Twin Peaks

So, it's official - Twin Peaks will be returning to television, on Showtime, with 9 episodes directed by David Lynch, in 2016.

So now we have two years to debate the question: is this a good idea?

First things first: I'm comfortable saying that Twin Peaks was a legendary show; in fact, that it was one of the landmarks in the history of the medium.  But such a bold statement comes with a very major caveat.

Consider these lines of dialogue from Blade Runner:

Tyrell: The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long - and you have burned so very, very, brightly Roy.  Look at you: you're the Prodigal Son; you're quite a prize!

Roy Batty: I've done...questionable things.

Tyrell: Also extraordinary things; revel in your time.

If there was ever a show that could be said to have done extraordinary but questionable things in a very short time, Twin Peaks was that show.  I have no qualms whatsoever saying that the first season episodes, and the second season through the resolution of the Laura Palmer storyline, were among the most compelling ever shown on television.  I also have no qualms whatsoever saying that after that, the show went off the rails to such a degree that it was practically unwatchable.  By the time that Lynch was brought back to direct the finale, it was far too late - the images on the screen may have been as visually and aurally thrilling as they ever were, but there was no longer any point to the exercise.  In that sense, the show went from legendary to having jumped the shark in a shorter period of time than any other.

Can you catch lightning in a bottle a second time, 25 years apart?  That is the question that no one can answer today.  And despite having both Lynch and Mark Frost back on board, there's no guarantee that Twin Peaks can once again capture the zeitgeist in a way that True Detective did this year (I for one don't think it's a coincidence that the resurrection of Twin Peaks comes so soon after Detective).

We can only hope, and wish for the best.

Hmm...

There's a show on Bravo called "Work of Art/Next Great Artist" which is almost exactly like "Top Chef" except, instead of chefs, the contestants are artists. It's almost a full-proof format, but the show is less successful, mostly because - in my perhaps less than humble opinion - taste in art is way more subjective than taste in food. Plus, the judges are way less entertaining.

But, the show does have something going for it - one of the remaining contestants is named "Sucklord." It's hard to imagine a "Chef Sucklord," but somehow it works perfectly for an artist.

You just gotta root for a guy who calls himself "Sucklord." I'm guessing that if George Lucas ever decides to make the next Star Wars trilogy, we'll be treated to a "Darth Sucklord."

Enthusiasm

At the behest of son #2 and thanks to the miracle that is Netflix, we’ve begun watching Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and currently have made it through to the middle of Season 2 (or 3, I’m not quite sure). It’s an amazing show, but it’s not exactly what you’d call consistent. Virtually every episode has a moment that is truly cringe-worthy, and sometimes – but not always – those moments are hysterically funny. Other times, they just make you cringe.

I have a theory – I don’t think David and his creative team have any idea, when they begin filming an episode, how funny it’s going to be. They just plow through, and if it works, great. If it doesn’t, well…there’s always another episode. For me, the best moments are those which focus on David’s relationship with his wife Cheryl, and his manager/friend Jeff (and Jeff’s hilarious wife Susie). The “special guest star” moments are hit-and-miss; it’s hard to imagine interplay between David and Ben Stiller falling flat, but in the last few episodes we watched (where the two are starring in “The Producers”), it sort of did.

But there’s no doubt that we’ll keep watching, because when the moments are good, they’re spectacularly so.

Seven Random Thoughts About "The Rocky Horror Glee Show"

I.

“I need that local Emmy, Will!” – Sue

I can really relate to that comment, for reasons I can’t really explain here. Those who know me best will probably understand.

II.

“There is something wondrous about Elton John, and something monstrous.” - Robert Christgau

That’s a quote from 1975, written at the height of Elton John’s popularity. It doesn’t have anything to do with Glee, but as I was watching tonight’s show, I was reminded of it.

III.

In the winter of 1980, I went to see the midnight show of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for eight weekends running. At that time it was showing at the Showcase Theater in downtown Sacramento, which unfortunately no longer exists. I went with my girlfriend, I went with friends, I went with co-workers at McDonalds, I went with my brothers, and I even went with my parents. It was certainly not a “great” movie, but it was fun, and watching it with a bunch of people who felt the same way was even more fun.

IV.

I think that Glee has a lot in common with Twin Peaks. Both inhabit worlds that seem on the surface to be real, but when you look a little deeper, you can’t help but realize that they’re not. No one in real life acts like the people on Glee or Twin Peaks. I loved Twin Peaks. I respect Glee, but I don’t love it.

V.

