Italy! What a doofus!

For their part, Mitchell and Cameron learn a lesson about forgiveness from an un-fat Santa. They were standing in line to have Lily’s picture taken with Santa at the mall when the a-cappella carol group that ousted Cameron last year steps up in his face. Once on the parking lot, the un-fat Santa helps them packing up all their presents. He got fired because people complained he wasn’t fat enough. They feel guilty and invite him over when they realize he is unemployed and living in his car. After dinner, the carolers show up and Cameron is livid. Un-fat Santa pleads forgiveness, just as he forgave them for getting him fired. Cameron agrees and says a few nice words to the singer. “Even your apology is off-key,” the new leader says – and PAT! un-fat Santa punched his lights out. “You were nice, he was naughty,” he explains as he walks away into the night.

Meanwhile, Manny is complaining that his stepdad won’t allow any of their Columbian traditions in his house, like pulling pranks, fireworks and Columbian food. Jay is a stickler for traditions, everything has to go by his book by the hour. When he drops off the presents for Mitchell and Cameron, he complains about Manny. The guys encourage him this is his chance to establish new traditions with his new wife and son to cherish and remember. Jay takes it to heart, pulls a good prank on Manny, and lights up some fireworks at the end of the night. Aww, how sweet! A lovely episode, with some good laughs. Cameron has become my favorite family member. He is totally adorable.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

In Treatment 3x08

In Treatment on HBO
Last time Adele told Paul her door is always open for him – in contrast to his last therapist and mentor Gina. He’s read Gina’s novel, and left her several voice messages, wanting to talk to her about some of the characters in his book. But why would he return to Adele, if he only went to her for a refill of his Ambien? He tells her his twelve-year old son Max has decided to move in with him and came from Baltimore on the train by himself. It’s not so much the pressure of his parental responsibilities that brought him back to Adele. His real concern is how to discuss with Max he has Parkinson’s. He says that as a matter of fact. We know from bits in earlier episodes that Paul did go to a neurologist, and while waiting for the results, has been frantically reading online about the disease’s inheritability risks. When Adele asks him about the neurologist, he interrupts her to admit that she was right he doesn’t really have someone to talk to. He speaks about his relationships with Max and his daughter Rosie, but when Adele asks Paul if he is equally worried about talking to Rosie about his disease, he interrupts her again. Now he thanks her for being right about Gina. Reading her novel makes him realize he disagrees with her methods. He finds her indiscrete and utterly selfish. He starts criticizing Gina, claiming she based her main character on her. But when Adele wants to discuss what bothers him about the book, he breaks her off yet again.

After an awkward silence, she is finally able to get him to talk about the neurologist. He goes on another tantrum about his low-tech encounter at Cornell’s state-of-the-art new hospital wing, only to be told he does not exhibit enough positive symptoms to diagnose the disease. Yet he doesn’t seem relieved. In fact, he has already scheduled another appointment for a second opinion. He still sleeps poorly and continues to have the same dream – running outside a tall fence on a field, but once he approaches the gates his legs get stuck in quicksand, and when he turns around he see his father lurching towards him. Adele pushes Paul to contemplate why he persists in believing he has Parkinson’s even after a qualified neurologist informed his he probably does not have the disease. She wonders if he might find it comforting to imagine there will be people caring for him as he gets older. And she asks him when was the last time he ever felt the same excitement as in his dream when he approached the gates. He becomes angry, feeling misunderstood, and dismisses her expertise again, belittling her as merely a recent graduate without much life experience. He puts her to the test, asking if she understood his reference to Bartleby earlier in the session. She stares blankly at him, hiding her indignation, and responds, “The Scrivener.” She read the Melville novel. She’s past the test. In short, this was a superb episode, masterfully written, and wonderfully acted. A real intellectual treat.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Dexter 5x07

Dexter, Circle Us, on Showtime
It’s been over a month since Dexter killed Boyd Fowler. Lumen is still trapped in the trauma of her monstrous experience. He’s been allowing her to be part of the plan catching the remaining men who used and abused her. She tells him there were two more, whom she identifies as Watch Guy and Suit & Tie: the first would put his watch against his ear and say “tick, tick, tick, that’s the sound of your life running out”; the other would fold his suit very carefully and lay it on a chair, he’d always take her blindfold off, thinking she’d be dead soon. Next we see Suit Guy (Chris Vance), neatly folding his jacket, while paying some Mexicans to drag the barrels from the lake onto a pick-up truck. Then, with his truck loaded up with barrels filled with dead women in formaldehyde, he drives off toward the highway – and BAM! Another car crashes into the truck sideways. Excellent! The whole Miami Homicide team gets called in. The press is already on site. Meanwhile that shitty Stan Liddy has been trailing Dexter and learned there’s a pretty blonde girl staying at his old house – even took down the “For Sale” sign. Quinn spots Dexter talking to Lumen near the crime scene and puts two and two together.

Suit Guy turns out to be the head of security of none than Jordan Chase (John Lee Miller), a well-known motivational speaker, famous for his “Take It” instructional CDs. Boyd Fowler used to listen to all his CDs. So does Masuka. The truck was registered on Chase’s name. With Suit Guy in tow, Chase arrives at the police station. He is wearing a fancy watch. He must be Watch Guy. He gives his alibi, which checks out, while security guy Cole makes up a story that someone must have stolen their truck – although the key was still in ignition. Masuka’s forensics tell that all the evidence points to Cole, but if Dexter wants to help Lumen kill the men who held her hostage, raped and tortured her, they must derail the police investigation. So he suggests they give the police Boyd Fowler, since he was the man who killed the young women. They raid Boyd’s house and find the torture room (neatly cleaned by Dex and Lumen before). Boyd immediately becomes their primary focus of investigation.

As for the Santa Muerte machete murder case, the whole team is brought in to sting Club Maya, where Deb has learned the Fuentes brothers often hang out in the VIP lounge. Their bait Jasmine has arranged for the brothers to come. From the start LaGuerta disagrees with Deb how to set up the stake out. The Captain is up her case to get it right this time. Nevertheless, things run afoul pretty bad. When Cira Monzon approaches the guys, one of them notices her gun while feeling up her leg. The other shoots Jasmine. Then Cira gets a gun up her face and Deb has to choose whether to let him go yet again or shoot him on the spot. Her bullet hits him right in the forehead. Bull’s Eye! An innocent bystander got killed, too, though, and three were wounded. The Captain is furious. LaGuerta refuses to take responsibility for the mess, even though it was on her orders (overruling Debra) that Cira approached the Fuentes brothers. Needless to say, this was another exciting episode.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Burn Notice 4x17

Burn Notice, Out of the Fire, on USA Network
The season is drawing to a close. Michael Westen came close to unveiling the men responsible for his burn notice, but then lost the list of coded information to former spy and arms dealer Tyler Brennen. Everything Michael has been hoping for is lost again – and his friend Jesse Porter just lost his former handler Marv. The situation causes tension to resurface between Jesse and Michael – especially because Michael and Sam make it clear that they won’t let Jesse mess things up with Brennen. The latter requires Michael to assassinate several dozen people on the list, on the threat of releasing some audio-file that would incriminate Michael. And to sweeten the deal Brennen has brought in Michael’s “good” friend “Dead” Larry Sizemore to help out. (Don’t worry if the plot seems to lack any rhyme or reason. I’ve seen every single episode and can’t follow it either.) Larry and Michael break into some federal building to find the name of their first victim. Then Brennen informs them that he is going to frame some Filipino separatist organization for the murder. Instead, Michael suggests kidnapping the man, so they can interrogate him and pounce some more information out of him.

