This Week in Television - Jan. 22-27, 2012

Once Upon a Time
Man, the whole bit with two characters bumping into each other and dropping their stuff is such a cliche. It feels like a really lazy way to either reveal something about a character, or to make two characters meet and/or fall in love. Funny that there was an eighth dwarf called Stealthy, and that he was killed when he made the mistake of not being stealthy. But after this episode I think I'm finally on board with the Mary Margaret and David relationship.

30 Rock
This episode was full of win. Devon vs. Jack, which always wins; Kelsey Grammer, Jenna, and Kenneth's elaborate cover-up plan that played like a parody of an accidental murder movie; Kathy Geiss in a box... Hilarious stuff. I also found it funny that after watching Tracy's offensive stand-up routine and being disgusted by it, Jack later told one of Tracy's jokes to Devon.

Parks and Recreation
Tom whining about his finger and bowling between his legs like a five year-old was really funny stuff. I'm not sure whether it was supposed to be a joke that almost every ball rolled in the episode produced a strike, but it was amusing that it happened so frequently. I love that this show can do things like have a shot that is just Ron beaming over the bowling alley restaurant's menu (hot dogs, hamburgers, nothing else) and it works as a joke. April was awesome for giving the movie tickets to Chris, but there are too many candidates for Hero of the Week this week for her to win it.

30 Rock
Not as good as the 8:00 episode, but that was a very hard one to follow anyway. The Martin Luther King Day trailer was funny, but would have been funnier if SNL hadn't already done basically the same joke using The Apocolypse as its holiday. 30 Rock also sort of already did the thing with characters realizing they need each other, but that was Jack and Liz, and it was interesting seeing them demonstrate why Liz and Jenna, and Jack and Kenneth need each other as well. I actually had been wondering about Jenna and Liz, because they were supposed to be best friends but the show doesn't really go there all that often and at times it does seem like they have no reason to be friends.

Fringe
The precog who draws predictions has been done, but we have't really seen the human side of it before and the effects it can have on a person, so I liked that part of it. Some of the earlier scenes with the girl's family felt really generic and blandly written, though. But I like that they tied it into the continuing story of Olivia worrying over her own impending death - and that is something we, too, need to worry about because I don't think the Observer was referring solely to this version of Olivia.

Hero of the Week: Liz from 30 Rock, for her speech to the press about idiots that reflected a lot of the things wrong with our culture. Unfortunately, people who watch 30 Rock are not idiots so it was just preaching to the choir.

Douchebag of the Week: That guy from Parks and Recreation who called Leslie her "second least favourite word for a woman," because Leslie is awesome and you don't call her that, ever.

Land of the Lost

Impressions before seeing it
It looked like it could be fun for all of its crazy fantasy and sci-fi elements.

How was it?
The only thing this movie really has going for it is its concept, which I know is based on an old TV show, meaning they didn't bring anything good to the table for the film adaptation. I really like the idea of a strange world where past, present, and future all exist simultaneously, and seeing that world was fun, but mostly Land of the Lost was just disappointing. All of the special effects, first of all, were so crude that nothing blended seamlessly. You could tell every time when something was CG or green screen, which constantly pulls you out of the movie. However, the biggest mistake made here is a very heavy reliance on Will Ferrell. It seems to me that the writers didn't put much effort into the script and just let Ferrell do his thing, thinking this would make the movie a hilarious smash hit because Will Ferrell is popular. Don't get me wrong, he can be really funny in some movies, but other times he comes off as trying too hard to be wacky. This was the latter. I only found one part funny, and that was when Rick (Ferrell) and Will (Danny McBride) find a large, vibrating crystal that gives your voice an auto-tune effect if you touch it while talking, so they start singing Cher's "Believe". Still a cheap joke, but I laughed. Oh, and one last thing: this is one of those sexist comedies where the female character (Anna Friel) has to be the smart one who isn't allowed to be funny. We should be past that by now.

Recommendation
I think this goes in the same pile as Year One; that is to say, the kind of movie where they pretty much write around an actor's persona and expect that to carry the film. It's less funny than Year One, but slightly less forgettable thanks to a better concept. If you're really into fantasy and sci-fi like I am, it might be worth watching once if you don't have to pay anything to see it, but you won't be missing much if you never do.

