Sep 16 2011

The BattleStar Galactica Files (Ep 9) – The Hand of God

Welcome to the BattleStar Galactica Files! Sci-Fi (Syfy) Channel’s classic series that captured the fear and the paranoia of the post-9/11 culture. Hailed by critics and fans alike, BSG’s arcing, epic storyline, detailed character development, dynamite special effects, and top-notch acting makes it one of the best science fiction tales of our time. Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, and Jamie Bamber led a top-notch cast through 4 short seasons of one of the best television shows ever made. If you’ve seen BSG then you know, if you haven’t, then do yourself a favor- every episode is on Netflix, and it was just picked up for syndication on BBC America!

[Warning: Spoilers! This is my attempt to sum up, review, and quantify BSG in layman’s terms]

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The Hand of God

“Sometimes you have to roll the hard six…” – Bill Adama

Craps isn’t cards. In cards, typically a player strategically bases their bets on the power of the cards in their hand, as well as on the assumed power of an opponents’ hand. In craps on the other hand, everything is based on the roll of the die. While the odds are slightly higher in the player’s favor as far as bets go, there’s no bluffing the dice. Sometimes you just have to toss ’em and pray.

As season one of Battlestar Galactica draws to a conclusion, the outlook for humanity is grim. Having nearly been erased from the galaxy during the attack on the Colonies by their Cylon creations, the few remaining survivors are on the run- desperately searching for an ancient home called “Earth.”

One of the show’s greatest strengths is its ability to convey such stark realism in a completely fantastical situation. The universe of Battlestar is dark, violent, and brutal, all depicted through the eyes of the characters it follows. As military fiction it rivals classic naval dramas such as Das Boot or Run Silent, Run Deep in the sense that it basically focuses on the inhabitants of space-faring submarines. There aren’t any windows on the Galactica.

I’m not sure exactly what makes this kind of military drama so enthralling, maybe it’s the close quarters, or the constant threat of death- even from the environment around them. Maybe it has something to do with the never-ending pursuit or the fact that at any moment an enemy ship could appear and sink our heroes (or in this case send them hurling into space), but the writers do an excellent job of translating that submerged, submarine-like claustrophobia into a science fiction setting. There’s grainy camera filters, shadow-filled sets, blood, sweat, and tears in the world of our battered human survivors. The ever-lowering number on President Laura Roslin‘s whiteboard is a brutal reminder of the fact that it’s never been so vital to just stay alive.

Technology in the world of Battlestar Galactica is based on a type of fuel called tylium ore. Tylium is a volatile substance that is mined from asteroids and then converted into an inert yellow powder which every ship in the show uses to power their Faster-Than-Light jump drives. FTL drives are their only means of staying on the run from their Cylon pursuers, otherwise they’d be stuck puttering along through space.

As episode 13 opens, the 50,000 or so humans that remain aboard the ships of the fleet have found themselves stranded with only enough fuel reserves for approximately two more jumps. Commander Adama has pilots out in droves scanning for a source of tylium (luckily one of the civilian ships is a refinery, but that’ll come in later). Aboard Colonial One, President Roslin is still reeling from her encounter with the Cylon infiltrator, Leoben, who planted the seed of doubt in her mind when he whispered “Adama is a Cylon” in her ear. With flash bulbs snapping before her at a press conference, the Prez has a vision of a dozen snakes slithering across her podium… All the while struggling to keep her cool in front of the reporters from the fleet, who are hungry for information regarding the status of the fuel reserves.

The fleet is afraid. The truth of the Cylons is out: they look like humans now… and anyone could be an imposter. What’s worse is the damage they’ve done already: sabotage, blowing up improvised explosive devices, manufacturing fear and distrust in the fleet… the usual insurgency kind of stuff. Now remember that when Battlestar aired in 2004, America- in fact the world- was caught in the grip of fear by a mysterious enemy that no one really took the time to understand. The label “Terrorist” was slapped on everything that walked, talked, or breathed wrong, and people were flooding to supermarkets to buy duct tape, bottled water, and gas masks… don’t forget the gas masks. An enemy driven by blind faith in a god that is different than the norm, who uses brutal tactics to kill civilian populations and who hides in plain sight. An enemy that we see as so different from us that we treat them like animals, like things that only think they are human, to be lined up, humiliated, beaten, and tortured. An enemy who sees the continuation of our species, and our very way of life, as a deadly threat to their own. You picking up what I’m putting down here?

After the press conference, when Roslin tells her spiritual adviser, Elosha, that she’s succumbing to hallucinations about snakes, the priestess thinks she is pulling her leg. When Elosha figures out that Roslin isn’t, she becomes very serious. She tells her of a 4,000 year old text written by a woman named Pythia about a “dying leader who had a vision of snakes numbering 10 and 2… and who lead the survivors of humanity to the promise land… Earth.”

“The next thing you’ll tell me is you’re dying right?” Elosha jokes, but Laura isn’t laughing… in fact she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer before the attack on the colonies and has been fighting it all season long. She’d originally chalked her hallucination up to side effects of the medicine she’d been taking, but suddenly President Laura Roslin realizes she is the prophesied savior of mankind. That’s gotta be heavy.

Out in space, pilots Crashdown and Boomer (who is a Cylon sleeper agent secretly fighting her true “programming”) manage to find a nearby planetoid that is rich with tylium ore… however it is crawling with Cylons, who also use tylium to power their vehicles. When they get back, the decision has to be made whether to keep looking or to attack the secluded Cylon mining operation. You already know what Adama has to say about it.

