M.I.A.

Shameless 5x03

“Imagine Britain without Chatsworth Buccaneers, who come on your face for the price of a beer,” Frank Gallagher muses, while his wife Monica dreams she’s having another baby. Her family isn’t too happy about it – it’s not like she’s been a good mother to her children. Mind you, she hasn’t seen a doctor or even taken a home test. “I am most definitely with child,” she smiles, because she’s dreaming of nursery rhymes, chicken and eggs, and she has morning sickness. Even Mandy Maguire doesn’t buy it. Six tests later, they still come out negative. Norma is delighted – and secretly hopes Monica will finally come back to her – and reminds her of their time together, how she was there for her when she was desperate and depressed. Mandy helps her snap out of it, telling her, “Don’t think about the one you’re not having, think about the ones you’ve got.” The kids make her a mother’s day cake for all the ones they’ve missed, so they can start again, and she gets the message.

For his part, Paddy Maguire is planning a fortieth birthday surprise party for his love. “Great woe will descend upon anyone who blows this,” he warns his sons, “Comprendo? Decco.” Foxy Karen is freaking out, for the party will be at The Jockey (as always). Alas, when she steps out for a bit, Ian and Jamie get locked up in the cellar and all customers upstairs rob them blind of all their liquor and furniture. Not even the Maguire scare tactics help to get the pub back into shape for the party. But when Frank explains the consequences of their actions, namely that The Jockey will close for business, they all come scrambling to safe their favorite hangout. “It’s not just a pub, a place of ale, it’s a second home to most of us, first for some,” he explains, “We need that beer flowing.” So the party is back on and both Paddy and Mimi pretend they didn’t know the other knew they knew. A bit slow, this episode, and neither compelling nor hilarious. Let’s hope the season picks up soon again.

Stephen King’s It

If you know the novel on which this two-part made-for-tv film is based, you’ll know it’s impossible to transfer the story from one medium to another. I guess we should give Warner Bros. kudos for even trying. The result, though, is neither scary nor compelling. I imagine that if this were the first horror movie you ever saw when you were a teenager it might have been quite creepy – and you’ll be traumatized for life by that clown. “They all float down here!” The story follows a group of kids, “The Loser Club” (later re-baptized as “Lucky Seven”) during a life-changing summer in 1960 – and their reunion thirty years later. In that fateful summer in some New England smallville, all of them have frightful encounters with their worst nightmare in the form of shape-shifting Pennywise the Dancing Clown, who also appears as a werewolf, a mummy, and whatnot. Children disappear in sleepy little town of Derry, Maine, but no one seems to care or do much about it. Grownups apparently don’t notice what is going on in their town every thirty odd years. The losers’ leader, Bill is determined to avenge the death of his younger brother Georgie. When they all have shared their encounters with “It” they agree to help him. Obviously they have no idea how to go about, but the bonding experience is the heart and soul of the story.

Unable to kill the monster, they vow they will one day return to finish “It” off should it ever come back. And coming back it does, as children sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and disappear again thirty years later. Mike Hanlon is the only one of the Lucky Seven who remains in Derry and contacts the others; Bill Denbrough (doubtless modeled after Stephen King himself) still tells scary stories; Richie Tozier now makes a living cracking jokes as he always did; that little fat kid, Ben Hanscom, who used to build dams so well, is now a slim, successful architect; hypochondriac Eddie Kaspbrak still lives with his overbearing mother; the only girl among the Losers, Beverly Marsh, has found a man to replace her abusive father; Stan Uris, once the goody-two-shoes boy scout and now a successful businessman, rather commits suicide than face “It” again. There’s no explanation why they are still able to see that freaky Pennywise the Clown now that they’re adults, and there certainly aren’t words to explain the dramatically poor ending. Somehow the clown’s true earthly shape is that of a giant spider that feeds on humans. Mike and Eddie die, while Beverley slings silver slugs at the monster, while Bill, Richie and Ben disembowel “It” and rip it’s heart out. What a letdown. After sitting through three hours of build up, this crock o’ shyte is a real anti-climax.

There are some obvious staples of Stephen King’s usual fair in the film: the everyman smallville setting in Maine, the coming-of-age of a group of misfit adolescents over a summer in the 60s, the inexplicable terror, and so on. The scenes with the teenagers are perhaps the most interesting, while the adult actors remain stiff and unconvincing. Watching it now, the movie also suffers from its painfully out-dated effects. But what bothers your Cricket most are the blatant rip offs from J. R. R. Tolkien and H. P. Lovecraft. The giant spider in the subterranean cave, feeding on humans paralyzed in cobweb cocoons, clearly derives – however unconsciously – from The Lord of the Rings’ Cirith Ungol’s Shelob. (And if you’ve seen both movies, you’ll probably agree that Peter Jackson stole it back for his version.) The cosmological back-story about the ancient extra-terrestrial monster terrorizing New England, hunting small towns for prey, taking shapes and forms that will terrify anyone who dares looking straight into the “deadlight” of its very being so much their stupefying madness will kill them, certainly comes directly from the Cthulu Cycle, which itself in a way was inspired by Arthur Machen. Moreover, there’s no subtext, no deeper meaning, beyond the great adventure that bound the Losers’ Club in their quest to fight Evil incarnate. And we already knew that clowns are Satan’s spawn. No cheeping chirps for this one.

Benidorm 4x04

Back in the Costa Blanca a rare thunderstorm spoils the vacation fun. Bitter biting Pauline is forced to stay with her mother as her flight has been cancelled. Everyone is crowding around the reception desk. “We are all sitting in the same boat,” Mateo exclaims in hopes of calming people down. “But it’s not a boat,” Donald retorts, “that’s my point!” “We’re all gonna die,” Madge cries hysterically, certain the storm is a terrorist attack. “It will be like seven-eleven all over again.” Oh, man, this show is hilarious! When everyone is steered to the Hawaiian function room, Janet bumps into her old flame Johnny “Neptune” Nelson. She’s all flustered. Years ago he asked her to marry him and she said no. Little Michael has a run in of his own – with a pretty little blonde from one of the other hotels nearby. For his part, Donald’s been informed after his incident in the pool that he has only three more months to live. And the afternoon’s entertainment! A heavy metal outfit fronted by trannie Lesly performing country ballads and soft rock tunes. What a charm!

Boardwalk Empire 1x12

The last episode this season of this grand series naturally goes out in style. That murderously hypocritical evangelic Agent Nelson Van Alden resigns from the Bureau. He is addressing a group of candidates for his replacement, warning them that they will be “bribed, coerced and tempted on a daily basis.” “Bring on the dancing girls,” one of the agents jokes. Van Alden hits him in his face. His partner Agent Sebso, he says, died in the line of duty from a heart attack, and, he continues, “I will not have his memory sullied by infantile humor.” Van Alden returns to his wife and informs her they will be moving to Schenectady, where he is going to work with his uncle in the feed business. When Rose protests he is doing God’s work as prohibition agent, he asks for God’s to give him a sign to stay in Atlantic City. He returns to clean out his office. Lucy stops in to say that he made her pregnant. A sign from God if there ever was one. For his part, Nucky Thompson is nervous the Democrats are going to win the mayoral election and tells his ward bosses to do whatever it takes to win votes.

Since leaving Nucky, Margaret is staying at the house of presidential candidate Warren Harding’s mistress Nan Britton. She is baking a barmbrack cake, an Irish Halloween tradition, hiding inside it a ring, a coin and a rag to foretell the future. When she and Nan attend the All Hallows Eve service at the cemetery, Margaret spots the grave of Nucky’s wife and son. She is touched and visits Nucky to hear more about his son’s death. A beautifully moving scene ensues between the two, in which he confides about the time, seven years ago, when he was too busy being treasurer that he failed to notice his wife kept caring for their baby even after he had died days ago. Just a few weeks after burying the baby, the mother committed suicide. Nucky continues that the time with Margaret and her children were the happiest days of his life. In tears she asks him how he can do what he does, despite the kindness in his heart. “We all have to decide for ourselves how much sin we can live with,” he replies. After giving her the cold shoulder, Jimmy is trying to make amends with Angela, though she tried to run away to Paris with Mary. She admits that she and Tommy are terrified of him, because Jimmy screams in his sleep – he is having nightmares about the trenches. She was lonely when he was away, and sure he would never come back. And who has been poisoning the Commodore? He has been digesting small doses of arsenic in his food for quite some time. He has been complaining about his stomach since Christmas. The new sheriff, Halloran, asks the maid why she did it. Looking angrily at the Commodore, she says, “’Cause if I used the shotgun I’da had to clean the mess up myself.” Nucky intervenes to prevent her arrest, hands her some money and tells her to go as far away from Atlantic City as possible.