Meanwhile, it is clear that Larry isn’t exactly excited to be working for Brennen as a mere gun-for-hire. For his part Brennen warns Michael he will drop the audio-file on Vaughn if he will get only a whiff of a hint that someone is tailing him. Jesse is eager to point a gun in Brennen’s mouth and decorate the walls with his brains unless he hands them the list. But Brennen is keeping it in a biometrical safe in a room with a gazillion cameras. Then, after a few explosions to distract the guards, Michael and Larry break into this guy’s compound, and Larry throws another bomb into the guy’s car, blowing him to smithereens. Michael agrees to work together with Larry eliminating the people behind his burn notice, but not on Brennen’s terms. They need to get the list, but first the audio-file. Larry has a better idea – and kills Brennen. Now Michael is trapped, Vaughn will find out about the audio-file and come after him. To push Michael even farther into a corner, Larry orders him to make Sam and Fi go away, or else ... “they will go away”... Michael calls Fiona with just enough information for them to know that Brennen is dead and that they should spring the safe. Which they do just before Michael and Larry arrive. Sam aims his laser pointer on Larry from across the street, ordering him to let Michael go, while they frame the theft on him. Now Michael has the list again. Vaughn will get the audio-file soon, the gates of hell will open, the apocalypse will be upon them, everyone they know and love may soon be very dead. “What else is new,” Madeline quips.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Boardwalk Empire 1x02

Boardwalk Empire, The Ivory Tower, on HBO
We’re in Chicago, at a funeral. A large crowd has gathered in front of the church. There are even reporters on the scene. Big Jim Colosimo was murdered upon his return from New Jersey. Al Capone is walking behind the coffin bearers brushing off the journalists. Back in Atlantic City, County Treasurer Nucky Thompson gets a visit by Probation Agent Nelson Van Alden investigating the death of Hans Schroeder, who got pinned for Jimmy Darmody’s shooting of Arnold Rothstein’s men. After some back and forth, Nucky delicately points out that as a Probation Agent he should be raiding stills, rather than investigating a case of homicide. Nucky’s brother Sheriff Eli Thompson soon pays Margaret Schroeder (an angelic Kelly Macdonald) a visit in the hospital. She just had a miscarriage after Hans physically abused her. Eli implies she didn’t really know her husband, what he was up to at night, or who he associated with, and so he could well have been involved in the shootings – and she wouldn’t want her children ending up in custody, would she. He also hands her an envelope stashed with cash from his brother. The moment she gets home from the hospital Van Alden is at her door asking questions about her husband and Nucky Thompson. The uptight evangelist even steals her ribbon, which he’ll later clutch and sniff. Margaret decides to return the money to Nucky, offering to work for him rather than demean herself to his charity.

Over in New York, big time gangsters Arnold Rothberg and Lucky Luciano send for Frankie Yale, demanding to know who ordered the hit on Colosimo. Rothstein calls Nucky to complain about the missing cargo that ended up in Chicago and demands $100,000 for damages. Nucky warns Rothstein not to show his face in Atlantic City and hangs up. When Jimmy clocks in for work, but Nucky tells him he can go and be a gangster, but will owe him the privilege if it’s in his town. And he still owes Nucky $3,000, too, for the hijacked booze. That night he brings the money, but Nucky teaches him a lesson by placing it on the crabs table and lose it in one game. So, the stage has been set, and the various subplots are slowly introduced. There are quite a few characters, which make it a little difficult to keep up with. The tone is decidedly different from the Martin Scorsese’s pilot – not as grandiosely operatic, without onscreen violence, and a greater focus on the characters and their relations. The story remains engaging, though I am keeping a wait-and-see attitude, as this episode has the feel of something of filler. Still, a good show, with cinematic aspirations. No doubt it will take awhile for the plots and subplots to unravel. I’ll keep you posted.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Modern Family 1x12

Modern Family, Not in My House, on ABC
Really, there was only one bit in this episode that gave me a chuckle – and that was when Gloria caught Jay holding hands with his dog-headed butler doll Barkley before a priest. The rest was either just a trifle too annoying or uncomfortably awkward, or just plain boring.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

In Treatment 3x07

In Treatment on HBO
Messed up kid Jesse (that incredible Dane DeHaan) continues evading Paul’s questions at sixty miles an hour, trying to provoke him with his crude jokes, prodding him for information about his family, testing his patience by threatening to throw things through the window. Paul wants Jesse to talk about his birth mother, his relationship with his adoptive mother Marisa, or why he is avoiding talking to Nate, a class mate he had a secretive fling with, but now considers an obsessed stalker merely because he tried calling Jesse on their landline. It must be difficult breaking through the layers of deceit Jesse has wrapped around himself in an attempt to protect himself from hurt. He clearly yearns for intimacy and emotional connection, but makes that well nigh impossible with the lies and abrasiveness. He thought Paul had taken him on pro bono and breaks down when he learns from Paul that Marisa is paying for his therapy. He knows she cannot afford it – just as he knew she couldn’t afford paying for his summer arts program to which he applied as an excuse for contacting his birth mother in Westchester without consulting his adoptive parents. When Paul doubts that she will just fork up the money if he calls her out of the blue, Jesse gets so angry he wants to leave. At the end of the session, Jesse tells Paul to warn his son for the world of pain ahead of him.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Dexter 5x06

Dexter, Everything Is Illumenated, on Showtime
Midway through the season and the plotlines are starting to converge in unforeseeable ways. Miami Homicide is following Deb’s lead on the Santa Muerte machete murders. They’ve organized a stake out at the club frequented by the Fuentes brothers. This despite the Captain’s warning he isn’t pleased with their lack of progress. Batista is teasing Deb how many girls approach Quinn at the bar. She’s doing her best to hide her jealousy. For his part, Dex is trying to bring back some normalcy into his life – and prepares his next kill: another perverted serial killer (of which there seems ample supply in his neck of the woods). When he is leaving his condo, his Irish superwoman nanny tells Harrison to say “bye-bye, daddy,” and the little kid says “dye-dye.” “He said ‘die, die!’” Dex responds shocked. “Don’t be silly,” she retorts, “He said ‘bye-bye.’ Harrison’s first words!” Just when he is about to start his ritual kill, Lumen calls repeatedly. She never left Miami – and now she’s shot one of the men who raped her (or so she claims). She doesn’t know what to do. He hurries to Lumen at some bayside warehouse, with a victim of his own in his car. When he arrives, she’s anxious and confused. She cannot really tell this is the man who raped her, she just knows, even though she was blindfolded the whole time she was abused, but she feels she’s right, he smells the same. But now the man is gone!