What comes next is a brilliant re-creation of the Death Star attack in Star Wars. While Starbuck is stuck in the CIC with a bum leg (plus actor Katie Sackoff’s detesting of scenes filmed in the hot, cramped quarters of the Viper starfighters), it falls on Adama’s remaining son Lee to lead the charge. Most everyone in the fleet, including Lee, wishes Starbuck was flying lead, but Adama grounds her in a brilliant “Yes, but can you use your leg while pulling 10+ gees in a Viper?” scene. Probably one of the better scenes filmed in a weight-room.

The Hand of God, or so the episode is named, refers to not just Roslin’s revelation, but to the events that are so dramatically culminating toward the end of the season… oh, and to Gaius Baltar. Dr Baltar has been enlisted by Adama to create a gene-seeking “Cylon detector,” and is also haunted by the ghost of his Cylon ex-lover, the beautiful blonde femme fatale “6.” At first he thought she was a manifestation of his own guilt for letting the Cylons into the Colonial Defense networks, however he has started to suspect that 6 is more than just a projection of his own subconscious. He spends hours talking (amongst other things) to her while working in his lab, wandering the halls, or even in mission briefings.

Gaius gets pulled into the planning of the raid when he speaks up about the volatility of tylium before it is processed into fuel, telling Apollo that their strike should concentrate on the stores of raw ore- thus blowing up the facility and not the entire rock. Standing before a projected picture of the Cylon mining plant, blindly points a finger at a random structure, “There.” At this point in the story, Gaius has asked for forgiveness from 6’s “one-God,” and now asks for his guidance… all at the prompting of his imaginary girlfriend, who is most definitely not a figment of his imagination. Whether he likes it or not, Gaius Baltar has become the instrument of god.

Back on the irradiated capital planet of Caprica, Boomer’s old co-pilot Helo was left behind after he gave up his seat for Gaius Baltar. 36 days later as the fleet battles for fuel, Helo believes the Sharon (Boomer) that’s traveling with him is the same Sharon from Galactica… but she isn’t. She is a Cylon, and while she may have all of Boomer’s memories and experiences, she is a different clone. They’ve been on the run planetside for weeks trying to avoid Cylon patrols, taking anti-radiation medicine, and fraking down by the fire. In fact, Sharon is pregnant with Helo’s child, the first human-cylon hybrid, and the Cylons are aware of their position at all times… But there’s a problem. Sharon and Helo are in love. She knows what the Cylons want with her baby, and she’s not too happy about it, so they really go on the run.

The cylons chasing them are led by what passes for a celebrity in the communal, hive-like minds of the Cylons- the one they’ve dubbed Caprica 6. She is the 6 who went undercover with Gaius Baltar and gained access to the Colonial Defenses, allowing the Cylons to kill roughly 50 billion humans in the attack. When Caprica 6 died in the nuclear holocaust she woke up on the Resurrection Ship a hero to the Cylons, but she harbors a deep secret that she must hide from her Cylon brothers and sisters.

It is this dark secret that makes her an individual in a collective society. Cylons exist in only a few different forms, however it is unknown how many copies of each there are. To them individuality is dangerous. They see it as a fault of their human creators, one that breeds hatred, violence, and death. Only a handful of Cylons- Caprica 6, Sharon (Athena), and Boomer, know the secret which their brothers and sisters do not… They know what it is to love… And this knowledge will dramatically change the path of both  species.

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Most of the information gleaned for these posts is taken from the good folks at Wiki and BSG Wiki.

Coming Up on the BSG Files:

The Planet of the Gods


Sep 2 2011

Redefining Loss… Hesher Style

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When a movie is really, really good, it gets stuck in your head like a song. Now this isn’t always the truth in reverse because some of the worst songs get stuck in your head for days and days… but with a bad movie, you only remember how bad it was. Only the good ones get talked about at work the next day. In some cases a film can be indescribably good, and such is the case with Hesher.

Hesher‘s title character (played by Joseph Gordon Levitt) looks about as pissed off as I’ve ever seen a hero (if you can call him that). There are moments in the film’s opening sequences when I doubted his existence within the film’s reality due to Hesher’s insane, erratic, and overtly-violent behavior. This story could have played very very differently, but it doesn’t.

At the heart of this movie is a red Volvo wagon and the boy who needs it. I won’t spoil anything, but when we first see the wagon, it is being towed away. Behind it, a young man on a bmx bike frantically races to keep up. He ducks in and out of traffic, his eyes tear-streaked and glued to the smashed red Volvo that seems to be further and further out of his reach. When he turns a corner and runs into a car, spilling up onto the hood, the boy simply rolls off- grabs his bike- and pedals on. He finally catches up with the red wagon in a tow-yard and opens the driver’s door to climb inside. As he sits behind the wheel we can tell he isn’t really there. He is lost somewhere in memory as he places his hands on the wheel and stares into space. This is TJ.

TJ is alone. His mother has just died, his father (brilliantly played by Rainn Wilson) is in a pharmaceutical-induced coma on the couch, and his grandmother (Piper Laurie) is… well, elderly. On his way to school one morning, fate intervenes in the form of a buried pipe. When TJ hits this pipe and goes flying over his handlebars while riding through a seemingly abandoned construction site, his suppressed rage and emotion cause him to pick up a rock and defiantly chuck it through the nearest window. A few seconds later, Hesher appears, grabbing TJ by the throat and pulling him into the unfinished house. Outside, a security patrol truck pulls up, and Hesher tells TJ, “you fucked me…” while tossing an improvised explosive device out the window and bolting in his black van. Hesher has a thing for fire.

When TJ gets home from school later that day, Hesher is standing in his grandmother’s kitchen. He is a scary looking guy with hair down to his waist, homemade tattoos, and a taste for Metallica, gasoline, and cigarettes. He also no longer has a place to stay, so he takes up refuge in  grandma’s garage… naturally.

