True Blood 3x03

A werewolf stalks the Stackhouse residence back in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie shoots at the wolf, but Eric dives in front of the bullet. He may know where Bill is, Eric explains, but the were refuses to talk. When Eric notices the rune in his neck, he can no longer restrain his fury and kills him. The only thing Sookie could make out was something about Jackson. “Jackson, Mississippi,” Eric adds. Meanwhile in Mississippi, King Russell continues his conversation with Bill, while Lorena cools off from the burns sustained by Bill. Russell intimates that it is Lorena who wants Sookie dead, and that the only way to save her life is by joining the King. After Bill pledges his allegiance, Lorena seething with anger taunts Bill until he rapes her in his rage, twisting her neck until its facing backwards. Sam has returned to Bon Temps after his awkward reunion with his birth parents. Tara and Franklin enjoy a one-night stand at some seedy motel. Later Franklin visits Jessica to ask her about Bill and Sookie, and then he shows up at Sookie’s house, not knowing that’s where Tara is staying. He charms her with his mesmerizing glamour. And then there’s Alcide Herveaux, finally, the handsome werewolf sent by Eric to protect Sookie on her mission to Jackson. Once there, Alcide takes her to a bar frequented by werewolves, where she telepathically picks up a lead from one of Bill’s kidnappers.

I’m a little puzzled by some of the minor changes the series has made to Charlaine Harris’ original. Lorena’s last name in the novel, for instance, is “Ball” (not very imaginative, I admit, but still) which is changed to “Krasiki.” The bar in Jackson is originally called “Josephine’s,” although in the shape-shifting community it goes by the name that gave the title to the novel, Club Dead, but for whatever reason it has been changed to “Lou Pine’s.” Fortunately, though, they skipped the part about the goblin bouncer. And I’m glad they have left out vampire Bubba. Overall, I am still unconvinced the series is improving on the original, or even if it’s better than the previous season. There are, again, too many distracting subplots – and the two main plotlines are at the moment not particularly fascinating either. The situation between Tara and Franklin might become more interesting, but I have no clue where Sam’s subplot is going, or Jason’s. The scene of Sookie and Alcide in the bar went much too fast. She picked the brain of the right were in two seconds flat. And the rape scene was, well, gruesome. I know they need to establish that Bill was forced to have intercourse with Lorena against his will. I am enjoying the chemistry between Sookie and Eric, though, and I remain having high hopes for Alcide.

Life: Hunters & Hunted

With the next episode of BBC Life we return to the world of mammals, focusing this time on the struggle for survival, the never-ending fight between predator and prey. David Attenborough informs us that because most hunts actually fail, what makes mammals so remarkable is their adaptability, their ability to continually devise and revise new strategies. We revisit some favorite scenes, such as the three cheetah brothers hunting together for zebras and ostrich at the foot of Mt. Kenya; the bottlenose dolphins corralling a shoal of leaping fish by stirring up rings of mud in Florida Bay; chital deer and gray langur monkeys warning each other in Bandhavgarh, India, of an imminent attack by a Bengal tiger. It’s a great pleasure to see these beautiful scenes again.

Nevertheless, the new footage in this episode isn’t any less impressive: young stoats playing wild games to practice stalking, chasing, ambushing in the English countryside; unbelievable slow-motion capture of greater bulldog bats fishing in a stream in the rain forest of Belize; the cutest ibex kids learning to bound along the precipitous cliffs above the Dead Sea to outwit cunning foxes; a dozen Ethiopian wolves, high up in the mountains, hunting separately (rather than in packs), while the dominant female guards her litter; bears feasting on the spawning salmon run along the Alaskan coast; orcas snatching stray elephant seals off the Falklands, but only a single female knows how to catch a seal pup inside the pool along the shore. Truly a must see!

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

The question whether Henry VIII ever truly loved any of his six wives is to me not only irrelevant but also unhistorical. A man of his standing would never marry solely for romantic reasons, but rather to strengthen his dynastic position, to cement diplomatic alliances and to create political ties. But before I move on, let’s make sure we separate Tudor history from the stories on Showtime’s The Tudors. Fact and fiction, to be sure, do often influence each other – and that certainly applies to the historiography of Henry VIII and his six wives. In many respects his reign can be regarded as an aberration. The violence and terror, the religious turmoil, as well as the King’s marital affairs or his tyrannical cruelty, are all uncanny in British history. It is therefore easy, though probably simplistic, to blame Henry for capriciousness.

We must first of all remember that Henry had been married to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, twenty-four years before he had their marriage annulled. There were several factors that doubtless influenced him, but apparently never his feelings for the Queen herself. The King deeply desired a male heir, which she was unable to produce. Consequently, he projected that desire onto someone else, and that happened to be Anne Boleyn. Henry may even have been genuinely disturbed by the idea that Catherine had consummated her first marriage to Henry’s brother Arthur, before she became his queen. A religiously and legally endorsed annulment of their marriage should have been the least complicated method to terminate their relationship. A divorce with Catherine could jeopardize Britain’s ties with Spain; and in the religious wars of the time, a break with the Vatican would further endanger England’s international position.

It is not surprising, then, that Henry immediately sought political support for his marriage with Anne – and found it in France. The Boleyn family, not coincidentally was highly regarded at the time. It remains possible that the King found Anne’s initial rejection tantalizing, as his desire for a male heir grew. (He had already maintained an affair with her older sister Mary.) As the King’s Great Matter (securing the annulment from Catherine) dragged on, his (unconsummated) courtship with Anne, moreover, lasted for seven years! Naturally, Anne’s upbringing, education, and intelligence added to the attraction. However, such personal traits were disagreeable once she became Queen and openly meddled in court politics, especially effecting the downfall of Thomas Moore and Bishop Fisher. She soon became a threat to Thomas Cromwell. After giving birth to Princess Elizabeth, Anne failed to deliver the much desired male heir, miscarrying twice. None of this smacks of fickleness on the king’s part – although the charges of treason (adultery and incest) now seem preposterous.

Henry then married Jane Seymour (second cousin of Anne), also of prominent noble descent, though not as high as her predecessors – nor as well educated. There isn’t much to say about the King’s third Queen. She was conservative, Catholic, urged Henry to reconcile with Lady Mary (to no avail), but did bear a male heir to the throne, Prince Edward. Shortly after, she died from postnatal complications (perhaps puerperal fever). The King mourned for months and did not remarry for three years.

It’s with the next queen that we can discern a measure of folly on the king’s part. His marriage to Anne of Cleves was first and foremost a diplomatic alliance with the Protestant German Confederation, a decided move against Catholic France and Spain – not to mention Rome. It was Cromwell who advised to the union – and Henry had never met her in person until shortly before their wedding. If it’s incredible the King would arrange another annulment within mere months, it’s even more remarkable that subsequently he treated her generously – inviting her to court frequently and styling her his “beloved sister.” Anne certainly wasn’t hideous and Henry clearly came to respect her. It seems to me there were other motives behind the dissolution of their marriage that have not been transmitted.

When we get to Henry’s marriage to Catherine Howard, we shouldn’t lose out of sight that the King by now was nearing 50, weighed some 300 pounds, and had a festering ulcer on his leg, while she was not even 20 years old. No matter how much he was looking forward siring another son with this young lass, she must have found that idea repulsive. There can be no doubt that Henry felt deeply betrayed by Catherine’s affair with Culpeper – for even if she had borne a child, he would never have been able to know who the father was. But more than betray the King personally, the Queen also betrayed the royal house and the country over which it ruled by threatening the dynastic succession with a bastard child. The King’s response is therefore quite understandable – even if by modern standards her execution was brutal.

