What's Alan Watching?: Freaks and Geeks Rewind: 1.5 Tests and Breasts
How do you think it feels to be told you're dumb... when you're eleven years old?"
The first time James Franco delivered that line -- in the middle of a monologue to keep Lindsay from confessing to their cheating scam -- he all but sewed up his role in that TNT James Dean biopic. The second time -- in the middle of an identical monologue designed to sway Mr. Kowchevsky and Mr. Rosso -- he proved that he has better comic chops than he's usually allowed to show in the movies.
Though it has a very funny subplot about the geeks' first exposure to hardcore pornography, this is Franco's episode, our first extended look at how Daniel operates, and the episode that essentially ends any crush or hero worship Lindsay had for him.
...two brilliant, largely wordless sequences: the geeks watching the porno as Sam and Bill get progressively grossed out by it (Neal is, of course, enthralled); and then Coach Fredricks, alarmed by a porno-informed question Sam asks in class, giving Sam a very candid, non-technical private lesson on the birds and the bees (scored to "Love's Theme" by Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra). It's the first hint we get that Fredricks -- introduced in the pilot as, essentially, Biff Tannen 20 years later same actor from Back to the Future -- is a human being, and not that bad a guy.
yeah that was nice, I kind of wanted to know what they were saying (what was shown in the film that so disgusted the boys?!? that coach began talking about by saying "some men - not me"??) but I really liked the silence while watching their rapport ... and no disillusioning joke like coach coming on to him or anything like that.
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Labels: Freaks and Geeks
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
I've come up with a more concrete summer plan for this blog. I'll still be writing about HBO's Sunday shows, and "Rescue Me" and the other usual suspects as they pop up, but rather than try to analyze shows I don't feel much passion for (i.e., "Big Love"), I'm going to revisit some old favorites starting on DVD, starting with "Freaks and Geeks."
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
The Chronicle: 1/16/2004: 'The L Word': Novelty in Normalcy
By EVE KOSOFSKY SEDGWICK - this article used as introduction to book Reading the L Word. pretty good. text saved in prvs post as draft
Jenny Schecter (Mia Kirshner), a young fiction writer newly arrived to join her swim-coach boyfriend, Tim (Eric Mabius), in his West Hollywood bungalow, seems poised in these earliest episodes to offer an invitingly unformed conduit for the lesbian fixations of a variety of viewers -- but maybe in the first place, nonlesbian-identified women. Jenny looks as fetally unformed, and eerily precocious, as that famous 1972 New York Times Magazine photo of Joyce Maynard yes yes just what I first thought! joyce maynard - the long straight brown hair with bangs - small & childlike pose, the one that accompanied the premature memoir "An 18-Year-Old Looks Back on Life," and snagged the attention of J.D. Salinger. Jenny's imminent passion for a local cafe owner, Marina Ferrer (Karina Lombard), statuesque, enigmatic, and all shoulders and cheekbones, forms the centerpiece of the early episodes and of Showtime's publicity prose: "Amid denial and confusion, Jenny starts to question her sexual orientation and her love for Tim. Her attraction to Marina is powerful and ultimately irresistible."
If Jenny appears to be the nonlesbian viewer's early path of initiation into the L world, lesbian viewers seem intended to be drawn in by the female couple living next door, who are (did you guess?) trying to make a baby. In their first scene the blonde thrusts a plastic stick into the hands of the brunette, who observes with wonder, "You're ovulating." "I'm ovulating," echoes the blonde, Tina Kennard (Laurel Holloman), as reverently as if announcing the conception of baby Jesus. Our intimacy with Tina's body -- inseminated, peeing, ultrasounded, vomiting -- continues to be near-total. The only one without glamour among these women, she turns red and sweats during sex, worries about looking fat, and speaks (though she is tall) in a small, timbreless voice. Her very discomfort in her skin seems to offer space for identification to any viewer who would appreciate a sightline among the lesbians.
space for identification and therefore a sightline ~ int, this sentence was reworked in the book: Our intimacy with Tina's body -- inseminated, peeing, ultrasounded, vomiting -- continues to be near-total. She turns red and sweats during sex, seldom toned this down and took out worrying about looking fat seems comfortable in her skin, speaks (though she is tall) in a small, timbreless voice: Among these women the only one without glamour, her obscurely ill-fitting point of view huh her point of view obscurely ill fitting to what? 'obscure' seems accurate ~ but, point of view ill-fitting? seems capacious enough to incorporate any viewer who would appreciate a line of sight among the lesbians. int, fr an editor? changed to 'point of view" capacious enough to incorporate a viewer who appreciates a 'line of sight". anyway the edit does seem better ~ but I read it in the book first, I think I tend to prefer the version I first read ~
In short, if The L Word is as bold and daring as claimed, its novelty does not lie in either a demographic coup or a startling use of the medium. I anticipate that its long-term audience will be not male porn hounds but the range of viewers, predominantly though not only female, who enjoy smart and well-made domestic drama, psychological and relationship-based, low on violence, criminality, and sensation.