Tonight’s episode of Glee was fantastic – an hour of television that might not be matched for the rest of this season. Just about everything worked perfectly – the Barry Bostwick/Meat Loaf cameos, the guest appearance by John Stamos – and the performances were spot on, close enough to the originals to sound great but different enough to sound original. I laughed out loud on several occasions, even at the lines of characters that I found totally unbelievable.

VI.

In the current issue of GQ, there are hot shots of the starlets of Glee in what some might consider suggestive poses. This has resulted in a lot of moralizing, all of it ridiculous. To me, it does present a contradiction (and as you can see from a post below, I love contradictions). The more this sort of thing happens, the more ridiculous the show seems. Now, I get that part of the show’s appeal is that it is ridiculous – just like Twin Peaks was ridiculous. But there is a fine line between “ridiculous” and “jumping the shark” – and I have to wonder how close Glee is getting to the latter.

VII.

Let’s do the time warp again.

That's A Wrap

A few weeks ago I called the final season a train wreck. And while it certainly had its share of ridiculous moments, I have to admit that it was somewhat redeemed by the final few episodes, which featured Jack Bauer falling way off of whatever moral compass he had left - killing people in cold blood, torture that went beyond anything he'd done before, and generally wreaking havoc on anyone who dared to cross his path.

Tonight's finale wrapped up things about as neatly as one could imagine. President Taylor finally did the right thing, President Logan finally took the bullet he's so richly deserved for so long (alas, it did not come from Jack's gun), and Jack himself finally remembered that there was more to what he was doing than just revenge for Renee's death. But perhaps most importantly, Chloe got to be the person who saved Jack.

And Jack got to live. No happy ending, but as good as he could hope for. All in all, it was a great ride.

Bauer...Jack Bauer.

This is hell week at work, one of our two busiest weeks of the year, so I hope no one is expecting a lot in the way of original content this week.

But hey, even on days like this, I give myself a lunch break. And during said break, I had the chance to read a piece that you should also take a look at: Steven Rubio, on the final episodes of "24." It's a typically good piece, and as a bonus also links to a paper he once wrote on whether a leftist could love "24."

The only disagreement we have, and it's a minor one, is that I found Jack's cold-blooded execution of Dana Walsh more troubling than his torture of the Russian spy. Perhaps that says more about me than I really wanted to know.

Overall the season sucked, but the last few weeks have been terrific. Even Reed Diamond has done himself proud. Can't wait for the finale.

Odd Choice of Words

The Facebook page for "Burn Notice" is promoting tomorrow night's Season Finale with the following teaser:

"...Michael's worst fears come to life when a world class terrorist is unleashed on Miami..."

"World class terrorist?" I didn't know they had a world ranking for terrorists, but it just struck me as an odd choice of words.

What A Week For Entertainment!

Boy, I don't know which is more entertaining - NBC's latest f*ck-up of their late night franchises, or the "Pete Carroll leaves, Lane Kiffin goes to USC" saga. A few random comments about both:

- First, let's talk about "The Jay Leno Show." No, I take it back - first, let me stipulate that I've always liked Jay Leno, and thought he was a great stand-up comedian back in the 1980s. There are plenty of clips of his appearances on David Letterman's show on YouTube, and they're well worth checking out if you want to see Jay at his best. But let's face it - Jay's 10 p.m. show sucks. I've watched it more than I should probably admit, mainly because there isn't much else on at 10 p.m. these days, and I just seem to do better if I have some white noise on in the background. Jay's monologue varies between OK and very good, the "Headlines" are still funny, and pretty much everything else has been an unmitigated disaster. But what's truly amazing to me is that from day one, Jay has done absolutely nothing to vary the formula of the show - despite the clear evidence on Night 1 that the "10 on 10" segment was a bad idea, they are still doing it, nearly six months later. The banter with Kevin Eubanks is awful; frankly, the band isn't even that good. The interviews are forced, as they always have been. Every now and then, one of the recorded segments is funny, although all these years later, I'm still mystified as to why anyone thinks or ever thought Ross the Intern is/was funny. Have I left anything out?

- I haven't watched enough of "The Tonight Show" with Conan to gauge its effectiveness. I've always been a Letterman man, and since Letterman comes on at 11 in Sacramento, that's what I watch. By the time its over or I've decided that Letterman's guests aren't worth watching, I'm usually too tired to make any kind of reasonable judgment about what's going on with Conan's show.