While I do not understand why Henry was attracted to Catherine Parr, if he was so perturbed about the idea that Catherine of Aragon or Catherine Howard may have consummated their prior marriages, I find no madness in this last marriage. Unhappily married twice before (though without bearing children), Catherine Parr was much desired as a wealthy widow. Taking on a maternal role, she was able to reconcile the king with his daughters, Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth, who were now officially restored in line of succession after Prince Edward. The Queen reigned aptly as regent while the King campaigned unsuccessfully against France. She may have clashed with Henry over religious matters, feeling his reforms were merely half-measure; her protestant sympathies certainly roused the suspicion of Bishop Gardiner and Chancellor Wriothesley. But she survived the King and, by now in her mid-thirties, Catherine could finally marry out of love and bear a child to Thomas Seymour, only to die in childbirth herself.

As for the actresses portraying Henry’s wives in The Tudors, I have great respect for Maria Doyle Kennedy’s poised depiction of Catherine of Aragon. Apart from the fact that she is stunningly beautiful, she displayed a strong-willed character with stoic endurance and faithful loyalty to her king, her nephew (the Spanish Charles V), the pope, and to god. In contrast, I couldn’t stand Natalie Dormer, who played Anne Boleyn. I found her frivolous, meddlesome and simply annoying. In all honesty, I don’t recall much of Annabelle Wallace’s Jane Seymour. She flashed by in four episodes, was adored, gave birth, and died. I had much difficulty with Joss Stone portraying Anne of Cleves – not just because she is Joss Stone, or because of the silly German accent, but because she was so stiff and uncomfortable. In the last season, however, that stiff and formal performance fitted the circumstances very well. It’s not so much that I find Tamzin Merchant a poor actress (although that horse’s mouth is fairly distracting) – in fact her performance when she “confesses” her “sins” is quite impressive –, it’s that Catherine Howard’s mindless, hysterical character annoyed me to no end. Then we come to Joely Richardson’s fine performance as Catherine Parr: not especially attractive, though charming, but certainly respectable and righteous.

One last note: I find that the passage of time (1518-1547) is poorly depicted in the series. (My greatest qualm being that JRM’s Henry VIII hardly ages over those three decades, and then suddenly is old overnight.) Season 1 covers the years from 1518 till 1530 (over a year per episode); seasons 2 just deals with the four years between 1532 and 1536; seasons 3 similarly covers just four years, between 1536 and 1540; and season 4 covers the last seven (well over half a year per episode, but the first six just cover two years). Nevertheless, we hardly get the impression that more than five years have passed. It would have helped if we saw characters, like the King or Charles Brandon, age with time. All we get are a few grey hairs by the end of season four; and then overnight Henry is old and hoarse, reads poorly and moves about even worse. Of course, being a historian, I take some umbrage with that.

Dexter 3x06

This male bonding between Dex and Miguel is getting eerie. Dex confesses it felt right, just, to kill that wife killer, and Miguel responds, “You came through for me” ... Miguel is a state prosecutor with all the legal forces of Miami at his finger tips, but he admires Dex’ simple way of getting rid of trouble, vigilante style. Dex feels he needs to put this friendship, this trust and understanding to the test, to see if Miguel really accepts Dex as a serial killer. He comes up with a seriously dangerous situation, to murder a white supremacist who’s in a maximum security prison for bludgeoning several people to death even while in jail! But Miguel won’t back down. Dex now needs to figure out an even more complicated plan to convince Miguel to bail out. Instead, Miguel has already plotted his own strategy! It’s convoluted and causes Dex great anxiety if Miguel will really come through for him. In the end, though, it all goes as planned – except that Dex refuses to share his ritual with Miguel. Has he really found a buddy who accepts him for what he is, admires him for it, and will provide him with victims and assistance to bring criminals to their own brand of justice?

The “Skinner” killer struck again, taking out Wendell, the kid from the previous episode, and the cut off skin patch is even larger than before. It seems this sick serial killer is following the movements of the Miami Department of Homicide very closely. Deb even feels guilty that she may be in part responsible for the deaths of Javier and Wendell. When talking with Dex, they get a hunch that perhaps Ramon Prado is the “Skinner.” She asks Sgt. Batista about it, and he tells her to follow up on it, off the grid. Det. Quinn was listening in on the conversation, and Batista asks him to keep an eye on Deb. She tails Ramon for several days, until she sees him beating some guy, throwing him in the trunk of his car, he interrogates him about Freebo, rather violently I should say, but then lets him go when the guy has nothing to say. Quinn had been trailing Deb, so he’s there as another witness. They have to book Ramon for kidnapping, illegal interrogation and torture. We also learn that hawt Yuki from Internal Affairs is merely waging a personal vendetta against Quinn. This season is seriously getting under my skin!

Burn Notice 4x04

Michael Westen is still taking on whatever work is coming his way, helping those in need. This time, that’s a local charity organization that lost all their money in a fraud scheme. When Sam and Michael come to talk with the owner, he’s already at the bank swinging his gun. Before we know it, they’re all involved in a hostage situation. It takes all of Michael’s ingenuity and Sam’s dedication to get them out and get the scam artist in jail. Meanwhile, Jesse and Fiona went to the Bahamas to identify the dead body of the weapons runner (code-named “Cobra”) who’s apparently involved in the whole conspiracy that cost Michael his burn notice. That is to say, they steal his file at the local morgue and use that to trace his address in Miami. The next-door neighbor of this “Cobra” Kassar is one hell of a dangerously nosy hottie (actress Navi Rawat). Using a fake FBI ID, Michael approaches her for some questions. Then he and Jesse notice there are a few things off, they rush back in, where this hottie, Kendra, is bashing a hole in the drywall and then flies out, leaving a tape behind in the wall. It seems she killed Kassar. A killer hottie! We’ll be sure to see more of her! Not in the picture this episode, however, were Michael’s mother Madeline and that guy, Vaughn, the spy who works for the “Management” that got Michael blacklisted in the first place... Overall, I had the feeling we’re heading toward a mid-summer season dip.

True Blood 3x02

Bill Compton ably defends himself from the pack of wolves that attacked him. Except, they’re not regular wolves, they’re werewolves! And they do the bidding of His Majesty the King of Mississippi, who has recruited the weres to escort Vampire Bill to him – not, allegedly, to kidnap him, drain his blood, and assault him. On his white steed, the King takes Bill to his estate and proposes he becomes a sherriff in his kingdom. The King would like to marry Queen Sophie-Anne and hopes Bill may facilitate the process. To put pressure on Bill the King threatens he’ll hurt Sookie – and when that doesn’t convince him, in walks Lorena. In his anger Bill throws an oil lamp at her, setting her ablaze. Tracing Bill to the car crash, with Jessica’s help, meanwhile, Sookie found a tattoo on one of Bill’s assailants that is supposedly associated with some Nazi werewolf command force. She shares the information with Eric Northman, who pretends not to recognize the rune. But suddenly a flashback takes us to Augsburg, Germany, 1945, where SS Vampires Godric and Eric intervene when a female werewolf attacks an American soldier – she bears the same mark. Other plotlines involve Lafayette saving Tara from committing suicide and taking her to see his institutionalized mother; Sam finding his birth parents who left him alone with his shape-shifting nature; and a new vampire (the actor James Frain, who played Cromwell in Tudors, and Barenboim in Hilary & Jackie), who we see going through a file full of clippings about Sookie, and later helps Tara beat the crap out of two racist bigots.