This Week in Television - Jan. 15-20, 2012

Once Upon a Time
Oh, Hansel, you dope. How many times did they tell you not to eat anything in the witch's house? Decent episode, though. The orphan storyline finally got Emma to admit how much she cares about Henry, but the ending was more interesting.

Napoleon Dynamite
I'm a fan of the movie, but I'm not sure what to make of these first two episodes of the new animated series because it doesn't really resemble the film. It's more like the director wanted to make an animated series and, as an excuse to garner some initial attention ratings, used the characters and settings from his most successful project. The humour is not the same as in the movie - it's more like season five of Futurama, as in mildly amusing but never laugh out loud hilarious and probably would have been funnier about 15 years ago. The cartoon medium completely changes the tone into something more blatantly wacky and fast paced, and I understand that it's just how animation works, but that's not what the movie was. The movie was more lethargic and quiet, full of moments with Napoleon silently gawking at things because he wasn't a big conversationalist. He does a lot more talking in the cartoon because Jon Heder needs something to do. However, that is this show's biggest strength: all of the actors from the movie came back to do the voices. Given how strange and unique all of those voices are, it would have been way too noticeable had the roles been recast. But there's still one thing to nitpick there, and that is Uncle Rico. It's still the same actor playing him, but he's either completely forgotten the role since doing the movie or they asked him to exaggerate the southern accent so the character would sound more...cartoony. It definitely threw me off because he didn't sound like Uncle Rico, but all of the other voices were perfect. Also, this show doesn't seem to be canon with the film, as Lafawnduh is nowhere in sight even though Kip married her in the movie. I don't think I'll bother to keep watching.

Glee
I can imagine how many fangirls squealed when Finn proposed to Rachel, but I was laughing at what a terrible gimmick it is. And being that their characters are only about 17-18, it makes me think even less of them for even thinking about marriage that young. Though Rachel didn't respond yet, but supposedly they kind of stole that ending from one of the Twilight movies, which is the least surprising thing ever. I don't like how they used that musical number with the girls in black dresses singing about their loved ones to try and imply that those relationships are as meaningful as the adult one between Mr. Schue and Emma, when we know they'll probably all be dating different people by next season. And then they took it even further by having them come to tears while singing it, and then even further by having Mercedes remark afterward how beautiful and moving it was. Nope. I'm somewhat easily moved, and that had zero effect on me. I also found it offensive when they had Becky's voiceover voiced by Helen Mirren, as if they were trying to make a sarcastic joke by making her inner voice classy and intelligent. And offense #3: all of the stuff about Emma's OCD - which was already exaggerated - and how the general opinion was that she is unable to function as a normal human being and for some reason it means she shouldn't get married, except that Mr. Schue is a hero and he'll be there to rescue her. Yes, Glee, that's exactly what OCD is like, thanks. When Artie wheeled himself into the pool during Mr. Schue's ridiculous over the top proposal (the walking on water was definitely too much; it doesn't say "I love you", it says "I'm so awesome I'm doing something Christlike, wanna marry me? Yeah, course you do."), I was like "Well, he's dead," and then he magically reappeared on an inflatable chair. But seriously, how did he get over there? Because doggy paddling doesn't work for humans when your legs are dead weight. And apparently Mr. Schue has literally no friends whatsoever outside of the high school, because that's the only reason I can think of why a grown man would choose Finn to be the best man at his wedding (but really it's because they want an excuse to have the glee club perform a song during the inevitable wedding episode). This was one of the kitschiest Glee episodes ever, but I laughed at a couple of the one-liners in this episode, such as Sue calling Coach Beiste "Michael Chiklis in a wig" and Becky telling Artie that her mom says she has "get down syndrome".

New Girl
Sometimes it feels like this show is too Schmidt-centric, but that may be because of his large personality. Surprisingly, this episode had a character who was even douchier than Schmidt, and got what he deserved from Lizzy Caplan; I was puzzled when Nick was horrified by it, because I'm all for douchebags getting beat up. Does that make me a bad person? And why did they send that white dude if Jess asked for an Asian stripper? I like how offended Nick was by Schmidt's toolish hat and tanktop outfit. I wouldn't want to be associated with someone wearing that, either. The douchebag jar is fun, but if it was meant to deter Schmidt from acting the way he does, it doesn't seem to be working. There's gotta be like a thousand dollars in there by now.