- Having said all of the above, there's no doubt in my mind that Conan is the wronged party here. Particularly given the fact that his version of "Late Night" took a couple of years to find its footing, it's amazing that NBC would throw him to the wolves so quickly. And given the absymal quality of Jay's show at 10 p.m, you really have to wonder whether the fan base for Jay's Tonight Show will stick with him. I imagine so, because they did before, and from what I saw of that show, it wasn't much different than what's now playing in prime time. Conan's statement to the "People of Earth" yesterday was an absolute masterpiece, managing to be pointed and hilariously funny all at the same time. After reading it, it's difficult for me to imagine how anyone is going to sympathize with Jay in all of this. But at the same time, Jay was wronged as well - NBC tried to push him out the door too. So I guess the only real villain in all of this is NBC. Now let's see if they can make it up to us by producing the next "Hill Street Blues," "Homicide" or "ER." Heck, I'd even settle for "Miami Vice" at this point.

- Speaking of villains, how about that Lane Kiffin? And yeah, I know that people in other professions probably do this sort of thing (although I can't think of one in my experience, and I've been in the workforce for almost 30 years). But even if we assume that is true, how about leaving all of those recruits in the lurch? Since most of the sports media world is slicing and dicing Kiffin with aplomb, I'm not sure there's much I can add, except to thank him for giving all of us another reason to root against USC.

- Have I commented on Pete Carroll? I can't even remember. But in the spirit of brevity, let me just say that I think he's made a big mistake, and that his coaching stint in Seattle will end much the same way as his previous two. I like him; I just can't understand his decision.

Conan Tries To Conquer L.A.

I've always liked Conan's show, but given the retreat of night owl tendencies that has accompanied the advancement of my age, I've never really watched it that much. I suspect that I'll be watching The Tonight Show more often now, even if it means turning away from Dave.

The first show was a mixed bag, but overall was good - and the cold opening was inspired and hilarious. Enjoy!

The Good, Bad and Ugly of "24" - Season 7

The good news is that it was a vast improvement over Season 6. The bad news? That's not really saying much.

It wasn't terrible and it certainly had its moments, but it didn't approach either Season 5 or Season 4 in terms of drama and suspense. And even with Brannon Braga and Manny Coto at the helm, both of whom proved during their respective Star Trek tenures that they can spin a great yarn, the storyline was dramatically inconsistent.

Until the final night's episodes, I thought the writers had totally botched the use of Tony Almeida, and manipulated the audience to a point where they were far beyond caring about what would happen to him. But his denoument (though I doubt we've seen the last of him; for crying out loud, he's come back from the dead, this shouldn't be much of a challenge) was surprisingly powerful. However, knowing that his motivation all along was nothing more than revenge for his dead wife revealed how unnecessary the audience manipulation was. Looking back, had we known from the beginning that Tony didn't really care about anything but vengeance, and that he was the one manipulating Jack, Bill, Chloe, Larry and Renee, the story would have held much greater drama, and been a lot more dramatically feasible. What we were left with was sort of a ham-handed commentary on why Jack is a "better" person than Tony. What I would have enjoyed much more would have been keeping both of them within less defined shades of grey - and then let the audience make a judgment on their own about who was "right" and "wrong."

The ugly? The President's daughter. Take loathesome character, add two dashes of idiot-plot ingredients, and top off with some truly horrendous acting, and you get the picture. Runner up? The first dude. But I've seen him in other stuff, so I know he's a good actor. And while we're talking about ugly, how about the use of Kim? It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but nothing on "24" screams "turn off the TV, right now!" like the sight of her.

Most exciting episode? Siege on the White House. Most improbable episode? See previous.

Biggest waste? Chloe. Always great to see her, but not enough to do. Janeane Garofalo was a poor substitute. Runner up? Leland Orser. One of the more interesting character actors working today, so if you're going to have him on your show, give him something to do!

Best bad guy? He was only on for a little bit, but I've got to give it to Will Patton. And evil Tony wasn't bad either, though the squinty-eye thing got a little tiresome. Worst bad guy? The FBI weasel from the early episodes with the greasy hair.

Bottom line: is Jack Bauer still cool? Damn right he is.

"Not Bad For A Day's Work"

The sight of Benton and Carter together again would have been good enough. Add Ernest Borgnine and Susan Sarandon to the mix, and you knew you were going to get something memorable. And when you saw the name of John Wells as both writer and director, you knew that this could be something really special.

And then, with the first glimpse of Doug and Carol, you knew that tonight's ER was the reward for all the fans who have stuck with the show through thick, thin, thinner, and everything in between.

What a long time it's been since this show debuted in the fall of 1994. The son that I now watch the show with every week was about a month old, and George Clooney was an actor best known as the nephew of a famous singer. The son is now a freshman in high school, and Clooney is the biggest movie star on the planet.