A visible world in which lesbians exist, go on existing, exist in forms beyond the solitary and the couple, sustain and develop relations among themselves of difference and commonality -- that seems, in a way, such an obvious and modest representational need that it should not be a novelty when it is met. Nor does The L Word meet it fully. But it's absurdly luxurious being able to explore, for instance, the portrayal of generational dynamics in this group of women, even if only between thirtysomethings and twentysomethings. The inscrutable Marina, mother-to-be Tina and her accomplished girlfriend, Bette Porter, are the grown-ups. Tina and Bette show classic symptoms of depressed libido even as the spectacle of their long-term pair-bonding magnetizes the younger women.
Yet the twentysomethings, single, callow, and seemingly uneducated, do a lot of the work of articulating norms and mores for each other, the older women, and the audience. Alice Pieszecki (Leisha Hailey), for instance, a journalist who reviews discos and flags cut-rate Botox treatments for an L.A. weekly, maintains -- as a kind of community service -- a vast, ever-changing, n-dimensional diagram that shows who exactly has slept with whom, and how many nodes of connection mediate any two points in Sapphic space. Here, she keeps insisting, is the narrative matrix that will sustain any woman in an evolving but unbroken web of erotic relation.
Alice uses fatuously knowing Valley-girl syntax; her body has the easy expressiveness of a 5-year-old's; her dark eyes are deep holes in the surface of her blond, oddly ravaged face. Her friend Shane (Katherine Moennig), a fetching baby butch, is an equally unexpected mix of innocence and experience, with her bachelor insouciance, squalid history of sex work, and resonant low voice of reason and amusement. They remind me of students I've known, barely literate but tender, with a willingness to care for their teachers even as they engage our pedagogic energies.
By EVE KOSOFSKY SEDGWICK - this article used as introduction to book Reading the L Word. pretty good. text saved in prvs post as draft
Jenny Schecter (Mia Kirshner), a young fiction writer newly arrived to join her swim-coach boyfriend, Tim (Eric Mabius), in his West Hollywood bungalow, seems poised in these earliest episodes to offer an invitingly unformed conduit for the lesbian fixations of a variety of viewers -- but maybe in the first place, nonlesbian-identified women. Jenny looks as fetally unformed, and eerily precocious, as that famous 1972 New York Times Magazine photo of Joyce Maynard yes yes just what I first thought! joyce maynard - the long straight brown hair with bangs - small & childlike pose, the one that accompanied the premature memoir "An 18-Year-Old Looks Back on Life," and snagged the attention of J.D. Salinger. Jenny's imminent passion for a local cafe owner, Marina Ferrer (Karina Lombard), statuesque, enigmatic, and all shoulders and cheekbones, forms the centerpiece of the early episodes and of Showtime's publicity prose: "Amid denial and confusion, Jenny starts to question her sexual orientation and her love for Tim. Her attraction to Marina is powerful and ultimately irresistible."
If Jenny appears to be the nonlesbian viewer's early path of initiation into the L world, lesbian viewers seem intended to be drawn in by the female couple living next door, who are (did you guess?) trying to make a baby. In their first scene the blonde thrusts a plastic stick into the hands of the brunette, who observes with wonder, "You're ovulating." "I'm ovulating," echoes the blonde, Tina Kennard (Laurel Holloman), as reverently as if announcing the conception of baby Jesus. Our intimacy with Tina's body -- inseminated, peeing, ultrasounded, vomiting -- continues to be near-total. The only one without glamour among these women, she turns red and sweats during sex, worries about looking fat, and speaks (though she is tall) in a small, timbreless voice. Her very discomfort in her skin seems to offer space for identification to any viewer who would appreciate a sightline among the lesbians.
space for identification and therefore a sightline ~ int, this sentence was reworked in the book: Our intimacy with Tina's body -- inseminated, peeing, ultrasounded, vomiting -- continues to be near-total. She turns red and sweats during sex, seldom toned this down and took out worrying about looking fat seems comfortable in her skin, speaks (though she is tall) in a small, timbreless voice: Among these women the only one without glamour, her obscurely ill-fitting point of view huh her point of view obscurely ill fitting to what? 'obscure' seems accurate ~ but, point of view ill-fitting? seems capacious enough to incorporate any viewer who would appreciate a line of sight among the lesbians. int, fr an editor? changed to 'point of view" capacious enough to incorporate a viewer who appreciates a 'line of sight". anyway the edit does seem better ~ but I read it in the book first, I think I tend to prefer the version I first read ~
In short, if The L Word is as bold and daring as claimed, its novelty does not lie in either a demographic coup or a startling use of the medium. I anticipate that its long-term audience will be not male porn hounds but the range of viewers, predominantly though not only female, who enjoy smart and well-made domestic drama, psychological and relationship-based, low on violence, criminality, and sensation.
A visible world in which lesbians exist, go on existing, exist in forms beyond the solitary and the couple, sustain and develop relations among themselves of difference and commonality -- that seems, in a way, such an obvious and modest representational need that it should not be a novelty when it is met. Nor does The L Word meet it fully. But it's absurdly luxurious being able to explore, for instance, the portrayal of generational dynamics in this group of women, even if only between thirtysomethings and twentysomethings. The inscrutable Marina, mother-to-be Tina and her accomplished girlfriend, Bette Porter, are the grown-ups. Tina and Bette show classic symptoms of depressed libido even as the spectacle of their long-term pair-bonding magnetizes the younger women.