There is little that reminds me of Harris’ novel in this episode – I have to force myself not to let that bother me – well, the King’s human lover, gay Talbot, they kept that part. For his part, His Majesty is a fun new character, with his eighteenth-century aristocratic demeanor. The opening scene with the wolves was exciting, but their transformation to human form is a little silly; the same applies to Sam’s shape shifting. I am sure glad that Sookie’s brother Jason has left that fanatic Fellowship of the Sun (although those zealots will be back). I don’t think I’m giving away anything when I tell you that the blonde Jason spotted in Hotshot will be back. In the first season, I found Jessica perfectly annoying, but this thing with Hoyt is actually rather endearing. Sam’s storyline is in my opinion too sappy. Maybe they’re trying to tap it for emotional depth, or they just didn’t know what else to do with his character. And this leads me to my biggest complaint, that there are too many subplots involving the minor characters, which do not seem to contribute to the main plot. This, of course, is inherent with such a vast supporting cast. But it makes for unfocused storytelling – and with the plot wandering off the point, so goes my interest. Fortunately, I still have high hopes for the new characters, the King and Lorena, Franklin Mott and Alcide Herveaux – and I continue hoping they will stick close enough to the main storyline of the novel. Let’s tune in again next week!

What Katie Did

“Here, listen to this,” she said. We had finally sat down on a little bench with a cup of coffee and a ciggie, after looking for half an hour for this cute little coffee shop off Greenwich Street just south of the Meatpacking District. “What Katie Did,” by the Libertines – not my usual cup o’ tea, and she knew that better than anyone. It was one of the great passions we shared, music. We had broken up half a year ago, but she had agreed to meet up again from time to time. I still loved her. It made me feel connected that she wanted to share this new song she found (well, it was new for us). No matter what the lyrics are really about, I couldn’t help but feel that the song was about us – a guy whose life is falling apart and wondering what his girl will do. “You’re a sweet, sweet girl, but it’s a cruel, cruel world.” A simple yet effective arrangement, fuzzy electric guitar, walking bass, a one-two soft punk beat with a jazz feel. “Shoop-shoop, shoop de-lang a-lang.” It’s a cheerful tune that you’ll whistle along to for weeks – once it’s stuck, you won’t get it out of your head. I told her I would get the album, but she said not to worry, because the rest sounded like a bunch of drunks stumbling in a bar fight.

Being who I am (an avid collector of music) I did get the Libertines’ two albums, as well as the Babyshambles and the Dirty Pretty Things. She was right, though, my ex-girlfriend – she always was – most of their music sounds like a bunch of drunken brawls. Despite the steady teaching job, I felt like a drunk fuckup myself, at the time, and I thought this was the perfect music for hanging out in Williamsburg or Bushwick late at night. She’d complained about the hipsters on Bedford. I’d seen them, too, with their ironic inauthenticity, their beards and lumber shirts. I just didn’t care – at least, I didn’t resent them as much as she did. I had come to enjoy hanging out with her sister or other friends in Williamsburg, drinking Stella and Jack until I puked my guts out. Maybe I wasn’t snorting cocaine or shooting heroin, but it seemed fitting. “Vertigo,” “Up the Bracket,” “Road to Ruin,” “The Likely Lads.” Stumbling along Bedford, Union or Metropolitan, Pete Doherty and friends seemed like the right kind of accompaniment for my state of mind. Some two years later – and worlds away from there – that also explains perhaps why it’s rather painful for me now to hear this alcoholic melancholy music.

In addition to “What Katie Did,” my favorites actually tend to be the more quietly wistful, often acoustic songs, like “Radio America” (Up the Bracket, 2002), “Music When the Lights Go Out” and “France” (The Libertines, 2004), “Albion” and “Merry Go Round” (Down in Albion, 2005), “UnBiloTitled,” “There She Goes” and the beautiful “Lost Art of Murder” (Shotter’s Nation, 2007). As their singles, such as “Time for Heroes” and “Can’t Stand Me Now,” illustrate best, The Libertines and their off-shoots were part of the post-punk/garage rock revival of the 2000s – which also include other “The” bands like The Hives, The Vines, The Stokes, The White Stripes, The Von Buddies and The Killers. Not surprising, since Mick Jones of The Clash produced most of their music, a few songs also grab you with a real punk-drunk energy, like “Horrorshow,” “I Get Along,” “Arbeit Macht Frei,” “The Saga,” “Deadwood” and “You Fucking Love It” – Down in Albion often sounds like The Clash.

Some songs sound like garage-rock throw-backs to The Beatles and The Kinks, like “Boys in the Band,” “Last Post on the Bugle,” “The 32nd of December,” “Delivery” (which essentially lifts the riff from “You Really Got Me”) and most of Carl Barât’s Dirty Pretty Things (what with a title like Waterloo to Anywhere, 2006). “The Boy Looked at Johnny,” “8 Dead Boys” and “Gin & Milk,” are other good examples of those alcohol-infused brawls. I’d also wish to mention the opening song on Down in Albion, “La Belle et la Bête,” with its walking bass and rolling drums, shared vocals with Kate Moss and catchy melody. The song indicates a deliberate attempt to shift away from The Libertines, while remaining recognizably Doherty. More so than the Dirty Pretty Things, I am actually quite partial generally to the Babyshambles. Doherty not only has a way with words lyrically, he also has a knack for melody which can be simultaneously cheerful and filled with regret. If you’re not already familiar with their music, and you enjoy some of the other revivalist “The” bands, I’d say give Babyshambles’ Shotter’s Nation a spin.

Pi

In the genre of weird movies, there’s also π (1998) by Darren Aronofsky (who also directed Requiem for a Dream). The story’s main character, Max Cohen, believes that everything in the universe adheres to patterns that can be understood through numbers. At first he’s using his self-made supercomputer to predict the stock market. But then he meets a zealous Hasidic Kabbalist who hopes to decipher god’s code in the Torah through numerical calculations. At the same time, Max has been approached by a Wall Street firm, who offer him a superchip in return for his predictions. His computer prints out a string of 216 numbers, just like his old computer did before breaking down, just as his math mentor had just before he died, and through some epiphany he recognizes the spiral-shaped patter in the number-string. The Kabbalist and the Wall Street firm increase their pressure on Max, which sends him over the edge of sanity.

The film toys with the thin line between genius and insanity – the maddening truth, the truth in madness, like an Arthur Machen story, or a Terry Gilliam film. Perhaps the most profound statement in the movie is the mentor’s admonition, that “as soon as you discard scientific rigor, you are no longer a mathematician, you’re a numerologist.” This film is no advocate for scientific truths, though, as Max suffers from incapacitating migraines, nosebleeds, crippling hallucinations, paranoia, and possibly schizophrenia. In the end he drills a hole in his skull to be at peace – and never again think about numbers and patterns. Apart from the art-house hip black-and-white and the interesting soundtrack, I found the cinematography terribly annoying – what with the handheld shots, the quick cuts, and the extreme close-ups. Nevertheless, for those who wish to contemplate the ultimate truth – and whether to find it through science or mysticism – this may not be the worst way to spend your time.

Breaking Bad - season 2

While I started watching Breaking Bad reluctantly, at first, I was eager to see what would happen in the second season. Off the bat, this season is even more incredible than the first! Remember that our main character is Walter White, a 50-year old chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He’s calculated that it would take $725,000 to get his two kids through college, pay for mortgage and support his wife. To make so much money fast, he’s teamed up with his former student Jesse, a small-time drugs dealer, to sell the highest quality crystal meth. To hide his identity in his new-found criminal venture, Walter goes by the pseudonym “Heisenberg.” When we last saw Walter and Jesse they were selling their merchandise to this crazy, crystal snorting, paranoid, psychotic gangster Tuco Salamanca.