30 Rock
There we go. Much better than last week's episode. Tracy's offensive comments on the show were a lot less offensive than what he said in real life (I believe it was something to the effect of "if I had a gay son, I'd shoot myself"), but I think this episode poking fun at it was a fair punishment and was handled well. It sort of managed to chastize and condescend to Tracy while also apologizing to the public and reminding everyone that Tracy's not the kind of dude who would mean it, it was just a bad joke in bad taste. Basically, it hit all the bases while still being funny so as not to waste our time getting caught up in the show's own politics. Kenneth and Jenna's simple lightbulb-changing plot escalated quickly and became funny (those two are often funnier playing off each other than on their own), and the ending when they called Kelsey Grammer was one of those moments where you know it's going to be him because he was in the beginning of the episode, and then when it's him you just go "Yesss!" I loved the tag with his James Bond-like theme song - probably the highlight of the episode. Well, that and the pie chart about TGS's viewers, because every time Jack pulls out a pie chart, the segments on it represent hilarious things.

Parks and Recreation
You know, out of all of NBC's Thursday night comedies, Parks and Recreation is the one that is the most consistently funny. Another solid, hilarious episode this week. Loved Ben, Jerry, and Tom trying to do sinister voiceover voices, every single thing Andy said and did (especially his extremely wide hammering attempt), Chris thwarting Ron's automatic door-closer by slipping in before the shut-out, and Leslie's campaign commercial with the very long list of things she supports. Also, I've always found attack ads funny because they're so dramatic in their accusations, so it was fun to see it here, and cute to see how little Leslie has changed since she was 10 years old.

The Office
This was probably the first episode of the whole season where Andy felt like Andy and not Michael. Maybe because they were outside of the office for a reason not driven by him, so for the writers this episode didn't need a Michael in it. It wasn't one of the funnier episodes, though. I can't recall any jokes that stood out, though the cold opening with Dwight and Stanley "turning the tables" on Jim for free meatballs was such a weird and unexpected ending to that prank that it was kind of funny for that reason.

Up All Night
Megan Mullally has been appearing on almost every comedy show out there, and lately it's been fun to see her, but so far Up All Night hasn't really been putting their guest stars to great use. But I do like the subject of idea stealing, whether coincidental or otherwise, because that sort of thing does happen in the entertainment industry; usually with two very similar movies coming out around the same time, or a few instances I've pointed out on this blog where some TV shows make the same joke in the same week. I don't suspect plagiarism when that happens, but it's fascinating when two seperate people can have the same idea at the same time, and I can imagine how it might make them feel, not being able to prove or disprove intent. But this episode didn't go down that road anyway, as sneakiness is more interesting than coincidence. I'm not sure if I agree with "emotional cheating" being a real thing, though. I understand it, but the only thing that makes it emotional cheating is gender. No one ever calls it that when a dude is having a night out with a male friend.

Fringe
This week's episode had some very cool scenes. Notably the one where Peter was freaking out Jones in the interrogation room, however short-lived that may have been once Jones' contacts came to his rescue. And it was cool to see both sides finally working together, and Walter reuniting with Walternate's wife, although the problem is that all of that theoretically goes away when Peter returns to his timeline. We're into Lost season 6 territory right now, where we're not sure if and why this world we're seeing is going to be relevant, and that makes viewers cautious about getting invested.

Hero of the Week: Julia (Lizzy Caplan) from New Girl, for taking down the douche and generally being a cool date.

Douchebag of the Week: Schmidt's friend Benjamin from New Girl. As he played Todd on Community earlier this season, I think he might be the first actor to win Douchebag for two different roles.

Contagion

Impressions before seeing it
I made a list of films from 2011 that I want to see before I break out a top 10 list (still have about 12 left on it), and this one was not on there because I'm not big on deadly virus movies, but then I realized the cast was too awesome not to watch it.

How was it?
Contagion is a deadly virus movie, yes, but the story is told more from the point of view of the doctors and scientists trying to cure it. To me, that was much more interesting than watching people die in mass numbers while lamenting that humanity is doomed. Here, they really are just numbers, letting us know how rapidly the thing has spread and nothing more. Curiously, the movie begins on day 2 of the epidemic, not day 1, because the cause is a mystery. But to be honest I wasn't that interested in the cause, and was underwhelmed when the movie ended with the reveal of day 1. What I liked was the scrambling of the doctors, not just in finding a cure, but in dealing with a frightened and desperate public and how to handle the situation with regards to media coverage. I felt like this was a more realistic portrayal of events for a deadly virus movie - the disease was nothing crazy, just one of those things that starts as a flu and then begins shutting down your respiratory system and heart, like the real life SARS. That makes it scary, because these things can and already have happened, but the best solution is to avoid going out in public and washing your hands when you do. The people in the movie who caught the disease did not do those things.