Yet the twentysomethings, single, callow, and seemingly uneducated, do a lot of the work of articulating norms and mores for each other, the older women, and the audience. Alice Pieszecki (Leisha Hailey), for instance, a journalist who reviews discos and flags cut-rate Botox treatments for an L.A. weekly, maintains -- as a kind of community service -- a vast, ever-changing, n-dimensional diagram that shows who exactly has slept with whom, and how many nodes of connection mediate any two points in Sapphic space. Here, she keeps insisting, is the narrative matrix that will sustain any woman in an evolving but unbroken web of erotic relation.
Alice uses fatuously knowing Valley-girl syntax; her body has the easy expressiveness of a 5-year-old's; her dark eyes are deep holes in the surface of her blond, oddly ravaged face. Her friend Shane (Katherine Moennig), a fetching baby butch, is an equally unexpected mix of innocence and experience, with her bachelor insouciance, squalid history of sex work, and resonant low voice of reason and amusement. They remind me of students I've known, barely literate but tender, with a willingness to care for their teachers even as they engage our pedagogic energies.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Kevin Smith raves about ''Lost'' | Lost | DOC JENSEN | TV | Entertainment Weekly | 1
KEVIN SMITH: Let's give props to Lost. How brilliant was this season finale? I mean, it's cruel because they're not coming back until like January, but hats off for taking a foolproof formula and spinning it to make it even better. You're like, ''Oh my God, so now they're all flash-forwards?! How genius is that?'' We all settled into ''Okay, this is what they do, they flashback and we learn a lot about the characters.'' But that whole episode, you're sitting there going, like, ''Wait a second — is that Jack's father's body [in the coffin]? But wasn't the body on the plane? Who was this person in the casket that he's going to see?'' And then the moment where Kate f---ing walks up from the car and you're like, ''Wait — they knew each other before?'' that's the "chilling" moment cataloged by EW that got my attention And then all of a sudden, it becomes f---ing clear, you're like, ''Oh my God, that s---'s insanely brilliant!'' You can only do that in TV, though. You can't do that in a feature. You know what I'm saying? Like, you get a moment like that in a feature like The Sixth Sense, where you're like, ''Holy s---, he's been dead the whole time!?'' But to do two seasons and then suddenly throw a massive curveball is just so dramatically satisfying, you just take your hats off to the writers in a big, bad way.
DOC J: The thing I really loved about the twist the twist is that it's a flash forward not back? and that reveal is that I felt like it really reinvested your interest in the people, as opposed to mythological mystery questions like ''What the hell's the smoke monster?'' ah yes see got me int, whereas hearing of those mysteries never got my attention
SMITH: Absolutely. Suddenly it's like, ''Who gives a f--- about the polar bear, who gives a f--- about the smoke monster, any of that — all the f---ing sci-fi weirdness just took a backseat to, like, ''Holy s---! Why did Jack and Kate stop being friends?''
DOC J: Right.
KS: I can't wait. I'm so f---ing geared up for February. I just can't f---ing wait.
What's Alan Watching?: What do we love? ...what were the best shows (or episodes of shows) you watched on TV in the calendar year 2007?:
-The Lost finale.
-Lost: "Through the Looking Glass" (both parts)
-Lost, Lost, Lost. Best thing on TV in 2007.
-For me, 'Lost' was, hand down, the best thing on television in 2007. Suspenseful and deeply weird it gripped me after I drifted away in Season 2.
The finale of 'Veronica Mars' was quite good, and bittersweet end for a show that never regained its first season glory.
-John from Cincinnati. It's such a shame they canceled it after just one short season.
-Life on Mars-the entire second series-was amazing. Probably the best show I've seen in years.
-The Lost finale.
-Lost: "Through the Looking Glass" (both parts)
-Lost, Lost, Lost. Best thing on TV in 2007.
-For me, 'Lost' was, hand down, the best thing on television in 2007. Suspenseful and deeply weird it gripped me after I drifted away in Season 2.
The finale of 'Veronica Mars' was quite good, and bittersweet end for a show that never regained its first season glory.
-John from Cincinnati. It's such a shame they canceled it after just one short season.
-Life on Mars-the entire second series-was amazing. Probably the best show I've seen in years.
Lost - Season 4 Promo
"Rescuing you people is not... our primary objective."
--I didn't understand the ending of season three and I can't even remember what happened in the last episode. I thought they got rescued, there was a timeskip and then Jack wanted to go back. I didn't understand shit.
-They called for the rescue at the end of last season but weren't rescued yet. The whole time the viewer was given the impression that the rescue wasn't really going to be a rescue.
-Where we're at, everyone is on the island thinking the people on the freighter are coming to rescue them. The scene with Kate and Jack was set a while in the future, it was a flashforward.
-- Thanks. It all makes sense now. I didn't know the thing with Jack and Kate was a flashforward.
-The flashforward scenes of Jack and Kate in the Season 3 finale took place in 2007.
Season 3's regular timeline ended in December 2004. So, Season 4 is just following the main timeline (with more flashforwards, and a few flashbacks). Jack made the call, now we see what happens next.....
-The sad part for me is when hurley says: "i'm gonna be free" and i was thinking in his flash fwd (4.1) where he is in that mental institute without anything but freak stories about an island.
"Rescuing you people is not... our primary objective."