At this point the movie really begins, and I will stop. This is one of those films that you don’t want to know much about. What I will say is that Hesher is one of the rawest, funniest, and also saddest movies I’ve seen in a long time. It weaves a magnificently broken trail through the course of its running time, and no matter where the plot goes it is thoroughly supported by the performances of the actors involved. I’m talking hands-down, grade-A independent film making here.

At it’s core is Joseph Gordon Levitt, who has come along way since 3rd Rock From the Sun, and cements himself (in my mind anyway) as one of Hollywood’s best actors with this role. Rainn Wilson, of The Office, sports a Jack-Bauer-Style “Beard O’ Grief” throughout the film and makes up for all his silly NBC-shenanigans by totally losing himself in the part of the grieving husband/father. There is also an amazing performance by young Devin Brochu, who plays TJ. It’s refreshing to see new young actors that are able to carry the weight of such a film without a hitch. Brochu delivers such a great performance that no matter how unbelievable the story might become- we buy it hook, line, and sinker. Lastly Natalie Portman (who I believe is incapable of giving a bad performance) does a great job in a role that I won’t tell you anything about. You’ll just have to watch the damn movie.

I will leave you with the pledge that you are not prepared, neither for Hesher, its title character, or the elegant mayhem that ensues.

Hesher rules.

Aug 22 2011

Really, PG-13?

Note: This article is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America.

So we’re watching Fast5, right? Like any normal mid-30s couple should do on a beautiful, 80-degree Saturday morning in August. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sun and frolicking in summer as much as the next Oregonian, but sometimes I need me some fast cars, big explosions, and skin… lots of skin (you know, the whole reason Michael Bay is making movies that rake in billions). Anyway, it’s two-thirds of the way through this cinematic pièce de résistance when I blurt out the following:

“You know honey,” as I so often state, “It seems like they can get away with killing as many people as they want in a PG-13 movie, as long as there’s no wounds.”

Flashes of all the R-Rated movies I was raised jogged through my mind. Movies like Robocop, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, anything with Arnold Schwarzenegger, all movies with one thing in common- the squib.

A squib is a very specific piece of equipment that’s used by special effects guys to simulate one thing, and that’s a gunshot wound. It’s usually a tube, or a miniature explosive attached to the outside of a vest, or anything that can create a nice spray of red mist from a person’s body. You’ve seen them a million times… Ever catch Die Hard on cable? Like, the real cable, the kind that doesn’t censor Bruce Willis shouting “Yippie-Kay-Yay-Motherfucker!” It’s the fine art of action movies from an era that has now quickly faded out. In fact the only action movies that use anything close to Robocop-gore are zombie flicks these days… and then? It’s not even real effects. It’s CGI. I don’t think they even use squibs anymore. Somewhere on a mountaintop, Renny Harlin is crying.

I digress. Fast5. So there’s this big shoot-out toward the end of the movie where literally dozens of men are violently gunned-down, grenaded (a new word?), or blown apart by rocket launchers, and all the while not a drop of blood is spilled. There are no squibs, no CGI sprays, just a shitload of guns blazing, and dudes falling down. That’s when my inner child started crying as well (I’m just saying, Cliffhanger is a great movie alright?).

I remember when action movies weren’t safe. I remember when movie studios made movies that didn’t have to be dumbed-down (intentionally) in order to attract a younger audience… but more and more it seems like anything goes in a PG-13 movie as long as there’s no blood, nudity, or sexual dialogue. You can have truly terrifying images, things that would scar a child for many sleepless nights, in movies like Insidious, The Grudge, or even the Harry Potter finale, and still net a wider audience with a PG-13 rating… but if you talk about sex or even say a certain phrase? You get an R. I guess the movie studios are just like every other corporation out there now- obsessed with the bottom line. Maybe that’s the way it’s always been… What do I know, I’m just a mid-30s gangsta from the streets of South Central Salem.

It made me think of our old friend John McClane, from Die Hard, and how this whole thing started with him. The very R-Rated franchise put out three profanity-laced, bullet-riddled, bloody-good action classics (another nod to our sobbing Finnish director) in the 80s and 90s, and then the fourth one was announced in 2005. In 2007, when the movie came out, it was rated PG-13 , for demographic reasons. So despite the fact that Live Free or Die Hard is a completely badass action flick that is just as good as any of the other sequels, it still felt sanitized. They even cut the signature line, “Yippie-Kay-Yay-Mother-Fu-“GUNSHOT.

Other than the pervasive profanity that is missing, this movie still racks up a body count and blows up more parts of Washington DC than I could count. I mean, Bruce Willis kills a helicopter with a damn police car. So when the DVD came out in two versions, the theatrical PG-13, or the “unrated” cut, I of course bought the unrated one. It was exactly the same movie, just with all of the original, unedited dialogue, and all of the digital blood-sprays. It was the first time I remembered seeing such a fine line of difference between what was acceptable for a PG-13 movie nowadays.

There’s no guidelines for any of this rating stuff by the way. Anything you’ve heard about how a movie can only say “fuck” twice or it’ll get an automatic R… yeah’s that’s all bullshit. Well, except when it comes to nudity. If you have nudity, basically of any kind, there’s your R. Maybe you can get away with a boob-shot if you don’t have any violence in your film… but if you spend an hour shooting bad guys by the truck-full and then try to sneak in a bare chest, well there’s your R. It all comes down to a group of men and women who call themselves the Motion Picture Association of America. They got the movie studios to agree to submit every movie they made to them, where they watch it in secret, discuss it, and vote on it. Studios and directors can re-cut movies to get a lower rating, or they can argue their case… which one do you think works?