They have to follow the trail of his blood, revealing how much Dex knows about blood and what kind of gadgets he carries with him in his bag. The man is losing so much blood he can’t be far. They soon enough find him and he denies ever seeing Lumen before. Then Dex gets a message on his cell of a reported homicide – at the very same warehouse. Someone must have heard the gun shots. Dexter and Lumen keep arguing. He doesn’t trust her instinct. Then they overhear him talking on Lumen’s cell phone: “She shot me! That last fucking bitch is alive!” Lumen was right all along, and now the others are warned. With one guy wrapped in plastic foil coming to in his car and another body at the warehouse, Dexter has to take care of both situations at once, while Deb and Masuka are already following the trail of blood. And if that isn’t enough, Dex needs to argue with Lumen to make sure she leaves – and then the first guy breaks out of Dex’ SUV. Only in the nick of time is he able to catch the guy, run back to the dead body, dump the other body on the scene with Lumen’s gun, and pretend he found them before his sister did. Amazing! “Two words,” Masuka intones, “auto-erotic mummification.” “What a night!” Deb exclaims. This was sure one heck of an exciting episode. What a terrific plot development! I’m a little more reticent about Deb’s continuing dalliance with Quinn, or the marital troubles between Batista and LaGuerta, not to mention Quinn’s persistence to investigate Dexter with the help of his suspended colleague Stan Liddy.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Burn Notice 4x16

Burn Notice, Dead or Alive, on USA Network
Michael Westen finally has his hands on the list that contains information about all the names of the people behind his burn notice. He has decided to hand it over to the government and trust that they will reconsider the black-listing, so that he and Jesse can be reinstated in their respective counter-intelligence jobs. Michael also chose Jesse’s former handler, Marv, to arrange the hand-over. Marv doesn’t trust Michael, and resents him for causing Jesse’ burn notice. So he straps him on the polygraph to verify he’s talking the truth. “State your name and occupation,” Marv asks. “My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy.”

Meanwhile, an old cop friend of Sam has gone missing, allegedly after nicking a lot of cocaine off some dealers. So Sam feels obliged to help the guy’s wife clear his name. Top brass has already closed the case. But Sam thinks it stinks. They learn from some scumbag dealer that Sam’s friend Kevin was set up by his partner Pete, and then killed. Now they have to set up Pete to trap him into selling the stash. They bring on the heat by pretending they killed the scumbag dealer and – even better – that Kevin is still alive and talking to Internal Affairs. Pete wants to make a deal fast, but instead of bringing drugs, he sets off an explosion of his own. With nothing else left, Michael threatens to kill him if he won’t give him the coke. Pete offers to drop it off at Kevin’s house, since it’s too hot to deal on the street, blame it on his ex-partner all over again. When he does, Sam is waiting with a Police Lieutenant’s crew. He finally got busted.

Marv checks up on some of Michael’s stories without raising any flags, and they check out. He decides to help Michael and Jesse hand over the list. But when they meet, Marv is sweating and nervous. He is escorted by three guys wearing Homeland Security uniforms. They also have silencers on their pistols. Something is wrong. They already have the flash drive. Marv is dead. The list is gone. Tyler Brennan, a former spy and arms dealer (who appeared before in seasons two and three), just stole Michael’s precious information! No end in sight. Fun!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Gossip Girl 4x11

Gossip Girl, The Townie, on The CW
Oh, my freakin’ Gossip Girl, the plot is spinning out of control! Paraphrasing Blair, the Juliet Express went off the rails and headed straight to Crazy Town. How much longer can this Cricket bear this drivel? Dan and Blair are trying to figure out what kind of sick retribution motivates that stalking Flatchester. But who to turn to for help in bringing her down? What about Gossip Girl herself? Juliet is merely an outsider to the Upper Eastside elite. Plus she posted that fake photo posing as Serena snorting up. Does GG even know it’s fake? Will she reply? Well, she does point them to Cornwall, Connecticut, where Serena went to boarding school after her previous bender. There they meet Damien (Jenny’s one time dope-pushing fling), who admits he sold a big batch of various drugs to Juliet recently. She’s a townie. And right when they walk out of the sorority house, she’s driving by and spots Dan and Blair talking to Damien. Anyway, Damien brings Dan and Blair to Juliet’s mother, who tells them about Juliet’s brother, Ben Donovan (her first husband’s last name), who taught at S’s boarding school. Oooohhh! Now we get it. She fell in love with him and he got into the slammer for misdemeanors with a minor! So, jealous Juliet is upset that S first had an affair with her brother Ben and then she was about to start another with her cousin Collin. The irony! There you have your retribution.

Meanwhile, Serena is still committed into the Rostroff Center. Lily and Eric are proud how strong she is. Jeez, wake up and smell the coffee: that dumb blonde got set up! She opens up to her therapist, providing us with some background information about her time in boarding school, how she fell in love with her teacher, while playing party hardy with the sorority girls. For his part, Damien fills us in with his recollections about his time there. Lovely how his flashbacks slide into those of Serena and back in the same over-saturated purple and golden hues. S never slept with her teacher, because Mr. Donovan was an honorable man who understood it wasn’t right – or at least understood the repercussions if he did. Try paying attention now, because your mind may wonder off to better and brighter places: Juliet decides to confront Serena with the truth; Ben warns Nate, who happens to be visiting his father in prison, that Serena is in danger; Juliet is able to sneak into the Rostroff Center, even though S is supposed not to have any visitors for three days; she tells S that Ben was accused of statutory rape and transporting a minor across state lines; an affidavit was signed in Serena’s name (that she has no knowledge of) detailing the crime; so brother Ben is serving time for a crime he did not commit; it was Lily who was behind it; but don’t try to understand how Lily thought it was all in their best interest to put an innocent man behind bars... It comes as no surprise that everything comes to blows again at another party. S walks into a Christmas cocktail at the van der Woodsen’s, with Juliet in tow. Dan and Blair are there, with Damien in tow. Nate, Eric and Rufus, too. Serena just blurts out in front of everyone that her mother is a selfish liar, who will destroy anyone who stands in her way – and then runs off. Who’s the dumb blonde now, Lily?

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Modern Family 1x11

Modern Family, Up All Night, on ABC
Jay doesn’t like Manny’s father, Javier, Gloria’s ex. “I don’t like the guy,” he explains. “Do I have reasons? Yeah. Good reasons? Yeah! How many reasons do I need? None. I don’t like the guy!” Jay’s funny! He doesn’t understand how Gloria could fall for his suave moves, and he resents the fact that Javier lets his son down so often. But late at night, the guys bond, talking about pool, motor bikes, and baseball. Before you know it, Javier has charmed Jay. Of course, gorgeous Gloria is furious! When swanky no-show stood up Jay, he’s learned his lesson. The story of Phil suffering from a kidney stone, with Claire jumping into a sexy outfit when they call 911, is the kind of awkward stuff I can’t appreciate. For their part Mitchell and Cameron are up all night, not so much because baby Lily is crying, but because they are arguing whether to ferberize her or not (i.e., letting her cry until she falls asleep rather than comforting her every minute of the night). Also not funny.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