--I didn't understand the ending of season three and I can't even remember what happened in the last episode. I thought they got rescued, there was a timeskip and then Jack wanted to go back. I didn't understand shit.
-They called for the rescue at the end of last season but weren't rescued yet. The whole time the viewer was given the impression that the rescue wasn't really going to be a rescue.
-Where we're at, everyone is on the island thinking the people on the freighter are coming to rescue them. The scene with Kate and Jack was set a while in the future, it was a flashforward.
-- Thanks. It all makes sense now. I didn't know the thing with Jack and Kate was a flashforward.
-The flashforward scenes of Jack and Kate in the Season 3 finale took place in 2007.
Season 3's regular timeline ended in December 2004. So, Season 4 is just following the main timeline (with more flashforwards, and a few flashbacks). Jack made the call, now we see what happens next.....
-The sad part for me is when hurley says: "i'm gonna be free" and i was thinking in his flash fwd (4.1) where he is in that mental institute without anything but freak stories about an island.
Tim Goodman. The Bastard Machine : "Lost" season finale: No one gets out of here alive.: Jack in a full beard, all gone to hell and hooked on pills, discovering he couldn't live life off the island. That's right, off the island. ... In the future, someone is in a casket and nobody shows up for the funeral. Who is it?
-Pandora - your box is open. what's mean, what's mean??
Posted By: hickcity | May 24 2007 at 02:05 PM
-I didn't figure out the flash forward until the very end, when Kate appears. Through the looking glass indeed.***
Given all the strange space-time properties that seem to occur on the island, I would not be shocked if the scenes of future Jack depict one possible alternative future that can still be prevented if Desmond can pass along Charlie's message in time.
Future Jack's state reminded me a bit of Desmond's, when he was reliving the past but with knowledge of his future, post-hatch explosion. Gotta admit, Jack doesn't seem to be the type to be rocking out to "Scentless Apprentice" by Nirvana in rock star shades. He always seemed more like the Jack Johnson type.
The screen capture of the obituary notice seems to say that a J---- -atham of New York was found dead at 4:00 am by a doorman named Ted in a loft at a complex called the Tower, and something about a loud noise and a beam, which makes it sound like a suicide by hanging. Jacob, perhaps?
My guesses regarding where this show are almost always wrong, though. It'll be tough waiting eight months or so until more is revealed.
Great ending to a terrific half-season. RIP Charlie.
Posted By: Tweedy | May 24 2007
In the coffin?? Has to be Ben. Why else would no one show up to the funeral?? Also, why would Jack cry over his obituary? And want to kill himself? Well, because he knew that Ben was his only hope of returning to the island. hrrrm?
This is the justification that will keep us waiting "impatiently" until January.
Posted By: aawomack | May 24 2007 at 06:28 PM
Tweedy- I'll put my money on your Jacob (in the coffin) horse...and sit tight.
Posted By: hickcity | May 24 2007 at 06:50 PM
***this is what got me int, via EW's moments that gave you chills (alongside Six Feet Under montage & Irene Cara as Coco in Fame singing "Out Here on My Own" & ET wait so not specific to the year? no: From Fantasia and Kelly on ''American Idol'' to Locke at the hatch on ''Lost'' to Rachel's kiss with Ross on ''Friends,'' readers on EW.com's PopWatch blog revealed the pop-culture scenes that got under their skin ) - Photo 3 | 19 Moments That Gave You Chills | Photos | EW.com: "When Kate gets out of the car to meet up with Jack in the last episode of Lost, I get absolute chills."
-Pandora - your box is open. what's mean, what's mean??
Posted By: hickcity | May 24 2007 at 02:05 PM
-I didn't figure out the flash forward until the very end, when Kate appears. Through the looking glass indeed.***
Given all the strange space-time properties that seem to occur on the island, I would not be shocked if the scenes of future Jack depict one possible alternative future that can still be prevented if Desmond can pass along Charlie's message in time.
Future Jack's state reminded me a bit of Desmond's, when he was reliving the past but with knowledge of his future, post-hatch explosion. Gotta admit, Jack doesn't seem to be the type to be rocking out to "Scentless Apprentice" by Nirvana in rock star shades. He always seemed more like the Jack Johnson type.
The screen capture of the obituary notice seems to say that a J---- -atham of New York was found dead at 4:00 am by a doorman named Ted in a loft at a complex called the Tower, and something about a loud noise and a beam, which makes it sound like a suicide by hanging. Jacob, perhaps?
My guesses regarding where this show are almost always wrong, though. It'll be tough waiting eight months or so until more is revealed.
Great ending to a terrific half-season. RIP Charlie.
Posted By: Tweedy | May 24 2007
In the coffin?? Has to be Ben. Why else would no one show up to the funeral?? Also, why would Jack cry over his obituary? And want to kill himself? Well, because he knew that Ben was his only hope of returning to the island. hrrrm?
This is the justification that will keep us waiting "impatiently" until January.
Posted By: aawomack | May 24 2007 at 06:28 PM
Tweedy- I'll put my money on your Jacob (in the coffin) horse...and sit tight.
