I have now watched “Patriots and Tyrants” twice, and I feel in a fit state to comment on it. And on the future of Jericho.

For a series finale, the episode was pretty good. It was obvious that there was a lot of pressure from CBS to come up with a neatly wrapped up ending in addition to the cliffhanger which had been originally written, and it was difficult to encapsulate an entire season in seven episodes to begin with, let alone end the show in 40 minutes. I would really like to see the cliffhanger, to see what direction the show could have gone in, but for what it was, this was a reasonably good ending. Hopefully the cliffhanger will be in the special features of the DVD…
A lot of people have criticized the second season, arguing that it didn’t hold together and dissing on the writers. I disagree with these criticisms, because I think the season was strong, but also intellectually demanding. I suspect that everyone knew this was it for Jericho, so they really put their backs into it, and it showed. The core message of this season is that people get the governments they want, and that if you have a problem with your government, you have a moral obligation to speak up about it. To do something about it. And I hope that my fellow Jericho fans got this message and will bring it with them to the outside world.

People who didn’t like the second season probably didn’t like the messages in it, with Jennings and Rall becoming a megalithic corporation which took over the American government, corrupting it from the inside out, much like corporations are doing to the real American government, right now. They probably also didn’t like the thought of using the military to control American citizens, and they were repelled by the idea that violent revolution against a corrupt government is sometimes the only appropriate action to take.

That’s understandable, because the last thing the United States government wants right now is a violent revolution. And Jericho drew a lot of parallels with our own government and our government’s actions, especially with Jake’s torture scene in “Sedition,” with a faint (though never explicit) suggestion that the viewers needed to think more like the citizens of Jericho, before it’s too late. Not only that, but the show distinguished between good and bad revolutions, underscoring the differences between Jericho and New Bern. The show also encourages revolution from within the military, as we see Major Beck go from being a yes man to a man who objects to a corrupt government and is willing to fight against it. Not only that, but Beck enlists his men in the fight.

Some people have criticized Beck as not feeling like a very realistic character, claiming that soldiers always have the right to refuse orders. Those same people are obviously not reading the reports out of Iraq from soldiers who have been threatened until they followed orders which they felt were illegal. Or the claims from conscientious objectors who have said the same thing. Yes, soldiers can refuse orders they believe are illegal, but in actuality, that doesn’t happen very often, and when it does, it takes immense courage.

I also think this episode hinted at some possible new directions for our characters. I think that in the cliffhanger, Eric might have made an allegiance with Constantino, and we could have seen a parting of the ways between the brothers, with Jake redeeming himself for his deeds overseas while his brother found himself on a dangerous path. Their personalities have always been at odds, and in some ways, Eric is a very weak person. I would have liked to see that play out a little more. I am also interested to see how Jake would do as a national hero, to see who would fight in the civil war, and see what would happen if/when the civil war came to Jericho.

One thing the episode most certainly did was wrap up Stanley and Mimi with a nice little bow, but that was one of the few true resolutions in the episode. I was also really glad to see Stanley haul himself out of his dark place, undertaking the cathartic act of burying Bonnie and preparing to move forward. Had the show continued, I think we also would have seen more of Gray Anderson, because he started to grow a pair towards the end there. I would also have liked to see what happened with Trish and other good people within the Jennings and Rall framework, and to know what happens with Dale, and Heather, and lots of other people I have grown rather attached to, like Emily, who alas spent most of this season running around with a gun in a dirty undershirt, rather than talking. These characters are complex and well developed, and there are a lot of places for them to go.

The episode was also open ended. We leave the characters on the brink of civil war, with the assurance that the good guys “might have a chance this time,” and that leaves a lot of room for future seasons of Jericho, if the show gets picked up by another network. And I hope it does, because I really want to see more from the amazing cast and crew. I think that Jericho would also benefit from having a clear-cut story arc, like Lost or the Wire, along with a definite ending point. All good things must come to an end, and I think that the true end of Jericho lies on the other side of the civil war.

Last night, I finally got a chance to watch the latest Jericho episode, Termination for Cause, and boy howdy was it a humdinger. Let’s just say, before the cut, that the plot is humming right along.