Over in New York, Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky suggest to Arnold Rothstein he cuts a deal with Nucky and get rid of the D’Alessio brothers, rather than bailing off to Scotland. John Torrio is new in Chicago, but he could reach out to Nucky to dodge the imminent World Series indictment. Pay close attention, this is historic, a deal between the most dangerous and powerful gangsters of the country – and it is not the brainchild of savvy businessman Rothstein himself, but of his henchmen Lucky and Lansky. Torrio arranges a meeting, without telling Nucky of its nature. Jimmy and Nucky arrive to find Torrio and Capone, as well as Rothstein and Lucky. Nucky and Jimmy are caught off guard and none too please. Rothstein tried to get Nucky killed and take over his illegal liquor trade. Jimmy is unsurprised Rothstein would want to bury the hatchet considering the World Series scandal. Nucky offers to quash the indictment in return for one million dollars and the location of the remaining D’Alessio brothers. Rothstein agrees to end all hostilities between them.

Nucky recognizes an opportunity, calling a press conference addressing all the media about the vicious criminal that sprung up in reaction to the Eighteenth Amendment. He informs them that the woodside massacre was an act of gang warfare committed by Hans Schroeder and the D’Alessio brothers. He compliments his brother Eli, the former sheriff, for his tireless efforts uncovering the crime. Vote Republican, he urges the audience, to keep Atlantic City safe. And God Bless America. Meanwhile, Jimmy, Capone and Richard Harrow brutally murder the D’Alessio brothers in grandiosely operatic style. Harding gets elected to the presidency, Nucky’s candidate Bader wins the ticket, Eli is reappointed as sheriff, Rothstein escapes indictment, and Margaret gets the rag from the barmbrack. She decides to give Nucky another chance. Plots and conspiracies already start brewing, though, as the newly invigorated Commodore fumes about Nucky, wishing Jimmy will take back Atlantic City, with Eli’s help.

Community 1x08

Annie is so very much in love with Troy – and has been since high school. So we feel her pain when he is asking her advice about dating – and she’s secretly hoping he’s thinking about asking her out. For her part, Britta feels bad about the way things ended with mirco-nippled Vaughn. Despite the fact that she told Pierce not to talk to Vaughn, Pierce is the kind of man who knows that women always say the opposite of what they really want. So he talks to Vaughn. He isn’t be able to patch things up between them, but he does get offered to play in his band. Their latest tune, “Getting rid of Britta (getting rid of the beast).” Ha! Meanwhile, Jeff is thrown out of his luxury condo, living in his car on campus. When his classmates find out and offer help, Jeff replies: “The next person to offer me charity or pity will be mentioned by name in my suicide note.” Then his car gets towed, and he has to take up Abed’s offer to crash at his dorm room. Non-stop tv and cereals, and having the “time of his life,” is getting too much for Abed. It’s great for him, he tells Britta, but he realizes it’s not doing Jeff any good. So Britta breaks into his fancy condo and steals one of his handcrafted Italian platinum-plated faucets to show him what he’s missing. Though she doesn’t believe a word she’s saying, and giving him the entirely misguided impression she’s into him, Jeff moves out of the dorm, checks into a motel and starts looking for a new apartment. Such a sweet show!

In Treatment 3x24

Adele left a message earlier in the week because an hour had opened up that Paul might perhaps take advantage of so they may return to their truncated session and discuss some lingering concerns. Her awkward voice message is loaded with meaningful pauses, significant silences. And Paul certainly picks up on the fact that she called him first thing in the morning, from her private number. Apparently that makes him feel he has an advantage, because he doesn’t catch bait. Adele begins the regular session asking about Sunil. Paul interprets this as an invitation to act out his fantasy of discussing his patients with her. She is just concerned that Paul is unable to separate himself from his patients, is unable to act decisively, and is blind to the fact that Sunil is a potential threat to his surroundings. Just like Sunil, Paul is stuck debating the difference between “pushing” someone and “pushing past” someone. The moment they disagree, Paul reverts back to platitudes that she doesn’t understand the situation, doesn’t know the intricacies, and has no idea what she is talking about.

Then they are interrupted by the phone ringing, and while Adele apologizes for the interruption, Paul notices that she is several months pregnant. He gets dismissive, he feels betrayed and refuses to engage any further. He assumes that she is in a happy relationship, growing a family. But we know different: she’s alone, facing the challenge of raising a child on her own, and drawn to Paul’s fantasy of sharing their experiences as equal partners. His behavior is so childish, I can only imagine that she feels disappointed. She has been trying to encourage him to break through the paralysis, whether in his therapy or in his private life. He wants her to know what specifically she wants him to act on, believing she is offering him to live out his dream, as if they have not discussed his inability to make decision for himself over the course of the past sessions. He still believes he is developing Parkinson’s, despite a second opinion that proves otherwise, and he has no answer to Adele’s question what would have been so different if the neurologist could have told him with absolute certainty that he will or will not get the disease. Isn’t that uncertainty what every person has to deal with? Somehow Paul keeps using the “wait-and-see” attitude as an excuse not to do anything. Adele repeats that his inability or refusal to act in Sunil’s case may cause harm to Julia and her children, and wonders if this is his subconscious way of sabotaging his career. That evening Paul does call Julia, apparently to discuss Sunil’s violent fantasies with her.

Overall, Paul has hardly gotten anywhere with his patients, certainly not with Sunil, Jesse is still very volatile, perhaps only Frances is ready to face her situation. Adele pointed out that she feels Paul may be identifying too much with Sunil, a foreigner forced to migrate to America, alienated by his new environment, and fascinated by the attraction of an impossible relationship. We could add that Paul also recognizes himself in Frances, her fear of dying, her struggle to get diagnosed for breast cancer, her trauma of losing her mother, her inability to communicate with her daughter, her sense of loneliness. Even in Jesse Paul can see part of himself, the feeling of rejection and abandonment, the inability to break through paralyzing thoughts that leaves him incapacitated to establish meaningful relationship and recognize the people who love him. There’s just one more session for each of them left. I am curious how things are going to wrap up in the next four episodes.

Shameless 5x02

This one is all about Mimi, the boss lady of the Irish mob on Chatsworth Estate. Back in the day there was the other Paddy, a bigger fish even that Paddy Maguire. Now he’s out of jail and has business to discuss with Mimi’s Paddy. Paddy Maguire is so nervous, he almost chokes on a cashew nut in the Jokey. It’s our Frank who’s Paddy’s guardian angel that saves his life. From the start of his meet with other Paddy, Paddy’s off on the wrong foot. A drink at the Jokey is his first stop, but other Paddy’s really hoping Paddy set up a woman for him. They walk into the pub, other Paddy admires sexy kitten Karen (as we all do), but seeing Mimi from behind, he asks “It’s not her, is it? A rhino on a joy bag?” Unwittingly, other Paddy sets off marital crises at the Maguires as Mimi spirals into a self-loathing depression, certain her Paddy can’t love her the size she is. There’s nothing her Paddy can do, she throws him out, and in his desperation he ties and gags other Paddy up, for Mimi to finish off as a make up gift. After the situation spirals even further out of control, Mimi and Paddy bond over who is more willing to kill other Paddy out of love for the other. But what business did he have to discuss with Paddy anyway? Other Paddy is retiring, off to Cyprus, wanting to sell Paddy one of his patches to go with some of the others the Maguires stole from him while he was in jail. After all that happened, he’ll ask somebody else!

Meanwhile, Lip has returned to Nottingham University, Ian is hoping to shag up with Carl’s teacher, Carl is hoping to score some girls, Debbie is worried Monica might steal her room, and Liam is becoming a little pyromaniac just like Marty. Outside, Monica’s ex-girlfriend Norma is dealing with a rodent plague, while at the Maguires Shane’s python eats Mimi’s puppy dog and Mick is determined to prove he’s a hard working man, living in his pink Cadillac, sure no one knows he’s gay. “It’s not pink! It’s fuchsia!” Definitely homo. The show is still wicked smart and uproariously funny. Yet it is getting progressively more difficult keeping track of all the characters. I didn’t even mention the idiotic scene at Yvonne’s local shop with the moronic police force, or Mandy’s well-meaning attempt to resolves the Maguires’ crisis. This lack of focus hinders maintaining the audience’s interest in all the various characters. Many, in fact, remain no more than caricatures. The beauty of the series, at first, I felt was its portrayal of the British underclass, drinking and cursing, fucking and fighting, but still managing to get by, by sticking together. There was a bittersweet sordid sense of humor through all the drama, but it was easy to relate to the Gallaghers. Now, I just miss Fiona and Steve, Kev and Veronica; Marty and Sheila are gone, and so is Lip. What is left is mostly meaningless fun at the expense of the criminally poor and the criminally insane.