This final season has been like a never-ending reunion, but they've done a pretty good job - the terrible Sam storylines nothwithstanding - of giving the show's current characters a chance to enjoy the spotlight along with all the old stars. But few moments from them could match the sight of Peter Benton, standing up to the arrogant surgeon preparing to operate on his friend John Carter, insisting that the surgical team complete the surgical checklist before beginning Carter's kidney transplant.

And the juxtaposition of scenes between Carter's kidney transplant and the County patient's heart transplant harkened back to some of the show's greatest moments.

Nice job.

Management's Not Happy

"This is serious, Michael. Management's not happy."

"Unless she's got an invisible helicopter, we should be fine."

"That's enough rough-housing, boys." "AHHH...it's always fun until someone gets hurt!"

And those were just the best lines before the first commercial break.

In its first season, "Burn Notice" was a fun romp, the perfect summer series, featuring a great cast, great action, and fun (if sometimes inplausible) plots. The second season turned up the entire enterprise a notch, adding a level of depth and tension that was only hinted at in Season One.

We watched the season's final four episodes last night (hadn't been watching them live, because of my undying if somewhat mystifying loyalty to ER), and that really was the perfect way to do it, because it allowed us to see the entire "Victor" arc unfold, and watch what began as a comic, evil alter-ego to Michael turn into a tragic figure who would ultimately provide Michael with his greatest moment, to date, in the entire series.

The season finale, directed by Tim Matheson, was absolutely terrific, providing great moments for every one of the show's major characters. It provided satisfaction with an appropriate end for Carla, and tension in the introduction of a new character (John Mahoney, as "Management") who promises to make Michael's life a living hell in Season Three.

Can't wait to see what they come up with next.

24

Well, I will say this...when 24 does it right, it really does it right. Sure, much of this season has been "idiot-plot" ridiculous, but tonight's two-hour episode was as good as anything I've seen on the show, since we started watching in Season 4.

The mid-season "almost climax" has become a tradition on the show, and tonight's was the best yet. Whether the rest of the season matches up is an open question, and there are still plenty of idiotic family members to dispense with. But it's good to know that the show can still be great entertainment, when it puts its mind to it.

Plugging Elvis

No, not "de Elvis Presley," as Andy Kaufman used to say. I'm talking about Elvis Mitchell, the film critic who in July hosted his own interview program, Under the Influence, on Turner Classic Movies.

The premise of the program is simple. Mitchell talks to prominent film folk - stars from in front and behind the camera - about those from the past who influenced their work. From all appearances, Mitchell has an encyclopedic knowledge of film history, as well as a fine-tuned appreciation for what makes great films work.

Mitchell's subjects for the initial set of 30-minute interviews were the late Syndey Pollack, Bill Murray, Laurence Fishburne, and Quentin Tarantino. In each, Mitchell was easily able to get them to open up, to the point where I'm sure the interviews could have gone on for another 30 minutes without losing steam. Pollack did a great job of explaining how his acting experience informed his work behind the camera, Fishburne was positively eloquent about how he learned from the things that Clark Gable did on screen that had nothing to do with dialogue, and Quentin Tarantino was like a hyped-up kid after eating too much candy on Halloween. Great stuff, and without the fawning that has turned James Lipton into a caricature of himself.

The bad news is that the show does not return until November (with subjects Joan Allen, Richard Gere, John Leguizamo, and Edward Norton). The good news is that if you have Comcast Cable, it is still running in the On Demand feature. Check it out; you won't be disappointed.

The official Under the Influence site is here.

An interview with Elvis about the show can be found here.

A Glimpse At What Made Johnny So Great

One of the things that separated Johnny Carson from his contemporaries, and those who have tried to follow in his footsteps, was his ability to turn nothing - a total comedic bomb - into something that usually ended up being the funniest moment on that night's show:



Of course, there were the classic scripted moments, as well. As cliched as it became over the years, being shown every year on the Anniversary show, this was still one of the best:

One More Terminator Post

Very cool. Alan Sepinwall agrees with me about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Maybe it's time to look into a new line of work.

I started reading Alan when the World Wide Web was a mere screaming baby, and he was a college student writing weekly reviews of NYPD Blue. And now, he's one of the best TV critics out there.