Now Tuco is planning to kidnap them so that they can work for him in his Mexican lab. Walt has a poison on him with which they are planning on offing Tuco. When they offer the powder to him as some new kind of meth, he dislikes the smell; then Walt sprinkles it over Tuco’s burrito, but it falls on the ground. When they finally get a chance to kill Tuco, they only shoot him once in the stomach and walk away. Meanwhile Walt’s brother-in-law, Hank, a DEA officer, has been slowly inching in on Jesse and Tuco, never realizing who this “Heisenberg” actually is. He happens upon Jesse’s car only to find a bleeding and stumbling Tuco. After a tense shootout, Hank is able to take out Tuco – and is received at the office as a heroic killer.

Walt has to enact a moment of amnesia to cover for his whereabouts, walking into a supermarket and stripping off his clothes. He has to go back on chemo, with sickness as a result. Hospital bills are piling up – amounting to tens of thousands of dollars. For Jesse things are possibly going even worse when his drug money is confiscated by the DEA. Walt and Jesse decide to return to business but this time arrange distribution themselves. Jesse sets up a few of his friends as dealers on the street. Soon, one of them is mugged, and Walt forces Jesse to find the thieves and scare them. In so doing, one of them is accidentally killed, which gives Jesse the necessary street-cred. Then another one of their dealers gets arrested and they need some dirty, sleazebag fake-Jewish lawyer to avoid the dealer to snitch. But this crooked Saul Goodman figures out that Walter is “Heisenberg” and blackmails them into sharing their profit with him.

In Walt’s family things continue to unravel. His wife Skyler almost finds out that Walt’s former partners Elliot and Gretchen never paid a dime for all of his medical treatment. Hank starts to get panic attacks after the shootout and another violent experience near the Mexican border. Walt returns to teaching and Skyler goes back to an old job to earn some extra money. As he’s afraid he’ll die soon and hasn’t been able to save enough money, he takes Jesse to the desert to produce a vast quantity of meth. Even though they are able to sell again, Walter misses the excitement of his secret double life. Then another one of their dealers is killed by rival dealers, sending Jesse into a guilt-ridden depression. With his sometime girlfriend Jane, he starts shooting heroin. In desperate need to get rid of the remaining crystal, they turn to crooked Saul for help, who gets them into contact with a very discreet distributor. Walter has only a short time to deliver the product. He rushes to Jesse’s place, who’s passed out on heroin with Jane. Walter finds the meth. Rushing to the location of delivery, Skyler goes into labor. Although he missed the birth of his daughter, he just made himself and Jesse one point two million dollars!

Through it all, Walt has been lying through his teeth to his family – precisely because he loves them. What was bound to happen finally does, as Skyler asks Walter to leave her. She can no longer tolerate his lies – she has uncovered so many, but is afraid to learn the truth. She just wants him to leave. I don’t think it’s possible for me to explain how good this show is. Every episode grabs your attention with incredibly intelligent plot twists. But what really pulls me in is the way the show keeps things real, dealing with real life issues surrounding cancer and drugs. I can honestly say that I warmly recommend the series.

Tudors 4x10

It’s finally time for the reign of Henry VIII to come to its end. Honestly, my interest in The Tudors has waned significantly since it began. With his death imminent, the King mourns his losses, not so much virtue and honor, but irrevocable time, which once lost can never be redeemed. Business still proceeds at court – Bishop Gardiner continuing to persecute Protestants, a French admiral paying his respects in honor of a peace treaty – but mostly, this episode is about taking leave of life on earth. Factions form around Prince Edward and Lady Mary. Gardiner insinuates to Mary that many would prefer to see her on the throne rather than her half-brother with his overweening uncle as regent. Religion thus divides the court as Edward’s Protector, Lord Hartford, is a staunch supporter of the Reformation, while Bloody Mary would wish nothing less than restore Catholicism in her realm. For his part, Henry declares his commitment to his religious reforms, intending to replace the Catholic mass with a simple communion. With the King’s approval, Gardiner has issued a warrant for the Queen’s arrest on charges of heresy. Yet, Henry is adamant in his faith in Catherine. When Lord Wriothesley comes to arrest the Queen, the King angrily rebuffs him – leaving everyone nervous. Henry has Gardiner removed from court.

Meanwhile, Charles Brandon, the King’s closest and longest friend and trusted advisor is taken ill and dies after they see each other for one last time. The King also has visitations of the ghosts of his deceased wives. Catherine of Aragon chides him that their daughter has not yet been married, and reminds him that in god’s eyes she is still his wife. Anne Boleyn reprimands him for not loving their daughter more, and for defending herself against the accusation that led to her downfall. Jane Seymour reproves him that he expected too much of their son, who, she predicts, will die young. Then Henry dreams he is young and vigorous again, looking up toward a variegated heaven, until Death comes galloping from behind and the sky’s turned black. The final scene revolves around Holbein’s iconic portrait of the King, which presents him as he would have like to see himself: majestic, opulent, bellicose, masculine. With that image, the series closes. It’s been a pleasure, but I found my interest waxing and waning a great many times. Next week I will delve somewhat deeper into the history and portrayal of the Six Wives of Henry VIII.

Dexter 3x05

Dexter joins Rita to take her first Echo – in the pixelated white noise you can just about see the heart beat. Miguel continues on bonding with Dex, while his wife Sylvia quickly becomes friends with Rita. The guys play golf together; and Syl (a real-estate agent) suggests Rita should sell her place and buy a larger house for the new baby and so that Dexter can move in, too. It comes a little too early for Dex. Anton the “snitch” has another lead for Deb. Although the guy is strung out on heroine, at least he tells her that Freebo’s gone and that she should talk to someone called Wendell, a fifteen-year old kid. Deb starts to question Det. Quinn when Wendell disappears from the office, allegedly because his mother wouldn’t give consent. Miami Homicide believe they have found another victim of the Skinner killer, but it’s in the Sherriff’s jurisdiction, where Miguel’s brother Ramon is in charge. But later, Masuka, the lead forensics expert, claims the new victim is not related to the “Skinner” case, because it shows a different MO, no strangulation, and the skin that was cut away had been tattooed. “Science,” Masuka adds, “is a cold-hearted bitch with a fourteen-inch strap-on.” Heehee!

Dex is plotting on his next victim, a case Miguel can’t take to court because it’s out of his jurisdiction, some guy who got away with murdering his wealthy wives twice over. When Dex plans on catching this wife killer, leaving Rita and Syl to go house hunting, Miguel shows up by his boat, but at the last minute decides not to join him on his fishing trip. While Dex is out ritualistically murdering his victim, Rita is afraid she’s having a miscarriage! Syl and Miguel are there to comfort her, but Dex is gone fishing... Late that night he finally arrives and is berated by Deb. Miguel hints he knows where he has been. Without Dexter admitting to anything, Miguel tells him he approves of doing away with the wife killer; he tells Dex he doesn’t have to lie to him, that he sees who he is, that he’s behind him and respects him. It leaves Dexter confused: his father was repulsed, his brother was destroyed, and Lila was consumed, by what he truly is, but Miguel is proud of him. This was another great episode. I have to say that the vibe is very different than the previous seasons, less action-packed adrenaline rushes perhaps, but more focus on personal relations, which makes for satisfying entertainment.