Spirited Away

As most of you probably already know, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is a beautiful animated movie about a ten-year old spoiled little brat of rich parents and her journey into the realm of ghosts and spirits in search of herself. The pouty girl, Chihiro, and her parents become lost while driving with their car through the woods. When they stop the car, and walk through a dark tunnel, they find themselves at an abandoned amusement park. In this empty ghost town, her father finds a sumptuous buffet and her parents eat all they can until they turn into pigs. Whiny Chihiro finds help from a little boy, Haku, who indicates they have met before. They are now in the world of ghosts. Haku smuggles her into a bathhouse for the gods, worked by spirits, run by the witch Yubaba, and he tells Chihiro to make sure she finds employment there until he comes back to rescue her. In the bathhouse, the clumsy girl gradually learns to become resourceful, help the spirits and make friends under straining circumstances. The story unfolds against a backdrop of fantastic, well-nigh psychedelic dream pastel colors. This fairy tale for grown-up kids is reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, but this Cricket was also reminded of Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Terry Gilliam’s Brazil – if that makes sense.

Chihiro’s journey represents a quest for moral individuality in a world inhabited by faceless spirits, nameless ghosts, voiceless soot sprites, wicked witches, dangerous dragons and stink gods, all with their own absurd rules. Underneath the girl’s rite-of-passage there is another story: a social critique of sorts. The abandoned amusement park hints at the Japanese economic bubble of the late-twentieth century, while the buildings in the park, particularly the bathhouse of the gods, hark back to the Meji Restoration. The rich and young of the twenty-first century have lost their respect for tradition, have lost their connection with their past – filled with magical mystery. This commentary on modernity subtly runs throughout the film: Chihiro’s parents gorge themselves on food so much they turn into pigs; the river-god is mistaken for a stink-god, because he is covered in waste, and proceeds to vomit all the trash that humans dump into the river; the faceless spirit bribes everyone at the bathhouse with his gold, but makes no friends save the little heroine – and he, too, starts vomiting when Chihiro asks him if he has no home to return to. The gorging, bribing, and vomiting are obvious allusions to the ills of modern consumerism.

The beauty is that Miyazaki succeeds in keeping his fairy tale filled with ambiguity – nothing is what it seems: a stink-god turns out to be a river-god, parents turn into pigs, a dangerous dragon turns out to be Haku in disguise, an enormous baby turns into a mouse, weird creatures turn out to become friends, a piece of flying paper turns into a witch, a threatening faceless spirits turns out to be a lonely soul; what seemed frightfully evil turns out to be good and friendly. Such moral ambivalence keeps this film from becoming standard Disney fare. Through the Looking Glass of Miyazaki, there is good in all creatures, but there is also evil lurking everywhere. If we overcome our fears, trust our instinct, return to our innocence, find our inner selves and retain our individual moral uprightness, we can face reality and live meaningful lives. If somehow you have missed Spirited Away – like your Cricket did – it might be time to catch up and enjoy this wonderful movie.

Benidorm 4x03

Mateo is late for his water aerobics class at the Solana. His outfit is hilarious! But he is livid. “Lady, I look like a homosexual gay,” he tells Janey. “Looking good, handsome,” Lesly winks from behind the bar. Alas, the work-out is too much for poor Donald. “You look like you’re going to die,” little Michael tells him. A little later Donald falls over into the water. Janey is furious at Mateo, threatening to sack him if Donald dies. In fact, she sends him packing anyway. Sweet Lesly comes up with an idea to help Mateo keep his job. His dimwitted son forges an affidavit in M. Garvey’s name claiming that Donald’s accident did not occur while he was taking part in Mateo’s class. Oh, you have to know the series to fully grasp all the levels of funny at play here.

Meanwhile two big men dressed in black suits walk into the poolside. While Mick is eavesdropping, the suits tell Lesly they are looking for Madge Harvey to settle a debt with her. Mick tries hiding the problem from his family. Then Lesly compliments Madge, “Well, you are an amazing woman Misses Harvey. All I’m saying is that if two big hairy gorillas just threatened to kill me over an unpaid debt, I’d be putting my knickers on the boil wash by now. Heheh heheh heh.” Obviously his family isn’t going to let Mick deal with the situation on his own. I can’t begin to describe the showdown in the run-down theme park with Mr. Pink, the flamboyant gangster who is demanding his money. You have to see it for yourself. It really is rolling-on-the-floor uproarious! And Madge gets off scot-free, her debt cleared. Better still, Mr. Pink sends her a suitcase full of cash. Those tears your Cricket’s crying are from laughing, I swear!

For her part, Pauline keeps nagging at her mother and plans to leave. Gavin and Kenneth keep bickering, too. “Could’ve been you there in the pool,” Kenneth says. “I beg your pardon,” Gavin replies. Then suddenly Kenneth rushes off without so much as an explanation. When he returns, men keep passing by who seem to know Kenneth. Diverting the conversation, Kenneth asks Gavin out for a pizza. Suddenly he has money he earlier claimed he didn’t bring with him. You and I both know what Gavin is suspecting! At dinner Kenneth even wears an expensive watch he bought that afternoon to treat himself. “Faggots!” Donald shouts, as they’re eating meatballs. “How dare you! Did Judy Garland die for nothing? Oh, hello Donald.” And off Kenneth goes with another man. Gavin follows him up to the room and overhears Kenneth saying, “Now, it’s up to you to tell me how far you wanna go.” Gavin barges in, only to find Kenneth doing a little hairdressing on the side to earn some extra spending money. Yeah, this show is brilliant!

Boardwalk Empire 1x11

Jimmy gets a call from his mother Gillian that his father, the Commodore, is dying. On his deathbed, the Commodore proudly brags he built Atlantic City and tells Jimmy that the wrong man is running town. After eating a biscuit, Jimmy doesn’t feel well, washes his face in the bathroom, and throws up. Gillian later reminisces about how she first met the Commodore, through Nucky, and how Nucky always took good care of them. Jimmy cannot shake off the thought that Nucky was no more than a pimp who brought young girls to the Commodore. He was fifty four, she was thirteen. That night, when visiting the Commodore again, a doctor runs some tests. Richard Harrow stops by after doing some reconnaissance about the D’Alessios, suggesting he kills the brothers’ mother, sisters, and one brother who is working in Philadelphia as a dentist, to give the dagos a warning. The doctor interrupts them, confiding to Jimmy that the test results show that somebody has been poisoning the Commodore with arsenic. Jimmy remembers the biscuit that made him vomit, and tactfully asks his mother a few questions. But she has no idea what he is talking about. He shows her the “Paris Green” arsenic he found in the kitchen closet.

For his part, Agent Van Alden discusses to botched transfer of witness Winslow with his assistant Sebso over dinner in a Chinese restaurant. Van Alden drills him about his chop stick skills, his reasons for joining the Bureau, and the incident. Van Alden knows Sebso is lying. How could Winslow approach him unexpectedly and hit him on the forehead with a rock, while he was supposedly about to urinate? Sebso feels the pressure and calls Nucky in a panic. Nucky advices him to divert Van Alden’s attention, perhaps wrap up a bootlegging operation, and even hands him a tip about a possible location in the woods. At the riverside in the woods, Van Alden and Sebso find a makeshift congregation witnessing a baptism. Van Alden gets evangelically inspired, calling Sebso a Jew bound for eternal damnation. But they find no illegal distillery. Later Sebso applies for a transfer to Detroit to get from under Van Alden’s scrutiny. Van Alden criticizes him for his expensive new shoes. “Temptation knows no rank.” Then they return to the site of the riverside congregation. Van Alden forces Sebso to accept a baptism and a forcefully tense scene ensues in which Van Alden’s evangelism turns diabolical. He drowns Sebso.

Meanwhile, Margaret is starting to resent her affair with Nucky, how he takes advantage of her political acumen, disagreeing with his illegal business, worrying that Van Alden is right about the death of her husband, and wondering when she will be replaced by another mistress. They have a confrontation in which he accuses her of using Lysol as a contraceptive, and she accuses him of getting her husband killed. When Eli catches wind of the row, he throws Nucky a tantrum how she is a liability of his own creation. The Democrats are very close to winning the elections, the D’Alessio brothers are coming after them, Eli’s life is on the line, and meanwhile Nucky prances about town with his mistress, getting ass-kisses by everyone who’s after his money. Nucky compares Eli to Hardeen, “if he wasn’t Houdini’s brother, nobody would give a fuck.” Nucky later informs his Republican friends that Eli has resigned and promotes Deputy Halloran to Sheriff. When Nucky arrives at Margaret’s apartment, he discovers she has left with the children. At the same time, Angela prepares to leave for Paris with Mary Dittrich and little Tommy. She packs a small suitcase and leaves a note for Jimmy. Then, when she arrives at the photo shop, the Dittrichs have both left without her. Then there’s Arnold Rothstein, who is about to be indicted for fixing the World Series. His lawyer suggests he comes to Chicago if he knows anyone powerful enough who is willing to do him a favor.