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Note: If you haven’t watched last night’s episode of Jericho (Oversight), you should not continue reading this post, which I’m hiding behind a jump because I really hate spoilers and I figure you do too. Also, those of you who don’t watch Jericho for some stupid reason won’t find this post that interesting. Hey, have I mentioned recently that you should really start watching Jericho if you aren’t already?

[...]

As I hope you all know, tonight is the season premier of Jericho: Season Two. It airs on CBS at 10pm. So watch it. If you need to get all fired up, CBS has a bunch of delicious season two previews up, and let me tell you that they got me all excited. I even wiggled around a little bit on my big blue ball, and there may have been a faint squeaking noise to convey unbearable excitement, but I won’t swear to it.

If you’re tired of hearing me blather about Jericho, that’s just too darn bad. Go read a newspaper or something.

There are only seven episodes in season two, thanks to the cancellation and then restoration of the show, which kind of put a crimp in creating a full season. I’m hoping that there will be a season three, and perhaps a four as well, but that’s not going to happen without huge popular support for Jericho.

I have found that everyone whom I introduce to the show loves it, and they are looking forward to the second season almost as much as I am. Jericho has a huge following, especially among us young’uns, and unfortunately we don’t get counted because most of us watch Jericho online, taking advantage of this whole “new media revolution.” Since CBS is obviously just giving up on the show, apparently it is up to us to make sure that Jericho survives.

If you haven’t gotten into the show yet, you really should. It’s a post-apocalyptic drama with explosions, car chases, plagues, and hot chicks in tight shirts. There’s pretty much everything anyone could ever want in a television show, including daring doctors, sexy rebels, stern motherly figures, smokin’ hot geekettes, rugged sheriffs, and ponies. As I’ve said before, I’ll loan my season one DVDs to anyone local who wants to watch the show and promises to be nice to them, and you can also get them from your local video store. They’re also up on the CBS site, right here.  Watch the pilot and see if it piques your interest.

If you watch the first episode of the second season and like it, write a letter to CBS and tell them all about it.  If you’ve just cottoned on to the whole Jericho thing and you watch some episodes from season one and you like them, write CBS and tell them how glad you are that a second season is available. And spread the gospel of Jericho so that we can look forward to more seasons in the future.

F and I went to see No Country For Old Men last night, and I really liked it. Now, before you go on about how it’s been out for months and ask how I could possibly be so lazy, please note that our movie theatre is very small, so we only get major first run movies or movies which have been nominated for things. This is a source of great disappointment to me, because I know that I’m missing out on a lot of great movies, and I was pleased to see No Country For Old Men finally get here.

I’ve been trying to be better lately when reviewing things to spell out why I liked and didn’t like them, because I notice that I have a tendency to just make a blanket statement and leave it at that. In addition to not being very interesting or helpful, I think this also suggests a lack of adequate probing and exploration.

So here are some concrete reasons for liking this movie:

1. The music. Or, rather, the lack thereof. I really, really liked that the music in this film was extremely minimal, because it forced the movie itself to create a mood. I feel like a lot of films use music as a manipulative tool, and in this case, people were actually forced to, you know, act, to set a scene. I also felt that this made the film more real to me, because who goes around with an orchestra all the time? The sound also felt very raw and real to me; not dirty, just…not all tidied up and neat.
2. The cinematography. There were a lot of great angles, not in the “oooh we’re hip and funky way,” but in a crisp, clear, desolate kind of way that really fit with the film. They also used light really well. I felt like the cinematography created a very distinct feel for the film; I liked the use of light, I liked the use of shadows, I liked the sometimes peculiar angles. There’s one scene where a character slowly closes all the curtains in a room, filling it with darkness except for the light which bleeds around the curtains: I liked that. I liked it even more when he opened the door and a slash of bright light filled the room. I liked the sweeping shots of the Texas landscape, and I liked the tight, close quarters shots too.

3. The feel. The film had a very timeless sense about it which I really enjoyed. I liked the use of colors and textures to create various moods, and the mood felt…bleak. Desperate. Like the novel. I dug that.  Again, without the use of music, the film was really required to support itself, and I really liked that.