Recommendation
It's probably best to never, ever see this movie if you are a hardcore hypochondriac, but for everyone else it is a fascinating look at a potential scenario, albeit a grim one. And, again, the cast was pretty great; in addition to the six award calibre actors on the poster, you also get Bryan Cranston, John Hawkes, Elliott Gould, Demetri Martin, and Enrico Colantoni. I love a good cast, so that alone makes this worth it.

Moneyball

Impressions before seeing it
If I were to rank everything in life based on how much I care about it, sports would be near the very bottom, just ahead of Nazis and reality shows. However, I do enjoy the occasional sports movie and I love a good underdog story. Moneyball looked interesting in that it had that behind the scenes aspect of competitive professional sports.

How was it?
What I like about this movie is the challenging of the system. Billy Beane (Pitt) asks, if there is a better way, why is everyone so against it? There is sometimes a certain stubbornness when it comes to rule systems, even when those systems are flawed, and throughout history the ones who challenge the norm and dare to stand up are the ones who encounter the toughest opposition. Only afterward, when the rest of the world finally comes around, are they praised for it. As it applies to baseball, Billy's recruitment team is looking at all the wrong reasons when drafting. "His girlfriend's a six at best," one of them says about a player, as if that has anything whatsoever to do with one's baseball career. Billy's strategy is to draft guys who, no matter what, can make it onto first base. You don't necessarily need good batters or runners, you just need guys to make it around the bases because that's how you ultimately score points.

I ended up loving this movie, so I can imagine how much more ecstatic baseball fans would be over it. I think it does a good job of building excitement and inspiration - again, I hate sports but I was floored - and even a bit of sentiment. Jonah Hill's Peter is such a baseball nerd, he's always showing Billy videos of obscure players and rare moments in the game, and some of them have a certain charm, and maybe even magic, that almost made me want to get into baseball. Almost. But even almost is a big deal.

Recommendation
You really don't have to be into sports/baseball to like this movie. You don't even see any baseball being played until the last 30-40 minutes. It's more about the inner workings of the game and the drafting process than the actual playing of the game, and more appealingly, it is a highly entertaining underdog story that almost anyone can find joy in. Go for it!

This Week in Television - Jan. 8-13, 2012

Once Upon a Time
Rumplestiltskin's reason for turning evil was a little Star Wars-like, but it did set up a nice juxtaposition in showing that Emma made the decision he could not: to sacrifice the greater good and keep your integrity intact for the sake of your child. I found it predictable that David's wife supported the Mayor's sherriff candidate. The set-up was too obvious when he and Mary Margaret were posting posters next to each other.

30 Rock
I'm really glad 30 Rock is back because it helps soften the disappointment of Community's hiatus, but this episode wasn't really the strong start I was hoping for. It seemed like an episode that belongs in season four, 30 Rock's weakest season. I think my favourite joke of the episode was probably when Kenneth said Aroused Dog Heaven is the same place as Women's Hell. America's Kidz Got Singing was another of those things that is a terrible idea for a show, but still sadly in the realm of something somebody would actually do, and even sadder, it would probably be a monster hit. Happy Liz isn't really as fun to watch as miserable Liz.

Parks and Recreation
The scene on the ice rink with everyone shuffling along, falling and almost falling, panicking about the three-legged dog, and the stopping and restarting of the "Get on Your Feet" song were all very simple elements, but damn if it wasn't a hilarious scene anyway. The music especially is what made it - I kept forgetting about the song, thinking it was done, and then it would start up again and make me laugh. One slight criticism about Ben's claymation video: that is a lot less than three weeks' worth of animation, unless he's including all of the preparation and model building in that three weeks, or is just so inexperienced that he really is that slow with it.