Community 1x07

Annie is excited to get extra credit organizing a Día de los Muertos party. But don’t call it the Mexican Halloween, Señor Chang warns, because that’s offensive if you’re familiar with the (no doubt completely fictitious, but absolutely hilarious) sexual position. Jeff claims he has a conflict, “It conflicts with the enjoyment of my life.” He then asks Britta if their relationship will ever move on beyond strictly platonic, and when she denies, he tells her he’ll chase after his hot statistics professor instead. He immediately approaches Prof. Slater aggressively, get’s turned down, but refuses to budge. He asks for a chance to change her mind. “Oh, I know you can. That’s why you’re not getting a chance,” she replies with a seductive smile that says “follow me to my office and you’ll get some.” But Annie prevents him, begging him to join the party. Best part of the Día de los Muertos: Abed as Batman, Troy as Lionel Ritchie, Pierce as the Beast Master, Britta as squirrel, Shirley as Harry Potter? Tough choice. Then Chang offers to take Jeff to the faculty Halloween party, where he arrives as cowboy stirring his spurs for Slater’s female Robin Hood. His friends arrive to save Annie’s party. He tells them to leave, but still has no chance with Prof. Slater. Chang whispers a few words of advice in his ear. Jeff returns to her and begs, “Please sleep with me, please. Pretty please! I’m so lonely, I haven’t slept with anyone in a very long time, and you are so good looking. Please do me the favor of having sex with me.” It works like a charm. They walk out of the party together, past the library, and get stopped by Troy, because Pierce is tripping out on the ecstasy pill Starburns gave him.

This show is so much fun! I love all the characters. They each have something adorable – and something absolutely annoying. Troy and Abed are a terrific team. Their bits at the end of each episode are some of the funniest moments in recent comedy. It’s takes a while before Annie and Shirley grow on you, but you’ll soon enough love them with all your heart. Every guy wants to be Jeff. And Britta ... hot damn! Enough said. Chevy Chase’s Pierce Hawthorne is such character, too! He’s one of these people who buys all the latest useless gadgets, but doesn’t know what to do with them. When he gets an “ear-nocular” (some type of in-ear mini radar for listening in on conversations), he believes everyone is gossiping about him. He keeps trying to use voice command on his cell phone, but it won’t work. “It’s like my mother,” he sighs. “Calling mother,” his cell responds. “Hello Pierce! How’s school going? Are you popular?” his mother asks with his phone on speaker! I can’t pick a favorite. I’m glad I’m watching this show and I hope you all do, too. Spread the word.

In Treatment 3x23

After the panic attack that set off their last session, Jesse has calmed down. No longer the hyperactive foulmouthed kid, but depressed, resentful and self-pitying. Jesse is deaf and blind to the Paul’s counsel. So it’s small wonder that he starts the session with questions about the whole point of therapy. Mixing metaphors, Paul explains that many people live in a fog, and he helps to unlock their inner selves. He has been trying to make Jesse see that he is unconsciously obstructing developing meaningful relationships with his adoptive parents, his birth parents, his friends and lovers, because he drives them away with his behavior. Yet, all Jesse can wonder is why nobody wants him, why everyone rejects him. He’s oblivious to the fact the he himself rejects them, pushes them away, drives them to anger, and only remembers their anger, the feeling of abandonment, or worse the kicks and punches. His depression is severe enough that it worries Paul hearing that Jesse would like to ride up a glass elevator on his own to the top of the atrium at the Time Square Marriott and disappear. Paul urges him, not as his therapist, but as someone who cares about him, to go home and be with the people who love him, his adoptive parents Marisa and Roberto. Instead, Jesse says he was invited for an interview at the Rhode Island School of Design. Again he is setting himself up for disappointment and rejection, for the school offers no financial aid, and there is no way he or his adoptive parents can afford tuition. Then Jesse asks Paul if he would like to join him for some ice cream, and Paul suggests they call Roberto and Marisa to pick him up. Jesse just asks if he can stay a little longer, to which Paul agrees.

Shameless 5x01

Vernon Francis Gallagher waxes Shakespearean after electrocuting himself while urinating on a electrical generator. At the hospital a woman he confuses for a nurse tells him it would be a small miracle if he survived the weekend. He starts seeing visions of his twelve-year old self, who confronts him with the meaninglessness of his life. With death at his doorstep, he scrambles to find any significance in his life, his marriages, his children, only to be reminded of his failures, his absence, and his nearly continuous drunken stupor. His younger self reminds Frank of his mother’s death, and how he promised to make her proud. Before he dies, he needs to know what his legacy is. During a bar fight at the Jockey it hits him: this is his legacy, everybody having a merry old time getting drunk, kicking and punching, or having a little screw in the bedroom. Then he learns that the woman at the hospital wasn’t a nurse, but the wife of a dying patient, who resented his odious behavior – not to mention the stench coming out of his mouth. He’ll live.

Meanwhile Lip returns from university, but the cheer doesn’t last long. His girlfriend from Nottingham arrives, sending Mandy in a tantrum. They agreed to an open relationship, but with four simple rules: use condoms, don’t get involved, don’t tell, and don’t bring it home. Lip hasn’t even been able to abide by a single one of these rules. He lies to both girls, then tries to make amends with both. When he can’t choose, the other girl, Alex, suggests sharing and offers to be a part of Katie’s life. That spins Mandy over the edge, you don’t involve her daughter in this sordid mess. After the above mentioned bar fight ensued, Mandy breaks up with Lip, so he can fulfill his dreams. For her part, busy-body Lillian has started a little brothel business to earn some easy money. She believes she’s helping the girls out, as they would otherwise be on the street. When the local police are tipped off, they can’t believe it’s Lillian. They find the hookers, but no paper trail or evidence of unlawful gain. They have to let her go, leaving her to count her wad of cash. Shameless is called comedy, and it is often hilarious, but it is also profoundly honest about the real life tragedies of living in poverty.

Paranormal Activity

This is the kind of movie that’s easy to love or hate. The plot is ridiculously simple, the cinematography non-existent, the dialogue basically improvised. In essence, it’s a low-budget remake of Poltergeist without special effects. Much of the time nothing happens, and half the time we’re watching two people sleep. Having said that, the Cricket is leaning towards giving this a tentative thumbs-up, because within this sparse set-up director Oren Peli and his two main actors, Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat, are able to pull you in. It really is a worthy feat that you won’t be bored for a minute. The tension builds up rapidly, even if you can see through all the clichés. At first little things are moved in Katie and Micah’s house; then doors open and close; they hear strange noises; footsteps on the stairs; lights go on and off; the chandelier swings on the ceiling in the middle of the night; Katie gets out of bed standing in the bedroom for hours in a catatonic state. Micah shares the audience rational skepticism about paranormal activities, ghost and demons, and he has a hard time empathizing with his girlfriend’s fear for the inexplicable occurrences around the house. He has set up an audio-visual system hoping to capture whatever is plaguing Katie. At first he jokes it’s probably one of the neighbors. He is not particularly receptive to a psychic who Katie invited. He refuses to admit that he is starting to get scared, too, and acts as if he is dealing with the schoolyard bully. He just wants to protect his girlfriend.

I’m no fan of the Blair-Witch faux-documentary style, with the bouncing camera, as if we are watching real footage. But it does add to the effect-free allure. It all makes it easy identifying with the two main characters. We’ve all heard strange noises, and we are all spooked out sometimes by inexplicable occurrences. The interaction between Katie and Micah is easily recognizable, too, as many of us will know someone who’s a little more gullible about the supernatural. And what if you were in their position? Wouldn’t you flip the freak out? The film cleverly taps into our fear of the unknown. How would you react? Would you try to record every demonic move and utterance, taunt forces beyond your control, would you run and hide, or call an exorcist in desperation? Micah hopes to communicate with the pestering ghost through an Ouija board, but merely gets the name Diane or Nadine as reply. Searching the internet, he finds a story about a woman who experienced all the same incidents as Katie, invited an exorcist and died. You know where this is going. Alas, the ending disappoints. Not surprisingly, there are actually three endings in circulation – and none of them are profound. And that illustrates my hesitation, there’s no message, no subtext, hardly any metatext, no substance – just two people being scared to death.

Californication 4x12

Easily the best episode of the season, perhaps of the entire series thus far. After all the hoopla about Hank Moody unwittingly having sex with an overly eager underage Mia, it’s time to wrap things up. The judge reads her sentence, explaining how Hank has been a tragic disappointment, behaving like an animal and living in flagrant defiance of the rules of society. He is found guilty of statutory rape, but, she continues, the real crime not one of moral turpitude, but that Hank seems committed to squandering his gifts and wasting what appears to be a rewarding life. She sentences him to three years. Hank passes out. When he comes to, on the courtroom floor with Abby lunging over him, he asks “I got three years, didn’t I?” “Yes you did,” Abby replies, “Probation.” He kisses her – the scene cuts to her bedroom ... And Justice for All (a reference to Metallica’s 1988 album). Let’s read between the lines, and notice how Hank Moody is portrayed as an immoral misfit, rather than a conscientious non-conformist, an animal living by no rules, rather than an intelligent artist deciding not to abide by the standards of society.