Seriously, this group is so creepily affected by sex, and at the same time, have a blind eye to the endless slaughter of minions. Millions of minions have died in the name of action-movie glory, only the kid-movies used to get PG-13… and now that’s all gone.

I blame Peter Jackson. He must have killed a hundred thousand disgusting, blood-covered “orcs” in the Lord of the Rings movies… and you know how he got away with it? Well orc blood is black of course. It fit seamlessly into the fantasy aspect of the films, and allowed him to brutally kill by arrow, sword, impaling, stomping, biting, lava-ing, hundreds of digital bad-guys… and get a PG-13 rating. You know how else he did it? No elf boobies.

Lastly Michael Bay. Bless his blonde little heart. I’ve been a Bay-addict since Bad Boys I, since The Rock (one of the best action movies ever put on film by the way), since Playboy Video Centerfold: Kerri Kendall… I’m talkin’ way back. Michael Bay gets a lot of crap, and whatever, I’m sick of it. Bay, I’m in your corner buddy. The man squeezes more style into every single frame of a movie than most movies have in the whole 90 minutes. Yes, his movies are cartoons, that’s what they’re supposed to be. It’s not like he’s doing this shit accidentally… but I have an issue.

My 4-year-old son is obsessed with Transformers. The robots in disguise are all he talks about, morning, noon, and night. Now, I’ve let him watch parts of the first two Michael Bay Transformers movies, and in retrospect… probably a bad decision. Either I’m getting older and fuddy-duddier, or these aren’t the kid-friendly die-cast toys I used to play with for hours on end. Michael Bay does the same thing with giant, transforming robots as Peter Jackson did with orcs. He gets away with suspenseful, violent, and awe-inspiring fight scenes and shoot-outs where, again, literally hundreds of innocent people are vaporized. Or he gets away with ripping your kids’ favorite Transformer to pieces, oil, hydraulic fluid, and parts flying everywhere like blood-splatter… Try explaining what just happened to Jazz to a 4-year-old (disregarding the deeper, more philosophical music question that comes to mind). Perfect exploitation of the rating system. Damn it Bay.

So I’m sitting there, growing bored and fascinated by the Fast and the Furious, and what it means for America. Because the simple fact is, even when movies were rated R, as 11 year old kids we got to see them all the time. Either we had horrible parents, or theaters and video stores were way more lax with their enforcement… However there was still a feeling of getting away with something. Now we’re straight up telling youngsters it’s ok to watch this stuff. Impressionable minds who think “Wow, that’s so cool!” and don’t think there’s anything wrong with what they’re seeing. When Steven Spielberg suggested to the MPAA they should implement an “in-between” rating to bridge PG and R, do you think he had these two in mind?

(Fast5 Screen Shot)

Well thanks, MPAA, you weird, secret cult you. Thank you for making a cookie-cutter process for judging artistic expression that allows movies like Fast5 and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, both clearly R-Rated flicks, to sneak past with a few edits… And to let movies like The King’s Speech get slapped with an R because of the word fuck. I mean seriously. We will let our kids watch movies where dozens are violently killed, blown up, run-through, smashed by cars, blown up again (and then have some girls in tight-clothes run around of course)… but when it comes to hearing a word in the English language, or seeing something that they too have on their chest or between their legs and deal with every day… well that’s taboo.

I say, we, the people, need to get rid of these guys. They’re not a government body. They’re not associated with anyone but themselves. They are a secret gang of overlords who control what we see with their own values and opinions.

That’s fucked up.

Aug 8 2011

Obama’s “Fuck Yeah!” Moment?

There’s a point in most action films when the geeky, soft-spoken protagonist (who has been pushed around, poked, and prodded the entire movie) finally rises up and becomes the hero. We’ve seen it a hundred times- from George McFly punching out Biff in Back to the Future, and Kurt Russel finally grabbing the gun and saving his wife in Breakdown; to Neo stopping a hail of bullets with his mind in The Matrix, or when the bat-shit crazy religious lady takes a cap to the dome in The Mist… or when Titus Pullo, condemned to die in the arena of Rome, raises his bloodied sword and screams “THIRTEEN!!” (In my opinion, one of the greatest moments in television history) Or perhaps you remember the most tear-jerking climax of all time when Daniel-San limped out of his corner, took the crane stance, and kicked Johnny square in the face?

My point being, in every truly epic finale, the bruised, broken, and bleeding hero shakes off the timidity of the past and reaches deep within to find that primordial strength we all believe we have buried away somewhere. It’s what we come to expect when the protagonist we’ve rooted for continually gets pushed around. In fact, it’s become a cultural icon in American storytelling. We’ve always had wise-cracking tough guys that save the day in a hail of bullets, but more recently the under-dog has become the action king.

Now should it seem strange that we’re expecting this from a President? Throughout the debt crisis I kept waiting for Obama to palm-strike John Boehner‘s nose into his brain and turn a gun on congress, forcing them to pass some legislation that would actually help save the country. I wanted to see him flip the desk in the oval office, rip open his suit-and-tie to reveal a yellow Enter the Dragon jumpsuit, smack Nancy Pelosi on the ass, and grab Michelle for a passionate kiss before stage-diving into an angry crowd of Tea Party-ers and smacking some American common sense into their thick skulls.

I honestly don’t think it’d be too hard to pull off. After all, we all know that if Obama can’t pull off a “Fuck Yeah!” moment in the next year, he’s headed out faster than Jimmy Carter in 1980… but, then again, maybe America doesn’t need a hero right now. Perhaps America’s First Black President is enough for Barack?

