Tuesday, August 28, 2007 Rant Archive
There are a lot of writers who could have given the same speech: William Faulkner, Scott Fitzgerald, even Elmore Leonard have all bad experiences in Lalaland. But it wouldn’t have been the same as it is coming out of the mouth of Hank Moody (David Duchovny) at the start of this episode of CALIFORNICATION (Showtime, Mondays at 10:30 p.m.).
At a book store event, Moody talks about what happens after he wrote his best seller, God Hates Us: “That’s when Hollywood came knocking at my back door. As soon as I cashed that check I wrapped my lips around the mighty erection that is the film industry and sucked hard just like a good whore should.”
But Moody’s speech is interrupted by the man who brought God Hates Us to the screen (Tom & Katie star in A Crazy Little Thing Called Love) and the guy is mad. He feels he’s being insulted, although I don’t see how any man would be hurt after being told he has a “mighty erection.” Either does Moody, who assumes that the producer is ticked off because he found out that Hank screwed the guy’s wife “in every room of your house.” Now I can understand the guy being a tad angry for that.
They fight and Moody lands in jail, only to suffer the indignity of being bailed out by his former girlfriend’s fiancé, Bill (Damian Young). And that’s only in the first few minutes of this dark comedy that has also developed a keen sense of the absurd.
WEEDS continues to impress with its quality. In fact, it is on the verge of moving from the ironic to the iconic. Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louis Parker, henceforth referred to as the Brilliant M-LP) is now in serious debt to gangsta U-Turn (Page Kennedy), and doesn’t know how she’ll pay him off. The stocks and mutual fund shares she thought she had are long gone. Her house is worth little, because a new, religious development is opening near by. And the few thousand dollars she offers U is just enough chump change to get him angry.
To work off her debt, U sends her to an Hispanic bar and pool hall to pick up a package. She doesn’t know what it is and the locals insist she do a brick dance before she gets the brick she came for. Clearly most middle class women would be shiting a brick, not dancing one if they walked into this dark bar. But Nancy knows no fear. It takes her a couple of minutes, but she soon figures out what’s needed. And she does a dance – fully clothed – that raises the temperature in the bar by about 10 degrees.
This is a difficult role that calls for numerous mood changes from funny to ‘fraid and the Brilliant M-LP is fearless in her approach to this demanding part.
Now that Lori (April Matson) has exposed Jessi (Jaimie Alexander) as the person who attacked her, the whole Trager family is on high alert. Even Nicole (Marguerite Macintyre) couldn’t have anticipated the violent propensity of the new girl in town, and she is her therapist. But, this presents a special problem for Kyle (Matt Dallas), who now knows what the weird connection is between him and Jessi. This poor kid is now stuck between a rock and a hard place. I mean, the Tragers are his new family, and he so desperately wants to fit in, but Jessi is part of him too so he can’t turn his back on her. This now means that Kyle will have to keep even more secrets from the people who took him in and made him one of their own. As if being a clone and having a personal guide in this journey wasn’t enough to keep hidden. Thank goodness he has Declan (Chris Olivero) to share it all with. Maybe Tom Foss (Nicholas Lea) will understand now why Kyle had to unload his burden on somebody his own age.
With Jessi’s secrets beginning to spill out all over the place, how is her psuedo-sister, Emily (Leah Cairns), supposed to keep her under control? And, does she even want to; after all, it seems as if Emily is developing a familial bond with Jessi. Maybe that’s because she’s transferring those maternal instincts for the mysterious little girl - who has just popped onto the scene – onto Jessi. We’ve been left to assume this little girl is Emily’s daughter, but is she? There is still the question as to how Foss fits into this family portrait. It’s clear that the rumor of Emily being Tom’s presumed dead wife isn’t true, but we are still left to wonder if the little girl is his daughter. We all know that Madacorp is capable of anything, so could they have snatched Tom’s little girl, in an attempt to punish him for his betrayal? Or maybe they are keeping her for leverage, should he threaten to spill the beans in the future.
Part of all Greek life is charity work, and the Zeta sisters are serious about their obligations. That being said, when a snafu in the Zeta community-service schedule puts Casey (Spencer Grammer) in the position of working with a religious group, she begins to wonder if she is the right girl for the job. Meanwhile, Rusty (Jacob Zachar) and Cappie (Scott M. Foster) try to mend their lovesick hearts by keeping themselves distracted. And, we all know how good fraternity boys are at distracting themselves. Honestly, can’t they just stay in bed with their pjs on and eat a pint of decadent chocolate ice cream, the way girls do? It’s a lot less chaotic and doesn’t bring everybody else down around us. Poor Cappie, he came so close to getting his ladylove back, in last week’s episode of GREEK. But, real life has a way of getting in the way, and our boy Cappie isn’t ready to grow up and take life seriously, at least not seriously enough for the object of his affection, Casey.
With Casey deciding to go ahead with the laveliering ceremony, she has solidified her relationship with Evan (Jake McDorman), much to the chagrin of some of her sisters, not to mention her old flame. But, Evan is on the fast track to success, and Casey finds that more intriguing than the fun and games that go along with being in a relationship with Cappie, at least for now. Ah young love; it’s all about where you will be in ten years. Well, at least it is for some girls, and I guess Casey thinks she’s one of them. Whether or not Casey lives to regret that decision remains to be seen, but if I were a betting girl, I’d say that relationship isn’t meant to be.
There are certain things you can count on in American TV or movies, certain images that have become shorthand for concepts that most audience members will understand right away. One of those iconic images is of birds circling overhead; generally, this isn’t a good sign for somebody. So it is with this week’s episode of THE CLOSER, which opens with just such an image and wastes no time jumping into the bad news from there.
For Chief Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick), this week is not off to a smashing start. Still recovering from abdominal surgery related to benign ovarian growths, Johnson finds herself with a body in a hard-to-reach ravine, a body that turns out to have been a federal auditor with the Department of Homeland Security. To make things even more exciting, it turns out that the deceased, whose government-issue cell phone and laptop are missing, was in the process of auditing the LAPD, a situation that wasn’t sitting well with the various people in said auditor’s path. As Johnson digs further into the situation and finds that many pieces aren’t adding up, she discovers a bombshell: The auditor was having an affair with someone high-ranking in the department, someone awfully close to Brenda herself. Then the FBI gets involved …