No Soup for WCQ TV

In a strange and annoying turn reminiscent of the mid-90s, US Soccer has managed to not have the second-to-last World Cup Qualifier broadcast tomorrow.  Oh, the game is available for viewing, via closed-circuit TV in a handful of bars across the country, but no pay-per-view, no web-cast, nada.  For me, this would mean a drive to Chicago if I really wanted to watch this game.  And I really want to watch this game – just not enough to spend six hours in the car.

It’s an important, vital match.  Win or tie and Team America is in the World Cup.  Lose and the last game against Costa Rica in D.C. next Wednesday becomes scary.  Just to review:  tomorrow I can watch Bahrain v. New Zealand or Denmark v. Sweden, or even freaking Liechtenstein v. Azerbaijan.  But no USA v. Honduras.

Highest Video Rec: The Wire

Last weekend we finished the final episode of the last season of HBO’s The Wire.  What a great show.  I know we’re not exactly breaking new ground here, and the series has been off the air for a while, but I thought I would go ahead and post it here:  highest video recommendation for grown-up drama.  And in the era of home-DVD video, it’s easy and well worth your while to check out the entire five-season run.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of crime/police drama or just someone interested in excellent storytelling, if you’re willing to deal with some sad truths, some depressing reflections of reality, you also get first-rate characterization, multifaceted narratives, and just plain compelling drama.

Vital Viewing: The Wire

Yeah, yeah, not exactly breaking new ground with an endorsement of the HBO original series, The Wire, but nevertheless…

When you hear positive review after positive review, when you find less and less TV worth watching on a regular basis, you should just have a look at what the critics have been crowing about.  In The Wire’s case it’s all warranted.  The show is cop/crime drama set in Baltimore, through the pov of detectives, drug dealers, and other criminals caught up in, ‘the Game’.

Featuring a strong ensemble cast, led by Dominic West, Lance Reddick, Sonja Sohn, Michael K. Williams, and Idris Elba, The Wire is one of those shows where every character counts, from the Police Commissioner to the Union Treasurer out at the Port to the dope fiend/informant.  And characters are the biggest reason this show has received so many accolades.

BSG Ending – Part II

Last time on Beemsville, we discussed the Battlestar Galactica Series Finale (at least to a point) and the precarious proposition of television show endings.  Having written about some elements I enjoyed and appreciated, this section of the critque may seem a bit more…  critical.  But lest I open myself up to raging fanboy attacks, let me once again profess my affection and admiration for the show.  BSG has been one of my favorites because it’s smart, challenging – more than bubblegum for your brain on a Friday night.  BSG has time and again proved worthy of serious critical analysis…  But don’t expect too much of that here; I’m just going to whip some stuff against the wall and see what sticks.  Spoilers after the bump.

Battlestar Galactica – An Ending

Finally got the chance to finish watching Battlestar Galactica the last week or so, including the two-hour finale last night.  I was almost dreading the viewing, for several reasons.  First off, the initial several episodes of the final season were very bleak and in some respects tough to watch.  I was worried Eick and Moore may have lost the plot and were spiraling towards infamy.  Second,  BSG has been the best show on for several years and even if some elements had begun to feel played out as they entered the 4th season, I was sad for it to end.  Finally, I was worried about the actual ending.

TV shows have had some pretty terrible endings.  Consider X-Files or The Sopranos. You also have shows that simply don’t have endings, they have one last episode that ain’t much different, except it’s worse because the show has lost its momentum and creativity, which is why it’s been canceled or pulled in the first place.  Or they become these awful maudlin exercises with the cast taking their final tearful bow.  Occasionally you have endings that are satisfying and memorable.  MASH of course, and Seinfeld, and Family Ties (I always get choked up when I think about Michael J. Fox finally making it back to 1985 in time to take that truck down to the lake…)

BSG set the bar pretty high.  You always knew, by the way they structured the episodes, followed a pretty tight narrative line, and frontloaded certain characters with an array of portents, destinies, and thematic signposts, that Moore and Eick had an ending in mind.  With all the great press and awards the show has received (though ridiculously, no Emmys for anything other than special effects), with frakkin’ Whoopi leading a retrospective on BSG at the United Nations, you might have some concerns they’ve started taking themselves too seriously.  Always a problem in the entertainment industry.  And yet the writer in me can appreciate total commitment and immersion into the story.

So what’s the Beemsville take on Battlestar Galactica’s ending?  Read on after the bump.  Massive spoiler alert, naturally.

Fall Heroes Crit – Part II

Behold, Part II of general musings and criticism of this fall’s Heroes Season 2. Part I included the general ‘Why the suck’ question as will as my first major complaint: Not enough IQ; too much naiveté. Moving on…

2) Stealing the bad from comics: From the start, this show has been all about stealing from super hero comic books. And that’s cool to a point. It can be fun, recognizing those familiar themes, the iconography, the narrative conventions. Gives me an excuse to turn to the wife, and, in my best Comic Book Guy voice, intone: “Clearly that’s a Silver Age Marvel riff,” or “they did that in the early Wildstorm books,” or “reminds me of the X-Men by Claremont.” She loves it when I talk nerdy.

Heroes Season 2: Why the Suck?

The second season of Heroes is halfway over; we won’t see the conclusion until sometime next Spring (writers’ strike permitting). The question looms: Why the suck?

Ever since Heroes came on the air last year, it has frustrated and annoyed even as it entertained. I still tune in, of course; any episodic ensemble about super heroic types will be closely monitored at our house. But if Tim Kring, Jeph Loeb, and their assemblage of comic book plotline plagiarizers writers don’t improve, they’re going to start losing viewers.

Spoilers and critique after the bump.

TV Pick: Journeyman

No, it’s not about legendary Journey front man Steve Perry (though that might be cool); it’s you’re basic reluctant good guy time traveler. Journeyman follows Heroes Monday nights on NBC (9:00 Illinois time), which is the main reason we started watching it. That and the fact that the wife and I are old Quantum Leap fans. Of course we’ve kept watching because the show is pretty good.

much more after the bump…