For the rest of us, the music is swelling, the conflict insurmountable, and the credits are only a year away… and me? Well I always root for the underdog.

Aug 1 2011

For Mad Men

I don’t care what your excuse is, if you haven’t seen AMC’s iconic Sunday night show Mad Men, you are way behind. While it might not be the cup of tea for Two and a Half Men fans or Reality TV junkies, winning Best Dramatic series for three years might be a clue that you should be tuning in. In fact now is the best time to catch up on your Mad Men. Netflix has added every episode to it’s streaming service and AMC is preparing to rerun the entire show so far in lieu of the postponed March premiere of the next season. Normally those of us who define our Augusts by our Sunday night programming are euphoric due to new episodes of Mad Men, however due to the show’s producers wrangling with AMC over it’s future, filming is just now getting started for season 5.

In case you still haven’t seen it, Mad Men revolves around an old-school ad agency in the early 60s on Madison Ave in New York… and specifically it’s tormented, philandering, and extremely talented front man Don Draper. I could spend an entire post heaping rave upon rave for John Hamm‘s performance in this role (which has won him a Golden Globe and an Emmy Nom this year, by the way). Don Draper is the ultimate anti-hero, he’s handsome, smooth-talking, clever, and consistently makes every bad decision he can regarding his personal life. He is the ultimate American man of his time period- he drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney, and screws everything that walks in front of him… and whose world, so intricately built and maintained, comes falling down around him as the show progresses.

What the show does so brilliantly is reflect the changing perceptions in America in the early 60s, from the changing role of women (at home and in the workplace), divorce, and political upheaval, war, and the rise of the youth movement and television. That may seem like a broad stroke, but the genius of Mad Men is it’s ability to handle these issues while not ever becoming preachy or over sentimental (no Wonder Years here).

What I believe to be one of the best episodes of the entire show comes at the end of the third season, and forgive my partial spoilers, but if you haven’t seen the show- you’ll forget anyway. Don Draper, whose marriage to Betty has been on the rocks for a season now, gets a double-dose of bad news in one day. First, his long-time employer Sterling Cooper, the hottest small ad agency in the business is about to be folded into the workings of a larger, overseas corporation- meaning the death bell for the careers of almost every talented character we’ve followed so far.

Secondly, his wife hits him with the “big D” as he comes home one night from the office. Sadly, their three children are also caught in the middle. In a brilliant scene that I imagine would spark total recall for millions of Americans, Don and Betty sit the two older kids down in the living room to explain the upcoming change in the family- to which they respond with painful, childhood honesty. When Don states, “I’m not going, I’ll just be living elsewhere…”

The oldest, Sally, responds with, “That’s GOING, you say things and you don’t mean them, you can’t just do that! You said you’d always come home…” before storming out of the room to leave the 6-year-old boy clutching his father’s leg and begging him not to go.

While this isn’t a strange or even original scene to see these days, however the way in which it is handled, the humanity of the children and the impossible explanation from their divorcing parents is so well portrayed that it stirs something in our collective memory. For most viewers, it hits us in the gut. The feeling that we’re not just seeing the Draper family fail, but our own childhood memories of divorce and separation are echoed across time- as it is easy to imagine these two small children as our own parents- compiles with our own adult experiences of going through divorce. How masterfully the writers handle the great tragedy of the late 20th century- the perceived crumbling of the American family. We know that the characters will go on as much as we are able to conjure up the post-divorce lives we or loved ones have lived in reality, and yet the tragedy of the Draper family is the tragedy of tens of millions of people across the country.

A tragedy that Don gives a perfect point to later in the episode while trying to convince his ex-secretary-turned-talented-artist/copy-writer Peggy to follow him as he decides to strike out on his own in the Ad game. “Do you know why I don’t want to go to McCann [the company attempting to buy out the agency]? Because there are people out there who buy things, people like you and me… and something happened. Something terrible… And the way that they saw themselves… is gone… and nobody understands that… but you do… and it’s very valuable. With you, or without you, I’m moving on… and I don’t know if I can do it alone. Will you help me?”

When Peggy asks him if she says no if he’ll hate her and never talk to her again, Don responds, “No, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to hire you.”

Now if you haven’t seen the show, this might seem trivial… but in the context of the episode where Kennedy has just been shot and America has been turned on its ear… it is the perfect scene to highlight the truest of human tragedy- the loss of innocence and identity in the face of perseverance and the American dream… and it is this symbolism and nostalgia-laced loss that is the real genius behind Mad Men. That while we struggle to maintain the status quo, the world gives us curve balls impossible to avoid, and our fight against that change is the source of our greatest hope- and our most tragic loss.

Tune in, this show is a MUST SEE!

Aug 1 2011

Want to Win a Ride to Space?

As we ride the backlash from NASA’s Space Shuttle Shutdown, Seattle elite are starting a contest to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Space Needle, and the grand prize? A ride in to orbit… well… almost. Private company SpaceAdventure is currently developing craft to carry paying passengers into sub-orbit for around 6 minutes of zero-gravity at a time. So technically space, but not quite a stay on the uber-expensive orbital hotel opening next year.

The tiered contest starts with open registration on the Space Needle’s website starting today, and will advance through a random selection via computer and 1-minute videos that will eventually be voted on. There will, of course, be a physical evaluation phase as well, no wants exploding hearts or brain aneurysms on their hyped-up privatized “space-flight.”

Regardless, it doesn’t sound like you’ve got anything to lose from entering… well besides your lunch somewhere above the Earth.

Good luck!