In Treatment 3x06

In Treatment on HBO
Frances is still having trouble remembering her lines during rehearsal, even though she can quote them verbatim off stage. She’s afraid to come off as frivolous or ridiculous or pathetic complaining about forgetting her lines, about her stage director, about getting older, about not having had sex for two years, and what not. She is comparing herself to her sister who is taking her breast cancer in such great strides. Her teenage daughter seems to prefer her father and aunt over her, and has a boyfriend with whom she may start having sex. She felt her husband would lose interest in her the moment she got pregnant. It is fair to say that Frances is very insecure about herself and needs constant praise for what she does to maintain a sense of purpose. She has faced the loss of her husband (after he had an affair) and of her daughter, now her sister is dying, and the high risk that she may test positive for the breast cancer gene test may mean she might lose her breasts. Paul had called her sister Patricia to show his concern and realized Frances hadn’t been truthful when she told him she had been talking to her sister about seeing Paul. She confesses and promises to talk with Patricia before the next session.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Robert Plant – Band of Joy

Robert Plant - Official Website
Robert Plant’s latest album Band of Joy (2010) won’t grab you with hard-rocking riffs, won’t blow you away with heavy blues stomps, won’t wow you with pyrotechnic guitar solos. The music on this album is more subtle than that. Plant has had quite the successful solo career since Led Zeppelin, moving from hard rock via new-wave AOR to folk rock at the turn of the millennium. Last year his bluegrass collaboration with Alison Krauss even won him a Grammy for Album of the Year. Here we get an album filled with mandolin and banjo, wistful harmonies, and delectable percussion, where English folk and country & western meet, where rock and roll rubs shoulders with rhythm and blues, where spiritual and secular, where the sacred and the profane come together musing on love and life and the hereafter.

The album’s opening track is the swinging “Angel Dance,” originally by Los Lobos, which they give an electric bluegrass rocking treatment. The song encourages us to ease our worries, let the children dance, and after a good night sleep all will be better tomorrow. But Plant’s delivery hints at a more celestial, more angelic better day. His refelctions on the End of Time continue when we dive straight into “House of Cards,” by Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention), where they shake things up in a loose folk rocker that could just as well be Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, with some Jackson Brown and CSNY thrown in for good measure. Plant’s sole original composition, “Central Two-O-Nine,” is reminiscent of the country blues of Lightnin’ Hopkins and Leadbelly.

On “You Can’t Buy Me Love,” originally by R&B singer Barbara Lynn (1965), Band of Joy sounds like The Beatles with a little gumption from The Kinks. (Don’t let the rockin’ ‘n’ reeling trick you, this is no ode to love.) They turn Jimmie Rodger’s country & western tune, “I’m Falling in Love Again” into 1950s country soul, with a Sam Cooke feel and Nashville slides. Milton Mapes’ “The Only Sound That Matters” becomes a forgotten Rolling Stones out-take from the late 70s. I’m not particularly partial to the Appalachian traditional that goes by various names, “Get Along Home, Cindy,” “Cindy, I’ll Marry You Some Day.”

For this Cricket the real high points come with the distorted feedback of Low’s “Silver Rider” (already nominated for a Grammy) and “Monkey,” which Band of Joy perform like dirges with Plant well-nigh whispering and Patti Griffin sighing in mourning. Another beautiful meditation on mortality comes with the cover of Townes Van Zandt’s last song “Harm’s Swift Way.” The album ends with two more contemplations on the passing of time. First, the arrangement by Plant and co-producer Buddy Miller of the traditional spiritual “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down” is as gloomy and ghostly as it is menacing, with a subtle interplay between banjo and electric guitar. Lastly, Band of Joy remake 19th-century abolitionist Theodore Tilton’s “Even This Shall Pass Away” into a rollicking stomper with a grinding, buzzing bass, and screeching guitars from the Book of Fripp and Eno.

Fans of Led Zeppelin may look for clues all they want as to what a Led Zep come back may sound like. They won’t find it here. And may I remind them of Walking to Clarksdale? Case in point. It speaks volumes for Plant that he resists hopping on the reunion bandwagon to milk that cow for what it’s worth and bring home the fat bacon (to mix a few rustic metaphors). Plant’s voice is obviously unmistakable, but don’t be fooled by reviews talking about “misty mountains” and “battles of evermore” and “houses of the holy.” Referencing over a century of musical history, Band of Joy is as timeless as it is fresh. With Pro Tools easily setting sessions in Abbey Road, Carnegie Hall, the Athenian Acropolis, or a Tennessee barn, Miller decidedly evades an overtly slick production in favor of a crisp and clear sound that’s loose and intimate, and entirely in the here-and-now. Let’s be grateful Plant continues refusing to wallow in the nostalgia of his gloriously excessive yesteryears! Get the album now! (It’s downloadable for only $1.99)

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Dexter 5x05

Dexter, Beauty and the Beast, on Showtime
“We all have something to hide,” Dexter intones. That’s one of the show’s premises from which it draws its attraction. In some way we all are a little bit like Dexter, hiding in plain sight “some dark place we don’t want the world to see.” That is something he shares with Lumen – and they both are victims of terrible circumstances that have happened to them. She tells him there were others, not just Boyd and she wants Dex to help her kill them. Having no clue as to who these accomplices might have been he pays a visit to Boyd’s house. He finds someone else has ransacked it already, leaving blood as he cut himself smashing the window – and finger prints. When he checks the prints in the database, they match with none other than Lumen herself. She beat Dexter to it. Next he breaks into her motel room and finds she’s been keeping tabs on Boyd’s former cell mate due for parole, one Robert Brunner, who did time for rape and torture. Dex worries she might try and kill him on her own. He finds the guy under the Julia Tuttle Causeway (a sex offender colony), tranquilizes him and prepares to kill him. Then he realizes Brunner is wearing an ankle bracelet monitoring his whereabouts. He could not have been involved in abusing Lumen.

Meanwhile, Deb and Sierra are trying their might to get any leads on the Santa Muerte machete murders. They learn that one of the Fuentes brothers has an eye tattoo on his hand. There’s a great scene with Deb and Mazuka in a tattoo parlor. You just got to see it. When Sierra checks ATM footage, she realizes the victims were all freaking out while withdrawing maximum amounts from their accounts. It gives them another clue, which brings them to a home where they discover two maggot-infested decomposing bodies. It’s too gross to watch. Imagine the stench! I’m not too keen on Deb and Quinn becoming friends with benefits. Her penchant for the wrong types is getting painfully obvious. Moreover, Quinn has recruited a suspended colleague, Stan Liddy (Peter Weller) to keep tabs on Dexter. Then there’s the growing suspicion between LaGuerta and Batista. She is working hard to get the Internal Affairs charges dropped, but he worries she is having internal affairs of a different kind. For her part, Lumen goes looking for Brunner under Tuttle Bridge intending to kill him on the spot. Dex stops her in the nick of time. He then convinces her to return home to Minnesota and even got her a plane ticket. Yet when she is searched at airport security she panics and hails a cab back to Miami.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Burn Notice 4x15

Burn Notice, Brotherly Love, on USA Network
Sam and Jesse are heading to Santa Domingo, to get in on the auction, check out security, and steal the list Michael is dying to get his hands on so he can finally find out all the names of the people behind his burn notice. He can’t come, because, “when you’re burned,” as every opening sequence reminds us, “you’re stuck in whatever city they decide to dump you.” So, Michael is quarantined in Miami, and he sure cannot afford raising eyebrows skipping town and heading to the Dominican Republic for three days. Justin Walsh, the, um, “auctioneer,” otherwise known as “covert intelligence thief,” isn’t very forthcoming about his security. He just hints that he’s using a moving loop to keep the list safe. Sam reckons that means Walsh is using a motorcycle relay, with various bikes going round until he has sold the list. To keep track of any bikes circling the neighborhood, Sam and Jesse recruit “field operatives” among the locals for a few bucks, and soon enough figure out the pattern of bikes.