Burn Notice 4x03

I’m so glad to get my weekly fix of Burn Notice again! So, now our team has found a new member. Not that he was invited, but he’s joining them anyway. Jesse’s the counter-intelligence guy who got a burn notice of his own, all thanks to our Michael. He knows a lot, so he might be an asset. Together, they’re looking into an illegal arms trade from Afghanistan to Miami, that’s somehow related to the conspiracy behind Michael’s own burn notice. At the dockyards, Jesse notices mobsters harassing a security agent, who he takes on as their new “client,” someone who needs their help. In return the man gives them flight plans of all shipments from Afghanistan. It also means that the team has to deal with the Miami mafia. It’s convoluted fun, including the code-named “Cobra,” Michael approaching mob boss Tony Carra as a washed out FBI agent, Sam going psychopathic, sharpening his tools to threaten cutting Tony into pieces, a car bomb, a heist of microprocessors at the docks, and an attempt to assassinate New York crime family member Gio. Dramatic high points also include the fantastic Sharon Gloss as Michael’s mother. She’s already caught on that Jesse is a spy, and she warns her son that he is not Michael’s friend, that he’s using Jesse, that the truth will eventually come out – and when Jesse will learn the truth we know he might still kill Michael for blacklisting him. The season is really shaping up for great summer entertainment. I’m curious how this “friendship” between Michael and Jesse is going to evolve.

True Blood 3x01

When we return to Bon Temps in rural Louisiana, you know you’ll get your fair share of rednecks and southern drawls, cretin bigots and fang-bangers. That’s right, it’s time for the third season of True Blood, the HBO series based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. While I was much enthused by the first season, the second season mostly annoyed me, because of the many deviations from the novel I had just read. I will do my best to keep an open mind – it’s been a while since I read Harris novels anyway. Well, then, our beloved telepath Sookie Stackhouse has just been asked to marry 173-year old vampire Bill Compton. When she returns from powdering her nose, Bill is gone – and from the tell-tale signs Sookie is sure he has been kidnapped. Unfortunately, the local police are uninterested helping her find her vampire, as the whole town is still ravaged by the violent orgy inspired by Maryann the maenad.

Tara is mourning the death of her boyfriend “Eggs” Benedict and finds solace only with her drug-dealing, omni-sexual cousin Lafayette. With no help from the police, Sookie turns to the vampire sheriff of the area, Eric Northman (an eyeful of Nordic vigor). The Viking vampire nearly loses it when he hears Bill is gone. Making matters worse for him, the vampire Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne, pays him a visit with a Magister addressing the issue of excessive v-draining (illicit trade of vampire blood for human substance abuse). The intriguing part, however, is that her highness is in such financial duress that – after the Magister walks out – she urges Eric to sell his entire supply of blood overnight so she can handle her debts. On his journey to find his birth parents, former diner-owner Sam Merlotte has a weird homo-erotic dream about Bill. For his part, Bill has been kidnapped by some rowdy v-juice junks who strapped a silver chain around his neck. He manages to get the car tumbling off the road, but after sleeping and feeding, Bill finds himself in the Mississippi woods, surrounded by wolves.

Shameless – Series 2b

Back in Chatsworth Estate, Frank Gallagher’s eldest son, Lip, is an A-level student and hopes to earn a scholarship to the U.S. To earn some extra money for expenses, he does other kids’ homework, too. He finds a quiet place to study at a neighbor’s house, but Lip’s younger brother Carl invites his friends over, who trash the place. The neighbor, a woman called Lena, thinks Lip burgled her house and he gets arrested. Everyone pulls their best in to get her things back. In the end Lena drops the charges and starts an affair with Lip. Lip’s also been sleeping with his gay brother Ian’s cover-up girlfriend, Mandy, but now she’s pregnant, even though they’ve always been using rubbers... Ian has to become part of her violently criminal family, or else he’ll have to fess up he’s gay – and Lip will get the blame... Before you know it, they’re throwing an engagement party. Lips saves the day by admitting the baby’s his, and bang the whole lot’s in a fist fight.

No one realized before that Ian’s blood type is incompatible with that of his parents. Lip says that just means someone got it wrong, but Debbie states the obvious, that Ian’s father isn’t their father! Frank recons his wife Monica must have slept with some guy called Gary Bennett. When Ian and Lip look him up they find he’s exactly like Frank – a drunk who can’t even sit on a chair without falling on the floor! Younger sister Debbie makes some pocket money by keeping up a library of copied videos (“borrowed” from Kash’s store) and then rents them out for half price. Accidentally she gets a hold of a homemade “adult” flick, and makes several hundred pounds!

Meanwhile, Fiona gets pregnant from this bloke Craig she had a rebound one-night stand with. After she tells Craig, they start dating casually. He still lives with his wife. Then his dad dies. And Fiona feels she hardly knows this bloke. Marty goes on a date with Craig’s wife Sue. Craig just thinks all Sue is doing is trying to get back at him. What Marty wants is to be accepted and loved, instead of being called a freak. So, he’s about to jump off a flat when he thinks he’s being used. It’s Debbie who is able to talk him down. And in the end, Sue does really want him.

Even while on the run from the law, Steve tries contacting Fiona, but now that she’s pregnant with Craig’s child it puts her into a difficult situation. So, she ignores Steve’s attempts to avoid having to choose. But Steve persists and eventually approaches Debbie at school and gives her a package for Fiona. Everyone knows she’s still madly in love with Steve. It’s Veronica who calls him (on the cell phone that was in the package). He overhears Fiona talking to Veronica about Craig. He doesn’t care. He just wants to be with Fiona and make her happy. Craig walks in, gets into an argument with Steve, trips and has to go to the hospital. Fiona and Steve take the opportunity to pack some things and drive away. It’s a very emotional moment, everyone is happy for Fiona, but she is worried about her brothers and sister. Will she be back or stay with Steve? We have to wait until the next season for the answer. Great show! Nice little E.L.P. at the end there, too.

New Rose Hotel

I doubt many people ever saw Abel Ferrara’s New Rose Hotel (1998), some kind of cyberpunk erotic thriller, starring Christopher Walken, William Dafoe, and Asia Argento. Care to know what cyberpunk is, perhaps? It’s another excuse for soft-core porn. Not that there’s anything wrong with girls getting naked – in this case Argento and a whole slew of anonymous Asian chicks. But shall I just come out and call a spade a spade? This film is bull-shit. The set up is actually interesting enough: two corporate raiders are promised $100 million if they kidnap a top genetic scientist from a rival company; in their ploy the two use an Italian Shinjuku call-girl to seduce the scientist into defecting.

If my initial enthusiasm was tepid, my interest waned fast, as the film grew ever more turgid. What should have been the thrilling dramatic climax, was nothing but dull fizz: the scientist and his new colleagues are killed by a lethal virus. The worst part was that after sitting through this horse manure for an hour, the film literally started repeating itself, tossing random scenes our way from the first two-third, adding more lurid sex for good measure. We learn that Argento’s call girl was never a pawn in the game of the two men, that in fact she seduced Dafoe’s character, and that she carried to information to reprogram the lab’s DNA synthesizer. Blahdeeblah ... yawn ... Can I go now? My popcorn turned stale.