Posted By: hickcity | May 24 2007 at 06:50 PM
***this is what got me int, via EW's moments that gave you chills (alongside Six Feet Under montage & Irene Cara as Coco in Fame singing "Out Here on My Own" & ET wait so not specific to the year? no: From Fantasia and Kelly on ''American Idol'' to Locke at the hatch on ''Lost'' to Rachel's kiss with Ross on ''Friends,'' readers on EW.com's PopWatch blog revealed the pop-culture scenes that got under their skin ) - Photo 3 | 19 Moments That Gave You Chills | Photos | EW.com: "When Kate gets out of the car to meet up with Jack in the last episode of Lost, I get absolute chills."
Saturday, December 15, 2007
MediaBlvd Forums: Kate/Shane Thread #3:
Alice: Shane! I have to tell you something I'm really kinda not supposed to tell you.
Shane: Fight the urge.
Alice: But I can't.
Shane: Try.
Alice: But it's hard.
Shane: I know. But try.
Alice: Shane! I have to tell you something I'm really kinda not supposed to tell you.
Shane: Fight the urge.
Alice: But I can't.
Shane: Try.
Alice: But it's hard.
Shane: I know. But try.
AfterEllen.com - "The L Word" Episode 2.13 "Lacuna" (page 3): Tina finds Bette in the bedroom. Bette is looking at photos of Melvin. Suddenly we get one of those "great moments of history" slideshows, with black-and-white pictures of Melvin in various poses and with his family. It's weird. The only good thing about it is that Tracy Chapman is singing Say Hallelujah in the background. Do you hear that, Betty? That's actual music. Take notes. Now we're suddenly at the memorial service, and there's a gospel choir, but they're not singing what Tracy Chapman is singing (and Tracy Chapman isn't actually there).
DVD Verdict Review - The L Word: The Complete Third Season:
The creative team also does a really nice job with connection and symmetry this season, starting with the pre-credits snippets of 'The Chart' that trace sexual connections from a woman named Marilyn that we don't meet until the final episode through characters we know and love. These segments are far more interesting and well-organized than the random sex scenes that used to precede the credits, and give the writers a chance to explore past moments of the characters' lives. It's great fun to see Bette have sex with a guy when she is just coming out to herself or a scene from the brief relationship between her and Alice. And showing the actual Alice/Dana break-up in 'The Chart' segment months after we find out that it happened, when the two of them have gone through so much together since, is a rare stroke of genius from this writing team. They also establish a lovely visual motif in that scene to represent the several traumatic separations from Dana that Alice endures this season: a long shot of Alice standing at the left side of a long hallway, watching Dana leaving. The first time as they break up, the second time as Dana goes into unexpected surgery, and the third time when Dana has really left her in death.
The creative team also does a really nice job with connection and symmetry this season, starting with the pre-credits snippets of 'The Chart' that trace sexual connections from a woman named Marilyn that we don't meet until the final episode through characters we know and love. These segments are far more interesting and well-organized than the random sex scenes that used to precede the credits, and give the writers a chance to explore past moments of the characters' lives. It's great fun to see Bette have sex with a guy when she is just coming out to herself or a scene from the brief relationship between her and Alice. And showing the actual Alice/Dana break-up in 'The Chart' segment months after we find out that it happened, when the two of them have gone through so much together since, is a rare stroke of genius from this writing team. They also establish a lovely visual motif in that scene to represent the several traumatic separations from Dana that Alice endures this season: a long shot of Alice standing at the left side of a long hallway, watching Dana leaving. The first time as they break up, the second time as Dana goes into unexpected surgery, and the third time when Dana has really left her in death.
DVD Verdict Review - The L Word: The Complete Second Season: The second season picks up from the first, and deals almost exclusively with the fractures and problems created by previous events.
The cast is first-rate, easily the best ensemble on television today. Jennifer Beals looks amazing, and it's hard to believe her Flashdance days are twenty years past. She anchors the group with superb grace and natural charisma as Bette Porter. Pam Grier adds an stellar "Old School Hollywood" aura to the character of Kit, and remains one of the highlights. Nobody plays crazy quite like Mia Kirshner, who is amazing to watch. Her Jenny is the tortured, neurotic soul of the show—often the series seems to be from her point of view. She eats up everyone with her slightly crazed eyes and world-weary smile. Erin Daniels and Leisha Hailey provide most of the comic relief as Dana and Alice. They get wonderful fantasy scenes, such as when Alice dresses up as Julie from The Love Boat to seduce Dana. You smile every time they hit the screen, and it's hard not to root for them to be together. Laurel Holloman was really pregnant this season, and she plays the sexiest mom ever portrayed as she becomes the apex of the show's most interesting love triangle. Katherine Moennig plays Shane as if Joan Jett had become a hairdresser, and could still get any girl she wants. She drips androgynous sex in every scene, but still manages to resonate Shane's utter loneliness too. Sarah Shahi is a sex bomb who commands the screen, and expands The L Word to mean "latin." They all get stunning scenes, and develop a truly first-rate group of characters we come to care deeply about.
Two new characters really intrigued me this season—Helena Peabody (Rachel Shelley, Seeing Other People) and Mark Wayland (Eric Lively, Speak). ah he is Blake Lively's brother, right? and as with her, I liked him pretty quickly. They both blow into the show as villains. You would think they would be the most unsympathetic characters in the cast, but leave it to The L Word to stray against type. By the end of the season we get to see them both belittled and vulnerable. They become likable once their claws are removed, and we almost root for them to be completely redeemed. yes I guess we saw Helena being belittled by her mother and that is supposed to give us some sense of why she is so awful. I still did not like her. but Mark I liked more & more, esp when interacting with Shane. But we'll have to wait for season three to find out if that happens. but Mark won't be back will he? bummer. and Helena seems to be around for the next two seasons ~ (and Carmen just for one more, season 3). and who played Lee, the young-looking artist Bette met and then Helena dated? Lee was striking to me, as if familiar, but I am not sure.