4. I also like the scenes with the sheriff a lot; I thought they were well framed, and I liked the development of the character, a sort of Stage Manager* who also interacts with the other characters. The scene at the end was…well…fucking perfect. I don’t want to say more than that because I want you to go see this movie (and if you have, I think you know what I am talking about with the sheriff).

Beyond these points, it was just a damn good movie. It was compelling, and strong, and different. If Hollywood could produce more films like this, I would be a much happier camper. This film really showcased the many great things that this medium is capable of, and it made me gravely disappointed in all the schlock coming out of Hollywood these days. Although I have been seeing some damn fine movies lately. Juno, for example. This gives me hope for humanity.
*I am referring to the Stage Manager in Our Town, not a theatrical stage manager, in case you are confused. Think Our Town is cheesy? Go read it again and try paying attention this time.

We watched Juno this weekend, since our movie theatre finally got it, and then I read this op-ed about it, and it made me sad. But I still think it’s a good movie, even if the op-ed does make a very valid point.

For those of you who don’t know about Juno, it’s a movie about teen pregnancy, and being a teenager in general. Except that it’s witty, rather than sad, and it has a stellar cast. It was also written by Diablo Cody, who is a pretty interesting lady; last year I read her book about working as a stripper, and it was quite interesting and extremely funny.

Parts of the movie were almost too hipster to be borne, but that’s kind of the way with movies aimed at a youthful demographic these days, I sense. I mean, I liked Superbad even though it was also painfully hipster, so I can’t really bag on Juno for being that way. Juno herself was a solid, funny character who I think really was very believable. I don’t really want to go into too much detail about the movie, not that there’s a lot to give away, but movies are more fun when everything hasn’t been laid out for you. But I will say that there were a lot of excellent characters, and the film had interesting music and strong cinematography.

It was an interesting movie to watch because I don’t find teen pregnancy particularly funny, and I suspect that most people don’t, so it was sort of odd to view it in a humorous context. I also think that the movie glossed over the difficult parts, like being ostracized by your school district for being pregnant, and the immense emotional struggle involved in deciding to put a baby up for adoption. But then again, not every movie needs to be serious, and not every movie needs to have some deep moral lesson. Sometimes you just need to laugh.

Sometimes I find myself watching a movie and wondering about whether or not it’s going to become a classic which is watched for generations. This particular style of movie feels very dated to me. Not dated in a bad way, but it is done in a style which is very much cool right now, and I don’t know if it will endure for another decade. Maybe that’s what makes a classic; perhaps 50 years from now people will be watching films like Juno because they so perfectly encapsulate this time, just like we watch movies from the 1940s because we like the distinctly 1940s feel. Perhaps not.

If you’re not a twenty something or a teenager, you might not like Juno very much, because the film kind of feels like a gigantic inside joke. But maybe you will. Give it a shot and let me know, eh?

I have some words of advice for any of you who are planning to see this movie: don’t.

I know that there’s no accounting for taste and all, and generally when I review something unfavorably, I expect some people to disagree. But this is, bar none, one of the worst movies ever made. It’s certainly the worst movie I’ve seen this year, and possibly this decade. Not only was The Golden Compass absolutely vile, it was also a complete disservice to the book. I hope that Philip Pullman is covering his eyes in shame somewhere for even allowing such a project to be associated with him.

Now, one of my main irritants with people who criticize things is that they often cannot explain why, exactly, they think that something is terrible. Which makes it difficult to argue with them, because they keep going “oh, it’s just awful.” So I thought I’d set out some talking points to explain why this film was so bad.

Let’s start with why it’s a bad movie.

The dialog was painfully stupid; to the point that we started wondering if the film was the result of an elementary school writing contest. These awkward, stilted, very stagy scenes were spattered throughout the movie, and the stiffness wasn’t from the acting, because the cast was actually quite good. It was obviously the awful script that essentially left the actors hamstrung. The characters were flat and dimensionless, and we didn’t get a chance to learn anything about any of them because they whizzed quickly by on screen.