Life: Insects

Before saying, “ew, gross,” consider that this is BBC Life, one of the most astounding nature documentaries you have ever seen. But, yes, this time the subject is about insects. We are privileged to view – up-close and in magnificent detail – ants, flies, bugs, beetles, bees, butterflies, stick insects, praying mantis, and vast clouds of mayflies, all in their natural surroundings. Some of the highlights include a stag beetle climbing 80 feet up a tree trunk in Chilean Patagonia, hurling male rivals with his enormous jaw horns to find a mate; millions of alkali flies in California’s hyper-saline Mono Lake eating algae under water, living unchallenged until phalarope birds stop over on their winter migration; a swarm of bees defending their colony’s honey combs to the death from a sweet-toothed black bear cub; a South African oogpister (Afrikaans for “eye-pisser”) beetle hunting for ants, until they all bite his ankles and drive him off, then firing off formic acid (digested from the ants) to ward off an inquisitive mongoose; a female Japanese red bug feeding her nest until her death, including demanding new arrivals from another mother who failed to provide for her nymphs; huge Dawson’s bees killing each other in rolling brawls over females emerging from their burrows in the desert ground of Australia’s outback; a colony of several million grass-cutter ants in Argentina, carrying blades of grass to their subterranean metropolis where they farm fungus gardens from which they feed themselves; a female damselfly mating within one day of her adult life, while black winged males battle for her favor in southern France, after which she needs to lay her eggs under water, while evading hopping hungry frogs; an astonishing billion monarch butterflies migrating from as far north as Canada’s Lake Erie to hibernate in a small patch of forest high up in Mexico’s Sierra Madre. You have to see it all to believe it! It’s miraculous!

Tudors 4x09

I’d say it’s about time that Showtime series The Tudors comes to an end. I admit that Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ husky whispers and pouting lips were starting to annoy me. But I find it really ridiculous that suddenly he looks fifty years older than the previous episode, what with thin grey hair and a frizzy beard, not to mention the even more ridiculous broken voice – also notice that no one else seems to have aged so fast... So, King Henry VIII is aging rapidly, the French campaign has taken its toll, and his festering leg wound gives him constant pain. The Pandora’s Box of the King’s Anglican Reformation continues to divide court and country. Catholic Bishop Gardiner joins forces with recently appointed Chancellor Wriothesley persecuting Protestants. Queen Catherine becomes more vocal in encouraging her husband to finish his religious reforms by purging the Church. Bloody Mary causes another rift in the royal house by befriending Wriothesley and supporting Gardiner to rid the realm of heretics. Around Christmas time, the King addresses the House of Commons urging them to reconcile the religious divisions that are tearing the country apart. Despite such talk of love and charity, in his folly, the King allows the British Inquisition to interrogate and torture supposed heretics, burning a female preacher at the stake. He even grants Gardiner to investigate the Queen.

Meanwhile, news from France isn’t good. Lord Surrey, that most noble Henry Howard, has risked the King’s possession of Boulogne with an unprovoked battle against overwhelming odds, and lost 600 men. The taciturn Spanish Emperor is threatening to ally with France against England, making overtures of war. Stripped of his command and forced to return to court, Lord Surrey, however, remains defiant. Upon learning that the King is seriously ill, he conspires to set himself up as Protector of young Prince Edward in hopes of taking possession of the throne himself after the King’s death. He is arrested on charges of treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London, but attempts to escape. A trial quickly follows, in which the jury is threatened by Lord Hartford (he of the rivaling Seymours) not to acquit him, and Lord Surrey is sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Proud to the last, he replies to the guilty verdict that there is no law that justifies them, but that the King wants to rid the court of noble blood.

Dexter 3x04

I have the feeling there’s something more about this Miguel Prado guy. He’s spending an awful lot of time befriending Dexter. I understand they bond, because Miguel had wanted to kill this Freebo kid to avenge the death of his younger brother Oscar. Still, something isn’t right – especially when we learn that as a state prosecutor, Miguel let someone go to jail for whose innocence there was reasonable evidence... Is Miguel trying to hide something about himself, about his drug-abusing younger brother Oscar, or his rum-gulping middle brother Ramon? Then there’s the “Skinner,” the killer who so far murdered two people related to Freebo, his girlfriend Teegan, and his pimp Javier... Strange coincidence... Dex doesn’t trust Ramon and wants to show Miguel he’s a loose cannon; so he shakes him, talks to him about Miguel, makes “anonymous” calls to him claiming he saw Freebo; and soon Ramon throws scene after scene, and Miguel comes to see he cannot trust his brother anymore.

Maria LaGuerta also talks to Miguel about the witness who provides a solid alibi for the person he sent to jail. He won’t listen to her and changes the conversation to Sgt. Doakes. At the office they’re dealing with a woman who claimed her fiancé was murdered by a burglar. She’s covered in blood and keeps talking about what a great guy he was, but evades questions about the burglar. When Deb walks into Dex’ splatter lab, they realize the woman must have killed her fiancé herself. Deb confronts her, but her colleague Quinn tells Deb to leave it, and takes over the interrogation. When hawt Yuki approaches Deb again about Quinn, Deb starts to realize there’s something fishy about this guy. At home, Dex proposes to Rita in front of the kids, using the same words the crazy woman at the office used, how they’re connected and how she makes him real. He learned another trick at faking emotions. Still, it made me cry. It gives the show psychological depth.

Burn Notice 4x02

Michael Westen has put a burn notice on an innocent man, counterintelligence agent Jesse Porter – just as what happened to him years ago. Now our favorite former spy has even more reasons to continue his own mission finding out why he got blacklisted. Michael returns to his newest Pal, Vaughn, to ask for information about this Jesse, but isn’t very co-operative. Sam, Fiona, and Michael tail Jesse, and nearly see him get shot. Then Jesse shows up at Michael’s house, not because he knows he burned him, but because of Michael’s reputation for helping those in need. For Jesse does need help with some drug-dealing Mongolian Khan who thinks Jesse stole his money. Michael being who he is, barges right in on Khan, and offers to help him get rid of Jesse. He arranges for Khan to buy a vast array of illegal arms, and then have Sam call in the police to have Khan arrested. Unfortunately, Khan gets released as he’d done a favor for some DEA officer in the past – and got his hands on Jesse right away. Now, Michael needs to rush in, give Jesse a cheat sheet, make it seem he’s talking under torture. With Mike’s covert instructions, Jesse tells Khan his associate Lee has the money. A short stand-off later, and both Lee and Khan are shot. With Jesse’s name cleared, Michael has a little conversation with him about being blacklisted. Mike wants to help Jesse; Jesse asks if it’s okay with Michael that he’ll kill whoever is responsible for his burn notice; and Michael says he’s okay with that. Ooh!

Shameless – Series 2a

Let’s return to Manchester’s Chatsworth Estate and see what the Gallagher family has been up to since last season! Just before Christmas, Kevin and Lip steals some meat off a truck and sells it down the pub. Before you know it, the police are all over the place. Soon after, the army comes marching into town. The stolen meat was not for human consumption, but intended for a defense lab to test it for contamination. Yeah, I know, how do they come up with this stuff? Ian is taken ill. Sheila’s gone into labor. But now the whole town is under quarantine. Lip and Kev have to steal a military truck to get Ian and Sheila out of town. Folks are after Kev for selling them the contaminated meat. Lip tells them it’s the army who poisoned the food, and they should give them the vaccines. So they all storm to the soldiers and cause a raucous. Throughout, Frank’s lost on a drunken stupor.