The guest stars found in The L Word: The Complete Second Season are astonishing. Ossie Davis gives his last screen performance as Bette and Kit's dying father. His performance is touching and real. those scenes were excellent.
also cameos by Arianna Huffington, Gloria Steinem, Sandra Bernhard, Camryn Manheim. wow Camryn Manheim was great. I had not esp liked her in The Practice, I guess the character. here she looked great & was fantastic. Kelly Lynch (Threesome) does a knock-out turn as a transsexual named Ivan. yes I liked Ivan a lot.
and I think I like the actress Kelly Lynch, who I also saw as Helen in Normal Adolescent Behavior - starring Amber Tamblyn who is v good. maybe the scenes of most int to me were those with Helen. Tamblyn's char Wendy's younger brother sort of courting Helen, Wendy talking to Helen outside playing basketball. some of those scenes were 'deleted' - as was the one that I think was the best , when Wendy and her brother find Helen asleep outside her house, with the phone in her hand, having been stood up by her husband. they drive her to a clinic (where she gets an abortion - this is not said here, but is said in the basketball scene). Wendy and her brother wait in the car. Wendy says it is strange to see someone alone, as if that is unusual. her brother says, what do you mean? people are alone all the time. no they aren't, says Wendy. look. I'm here and you're here, so we're together right? her brother, sitting in the backseat, thinks about it: I don't think that's the definition of alone
I really like that scene. as it happened, I rented that movie the same day I rented the first disc of the L Word. picked both by browsing around Hollywood Video.
The production values are top notch, and The L Word looks like it has a much bigger budget than it actually does. The series shoots interiors at studios in Canada, but allows for exterior sequences to be filmed on location in Los Angeles. The result is a Southern California feel, even though the bulk of it is actually produced north of the border.The L Word showcases the "City of Angels" every chance it gets. The camera work adds to the drama, and there are beautiful scenes like when Bette cries underwater in a pool with a camera gazing up at her. Sequences such as Jenny's turn at a strip contest are jaw dropping. The clothes are glamorous, and often even the poor student character can be spotted wearing a blouse that retails for over three grand. The production team puts every cent of their budget where it belongs, on the screen. You won't find a better looking show on any other channel anytime soon. yes part of what really appeals to me is how this show looks. I like the sets: the two houses next door to each other (Bette's & Jenny's) and The Planet coffeehouse.
All this may be a bit much to ever catch on outside of the lesbian community. Showtime and The L Word's creators seem to be fine with that status. I've tried to convince people it's one of the best shows on television, but the whole approach to the show alienates them before they can discover the richness and depth. yeah. the title I guess... it had put me off. this is something that puts me off with any proclaimed community ~ unfairly, I suppose, bcs they are proclaiming themselves in order to defy assumptions that oppress them. and I am for that. still, I react to it as if it is making too much ~ as if proclaiming it is a show about lesbians means it is about these women in the aspect of their sexuality only. women who have sex with women. the show itself belies that, the characters do not talk as if they are lesbians first and people second. but from the bit of reaction I've read, it seems this actually angers gay women -
-Showtime: "The L Word" no longer about lesbians, but "people" | AfterEllen.com: In a blatant attempt to woo Emmy voters, Showtime placed a full-page ad in Variety yesterday for The L Word that boldly proclaims: 'no longer 'a show about lesbians,' this series has evolved into a show about people.'
Good thinking, that'll fool 'em! And it won't piss off your lesbian audience at all! (Maybe they were hoping we'd be too busy picking up women in people bars or marching in people pride parades to notice.). well I suppose this may be a complaint against the crassness of the Showtime ad, as if it was not always about people. which is my point ~
back to DVDverdict:
You may have guessed from my staff dossier that I am not a lesbian, and I admit having to run to my lesbian friends to have them explain some of the show to me. like what??? It does deal with universal themes, but sometimes The L Word feels like an impenetrable fortress against anyone with a "Y" chromosome. I am put off, as above, also by proclamations about what it is to be a woman, how a man will never understand. exemplified by Jenny to Mark, telling me to walk naked down the street with F__ Me written on his body, and have sex with anyone who wants to, and sweetly thank them afterward. and then he'll know what it is like to be a woman. which is terrible - would be terrible to feel like that - do most women feel like that?! because I do not, I dislike the statement bcs it presumes that this is how all women feel or that being female is any one thing to everyone.
The L Word: The Complete Second Season plain and simply rocked my world. 17 hours of excellent, daring television.