The next day Stu Beggs has a party celebrating that Fucking & Punching is going into production. Hank brings Abby, to Karen’s dismay. While she brings handsome Ben, to Hank’s dismay. Sasha is there, with a new boy toy in tow. Eddie Nero, too. Of course Marcy is there, and Runkle brings crazy kinky Peggy. How could this not go wrong? It starts out awkward and it only gets worse. Jealous tension is rife. Nero tosses some oil on the fire. Things get out of hand. Peggy asks Runkle if he still loves Marcy, and he wholeheartedly confesses that he has been and always will be in love with Marcy. Marcy admits she’s carrying Charlie’s baby – not Stu’s. Peggy slams a knife in Runkle’s hand. Cat fight! Hank and Stu hold back Marcy, while Nero starts making out with psycho Peggy. And this is why the Cricket still loves this show. The only question is: what is going to happen next season, or, how will Californication continue entertaining us, with everything wrapped up so nicely. Towards the end Becca says that a chapter has been closed. It rather feels we’re moving on to another book.

Benidorm 4x02

Although Noreen isn’t bringing her son, “The Oracle” Geoff, to Benidorm this year, we are introduced to her cuckoo daughter Pauline, who’s spent the past four years married to a Saudi living in South Africa. It’s hilarious already! Pauline is bossy, irritable, uptight and god-almighty snobbish. Naturally she can’t get along with any of the people at the Solana. The Garveys are back to their usual bickering. Mick can’t take listening to drivel while ignoring the fact that Madge is “penniless, homeless, and in dept up to your eyeballs.” When they decide to go for a day out, Mick keeps budging into Pauline, until they end up falling off the water slide kicking and screaming. Gavin and Kenneth can’t stop from exchanging snide remarks either. When Leslie brings their cocktails and some snacks, Kenneth asks Gavin, “would you like to try Leslie’s cheesy nibbles?” “Oddly enough, no,” he replies with a whiff of sarcasm. Les’ socially-awkward son Liam continues hitting on lovely Natalie. When he asks her out for a date, Sam reminds them Natalie nearly got married to Latin Lover Mateo last year, but then he forgot about her. Natalie goes for it anyway, clubbing with Liam, with Sam in tow. Sam gets so drunk, she falls off the bar and breaks her leg! Meanwhile Donald and Jacqueline have collected some money to help Madge out, but she wants none of their charity. Until she hears they got a check for €500 from the hotel management, that is. Ah, this show is funny!

Boardwalk Empire 1x10

Another very good episode in which several of the plot lines start to converge in interesting ways. Richard Harrow has a dream in which he walks the beach with one of the prostitutes of the Four Deuces, his face still unscarred. Then he wakes up from little Emily’s screams, who found him sleeping on the couch without his mask. Everyone’s already on edge, with Nucky narrowly escaping an assassination attempt, and Margaret slowly realizing the humiliating situation she got herself into. Nucky snaps at Harrow for frightening the kids with his horrifying face. He later does explain to Margaret that Harrow is a war hero and is there for their protection. “Success breeds enemies,” he adds, “which you’ll discover soon enough after women win the vote.” As for politics, the ratification for the women’s suffrage that Nucky is alluding to is now in the hands of Tennessee. It’s interesting how Nucky presents his position as progressive – as his only interest is getting more votes come election time. When she is reading to her children from The Wizard of Oz, Margaret invites Harrow to join them – allowing him to compare himself with the Tin Woodsman, which eases the children’s fear of him. Later still, Harrow admits to her that he, too, is troubled by his own face, but can hardly remember what he looked like before his face got disfigured. When the good news about the ratification has been announced, Nucky and Margaret have a glass of champagne, and he asks her if she could speak on behalf of his mayoral candidate Bader at the League of Women’s Voter meeting. She sees through his opportunism, yet she is still drawn to him. She agrees and gives a rousing speech to great applause.

That weasel Agent Sebso plays the innocent victim while Van Alden and Superintendent Elliot interrogate him about the death of Winslow, their only witness implicating Jimmy and Nucky in the massacre in the woods. Elliot exonerates him on account of self-defense in the line of duty, but directs his anger on Van Alden for bungling the case from the start. Hoping that she will be his last chance for a lead in the Schroeder case, Van Alden visits Margaret and confronts her that she is consorting with the murderer of her husband, the father of her children. She catches on to his fiendish obsession with her and tells him to leave, but before he does the hypocrite preaches her about the fires of hell awaiting her. At night, that evangelical prohibitionist walks into a speakeasy, downs two shots of whiskey, sits down with Nucky’s former mistress Lucy, and ends up sleeping with her like a possessed animal. For his part, Jimmy tries making amends with Angela, expressing his admiration for her Impressionist paintings. But things run afoul again when little Tommy blurts out, as they are passing the photo shop on the boardwalk, that they are going to see “Mommy’s kissing friend.” Jimmy has been accusing Angela of having an affair with Robert Dittrich for awhile now. In anger he tears up the studio and throws Robert through the glass door, beating him to a pulp outside. When Angela comes to Mary to apologize, Mary suggests they run off to Paris together, leaving their men behind. In Chicago, Al Capone learns to cast his childish pranks, not because lazy-eye Torrio berates his behavior, but rather at a bar mitzvah. It noticeably changes him. Ready to take on responsibility, he offers to work at Torrio’s brewery and arrange distribution.

Doyle and two D’Alessio brothers visit Rothstein again in New York. These dago hoodlums are such idiots, it’s laughable. Rothstein tries to convey his business acumen, and one of the brother quips, “like the World Series.” After an awkward pause, he adds, “you put the fix in.” Rothstein is seething at their sheer and utter incompetence for botching the plot to kill Nucky. Doyle later approaches Nucky, apologizing and offering to switch sides, telling everything he knows about Rothstein and the D’Alessio brothers. He relates that the D’Alessios have been behind the lynching of Chalky White’s driver, the mugging of ward boss O’Neill, the casino heist that nearly cost Eli’s life, in addition to the foiled attempt at Nucky’s life. They concoct a plan to lure Rothstein’s henchman Lansky over to Chalky’s with as many of the dago brothers as possible. When Nucky and Jimmy arrive, Chalky and Doyle have already tied up Lucien and Matteo D’Alessio, as well as Lansky. While Lansky is trying to reach some kind of accommodation, Lucien tells Jimmy, Nucky and Chalky to go fuck each other. Jimmy grabs his gun. “Oh, oh, fuckin’ tough guy,” Lucien balks, “you’re gonna shoot me for mouthing off.” “I wasn’t going to,” Jimmy replies with a smile, “but you kinda talked me into it,” and shoots him in the forehead. Matteo tells Chalky the his brothers are going to kill him, “like they did that other goon.” Chalky strangles him with his bare hands. “You can go now,” Nucky informs Lansky as he unties him, “and please tell Mr. Rothstein what you saw here tonight.”

Community 1x06

Annie is helping Troy with his astronomy test. Pierce walks in and says, “As far as I’m concerned there’s only one black hole worth studying.” Everyone is expecting a racist joke. “It’s called Sagittarius A, it’s located in the center of our galaxy, and it has the density of forty suns.” Now everyone’s surprised he even knows that. Jeff raises his finger in warning that Pierce isn’t done yet. “Just like my wiener,” Pierce finishes. Then Dean Pelton “randomly” strolls in to ask Troy if he would like to join the college football team, which the dean proudly named the “Human Beings.” Shirley asks Britta to go the ladies’ room together, but she says no. Jeff explains why that offended Shirley, but tells her how to make up: “Nothing says, ‘I’m a woman,’ like going out for dinner with me.” “Nothing says, ‘I’m a pig,’ like you,” she retorts.

When Jeff realizes the dean is using his name and face for college promotional material, he’s shocked and heads to the dean’s office. Pelton sees an opportunity to manipulate Jeff into convincing Troy he should join the football team. Jeff wouldn’t be a disbarred barrister if he couldn’t bullshit Troy into believing it’s his calling to claim his spotlight. Meanwhile Shirley isn’t much interested in going to the ladies’ room with Britta anymore after she went all uptight feminist about make-up and health spas. It’s the moment Britta slowly becomes aware what a self-righteous buzz-kill she is. “I peed alone my whole life,” she cries, “Women have always hated me.” But then she has an opportunity to bond with Annie, who’s devastated that Troy joined the football team. Aww, how sweet!