Jul 30 2011

Oh Hogwarts… It’s Over

♣♣♣♣ 1/2   out of   ♣♣♣♣♣

As a Harry Potter-illiterate, I have not read the books and my only experience has been with the films. That said, I have also seen all of them as an adult. I remember when the books came out, and when they were picked up for a film franchise. After suffering through the first film, I didn’t think the flash in the pan would last… but it did. So I saw the second film, and it wasn’t really any improvement. Then Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien and Great Expectations) was picked up to direct the third, so I saw it. It was this slightly darker, more dangerous version of The Prisoner of Azkaban that peaked my interest. Even though I almost gave up when The Goblet of Fire tried to suck the lifeforce out of me, I was curious enough to want to see what happens. Plus the entire popular culture and marketing machine behind the series enthralled me, I couldn’t believe adults almost worshiped these books!

When The Order of the Phoenix came along, and director David Yates brought the whole “chipper kids with wands and broomsticks” down to a much darker (and honestly) more human level, I was stunned by the ending of that film… it was gorgeous. Perhaps it was the very point when the story itself turned serious, or when the sh*t started to hit the fan, but suddenly this world I’d watched drearily unfold before me truly was a dangerous place.

By the time the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 came out, David Yates had directed the last two movies (Order of the Phoenix and the Half-Blood Prince) and had masterfully managed to steer my attention toward this now epic story of a plucky young boy whose existence at a school for magic had turned into a battle between good and evil… where the fate of the world hung in the balance. Due in no small part to the consistent performances of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, and of course, Helena Bonham Carter.

So what can I say about a movie that has had so much said about it? I think “Bravo” will suffice, what a roller-coaster it has been! While I was glued to the screen, visions of previous films compiling a backstory in my brain made all of the initial “kiddie-movie-Chris-Colombus-cuteness” chapters worth sitting through. The cheesy brightness of the first films became like faded memories of childhood themselves as the doom and gloom of the Battle for Hogwarts’ School unfolded before me. Characters and places we’ve not seen in a few chapters come back with the solemnity and danger of the very adult situation. Which I guess could use some explaining.

Harry Potter is the “child that lived” when the evil Lord Voldemort attempted to take over the world (sort of) years ago and failed. Since then Voldemort has been presumed dead, however Harry and his mentor Professor Dumbledore have known better. For a few films now the evil Lord has returned and started building an army of Deatheaters (evil wizards, so, warlocks?), all with the purpose of killing Harry. Only then will Voldemort be able to rule the world (or the wizarding one at least). As Deathly Hallows pt 2 opens, Voldemort has found the most powerful wand in the world and leads his army against Hogwarts. It’s up to Harry and his friends to stop him.

I won’t say any more, because this movie deserves nothing less than that (well, unless you’ve read the books of course)… but suffice it to say Yates manages to make the conclusion of Harry’s story as epic as anything I’ve ever seen. It even tops Lord of the Rings, and without the sixteen endings of Return of the King. The special effects are amazing, the battle terrible, the losses sad, and the glory… well let’s just say there’s a certain Neville who almost steals the show.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 2 is truly a masterpiece, regardless of whether you’re a Potter fan, or just a fair-weather fan like me you’ll be blown away. Bring your tissues and your candy, this one is a wild ride with more violence and death, heroism and tragedy, and above all- the final showdown between Harry and Voldemort just plain kicks ass. I will personally miss those cute kids that I’ve watched grow up for the last ten years… even with those ridiculous names.

Jul 5 2011

Why I Wanted Her to Be Guilty (Casey Anthony’s Verdict is in)

I grew up in the 80s and was a teenager in the 90s- so after watching OJ and Menendez and the like for the better part of a decade I swore on my life I wouldn’t get wrapped up in another damn trial/media circus… Well that all went out the window this morning when I heard the verdict was in for Casey Anthony- the mother who stood accused of killing her two-year-old daughter, Caylee.

Now I admit, I watch the Today show religiously, so I’ve watched the disappearance, arrest, and now trial progress over 3 years… and the entire time I never doubted for a second that this woman killed her child and buried her in the swamp with duct tape on her mouth and nose. From the 30-day period which Casey Anthony chose NOT to tell authorities that her daughter had been missing, to the pictures that surfaced of her partying and “living it up” while her daughter had been missing… it just added up. As a parent of two kids I have been haunted by the pictures of little Caylee for 3 years, and after watching the circus that was the trial on national television, I KNEW that after only a day and a half of deliberations that the jury had reached a guilty verdict.. and I was relieved.

Then the bombshell: Casey Anthony was found not guilty of all charges except lying to police… for which she will probably get time served and non-supervised probation… I, like millions of people around the world, am in shock.

My objectivity met head-on with my desire… no… my NEED for justice for that poor little girl… and it lost. I can’t say that the verdict has  changed anything in my outlook of the entire situation. I can’t lie, I believe she is guilty. What kind of monster does the things she did? She knew her daughter was missing and she went out and got tattooed, partied, and lived the care-free lifestyle of a 20-something-year-old kid. Not a single iota of parental instinct showed in those things she did do… so it’s an easy leap for me to assume that if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a damn duck, then she killed her kid.

Now I don’t know what to believe. After seeing her parents’ testify on the stand, and knowing the circumstances of the case… I turned to my honey yesterday and said there was just too much Reasonable Doubt, and that she was going to walk… now I’m extremely sad I was right.

Not because I think this woman is a monster, or because I hate her for what I still think she did… but because of little Caylee Anthony. I wanted that one thing that everyone else who has watched this debacle has come to need: Justice for that poor little girl.

Now that justice is gone. Whether it is because Casey Anthony really didn’t do it, or because the State of Florida dropped the ball in an epic way… the fact will still remain:

Justice was not served for Caylee today.