The Office
I laughed at "The Einsteins" getting the Albert Einstein question wrong. The thing about trivia is that you don't have to be smart to do well, and you don't have to be dumb to do poorly. It is a random mix of common knowledge and obscure facts, and so it is possible for a gang of idiots to win if the right collection of questions comes up. I like that they had them losing the championship in the tag, just to quell concerns over plausibility and to show that it really was a fluke. When Gabe said that Robert has him "toilet" people for him all the time, I saw the ending to that segment coming (or I suppose the middle of it, because I didn't exactly predict Dwight going to Robert's home and watching him wrestle a physical trainer). But I wonder if Robert's promise to consider Dwight if a position opens up will result in anything.

Up All Night
I actually thought this episode was going to be Jason Lee's exit from the show, because it looked like Ava was overly interested in Missy's boyfriend, and Missy running off combined with Ava and Kevin hitting a rough patch would typically equal Ava leaving him for Missy's boyfriend. I'm glad it didn't turn out to be that predictable. I liked the stuff with Reagan and Chris listing each other's flaws and then erasing them, because I think that's what a relationship should be. Anyone and everyone you know is going to have things about them you hate if you know them long enough and well enough, but rather than force them to change, it's better to accept that the things you love about them are just more important.

Fringe
It might dilute the show somewhat, having four universes now instead of the initial two. I guess we have to be subjected to how different they are so that we, too, feel Peter's longing for the original universe we know. But I'm interested, now, in the idea of the universes working together. And if that Observer dies (if he can die?), I'm assuming there is no alternate version of him anywhere because those guys are outside the laws of time and space. Man, that ending was three cool reveals at once. It almost felt like a season premiere, but it sort of was, too; a mid-season premiere.

Hero of the Week: Ben from Parks and Recreation, because calzones and claymation are both awesome, even if everyone else seems to think they're not.

Douchebag of the Week: Ryan from The Office, for abandoning trivia just because he couldn't go a couple of hours without texting on his phone.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Impressions before seeing it
The concept sounded cool (two brothers rob their own parents' jewellery store) and my buddy Corey told me a while ago that it was really good.

How was it?
Technically, the climax of this movie (the actual robbery scene) is near the beginning. But that's okay, because this film is non-linear anyway. We get the robbery early on, and then we spend the rest of the movie watching both the build-up to and aftermath of this disastrous event. I think it works better that way, because it's not about the robbery, it's about the consequences of the robbery, and it would actually have been underwhelming if they had shown the results first and then revealed the robbery at the end. Now with the biggest scene so early, how do they keep it interesting? By only giving us part of the story in every scene. This is achieved through multiple viewpoints sort of in the style of Go, where we follow characters at different points and piece the story together when their paths cross. It's not as hard to follow as it might sound.

The talented A-list cast also helps make this stand out. Hawke seems to always play characters who are shady, or at least sneaky, but he's actually the lesser of two evils here because Hoffman plays the colder of the two brothers. Their relationship, nor their relationships with their parents, never struck me as anything resembling warm or loving, which may cause viewers to have trouble caring, but it also makes the robbery more believable and fuels a lot of the dramatic tension. And Tomei's character is sleeping around, so the only relationship in this movie that has any heart to it is the one between the mother and father, and you'll see why that's crucial if you watch the movie. This is not a feel-good movie by any means, but it's a very well done, well acted warning about the dangers of doing the wrong thing. The title is part of a full quote, "May you be in heaven a full half-hour before the devil knows you're dead," and my opinion is that this refers to Andy (Hoffman). The opening scene is the only time we ever really see him happy - his half-hour in heaven - and then after the robbery his wrongdoings begin to catch up with him, as if the devil has noticed and is in pursuit.

Recommendation
Unless you're for some reason opposed to non-linear cinema, there isn't really any reason not to see Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. I personally love non-linear stories because they're a breath of fresh air. Be prepared for a bit of heaviness, and watch this.

Fifty Pills

Impressions before seeing it
I thought the concept had potential (pipsqueak has 24 hours to sell 50 pills of ecstasy to pay his college tuition), but to be honest the trailer didn't do it any favours. Gave it a shot because it was in a bargain bin for a mere three dollars.

How was it?
This is somewhat irrelevant, but the poster above is used for the DVD cover as well, and what bothers me about it is that they apparently didn't even have the budget to take promotional photos for packaging, because most of those poorly photoshopped figures were clearly taken directly from screencaps from the movie. It looks tacky, but it does demonstrate that we're dealing with a tacky movie.