The cast is first-rate, easily the best ensemble on television today. Jennifer Beals looks amazing, and it's hard to believe her Flashdance days are twenty years past. She anchors the group with superb grace and natural charisma as Bette Porter. Pam Grier adds an stellar "Old School Hollywood" aura to the character of Kit, and remains one of the highlights. Nobody plays crazy quite like Mia Kirshner, who is amazing to watch. Her Jenny is the tortured, neurotic soul of the show—often the series seems to be from her point of view. She eats up everyone with her slightly crazed eyes and world-weary smile. Erin Daniels and Leisha Hailey provide most of the comic relief as Dana and Alice. They get wonderful fantasy scenes, such as when Alice dresses up as Julie from The Love Boat to seduce Dana. You smile every time they hit the screen, and it's hard not to root for them to be together. Laurel Holloman was really pregnant this season, and she plays the sexiest mom ever portrayed as she becomes the apex of the show's most interesting love triangle. Katherine Moennig plays Shane as if Joan Jett had become a hairdresser, and could still get any girl she wants. She drips androgynous sex in every scene, but still manages to resonate Shane's utter loneliness too. Sarah Shahi is a sex bomb who commands the screen, and expands The L Word to mean "latin." They all get stunning scenes, and develop a truly first-rate group of characters we come to care deeply about.
Two new characters really intrigued me this season—Helena Peabody (Rachel Shelley, Seeing Other People) and Mark Wayland (Eric Lively, Speak). ah he is Blake Lively's brother, right? and as with her, I liked him pretty quickly. They both blow into the show as villains. You would think they would be the most unsympathetic characters in the cast, but leave it to The L Word to stray against type. By the end of the season we get to see them both belittled and vulnerable. They become likable once their claws are removed, and we almost root for them to be completely redeemed. yes I guess we saw Helena being belittled by her mother and that is supposed to give us some sense of why she is so awful. I still did not like her. but Mark I liked more & more, esp when interacting with Shane. But we'll have to wait for season three to find out if that happens. but Mark won't be back will he? bummer. and Helena seems to be around for the next two seasons ~ (and Carmen just for one more, season 3). and who played Lee, the young-looking artist Bette met and then Helena dated? Lee was striking to me, as if familiar, but I am not sure.
The guest stars found in The L Word: The Complete Second Season are astonishing. Ossie Davis gives his last screen performance as Bette and Kit's dying father. His performance is touching and real. those scenes were excellent.
also cameos by Arianna Huffington, Gloria Steinem, Sandra Bernhard, Camryn Manheim. wow Camryn Manheim was great. I had not esp liked her in The Practice, I guess the character. here she looked great & was fantastic. Kelly Lynch (Threesome) does a knock-out turn as a transsexual named Ivan. yes I liked Ivan a lot.
and I think I like the actress Kelly Lynch, who I also saw as Helen in Normal Adolescent Behavior - starring Amber Tamblyn who is v good. maybe the scenes of most int to me were those with Helen. Tamblyn's char Wendy's younger brother sort of courting Helen, Wendy talking to Helen outside playing basketball. some of those scenes were 'deleted' - as was the one that I think was the best , when Wendy and her brother find Helen asleep outside her house, with the phone in her hand, having been stood up by her husband. they drive her to a clinic (where she gets an abortion - this is not said here, but is said in the basketball scene). Wendy and her brother wait in the car. Wendy says it is strange to see someone alone, as if that is unusual. her brother says, what do you mean? people are alone all the time. no they aren't, says Wendy. look. I'm here and you're here, so we're together right? her brother, sitting in the backseat, thinks about it: I don't think that's the definition of alone
I really like that scene. as it happened, I rented that movie the same day I rented the first disc of the L Word. picked both by browsing around Hollywood Video.
The production values are top notch, and The L Word looks like it has a much bigger budget than it actually does. The series shoots interiors at studios in Canada, but allows for exterior sequences to be filmed on location in Los Angeles. The result is a Southern California feel, even though the bulk of it is actually produced north of the border.The L Word showcases the "City of Angels" every chance it gets. The camera work adds to the drama, and there are beautiful scenes like when Bette cries underwater in a pool with a camera gazing up at her. Sequences such as Jenny's turn at a strip contest are jaw dropping. The clothes are glamorous, and often even the poor student character can be spotted wearing a blouse that retails for over three grand. The production team puts every cent of their budget where it belongs, on the screen. You won't find a better looking show on any other channel anytime soon. yes part of what really appeals to me is how this show looks. I like the sets: the two houses next door to each other (Bette's & Jenny's) and The Planet coffeehouse.
All this may be a bit much to ever catch on outside of the lesbian community. Showtime and The L Word's creators seem to be fine with that status. I've tried to convince people it's one of the best shows on television, but the whole approach to the show alienates them before they can discover the richness and depth. yeah. the title I guess... it had put me off. this is something that puts me off with any proclaimed community ~ unfairly, I suppose, bcs they are proclaiming themselves in order to defy assumptions that oppress them. and I am for that. still, I react to it as if it is making too much ~ as if proclaiming it is a show about lesbians means it is about these women in the aspect of their sexuality only. women who have sex with women. the show itself belies that, the characters do not talk as if they are lesbians first and people second. but from the bit of reaction I've read, it seems this actually angers gay women -
-Showtime: "The L Word" no longer about lesbians, but "people" | AfterEllen.com: In a blatant attempt to woo Emmy voters, Showtime placed a full-page ad in Variety yesterday for The L Word that boldly proclaims: 'no longer 'a show about lesbians,' this series has evolved into a show about people.'
