We're on some sort of HBO series binge right now. Recently, Amazon had a sale of TV boxed sets, so we picked up Deadwood Season 3, Rome Season 1, and Carnivale Season 1. Then, when I was home for the holidays, I walked in to Best Buy and found The Wire Season 1 for half off. So I was *obligated* to pick that up.
The other night, we just finished the first season of Carnivale. I love the general creepiness of it, but it's mixed so well with human drama that I think I would watch the show for the characters alone - outside of the broader mystery. Plus: Clancy ("I'm in disguise!") Brown always rules. Of course, I know I'm setting myself up for bitter disappointment, since the show was canceled after the second season, presumably with little resolved. But what are you gonna do?
I'm a total sucker for shows like Deadwood and Carnivale, where the art direction and vernacular are re-created and the whole show exudes that vibe of "otherness." It's just really great world building, albeit just in the form of a kind of "heightened dramatic history." It makes me totally stoked for Rome.
In that same vein, last night we watched Apocalypto on DVD. We saw it in the theaters as well, but I adore the hell out of it - and was so pleased that my in-laws got it for us for Christmas. I like that it's basically Die Hard in the jungle. I wish there could be more action movies like this: filled with great characters (even the villains are complex, interesting characters!), original settings, and great art direction. It's actually a bummer that Mel Gibson is a crazy old coot, and may not get a chance to make another movie quite like this - because it's pretty fucking astonishing for what it is.
The other night, we just finished the first season of Carnivale. I love the general creepiness of it, but it's mixed so well with human drama that I think I would watch the show for the characters alone - outside of the broader mystery. Plus: Clancy ("I'm in disguise!") Brown always rules. Of course, I know I'm setting myself up for bitter disappointment, since the show was canceled after the second season, presumably with little resolved. But what are you gonna do?
I'm a total sucker for shows like Deadwood and Carnivale, where the art direction and vernacular are re-created and the whole show exudes that vibe of "otherness." It's just really great world building, albeit just in the form of a kind of "heightened dramatic history." It makes me totally stoked for Rome.
In that same vein, last night we watched Apocalypto on DVD. We saw it in the theaters as well, but I adore the hell out of it - and was so pleased that my in-laws got it for us for Christmas. I like that it's basically Die Hard in the jungle. I wish there could be more action movies like this: filled with great characters (even the villains are complex, interesting characters!), original settings, and great art direction. It's actually a bummer that Mel Gibson is a crazy old coot, and may not get a chance to make another movie quite like this - because it's pretty fucking astonishing for what it is.
VIEW 12 of 12 COMMENTS
*Thank you.* Without taking over the comment box here, I just want to say: the whole "this is censorship" thing gets soooo old. At the same time, I could also do without people spouting half-based postmodern theories about expression and human darkness, like crackpot Voltaires. B/c there seemed to be just as much of *that* pseudo-intellectual babble as there was of the 19 year old "iconoclasm" on display. It was all just pretty vapid, and wonderfully dodged any of the issues at hand. I'm a liberal (in the classic sense), but I hate people who just stand on *that alone,* with a smug kind of superiority, and refuse to actually engage in real issues.
I concur.
It galls me that that is supposed to bring all examination to a halt, as if that trumps all other considerations of an issue. I'm not even sure that it rises to the level of one-dimentional.
Where ya been???