There are a small number of things to enjoy about this movie, but I'll get to that in a moment. I think from the beginning, it betrays itself with a lack of consistency. I'm referring to a convention wherein Darren (Pucci) directly addresses the camera rather than use voiceover, but then once everything that needed to be explained was explained, he just stopped doing it. The movie was slightly better for it because I found it annoying, but I think if you're going to have a character talk to the camera and it's not a quick meta joke, they should be doing it through the entire movie, like Wayne's World. It's too weird and incongruent to do it for the first few minutes and then go back to ignoring the camera like a regular movie. I also want to say that this movie was made about six years ago but it screams 1990's. I think it's the sub-par acting and writing that makes it feel outdated, combined with some teen sex humour that hasn't been funny since the first American Pie movie. I'm talking "parents walking in on son masturbating" type stuff, followed up with "parents are mistakenly convinced son is gay." Yup, real comedy gold here. Did I mention this movie also includes a dominatrix character? Because for some reason, every single teen sex comedy movie has to have a dominatrix in it. And this isn't even a teen sex comedy. That's what bothers me most about those things being in the movie: they're completely irrelevant to the main storyline, and skew Fifty Pills toward a different genre when it would have worked better as either a straight drama or a quirky indie comedy that didn't need to dip into the well of immature jokes.

Because - and now we're into the positive stuff - there were things I genuinely found funny. Mainly, those things were Michael Pena (who I suspect might have improvised a lot of his lines and that's why he was so funny) and, surprisingly, Eddie Kaye Thomas as a wacky dude obsessed with Diff'rent Strokes who is very enthusiastic and talkative when high on ecstasy. More recent comedy work from Pena makes him less of a surprise, but I think when Eddie Kaye Thomas is one of the highlights of your movie, it's either a bad sign for the movie or a brilliant effort from Eddie. Sorry, Eddie, I believe in the former.

Recommendation
I can't generally recommend this because it's mostly poorly made, but I'm adding a fine print which says that if you find it on TV for free, take a look just to get some laughs out of Pena and Thomas. Jane Lynch is in it too, but her talents are wasted here.

Curb Your Enthusiasm - Season Six

The sixth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm has Larry taking in a black family (also literally named the Blacks) who were left homeless after a hurricane. As Susie Essman puts it on the DVD's special features, "There's just something about putting Larry with black people that is always funny." (not an exact quote, but close enough.) I didn't directly think about it until she said it, but I'd have to agree. I don't want to sound like I'm stereotyping, but Larry David is pretty much the opposite of a black person in every way, and putting two opposites together is a tried and true foundation for comedy. The season's other, smaller arc involves Larry and Cheryl separating, which opens up a lot of doors for us to see his attempts at dating. We know by now that Larry is not romantic, nor is he selfless, so once again we get comedy by way of opposites. Not to say that he's entirely horrible at it, though. He was effective in using humour to at least obtain dates in the first place.

The season didn't entirely start off strong, if only because the first episode was kind of predictable, and I think I would have to say that season five was funnier overall (it's been too long now since I've watched one to four), but I mean if you're already a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm, you're going to keep enjoying every season because it's more or less consistent in bringing more of the same old Larry David without getting tiring or unfunny. The fact that season five may have been funnier does not reflect poorly on season six, because it was still a funny batch of episodes, and Larry's ability to call people on their BS every single time will never not be fun to watch.

Best Episode: "The Freak Book", in which a book of deformed people causes Larry to disrupt several parties and gatherings, and Larry finds himself doing some work as a limo driver.

The Wire - Season One

When I watched the pilot back in November, my impression was that The Wire focused more on the bureaucratic aspect of police work. While that's not untrue, I would like to add that it is about depicting the truth in the long, difficult process of collecting evidence to prove guilt. It's a crime show, but not a crime mystery. The cops know from the first episode that Avon Barksdale is running a drug ring and ordering hits on those who cross him, but the entire run of the season follows the tedious procedures and laws they must follow in collecting hard proof so they can legally make arrests. This is something that isn't frequently seen in cop dramas, probably because it can be boring and viewers would rather see them cut to shoot-outs and doors being busted down. The Wire does have those moments, too, but again it gives us the entire truth instead of just the action-packed parts. Barksdale is very careful in his operation, not leaving his name anywhere and forcing his gang to use pagers and payphones to avoid call tracing. There is even a special dialing code they use to further scramble caller identities. My guess, though, is this sort of thing was Stringer's (Avon's second-in-command) idea, because he is the smart, crafty one. Subsequently, this leads to the police resorting to tapping the pagers and payphones, though only after proving to their superiors that all other investigative methods failed, and even then, being public payphones, they have to stake out cops to watch the phones because they're only allowed to listen/record when a suspect is using them. Proper procedure, see.