Good thinking, that'll fool 'em! And it won't piss off your lesbian audience at all! (Maybe they were hoping we'd be too busy picking up women in people bars or marching in people pride parades to notice.). well I suppose this may be a complaint against the crassness of the Showtime ad, as if it was not always about people. which is my point ~
back to DVDverdict:
You may have guessed from my staff dossier that I am not a lesbian, and I admit having to run to my lesbian friends to have them explain some of the show to me. like what??? It does deal with universal themes, but sometimes The L Word feels like an impenetrable fortress against anyone with a "Y" chromosome. I am put off, as above, also by proclamations about what it is to be a woman, how a man will never understand. exemplified by Jenny to Mark, telling me to walk naked down the street with F__ Me written on his body, and have sex with anyone who wants to, and sweetly thank them afterward. and then he'll know what it is like to be a woman. which is terrible - would be terrible to feel like that - do most women feel like that?! because I do not, I dislike the statement bcs it presumes that this is how all women feel or that being female is any one thing to everyone.
The L Word: The Complete Second Season plain and simply rocked my world. 17 hours of excellent, daring television.
Netflix:
L Word season 3 (> disc 1,2 got fr blockbuster) & season 4
Wonderfalls ~ might not like saturated colors ~ youtube clip? style is not my fvr but it's entertaining
Brotherhood
Deadwood ~ maybe not enough color? try to get into.
The Wire season 4 (schools)
-Grey Gardens -documentary re mother & adult daughter living with cats & raccoons in old mansion (mentioned in L Word by Mark the film-maker roommate to Jenny)
ooh: John from Cincinnati
-------------------------------------------
L Word - lost puppy? 2.6 Lagrimas
tina: sorry I was selfish the other nite -?
how long on? mark? gone in season 3
helena, carmen in season 3.
marina back in season 4?
lee ah it's leigh.
L Word season 3 (> disc 1,2 got fr blockbuster) & season 4
Wonderfalls ~ might not like saturated colors ~ youtube clip? style is not my fvr but it's entertaining
Brotherhood
Deadwood ~ maybe not enough color? try to get into.
The Wire season 4 (schools)
-Grey Gardens -documentary re mother & adult daughter living with cats & raccoons in old mansion (mentioned in L Word by Mark the film-maker roommate to Jenny)
ooh: John from Cincinnati
-------------------------------------------
L Word - lost puppy? 2.6 Lagrimas
tina: sorry I was selfish the other nite -?
how long on? mark? gone in season 3
helena, carmen in season 3.
marina back in season 4?
lee ah it's leigh.
Monday, December 3, 2007
1-9: "The Watch" Dirty Sexy Money 2007.11.28 - TWoP Forum p1:
-Wow. So it’s Brian. I loved that he didn’t give Letitia an inch.
-Also loved the scene where Tish told him Dutch was his father. When she asked if it would have made a difference in Brian's feelings towards Dutch, Brian's "yes" floored me.
-Brian was on fire in the scene where he lashes into Tish over the paternity secret. Going at her over the way she treated him so she wouldn't get found out and why he always felt different. And I swear he and Brian Jr. made me cry. I was good until the watch and "keep it on NYC time so we're always in sync." Aww. Damn this show. It's all about Brian!
--I actually bawled my eyes out at the Brian saying goodbye to Jr. part. I loved Brian since the first episode and I'm so glad they managed to soften him up without making him lose any of his prickliness. And Nick may be mature with everyone else but I love that he's just as immature as Brian (in his own way) when the two interact. I absolutely adored the scene with the two of them in church. And of course when Brian Jr.'s voice cracked with tears, I cried too. I love that the watch ended up with him. oh I didn't know that. that's nice.
-Interesting thing between Jeremy and Lisa. I liked their interplay in this episode. You could see Lisa was getting sucked in, and she knew it, by arguably the most charming Darling (Tripp would be his competition). Jeremy is adorable. But I'm not sure if I like where this is going.
Glad they revealed who the son was. Sometimes Occams Razor is the way to go.
-Wow. So it’s Brian. I loved that he didn’t give Letitia an inch.
-Also loved the scene where Tish told him Dutch was his father. When she asked if it would have made a difference in Brian's feelings towards Dutch, Brian's "yes" floored me.
-Brian was on fire in the scene where he lashes into Tish over the paternity secret. Going at her over the way she treated him so she wouldn't get found out and why he always felt different. And I swear he and Brian Jr. made me cry. I was good until the watch and "keep it on NYC time so we're always in sync." Aww. Damn this show. It's all about Brian!
--I actually bawled my eyes out at the Brian saying goodbye to Jr. part. I loved Brian since the first episode and I'm so glad they managed to soften him up without making him lose any of his prickliness. And Nick may be mature with everyone else but I love that he's just as immature as Brian (in his own way) when the two interact. I absolutely adored the scene with the two of them in church. And of course when Brian Jr.'s voice cracked with tears, I cried too. I love that the watch ended up with him. oh I didn't know that. that's nice.
-Interesting thing between Jeremy and Lisa. I liked their interplay in this episode. You could see Lisa was getting sucked in, and she knew it, by arguably the most charming Darling (Tripp would be his competition). Jeremy is adorable. But I'm not sure if I like where this is going.
Glad they revealed who the son was. Sometimes Occams Razor is the way to go.
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