Meanwhile, Michael’s brother Nate happens to be back in town, looking for some cars stolen from friends of his. Of course, the story turns out not that simple. One of the cars contained twenty kilos of heroin. Michael got himself new clients. And Fiona is in on the job. Michael visits an old acquaintance, who helps him to the address of the crew who swiped the car, called Buckwild’s, and asks for a little favor putting the crew out of commission. As is to be expected, things don’t go exactly as planned. The car wasn’t stolen by Buckwild’s crew, but actually by one of the kingpin’s henchmen. Michael is able to get his clients scot free, though, when he finally retrieves the car. Then he and Fiona fly to the Dominican Republic – evading customs – and help Sam and Jesse steal the list, well, actually a flash drive, and rush back to Miami. Now what is Michael going to do with the information?

Friday, December 3, 2010

Shameless – Series 4

Shameless official website on Channel 4
When we return to Chatsworth Estate, it is Lip’s 18th birthday – except he finds out it is actually his 19th, because his parents delayed his birth registration for a year. He is in for quite a day! Frank accidentally sets Sheila’s kitchen on fire. Kevin and Veronica are arrested in Romania trying to adopt a baby illegally. The Irish mobster Maguires moves in next door. Frank’s first wife Monica decides to move back in after nearly six and a half years. Marty returns with the little baby from Romania, making his way back across the Continent hitching rides. So, crammed in the same house now are Monica, Frank’s four sons – Lip, Ian, Carl and Liam (well, Ian isn’t biologically his) – and Debbie, Carol, Marty and Sue (his girlfriend) and his new baby, plus Lip’s girlfriend Mandy and their baby Katie, too. Honestly, I have no idea what Monica is doing, but Frank never told Sheila he never filed the divorce papers – and that the bigamist is now married to both of them. Sheila is understandably upset by Monica’s return. She dreams of going Kill Bill (parts one and two) on Monica, but she opts for a more subtle approach – trying to get Monica back with Norma. To make it worse, Frank can’t keep it in his pants for too long, and soon is sleeping with his first wife again. Monica wants Frank to tell Sheila they never divorced, and isn’t legally married to Sheila. He can’t handle the pressure or the guilt. But when Sheila catches Monica having a cocktail sausage, she puts two and two together: Monica is neither a vegetarian nor a lesbian, but has been having sex with her Frank. Knives fly, and Frank too. And if that isn’t enough, Sheila and Monica decides it’s up to Frank to choose between them, neither will share. The kids group together in favor of Sheila, of course, Monica left them over six years ago, and Sheila is the best thing to Frank. In the end he chooses Sheila, but when she discovers he is still married to Monica she leaves him for good.

Meanwhile, Jamie Maguire came back from his ten-year prison sentence for murder. Instead of return to his criminal family, he decides to work at the Jockey. Sexy kitten Karen plays cat and mouse with the former jailbird, always playing hard to get, even though she’s the easiest piece on the estate. Knowing he is a Maguire, she doesn’t trust him one bit, but is clearly fancies him – and he is all over her. Then he proposes out of the blue. He’s spent ten years in prison, he doesn’t want to waste anymore time, he knows what he wants out of life: her – and who can blame him? She’s a well right piece of ass. What endears him to her is when she realizes he hasn’t had sex since he went to prison! Naturally, the Maguires use any means necessary to make sure Karen stays with Jamie, which includes manipulation, threats, and tortures. Paddy Maguire fears for his life when three of his former inmates all die within the span of a week under suspicious circumstances. He needs to calm his nerves, but scares the shit out of his doctor. So he prescribes him “placeboesque anti-depressants” for a “pretended depression by proxy”! In the end, Paddy learns it was Jamie who took them all out, because they were planning on killing Paddy and taking over his shady ventures.

Shameless, series 4, on Company PicturesIn other news, Kash Karib gets himself in such financial trouble, he has to lay Ian off from the convenience store. Yvonne is livid when she finds out Kash has taken out loans on the shop and their house. She never wants to see him ever again. The situation is so serious, they stage his suicide – and he is indeed never seen again. Ian runs into a girl who just stole ten grand worth of scratch cards off the Maguires and now the Gallaghers have to hide her up their attic. When she finds out, Mandy is forced to choose between the two families. She stands up for Lip and Ian, but eventually her father finds out anyway. Even though he’s gay, Ian feels attracted to the girl, and they end up sleeping together. He rushes off with her. She wants to leave town with him, but he feels it’s not right. He returns to his charming gay ways fast with one of the Maguire sons. They snort up post-coital and get caught by Paddy. Briefly Kev’s ex-junkie/prostitute sister Kelly shows up unannounced at the Maguires, not realizing her brother’s in jail in Eastern Europe.

The story of Frank and Monica plays out throughout the whole season. Never mind what Frank sees in her, I cannot figure out why Monica ever decided to return and make everybody’s life miserable. Frank prefers to avoid the whole situation and stay in Sheila’s house. It’s none too surprising that he has to leave there, as Sheila has put up the house for sale. Now he has to move back in with his kids, his not-so-estranged wife and her bird Norma. Debbie tries to wedge herself between Frank and Monica – to the point her mother pushes her to find a lad and get laid. Carl rather wants his family back together and will do anything to get rid of Norma. For her part, Monica plays Frank against Norma. Her bird takes it a wee bit too far, tying Frank up and taking him to the police station on account of attempted rape. “Have you seen her?” Frank exclaims, “yourself?” After Debbie’s had a good word with her, Norma drops the charges on the condition that Franks stays away from Monica until they’re back together – and she even throws in a grand to sweeten the deal! “How much do you love her now, eh, Frank?” The deals falls through, though, when Monica pleads Norma to drop the charges or else she won’t ever forgive her. So, Monica is here to stay, alas.

At the end of the season Lip, the smart one of the family, gets offered three scholarships to choose from so he can go to the university. But where does that leave Mandy and their baby? We will have to wait and see. This leads me to one aspect of the show I find myself struggling with: the loss of my favorite characters. First we saw Fiona and Steve leave, then Kev and Veronica, and Sheila soon after. I adored them, and miss them on the show. Now Lip is leaving for college. That leaves Frank and Debbie (oh, yes, and Karen, too, for obvious reasons). I care much less for the remaining characters. I don’t know where Marty and Sue went. The Maguires are too much of caricatures, and next season we’ll have to deal with Yvonne and her kids. Still, Shameless is one of the most heart-wrenching, delightful, endearing shows you’ll ever see, full of humor and human emotions. You may have heard that HBO is preparing an adaptation for American TV, which is quite a shame. Why can’t Americans get used to the accents, throw in subtitles, and enjoy the original? I would urge you to do yourself a favor and check out the U.K. version before they start airing the rip off, no matter it will feature William H. Macy in the role of Frank Gallagher.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Gossip Girl 4x10

Gossip Girl, Gaslit, on The CW
There’s another party on the Upper East Side, Thanksgiving, and as the Macy’s parade is winding down Manhattan, and the scent of traditions hangs heavy in the autumnal air, people are preparing for dinner at the van der Woodsen-Humphreys. Not seen since the Chuck’s Saints & Sinners Masquerade Ball is Serena and no one knows where she’s been. Well, Juliet Flatchester sure knows where S is – she’s up in a cheap motel in Queens, practically overdosed on drugs and booze. When she finally comes to, S dials 911 and ends up in the emergency room. Once again it’s the Brooklynites who realize this does not sound like something Serena would do, that’s something is off, but Blair and Lily assume it’s business as usual, just Serena acting out. Apparently that’s what you do when you’re blowing off steam, you take painkillers, sleeping pill, anti-depressants and you wash them down with a bottle of vodka. Lily decides to send Serena into rehab.