In Treatment 3x22

Descriptive adjectives keep coming to the Cricket’s mind when seeing Frances’ behavior in therapy: passive-aggressive, manipulative, evasive, needy, begging for attention, feeling judged, blaming others yet guilt-ridden, scared and angry, narcissistic and lonely, in a word, pathetic. Her sister Patricia is now literally on her deathbed and all she wants to talk about is being hungry and looking tired. I say “looking tired,” because she is more concerned about her appearance than she is about herself. She walked out of the theater just before curtain call on opening night to be with her sister. She was there to help Patricia, bathed her, put her to bed, gossiped with her, read her a bit from Jane Eyre. Trish showed her appreciation, perhaps for the first time in her life, saying she loves Frances. Then they had to go to the hospital, as Trish’ condition worsened. Frances felt pushed aside by the nurses, felt judged by her daughter Izzy (who called her a narcissist after her mother told her she tested negative for the BCRA1 test), and suddenly decided to quit the theater to care for her sister full-time. It has been difficult for Paul to connect with Frances, to break through her protective shell, and though they share a moving moment when she talks about her sister, he cannot help being skeptical about her motives. Has she decided to move in with Patricia to prove (Izzy, Paul, herself) she is not a narcissist? Frances keeps returning to Izzy’s scathing remark and asks if it is possible for a narcissist to change. Just at that moment Izzy knocks on the door because Trish’ condition has worsened still. Maybe an interesting side note to observe how Paul himself might be considered a narcissist like Frances, and like her was entrapped by his mother as a child.

Californication 4x11

“Novelist Moody Found Guilty in Lolita Rape Case.” That’s the headline news Karen reads on her iMac after the jury read their verdict. Imagine! “Well, that happened,” Hank sighs, asking Abby, “What do we do now?” “Let’s go get shitfaced,” she replies. Next scene we’re back in Hank’s dream that started off the whole series four years ago: getting a blow job in church from a nun who advises him to drive off as fast as he can even if that means he has to steal a car. When he wakes up, he’s in bed with Abby. He tries sneaking out, but she stops him. They still don’t know what he’ll be facing: prison or probation. Instead of heading to Karen and Becca, he knocks on Charlie’s door, meeting his kinky real estate agent Peggy, who immediately whispers in Runkle’s ear she wants to play home invasion rape with Hank. When he finally picks up Becca from school, she blames him for being selfish, for always evading reality, and for being so proud to be cool. She’d rather have a boring, normal dad, who’d be there for her.

He drops her off and returns to his hotel lobby. There he spots an old acquaintance, hooker Trixie, with whom he finds some solace. Then he slips into another dream, in boring 1950’s black & white, of his live as a regular joe. Comes nighttime, he’s about to hit the highway in his newly purchased Porsche (with royalties for his novel Slowly We Rot – a reference to the debut album of Florida death metal act Obituary) – when Marcy calls with some bogus excuse to lure him over to Karen’s: Surprise! “We wanted to throw you a ‘Hank is Innocent’ party, but we had to work with what you gave us,” Runkle chuckles. They have the sweetest time, reminiscing how things were better once, in happier times, when the four of them were still two loving couples, and Becca wanted to grow up fast, because they made it look like so much fun. It’s a beautiful moment, and small wonder it takes up about a third of the episode, for it gives emotional depth to the story – and a nice reward for sitting through some of the flirty fluff and moral ambivalence: this scene gives the whole season a human heart.

Benidorm 4x01

When the Garveys return to the Costa Blanca in Spring they learn to their stunned surprise, surprise that Madge’s luxurious villa has been bought by none other than (famous British singer and comedy actress) Cilla Black. In their search for Janice’s mother, they also discover that Madge sold the Benidorm Palace. Mick, Janice and Michael have to check into the Solana and continue looking for Madge. They find her mobility scooter on the market, on sale, with her new cell phone number. She’s down and out, over her head in debt, living in a trailer park. Through all of it, she still clings on to her stubborn pride. It’s heart wrenching.

Naturally the insinuating swingers Donald and Jacqueline are on the spot, minding everybody else’s business. Only half of the grumpy gay muppets, Gavin, arrives at the Solana, while Troy remains home to care for his dying father who hardly knew. Gavin does bring his gayer-than-thou salon employee Kenneth and their arguing from the start. There are new vacationers, too, lovely Natalie and her foul-mouthed friend Samantha. Mel’s former employee, cross-dressing Les, finds employment behind the bar, to Mateo’s great dismay. Les’ socially awkward son has a blinding crush on Natalie, who apparently had an affair with Mateo last year.

Then Scary Mary shows up at the hotel’s poolside with two hoodlums demanding debt Madge owes her. The showdown between Madge and Mary is as hilarious as it brings tears to your usually cynical Cricket’s eyes. “Oh, yeah, I heard all about yours,” Madge chides when Mary argues it’s not about the money anymore, but about her reputation. “Scare Mary, the Benidorm Bike. I’ve heard you’ve given more rides than the donkey on Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Only you don’t charge quite as much.” Les, Mateo, Mick and Michael all budge in defending Madge, and when the hoodlums have been taken out of commission, Janice storms in and knocks her head firmly against Scary Mary. “Nobody, nobody, threatens my mother,” she intones menacingly. Brilliant!

Boardwalk Empire 1x09

Nucky’s brother Eli confirms that the dago D’Alessio brothers were behind the casino stick-up in which he got shot in the stomach. Making matters worse, Democratic candidate for the upcoming mayoral election, Fletcher, is promising to clean Atlantic City from the current corruption. For her part, Margaret gets a taste of the influence she has gained as Nucky’s mistress. Her former employer, Madame Jeunet at La Belle Femme, begs her for help as the payoff money for running her shop has doubled. When she brings it up at home, Nucky snaps it’s not a suitable topic of conversation. Not much later, Nucky asks her to help him convincing the women of the Temperance League to vote Republican when and if they get the suffrage. She spots an opportunity to turn that around and get him to cut Madame Jeunet’s costs. It is a pleasure seeing Margaret grow into her position of power, but let’s not forget she is having an affair with the man who had her husband killed.

Jimmy returns to Atlantic City, but no one has received his telegrams announcing his arrival. Nucky asks him to take care of the D’Alessio brothers. Jimmy deliberately asks him if he wants him to kill them, confronting him with the fact that he’s a murderer and should not be entertaining foolish notions otherwise. When Jimmy returns home, Angela is having a little party with the Dittrichs, who run the photo shop on the boardwalk. By the awkward glances and startled silence, Jimmy realizes things had gotten a little intimate. Angela never received his telegram either. His jealous anger is a tad hypocritical, though, seeing that he had an affair with Pearl at the brothel in Chicago (even considered running away with her to California), but worse still, he turns abusive. She eventually seems to cave in, but it still feels like rape to these eyes.

Nelson Van Alden is livid when he finds out his mumbling junior partner, Agent Sebso, ignored the Jimmy’s telegrams and shoved them in the drawer. Sebso tells him Supervisor Elliot has made it clear enough he believes their being obsessive about Jimmy Darmody, Nucky Thompson and the Hans Schroeder case. Meanwhile, Jimmy has his mother help him trap Lucky Luciano, catching him in her bed. Walking down the stairs with a gun in his side, Lucky blurts out Rothstein cut the D’Alessio brothers in. And that’s when Agents Van Alden and Sebso arrest Jimmy. Suddenly Supervisor Elliot is all congratulatory. Jimmy obviously denies knowing anything about the heist in the woods with Capone. But then he spots Billy Winslow, who identified him on the scene. When Nucky visits him in jail, Jimmy tells him about the deal of the D’Alessio brothers with Rothstein, and about Winslow. Nucky promises to take care of things but cannot bail him out. “Five counts of murder. There is no bail.” Nucky then visits the Commodore, who is nearing his death, but refuses to see a doctor. Even his dog is sick. He suggests to Nucky they better replace Mayor Bacharach and Eli, too.

In New York City, Arnold Rothstein meets up with the two eldest D’Alessio brothers and Mickey Doyle. He offers them a partnership importing the best Scotch from Britain. Atlantic City is a perfect site, both for smuggling the liquor in and for distributing it to the eastern seaboard. First thing that needs to happen, though, is getting rid of the person running the city. Supposedly to protect their only witness in the Schroeder case, Sebso suggests transferring Winslow to Manhattan, but kills him along the way as a favor to Nucky. To make it look like self-defense, he smashes his own head with a rock. (At least, I suspect Sesbo is in cahoots with Nucky, for why else is he sabotaging the case?) Walking on the boardwalk with Margaret after an evening out with his preferred mayoral replacement, Nucky nearly gets shot by the youngest D’Alessio brother. Now things have heated up!