Had I not read the book, I think I would have been in a state of deep confusion. The movie jumped about by bits and starts, dropping random events into the mix that would leave your head spinning if you didn’t already know the plot. I understand that things need to be cut and moved around to adapt a film from a book, and I accept that, but this was poorly done.

The special effects were…well…awful. The daemons looked awful. The city looked awful. Pretty much everything involving any sort of animation looked just dreadful, or so painfully cheesy that you wanted to cover your eyes. (Which I did at one point, actually.)

Also, the composition was criminal. I think that the camera man actually wandered off a couple of times, leaving the camera pointing roughly in the direction of the scene. There were a couple of times when the framing was so laughable that an absent camera man is the only explanation. I’m all for edgy angles and unusual perspectives, but this was just bad.

As for why it’s a bad adaptation…

It really was a complete slaughter of the book. The book is dark and complex. Readers don’t learn things until the characters do, and we care, deeply, about the characters, because Pullman develops them slowly and elegantly. The book is an adventure to read because there’s so much going on and everything is this great mystery.

The movie was not a mystery, at all. From the idiotic voiceover at the beginning, I knew we were doomed. Instead of lettings things unfold, the movie forced things on us, but only partially, which I imagine was frustrating for people who haven’t read the books. The stupid expository bits didn’t illuminate the story or what was going on, they just added to the confusion. Once again, I know that books are very different from films, and it’s a bit tricky to let a plot unfold in the way it does in a book, but still.

The awkward, stilted dialog left the characters flat, dull, and stupid. They are not stupid in the book. It is a great shame that the film dumbed them down, as one of the things I like about the His Dark Materials trilogy is its intelligence.

The film did not capture the darkness and the terror of the books, the themes about growing up and change. It did not end where the book ended, with Lyra’s betrayal of Roger and that awesome yet awful unveiling of a bridge between the worlds.

I also like how the film completely skated over the fact that the Magisterium is the church. Funny, that. And it provided details in weird ways which really changed the characters and plot for me. For example, Lyra learns from Ms. Coulter herself about her parentage in the film, which is a far cry from hearing the story from the Gyptians in the book, complete with complexities which are related to the themes of the book.

I feel like my comparisons of films to books are often unfavorable, and I think that this is a common complaint, although I have seen a few decent and sometimes even good adaptations. But this film was total garbage from top to bottom, no matter how you look at it, so don’t bother wasting your time. And if someone you know has the gall to say it’s good, you have my permission to smack them soundly about the head and shoulders.

Given that this movie was so awful, I doubt there will be a production of The Subtle Knife, which is probably a good thing. I can only take so much literary desecration before I snap.

So, CBS has finally announced the start date for the second season of Jericho; it’s 12 February, 2008, at 10:00 PM. It sounds like the show is pretty much going to stay in the 10:00 PM time slot, which has been a cause for grousing by some fans because it’s less than ideal.

You might reasonably ask why:

1. I’m dedicating a post to a television show.

2. I’m dedicating a post to a television show in the middle of a major strike action by the WGA, which I totally support.

There are a lot of answers to these questions. Primarily, I think that Jericho is awesome, and I believe that I have pimped it here before. I own the first season on DVD, and I will watch the second season, come hell or high water. I also hope that there are future seasons, because I love the show, the actors, and, yes, the writers.

So why write about television during a writer’s strike? Well, first of all, I think that the writers of Jericho deserve some major props for creating a show so excellent that viewers sent in tons of peanuts in protest when the network tried to cancel it. I think that Jericho really illustrates the power of the grassroots, and the power that television can have when fans unite. I note that the concept of sending peanuts to protest Jericho’s cancellation was picked up by the WGA, which is encouraging people to send unsharpened pencils to the major networks.

Enjoying television doesn’t preclude me from supporting the strike. In fact, Jericho illustrates a demographic which has a major interest in the strike. I first watched the show online on the CBS site, and I watched it again…and again…and again until the first season came out on DVD. When I learned that the writers hadn’t been paid for any of the episodes I watched, it made me very sad. And the network’s attitude about new media is obviously hurting it, since Jericho has a huge groundswell of popular support coming almost entirely from an online fan base.