Goodboy Dan believes Serena, who moreover tells him that the last thing she remembers is that she had made up her mind between Nate and him in his favor, and they skip out together. Meanwhile, Juliet makes Vanessa tell off Jenny, so she can take the blame. Plus, she sends a photo to Gossip Girl S snorting a big line of coke – or so it seems. Apparently everyone has forgotten that S supposedly kissed both Nate and Dan at Chuck’s party, even though she wasn’t able to get it. So, when she sees that photo of herself, Serena figures if she can’t remember doing coke, she may have done a whole lot more she can’t remember. So she volunteers to return to rehab. Jenny still is the only one to realize Juliet was behind Serena’s bender, and tells Blair before she returns upstate to stay gone. Also splitting town are Vanessa and Juliet. Now Blair only has Dan to turn to, to save Serena and bring down that stalking Flatchester. Mind you, I still don’t know what has motivated her and her brother to set up Serena. It’s getting so ridiculously over-the-top annoying, I am glad the season is almost over.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Modern Family 1x09

Modern Family, Fizbo, on ABC
This is the episode in which we are introduced to the Great Fizbo! Who is he? It’s Cameron the Clown, who we learn is a trained Auguste clown. It’s Luke’s birthday and since the whole family is going to be together for Thanksgiving, Claire and Phil decide to pull all the stops this year. Phil gets a climbing wall, bounce house, snow-cone machine, balloons, you name it. Meanwhile, Jay and Gloria encourage Manny to approach a girl he likes, but she has eyes only for Haley’s boyfriend Dylan. For his part Dylan is more interested in “Jungle Tanya,” the animal trainer who’s entertaining the kids with chameleons and snakes. No one flirts with Haley’s man, of course, so she jealously releases jungle girl’s scorpion. The ensuing hilarity gave me some hearty chuckles – even if the slapstick was rather stiff. Floppy Fizbo runs for cover, freaking out Phil, who like any sane person is scared of clowns and bumps into Jay, who was just showing Luke how to use the crossbow he gave him for his birthday, which sets of an accidental arrow into the bounce house, which traps Manny’s girl inside, but as a true man of action Manny saves the day – except that Luke tripped over the beads spilled from Claire’s arts-and-crafts table and breaks his arm.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

In Treatment 3x05

In Treatment on HBO
Sunil returns for his second session. He dislikes being referred to as a patient; some kids spoiled soda over his vest; his son and daughter-in-law forced him to take a shower; and recently he’s been having this ache. Sunil is grumpy, but he has a sweet sense of humor. When Paul asks him about the ache, he jokes it must be the same ache his son hopes Paul can release him of. Soon enough Sunil is questioning the method of therapy in which only one side engages in the conversation. He feels he cannot be expected to share intimate details of his life, if the other party of the conversation barely says a word. Paul criticizes Sunil for putting his own complaints and grievances into other people’s mouth, for projecting his own frustrations onto others. Sunil jokes that now he regrets asking Paul to speak more, and he voices his frustration over the poor quality of tea in New York. They continue their cat and mouse game, Paul keeps asking probing questions and Sunil keeps dodging them. When their time is up, Sunil seems insulted as if Paul is throwing him out. From our Western perspective it is clear that Sunil has been bottling up resentments for years, but he is resigned there is nothing that can be changed about his life. It poses a great challenge for Paul to break through such barriers. For both parties this must not have felt as a productive session. Still, Sunil somewhere somehow seems to appreciate his sessions. So there’s hope that he can learn to become more assertive.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Fright Nights

Catacombs, the movie, you don't want to see it!
Over the summer the Cricket spent a couple of nights with the kids watching some of the most atrocious horror garbage you should save yourself from even getting anywhere near to. They were that bad. So that you won’t make the same mistake, here we go. From the premise, you’d think Catacombs (2007) has the perfect setting for a Slayer video: subterranean cemetery below the streets of Paris: the realm of darkness underneath the City of Light. This empire of the dead is the last resting place of millions of skulls and bones, often artfully arranged in a labyrinthine structure of chambers and corridors some sixty feet underground. It is in this morbid maze that an unsuspecting naïf (Shannyn Sossamon) gets drawn by her abrasive sister (P!nk). I can already hear your eyes roll... The Second Act consists entirely of the girl running in the darkness to evade the clutches of some evil serial killer... No Third Act can make up for that, but this ending stank so bad, I won’t even begin to tell you. Awful!

Gene Simmons has a grandmother, too!Next, we have Buried Alive (2007) – even the title is a rip off. Here we’re dealing with some family curse and ghostly apparitions. The film is plagued by common horror tropes: college initiation insanity, gratuitous nudity, inexplicable acts of random violence, a curious family history, a road trip to a remote cabin, a frightfully misanthropic caretaker who enjoys stuffing dead animals, dysfunctional mobile phones, flying axes, power failures, sabotaged cars, and after everyone else is slaughtered, the two remaining teenagers are, of course, buried alive... yawn... I needn’t say more.

Gone to Ruins, get it?Lastly there’s The Ruins (2008), another stinker of a movie. Here we join two American teenage couples with some recent friends to the ruins of a Mayan temple in the remote Mexican jungle. Angry villagers kill off one of them fast. Atop the ruin their cell phones have no signal, but they can distinctly hear a cell phone ringing down the mineshaft. Naturally, as one of them is lowered down, he has a fall and breaks his back. They are able to get him out, but then next morning the vines that cover the ruin have eaten into the guy’s leg. Desperate to get to the cell phone in the shaft, the two girls go back down, only to find the dead body of the cell phone’s owner – and to learn it’s not the phone they hear ringing, put the vines! (?!?) You get the picture. They all die, but for one, who in the alternate ending still has vines crawling inside her. Yuck!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Dexter 5x04

Dexter, Beauty and the Beast, on Showtime
So much is already happening this season on Dexter! Det. Quinn is hot on Dex’ trail, suspecting him of using the alias “Kyle Butler” to get closer to the Mitchells, obviously not knowing at all why. Even when the FBI refuses to grant him access to the family, Quinn is resilient and persistent enough to find their safe house. It does mean he’s missing on the job a lot. At an unguarded moment, Quinn approaches Jonah and shows him a photo of Dex. Before Jonah can say anything, Quinn gets arrested. Lt. LaGuerta is furious and sends him on unpaid suspension. Sgt. Batista might lose his job and serve time for assaulting a fellow police officer. Maria encourages him to make amends with Sgt. Lopez. She tells him she isn’t asking. Lopez accepts Batista’s apologies, but it is not enough for Internal Affairs to halt the investigation. Deb, Vince Masuka and Cira Monzon pulled an all-nighter at the crime scene, but they really need Dexter’s help. He leads them to a clue, which gives them a partial finger print on a cigar butt. That leads them to the Fuentes brothers. When they raid their crowded apartment, one of the brothers slices a hostage’s throat with his machete and takes a run for it.