Community 1x05

Greendale Community College Dean Craig Pelton announces the unveiling of a statue of one of their most famous alumni, Luiz Guzman. Abed is excited to ask him about his movie choices, especially Carlito’s Way, The Cowboy Way, The Hard Way, and Q&A. Troy retorts that he just got off the phone with Guzman, and he can’t wait to get on his private jet from Honolulu to have that conversation with Abed. Abed is surprised Guzman would call Troy about him, and that Guzman knows him at all. “You don’t know,” Troy asks, after some surprised looks on his face, “I’m President Obama’s nephew.” He explains he didn’t tell Abed before, because he didn’t know if he could trust him. But now’s the time to tell him everything, starting with his invention of the Ferrari. Jeff’s dismayed Britta gave him a fake cell phone number, discovering he’s been texting with some guy in Boulder for a month, but when Britta asks him if he will agree only to use her number for friendly purposes, Jeff passes.

Meanwhile, Señor Chang has discovered a crib sheet and threatens to give the whole class a zero unless the cheater comes forward. When the study group starts discussing who may have cheated, Abed discovers that Troy has been messing with him and learns the joy of lying as a joke. “This isn’t a table, hahah!” Next day in class, Britta admits having cheated and is threatened with expulsion. Jeff offers to represent her in the hokey tribunal. The enfolding scene is too funny to convey. You’ve got to see it for yourself. In the end, she gets exonerated on the condition that she receives weekly psychiatric counseling of professor Duncan. For his part, Abed conjures up an elaborate scheme just to mess with Troy, pretending to be communicating with aliens. Troy eventually tells him it would be less worrying if he were an alien than to see him go through such great lengths to mess with him – and still fail dramatically. And they’re my best buddies for it!

In Treatment 3x21

Yet another intense session with Sunil. When Paul opens the door, he finds Julia, and she has something to say: she is terminating Sunil’s therapy, it has not helped at all, the situation at home has only gotten worse. You can see on her face she is angry, she has a bandage on her arm and informs Paul that there was an incident with Sunil. They had an argument in front of the children, he pushed her and she fell onto a nail in the book case. Then she leaves and Sunil comes in. His side of the story is very different: he was singing a Bengali song to his grandchildren, Julia demanded that he stop, started yelling at him, the children started crying, and when he tried leaving the room, he pushed passed Julia, who scratched herself against the nail. Now Paul really has reason to worry that Sunil might harm someone. If that isn’t enough, Sunil asks him if he may keep an old cricket bat in safe keeping. Tension is rife, but Paul cannot determine whether Sunil is capable of violence. He keeps trying to find out, whether he could hurt Julia, whether there was more to Sunil’s violent dream, whether he ever harmed Manili, but Sunil keeps evading his questions. Paul and Sunil agree there will be one more session, since Julia offered a check for another hour, as Sunil refuses to become a charity case. How is that one extra session going to resolve anything? Will there be some shocking revelation that Paul has been on the wrong track all along? Stay tuned.

Californication 4x10

Certainly the Cricket could be criticized for being cynical, but I find the main story arc of Californication a tad too melodramatic. Yes, I understand that Karen isn’t too happy that the man who claims to love her slept with an under-aged girl who happened to be the daughter of her fiancé at the time. But she knows Hank, he cannot refuse temptation, yet he did not rape Mia. By all accounts she seduced him. I did enjoy the in-joke, though, when Hank is getting ready for court, looking in the mirror combing his hair saying, “I look like a fucking FBI Agent.” (Get it?) In court, the prosecution first asks Charlie Runkle as witness. Not good. The man is so nervous, all he does is talk about Hank’s sexcapades. Hank finds the stories funny, but meanwhile the jury is painted a picture of a promiscuous, immoral asshole bent on self-destruction. The prosecution also wishes to insinuate that Hank slept with Mia to take revenge on Karen’s fiancé Bill Lewis. When Karen is asked to testify, Abby nicely sums up her relationship with Hank: she broke up with him, to move in with Bill, then she abandoned Bill at the altar to move back in with Hank; she threw him out when she thought he got another woman pregnant, left for New York without her daughter, came back to play house some more; then broke off with Hank yet again when he was accused of statutory rape. Ouch.

When it’s time for recess, there’s no cause for celebration yet, but there’s no reason to worry either. Then the prosecution calls William Lewis, who testifies that Hank had in fact met Mia the day before he slept with her. Bad news for the defendant. He is certain Hank seduced her to spite him. But when Mia comes to the stand she assures the jury that Hank had no recollection of their first meeting: he was drunk and sick, moved in and out of sleep. She also confesses that she was deliberately looking for trouble, resenting the fact that her father had jumped into a new relationship so soon after her mother’s death, plus the fact that he was hardly ever home. She appreciated Karen’s attempts to be there for her, but she wouldn’t listen. She met Hank at the book store and seduced him. Abby is livid: the seed of doubt has been planted among the jury. Karen is beyond anger and doesn’t even want to speak to Hank. The Fuck Up himself doesn’t know what just hit him. Perhaps it’s a testament to the series that we still sympathize with him, or maybe I just don’t see what the big deal is all about. It’s not like Hank did it on purpose. We will have to wait at least another week until we hear the jury’s verdict.

Benidorm 4x00

It’s Christmas and the Garveys head to Benidorm to spend the holidays with Mel and Madge in their luxurious new villa overlooking the Costa Blanca. What’s funny is that they’ve called the villa “Casa Blanca,” but it’s painted pink! Mel hasn’t arrived yet from a business trip to Marrakesh, and Madge gets more and more nervous he may be having an affair – some “polka wonkers,” as she calls it. Mel’s assistant, that cross-dressing Les, fails to pick up Su Pollard (Hi-de-Hi! and You Rang M’Lord?). She ends up in a nudist resort singing show tunes to get enough cash to pay the cab fair to Casa Blanca. At the Solana, there’s confusion about the party of friends Donald and Jacqueline have brought for the holidays. They have a booking for a jazz band, the Middlesborough Swingers Association! Ahahaha! “Swingers,” get it? Unfortunately, that darling couple Gavin and Troy aren’t present to offer their snide comments on the events. And neither is Geoff “The Oracle,” but his mother Noreen is there, with a travel companion who might just be after her money. There’s no happy ending to this holiday special, for, Mick gets a call on Christmas day, while Roy Wood is jamming hard rocking carols at the Benidorm Palace, that Mel has passed away in Morocco. Quite a feat, to fit such a sad storyline into all the silliness and make it work! The Cricket even got teary-eyed... Sadder, still, is that Geoffrey Hutchings, the actor who played Mel Harvey, himself actually died of a viral infection last year.

Community 1x04

Imagine having Señor Chang as your Spanish teacher! This man is utterly deranged. He received student evaluation cards and actually took the time to analyze the handwriting against past exams to find out who gave him such scathing feedback. Recognizing the little circles dotting the I’s from Annie’s handwriting, he slowly approaches her desk, shoving his face in hers, rubbing his nose against hers, and kissing her forehead. Poor girl! Hilarious, though, but totally insane and creepy. Anyway, this would be the episode in which we are introduced to shirtless, micro-nippled, hacky-sacking, surfer hippie Vaughn (is that his first or last name?) – the most annoying creature to breathe air on earth, but frightfully good looking. Obviously Britta has a crush on him, to Jeff’s great dismay. He tries not to show he’s jealous. Fortunately for him, Britta feels Vaughn is taking it to relationship status too fast and comes to Jeff for advice, which gives him an opportunity to sabotage the relation – but it won’t send Britta rushing into his arms, though. Meanwhile Annie’s taking a psychology lab with Prof. Duncan. The experiment involves making subjects wait unwittingly until they reach their breaking point. Naturally, Señor Chang breaks down the moment Annie walks in to tell the subjects they are running five minutes late! After three hours of waiting, only Troy and Abed are left. Prof. Duncan never counted on this! Troy crawls out, but Abed just keeps sitting in the waiting room, patiently waiting. Twenty-six full hours! It’s Duncan who breaks down in desperation. When Annie confronts Abed about not leaving, he admits he was livid, but stayed because she told him they were friends. Guilt trip! Laugh-out-loud funny!

Modern Family 1x24

This is by far the best episode this season. It made me laugh – and it even made me cry a little. Clair has planned a Modern Family portrait down to the tee in every perfectionist detail. She was able to get the best photographer in town and everyone is going to stand in a single line descending down the stairs dressed in white. Before the photo shoot, though, Phil’s off to a Lakers game. He was supposed to go with Luke, but he has a school project due, so Phil takes Alex instead. Jay was supposed to go with Manny, but Luke’s school project involves interviewing someone who lived through the 60s, so Gloria comes with. Uh-oh! Phil and Gloria alone ... that can’t be good! His first foul: when Haley calls her mom that Phil’s on TV, Clair calls, Haley jokes to tell him she’s pregnant, but Phil ignores the call. Worse: when the Kiss Cam zooms in on Phil and Gloria, he awkwardly refuses, but Gloria puckers him right on the smacker! He’s mortified Clair is going to hurt him!