Jun 26 2011

The BattleStar Galactica Files (Ep 8) – Flesh and Bone

Welcome to the BattleStar Galactica Files! Sci-Fi (Syfy) Channel’s classic series that captured the fear and the paranoia of the post-9/11 culture. Hailed by critics and fans alike, BSG’s arcing epic storyline, detailed character development, dynamite special effects, and top-notch acting makes it one of the best science fiction tales of our time. Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, and Jamie Bamber led a top-notch cast through 4 short seasons of one of the best television shows ever made. If you’ve seen BSG then you know, if you haven’t, then do yourself a favor- every episode is on Netflix, and it was just picked up for syndication on BBC America!

[Warning: Spoilers! This is my attempt to sum up, review, and quantify BSG in layman’s terms]

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Flesh and Bone

“Each of us plays a role; each time a different role. Maybe the last time I was the interrogator and you were the prisoner. The players change, the story remains the same. And this time – this time – your role is to deliver my soul unto God. Do it for me. It’s your destiny… And mine… ” -Leobon Conoy aka NUMBER 2

When the Abu Ghraib scandal and Guantanomo Bay were plastered all over the news, and America was in over its head in two wars, network television was mostly steering extremely wide around reflecting anything negative in their programming… well… except for 24, and that’s not til next “files.” The Bush years were the years of the news stations, everyone was watching horrible news all day, and didn’t want to see it in their escapist fiction during primetime. Instead America was hooked on shows like Lost, The Office, and Project Runway… 

Other than the exploits of Jack Bauer and the gang at CTU, there was only one other show on television that was brave enough to show main characters water-boarding, torturing (not that the two are mutually exclusive), and executing prisoners of war… and I think you know which one I’m talking about. Onboard the Battlestar Galactica, Starbuck is given the loathsome duty of interrogating a cylon sleeper agent. At a time when America was so scared their neighbors were going to gas them they put duct tape on their windows, BSG was giving us a glaring mirror to look into. Starbuck, aka Kara Thrace, finds herself face-to-face with the extremist, genocidal enemy she’d feared now for months on end, Leoben Conoy… aka, number 2.

Leobon is one of the first cylons we meet on the show, and he is a slippery, silver-tongued devil of an infiltrator. During the mini-series, when Galactica jumps to the Ragnar Anchorage to refuel and rearm- Adama gets stuck deep within the bowels of the station with the man he doesn’t know is a cylon… in fact, no one even knows that cylons are able to take human form at that point in time. The number 2 is a pseudo-philosopher who challenges Adama’s beliefs during their time on the Ragnar station, and ultimately is called out as a “toaster” when he becomes extremely sick due to the radiation of the nebula around them (which only affects synthetic organisms, not humans).

When episode 8 of season 1 begins, President Laura Roslin is in the grips of an intense chamalla-induced dream (the mysterious medication given to her for her “terminal” cancer). She is walking through a misty forest at night, bathed in the white light of her sleeping gown, and she is unafraid. The bushes begin to move in the darkness, and figures start to dart between the trees. Laura doesn’t see the shadowy people running through the forest after her, instead she sees a cylon… Leobon Conoy, the number 2 that Commander Adama had spent a significant amount of time with in the first episode. He is shouting at her to turn around, there is danger, and she turns to see black-clad Colonial Marines running toward her. Laura begins to run, and Leobon catches her, quieting her as the marines run by… then he is sucked backward through the forest and disappears. When the President wakes up, she is told that there has been a cylon prisoner found, and it is Leobon… she immediately calls for his interrogation.

Starbuck arrives at the holding cell to see the prisoner, who is sweating heavily in the heat of the ship. Her and the watch commander notice that “it is sweating,” and muse on the implications of it. “Gods they go through a lot of trouble to imitate people… Why do you think they do that?” (Oh, that watch commander had no idea...) She enters the cell to find the machine with its head on the table, and asks it if it was sleeping… He sits back in the chair and says, “Praying…”

The humans of BSG are followers of a polytheistic religion, believing in “The Gods,” such as Zeus, Athena, and Apollo (not just great call signs for Viper pilots, if you delve deep enough- quick enough, you realize that the ancient Gods were just older-school Viper pilots who the humans deified during the last time this happened… WOAH). So when Starbuck tells Leobon, “I don’t thing the Gods answers the prayers of Toasters,” he responds with the first true identification of the monotheistic beliefs of the cylons- “God answers everyone’s prayers.”

As their interrogation continues, Leobon tells her that somewhere in the fleet there is a nuclear bomb ticking down, and it will explode in 9 hours. The true brilliance of Battlestar Galactica comes out seeping out of the screen at this point. Most of this is due to absolutely solid performances by Katee Sackhoff and Callum Keith Rennie, but the writing in this episode is just as good. The plot device of the nuke and the countdown really take second stage to the implications of the dialogue between Starbuck and Leobon… because by now we’re chomping at the bit to find out more about this “Earth” place… and that’s not reallt what this episode is about anyway.

Starbuck believes with every fiber of her being, that this machine before her, is just that… a robot created and programmed to do the things it is doing, like sweat, bleed, act like it is feeling pain, and finally… to drown. Water-boarding was the buzz-word du jour for many of the mid-2000 years, and this “reporter” remembers many other “reporters” undergoing the “simulated-drowning.” Well it’s not simulated anything, it’s postponed drowning… it’s slow drowning… there’s nothing simulated about it- it just doesn’t kill you right away. It’s wet, it’s bloody, and it’s disgustingly cruel, and yet with the threat of a timer-detonated nuclear weapon somewhere in the fleet (or so Leobon claims), Starbuck needs answers… all she’s getting from her prisoner is gibberish about fate and “seeing the universe for what it is, a river of time.”