Most importantly, though, after he performed his latest ritual kill, Dexter is left with a feral woman (Julia Stiles). He won’t and can’t kill her. She’s innocent. But she saw what he did to road-kill pickup artist Boyd Fowler. The moment she comes to, he injects another needle to sedate her again. While trying to find out more about her, his nanny Sonya quits. He was gone the whole night, never called, she can’t trust him. Dex has to take Harrison to the office while checking the girl’s finger prints. Her name is Lumen Pierce; she’s from Minnesota. But when she comes to later, she says her name is Rachel. Although he can’t kill her, he can’t just let her go either. After all the abuse she’s been through, she rather dies than being locked up without knowing what Dexter is going to do to her. He still needs to find out more about her – and get his nanny back. He learns that Lumen has an unpaid motel bill and convinces the owner to give him her luggage. Having convinced Sonya to give him one more chance, he returns to Lumen, who’s slit her wrist. Well, it’s a ploy to escape, but Dex is able to catch her after a quick chase. Hoping to win her trust, he takes her to the lake where Boyd used to dump his victims. He explains that his own wife Rita was brutally murdered and he doesn’t want to see any more innocent people die. Lumen tells Dexter that Boyd wasn’t the only one, that there were others, that it’s not over.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Boardwalk Empire 1x01

Boardwalk Empire, Pilot, on HBO
This Fall HBO brought a new series to the American TV screens, Boardwalk Empire, about Prohibition Era Atlantic City, N.J. It is created by Terence Winter (The Sopranos), and co-produced with Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg. It stars Steve Buscemi as Atlantic County’s corrupt treasurer and hypocrite politician Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (based on the historical kingpin Enoch Johnson), who pledges his heartfelt support to the suffragettes of the Temperance League, minutes before he swears to his fellow hotshots that even if Prohibition will turn the country dry, he will keep Atlantic City “as wet as a mermaid’s twat.” The décors are on gloriously grand operatic scale; we get arrogant Rolls-Royces and stately abodes, flirty flappers and blackface Dixie-land, comedy and cabaret, dirty dancing and midgets boxing, contraband dealings and moonshine bootleggers, dangerous gangsters in fabulous fashion plus humorless Federal Agents and their footsoldiers in the war against illegal liquor. It is January 1920 and Enoch Thompson fully intends to reap the benefits of the Prohibition, dealing in contraband and moonshine. Conveniently, Atlantic City’s sheriff is Nucky’s younger brother Eli. Thompson has invited high level gangsters from New York and Chicago to talk business. Meanwhile, Thompson’s protégé, Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), has returned from the Great War with Gerry shrapnel in his leg and ambitions as dark as his experience in the trenches. Waiting outside the mobster convention, he happens upon one of Big Jim Colosimo’s low-level henchmen, Al Capone, who has ambitions to match Jimmy’s. Together they rob a shipment of whiskey off New York gangster Arnold Rothstein and kill several of his men, while they tipped off the Feds about Mickey Doyle’s bootlegging operation. From the looks of this pilot episode, the Cricket will be cheeping cheerfully about this show. Thanks Zory!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Becker - season two

Becker on IMDB
Well, do you know Becker? It is one of the few sit-coms that actually makes me roll on the floor laughing out loud! No, seriously, I really roll on the floor. It is that funny. Why? Because Ted Danson’s character, doctor John Becker, is an ill-tempered, sarcastic misanthrope, just like me. His view on religion? “Just another dumb-ass system created by the tiny minded to deal with the complexities of human life, because rather than think for themselves, it’s easier to believe that our fate is controlled by some great apocalyptic voodoo monkey in the sky.” Hilarious! He runs a small practice in the Bronx, and despite his permanent exasperation, you quickly learn to respect him because he genuinely cares about his patents’ well-being – not to mention he is bluntly honesty.

In one of her rare moments of clarity, his vacuous assistant Linda quits. That’s when Becker and his office manager Margaret realize just how invaluable she is, because she is so good with the patients. Becker visits her to give her another chance – and we learn that she is living in a penthouse on Central Park, next to the Danish ambassador, and owns a genuine Monet. Her wealthy parents have long ago given up on her, but are willing to pay for her house to keep her out of trouble. The job at Becker’s office is the only thing that makes her feel good about herself. Then that sleazebag Bob is thrown out his mother’s retirement home and needs a place to stay. Linda offers. Margaret tries to warn her. Help the needy, Linda reminds her, and Bob is needy, very needy. “Isn’t that what Christianity is all about?” “Christ never met Bob,” Margaret retorts. Somehow Linda and Bob manage to make it work, but only God knows how.

But obviously the show is mostly about Becker. He has about as much charm as an uncouth bear. He usually barges into Reggie’s diner every morning complaining about some incident on the way from his home. When Reggie is wearing a stunning red dress, Becker’s kind of complement is, “You’re not exactly the worst looking woman in this place, but I’d rather go with that one over there.” But when he meets Reggie’s best friend Amanda who used to be a model like her, they have a brief affair. “Sex with a model!” his assistant Margaret scoffs in disbelief. Then Reggie’s dating this guy she doesn’t know is one of Becker’s patients – and he is giving him advice to prove indirectly that he knows women better than Reggie; and she falls for it (initially at least). Later, Reggie’s high school flame is back in town and she can’t wait to go out with him – until he ends up in jail and wants her to post bail. Then Becker gets a call from a friend of his best buddy in high school. They hit it off famously, having dinner, going to a game, drinking beer. He tells her she must be the perfect woman, but she has something to tell of her own: she is his high school buddy – except she had a sex change.

At one point Becker gets shot when picking up his blind friend Jake who got lost in Brooklyn. The doctor, Liz, at the hospital can’t stand him, but refuses to let him go home until he is fit to. Between the abrasive sarcasm, something grows between them. They are, in fact, just like each other: arrogant, opinionated control freaks, stubborn, infuriating pains in the ass, with nothing going on in their private lives. Once he’s released, she drops by to tell him how unpleasant it was having him as her patient, so much so she wanted to strangle him, but doesn’t entirely miss that feeling. He replies he never thought of her thinking of him that way, and that he noticed she was sort of intelligent and not unattractive. He invites her for dinner at his place, she tells him he didn’t have to go through all that trouble – and he tells her neither did she, “I mean, I didn’t expect you to look so good.” “This isn’t nearly as horrible as I thought it would be,” she tells him. Meanwhile, his neighbor across the hallway notices Reggie stopping by, Liz frequenting, the upstairs neighbor complaining she won’t just have sex when it’s convenient for him, the next door neighbor complaining he’s responsible for her crying baby, you know the lady is thinking he got prostitutes coming in all day. “You wanted to get to know me, this is me, you know,” he offers Liz. “I can’t pretend to be somebody else, just for the sake of a relationship.” She leans in to kiss him. “You must really be screwed up.” The relationship lasts for much of the second half of the season, until she gets a job offer in Chicago and he encourages her to go because it’s a great career opportunity – even though he will miss her. Please do yourself a favor and watch this show whichever way you can!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Modern Family 1x08

Modern Family, Great Expectations, on ABC
At the Dunphy residence it’s Phil and Clair’s wedding anniversary. Phil is stoked to cover Clair in presents, but Clair only got him self-made coupons for free hugs. She’s so embarrassed that she pretends the coupons were only the beginning. She manages to get some guy from Spandau Ballet (guest star Edward Norton) to perform for Phil at their home. “Phil loves Spandau Ballet. That song ‘True’ was playing in the car the first time we kissed. It’s our song,” Clair enthuses to the audience. “I never liked Spandau Ballet,” Phil confesses on the couch when his wife isn’t listening, “Our entire marriage, I never once mentioned Spandau Ballet. Am I even pronouncing that right?” Bonus point for Phil and penalty point for Clair. How can she not know what to get her husband?