For his part, Jay is telling tall tales about the 60s after Luke fell asleep listening to his boring stories. Meanwhile, Mitchell stays at home with Lily when Cam is hired to sing “Ave Maria” at a wedding. The scene that ensues is slapstick hilarious! Mitchell is terrified by a pigeon that somehow got inside, but after hiding out in Lily’s room, he mans up and ends up trashing half the place! When it’s finally time for the family portrait, all goes afoul as everyone ends up screaming and flinging mud at each other! Happy times. Well, your Cricket has now watched the complete first season and still doesn’t really enjoy the series... There have been a few nice episodes, like this one, but the rest just seemed mediocre to me. Should I continue with the second season? Will it get better or stay more of the same?

In Treatment 3x20

Paul drops off Max in Maryland, begging him not to worry about him. He briefly meets Steve, but declines to come in for coffee, as he has to get back to Brooklyn for his own session with Adele. He arrives late, with a great show of how bad he feels, taking aspirins in her office. He tells her he owes it to her that he finally spoke with Max, which made him realize that his son only came to live with him out of concern. Paul again makes a great show of this achievement, but it was only after the pancake incident (and the confrontation with Jesse) that he came to discuss his situation with Max. When Adele points out his demonstrative behavior, Paul angrily turns the conversation to his revelation in the last session. He may have dismissed it then, but he still needs to hear her response to his admission of his feelings for her. He genuinely feels they could make each other happy. It requires titanic tact and patience for Adele not to burst out – either in anger or laughter. Allowing his reverie to continue, Paul imagines they could discuss patients over wine, just as he now would like to hear her thoughts about Sunil. Adele indicates, that since he arrived late, their time is almost up, but Paul persists – explaining that he knows he is her last patient of the week – because he stayed in front of her building for an hour last time – and forcing her to extend their session (as if his situation is as critical as Jesse’s). When she hears about his stalk-like behavior, she has had it. He has asked her to be many things for him – his supervisor, his colleague, his life partner – anything, but his therapist. She bluntly confronts him with his paralysis to act in his life, with his son (waiting until a crisis occurs to talk to him), his patients (refraining from contacting authorities, even though he worries Sunil might harm someone), his girlfriend (not making up his mind whether to break up with Wendy or not), his health (persisting to believe he has Parkinson’s despite medical evidence to the contrary). Still, she offers to schedule two sessions a week to help him make progress – which he flatly refuses. What a wonderful show!

The Ghost Writer

The Cricket only just now caught The Ghost Writer (2010) by Roman Polanski. It’s an interesting movie – and when saying “interesting” you may detect a hint of reservations. The story has ambitions that unfortunately remain unrealized. The unnamed eponymous ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) is hired to rewrite the memoirs of the former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) – a barely disguised stand-in for Tony Blair. Lang’s previous ghost writer just died from drowning under suspicious circumstances. When the writer moves from London to the U.S., where Lang is staying for a lecture tour (the town is a fictional Old Haven, on an island off Massachusetts, thus Martha’s Vineyard), a conspiracy slowly starts to unfold. Not only was the ghost writer’s predecessor murdered, Lang is accused of illegally extraditing terrorist suspects to the U.S. and faces possible war crime charges in The Hague. The writer discovers a connection between Lang and the CIA, involving a Cambridge classmate, Paul Emmett (Tom Wilkinson), who is now a Harvard professor. Additionally, it becomes clear that Lang is having an affair with his personal assistant Amelia Bly (Kim Cattrall), while his wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) grows evermore impatient at her husband’s unwillingness to take her advice as he used to. The ghost writer gets chased around and eventually contacts Lang’s former Foreign Minister Richard Rycart (Robert Pugh), who is now the U.N. envoy who accuses Lang of the illegal seizure of terrorist suspects.

The film – and the novel by Robert Harris on which it is based – poses some appropriate questions about the post 9-11 political landscape. Unfortunately, it never really explores these questions in any depth. It certainly is baffling that a Labour PM could have been such an American lapdog – especially at the time of the Bush administration. Adam Lang, however, remains a rather flat character, more of a womanizer and heavy drinker. We get no indication what motives him, why he is such a staunch pro-American, or what his thoughts are on the war on terror. We are led to believe that he merely became politically active through his wife Ruth, who was his trusted advisor for years. We get no indication either what motivates her, why she is throwing temper tantrums, or why she approaches the ghost writer for solace and sleeps with him. In the end, we learn that she has been a CIA agent from the start, recruited by Emmett, and thus her emotional instability becomes only more puzzling and her motivations even more obscure. There’s a hint at a rightist intellectual think-tank, Arcadia, with ties to the CIA and a weapons dealer in whose private jet Lang is flying. It is all tossed in our direction, perhaps even vindictively, for us to make sense of. But the moral quandaries, the fascinating grey area between good and bad, are left unaddressed. It is, for one, a government’s responsibility to protect its citizens, whether from terrorism or other menaces. How to implement national security without breaching human rights, international laws, and personal privacy, those are important questions from which this film shies away.

Even on the level of a thriller the movie falters. Polanski employs some of the usual ploys to create suspense: it rains a lot, skies are broodingly dark, much of the actions takes place on an isolated island, the ghost writer stays at an empty hotel, until a crowd of journalists and protesters swarm all over the place, Lang’s modern minimalist villa is menacingly impersonal; then there are the eerie strings on the soundtrack, the car chase, suspicious people in the background. The tension between the characters, however, could have been emphasized to greater advantage, and should have been the main focus. Cattrall’s Bly just stands there as Williams’ Ruth throws fits of frustration, while Brosnan’s Lang sits and looks on. The best scene, in terms of suspense, is carried by Wilkinson’s Emmett, fiddling nervously with his fingers while sternly rebutting the ghost writer’s insinuations. The penultimate scene in which the ghost writer passes on a note at the book presentation to confront Ruth about his discovery is utterly senseless – it fails as the final act and remains implausible from the ghost writer’s perspective (or we have to acknowledge that he is just plain stupid). To bring home the conspiracy hypothesis, the ghost writer gets run over while trying to escape with Lang’s original (coded) manuscript.

On a personal level, we might speculate that Polanski was driven to produce and direct an anti-American film. While editing the movie, he was himself under siege, i.e., under house arrest in Switzerland facing possible extradition on account of pending charges of sexual abuse going back over thirty years. Such a personal motivation may, in part, explain the rather one-sided perspective and why the moral dilemmas facing the various characters is so little explored. In the end, Adam Lang is no more than a mindless pawn in American imperialism, manipulated by his wife, both hungry for a figment of power and the easy comfort that comes with it. That is not to say that I personally condone the extradition of terrorist suspects so that they can disappear in detention camps until they confess under torture – or die. I do believe, however, that Polanski’s personal experience of facing extradition (in his mind, at least) on trumped up charges plausibly suggests that he sympathizes with the victims of Guatánamo Bay. Yet, America is not the embodiment of everything that’s wrong in this world. These are times in the grip of terrorism, which – whatever its motives or leanings – is easily identifiable as criminally evil. This film never addresses this side of the story, other than in politicians’ hollow sound bites. To your Chirping Cricket, that’s a missed opportunity.

Californication 4x09

After a pep talk with Abby Rhodes, Hank returns to his hotel room, only to find he is locked out because his credit card declined his bill of a meager $25,000. Instead of knocking on someone’s door or finding a floozy to go home with, he sleeps in his Porsche in front of Karen’s house. In the morning, with bird poo on his shirt, Becca finds him and asks him in. They actually manage to get over the awkwardness and have a nice day together – almost like a family – teaching Becca to drive. Then it’s evening time, and handsome Ben is stopping by to drop off Pearl and pick up Karen. Hank gets bitter, fails to make a decent meal for the girls, and can’t connect with Pearl. He falls asleep, they nick his car keys and sneak out. When the girls crash the Porsche, without hurting anyone, Ben is livid, but both Becca and Karen stand up for Hank that the girls would have tried the same if it had been Karen who dozed off. Could this be the end of Ben? Let’s hope so.

Meanwhile, Runkle continues his freaky affair with the real estate agent Peggy, pretending to be siblings and acting rough between the sheets. Marcy still has not told Stu that she isn’t carrying his child, but Runkle’s. For his part, Stu asks Marcy to invite Runkle for dinner – plus one is okay – in an effort to behave as adults, while setting Marcy up to rub the joyous news. Marcy is stunned that Runkle is dating their real estate agent, but he points out the hypocrisy in that: she’s the one who has already moved in with one of the richest producers in town; he is just enjoying being single. At the dinner table Stu regales his guests with Hollywood stories, while Marcy keeps dodging his cues to tell Runkle about her pregnancy. She pours a glass of wine for courage and Stu yells, “the baby!” Runkle pretends to be unfazed and happy for Marcy, but can’t help notice it’s a little soon, since they only know each other for six weeks. Back in Runkle’s car, Peggy acts jealous of Runkle’s affection for Marcy, but ends up going down on him anyway. “Another Perfect Day,” as per the episode’s title.