Frank’s father, Neville, arrives unannounced at Sheila’s house. “I’m sure Frank thinks you’re dead,” she blurts out. He’s coming to see his new grandchildren, but also in hopes of turning his son to correct his ways – unsuccessfully, of course. Neville nearly had a heart attack. Frank’s not the kind of man you’d want to leave alone with your kids, for when Sheila has to leave for a few days when her mother is on her deathbed, Frank lets his mate babysit, who invites all his friends to run a private bar. Frank also has an accident at Kash Karib’s local store. He gets offered assistance for a hefty insurance, which would close Kash down. Not only would Ian lose his job, the whole neighborhood is putting pressure on Frank. He decides to drop the charges. But now he has to pay for all the legal counseling and medical treatment he received. Sheila calls in on a TV quiz and wins £1,000 with which she pays off Frank’s debt. Except that Kev had already blackmailed the insurance people to wave the fees. Truth be told, Frank’s finest moment comes when Social Services happens round checking on his family, and he defends Fiona as the true caretaker of his children and doing a better job than her mother ever could.

Sheila’s estranged daughter, sexy Karen, gets herself a job at the local pub, The Jockey, pretending to fancy the Lesbian owner Jez. Veronica hates the idea of Kevin working with the seductive temptress, but only gets herself into trouble. Party-hardy Kev and Vee try adopting a child (because he can’t give her a child of their own). This scatterbrained social worker arrives, the morning after another space-cake binge, with an awkward ten-year old Eric. Although they come to love Eric, they have to let him go when they realize they are just not up to the task. Mostly, Kev and Veronica are there to help the Gallaghers – even if they dump her pyromaniac, Tourette’s spewing brother Marty and their mother on the Gallaghers, after Marty burned down his mother’s house.

When Frank’s eldest, Fiona, catches a text on her boyfriend Steve’s cell from some girl, she’s afraid he has met someone else. Turns out, though, he actually has a daughter he never said a word about before. Fiona doesn’t know if she can still trust him if he hid that from her, but when he proposes, all she can cry is “yes!” They visit the church and start planning their nuptials. Steve, as we know, if also a car thief, but family friend, police officer Tony, is on to him. They struck a deal to keep Steve out of jail. To spite him, though, Tony nicks one of Steve’s stolen cars – only to find out the ceiling is filled with cash: money Steve’s made dealing coke. Tony returns the car, but without the money or the coke, so that he can tell Steve to quit dealing or he’ll tell Fiona. Then, Tony botches things up really bad. Steve has to run both for the law and for the gangster he was dealing with – leaving Fiona practically at the altar.

And with that the Cricket will leave you, too, until next week, when we’ll chirp some more about the series.

Trainspotting

Since I watched Requiem for a Dream again the other day, I thought I might as well catch Trainspotting (1996), too, finally. I can’t tell why I never did before... Anyway, the film opens with a profound question: why choose all the conventional comfortable con- veniences of commercialized com- modities, of capitalist consumerism? Why be like everybody else? Don’t be. Why? There are no reasons. Now that’s deep; that’s me, in a nutshell: a non- conformist. But beyond that, don’t worry, I’m not a heroin addict, nor do I look like Ewan McGregor. So the similarities end right there.

Through the eyes of McGregor’s character “Rent Boy,” we follow a group of friends in 80s recession Edinburgh, some of whom are heroin addicts, while others are openly critical about doing drugs. Soon, Rent Boy tries to quit cold turkey. Later, when they’re hanging out at a bar, his sociopathic buddy Begbie causes a violent brawl. Then they go clubbing, Rent Boy falls in love, and whaddaya know, Blondie’s on the soundtrack. (Oh, the irony, but don’t worry if you didn’t catch that one – inside joke.)

Conventional life quickly becomes boring. So, Rent Boy and his friends start using again – anything they can get their hands on. And even clean kid Tommy (actor Keven McKidd, who we now know and love as Lucius Vorenus) starts using, because his girlfriend dumped him. Things start to unravel fast. A baby dies of neglect – one of the guys, Sick Boy, was probably the father. Rent Boy and his buddy Spud get arrested. Spud has to go to prison, Rent Boy goes into a rehabilitation program. But not for long, because he overdoes. His parents decide to lock him up in his room where he suffers from severe hallucinations. And (another insider) right when Rent Boy hit rock bottom, Lou Reed plays “A Perfect Day”! (Man, did they make this movie especially for me? Great soundtrack: Iggy Pop, Eno, New Order, Blur, Pulp, sheez!)

Meanwhile, Tommy has contracted HIV. Rent Boy tries to leave his mates behind and moves to a yuppie real estate gig in London. But before he knows it his friends catch up with him. Begbie shows up hiding from the police for robbing a bank. Sick Boy arrives, too, living off Rent Boy. Then Tommy passes away. Back in Scotland, the remaining friends decide to buy two kilos of heroin and sell it in London for a huge profit. Begbie spoils the party with yet another violent brawl. Rent Boy steals the money off Begbie, leaving some for Spud in a locker, and decides to opt for the conventional life he derided at the onset of the film.

While the film grabs the viewer’s attention with coarsely humorous and criminally violent scenes, dismally horrifying and repulsively disgusting scenes – sometimes all at once – what gives it emotional depth is the bond among the friends. They’re partners in crime. It’s a buddy flick – about guys who happen to be substance abusers. There’s an open ending, but it’s not a Hollywood Happy Ending. From Rent Boy’s previous attempts, we know he will come full circle again. He will fall back into his habit. That seems, to me at least, the message of the episodic and fragmentary narrative, that there are ups and downs, moments of clarity in the drug-infused haze, attempts to stay clean, but eventually the addiction will take over again – all it takes is one shot. This isn’t an anti-drug movie by any stretch of the imagination, but neither is it a pro-drug movie. Set among crime-infested urban poverty, this is social criticism. The heroin high is the one thing that makes them feel fine for a while, until they feel even worse – and then the buddies are there to go out and score some more, until they die.

Tudors 4x08

On his French campaign, King Henry VIII “brought enough canons to conquer hell.” Yet his Siege of Boulogne is stalling due to poor weather and dysentery, not to mention lack of basic provisions, causing thousands of deaths. The king is evidently losing it, blaming the troops for losing their morale out of cowardice. Yet it is not he, but Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who visits the soldiers’ camp and witnesses the plight they are in. Brandon also has his own Briseis, a lovely French war captive, with whom he has a little romp in the sack.

After weeks of digging a tunnel from the camp to the city wall, Henry’s men finally set off an explosion and breach a hole in the city’s defenses. Despite the fact that the purpose of his campaign was to capture Paris, the singular victory at Boulogne suffices for Henry and he returns to England, to his queen and his royal throne. (I won’t bore you with the historical inaccuracies of the siege’s depiction.)

Meanwhile, Queen Catherine Parr has not only been acting adequately as regent in the king’s absence, she has also been caring very well for the king’s three children, as if they were her own. Lady Mary, however, is growing ever more feverish in her Catholic faith, and promises the retiring Spanish ambassador that she will burn as many heretics and spill as much blood as necessary to purge the realm should she ever become, well, Bloody Mary. In all, I am glad to say that the series has picked up qualitatively from the rather tedious earlier episodes.

Dexter 3x03

Dexter is grocery shopping with Rita & the kids. He has his list alphabetized. “How else would you do it?” He asks. Heehee! He sniffs a predator talking to Astor. He even takes down the guy’s license plate number. When he finally gets home at night, he checks the database, and, yup, there you go, the man’s a sex offender. Dex’ instinct was right. In the end, you know Dex will take care of it, the only way he knows. “Nobody hurts my children.” The Prado case has taught Dexter a thing about the Code of Harry: he can make his own rules and move on away from his foster father’s shadow. I’m not so sure that’s sound reasoning, though... Miguel feels a bond with Dex over the death of Freebo. They become bestest buddies fast, talking about fatherhood, their fathers, the burdens of adult responsibilities and trust. Miguel’s an Assistant District Attorney, how could Dexter ever trust him?