Key grafs:

Speaking of improving as they go, I thought "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" got quite a bit better after the first few boring episodes. Specifically, the introduction of Brian Austin Green, of all people, signaled the moment when I began to think this show might have more legs than I initially thought. For whatever reason -- my guess is a network note about making the main character more relatable -- the producers decided to soften Sarah from the homicidal nutcase she was in "Terminator 2," and so they wound up giving all of movie Sarah's most extreme, memorable qualities to Derek Reese, and the former David Silver somehow pulled it off. I bought him as a hair-trigger commando from the future, and he gave the show an unpredictable quality that it didn't have with the original troika.

The finale also featured one of the great "do more with less" moments I've seen lately. With the weekly budget obviously much lower than for the pilot, there was no way to actually show Cromartie massacring the FBI tactical team, and so they shot virtually all of it from the point of view of the bodies falling, one by one, into the pool far away from Cromartie's hotel room. It helped that they scored the whole thing to Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" -- any scene feels more epic when it's accompanied by a number from one of Johnny's America albums (see also the opening of the most recent season of "The Shield," where Johnny's "I Hung My Head" kicks an already powerful opening sequence into something magnificent), and the song itself is about Judgment Day.

Now (with apologies for the self-indulgence), compare that to what I wrote.

When The Terminator Comes Around

None of the blogs I read for insightful and/or entertaining commentary on television is saying anything these days about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, so I’ll just put in my two cents worth and say that I really hope it comes back next season. At the beginning, I was highly skeptical that there was enough story left in the Terminator saga to create a full-blown series, but they managed to pull it off, largely by pretending that the third movie never happened. Over the course of nine episodes, I’m still not certain the show has found its footing, but there were enough outstanding moments in the last few episodes that, if it is granted a second season, I think it can turn into something special.

The weak link among the cast members remains Lena Headey as Sarah Connor. It’s not that she was awful, but she never infused her character with anything resembling what made Linda Hamilton’s portrayal of Connor so striking. It didn’t matter to me that Headey wasn’t buffed like Hamilton in T:2, but there was just nothing there – no passion, no fire, no personality – Sarah Connor on Prozac. Thomas Dekker was fine as John; Summer Glau was more than that as Cameron, managing to seem more human than Sarah herself, even as she continually expressed confusion over the various emotions and catch-phrases she encountered. Richard T. Jones and Dean Winters in supporting roles, as the FBI agent always one step behind Connor and the former fiancée of Sarah, were also quite good. But the real surprise was Brian Austin Green as Derek Reese. I never watched a single episode of Beverly Hills 90210, but remember the vicious things people used to write about him on that show. In this, he was damn good – believable as a person, and effective as an action hero.

There were some great moments in last night’s two-part finale (really two separate episodes, but why quibble) and the two most striking were as different as night and day. In the first, Derek (Green) takes John out for a birthday ice-cream cone, and they just happen to end up in the park, where Derek as a boy is playing catch with his younger brother Kyle, who as we all know eventually becomes John’s dad. It was a very quiet scene, but mind-blowing, especially if you tried to apply any kind of “time-travel logic” to the situation. But a very nice moment, one that added a sense of humanity to the proceedings.

The second, even better, moment was set up early in the episode, when Agent Ellison – who had already been portrayed as a religious, God-fearing man – quoted the passage from Revelations which Johnny Cash uses as the introduction to his song “The Man Comes Around:”

And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder:
One of the four beasts saying:
"Come and see."
And I saw.
And behold, a white horse.
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts,
And I looked and behold: a pale horse.
And his name, that sat on him, was Death.

As it happens, my 13-year old son has become quite a Cash fan, and this song (along with “Hurt”) is probably his favorite. It’s a truly frightening song, one that came to Cash in a dream, dealing with the happy topic of Judgment Day. When Ellison began the quote, we sort of looked each other, a sly grin coming to our faces.

Throughout the series, Ellison has become less of a skeptic – each week, some small piece of evidence has convinced him that, hey – these Terminator thingies might really be out there somewhere. And last night, he finally found one, a taciturn fellow who has spent the past several weeks (after acquiring a new layer of skin: don't ask) impersonating an FBI agent. And as Ellison and the SWAT team close in on the apartment where “Cromartie” is holed up, you hear it – the strums of guitar, followed by the Man in Black:

There's a man goin' 'round takin' names
An' he decides who to free and who to blame
Everybody won't be treated all the same
There'll be a golden ladder reaching down
When the man comes around

It could have been a cliché – just another battle between cops and a Terminator, a battle whose ending we know before it begins. Instead, the director shot the scene looking up from the bottom of the swimming pool, and as Johnny went on singing, one SWAT member after another fell, silent and dead, into the pool. Brilliant.

So…it may not be the greatest show ever made, but what the heck…it was better than Season 6 of 24.