Now take that concept of the entire truth and stretch it even further: we also get an equal amount of time with Barksdale and the members of his drug operation, providing insight into their procedures, too, and even allowing us to sympathize with some of them. Most of them are cold enough that they're willing to kill someone at the drop of a hat, and do, but some have noticeable consciences, notably Wallace and D'Angelo, Avon's nephew. D'Angelo and McNulty both reflect, at times, on the needless violence that occurs in the drug business. Nobody selling something other than drugs gets killed over it, they say, so why the animosity? My answer to that question is because nobody else sells things that are biologically addictive, or bring in extremely high tax-free revenue.

One memorable scene I loved involved detectives McNulty and Bunk going back to investigate an old crime scene and finding overlooked evidence as they recreate how the murder happened; all of the dialogue in that scene consists of variations of the F-word, which somehow just seems believable on top of being funny. Another thing I mentioned in November was that this show can be hard to follow if you're not concentrating (a very large of number of supporting characters with varying roles in the police, legal, and drug systems can be hard to keep track of), but if you can figure out what's going on, it is rewarding. I can't necessarily differentiate between episodes most of the time, but I like watching.

Best Episode: "Cleaning Up", in which Avon and Stringer get nervous about the security of their business, the detectives install a hidden camera in Avon's club, someone is killed by his own, two someones are arrested and someone else is not arrested. There, spoiler free.

4-Way Feature: Blood Simple, Bridesmaids, Cedar Rapids, and RED

Apologies for cramming four movies that have nothing to do with each other into one post, but I currently have a lot to watch and only a little to say about each of these four, so this saves me a lot of time.

Blood Simple
This is the Coen Brothers' first movie and is sometimes seen as a modern film noir. Appropriate, because it's probably about as dark as No Country For Old Men in terms of its lack of humour, which is otherwise present in most Coen movies. I think it started off a little slowly, but got really cool toward the end. Oddly enough, it also reminded me of Alien in the way that Frances McDormand began the movie as an average supporting female and then ended up being the heroine of the story.

Bridesmaids
I really like the idea of an all-female ensemble comedy, but I don't think this one is necessarily a step forward for feminism, if only because it still contains all of the standard "chick flick" elements (and the movie is a little longer for it). However, you could consider it a transitional film, as it is a "chick flick" that men can still enjoy for the humour. Now we just need a female ensemble comedy that falls somewhere in the middle, as in not a sappy romance and not an objectifying "hot women for male audiences" movie. Overall, I think the humour in Bridesmaids is probably more for women, and a lot of the drama and romance held it back, but I had a few laughs and it was generally fun.

Cedar Rapids
Ed Helms plays a highly innocent man-child stepping out of his comfort zone on a business trip. I wondered how corrupted he would be by the big city, and he was, but this movie is not as mean as it looked like it was going to be, and I liked that. It seems to set John C. Reilly up as a potential villain in the first half, because his character is so sleazy, but then he just suddenly becomes a trustworthy friend (I would have liked him either way, because he's played by John C. Reilly). Most importantly, a lot of this movie is just Tim (Helms) becoming friends with the other insurance salesmen he meets, and having a good time with them. I don't have to tell you by now that I'm always cool with that. Bonus points for having an actor who was on The Wire make references to The Wire.

RED
It's somewhat unusual seeing so many award-caliber actors in a comic book action blockbuster, but then the premise is that it's an unusual group because they're all old and retired. This movie looked like it might be fun, but I found it only marginally so. The story didn't much interest me, and I didn't even find the action sequences very exciting or intense until close to the end. This is the reason I don't really watch a high number of action blockbusters; once in a while there's a good one, but you can only see so many explosions and gunfights before they become bland. I like that there's an action movie starring more than five people over 50, and I don't mind that this movie has enough humour to not take itself too seriously, but the story and action (and the movie overall) could have been better. However, I imagine that fault probably lies more with the source material. The fault in this being nominated for a Golden Globe lies with the academy of voters wanting the awesome cast to show up to the event.