Miami Homicide finds another murder victim with a patch of skin cut off his chest (eww, gross). It’s Javier, Freebo’s pimp. They all assume Freebo hit again. Only Dex and Miguel know it can’t be him, because Freebo’s, well, dead, but they can’t tell. Dex has to give Deb a lead without letting her know that he is. So, he puts up a “missing person” poster with Teegan’s name on it. Deb has a confrontation with Anton, the “Confidential Informant.” He refuses to talk to her, seeing that people end up dead with squares cut off their skin. She has to arrest him when he lights up a joint in defiance. Quinn’s none too happy she locked up “his” C.I. She tells him Anton’s not “his” C.I. But Batista tells her to let Anton go. Later she tries apologizing to him and he tells her he wrote a song for her ‘cause he’s sorry, too. The chorus goes “Puta Flaca Mala” Ahahaha! Deb has no idea, and just dances along, smiling! Teehee! (“Skinny Mean Bitch!”)

Burn Notice 4x01

Aren’t you glad Burn Notice is back? I am! The show’s about Michael Westen, who used to be a spy until someone got a burn notice on him. For the past three seasons he has been getting involved with more and more dubious characters trying to discover why he got blacklisted. We’ve learned that some bloke named Simon has been pinning violent acts of terrorism on Michael. It’s time we find out why. Michael is imprisoned in some secret, private holding facility, by a man called Vaughn, his new best friend, apparently. Vaughn, too, was behind Michael’s notice. Now that “Management” realized it was Simon who was to blame, they uncovered this bloke was working for someone else: Gregory Hart, an illegal guns trader, who has been connected to acts of terrorism and warfare around the globe. Vaughn invites Michael to pay a visit to this man to see who he is working for. Right when they find Hart in the jungle, an automatic plane comes shooting down from the sky!

Meanwhile, Fiona and Sam have taken on a case – in honor of Michael (not knowing where he is) – protecting some lawyer Winston (the actor who plays Harry Crane on Mad Men), who somehow got involved with an outlaw biker gang trying to save a girl from her boyfriend and now all members of the gang are after him. With Michael back on board, they’re going to make it seem like Winston was running guns for the gang, so that killing him would send the FBI after the gang. The leader of the pack calls off the kill. To defend his honor, though, the girl’s biker boy shoots the leader. Things didn’t go as Michael planned. Lots of great action, fat punches, fast bikes, shooting guns and an exciting chase! In the end, it all works out. Michael has a talk with his mother, explaining for the first time in his life that his career has been highly dangerous – without actually just telling her he has been a spy – and that this Simon had been blaming Michael – without telling her he was a terrorist. It’s the first heart-to-heart they’ve had. Madeline is visibly relieved. On his next task for Vaughn Michael has to access federal intelligence about this Hart, but when he does, another agent gets blacklisted. Michael just put a burn notice on anther spy!

The Isle

A while ago I saw another one of those weird movies, The Isle (Seom, 2000), a Korean, psychological horror flick by Kim Ki-duk. The setting is a poetically ethereal lake, a remote fishing resort with small floating cottages on the water. A mute Hee-jin ferries her customers back and forth, providing them with baits, supplies, hookers, and occasional sexual favors of her own. It certainly helps that she vaguely reminds me of my ex Paula (but I guess you’re tired of hearing me say that by now – and rightly so). The lyrical serenity of the scenery offers a stark contrast with the psychological and physical horrors that ensue. Hee-jin exhibits some kind of extreme bipolarism, showing dispassionate acts of kindness one moment, and demonstrating acts of gruesome cruelty the next. She slowly becomes intrigued with one of her customers, who’s suicidally depressed and on the run for the law. She saves his live one time, refuses his violent advances, calls in a girl for him, but then grows a passionate jealousy for the hooker. Eventually, Hee-jin ties the girl up and tows in her one of the floats to the farthest side of the lake. In her attempt to catch someone’s attention, the girl accidentally drowns in the water later.

Like the scenery, the iridescent cinematography contrasts severely with the torturous brutality appearing right in front of us. Acts of animal cruelty are depicted in the same unmoving stillness as scenes of rape, mutilation, attempted suicide and murder. The most excruciatingly troubling moments involve two complementary attempted suicides. In the first, Hee-jin’s lover swallows half a dozen fishhooks and has to be saved from the water by Hee-jin pulling the fishing line that’s stuck in his throat. She carefully pulls out the fishhooks, and then has sex with him to distract him from the bleeding pain. When the guy later tries to leave her, she imitates him, by inserting fishhooks into her vagina and falling in the water. She, too, needs to be towed out of the water by the fishing line caught inside her, and then the guy has to carefully remove the hooks while blood flows all over the float. The film ends enigmatically, after police officers discover the body of the hooker and her pimp, who Hee-jin had killed. She takes off with the guy on his float and they hide out in a patch of reeds...

The gory aesthetics of The Isle work on many different levels. The gruesome cruelty reveals primal instincts of basic human and animal emotions. Human relations are no more than fish caught in bait and eaten raw. It’s an allegory of extremes, like the serenity contrasting with the horror, where the shore and the floats represent life and death, love and hate, where sex can be as meaningless as eating fish or releasing oneself, or be as passionately primal as the struggle for life, the all devouring desire for connectedness in a remote lake of isolated isles between misty mountains. The poetics may be violent, but they serve a distinct purpose. The image of a dangling fish recalls the miniature of a hanging man that Hee-Jin’s lover made out of wire, which itself recalls Hee-jin enjoying her swing in front of her store overlooking the lake. Such intricate imagery makes this film a quietly disturbing, but delicately profound contemplation. If you have the stomach, you might enjoy The Isle, too.

Life: Birds

When we return to BBC’s nature documentary Life, the subject this time are birds. We witness again the magnificent dance of courtship performed by Clark’s grebes on the waters of Lake Oregon; a humming bird is shown in slow motion to view his rapid wing beats while he is hovering in the air of the Peruvian Andes to catch a female’s attention by waiving the flags at the end of his spatuletail; an enormous lammergeier is soaring through the air of Ethiopia’s Simien mountains at 15,000 feet, grabbing bones left over after griffon vultures devoured a carcass, then smashing the bones onto rocks so that he can swallow the fractures; red-billed tropicbirds marauded by imposing Man O’ War frigatebirds to steal their catch off Little Tobago in the Caribbean; most of the entire Atlantic red knots population resting on their flight from Argentina to Canada in the Delaware Bay so as to feed on stray eggs of horse-shoe crabs coming ashore with the highest springtide; flamingos nesting in Kenya’s caustic soda lakes; penguins climbing clumsily on the ash covered glaciers of Antarctica’s Deception Island only to search for their chicks among a 150,000 birds; pelicans on Dassen Island off the South African coast feeding gannet chicks to their own offspring; Wyoming sage grouse strutting their feathers while puffing their chest to impress the females; and if we’re talking about impressive feathers, we cannot overlook the beautifully flamboyant birds of paradise; but what struck me most was the sweetly artistic bowers (hut-shaped seductions parlors) colorfully designed by the Vogelkop bowerbirds in New Guinea – and in the special feature at the end we learn it took the team three weeks to catch the mere seconds of the bowerbirds mating. Certainly well worth watching!