CBS has also apparently chosen to not promote the show at all, which really sucks. I understand that CBS can’t pimp all of its offerings all of the time, and I respect that, but the network has a lot of PR clout, and a small amount of advertising would go a long way. Fans have definitely been promoting Jericho when and where they can, but it’s kind of hard when you don’t have a huge advertising budget or access to a television network which broadcasts to millions of viewers. I think that CBS has underpromoted the show in the hopes that they can quietly kill it off after the second season airs, and that is extremely unfortunate.

So, here’s the thing. I don’t have a television. I also don’t particularly want one. Not because I’m a holier than thou no television person, but because I have a computer, and that should be enough. Writers should be paid for the shows I watch on my computer, and I should be able to control the way in which I view my media. I enjoy watching things on my computer, and I am thinking about acquiring a projection setup to make watching things even more awesome. But CBS has clearly indicated that it does not count online viewers when it considers a show’s numbers. Which stinks of bogosity to me, because it’s not like it’s hard to track site visits.

So, gentle readers with televisions, I’m begging you: get into Jericho. Not just for me and other Jericho fans who want to see the show get great ratings when it airs on 12 February, but because I think you will really like it. Jericho has a lot to offer. The season one DVDs are probably available in your local video store, and you can even rent them if you don’t feel like buying them. If you’re local and you ask very nicely, I might even loan you my first season DVDs or try to set up a local Jericho party. The thing about Jericho is that once you start watching it, you really will get hooked, and that means that you will be watching the show on your television and getting counted.

I want to know what happens, and I want to see where these characters go. I don’t want CBS to wussy out on me. I want more Jericho, and I want you, gentle readers, to help me make it happen.

I finished a book called The Cry of the Dove last night. It managed to be both immensely depressing and incredibly poorly written, all at the same time, which was a bit frustrating. I want to recommend it because I think the subject matter was interesting, but I wouldn’t want to subject you to it when there are so many great books with avians in the title out there like Birds Without Wings, The Sparrow, or even The Kite Runner (ok, so the kite in reference is a toy, not the bird known as a kite, but you get the point).

At any rate, the book is about a Bedouin woman who gets pregnant and has to flee her tribe to save her life, as her tribe believes in honor killings, and obviously having sex before marriage is a very serious stain on family honor. (This bit is on the flap, so it’s not like I’m giving anything away.) Unfortunately, the author chose to use a rather obnoxious narrative style for the book; the scenes jump back and forth in time, which can work well when it’s well done, but it wasn’t well done this time. Instead, I was left in a state of constant confusion about past, present, and future, which was confounded by the confused mental state of one of the characters.

I’ve certainly read some good gimmicky books, like Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, or Hopscotch, so I know that this is a narrative style which can work. When jumpy narratives are crafted with care, they read like pieces of a puzzle slowly slotting into place, and it’s amazing. But I wish that unskilled authors would stop using narratives they think are edgy. I think this book would have read more clearly as a single coherent narrative, although the writing was still very bad. There were a lot of repetitive bits which made me think it had been poorly edited until I realized that they were actually heavy-handed thematic boluses. The author obviously felt passionately about the issues in the book, I just wish her editor had been a bit firmer.

So, given that you know that I think the book was bad, I’m going to go ahead and give away the ending here. If you still have a passionate need to read it even after I’ve trashed it above, you should stop reading this review now.

Basically, the character travels from her hometown to a jail where she is kept in protective custody to a convent in Cyprus to England. (Although it took the author most of the book to unfold this narrative, with as many as three separate timelines running at once.) The book talked about the difficulty of the immigrant experience in England, and the struggles that the character went through as she tried to make it; living in a crappy room with an insane landlady, being underpaid at a tailor’s, trying to go to college to learn better English, and so forth. Throughout the book, the theme of the main character’s infant daughter is pounded into our heads, and we are constantly reminded that the little girl was snatched away at birth.