It’s not until she begins to see this machine gasp and spit and struggle for life-saving air that cracks start to emerge in the black-and-white world of human-cylon relations… just as at the same time in America cracks where appearing in the black-and-white reality of our wars and the threat of terrorism… It’s not until we too see the pain and the fear in the eyes of the beings we believe wholeheartedly to be pure and unadulterated evil, that we begin to see ourselves in their own shoes. Starbuck looms over the cylon as it spits and coughs, her stern fists clenched by her own sides, her blonde hair hanging in her face, “You’re sick. You’re not a person, you’re a machine that’s enjoying its own pain.” She growls at it, believing that this thing that has destroyed her civilization, killed 50 billion people, and mercilessly hunted humanity across the stars, is messing with her.

It’s then that Leobon, through labored breathing, spouts the immortal words that spin the arcing mythology of BSG out across four more seasons: “All of this has happened before… and all of it will happen again…” Professing it is Starbuck’s destiny to deliver him to God, and also adds:

“…And I told you I had a surprise for you. Are you ready? You are going to find Kobol, birthplace of us all. Kobol will lead you to Earth. This is my gift to you, Kara…” 

Suddenly President Roslin bursts in and puts an end to the torture, hauling Leobon out of the cell and drying him off (escorted by black-clad Colonial Marines). She pleads with him to disclose the whereabouts of the nuclear bomb, and he confesses to having made it up to buy time. He, in turn, asks Laura to go easy on Starbuck for torturing him, “The military, they teach you to dehumanize people…” he says, even though he is a cylon (brilliant stuff here)… However Roslin has had enough of his lies and his “insidious ideas,” and orders him flushed out the airlock. In a flash of cylon speed he grabs Laura and hugs her, thanking her… and whispering to her that Adama is a cylon.

In a very poignant scene, Leobon is in the airlock standing behind a sheet of glass while Starbuck and the President discuss the merits of keeping broken machines around that “threaten your people.” He walks up and places his hand upon the glass, to which Starbuck capitulates, stating, “He’s not afraid to die, he’s just afraid his soul won’t reach God…” and places her hand on the glass. A single tear traces down the side of her cheek as the President signals to the watch commander, and he opens the airlock. Leobon, as in Laura’s dream from the beginning, looks up at her as the air is sucked from the room. He keeps the stare as he is sucked backward out the airlock and spins off into the frozen abyss of space. It isn’t until that moment that Laura realizes what is going on, that she had dreamt this, and she thinks maybe she missed something. Later she is talking with the Commander and it is obvious that the number 2 has planted a seed of doubt in her mind about Adama.

Starbuck later is seen praying to two small idols for the safe journey of her prisoner’s soul… her own preconceptions about the “toasters” shattered… and little does she know that now the number 2 is infatuated with her, and will chase her across the heavens for his own reasons.

SO: WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

This is really the point in time where the writers knew where they wanted to go with the show, and fought to get it done. Both plot-wise and social-commentary-wise, BSG begins to head toward a destination at this point in the show. While Adama has told the people he will get them safely to Earth, and the prophecies from the old world tell of a dying leader that will lead mankind to the promise land, it isn’t until the cylon number 2 tells Kara Thrace that she will find Kobol (the original home of humanity), and in turn, find Earth… that anyone actually (including the audience and the writers) believes it could actually happen... And it isn’t until this point that the “difference” between cylon and human begins to get murky.

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Most of the information gleaned for these posts is taken from the good folks at Wiki and BSG Wiki.

Coming Up on the BSG Files:

Kobol and the Arrow of Apollo (aka This Has All Happened Before…)


Jun 26 2011

The Battlestar Galactica Files (For Clari-frak-ation)

On Frakking…

(WARNING, STRONG LANGUAGE)

The universe of Battlestar Galactica is not your daddy’s sci-fi show. In fact, my grandparents STOPPED watching the show early on due to “too much sex.” As if there’s such a frakking thing as too much sex! So besides my grandparents’ outlandishly prude and horribly unfair generalization of the show, there is a lot of sex. Gaius and 6, Chief and Boomer, Helo and Boomer 2.0…  SOMEONE is always getting it on in the fleet. It’s a military space opera, of course there’s going to be harsh language as well… so what do you do when you want to have am edgy-hard-hitting show that doesn’t pull any punches? What do you do when you’re Sci-Fi Channel (a Universal/NBC subsidiary) and you simply CAN’T say fuck left and right on your new show? You do what they do with everything else in Science Fiction, make up a technology to “fix it.”

In the case of swearing, the word “fuck” is simply replaced by the word “frak.” It’s a frakking genius idea. At first it seems hoaky and weird, and then you keep watching the frakking show… and it starts to frakkin grow on you (I’m a frakkin poet and I didn’t frakkin know it). We get every iteration of the word the writers can apply it to, from “frakking on the table” to motherfrakker, to frak you to frak me… No wonder people started making shirts that read, “Shut the frak up you frakkin frak.”

Now I’m not sure if “frak” has been accepted into Websters as something other than horribly toxic and water-well tainting underground gas drilling with high-pressure chemicals (they call that frakking to, although whether with one k or two I’m not sure)… but it frakkin should be. I was even watching a silly rom-com show on NBC (funny enough, subsidi-what?) where the geeky hot girl drops the “f” bomb… and by that I mean “frak…” whilst trying to bed a recent conquest- and she laughs it off as “having seen an episode of Battlestar Galactica” or two. Hilariously a few minutes later she fessed up to being just a little more than frakking obsessed with BSG… Ha!

(the beautiful Alessandra Torresani – who everyone knows as Zoe Graystone, aka, the first Caprican Cylon – plays the Princess Leia in this clip)