Meanwhile Jay has his grandchildren over for a sleepover with all the usual family traditions. They have Sloppy Jays, “which is really Sloppy Joes, made by Jay,” and watch western movies. Pretty girl Haley obviously would rather spend the night with her boy Dylan at the party three blocks away. Jay has been there before with Clair, so he anticipates all her moves and even catches Dylan in the bushes. He loves westerns and rather skip the party. Poor Haley. For their part Mitchell and Cameron left Lily with Gloria, so they can have a night out with another adult, their wild friend Sal (guest star Elizabeth Banks). Sal’s all boobs and laughter all the time, until they mention Lily. She thinks they should kill her. Okay, I’ll admit, this one was worth a few chuckles.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

In Treatment 3x04

In Treatment on HBO
The other day Paul spotted an advertisement for Gina Toll’s novel, Admissions. Until last year, she used to be his mentor and therapist, but he was always struggling to get from under her wings, while coming back for the mothering he did not receive as a boy. Now he is going to a different therapist, Adele Brouse, and he is carrying a copy of Gina’s book under his arm. He thinks he’s merely walking in to renew his Ambien prescription. But Adele is stern and curt, yet soft spoken. Paul gets uncomfortable fast and twice makes a comment about her age or lack of experience. He closes himself off, merely expecting her to fill out a prescription and let him go his way. But she indicates she is not going to do that so easily. He falls silent – and then starts talking about Frances and her dying sister. That’s when he finally tells her his father died of Parkinson’s, that his dreams have been trying to tell him to stop ignoring his symptoms (stiffness, dizziness, shaking hands), but he denies he is afraid. She confronts him with his resistance to open up, and questions his dependence on Gina (his teacher, his supervisor, his analyst and his marriage counselor). She notices the book and he admits he’s embarrassed. Then he finally opens up, although more about his patients than about himself. He confesses his frustration not making progress, to have a brief moment of connection – like when Jesse told him about the voice mail from his birth mother – only to see it implode on itself; or his feeling that he really cannot do anything to make situations better – like bring back Sunil’s wife. After she fills out the prescription, she points out that he has been talking about escape and entrapment, in relation to his patients, Gina, as well as Parkinson’s. She also wonders why he is still waking up from the same dream if he has realized several days ago what it was communicating to him. Before he leaves, Adele stresses that her door is always open for him. “What did you just say?” Paul responds stunned. The last time he saw Gina she told him that she was not going to tell him her door is always open for him.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Atheist

Atheist - Official Website
Your Music Cricket has tossed around the name Atheist a few times before. With their first new album out in seventeen years, this is a great opportunity to praise one of the most influential and interesting bands in progressive death metal. For fans of the genre Atheist needs no introduction, but for the rest of you, let’s dig in some history. Atheist belongs to the Florida scene, including Death and Cynic, that took cues from San Francisco Bay Area Thrashers Slayer, and combined it with the dexterous velocity of Tampa Bay bands like Morbid Angel and Deicide. Atheist further incorporated jazz and progressive elements to create a unique blend of aggressive riffs, syncopated time signature shifts, and incredibly inventive leads. Those leads and solos were courtesy of guitarist Rand Burkey, while the main riffs tended to come from Kelly Shaefer, who also offered hoarse shrieks – rather than the usual death grunts and growls. However, credit is also due to bassist Roger Patterson not only for his impressively complex rhythmic patterns, but also for inspiring many of the songs’ riffs. Among the founding members, in addition to Shaefer and Patterson, there’s drummer Steve Flynn to round up the swinging rhythm sections with more technical talent.

Atheist - Official WebsiteAfter several demos in the later ’80s, Atheist’s debut album, Piece of Time, was first released in Europe in 1989, and only half a year later in the U.S. With songs between no more than two-and-a-half to four-and-a-half minutes, Atheist here crams in a remarkable mass of shifts and turns, whirlwind riffs, and blistering solos. Lyrically there is more than just the standard metal fare of doom, death, destruction and damnation. Songs deal with the meaning of life and death, the transmigration of the soul, evangelist propaganda, political hypocrisy, and social commentary. Atheist took technical proficiency to an even higher level on their sophomore output, Unquestionable Presence (1991). Although the songs are on average barely half a minute longer, they were somehow able to include even more progressive, jazzy, and latin elements, more baffling riffs, more tempo changes and more time signatures. Unquestionably a classic presence in the progressive/technical death metal genre. Sadly, by the time of its release Roger Patterson had died in a touring bus accident eerily similar to the death of Metallica’s Cliff Burton.

Atheist - Official WebsiteThe band returned with their most variegated album Elements (1993), with Tony Choy now performing bass guitar duties. A third guitarist, Frank Emmi, was brought in to share lead responsibilities with Burkey, while Flynn was replaced by Josh Greenbaum. The complex progressive, jazzy, and latin elements take yet greater pride of place on this effort, without losing too much in brutal aggression. Perhaps less intriguing or fitting are a few shorter, atmospheric interludes, and even a samba piece. To these ears the album would have done better without them. The mains tracks, about half a minute longer again than on the previous outing, though, remain personal favorites. Elements was written and recorded in just forty days to fulfill contractual obligations, after which Atheist disbanded. Tony Choy, meanwhile, performed with death metal acts Cynic and Pestilence, while Kelly Shaefer went on to form the more rock-oriented Neurotica. And that, fans had to accept, was it for Atheist.

Atheist - Official WebsiteRumors of reunions started floating in the new millennium, getting more serious by 2005/6. Fans met the news no doubt with equal anticipation as trepidation – for the chance of disappointment was great. Shaefer, Burkey, Choy and Flynn did regroup for live performances, and after a few more years and some line-up changes later, Atheist released their first new album since 1993 earlier this month, entitled Jupiter. At the opening riff, the first things that comes to mind is tech-death/math-core acts like Ion Dissonance, or, dare I mention the name? The Dillinger Escape Plan. In hardly over half an hour, Jupiter nonetheless packs a terrific punch of ravaging riffs, swirling leads, and rhythmic madness that spells Atheist for the new millennium! By the second track you’ve already forgotten that this is a come-back album. The production is crisp and clean, and allows each instrument to breathe its asphyxiating last breath throughout. The lead parts, now courtesy of Chris Baker and Jonathan Thompson, remain as impressively progressive as before. Choy, alas, chose to give priority to his successful venture into latin pop, while Burkey was prevented from participating due to legal issues. At any rate, this Cricket is mighty pleased that Atheist is back in business!