Finally, she falls in love with her college adviser (hah!), marries him, and has a son. At this point, 16 years have passed since she fled her tribe, and she has been dogged with fear. For those of you who don’t know about honor killings, they are unfortunately common in some parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and as many as 5,000 women are killed every year in the name of honor. This isn’t just a plot device, it’s a harsh reality, and it is very tragic; it has also spread to places like Britain, as immigrants enter a world of clashing cultures.

So, our main character decides that she needs to go back and find her daughter. Everyone suggests that this is a very bad idea, but since she’s being tormented by nightmares about her daughter, she feels driven to find out what happened. She returns to her tribe and encounters her mother, who explains that the daughter was killed, following the logic that the child would turn out like the mother. Our leading lady goes to her daughter’s grave…and is shot by her brother.

It’s really rather irritating that this book wasn’t very good, because immigration issues and the concept of honor killing are both very interesting to me, and I wanted to badly to recommend it. So I’m going to turn the tables here: have you read any great books lately about either of these themes that I should read?

I just finished reading The Good, Good Pig, a book about Christopher Hogwood, a pig who was kept as a pet by Sy Montgomery until his death from natural causes. I was actually reading it at the coffeehouse last night, and someone asked me about what I was reading, and she said “that sounds kind of boring,” after I explained that it was just about the life of a pig, not about raising pigs for slaughter or running a farm.

But it was anything but boring.

I don’t have a lot of experience with pigs; we never kept them, and I’ve only met a handful of pigs. I certainly don’t count any among my animal friends, although I have always rather liked pigs. Their earnest, cheerful faces and curly tails would warm even the coldest heart, I think. I read the book because I was interested in learning more about pigs, and about the life of one particular pig, and because I just generally like animal biographies since I am a sucker for a furry face.

Christopher Hogwood was an unusual creature. Montgomery and her husband adopted him when he was the runt of the litter, and they intended to raise him as a pet, not for food, since Montgomery is vegetarian and her husband is Jewish. Most pigs don’t live much longer than six months in the United States, because that’s when they’re mature enough to harvest; Christopher Hogwood lived for over a decade.

In addition to being a member of Montgomery’s family, Hogwood also interacted with his neighborhood, and it sounds like he acquired quite a long list of friends. In the final chapter, Montgomery talked about the powerful emotional effect that Hogwood had on the people around him; animals seem to have this magical ability to break through barriers which humans can’t, too inspire people or soothe aching sadness or remorse. Some of his fans described him as a sort of pig Buddha, teaching people to enjoy life and to take the time to be with people they love.

Pigs have been an important part of human life for thousands of years, and they are one of the more curious farm animals in our lives, since we keep them solely for food, not for milk or textile material. But pigs are also used to hunt for truffles with their extraordinary noses, and people once used them like hunting dogs to track prey, according to Montgomery. That little factoid was new to me, and I thought it was rather interesting, myself. People have a lot of misconceptions about pigs, which is rather unfortunate, because pigs certainly do not deserve their bad reputation; they are cleaner than many other animals, for example, and they are searingly intelligent. Pigs are great problem solvers and they also have an excellent memory; Montgomery wrote about several people who only saw Hogwood intermittently, but were still instantly recognized, for example.

I would highly recommend The Good, Good Pig. While Montgomery is vegetarian, she certainly doesn’t push vegetarianism on her readers, and the book isn’t a cleverly disguised polemic on why people shouldn’t eat animals. It’s just the story of a pig and his life and the people he met, and that’s it. It was interesting to get a small window into pig behaviour, and into what happens to pigs who are allowed to live out their natural lives. It’s certainly not going to stop me from eating pork, but it does give me a deeper appreciation for porcines. The book certainly doesn’t take long to read, and you might find yourself enjoying it immensely.

The book definitely didn’t anthropomorphize Hogwood, but it did give him a character of his own, and that character was interesting, dynamic, and sensitive. For people who haven’t interacted with farm animals, that might be surprising; while we think of our own pets as distinct personalities, I think it’s hard for some people to think that chickens and pigs and cows also have their own unique selves, and it was nice to see Hogwood profiled as an individual.